The Virtual Clinical Podcast

A most wonderful episode with Denise Joswiak! We sit down and discuss all things health and wellness , as well as her journey to holistic nursing and becoming a certified aromatherapist. With her beginnings on why she became a nurse by starting out as a nurse assistant, her journey through nursing school and eventual first job. Denise and I go deep into the nurse as educator, and eventual need to have self-care as an imperative for her patients and her self. Denise dives into Holistic Nursing as a certification recognized by the ANA, Self-care as a crucial step for ourselves and our patients, integrative health and medicine as a part of patient care and the nurse as entrepreneur. This was such a fun and exciting session to record!

Denise Joswiak is a board-certified holistic nurse and certified clinical aromatherapist. Throughout her nursing career, she studied holistic, integrative therapies and uses them daily. She created the aromatherapy program for the Allina Health System and published research on its effectiveness in the Journal of Nursing Administration and Complementary Therapies in Medicine. Denise enjoys teaching and empowering patients, families, nurses, and students. At Allina Health, Denise taught classes about self-care and integrative therapies, including Transformative Nurse Training, and sat on the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing Nursing Council. She served as the Integrative Health Clinical Site Lead for United Hospital and as co-facilitator of their Holistic Nursing Council. Denise is an author and international speaker, offering healthcare consultations, essential oil education, and an AHNA endorsed aromatherapy certification program through her company Essential Health. For the past four years, Denise served on the board of the Alliance of International Aromatherapists and continues to act as their global representative. She authored the aromatherapy chapter in the 2020 edition of Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice. Denise volunteers on the American Holistic Nursing Association panel on essential oils for pain relief. She is honored to be a part of the jury reviewing programs that apply for the Gattefossé Foundation 2021 international prize for a healthcare-based aromatherapy program. In addition to a passion for holistic health, Denise loves to travel, enjoys canoeing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and cherishes time with family and friends.

Links:

https://www.essentialhealthmn.com/ 

https://www.essentialhealthmn.com/courses/aromatherapy-certification-program 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joswiak-denise-essentialhealth/ 

https://www.facebook.com/EssentialHealthmn/ 

https://www.instagram.com/essential_health_mn/ 

[email protected] 

https://www.ahna.org/ 

https://www.ahncc.org/ 

https://www.gattefosse.com/foundation-special-content/prize-and-grants

Articles:

The effectiveness of nurse-delivered aromatherapy in an acute care setting   

Development of a Health System-Based Nurse-Delivered Aromatherapy Program

Aromatherapy Chapter in Handbook:

Dossey & Keegan's Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice: A Handbook for Practice 8th Edition

Shelbi Smith is back in a very special episode. We catch up on life as a student nurse anesthetist and unpack everything 2020 threw in. Shelbi details the most special friendship she has ever had and the enduring nature of illness. We discuss the importance of friendships in a clinical unit, an untimely breast cancer diagnosis, and tell the tales of a very special friend, Kim. The podcast dedicates this episode to Kim Cornelius, RN- one of the most extraordinary individuals and nurses. The podcast would like to thank Shelbi for sharing their story in an effort to help even one person.

Our first ever nurse innovator, Briana White, joins the podcast! We talk about taking the road less traveled, home health, camp nursing, IP, big data, and more! Briana starts her journey as a clinical nurse and eventual charge nurse of a pediatric unit. She then transitioned to a clinical nurse educator role, to clinical nurse supervisor and now a role as a home health care manager. Briana even discusses a REALLY cool job as a camp nurse that has a bunch of perks and a lot of lessons learned. Most notably, Briana lends some key points from being a Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellow, ideation, why ideas and concepts matter and so much more! She is currently using her fellowship opportunity to implement her DNP project of innovative tools to improve communication and clinical outcomes!

Briana White is a Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellow, A DNP student at the University of New Hampshire, adjunct nursing undergraduate and graduate faculty and a Home Health Care Manager with the Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire – a member of Dartmouth Hitchcock Health. She has clinical experience from pediatrics to geriatrics, from inpatient, ambulatory, and most recently home care. She has worked as a clinical bedside nurse, a nurse educator, a nurse leader, and in her current role works to improve care of patients in the home setting through quality improvement, evidence-based practice and innovation. Her innovation work is focusing on creating a framework for introducing innovation in homecare settings through rapid review of key performance indicators, and her Doctoral work is focusing on implementing innovative tools to improve communication and clinical outcomes of patients in the homecare setting who have chronic conditions. She is passionate about sharing the various settings nurses work in not bound by hospital walls, working with the community to enhance care, and mentoring others interested in innovation.

We join both Candice Craig and Tracey Kopenhaver, from a large telehealth organization to discuss the in's and out's of E-ICU nursing. We first deep dive in to both person's background and experience. Then go into learning what E-ICU nursing is, how it helps both the nurse and the organization, what helps and what hinders, how assessments are done, even some very neat tricks that E-ICU's can do! Learn about how effective communication is met, how and E-ICU affect staffing models and what an E-ICU staffing model looks like, myths from reality, caregiver fatigue, and where is tele-health going?

Candice Craig is certified as a CCRN and has her Diploma from Schuylkill Health School of Nursing, her Bachelor's of Nursing from Penn State University and will soon have a combined Master's in Nurse Administration and Master's of Business Administration from Bloomsburg University. She has experience in neuroscience critical care, heart and vascular critical care, clinical coordination and an RN of an E-ICU. She currently serves as an Administrative Team Coordinator for a large telehealth unit.

Tracey Kopenhaver is certified as a CCRN-K and NE-BC. She has both her Bachelor's and Master's of Nursing from Mansfield University. Tracey has experience in mixed critical care nursing, travel nursing, a cath lab, a team coordinator, clinical coordinator and educator of an E-ICU, nurse manager for a large tele-health system. She is currently an Operations Manager for a large E-ICU and CICU.

In this episode, I'm joined by Amanda Readinger, a nurse who details her journey from bedside nurse to travel nurse. Beginning with a career in psych mental health, choosing to leave the bedside to find ways of paying off student debt, Amanda then decided to make travel nursing a full time job. We discuss all of the in's and out's of travel nursing including financing, health insurance, job security, and training. Amanda then left to go and travel to California to take a job working the COVID ICU's. The differences between report styles of COVID ICU patients and non-COVID ICU patients; the donning and doffing process; the teamwork of a COVID ICU unit; the mental exhaustion, stresses and challenges of working in two California major cities-Amanda details this journey of the red zone in Los Angeles. What a crisis team is and why not everyone would receive care if the pandemic grows out of proportion. Amanda graciously describes her feelings of what her experience was like and what burnout meant to her. Finally, Amanda discusses her next journey which is to be a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner!

Amanda graduated from Wilkes University in 2013 with a bachelors in psychology. After working a couple years as a mental health technician, she realized she had an interest in nursing. She attended DeSales University’s accelerated BSN program and graduated in 2017. She went directly into ICU nursing and worked as a staff nurse for two years before going into travel nursing. She currently has been in PA, CA and CT while attending Walden University for her Masters to be a psychiatric nurse practitioner. When she isn’t proning patients and there isn’t a pandemic surrounding us, she enjoys Broadway shows, concerts, playing with her puppy and putting together LEGO sets with her fiancé, Stewart.

Join in on this episode with Dr. Diane Solomon as she details her journey and unpacks everything in this gracious episode. Discussions include the ABCDE's of self-care; experiences on a Navajo reservation and earning trust amongst the tribe; the importance of the mother-daughter dyad; what life is really like as a midwife with long hours and often stressful moments; the impact of cultural diversity among blacks and indigenous people; cultural privilege and the importance of checking yourself; de-escalation techniques and the importance of being trauma-informed. Finally, a shout-out to Lyndsey Miller on Individual Care Values and Autonomy and why it is so important to network!

Dr. Solomon originally received her Master of Science in Nursing from Yale, becoming a Certified Nurse-Midwife devoted to women’s empowerment and health. After two decades of practice, she returned to Oregon Health & Sciences University for her Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner post-master’s certificate. Dr. Solomon also holds a certificate in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and a PhD in Nursing, the latter focused on healing family relationships in the context of aging. With a private psychiatric practice in Portland, she is honored to help clients heal and thrive, from trauma to joy. Dr. Solomon is also a health policy advocate, promoting the NP role and NP solution to primary and behavioral healthcare through systems-level change, engagement, action, and collaboration. She volunteers as adjunct faculty at OHSU, on the Boards of Oregon Nurses Association, Nurse Practitioners of Oregon, and the Oregon Wellness Program, and in other ways to enrich the lives and well-being of others.

Follow her on Twitter: @DianeSolomonOR

Find out why long-term care may be the best kept secret in nursing practice as the podcast's welcome's its first Canadian nurse- Daniela Acosta! Daniela discusses some differences between the United States and Canadian health care as well as what it is like working in long-term care. She is passionate about long term care as well as quality improvement and best practice implementation. Discussion points include building trust, talking to people, clinical skill challenges, team nursing staffing, care plans, burnout and a spiritual health advisor, and the 8 A's of Dementia. Finally, we go into her venture, Vibrant Nurse which aims to be a blend of nursing and leadership including sharing leadership skills for outcomes and how to achieve during the pandemic.

Daniela Acosta RN, GNC (C), BScN, BSc, CEO of Vibrant Nurse. Daniela is a nursing practice leader in long-term care at one of the largest and most innovative long-term care facilities in the province of Ontario, Canada. Since graduating, with Dean’s honours, from the University of Toronto in 2012, she has dedicated her entire career to senior’s care as well as quality improvement and best practice implementation. Daniela is an advocate for highlighting the importance of registered nursing roles in long-term care and the importance of embracing leadership skills in nursing. This passion has since inspired her to create Vibrant Nurse, a social media community and online business (in their beginning stages) that support general nursing leadership and raise awareness of nursing opportunities in long-term care.

Find her on instagram: @vibrantnurse or via her website: https://vibrantnurse.ca/

We join Lori Merkel in a fact filled episode that takes us from a lego replica of Baby Yoda (yes, we know it's not really a baby), to her days beginning in psychology, first job as a high risk neonatal nurse and eventual job as a quality specialist. She then describes some very neat areas of nursing that are often unexplored including a job in Population Health Sciences. We explore many topics including health economics, care delivery models, health equity, implementation research and so much more. She even interviews myself at the end!

Lori obtained her BA in Psychology, minor in Biology from Rutgers University then pursued her nursing degree (BSN) at Drexel University. She has obtained her Masters of Science in Public Health from Pennsylvania State University. Lori has held a certification in High Risk Neonatal Nursing and presently is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality. She most recently has completed her PhD at Jefferson University in Population Health Sciences with a concentration in Healthcare Quality and Safety. In her current role, she is a nurse and population health analyst in an academic primary care network as well as an adjunct professor at Jefferson University.

In this laugh filled episode, I join Jenn Martin, CRNP as she details so much about nursing. Jenn and I worked together first during her time as a travel nurse and quickly bonded over so much. She shares her experiences, the highs and lows, of travel nursing and what it's like in different parts of the country. Jenn also has traveled to and helped educate those in Uganda, in an experience, as she describes, one of her most formative and shifting, in life and career. We unpack a lot during this episode and hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

In this episode, Kirsten Peterson joins the podcast to discuss her journey. From following her passion for Tennis to attend Wheaton College (Illinois) and studying Sociology with a minor in Spanish, to a passion in criminology, Kirsten found her path to become a nurse as well as the perfect program within Eastern University. Kirsten has lived and worked in various places including Austin, TX, Hershey, PA, Chicago, IL and Boston, MA. She currently works as a hospice nurse in the community of the western suburbs of Chicago for Seasons Hospice. Before coming to hospice she worked in a Neuro ICU at Central Dupage hospital in Winfield IL, and previous to that worked as a trauma med-surg nurse at Penn State Medical Center. Her first job was spinal cord injury unit at St. Davids Rehab Hospital in downtown Austin, Texas. We discuss everything from these beginnings, to following your spiritual calling and finding faith in nursing as well as exploring different paths and finding your purpose in nursing. Most importantly, we discuss what it is like having Adult ADHD and working as a nurse. Discussions of tactics to handle ADHD, what anxiety is like for two different people and the commonalities that exist. Finally, we go in detail of what compassionate care means and how to deliver it. This is a great conversation for any nurse that sees patients at the various stages of life.