See You Now Podcast

Samantha Roecker, RN has a “track record” (pun intended) of breaking many barriers and stereotypes and her success in competitive running combined with her experience as a nurse drove her to combine her passions to raise awareness and drive change for nurses. In this episode, we talk with Samantha about the impact stigma has on nurses’ ability to reach their full potential, what really defines a nurse, the power of mental health support, and the surprising overlap between nursing and competitive running.

International Nurses Day is an important opportunity to check the pulse of nurses around the world, especially in 2022. Nurses have given their all in the response to pandemics, natural disasters, and in war zones, in leading mass COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts, and in completely redesigning how and where care is delivered. The value of nurses has never been more clear. Nor could it be any clearer that not enough is being done to protect nurses and other health workers, tragically underscored by the more than 180,000 health worker deaths due to COVID-19 and the alarming increase of mental health conditions and concerns nurses report.

In this episode, we learn how a health system’s leadership demonstrates their commitment to the wellbeing and flourishing of their team members; the rather unlikely story of nurses, singing, and stardom; and the surprising healing power of the arts. Special thanks to nurse and tenor singer Winnie Mele, RN, BSN, NE-BC, nurse and soprano singer Keshia Jaboin, RN, BSN , and Allison Lowenfeld from Northwell Health’s corporate marketing team for sharing their story, experience, and voices.

In this episode, we meet nurse innovators Ravenne Aponte, BA, BSN and Joanna Seltzer Uribe, RN, MSN, EdD (c) and their quest to introduce you to, in fun and sticky ways, NursesYouShouldKnow -- and more importantly -- WHY we should know them.

In this second of a multi-episode series centered on the Accelerating Nursing, Transforming Healthcare report we go behind the scenes on a “listening adventure” and hear how the pandemic changed people’s access to care, their care needs, and the impact on the well-being of the healthcare workforce, and learn through thought-provoking stories, experiences, and fine details how three nurse changemakers are weaving the needed innovations into their organizations, care delivery, and workforce to Accelerate Nursing and Transform Healthcare.

Vaccines and vaccination—they’ve become one of the hottest topics of public discourse. Indeed, the Oxford Languages 2021 Word of the Year is Vax. As their pun-filled news release notes, "more than any other word, 'vax' has injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language in 2021.” With regulatory approval of a COVID vaccine for kids ages 5-11, COVID boosters for adults 65 and older and those at a higher risk for COVID, and the World Health Organization recommending widespread use of a long-awaited malaria vaccine for children, there is much vaccine progress and science to celebrate and understand.

People newly diagnosed and living with chronic conditions increasingly turn to technology, the internet and social media seeking information and education, to share clinical information and the latest research, to receive and provide support, and to share solutions and resources. In the spirit of “meeting people where they are,” clinicians are following and joining patients in these social spaces, learning a lot -- and together -- are improving health.

Issac Asimov believed robots could have a true humanizing influence, and one day do the work to make life easier, freeing us to do the work that makes life worthwhile. For many nurses, caring for patients is that worthwhile work. However, studies have shown that roughly 30 percent of a nursing shift is devoted to patient care, with the rest given over to other tasks like finding medications, tracking down equipment, tracking down supplies, and documentation.

How do you build, staff, and stand up an online psychiatry and therapy office over the course of 45 days? And in a pandemic, no less? For Lavender founders and seasoned entrepreneurs Pritma Dhillon Chattha, DNP MHA RN and Brighid Gannon, DNP, PMHNP-BC it was experiencing first-hand how the pandemic was moving every aspect of our lives online at lightning speed; hearing from colleagues seeking mental health support the countless difficulties they encountered navigating and accessing services; and having the business skills and entrepreneurial experience to seize the moment to design and deliver much needed innovation in the psychiatric care.

Think about what you might have learned had you been in the room with some of the most fruitful partnerships of our time: Jobs and Wozniak; Warhol and Basquiat; Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. That’s what our Meeting of Minds series is meant to do: to take you behind the scenes to listen in on conversations between chief nurse officers and leaders from disciplines inside and outside of healthcare who are driving innovation. This week, we bring together in conversation two incredible leaders and innovators: Kathy Driscoll, MSN, RN, CCM, Chief Nursing Officer at Humana Inc., and Kathryn Tart, EdD, MSN, RN, founding dean of the University of Houston's College of Nursing.