Episodes
In this episode, I interview Jenn Johnson, RN, a dedicated nurse with over 16 years of experience in emergency rooms across Northern and Southern Ontario, Canada. A front-line worker through the most challenging times, Jen has witnessed firsthand the intense pressures of the profession, from life-and-death moments to the struggles of coping during the pandemic. A passionate advocate for well-being, Jen's new book, NURSING INTUITION, was written to support her peers by offering insights on...
Published 11/03/24
Published 11/03/24
In this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing two dynamic leaders who have spent the past year establishing Aussie Nurse Recruiters—a forward-thinking recruitment agency dedicated to transforming the hiring process in nursing. Liam Caswell and Michelle Mexted, the Co-Founders and Directors of Aussie Nurse Recruiters, are not just building an agency; they're pioneering a nurse-led, innovative recruitment approach designed to help nurses secure their dream jobs and assist healthcare...
Published 09/01/24
Join me as Margot, a nurse, shares her transformation experience with coaching. Discover how Margot's journey began with curiosity and a leap of faith into the world of nurse coaching. Overcoming doubts and fears, she found herself on a path of self-discovery and growth. Fast forward two years, Margot reflects on her newfound confidence and leadership abilities. Through coaching, she learned to navigate challenges and embrace her potential. Margot's story is a testament to the profound impact...
Published 03/18/24
Welcome to Real Nurse Stories! In this episode, I address a common issue among nurses - the struggle with confidence, especially in new roles. Acknowledging that this is a universal challenge, I share a powerful mindset hack: adding 'yet' to negative statements. This simple adjustment transforms self-talk, opening up possibilities and fostering a growth mindset. With practical examples, I illustrate how this small change can rapidly boost confidence. Tune in for valuable insights and share...
Published 02/23/24
Welcome to Real Nurse Stories! Today, we're joined by Jackson Heilberg, a passionate entrepreneur and a nurse, who recently established The Nurse Collective. Jackson's journey into nursing is a story of unexpected turns and a deep desire to make a meaningful impact. Starting with an Arts degree, he eventually fell in love with nursing, a profession that offers a world of opportunities. In this episode, we explore the diverse avenues that nursing presents, from bedside care to leadership and...
Published 10/23/23
In this episode, I interview a remarkable guest, Lorna, whose journey from an unexpected entry into nursing to becoming a successful entrepreneur is nothing short of inspiring. Despite initial reservations, Lorna's nursing career took her from a strict, militaristic hospital to the customer-focused world of private healthcare. Along the way, she made lifelong friends and faced personal challenges, including divorce and raising three children. But Lorna's determination led her to pursue a...
Published 10/02/23
In this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing Liam Caswell who is a nurse, a life coach and Director of Liam Caswell Coaching and Podcaster of High-Performance Nursing. Liam and I are kindred spirits and have many things in common when it comes to coaching and nurses. We share the same passion for making coaching accessible to nurses everywhere and share an ambition to make every nurse a coach. We talk about mindset and how it can hold you back and how to change your mindset, the...
Published 05/02/23
Welcome to a new season of Real Nurse Stories. In this episode, I interview Teresa, a nurse and an entrepreneur from Kansas in the midwest of America. Teresa is a vocal major who never expected to become a nurse and have a 32-year-long career in nursing! Teresa shares her journey into nursing and becoming the CEO of her own hospice that started as a $6000 investment and grew to over $3 million. Teresa candidly shares her experience of major depression and what she learnt about herself and...
Published 02/21/23
It has been a tough two years for the nursing profession. Many nurses are considering leaving the profession and many are reporting symptoms of burnout and exhaustion. As a profession, we need to acknowledge these struggles, listen to nurses' experiences and importantly take urgent action to support nurses globally as we cannot afford to lose nurses. We all have a part to play in using our sphere of influence. This Podcast is my way of using my sphere of influence as both a registered...
Published 03/11/22
In this episode, I interview Iris who is currently a Grad nurse on placement in Rural Western Australia. Iris never wanted to be a nurse and always thought that she would go into paramedicine but became hooked on Nursing We cover her journey into nursing and her experience working as a Graduate nurse in a remote and rural site in Western Australia. Iris's interview is energetic and her adventurous, bubbly and resilient personality shines through in this episode. She describes how she took...
Published 08/20/21
Cynarra, always knew that she wanted to be a nurse, nursing runs in her blood. Her mum was a nurse and Cynarra grew up with an older sister with complex disability needs. These early influences led Cynarra to follow a career in disability nursing and more recently teaching nurses as a nurse lecturer about how to communicate and care for clients who are living with a disability. Helping them to see the person and learn how to communicate so that as nurses we can understand their needs and how...
Published 07/15/21
In this episode, I interview Emillee who is currently working as a Psychiatric Liason nurse in ED in regional Western Australia. Emillee always wanted to be a Doctor and entered into nursing thinking that she would become a Doctor at a later point. She wasn't able to get a grad position and was offered a post in a private mental health clinic as a newly qualified nurse.  She came to love working as a mental health nurse and has experience working with patients in an inpatient, outpatient,...
Published 06/24/21
In this episode, I interview Nurse Jacqui as she is affectionately known by the clients that she works with. Jacqui is a passionate nurse, a confidence coach, champion of carers and a BeYOUtiful Mentor. Jacqui shares her journey into why she became a nurse and her journey into entrepreneurship as the founder of Heartplace and BeYOUtiful mentor Jacqui candidly shares her experience whilst working as a nurse, of compassion fatigue and burnout as a result of a mindset of "work hard then...
Published 05/13/21
In this episode, I interview Nurse Sonia Goodwin who is a passionate nurse leader, entrepreneur, CEO and founder of Sunny Street. Sunny street is a Doctor & Nurse-led outreach service providing primary healthcare and complex coordination services for homeless and vulnerable individuals and families across the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Fraser Coast regions. Sunny Street has a mission to facilitate community connections and improve access to health care options. Sonia talks about how she...
Published 04/19/21
Samatha's story is the final episode of 2020 where I started out to interview a nurse a month as part of the 2020 International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Most of my interviews have been with nurses working in Australia and it seemed only right to include the experience of an Australian nurse who identifies as being an Aboriginal woman. This experience needs to be heard and understood and more importantly, storytelling is a large part of Aboriginal culture. Samantha describes  "being...
Published 12/16/20
Grace's story is one of my favourites so far! Grace is a student nurse studying to become a registered nurse. Her journey into nursing was inspired by a condition that she was born with as a premature 26-week old baby. Her love of human biology is testament to the great person-centred care that she received from her Paediatric team who educated and involved Grace about her condition with age-appropriate education throughout her childhood. Grace talks about her experience as a young...
Published 11/26/20
Athol grew up on a dairy farm and never dreamed of becoming a nurse. He had a love of anatomy and human biology and thought that he was going to study exercise science. His Grandmother suggested Nursing to him and the rest is history as they say! In this episode we talk about Athol's nursing journey, men in nursing, his struggles with burnout and how understanding his 'why' helped him to recover from burnout and resume his nursing career after three years of pain and turmoil. Athol's story...
Published 11/11/20
In this episode, I interview Nic who is a nurse and an entrepreneur. Nic runs her own business helping nurses who are new to a management role by offering training and support and is a passionate advocate in helping nurses to transition from a clinical to a leadership role. Nic talks about her journey into nursing which was heavily influenced by her Dad dying when she was 13 and an acknowledgement that she didn't know what she was signing up for and how she went through a catharsis about...
Published 10/15/20
This is a fabulous interview with Jacquie who started her nursing career wanting to make a difference to the care of pregnant women by becoming a midwife. Jacquie describes her career path as a spiders web with many twists and turns, seizing opportunities as they arose and always learning from the opportunities that presented themselves. Jacquie gives an honest account of some of the struggles in her career and how she learnt to be a better leader. Jacquie passionately believes that...
Published 09/17/20
It was a real pleasure to Interview Jamie about his nursing career for this episode. I learnt about the Losada Ratio which is something I didn't know before interviewing Jamie! Jamie is a passionate advocate for creating positivity at work as a leader and in his life generally. By his own admission studying positive outcomes has taken up his brain space over the last few years. Jamie has had a diverse nursing career to date. He came into nursing after volunteering in Malawi aged 18 and being...
Published 08/31/20
In this episode, I interview Wes who works in the emergency department in Resus. Wes started his nursing career more by accident than planning. He began a business degree and then realised that he hated numbers! He enrolled on a nursing degree course as a way to get into radiology and after one year was hooked on becoming a nurse. Through a series of personal events in his life, it took Wes 5 years to complete his nurse training. Wes qualified as a registered nurse at the end of 2018 and...
Published 08/10/20
In this episode, I interview Joanne who is a registered nurse working in an emergency department in a regional hospital in Australia. Nurses working in an emergency department never know what is going to come through the door and they deal with trauma on a daily basis. Working in an environment where there is daily exposure to trauma can deplete resilience and it is so important to have personal strategies to deal with this. Joanne describes emergency nursing as "caring from the first cry to...
Published 07/30/20
In this episode, I interview Tracy Churchill and Emma Versluis who are senior nurses and the authors of a series of four articles that was published on Linkedin in June 2020. This episode explores how the authors became interested in the topic, along with the responses that they received as a result of publishing the articles. The articles and this podcast interview lift the lid on an important and taboo subject in the nursing profession and one that the authors agree is a shameful topic....
Published 07/09/20