BCEN & Friends

Emergency Care, Critical Care, Correctional Care (Eddie Johnson)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Eddie Johnson.

Eddie Johnson is a skilled nursing professional with a varied clinical background in both the acute and subacute care settings.

Focused and hardworking, he strives for clinical excellence through an evidence based multidisciplinary team approach, ensuring only the best outcomes. He leads by example, empowering other team members to also excel in providing only the best care to those whom they serve.

He takes nothing more serious than his job, or the trust built between himself and the community. His keen clinical judgment and nursing intervention is the culmination of only working in the most difficult practice settings including ER / Trauma, critical care, the recovery room, and correctional settings.

Eddie is also passionate about being a lifelong learner and has extended his care through the education of others, ensuring nursing standards are upheld and that the next generation of nurses are committed as well as confident, yet competent. He lives that philosophy day to day, through every interaction with team members, and what patient situations that may arise.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Eddie about his nursing career and the various roles he has had along the way.

This episode is called, Emergency Care, Critical Care, Correctional Care

Eddie Johnson can be reached at the following.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddie-johnson-msn-rn-ccrn-cen-cpan-6a22a8104?trk=public_profile_browsemap

Email: EddieJ1985@gmail.com

From Radio to Nursing (Ed Hunt)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Ed Hunt.

Ed Hunt is an BCEN certified nurse working in the ER in Southwest Washington State.

Ed currently works at two hospitals - one tiny 6 bed ER in a coastal tourist town and the other a big 44 bed ER in a metro area.

Nursing is a second career for Ed – for 14 years he was a newspaper reporter and early pioneer of on-line journalism in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After 9/11, however, he joined his local fire department and became a firefighter and EMT.

While training to be an EMT he fell in love with Emergency Nursing. Ed says that emergency nursing is “instant gratification nursing, people come in, you figure out what’s wrong and get them feeling better.”  He is still writing - maintaining a monthly newspaper column up until the start of the pandemic and self-publishing books of his essays. You can also find his writing at Redtriage.com

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Ed about going from radio/journalist to nursing. For 14 years he was a newspaper reporter. After 9/11 he joined his local fire department and became a firefighter and EMT and from there he began his life in the world of emergency nursing

This episode is called, From Radio to Nursing

Ed Hunt can be reached at redtraige.com and on Twitter @redtriage

The Combining of a Nurse and Respiratory Therapist (Bill Malone)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Bill Malone.

Bill Malone is a flight nurse, respiratory therapist, and emergency medical technician from northern Mississippi. After obtaining his respiratory therapy degree in 2004, Bill later pursued nursing and graduated with a nursing degree in 2011. Bill has been flying full time for five years now and remains part time in the CCU, PICU, and critical care ground transport.

Bill holds three board certifications in respiratory therapy which include both neonatal and adult specialty certifications. Since becoming a nurse, Bill has obtained all 5 BCEN certifications and also holds the CCRN certification in critical care nursing. In 2020, Bill was honored by North Mississippi Health Services with the Excellence in Nursing Award. Currently enrolled in the University of Mississippi, he is pursuing a master’s degree in Nursing.

Bill and his wife Amber, have two children, Cooper, and Laurel. As well as two dogs and two cats.

 

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Bill, about his career as a flight nurse, respiratory therapist, and emergency medical technician. Find out how holding certifications in respiratory therapy and nursing can complement each other.

This episode is called, The Combining of a Nurse and Respiratory Therapist

Bill can be reached on Twitter @malone16

Simulation in Education Programs (Brett Dodd)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Brett Dodd.

Brett Dodd is the Associate Director for the Women’s Guild Simulation Center for Advance Learning at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA.

He spent 6 years in the pre-hospital environment working as a paramedic and has been a Registered Nurse for over 20 years.  He has an associate degree in Emergency Medical Technology, master’s degree in nursing, and recently completed his MBA. 

His background is emergency and flight medicine, disaster management, trauma, critical care, education, and simulation. In his current role, he coordinates, develops, and uses simulation to create highly immersive multidisciplinary educational programs.

Brett is an instructor and course director for many programs including TNCC, ENPC, ATCN, DMEP and PHTLS. 

On his off time, he spends weekends enjoying the outdoors in the Eastern Sierras snowboarding, mountain biking, and hiking.

Come along as Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Brett about his career journey – Past, Present, and even what he sees for the future.

This episode is called, Simulation in Education Programs

Brett Dodd can be reached on LinkedIn

From the Stretcher-Side to the Boardroom (Antoinette Weathers)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Antoinette Weathers.

Antoinette has many years of healthcare experience. She progressed from a novice stretcher-side nurse to management, leadership, and professional development roles. She believes strongly in life-long learning, and it shows in her background. She recently received a 35-year pin from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nurses.

Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Antoinette , about her career of over 35 years in Emergency Nursing (she has something that many people do not have … a 35-year pin from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nurses). They also talk about the book she recently wrote and highlight some of the stories it holds.

 

This episode is called, From the Stretcher-Side to the Boardroom 

 

Antoinette Weathers can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, but prefers contact via email.

Facebook Hummingbird Publishing.@VirginiaAuthor 

LinkedIn & Instagram

Preferred method of contact is email: stormyweathersauthor@gmail.com

Better Ways to Care for Kids (Scott DeBoer)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Scott DeBoer.

Scott DeBoer is a dynamic seminar leader with over 30 years of emergency, critical care, & flight nursing experience. After 25 years of flight nursing at the University of Chicago, Scott is now the primary seminar leader for Pedi-Ed-Trics, a company dedicated to teaching better ways to care for kids. 

Scott holds a master’s degree in emergency/critical care nursing as well as the CPEN certification and retired CEN, CFRN, and CCRN certifications. He has been published over 150 times in journals around the world and has been the recipient of a number of professional healthcare awards.

Scott is also a husband and father and a cancer survivor. And if you happen to travel, you may run into him playing paramedic at a popular Orlando tourist destination! More on that later but first, welcome, Scott DeBoer!

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Scott about his healthcare career and specifically his focus on pediatrics. Also come along and find out about Scott’s new part time job!

This episode is called, Better Ways to Care for Kids

Scott DeBoer can be reached at PediEd.com

And on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PediEdTrics

From Firefighter to Emergency Nurse (Kory Scheideman)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Kory Scheideman.

Kory Scheideman was born and raised in Colorado.  Kory grew up as a fire brat with his father as a volunteer firefighter and would often respond to calls with his father (it was the 80’s). Then in high school Kory became one of the first school-to-career fire fighters and started his fire career.

He worked as a career firefighter for 5 years before he was offered a job in the Emergency Department as an EMT in a critical access hospital in SE Colorado.  Kory fell in love with emergency nursing and went to nursing school.  He started working on the surgical floor for a year until he was able to get in a Level II trauma center ED for 12 years.  In that capacity he was a stretcher side nurse, relief charge nurse, permanent charge nurse, educator, and now manager of a Free-Standing Emergency Department within the same system that he has been in for over 15 years. 

In 2019 he was asked to help develop and roll out a Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program in 6 emergency departments, and since then he has developed a strong connection with the community partners. 

Kory is an active member of the Colorado ENA serving as the treasurer and sits on the IQSIP committee and fundraising committee.  He works with the Colorado Naloxone Project http://naloxoneproject.com/  and he also works with the Northern Colorado MHSUA (Mental Health Substance Use Alliance) and the NOCO (Northern Colorado) Harm Reduction Alliance

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Kory about living in Colorado his entire life and his career from firefighter to emergency nurse and everything in between. Kory talks about opioid abuse and what he is doing to combat the opioid epidemic in his region.

This episode is called, From Firefighter to Emergency Nurse

Kory can be reached at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kory-scheideman-300190171

Getting to know BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished CPEN Award Winner (Jessica Evins)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Jessica Evins.

Jessica Evins is a registered nurse in the Pediatric Emergency Department at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital—the only Pediatric Level 1 trauma center in New York City.

Jessica has worked in the Pediatric Emergency Department for her entire nursing career, beginning in 2014, and became a Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse in 2016. Jessica is a strong advocate for simulation-based multidisciplinary education and serves on her department’s simulation committee and as the co-chair of her hospital’s vascular access committee.

Jessica authored a pediatric emergency nursing handbook that is in use by her hospital and has presented and been an invited speaker on medical simulation and clinical debriefing at a number of national and international conferences—and has also advised business leaders on teamwork in high pressure settings.

Jessica is passionate about expanding the roles of both palliative care and child life in the emergency department setting and also works as a sexual assault forensic examiner. Prior to becoming a nurse, Jessica was an aerospace engineer at the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command, where she received the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Jessica holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Science in nursing from New York University. She resides in New York City with her husband, one year old daughter, and dog. Jessica is the recipient of the 2022 BCEN Distinguished CPEN award.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Jessica, about being a pediatric nurse and what her role entails. Congratulations to Jessica Evins for being BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished CPEN Award Winner

This episode is called, Getting to know BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished CPEN Award Winner

Jessica Evins can be found on LinkedIn by searching for Jessica Evins

Getting to know BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished TCRN Award Winner (Shayna Stevens)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Shayna Stevens.

Shayna has been a nurse for 20 years. She graduated from Stephen F Austin State University and currently attends West Texas A&M University for Gradate school. She is seeking a master’s degree in comprehensive nursing. Shayna has worked as a nurse in ICU stepdown, ICU, surgical, dialysis, and most recently emergency room settings. She is currently a trauma clinician at a level II trauma center in Plano, TX.

Shayna has a spouse Richard, and they have been together for 11 years. They have an amazing group of friends that we love to visit whenever their busy schedule allows. They have 2 dogs and a cat that keep them laughing. Their favorite thing to do is travel. Their last trip was before the pandemic, and they got to visit Costa Rica and loved it.  

If a pandemic has taught Shayna anything, it is the importance of self-care. If you don’t care for yourself, how are you expected to care for anyone else? Her hospital has been very supportive of all of everyone taking the time to do just that.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Shayna Stevens, about being a trauma nurse and what her role entails. Congratulations to Shayna Stevens for being BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished TCRN Award Winner

This episode is called, Getting to know BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished TCRN Award Winner

Shayna can be reached on Facebook, Shayna Stevens and Instagram sstevens143

Battery Operated Grandma (Kay Brown)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Kay Brown.

Kay Brown is a 73 yr. old Grandmother, Mother & wife who is blessed with a caring family. Kay doesn’t mind telling her age because she says she worked very hard for all those years, and she doesn’t mind claiming all of them. She was a Commercial Property Manager until her heart issues made it impossible & she had to retire in her early 60s.

Kay was diagnosed with Cardio Myopathy (congestive heart failure) when she was about 55 yrs. old & told she had about 5 yrs. to live. Thankfully, the drug Coreg was discovered and extended her life for years.  As time passed, the congestive heart failure symptoms increased as it is a progressive disease.  In Sept 2016, she had her 1^st heart failure episode and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.  From then on she was having heart failure episodes about every 2 months.  

They progressively got worse until the last of June 2017.  While preparing to go home from the hospital, another episode happened with left her on life support & unconscious.  One young doctor gave her husband a death message and said this would be a life ending experience.

The regular cardiologist knew that the only hope was a LVAD & she was transferred to Baylor in Dallas.  In a couple of days from arriving, they gave her the LVAD.  That was almost 5 years ago, and she is living a full life and thankful for God and the medical staff who have given her another chance to live.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Kay about her life with an LVAD. Listen to Kay as she tells you what an LVAD is and what it does. Kay also shares how important it is to be part of a support group.

This episode is called, Battery Operated Grandma

Kay can be reached on Facebook, Kay Alexander Brown – personal account

Also on FB, LVAD Support Group / of NW Louisiana & NE Texas

Kay is the creator and Admin

Pediatric Emergency Care .. There’s an App for that? (Laura Kemerling)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Laura Kemerling.

Laura is a registered nurse and works for the Children’s Mercy Critical Care Transport team in Kansas City, Missouri.

She graduated from Missouri Western State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and began her nursing career in the operating room at Children’s Mercy Hospital, later transitioning to adult ICU nursing for several years. Laura returned to pediatric care in 2010 to work for the Transport team.

Upon completing a Master of Science in Nursing Education from Benedictine University in 2018, she began clinical instructing for BSN students. Her current full-time role focuses on Transport and EMS relations, outreach education, and caring for critically ill neonatal, pediatric, and maternal fetal patients in the out-of-hospital setting.

Laura maintains a national certification in neonatal and pediatric transport through the NCC and she is an active member of the Missouri and Kansas Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC), as well as the Air and Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA). She is an instructor for the Pediatric Advanced Transport Course and the S.T.A.B.L.E. Program, and has hosted multiple webinars, symposiums, and workshops focused on evidence-based pediatric emergency care in the transport environment.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Laura, about her role as the coordinator for Children’s Mercy Critical Care Transport program. What an amazing story.

Listen as Laura tells us about the app that was developed for pediatric emergency care, how it came to be and what the driving factors were behind it!

This episode is called, Pediatric Emergency Care .. There’s an App for that?

Laura Kemerling can be found on LinkedIn and Facebook

Website:

https://www.childrensmercy.org/health-care-providers/transport/outreach-and-education/

Social media:

LinkedIn:       https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-kemerling

Facebook:      Laura Kemerling

Hope: During America’s Opiate Epidemic (Sam Quinones)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Sam Quinones.

Sam Quinones is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, a reporter for 35 years, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, and the border. He is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years. Before that, he made a living as a freelance writer residing in Mexico for a decade.

In 2015, Sam Quinones authored Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury, 2015), which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation’s history. Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2015 and has been selected as one of the top books of 2015 by Amazon, Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, and many other organizations.

His latest book, released in November 2021, is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. In The Least of Us, Quinones chronicles the emergence of a drug-trafficking world producing massive supplies of dope cheaper and deadlier than ever, marketing to the population of addicts created by the nation's opioid epidemic, as the backdrop to tales of Americans’ quiet attempts to recover community through simple acts of helping the vulnerable.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Sam about two of his books, Dreamland: The Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic and The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. Come spend some time with us as we listen to Sam tell about these books and some of the stories within the pages. Sam also shares some of his history of being a writer and his love for crime reporting.

This episode is called: Hope: during America’s Opiate Epidemic

Sam Quinones can be found:

Email: samquinones7@yahoo.com

Twitter: @samquinones7

Facebook: samquinonesjournalist

Instagram: @samquinones_author

Trauma System News … The Inside Scoop (Bob Fojut)

Bob Fojut [FOY-et] is the editor of Trauma System News, an online publication dedicated to trauma center leadership and management.

In this role, Bob oversees coverage of topics such as trauma center standards compliance, trauma quality and PI, trauma team organization, trauma data management and trauma registry. And, thanks to a new content partnership with BCEN, Trauma System News is now expanding its coverage with a wider variety of topics in trauma clinical nursing.

Bob was born and raised in Wisconsin, and he graduated from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, where he majored in philosophy. His career has taken him through nearly every role in publishing and communications, from proofreading and production art to writing, editing, and marketing.

Bob and his wife have been married for 31 years, and they have six children, ages 30 to 11.

In this podcast episode we want to introduce you to our BCEN Friend Bob Fojut (FOY-et).

Janie Schumaker and Michael Dexter talk with Bob about Trauma Systems News, how he started it, what type of articles are in it, and how you can subscribe. Get to know Bob as he shares a wealth of information that you will only hear on this BCEN & Friends podcast.

As a special bonus, Bob gives the hosts a pop quiz. Let’s see if you get the correct answer. 

This episode is called, Trauma System News … the inside scoop

 

Bob Fojut can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter along with the Trauma News website.

www.trauma-news.com

Trauma System News Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1742750556005128

“Trauma Leaders” group on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8388509/

Trauma System News Twitter profile: @TraumaNews

Notes from a Nurse Advocate (Deb Delaney)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Deb Delany.

Deb Delaney DNP, MHA, RN, CEN has had nearly every role in the ED that one could possibly have. In 1989, she began at St Vincent Hospital ED as a patient liaison, a role that was primarily transporting blood to the lab (no tubes in those days!) and providing pillows and blankets and handholding to frightened ED patients. Deb knew immediately the ED was where she belonged. She spent 18 years working in every role from ED Transporter to ED Director. For the past 15 years, Deb has worked as a consultant, spending time in many hospitals across the country helping to improve ED flow, nurse engagement and empower the front-line staff. 

She is a frequently sought speaker at local and national ENA conferences, where she shares her wit and wisdom to delighted audiences.  She is a contributing author in the 2016 book “Emergency Nursing: the profession, the pathway, the practice” and the 2020 Lippincott CEN Review.  

 She is currently working with Mednition Inc., a technology company utilizing artificial intelligence for healthcare. Her role as implementation lead is to bring technology and machine learning to emergency nurses.

Deb has been married to John for 38 years. They have three children and five grandchildren as well as a big and happy Black Lab named Tank. She resides in Massachusetts, and happily spends some time each winter in Florida, where she and her husband golf and relax.

Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Deb Delany, about her career, what she did before nursing, how she got into nursing, and her passion for patient care and nurses in particular. Come along with us as we talk to Deb about then and now.

This episode is called, Notes from a Nurse Advocate

Deb Delany be found on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Facebook.com/debdelrn  and also Delaney Healthcare Consultants

Linkedin.com/in/deb-delaney

Twitter @debdelrn

Meet Our BCEN Celebrity (Allen Wolfe)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Allen Wolfe.

Allen was born in Mobile, Alabama and currently resides in Minneapolis. Allen is currently the Senior Director of Education at Life Link III an Air Medical Transport Company.

For fun Allen likes to travel. He’s been to all 50 states and loves to travel outside the US, but, for now, Covid has put a damper on that. Allen also loves college sports and has been to the NCAA Men’s basketball games every year since 1998. His new love is watching Women’s College gymnastics – it’s just amazing.

Allen a Critical Care Nurse who worked in the hospital for about 7 years in the CVICU, SICU and ED. Allen completed his Masters in Critical Care Clinical Specialist from Marymount University in VA. Allen started as a Flight nurse in 1990 and has had some really amazing career highlights that hopefully he will tell us about during this podcast!  Allen has won every major award (5) in the industry except safety award. Allen is the chair elect for BCEN BOD

Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Allen, about his career and his current role as Senior Director of Education at Life Link, along with what he likes to do for fun. Listen to Allen’s highlights of amazing stories that he has been a part of.

This episode is called, Meet Our BCEN Celebrity.

Allen Wolfe can be found on LinkedIn

The Power of Passion (Gretchen Carrougher)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Gretchen Carrougher.

Gretchen J. Carrougher MN, RN, is the Research Nurse Supervisor at the University of Washington (UW) Medicine Regional Burn Center, Program Coordinator for the Northwest Regional Burn Model System (NWRBMS) and Affiliate Faculty, UW School of Nursing, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems in Seattle, Washington.

Ms. Carrougher graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (1981) and a Master of Nursing degree (1987) in Burn, Trauma and Emergency Nursing. She has held positions as clinical staff nurse, clinical nurse specialist, and research nurse during her 40-year burn nursing career.

Ms. Carrougher has worked at three distinguished burn centers in the United States: MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington DC; the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, San Antonio; and the UW Medicine Regional Burn Center, Seattle. Ms. Carrougher is national faculty for the Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS) course and has been a member of the American Burn Association (ABA) since 1982.

She has authored 108 peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters concerning basic nursing care, long-term outcomes, pain and pruritus management, and employment/return to productivity for individuals living with burn injury. She is also a longstanding international nurse educator, primarily serving our Central American burn nurse colleagues.

Gretchen has served on many professional committees both within and outside of the American Burn Association to include the ABA Board of Trustees (1990-1993) but views her current position as chair of the ABA Nursing Professional Certification Committee (2018 to present) as her greatest and most important challenge to date. Through the efforts of this committee, burn nursing is now a recognized specialty by the American Nurses Association (ANA) and ultimately, with the support of the ABA, the work of the Nursing Professional Certification Committee, and collaboration with BCEN, a national Burn Nurse Certification Program will be available by 2023.

To date, Gretchen views the work to achieve professional recognition and certification as the most significant advancement with the greatest personal and professional reward of her burn nursing career.

This episode is called, The Power of Passion

Tackling Test Anxiety (Dr. Christina Aranda and Dr. Janelle Mihelic)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friends Dr. Christina Aranda and Dr. Janelle Mihelic.

Drs. Christina Aranda and Janell Mihelic are both licensed psychologists in Nevada and are the founders of their practice Sandstone Psychological Practice. Sandstone Psychological Practice has been honored as the Best Mental Health Clinic in Henderson, Nevada in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Both Drs. Aranda and Mihelic have recently been awarded the Top Doctor award for excellence in medicine. Finally, Sandstone Psychological Practice created an online udemy.com course called “Tackling Test Anxiety: A Guided Online Course” for students struggling to manage their test anxiety.

Dr. Aranda earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, where her love for psychology and counseling were first fostered. She received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Oregon, a program she chose specifically due to its commitment to multiculturalism, advocacy, and social justice. She completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowships at university counseling centers in Oregon and California, where she first gained interest in the areas of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and test anxiety in students. She has worked in many clinical settings and has also taught several courses in the areas of career development and psychological assessment.

Dr. Mihelic earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Nevada State College, where she first realized her interest in clinical work and working with college students. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Mihelic spent a few years as an academic advisor, coaching college students through various academic and personal struggles. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She completed her postdoctoral training at UNLV’s Counseling and Psychological Services where she emphasized treatment for test anxiety and ADHD. Dr. Mihelic has worked in various clinical settings and also teaches as an adjunct faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with both doctors about test anxiety. Listen as they both give some very insightful information into testing anxiety. Find out about what it is, some of the reasons it comes about and resources to help you to tackle it.

This episode is called, Tackling Test Anxiety

 

Dr. Christina Aranda and Dr. Janelle Mihelic can be found on the following locations:

 

Clinic Information: website: http://www.sandstonepsych.com/home/

Email: ContactUs@sandstonepsych.com

 

Tackling Test Anxiety Information: Website: https://tacklingtestanxiety.com/

Email: TacklingTestAnxiety@gmail.com

 

Facebook Page for our clinic- Sandstone Psychological Practice

 

Facebook Page for test anxiety- @ TacklingTestAnxiety

Facebook Group - Tackling Test Anxiety

Instagram - tacklingtestanxiety

Twitter- @TacklingA

Educational insight and skills refreshment using a QR code (Mal Robalino)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Mallory (Mal) Robalino.

Mal is from Long Island, NY and attended Quinnipiac University for nursing. She began as a med/surg nurse in 2016 before switching into the emergency room in 2017, where she has been ever since.

She is currently finishing her MBA in healthcare administration from St Joseph’s College and recently began an acute care nurse practitioner program at Hofstra University. 

She has her CEN and TCRN certifications. She is an AHA BLS, ACLS, and PALS instructor, and a certified sexual assault forensic examiner (NY-SAFE).

She loves leveraging technology to promote staff education and feels that information should be easily accessible and straight to the point.

Mal was recently published in the Journal of Emergency Nursing for her article, “Intervention Development: Quick Response Code Implementation for Point-of-Care Training Needs in the Emergency Department”- which outlines the use of QR code technology to provide educational insight and skills refreshment for high acuity/low volume therapies within the emergency department.

Outside of work she enjoys weightlifting, running, photography, and cuddling with her dog, Tonka.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Mal, about her recently published article in the Journal of Emergency Nursing and how the article came to be published. Find out how she has taken QR code to a new level within the emergency department.

This episode is called, Educational insight and skills refreshment using a QR code

Mallory (Mal) Robalino can be reached via LinkedIn, Mallory Robalino.

She also has an Instagram account for her photography page- @MTaylorArt.

Taking Care of Patients throughout the Spectrum of their Life (Abby Finetti)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Abby Finetti.

Abigail Finetti, BSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, TCRN is a registered nurse with 17 years’ experience in frontier Oregon (fewer than six people per square mile).  While her main focus is trauma and emergency nursing (with an emphasis on pediatrics), providing quality care to her community has become her true passion.  An advocate for the rural/frontier area in which she chose to raise her family, Abigail is a voice for the critical access hospital when and wherever she has the opportunity; she sees rural nurses as unique like no other.

In the case of Lake District Hospital in Lakeview, nurses are trained to be medical/surgical, labor/delivery and emergency room nurses.  Each day is different, and they never know which combination of patient types they will be caring for during that shift.  Because of the remote location and isolation, injury and illness prevention is extremely important. 

Abigail is a certified car seat technician, teaches family-style Stop the Bleed courses, youth-only first aid and CPR classes, Trauma Nurses Talk Tough education to local schools, and age-appropriate vaping/THC/dabs prevention education to elementary and high school health classes.  If she’s not within her comfort-zone audience of 5- to 15-year-olds, Abigail can sometimes be found as an Editor and Quality Coordinator for Solheim Enterprises. She finds this is a unique change from her usual to-do bucket list of passionate nursing projects.

As Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Abby, you will find out about the Daly Fund and what it means to the community for over 100 years! Get to know about Frontier Nursing and a glimpse into what nursing in a small town is like. This is truly a town where everyone knows your name.

This episode is called Taking Care of Patients throughout the Spectrum of their Life.

Abigail Finetti can be found on Instagram & LinkedIn

Need to get something done? Ask a busy person to do it! (Josh Wymer)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Josh Wymer.

Josh Wymer is a Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for a large academic medical center with ten health clinics spread across Southern California. He is also on the faculty at the University of San Diego’s Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science as well as Founding Chief Clinical Officer with Shifthive, Inc., a pre-seed startup in the healthcare workforce management space. His volunteer activities include currently serving as Vice-President with the Board of Directors for the Competency & Credentialing Institute, advocating for the >42,000 perioperative nursing and surgical services management professionals around the country.

Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Josh Wymer, about his healthcare journey that started right after high school and into his current 19 years with the Navy.

Listen to Josh’s amazing and fascinating career and where it has taken him.

His heart warming stories, great views, advice, and perspectives along with his positive love for what he does makes this an episode you won’t want to miss.

This episode is called, Need to get something done? Ask a busy person to do it!

Josh can be found on the following social media platform:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/healthitleader/

Twitter: @healthITleader

Just What the Doctor Ordered (Tom Scaletta)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Tom Scaletta.

Tom Scaletta is a practicing emergency physician who is also board certified in clinical informatics. Tom trained at the University of Illinois for medical school and completed his emergency medicine residency at Northwestern. He held leadership position at San Francisco General Hospital and Cook County Hospital and is now medical director for immediate care and emergency medicine at hospital system in the Chicago area. Tom is a past president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine.

Before entering medical school, Tom worked as a software programmer. He designed the first computerized patient callback system in 1996. His system was acknowledged in the Journal of Emergency Nursing by AnnMarie Papa, former ENA President, and Cindy Lefton, former JEN editor as “The Evolution of ED Callbacks’ “(https://www.jenonline.org/article/S0099-1767(15)00128-2/fulltext). In 2012, Tom founded Auscura; a technology company focused on secure, automated communication.

Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Tom Scaletta, about his many roles in emergency medicine as a physician and administrator. Tom almost took the path of I/T but decided on the path of emergency medicine instead, and after hearing this podcast you will be glad that he did.

Listen as Tom talks about his wife, who by the way is an emergency nurse, and the amazing things they have participated in. Have you heard about “Got CEN?” or Auscura? This is just the tip of the iceberg of this episode. This podcast has a wealth of knowledge that will make you glad you tuned in.

Tom has such a passion for what he does and life itself. He’s made an impact on a lot of people and maybe after listening to this podcast he will make an impact on you?

This BCEN and Friends episode is called “Just What the Doctor Ordered”

Tom can be found on the following social media platform:

https://www.auscura.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomscaletta/

Better Understanding (Susan Brady)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Susan Brady.

Susan MacKenty Brady inspires, educates, and ignites leaders globally on fostering a mindset of inclusion and self-awareness. As an expert in inclusion and the advancement of women leaders, Susan advises executives on how to create gender parity in organizations and motivates women at all levels of organizational leadership to fully realize—and manifest—their leadership potential.

Featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, Susan is the author of Mastering Your Inner Critic and 7 Other High Hurdles to Advancement: How the Best Women Leaders Practice Self-Awareness to Change What Really Matters (McGraw-Hill, November 2018), and The 30-Second Guide to Coaching Your Inner Critic (Linkage, 2014). A celebrated speaker, Susan has keynoted or consulted at over 500 organizations around the world.

Building on the institution’s 40-year history impacting over 100,000 professional women at their events and programs, Susan now serves as the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Chair for Women and Leadership at Simmons University and the first Chief Executive Officer of The Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership. The Institute produces a global set of game-changing professional initiatives for the purpose of intersecting leadership, equity, and inclusion.

Prior to joining Simmons, Susan was Executive Vice President at Linkage, Inc. a global leadership development consulting and training firm.  She founded Linkage's Women in Leadership Institute™ and launched Linkage’s global practice on Advancing Women Leaders and Inclusive Leadership and led the field research behind the 7 Leadership Hurdles Women Leaders Face in the Workforce™.  Dedicated to inclusively and collaboratively inspiring every girl to realize her full potential, Susan serves on the board of the not-for-profit Strong Women, Strong Girls.

Susan resides in the Boston area with her husband, two teenage daughters, and two Portuguese water dogs.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Susan Brady, about Inclusive leadership.

What is inclusive leadership? Why is it so important in healthcare?

Susan will discuss these questions and more in this episode called Better Understanding.

Susan can be found on the following social media platform:

• https://www.inclusiveleadership.com/

Empathy is my Jam (Loren Sanders)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Loren Sanders.

Loren Sanders is a synergist who focuses on building better teams and better outcomes. Her passion is focused on leveraging knowledge and performance and connecting people to create solutions. She is motivational, inspirational, and intuitive. Her approach consists of identifying goals and talents, isolating opportunities for growth, guiding people to realizations, and helping people create action plans for change.

Loren has a B.S. in Community Health from University of Illinois and an MBA in Organizational Behavior from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management where she also teaches Talent Management and Organizational Communications. She is a regular speaker for the HR and Training Industries and has also spoken at The Illinois Government Finance Association Conferences and The Midwest Claim Conference. Her day-to-day job is the Sr. Manager of the Evolution and Transformation Team at CVS Health.

She and her husband run a consulting business in their spare time that focuses on non-profits and government agencies.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Loren Sanders about her approaches to professional development and the value training brings.

Loren talks about her passion for empathy and the information she conveys will make you think. Listen and learn from events that greatly impacted Loren in her life and helped shape Loren into who she is today. 

This episode is called, Empathy is my Jam

Loren can be found on the following social media platform:

www.linkedin.com/lorensanders0919

Award Winning Radio Personality and Nurse Influencer (Mo Minard)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Mo Minard.

Mo Minard (MSN-Ed, RN, CENP, EMT-P) is a Director of Nursing for Beaumont Farmington Hills located in Southeast Michigan. She is Certified in Executive Nursing Practice by the American Organization of Nursing Leadership & serves as Clinical Faculty for the University of Michigan. Mo is also an award-winning radio personality & nurse influencer in Metro Detroit.

As Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Mo Minard, you will hear the passion in everything she says. From her captivating stories to her specialty leadership and still taking time to reflect. This episode will keep your attention and may make you think about some things differently. This episode is called Award Winning Radio Personality and Nurse Influencer. Welcome to BCEN and Friends Mo Minard.

Mo can be found on the following social media platform:

Instagram: djmo_thesparkplug

Frights and Delights ... It‘s Halloween (Sarah McLelland)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Sarah McLelland.

Sarah McLelland has been a nurse for 22 years. She started on the trauma/surgery floor at Charity Hospital in New Orleans and then moved to the ED to begin her journey in Emergency Nursing. After 4 years at Charity, she decided to travel, and did so for 4 years at various hospitals throughout the country including Level One Trauma Centers in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Diego to name a few.

She returned to New Orleans in 2008 and has served in many leadership roles at her current facility where she is now working as a Clinical Educator for the Emergency Department. Needless to say, she has certainly dealt with her share of unique and interesting patient encounters over the years. She currently serves as Chair of the LENA Education committee, an item writer for the CEN practice exam, and hosts online certification jeopardy games to encourage engagement and certification within her state.

Sarah has been recognized as Nurse Educator of the Year by the Louisiana ENA in 2016, Mentor of the Year by her home facility, and a recipient of the Daisy Award. She holds a Masters Degree and two Bachelor Degrees, with one being her BSN, and has achieved certifications for CEN, TCRN, CPEN, and SANE-A.

We are going to follow a little different format in this Halloween episode special. Listen as Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Sarah about Charity Hospital in New Orleans as she shares her own stories and stories of other nurses.

Of course, we will still have the rapid-fire questions, but Halloween is the main flavor of this podcast night.

Sarah can be found on Facebook and Instagram

Meet Critical Care Casey (Casey Green)

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Casey Green.

Casey Green has been a nurse for 6 years. She started in med surg telemetry and then moved to the ED. She also has 6 years as a volunteer firefighter and EMT (working on finishing her paramedic licensure).

Casey has 4 associates degrees (Nursing, Spanish, General Studies, and 1 bachelor’s degree (nursing) with hopes of CRNA school in the future

She wears many hats in the area of nursing jobs (all current): Critical care ground transport, ER, pediatric cardiac ICU (full time job, at Hopkins), nursing clinical instructor at Howard Community College (same place her associates are from, and was awarded as an inspiring adjunct faculty)

In August (2021) she launched Critical Care Casey, a platform for critical care education, helping nursing students get through nursing school, mentoring students and nurses, and helping nurses reach their certification goals

As Janie Schumaker and Michael Dexter talk with Casey Green, you will learn about her nursing journey including her full-time job at Hopkins, and you won’t want to miss her story about the broken shoe that may make your pause the next time you put on your own shoes.

Casey can be found on the following social media platform:

• https://linktr.ee/CriticalCareCasey
• Instagram: heycaseyg, criticalcarecasey
• Facebook: my name
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/CriticalCareCasey

Hopkins link about Casey Green.

            https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/nursing/news/a-certification-celebration.html

Emergency Nursing: Beyond Bedside Care (Lindsay Davis)

In this podcast episode you will hear from our BCEN and Friend Lindsay Davis.

Lindsay Davis resides in Suffolk, Virginia where she grew up. It’s a rural area so she grew up a little bit of a country kid. She is married to her husband, Evan, for 5 years and they have three children--Leonora (3), Ezekiel (2), and Ryder (1). She is part of a big, loving, fun family being the oldest of 7 kids.

Lindsay obtained her CEN in December 2017 and TCRN less than a month later in January 2018. She has been an Emergency Department and trauma nurse for just about 7 years.

As Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Lindsay Davis, listen to the stories she shares with them, especially the one about coming back from a vacation with her husband that turned into a lifesaving story you will not soon forget.

Lindsay can be found on the following social media platform:

• Instagram: @lindsay.ev.davis

Sorayah (So RAY uh) Sunshine (Sorayah Bourenane)

In this podcast episode you will hear from our BCEN friend Sorayah (So RAY uh) Bourenane.

In 2013, Sorayah began as a Professional Student Nurse Extern in the Emergency Center (EC) at a large academic specialty cancer hospital in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Texas Woman's University (TWU) with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Nursing in May 2014, and started her nursing career as a New Graduate Nurse in the EC.

In June 2016, Sorayah was promoted to Clinical Resource Nurse, which served as a bridge position while obtaining a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) certification. In May 2019, she obtained her MSN, CNL, and now serves as the CNL for the EC and Clinical Decision Unit.

As a Clinical Nurse Leader, Sorayah provides empirical data to evaluate clinical practice quality, validate intervention efficacy and steer quality improvement initiatives.

She brings innovation, data-driven decision-making, technology integration, and evidence-based practice to the bedside to implement strategic practice changes to improve patient care. Sorayah specializes in process and change management, interdisciplinary collaboration, patient advocacy, adult learning, and oncologic emergencies. She is also a Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) and hopes to establish an Oncology Emergency Nursing certification in the near future.

In her pre-nursing life, she worked as an Event Production Manager for various entertainment, live marketing, and industry events such as Coachella, Comicon, E3, CES, and others along the West Coast of the United States. She assisted in event production for clients including Lady Gaga, Bravo TV, Dell, Alienware, Coachella, USA Network and many more. Additionally, Sorayah worked as a runway & print model based in Los Angeles, California for including LA Fashion Week, BCBG, David’s Bridal, Clairol, and Zara.

Sorayah was also fortunate enough to have performed with the Blue Knights Drum & Bugle Corps (Denver, CO) as 1st Bass Drum in 2007 and 2nd Bass Drum in 2009 in the Summer Music Games hosted by Drum Corps International (DCI). This experience provided opportunities to serve as a specialty music instructor for high schools and independent drumline organizations across the country teaching music and marching.

As Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Sorayah, listen to some of the wonderful stories that Sorayah has to share, that will bring a tear to your eyes and a smile to your face. One thing that you won’t want to miss is what Sorayah might be doing if she did not choose the career of nursing.

Sorayah can be found on the following social media platforms:

• Website is sorayah.me
• Instagram: @sorayahb
• Twitter: @sorayahsb
• com/sorayahb
• com/in/sorayahb

The Voice of Injury Prevention (Ronald Bubba Fletcher)

This podcast episode introduces you to our BCEN friend Ronald Bubba Fletcher. Bubba, as his friends call him, is the program director for the Ark-La-Tex chapter of the Think First Foundation. Bubba has been a voice of injury prevention public speaker for 14 years and a peer mentor to those with spinal cord injuries. Although suffering a significant injury of his own, Bubba uses this to inspire and motivate others while remaining active as a youth baseball coach. He is also a big college sports fan. Bubba is married and the father of 3, 1 girl and 2 boys.

As you listen to Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Bubba about Think First, you will be inspired by what Bubba has gone through and how he is using his personal experiences to make a difference in the world.

Bubba can be found on the following social media platforms:

• Website is https://thinkfirstlouisiana.org
• Facebook @ ThinkFirst Ark-La-Tex
• Instagram @ ThinkFirst_Ark-La-Tex

Lessons from the Art of Emergency Nursing (Kevin McFarlane)

Welcome to this episode of BCEN and Friends as today we meet our BCEN friend Kevin McFarlane. Kevin is the Host of the Podcast Art of Emergency Nursing.  This popular podcast incorporates the expertise of Kevin and his colleagues in education, leadership, and clinical nursing to bring experience and perspective to the emergency nursing community. In his full-time role he is a professional development specialist for a multi hospital system in Texas.  His focus there is emergency nursing and leadership development.  

Hear Kevin tells us about the patient that made a significant impact on his life, how he got into emergency nursing, and other things you never knew about Kevin.

Today, Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers will be taking Kevin out his role of podcast host and making him our podcast BCEN friend. So, let’s get started

Kevin can be found on the following social media platforms:

• Website: artofemergencynursing.com
• @artofemergencynursing on Instagram
• https://www.facebook.com/Artofemergencynursing

Lessons from a new nurse (Dylan McCloud-Lewis)

Welcome to BCEN and Friends and meet our latest guest Dylan McCloud-Lewis. This episode is titled “Lessons from a new nurse”.

In this podcast episode meet our BCEN friend Dylan McCloud-Lewis. Dylan is a critical care nurse who is just about to start his second year of nursing. Dylan and his wife just moved from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco so he could start a job on the Medical Oncology ICU at Stanford Medical Center. He is a third-generation nurse who happened to stumble upon a love of nursing in his late 20’s and is deeply passionate about caring for the critically ill. He got involved with BCEN in nursing school and his ultimate dream job is to become a flight nurse. Outside of work, he loves pretty much anything that gets him out in nature. So, listen as Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Dylan about being a new nurse and what it means to him. Also find out some of the places he has traveled with his wife and the adventures they have had.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Dylan McCloud-Lewis, on social media:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-mccloud-lewis-622298176

 

 

I’m in the 5 club – why I did it (Gina Carbino)

Today’s episode of BCEN and Friends welcomes Gina Carbino to the podcast.

Gina lectures at professional conferences at a national level and has been honored with national awards from the Emergency Nurses Association, International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN), and the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN). She holds all 5 certifications from BCEN, and multiple certifications from IAFN, and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. She currently works as an educator for a large emergency department in upstate NY.

Listen as Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Gina about her passion for nursing, and the deep, strong connections she has with where she works and lives. Find out about Gina’s favorite presentation that was standing room only and people had to be turned away from entering the room. Are you curious? 

If you would like to follow Gina, here are some sites she belongs to: 

https://twitter.com/gcarbino

https://www.facebook.com/gcarbino

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gcarbino/

Bolus the Brain: https://www.facebook.com/bolusthebrain/

 

Lesson from a Pediatric Nurse (Rebecca Steinman)

In this podcast episode we have our BCEN friend Rebecca (Becca to her friends) Steinman. Becca has been a registered nurse for 44 years and a licensed Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist for 31 years. She started her career in the ICU but realized she was an “adrenaline junkie” and transitioned to the emergency department where she has worked the past 4 decades. Most of this has been in urban, Level I trauma centers that care for patients of all ages. She has worked for 14 years in the pediatric ED at Ann & Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago where she is the Nursing Professional Development Practitioner for the ED staff. She is an NPD-BC, CPEN, CEN, TCRN, CCRN, CCNS, and FAEN

Find out how Becca’s career went into pediatrics. Also, if you are a bird lover, listen to Becca talk about birding and what bird she can’t believe she saw!

So, get ready to hear an episode that everyone will be tweeting about.

Meditation and Breath (Patricia Larkin-Green)

Hello again, and welcome to this episode of BCEN, and Friend’s podcast. Today, Brigid Flood and Mark Eggers have their friend Patricia Larkin-Green as their guest. Patricia moved from corporate America to becoming a sumi-e (sue me a) artist and oil painter who has won many awards. Listen as Patricia tells us about meditation and breath and how this is incorporated into everything she does. One more thing … there is a special surprise at the end of the webinar that is a first for BCEN and Friends.

Patricia Larkin Green is a sumi-e artist and oil painter who has won many awards for her work including the prestigious “Special Cultural Award” from the China New Ink Painting Institute Art Museum, Beijing, China and the “Second Grand Prize” from the Jade Buddha Temple, in AnShan (Un shun) City, China. Patricia was introduced to sumi-e at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago by the late Madeleine Stanley-Jossem (ya sum). She continues her studies under the international Zen Master Shozo (show zo) Sato (sa toe), and master calligrapher Hekiun (heck que-un) Oda (oh da)-sensei  

Following a successful career spanning over 25 years in Corporate America (as a Vice President for JPMorgan Chase, and multiple positions at GE Capital), she now teaches painting at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, Japanese Culture Center, Lillstreet Art Center, and Morton Arboretum. She was invited and inducted as a premiere member of the International Chinese Calligraphic Art and Ink Painters Society, serving as the North America Exhibition Coordinator.

Currently Larkin Green teaches sumi-e (Asian ink painting) at The Japanese Culture Center. Proceeds from her work (including sales from artwork, Sumi-e workshops, Big Brush performances, curatorial projects and speaking engagements) benefit The Japanese Arts Foundation whose mission is to expand opportunity, education, and the sustainability of Japanese arts in Chicago through outreach to diverse communities like Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Public Library, museums, and other philanthropic organizations.

So, relax as we find out more about Patricia and her interests and how you can use her techniques in your everyday lives.

 

Sites you can follow Patricia on:

www.patricialarkingreen.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/LarkinGreenStudio/

https://www.instagram.com/plarkingreen

 

Overcoming the Odds – Spotlight on a High Performer (Shari Flores)

In this episode our BCEN Friend, Shari Flores, talks about her life story and how she arrived to where she is today. She is extremely open in her story of the ups and downs she has encountered along the way. This podcast will leave an imprint that you will not soon forget.

Shari is currently a Clinical Education Specialist at Common Spirits St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ.  She is a doctoral student in Executive Leadership at Post University (Covid delayed graduation).  Shari holds an MSN in nursing education from Indiana Wesleyan, an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology and her undergrad is from the University of Minnesota

Shari is a mom of 7 (2 biological and 5 bonus) ages ranging from 32 – 8years.   She was a single mom for a decade but, now married for the last year and a half.  

Her career has been amazing with some of the highlights being a nurse for Yellowstone National Park, a travel nurse to many states and the US Virgin Islands, and she has completed medical missions helping girls in the sex trade in Cambodia. She also was the National Pediatric Chairwoman for the Emergency Nurses Association.  She has settled down now in the suburbs of Phoenix and coaches 11 and under little league softball. 

So, listen to Shari’s journey as she tells her story as only she could.

Feel free to follow Shari, on social media – Facebook

Chatting with THE Dr. Broselow (Dr. James Broselow and Robin Shannon)

Hello, and welcome to this episode of B.C.E.N. and Friends.

In this episode we have the honor of talking with Dr. James Broselow. Dr. Broselow will tell us about how the Broselow Tape came about, information about SafeDose, and what he is currently working on that could be a game changer in ED Departments and the healthcare industry.

Also, don’t miss the end of the podcast, as Robin Shannon tells us about some exciting news for all listeners!

After graduating from Dartmouth College with honors in economics, Dr. Broselow obtained his medical degree from New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry and entered the field of family practice, in which he became board certified and practiced in Frankenmuth Michigan.

He continued to become board certified in Emergency Medicine. It was while working in the emergency department of a community hospital in Hickory, North Carolina, that he recognized how difficult and stressful it was for him and his team to care for acutely ill or injured children and decided there had to be a better way.

He conducted the original research concerning the correlation between length and weight in children, from which the “Broselow Tape” was born. This simple but effective color-coded tool determines body weight from body length and provides proper dosing and airway information for children.

He has worked with Dr. Allen Hinkle on the Broselow-Hinkle organizer and co-developed the Broselow tape and subsequent Broselow-Luten System with Robert Luten, MD.

Through his numerous and significant innovations in pediatric care, the Broselow name has become one of the most widely recognized in the field of emergency medicine. He is the recipient of the Institute for Safe Medical Practices Lifetime Achievement Award.

Medical personnel everywhere now use the Broselow Tape to provide essential critical care to children, assuring the correct sized airway equipment for each child is utilized, and providing life-saving medications safely and without costly errors or delays. The Broselow Tape even made a cameo appearance on the TV show ER!

So, relax and listen as Dr. Broselow tells you about how some of the things, you may have heard about, in nursing came about.

For more information on topics that were discussed in this webinar:

SafeDose

Broselow Personal Patient Safety Set: (QI Code)

At the end of this podcast, around 22:30, there is a special discount code for all our listeners regarding the QI Code! (the discount code is used on the payment information page when you checkout)

 

The CEO is Busy Giving Back (Rob Corrao)

Welcome to season 2 of BCEN and Friends. Our latest guest on BCEN and Friends is Rob Corrao, the CEO of the L.A.C. Group. This episode is titled “This CEO is Busy Giving Back” and you will hear what the title fits this podcast perfectly.

Rob has a 25+ year track record driving growth at private and private equity-held technology-enabled service companies, he is responsible for the direction, innovation, and overall performance of L.A.C.

Involved in successfully delivering multiple acquisitions and post-acquisition integrations. Rob is passionate about developing L.A.C.'s most important asset - our team, guiding culture and capabilities. He enables and guides individuals, teams, and organizations to think and act in new, more creative ways. He cultivates highly collaborative environments that facilitate cohesive teams and divisions that deliver new and continued value to clients.

Rob has a substantial technological background and is highly effective at integrating processes and establishing shared understanding and values.

Rob’s most important role is inspiring his two young sons to develop into men who contribute to their own families’, communities’, and worlds’ wellbeing. Rob lives in California with his wife and two sons. He serves on several boards (both non-profit and professional).

As you listen to this webinar you will hear the passion that Rob has for everything he does.

With the busy schedule that Rob has from his volunteering for Angel Flight to his thirst for cooking, it was a great opportunity to get Rob to take time out and come on our podcast.

So, relax and listen to this episode of BCEN and Friends

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Rob Corrao, on social media –

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robcorrao/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rcorrao

L A C Group: https://lac-group.com/

Season 1 … a look in the rearview mirror

As we wrap up the first season of BCEN and Friends, Sean Stowers, Brigid Flood, Janie Schumaker, and Mark Eggers take the time to reflect back on this season’s guest and what each episode of this season brought about for each of them. This Retrospective episode points out the greatest takeaways that everyone brought to the table as a new and exciting guest.

First and foremost, BCEN and Friends is grateful to all of the special guests that have premiered this season.

In order of appearance, we begin with Chris Clews. He set the stage with the first ever episode and he taught us all how different aspects of 80s pop culture can relate to today, even during the times of the COVID pandemic. As Brigid points out in this season’s wrap up, teenagers today can relate to those in The Breakfast Club, but also everyone can relate the teenagers in the movie as we can’t always choose who we are surrounded by; yet we can all work together as team and move forward, regardless of the situation.

The next episode of BCEN and Friends features Kate Hixon. She is best known for her CRUSH model. Not only is she a woman, she also worked at NASA and is a highly regarded woman who has succeeded in her life, while she helps others through her model to succeed in their best way possible.

After Kate, we have Alex Draper. Alex hails from the U.K. and initially wanted to become a teacher, failed, then decided he would try his hand at leadership. In the process, he created the CARE model. Through his failures and triumphs, he learned an essential lesson which is there is a difference between managing and true leadership. Anyone can manage, but it takes true talent, hard work, and perseverance to lead.

In our fourth episode, we reflect on Jeff Patterson. Jeff promotes suicide awareness through Gaggle. Gaggle was once an email platform but has flipped the script entirely on finding mental health problems, risky behaviors, and self-harm by using a platform to monitor adolescent behavior. This life-changing platform detects patterns of possible self-destruction and allows the proper help to come to those in need which saves young lives.

Sean Kavanagh is the next guest we will reflect on. Sean is a true gift of inspiration who had an encounter with a bicycling accident in which he wasn’t certain if he would recover from. This accident became the point in time where his life drastically altered after recovery. His motto, “fall risk,” became prominent due to the bracelet he first saw after coming to. Essentially, a fall risk is when we fall in our lives, but we learn the most during this. Not to mention, we also work hard to recover. Without being a fall risk, we would not succeed.

Curt Steinhorst, the best-selling author of the book, Can I have your attention?, inspires us to have better work habits. How can we stay focused in a constantly connected world? The biggest takeaway we can all learn from Curt is multitasking does not always mean being productive in the workplace. In fact, it’s quite the opposite and proving to be a difficult task more each day.

The guest of our seventh episode believes you can never become too educated. Ken Dion, who dropped out of school and got his G.E.D., altered his choice by going back into school to receive multiple Masters’ degrees. He began as a nurse, started multiple companies, and never gave up on learning. He gives meaning to the phrase, “lifelong learner.”

Following Ken, we were introduced to Jonny Boucher. Boucher founded Hope for the Day, a nonprofit organization which inspires us to talk about our mental health. He went on to open Sip of the Day, a coffee company which allows people to drink coffee and open conversations relating to mental health which empowers awareness. Not only does he inspire us to open a conversation about mental health, he encourages which helps everyone to have hope.

Doug Harward is known for his company, Training Industry. It is the leading organization in training people across the spectrum to have professional training, no matter what their profession is. In addition to this, Doug is also a lifelong learner who believes we all want to be the best at what we do. Who doesn’t? Then, things change, so as professions, we have to train and adapt. His company empowers this and allows us to stay up on techniques of all sorts.

We end our first season of BCEN and Friends with Mike Mooney. Mike focuses on reputation and how we must maintain our reputation to continue our credentialing. As we all know, our reputation can prove to be essential in our professions and Mike’s company promotes a Reputation Shift to keep us all on the straight and narrow path of a positive profession. Our personal brand is interwoven with our reputation and Mike teaches us to make that essential with ourselves.

As we have come to the end of our season one of BCEN and Friends, we know that our next season will be even more so exciting because the bar has been set high and BCEN will not disappoint. Be tuned for our next season, as we will have even more exciting guests (yet to be announced). But, per Brigid’s request, if anyone may know how to get Dr. Fauci on for next season, please feel free to pass along a good word.

If you have a suggestion for an episode, please email us at BCEN@BCEN.org. Stay tuned for our next season.

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

Enhancing your Relationship Brand (Mike Mooney)

When we think of things like our reputation, would the name Mike Mooney come to your mind? If not, it will shortly after this read.

Mike Mooney, a renowned professional who spent 25 years in motorsports decided he wanted to continue driving forward but in the way of helping people promote their own brand as well as their reputation. Mike who originally hails from New York, resides with his family in North Carolina where he launched the website, MikeMooney.com.

What exactly does his brand do? He promotes your personal brand by giving you tips to shift your reputation. He even wrote a book entitled, Reputation Shift to prepare you for knowing your worth of your reputation. After all, in an ever-connected technology world, reputation can make or break your profession moving forward.

He believes that you can blow open the doors of opportunity by building, rebuilding, organizing, and protecting your reputation. He worked for years in brand strategy from different well-known brands ranging from Walmart to Sprint and many others in between. He helped to ensure they were receiving a good return on their investments, but most importantly he protected their reputations. Just image how much he can protect an individual’s reputation if he succeeded with a massive brand like Walmart.

Mike believes that your personal brand is interwoven with your reputation. Not only that, social media can be very crucial in revealing whether or not your brand and reputation stand up the hype. In other words, anything that could potentially damage you in any way is best kept behind closed doors and off of your social media.

Whether we realize it or not, our everyday activity is carefully looked at by potential employers. If we have anything that might sit uneasy with them, it could cost us our reputation which in turn affects our ability to gain or complete a job.

Mike’s number one question that he asks everyone is, “What is your reputation worth?” which receives one of three different answers – priceless, 10xs their salary, or “I don’t associate my reputation with a dollar amount.” Mike loves the third answer but any answer causes someone to think about their worth and if they over or undervalue it. As we listen more to Mike, we realize how fragile and vulnerable our reputations can truly be and just how each small thing we post on any type of social media can affect our professional jobs, now and forever.

Mike Mooney is truly a man who knows what is valued in our high-paced technology world that we currently reside in. He offers many great pieces of advice for our listeners. For more information about how to protect your reputation, build it up, and avoid harm from your past, be sure to tune into BCEN and Friends Podcast with guest star Mike Mooney.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Mike Mooney, on social media-

His Website: http://www.mikemooney.com

LinkedIn: @MikeMooney

Twitter: @Mike_Mooney

Instagram: @Mike_Mooney

YouTube: Mike Mooney

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

A student of your profession (Doug Harward)

Our latest guest on this episode of BCEN and Friends is Doug Harward, the CEO and Founder of Training Industry. Training Industry is well-known throughout the professional spectrum with health-care workers and many other types of professions and this is due in part to an “accidental stumble” made by Doug. He is a very interesting man and we have many questions that we wish to have answered on this episode (he does just that).

First and foremost, he came up with an idea while at Nortel Networks when he told those he worked within the business that they should have a training department, rather than having Joe teacher Ted and Ted then teaching Allie in a ladder-style training technique. Once he told the company he worked for that a training department was needed, they told him to “go for it,” and that’s exactly what Doug did.

After some years of hard work, Doug founded the leading training organization now in the business, Training Industry. If you have ever done any type of training, chances are that you know of the business he founded and are fairly familiar with it. His mission was to bring training services to organizations all over and he did just that.

Not only is Doug a renowned CEO, he offers great advice to the listeners by letting us all know that we should all be “lifelong learners” within our profession, regardless of what it is. After all, as long as we continue to seek knowledge based on our profession, we can continue to grow as a person as well as an industry professional. He couldn’t be more accurate when he says, “Methodologies are everchanging.” What we learned last year could change very quickly, so it’s essential to have ever-growing amounts of training and the ability to be opened to always learn the new technologies that we may face on a daily basis.

Doug is married to a nurse and together they have two canine kids named Jackson and Sherman. Pre-COVID, their canine babies helped children in the Ronald McDonald House through a program called “See Spot Read” which enables kids to read to the sweet pups instead of out loud to other children. This is used to help the children to sharpen their reading skills.

When it comes to learning, Doug believes it is an endless realm and learning can never go out of style. For more insight on Doug and what advice he can offer, tune into this episode of BCEN and Friends.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Doug Harward, on social media –

His website – http://www.trainingindustry.com/

LinkedIn – Doug Harward

 

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

It’s OK to not be OK (Jonny Boucher)

As we follow up our previous blog post with our special guest, Jonny Boucher, we are filled with insight and perspective regarding the unique life that this man has shared through his motto, “It’s OK to not be OK.”

First and foremost, Jonny expresses to us how emergency nurses and caregivers all across the spectrum need to dilate 15 minutes to themselves, each and every day. Why? Jonny tells us that this is essential to our mental health, especially those of health care workers. We need to think about how our health care workers are constantly taking care of others. In order for them to care for others, they need to make sure they are in good mental health and all of that starts with only 15 minutes a day.

So, let’s make sure our essential workers in health care have that set window every day that they can focus on themselves (of course, he suggests this be done without our phone in hand and we agree with him). Furthermore, Jonny says that 15 minute window is crucial to all of us and the state of our mental health, regardless of what profession we do for a living.

As we listen to the generous and intelligent Jonny Boucher, we realize that he, too, was not prepared for the COVID crisis. However, it has helped his suicide prevention education to be promoted through means of viral resources such as his website, http://www.hopefortheday.org.

In addition to Jonny Boucher letting us know that “It’s OK to not be OK,” his motto and organization, Hope for the Day became the great inspiration for Marshmello & Demi Lovato song entitled, “OK Not To Be OK” which was released on September 10^th. This was due in large part to Jonny Boucher informing them that day is World Suicide Prevention Day. Not only does he seek to reach many people every day, regardless of their professions, he also has achieved greatness by being recognized by world renowned stars for his great work.

Honestly, this man is an inspiration to us ALL. If there’s anyone out there that has ever felt alone, down, or just not OK…well, that’s ok because it’s OK to NOT be OK. However, when we take those minimal 15 minutes a day, we can improve our mental health so we can continue to do our jobs and help others. We are so grateful to be able to shed some light on mental health and suicide prevention and it’s all in part because of this man, Jonny Boucher.

This is one episode you do not want to miss, as your mental health will improve just by listening to his advice and following his words of wisdom. If that is not enough, try visiting his coffee shop, Sip of Hope for a cup of coffee and to experience Hope for the Day that we all need, every once in a while. Jonny Boucher has been a pleasure to listen to, so be sure to check out his social media.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Jonny Boucher, on social media-

His website: http://www.hopefortheday.org/

LinkedIn: Jonny Boucher

Twitter: @HopeForTheDay

Facebook: Hope for the Day

Instagram: Hope for the Day

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

Hope for the Day (Jonny Boucher)

When you think of suicide, depression, and all things relating to mental health, you may not have heard of the name Jonny Boucher, but that name should be essential if you’re not ok. Why, you may ask? Jonny Boucher is the CEO and founder of Hope for the Day, a non-profit organization that empowers the conversations surrounding mental health education and suicide prevention. In other words, this is a cool guy with a very cool purpose.

On part one of this episode of BCEN and Friends, we dive into a little bit about Jonny Boucher. His purpose (and vision) is to lead the global conversation on proactive prevention in order to create a cultural shift and how we approach mental health in our communities. His motto, “It’s OK to not be OK,” has created commotion all across the spectrum as he brings to light how we all need someone to talk and not just when we’re on the edge of breaking, but when we just need someone to talk to about something as small as a bad day.

For Jonny, the reason he decided to start Hope for the Day was because he has known 16 people to commit suicide; the 9^th person being the reason he wanted to change everything. This person was known as Mike Scheindlin.

During Jonny’s upbringing, he began to do music festivals. In this time, he met Mike, who became an inspiration to him and why he thought music was a great way to bring people together to talk. However, Jonny felt closer to Mike than most people and when he received the news in his adult years about Mike plummeting to his death, Jonny couldn’t breathe. He was devastated beyond words. This reason alone was why Jonny has spent his life trying to reach people of all cultures and lifestyles so that they know there is someone out there to listen when they need to talk.

Jonny has also opened a coffee shop, Sip of the Day so that people have a place to go and not just a “phone number to call” when they aren’t ok. Essentially, his entire life’s work has surrounded his motto as he continues to work to help others, every day.

To learn more about Jonny’s mission, motto, and how to reach him (through means of Social Media) stay tuned for Part two of this special two-part series of BCEN and Friends Podcast starring Jonny Boucher. There, we will dive into more interesting things about Jonny Boucher and how he wants to change the way we all view mental health.

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

You can never have too much education. (Dr. Ken Dion)

All nurses are able to celebrate lifelong learning, especially our special guest on this week’s episode of BCEN and Friends, Dr. Ken Dion. Dr. Dion has an amazing 40-year career in the health industry. He began as a nurse and has evolved to become not only a nurse, but also an entrepreneur, innovator, scholar, and president elect of Sigma. He yields from John Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland and is an absolute inspiration to nurses across the spectrum.

He is a firm believer that there is no such thing as “too much education.” In fact, he holds an MSM-MBA and doctorate in nursing systems. All around, this man is just incredible, and we have been so lucky as to learn more about him. To top it all off, he originally dropped out of high school and later attained his GED. Since then, he has catapulted his career through education. We can all learn something from the drive Dr. Ken Dion has inside of him.

What helps him to stand apart from everyone else is his specialty in Business, as well as Nursing. Although none of us want to think of healthcare as a business, it is one of the largest ones in the world as Dr. Dion points out.

When people ask him what it means for him to have so much widespread education, he calls himself “trilingual” and that, he is! What does he mean exactly? Dr. Dion responds with a phenomenal answer, “I talk to the end users about what they need to solve their problems. Then I go to the tech people and talk to them in tech, talk about what we're gonna go build and then I go to the CFO and explain to him in the language of accounting as to how he is going to get his return on investment on this product that we're going to implement.” He may call himself trilingual, but we can say this is one savvy businessman who knows the bottom line of healthcare.

On top of all his other educational achievements, he managed to attain his PhD while also launching his business, Decision Critical which he claims would sometimes take 20, 24, or even 28 hours of a day. Yes, he must have been very exhausted during those times in his life.

Regardless of how busy Dr. Ken Dion may be, he says it is essential for us all to take time to ourselves. Our mental health is just as important as our physical health. In some cases, even more so, as we need our mental health at the top of its game. After all, if we don’t take care of ourselves, how can we care for others?

For more great life, educational, and nursing advice, tune into this episode of BCEN and Friends Podcast.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Dr. Ken Dion, on social media-

Twitter: @KennethDion

LinkedIn: @KennethDion

And don’t forget to follow Jeffrey Mcdogface, his adorable puppy on Instagram @JeffreyMcdogface

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

Can I have your attention? (Curt Steinhorst)

As a child, Curt Steinhorst suffered through ADD (attention deficit disorder). He was the only one in his family who had to overcome this hyperactivity disorder. Today, as an adult, he has not only overcome the obstacle, but has gone on to become the best-selling author of the book titled, Can I have your Attention?.

Lucky for us, he is the special guest on this episode of the BCEN and Friends Podcast. His ultimate goal in life is to inspire better work habits, allow teams to focus on getting stuff done, and most of all, doing it all while we remain constantly connected through social media. Curt is a quite exceptional individual who speaks approximately 75 times a year to organizations that include non-profits, as well as Fortune 100 companies.

So, how is the man who is relentlessly busy able to offer guidance to companies and individuals on keeping their focus in the workplace? He certainly has some advice that we can all reap the benefits of, and he is eager to share it with our listeners. First and foremost, he admits to us that he struggles to keep up with everything that is thrown at him on a daily basis. Don’t we all? However, Curt being a long-time sufferer of ADD, definitely struggles more than the average Joe. But that doesn’t stop him; it only motivates him more.

He is constantly asking himself, “What’s reasonable?” in the workplace. Curt feels it is best to know what gets AND keeps our attention. For example, we should put our focus on the things that matter the most and tune out the noise and distractions of minimalist things.

When we focus on the things that matter the most, they are able to receive all of our attention. This is essential and the reason he launched his website, Focuswise. After all, when we focus all of our attention on one thing, as opposed to our partial attention on many things, we are able to achieve success. Not to mention, no one wants our partial attention; they want our full attention. Curt explains this in great detail. Quite frankly, it a very brilliant technique.

He also throws out a statistic that shocks the BCEN cast and will do the same to the listeners. Would you believe we suffer an approximate drop of 40 percent in efficiency with our work when we flip back and forth between tasks? That is nearly half! So, almost HALF of our work suffers when we multitask. What can we learn from this? Focus, focus, focus! Focus on what’s important and reasonable (first), then move on to the secondary but don’t overwhelm yourself with it.

Curt is a renowned speaker, author, and strategist. We are honored to have met such an awesome person on this episode of BCEN and Friends. For more advice to help your organization to perform at its best, be sure to tune in for this episode of BCEN and Friends with our special guest, Curt Steinhorst.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Curt Steinhorst, on social media*-

His website: http://www.focuswise.com

Email: CS@focuswise.com

LinkedIn: Curt Steinhorst

*Note: Curt also says he has Twitter and Facebook, but due to his focus on the workforce to steer away from social media, he would prefer that our listeners reach out to him through his website, email, or LinkedIn for the quickest response.

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

Have you taken a fall risk? (Sean Kavanagh)

A storyteller at heart, Sean Kavanagh is a great inspiration to us all. He is the special guest for the latest episode of BCEN and Friends podcast series. His catch phrase, “Fall Risk,” shows us how we all need to be afraid to not be a fall risk throughout our lives because if we don’t risk the fall, we don’t heap the rewards on the other side.

He is an inspiration to us all by combining his humor with professional stories as well as his life experiences to show us that anything is worth the “fall.” Not to mention, he hails from Liverpool, U.K. Although he is now a naturalized American, he has that beautiful accent we all love to hear.

Sean had a bicycling accident on August 17, 2016 which changed his life forever. In fact, it was such a terrible accident that the first responders at the scene were unsure of his fate. However, these first responders acted quickly and saved Sean’s life. He still does not remember it to this day; he only knows what everyone has told him about it. Undoubtedly, we can’t expect to remember much after being hit while bicycling downhill, by an oncoming pickup truck. To make matters worse, spectators said he flew some twenty feet through the air.

After the accident, he only recalls when he awoke in a rehab hospital. One of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes happened to be his bracelet on his wrist which read, “Fall Risk.” As emergency responders across the map know, this means that he was to stay in bed, call for help, and do not try to get up on his own. Sean turned that bracelet into a catch phrase that shaped his life, to this day.

Essentially, we may all fall at some point in our lives, but Sean believes that is when we learn the very most. After his accident, he became more apt to take risks because he learned how precious life truly is and how a minute of it should not be wasted. Sean has taught us how we must “fall” in order to prevail a stronger, more determined person.

Sean Kavanagh is a man of inspiration and determination. There is much to still learn about life and Sean definitely has some pointers that can help us all to go farther and be successful and happy. Don’t hesitate to listen to his heartfelt story on this episode of BCEN and Friends podcast, hosted by Brigid Flood and Janie Schumaker. It will not disappoint.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Sean Kavanagh, on social media-

His website: http://www.fallrisker.com

Email: Sean.Kavanagh@fallrisker.com

Blog: https://fallrisker.com/blog

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

Are you kidding? What kids think of nursing.

This episode of the BCEN and Friends podcast is one you won't want to miss! 

If you have ever listened to any of our other episodes, we usually begin our podcast with … The BCEN and Friends podcast is an opportunity for us to have interesting conversations about learning with a range of thought leaders, BCEN certification holders, industry professionals (and for this podcast … kids!) That’s right kids!

Today, in this special episode with kids as our BCEN and Friends! Janie, Brigid, and, occasionally, I are going to ask kids from 21 (you can be a kid at any age) to 5 years old some questions about themselves and also about nurses.

We thought it would be interesting to see what kids think of nursing, so we asked some people, we know, if we could interview their children to see what they think of nursing, By the way the kids were not given the questions ahead of time.

In this podcast we will begin with our oldest BCEN friend (I don’t remember being called the oldest at 21) and work our way down to our youngest of 5 years old.

Well, let’s see how this goes.  WARNING - this podcast may cause excessive smiles and laughter :-)

 

Tending to our gaggle of youth. (Jeff Paterson)

Our latest and greatest friend of the BCEN and Friends podcast is Jeff Paterson. Jeff is the creator of Gaggle which helps focus on the risky student behavior of today’s youth. Bullying, self-harm, and mental health are just a few of the things that Jeff’s platform helps to shift the focus to so as to keep our young generation safe from harm of others, as well as themselves.

He is an entrepreneur at heart who started his first company when he was only FOUR YEARS OLD! Yes, you read that correctly. Was it successful? According to his Mom, not so much because he couldn’t find the right investors for it.

But that alone did not stop Jeff from becoming his own boss for the past two decades. Now, he successfully runs Gaggle which originally began as an email platform for students and teachers. Now it has grown to focus on the safety and well-being that our young face in their day-to-day and its focus is to keep our children safe, by any means necessary. This platform allows reps to monitor our adolescents e-mail in a safe and secure way.

Jeff offers some alarming statistics that we should all be aware of – every year, there are 6,000 students between the ages of 7 and 24 that commit suicide. Although every case is unique in itself, Jeff hopes to drop these numbers as low as possible through Gaggle.

We have even learned that some students will use different tools, including a paper clip or staple to scratch at themselves in order to inflict self-harm. Although this may not seem like anything to concern most parents or guardians, Jeff informs us that this is a tell-tell sign that a student’s mental health is not at its absolute best. Should anything this small be brought to light, we might be able to prevent the outcries of a potential suicide before it happens. Little things, just like this, are the exact statistics that Gaggle takes into account, every day.

With the COVID crisis, Jeff wants parents and teachers to be even more informed of the small issues that could arise to become larger ones. In his words, “this is our gap year” so if our students do not learn as much as they did last year, that’s OK. We are in the midst of change and the most important part of that is making sure our children understand that change is not always a bad thing.

Tune in to this episode of the BCEN and Friends podcast for more great tips that Jeff has to say about how to recognize signs of brewing issues that we, as parents, may not notice otherwise. As both a parent and concerned citizen, he has valuable insight for people across every spectrum of life and his wisdom is absolutely astonishing.

Feel free to follow our latest guest, Jeff Patterson, on social media-

His website: http://www.gaggle.net/

LinkedIn: Gaggle

Twitter: @Gaggle_K12

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

Do you C.A.R.E.? (Alex Draper)

How do you define a man of wisdom and great leadership without going overboard on the use of words? Well, in this case, you don’t. Alex Draper is a wise man beyond his years, as he is the founder and CEO of DX Learning. Not to mention, this man is on a mission to shape organizations’ worth by empowering managers and teams alike to think like great leaders of today.

Lucky for us, he is our special guest on this episode of BCEN and Friends (hosted by the one and only Brigid Flood). Alex hails originally from the U.K. and boy, do we love that accent! During his journey approximately twenty some odd years ago, he tried his hand at teaching. Basically, he was told he wasn’t a very good teacher. Why? Instead of him actually ‘teaching,’ he was enjoying it from a kid’s level.

However, being told this did not deter Alex’s dreams of being an educator. Instead, it fueled a fire in Alex to alter his path of education by a different avenue known as experimental learning. It may not work for everyone, but it worked for Alex. In turn, he wanted to come to America (and he did).

In 2015, Alex decided to start his own company – DX Learning. Through DX Learning, Alex is able to teach us the difference between management and leadership. It may seem like common sense to understand how they differ, but Alex is able to shed new light on the profound differences between them.

Bear in mind, Alex goes on to explain to both Janie and Brigid how management is because you were chosen to “manage” but true leadership is a talent to lead people by choice and do so in a swanky manner. He mentions his method for success is the CARE Model. The acronym CARE is broken down to stand for: Clarity, Autonomy, Relationships, Equity.

Essentially, Alex contributes his success as a remarkable leader to his CARE Model. Brigid and Janie concur with him as he details everything throughout the podcast. Any leader looking to improve their skillset to continue on a successful path should heed his words of advice. This man knows what he’s talking about!

Feel free to check out our special guest, Alex Draper, on social media-

His Website: http://www.DX-Learning.com/

LinkedIn: DX Learning

Alex’s LinkedIn: Alex Draper

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

To NASA and back … How to CRUSH it. (Dr. Kate Hixson)

What do you get when you mix a lifelong learner with a passion for understanding high performance, an entrepreneur, mom, and all around cool human? You get our newest friend on the BCEN and Friends Podcast – Dr. Kate Hixson.

As Janie and Brigid learn in this conversation, Kate is a very fascinating woman who earned her PhD by studying team-based training at NASA. She was offered a pre-doctorial research fellowship through NASA. In layman’s terms, she got to spend her summers at Johnson Space Center! How cool is that? She defines it as a once in a lifetime opportunity and she is right.

Not only did she get to spend time at Johnson Space Center, she also got to work with astronauts who will be going to Mars. However, being an entrepreneur, she wasn’t satisfied with just doing team-based training. While being at NASA, she also worked for Pearson, the world’s largest educational company. After her time at Pearson, she and her husband James founded a custom fabrication business in Denver and now Kate is returning to her roots with the launch of  www.katehixson.com, her new website, and her upcoming podcast Dauntless.

So, how does Kate relate to nursing professionals? Well, think about how EXTRAORDINARY our healthcare workers are in the field. It’s not hard to see how well these two compares to one another.

Kate lets Brigid know just how respectful she is, in regard to our nursing professionals. She is even able to compare her time at NASA (doing team-based training) to how our healthcare workers are able to adapt on the front lines.

The work is stressful, but overall, nurses are working within teams all day in a very incredible, high stakes environment. They are working with people’s lives. However, Kate has the CRUSH Method to assist people in achieving extraordinary (or even just simple) goals.

Each letter of the word has a different meaning. Kate’s CRUSH Method stands for: Catalyst, Resolution, Unwavering, Stamina, and Habit. Her explanations of how to achieve and supersede goals via the CRUSH Method are just unwavering. Anyone who wishes to become a certified nursing professional should seek be sure to listen to this segment about Kate’s CRUSH Method, as it could essentially give you the extra push you need to surpass your goals.

Undoubtedly, the most interesting part of this episode is how Brigid, Janie, and Kate go on to express how nursing professionals (and all healthcare workers) are extraordinary without realizing it. Across the world, our nurses have stepped up to whatever obstacles have been put in their way, battled their way through them and are anxiously waiting for the next step of issues to be presented.

Most of them don’t realize just how astonishing their job allows them to become. We thank the BCEN and Friends podcast for pointing this out. Be sure to tune in to this episode to hear all about the extraordinary Kate Hixson and how she can help you triumph through your goals.

Feel free to check out Dr. Kate Hixson on social media-

Instagram: @KateHixsonPhD

Twitter: @KateHixsonPhD

Her Website: http://www.katehixson.com/

Podcast: Dauntless by Kate Hixson (https://katehixson.libsyn.com/)

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode 

What do nurses, leaders and 80s pop culture have to do with each other? Turns out, quite a lot. (Chris Clews)

Two everyday boys manage to save the world from vampires in The Lost Boys movie.  While we’re not fighting off vampires, we are in the midst of fighting off one of the deadliest viruses in a hundred years. 

The Outsiders portrays two distinct groups of people, those on the ‘Right’ side of the track and those on the ‘Wrong’ side to discover it’s the same sunset we all see, we’re in this together.

In the inaugural episode of the Board Certification of Emergency Nursing (BCEN) podcast, Director of Strategy and Operations Brigid Flood sits down (virtually) with author and speaker Chris Clews about just how many workplace and life lessons derive from 80s pop culture.

Chris is the author of the book series, What 80s Pop Culture Teaches Us About Today’s Workplace, an original self-published book released in 2019.

Brigid and Chris discuss a variety of topics, ranging from passion and teamwork, to resilience and regulating stress, to lifelong learning and venturing into the unknown—all from the perspective of movies from the 80s.

Discover more about Chris, lessons from 80s movies, and just how important the ‘King of Music’ Prince is to being a great leader!

CLICK HERE for a transcript of this Episode