Some call me "Red"

I am a full-time wife and mother, as well as a Registered Nurse. I don't fit neatly into the mainstream's definition of normal. I'm a jack of all trades, and a master of none. (But often times better than a master of one.) I enjoy the challenges that working in healthcare present in these unprecedented times as well as the mental tribulations of raising a strong willed, sassy, empathetic six-year-old. 

Most days, the brawls I witnessed in the Emergency Department of my local trauma center were a walk in the park compared to navigating the psychosocial aspects of 1st grade. Combine the pressures generated by the mere existence of 24/7 social media, an inability to completely emotionally regulate, and the fluid dynamics of the grade school hierarchy - behold, the perfect storm evolves. I was naive to think that stabilizing a trauma victim or a full-blown heart attack would be the pinnacle of my day.

My RN experiences in cardiology, cardio thoracic surgery, emergency medicine, nephrology, and Occupational Health have given me a wealth of knowledge. In addition to my Associates in Nursing, I hold two Bachelors of Science - one in Biology and a second in Chemistry - from Western Carolina University, and a handful of certifications from the American Society of Quality.  

 I began my long journey to healthcare education as a lab technologist with an adrenaline addiction. I would work laboratory jobs and on the side, I would volunteer as an EMT with 12+ years of service with my local fire and rescue departments. I dabbled in health writing by publishing a social media keto lifestyle group with over 1200 followers. After discovering my passion of emergency medicine and in lieu of a mid-life crisis, I made the dive into the world of Nursing with a mid-life career change instead.

Did I say career change? More like universe change, because it ROCKED. MY. WORLD. Granted, the world of laboratory safety, quality assurance, and compliance was thrilling, but I came to love the world of nursing and within it, patient education. It held the ability to drastically change the quality of life for my patients. Knowledge is power, and I eagerly handed over the keys to areas of health that mattered most to them. INFORMED patients make EMPOWERED patients. The amount of time I was able to spend on educating my patients in a hospital setting was always so limited. I needed more!

The culture of bedside nursing changed during the pandemic. Companies looking to make profits demanded that nurses take on larger patient loads with more critically ill patients resulting in increasingly unsafe conditions. We did it through the pandemic, so why stop now, eh? Someone has to say it: Enough is enough.

I left the stressors of the hospital environment and with it lost an outlet for my passion of patient education. I searched aimlessly until I began to invest in myself and my community through writing. I found the connection to hundreds of potential patients with the stroke of the keyboard. My hospital bedside education pieces, instead of serving one family, could now touch the lives of hundreds with the mere click of a mouse.