What's New for 2025?

Michelle: Well, we're getting ready to celebrate a new year. 2025. Do you believe it?

I don't believe it, but it's true.

Today is actually still 2024, December 31st. We're just a few hours away from celebrating New Year's. First, I want to just reflect on 2024 and what a fantastic year it has been for the Conversing Nurse podcast and for me, Michelle Harris.

Personally, I have been very blessed this year to be able to continue my retirement.

I know those of you that have been listening for a while know that I retired and it's been almost three years ago, and that I had difficulty in the beginning.

But I can say that I am really settling into it. And I'm trying to find out who is Michelle Harris without the badge on, without the scrubs on, without being at work and being on a team and interacting with patients and families and other professionals.

So I'm figuring that out.

I am continuing to volunteer at my local free clinic, and I do hold a nursing license.

I always have to laugh when I say that because it's like, ah, I'm still hanging on to that nursing identity. I'm still a nurse! I'm still a nurse!

Yeah, I'm still a nurse because I work at a free clinic. And one of the things we do is we see patients, but we fill prescriptions and we have a whole pharmacy.

It's amazing. I've learned a lot about that, because being a NICU nurse, we weren't exposed to a lot of different medications.

And now treating adults with chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, we see so much. We have a lot going on and we have a varied population, and our population are on a lot of medications.

And so one day a week we refill prescriptions, and the other day we see patients and we have a physician and everything. We have a great team, great team of nurses.

I'm trying to get some of the nurses to come on, but they're so microphone shy.

So I'm working on that. But to start off the new year, I just wanted to talk to you about some of the things that are coming down the line because I'm.

I'm really, really excited.

So, Beth Sanford, she's on LinkedIn. And first of all, if you're not on LinkedIn, why not? LinkedIn is an amazing platform for professionals of all kinds.

And many of my amazing guests have come from LinkedIn. They've either found me or I have found them. So it's just absolutely wonderful. And I highly recommend it. But I did come across Beth Sanford.

She's a doctorally prepared nurse. She does a lot. She is a researcher. She's done extensive research into vitamin D and she is a speaker. She's president of the North Dakota Nurses Association.

Man, I had so much fun talking to her because she's got it all together.

So I'm excited for you guys to hear Beth.

Then we are going to talk to another nurse that I met on LinkedIn.

And she has quite a presence on LinkedIn. And this is Angie Gray. Angie is a nurse coach, a trainer, a keynote speaker, and when I say a trainer, I don't mean like a gym trainer.

Although she's beautiful and gorgeous and in amazing shape. She could be. But what she does is she trains CEOs of healthcare institutions, she trains the C Suite, and really gives them a picture into what's going on with the rest of us in the world.

She really is all about empowering nurses and nurse leaders and inspiring positive change in the workplace.

She owns a business, it's called High Performance Nursing, and she was amazing. We talked a lot about rose colored glasses and how rose colored glasses can get kind of a bad rap.

You know, when I was growing up, the adults would say to me, the problem with you is you just see everything through rose colored glasses.

I guess it can look to others that we don't know what's going on in the world.

We don't know that the world is a big, bad, scary place, that we think everything is just fine and good and it's all rainbows and unicorns.

And Angie and I talked about this because we're on the same page with it. We're both very positive people. We both love nursing, we love the nursing profession, but that doesn't mean that we are blind to what's going on.

I think you'll really enjoy that conversation and you'll definitely enjoy Angie. She's amazing.

So next up is Lacy Hess.

Now, Lacy Hess is a master's prepared nurse and she's just so interesting because she has a lot of emergency room experience, a lot of leadership experience, and she's really happy in what she's doing in nursing.

But she started this side hustle and it's called Lacy's Lullabies. So it's her business because she is a pediatric sleep consultant.

Right? I didn't know there was anything of the sort. And I'm a former pediatric nurse, so I was really excited to talk to Lacy because, well, you guys know sleep is everything, right?

And anybody with young kids knows sleep is fleeting. It comes and it goes, and mostly it goes.

So she really helps parents that are struggling with sleep in their home.

Maybe their child is not on a regular sleep schedule. Maybe they're getting up multiple times a night. Maybe they're getting up very early in the morning.

Maybe they're going to bed very late. Whatever the issue is, Lacy, is helping parents bring sleep back to the home.

And you know, I have to say for everyone, obviously sleep is very important.

I am a little bit partial to those of us in healthcare because of the fact that we have to critically think and be on our toes and we have to come to work refreshed and restored.

One would hope. And that's not always the case. Usually we're running on empty.

And so to restore sleep in a home that has been lacking is just. Man, I can't say enough about it.

You guys are really going to enjoy Lacy.

Next up, I just got through talking to this nurse last week and when you guys hear him, you're just going to be amazed. So his name is Deon Huffman and he is a bachelor prepared nurse.

He's a pediatric nurse in Los Angeles, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

And he's also Nurse Deon. He has a YouTube. He has an amazing Instagram.

And what Deon does is he educates kids and parents on different health conditions on what to expect when you enter the healthcare realm, whether that is a doctor's office visit, whether it's an urgent care visit, or whether your child is hospitalized.

Deon has found many gaps in health literacy while he has been caring for patients, and he really wants to bridge those gaps. Man, I have to say, I like, binge watched his YouTube channel and it's amazing.

I found myself completely enthralled, completely entertained.

And I just think any child or any parent that wants to find out more about how to reduce their child's anxiety about going to the doctor or getting a medical procedure, whatever it is, they need to be listening to Nurse Deon.

His content is right up there with many of the great children's programming like Sesame Street.

He has some characters that are just charming. He's not alone. He works with a team of physicians, child life specialists, so they provide evidence based education in a fun way for parents and children.

And anytime that you can reduce anxiety in a child, in a parent, that is a win. That is a complete win. So stay tuned for Deon Huffman, Nurse Deon. You gotta check out his Instagram, you gotta check out his YouTube.

You will be a fan as I am.

So that's who is coming up.

And then I have some amazing interviews.

One that I am super excited about is Maggie Ortiz.

And Maggie and I met through LinkedIn again. She's a master's prepared nurse. And man, if you don't know Maggie Ortiz, get on LinkedIn right now. Look her up. She is one amazing woman.

She is doing so much. So her business is Advocates for Nurses and she is all about educating nurses on their rights.

If you want to know anything about Maggie, she's a legal nurse consultant. She has a critical care history.

And if you are questioning if you are doing the right thing under your license, you need Maggie. She also provides continuing education.

So super excited to talk to Maggie because she's not just smart and educated and experienced.

She has got this amazing energy.

It's like she has kind of like in her core, there's like a nuclear fusion, something going on. Whenever you hear Maggie speak, you can hear the passion come through. You can hear the dedication.

She's amazing. So super, super excited to talk to Maggie.

So that's what I have going on in the very short term.

And I'm just going to see where 2025 takes me.

I'm going to make a resolution to not make resolutions.

Instead, I'm going to take action. And you guys, I almost forgot, and I can't believe that I forgot this because this is really going to be an exciting part of 2025.

Do you guys remember Dr. Chris Patty, Nurse Researcher, Episode 3?

Chris is a brilliant nurse. He is doctorally prepared and in his job, he helps residents with research projects. He also helps nurses with research projects.

So we're going to get together and we're going to do a series and it's going to be Research 101. Because I think a lot of nurses are intimidated by research.

Maybe they don't know how to read a research article.

They don't know how to tell if it's credible, valid research.

This is true for me 100%.

And Chris has helped me a lot in this area and honestly makes research fun. He really has a brilliant mind and he's so engaging.

He's so smart, but it never comes across as condescending.

He truly has this passion for helping nurses find their passion through research.

So I'm really excited about that. I will let you know when that is coming down the pike because that is truly worthy of listening, as all my episodes are, right?

I'd love to hear what your goals are, what your resolutions are for 2025. You can find me over on Instagram @theConversingNursepodcast, and I'm on LinkedIn as Michelle Harris.

And of course, I have a website, theconversingnursepodcast.com. You can find me there. You can message me, you can text me, you can send me an email. There's a lot of ways to get a hold of me.

Love it when you guys reach out and have questions or comments or feedback.

So keep it coming. I appreciate it and I hope that you're somewhere safe. I hope that you are with people that you love and that love you, or animals or all of the above.

And I hope that the dreams that you have for 2,025, I hope that they all come true. See you next year.