The Conversing Nurse podcast

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Heather Vails, MSN Ed. RNC-NIC, is definitely in my badass nurse category. She has lived with the rare genetic disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS, for decades. She has not only lived, she’s thrived. After a long career as a NICU nurse, she recently left the bedside, a place she loved dearly to venture into teaching our new generation of nurses as a Professor of Pediatrics. Listen as she educates us about this rare condition and how she has not let EDS slow her down.
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Today’s guest has one of those careers that doesn’t follow a straight line—and that’s exactly what makes it powerful.

Julie Smith’s professional path looks a bit like a zig-zag, but every turn adds depth. She began in communications, pivoted into emergency nursing, focused on safety net populations and disaster relief, moved into education, and now serves as a clinical product leader at InterSystems. There, she helps guide development of HealthShare, one of the world’s most advanced interoperability platforms, supporting massive health systems and government-sponsored organizations around the g...

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I really enjoyed talking with Kirby Williams, a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.  She gave us the deets on where a PMHNP can work, the training required, the subspecialties, as well as the heaviness of the job, and how she cares for her own mental health. Her students are lucky to have her as a mentor and her patients, as their provider. In the 5-minute snippet, I absolutely love her advice for babies: explore ALL the possibilities. 
For Kirby's bio, visit my website (link below).

Kirby's website: https://www.bbhealthandconsulting.com...

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This week, my guest is Tracy Hicks, a doctorally-prepared and dual-certified family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. She also holds an MBA, which is particularly useful in her role as a CEO.

Tracy is the founder of C-Trilogy Comprehensive Clinical Care and C-Trilogy Outreach, a certified community behavioral health clinic that provides mental health services, substance use support, primary care, and 24-hour crisis help.

I was excited to talk with Tracy, who is an expert in the care and treatment of individuals with schizophrenia, because in my 36 years...

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**CAUTION** This episode discussed suicide, suicidal ideation, drug dependency. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

This is a chronology of my serious health scare in 2025 and my subsequent dependency on Xanax. 

During this time I suffered suicidal ideation. I was aware of the resources available to me and I didn't reach out. Please don't make the same mistake and suffer needlessly.

Here are some trusted mental health resources: 

National Suicide Hotline: Dial 988

Crisis Text Line

National Alliance on Mental Health

Substance Abuse an...

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If you've been listening to the podcast for a while you’ve heard me say that we would be discussing bullying and, I’m happy to report that after over 65 episodes, I'm finally doing that.  And I'm not only talking about it, I'm talking to the expert about it.
My guest, Dr. Phyllis Quinlan, a Ph.D.-prepared nurse,  literally wrote the book on Bullying and Chronic Incivility in Nursing. With a combined 45 years as a nurse, educator, LNC, and executive coach, and having experienced bullying herself, she is well-equipped for the diffic...

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Tiffany Gibson is a radical nurse leader who has been featured in Oprah Daily and Ebony magazines and proudly shares her two cents on social media and through her podcast. So when she manifested her goal on LinkedIn to book twelve speaking engagements this year, I jumped at the opportunity to invite her to be my guest because her wisdom for nurses cannot go unheard.
Tiffany is an emotional intelligence consultant and the founder of New Nurse Academy, LLC. During our conversation, she stressed the importance of emotional intelligence for nurses. She...

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Dr. Bonny Kehm is the Founding Dean and Assistant Provost of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Columbia Southern University. She’s an accomplished nurse educator, researcher, and leader whose work has had a substantial influence at both the state and national levels.

Appointed to the Missouri State Board of Nursing back in 2017, Dr. Kehm went on to serve as board president and contributed to vital initiatives through the Nursing Education Committee. Her leadership has influenced policy, program development, and the academic standards that shape how nurses are educated to...

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My guest this week is Yasmin Sharifi, an operating room nurse with many decades of experience. She’s here to give us a glimpse into, as she says, “what really goes on behind that red line.”

Yasmin didn’t initially set out to be an OR nurse. She started her career in med-surg but quickly encountered burnout due to a nursing shortage and inadequate patient-to-nurse ratios, often sharing 35 patients with another nurse. Realizing this was not sustainable, she transitioned to the PACU. When she was offered a chance to move into the oper...

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Today’s guest is someone who brings compassion, intellect, and a genuine love for medicine to everything he does. 

Dr. Mahmoud Ibraheem is a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician whose medical journey has taken him from Bahrain to New York, Florida, and Texas. Those experiences shaped who he is as a physician. 

Beyond medicine, Dr. Ibraheem is passionate about mental health, music, and making medicine more human. He’s also a proud husband to a brilliant cardiologist and devoted dog dad to Xena and Blue. In other words, he’s very w...

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Meet Lia Xiong-Ratley, a Family Nurse Practitioner, women’s health advocate, and rescuer of the underdogs, literally.

Lia has worn many hats over the years, from pediatric ICU to cardiothoracic surgery, but after becoming a family nurse practitioner, she has found her place at Planned Parenthood.

If you think the only services offered through Planned Parenthood are contraception and abortion, you're not alone; Lia and I thought this too. However, the reality is that they provide essential services such as STD testing and treatment, cervical and breast cancer screenings, pr...

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Today’s guest is someone whose work sits right at the intersection of education, innovation, and human connection.

Dr. Christine “Christy” Heid is a nursing educator, simulationist, innovator, and healthcare advocate with more than two decades of experience.

As a Nursing Simulation Specialist, she brings an invaluable perspective as both a nurse educator and simulation expert who has personally experienced the challenges institutions face in preparing nurses for clinical practice. A recognized innovator in nursing education, she created the Heid ATE Guide for Clinical Teaching and Learning©, which is an Inno...

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"Life is a journey, not a destination."  This quote perfectly describes the path of my guest this week, Kim Kish, a surgical oncology nurse practitioner.
Kim's journey started as a lab research associate where she learned valuable skills and even got published. From there, she moved into cardiovascular circulatory support, where she found herself observing nurses, doctors, and patients. She was again picking up crucial work and life skills that would prepare her for her next career in business.
Wait, what? I thought we were moving in the direction of nursing. Y...

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Today’s episode is one that really hits close to the heart — because it’s about the people who spend their lives caring for others, and what happens when no one’s caring for them.

You’re about to meet Kevin Dickinson, the founder of GetVitals, and his co-founder and clinical advisor, Amber Smith. They developed a mental health app built specifically for nurses — starting with those working in emergency departments. 

Kevin didn’t come from healthcare; he came from engineering. But after watching Amber, an ER nurse and educator with m...

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Are you a critical care nurse or aspiring to become one? If so, you won't want to miss my guest this week, Sarah Vance.
With over 15 years of critical care experience, Sarah is dedicated to educating and mentoring nurses, both new and new to critical care.
Sarah has a knack for simplifying complex concepts and bringing a lighthearted approach to the often intense ICU environment.
She shares valuable free open-access medical education content on social media, covering topics such as intra-aortic balloon pump placement, sedation and pain management for ventilated...

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Today, I’m honored to welcome on the podcast, Lori Schellenberg, a registered nurse with nearly 45 years of experience. Lori’s career is a true testament to the power of embracing change. She began at the bedside and followed her curiosity into home health, occupational nursing, and workers’ compensation—discovering along the way just how transferable nursing skills really are.

Through her journey, Lori built partnerships, mentored colleagues, and helped healthcare businesses grow. When retirement left her seeking a new purpose, she turned her focus to patient advocacy, founding Stepping Stone Advocacy...

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Wow, when you hear my interview with Monica Reyes, you will realize what I’ve known for a while, that she was born to be a pediatric nurse. Her playful nature aligns perfectly with this nursing specialty. She tells us that IV skills are extremely valuable to pediatric nurses and shares her heartbreaking experience of losing a patient. We gained insight into her personal story of the challenges of having a daughter with a chronic disease. In the five-minute snippet, Monica shares what she expects to hear when she gets to the pe...