Episode 10: Compassion in Nurse Recruiting

Cara Lunsford (01:18.73)
love calling you Peach. I don't want to ever call you Amber. I hear other people do it and I'm like, nah.

Amber L. Peach (01:21.437)
love it.

Amber L. Peach (01:28.637)
Yes, no I love it, it's awesome. My husband loves it too. Yes. He doesn't call me peach but he says thank you whenever people point out peach. Yeah. I found a peach and I married a peach.

Cara Lunsford (01:31.202)
Peaches chicken. Does he?

Does he call you Peach? Does your-

Cara Lunsford (01:44.75)
that's nice. Yes, because he's

is he a peach? Is he good?

Amber L. Peach (01:54.569)
He's so good. Yes. Yeah, he's amazing.

Cara Lunsford (01:56.674)
that's awesome. Well, Peach, we are so excited to have you on. honestly, the other day, well, for the listeners who might be wondering who Amber Peach is, Amber Peach works now in our sales department, but

Amber L. Peach (02:14.953)
Right?

Cara Lunsford (02:24.856)
has had a long history in nurse recruiting. And so the other day when I was talking to our production coordinator, Rhea Wade, she was like, who are we gonna get to talk about nurse recruiting and staffing? And all of a sudden I was like, well, wait a minute. Why don't we just ask Peach to do it?

Amber L. Peach (02:28.756)
Yes.

Amber L. Peach (02:53.247)
Sure.

Cara Lunsford (02:54.868)
So here you are.

Amber L. Peach (02:57.595)
Yes. Thank you. Yeah. It's awesome.

Cara Lunsford (03:00.526)
So why don't you tell our lovely nurse.listeners who you are and a little bit of history as to what you were doing even before you were with Relias and nurse.com. What were you doing like right before you came over to us?

Amber L. Peach (03:21.351)
Okay, great. Amber Peach, live in Kentucky, about an hour north of Nashville, Tennessee. Started in healthcare recruiting and stayed in it for 10 years actually. Started in psychiatric recruiting. So psychiatrist and psychiatric nurse practitioners.

ventured into more behavioral health as well as long-term care, skilled nursing, recently right before nurse.com, right before Relias, I was in travel nursing recruiting.

Cara Lunsford (03:58.902)
Yeah, so that was something, right? Because were you there during, was that during COVID that you worked or no, or right after?

Amber L. Peach (04:03.507)
Yes.

No, right after. Yeah, I've been after. But yeah, it was, it's different. Nurses, the travel nursing world, I know it's changed since COVID. There was such a high need and the salaries and the stipends, everything was so amazingly done and huge rewards and it's changed now with the demand.

Cara Lunsford (04:35.214)
Yeah, yeah, because there's a lot now there's, well, we can, we're going to get into it. We're going to talk about all the problems. We're going to, we're going to talk about the things that are working and the things that are not working. Well, I had the privilege of being one of the people that interviewed you before you came over to nurse.com.

Amber L. Peach (04:42.419)
Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

Amber L. Peach (04:55.87)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (05:01.446)
And one of the things that I was so impressed about was how much you had advocated for the nurses that you were recruiting. And you really seemed to have such a, such a passion for wanting to take care of them.

wanting to make sure that they were in the right places, placed in the right places. What was some of the feedback that you were getting from nurses who were out in the industry?

Amber L. Peach (05:44.405)
There was a variety. It just depended on the type of facility. Mainly in the travel role, I was doing critical care hospitals. It's a high demand. Those patients are coming straight from the hospitals into facilities, trying to do rehab, everything.

Amber L. Peach (06:07.401)
They're on vents, they're on trachs at times, and the ratios can be higher than what nurses are used to and comfortable with.

Cara Lunsford (06:13.452)
Yeah, this is in like the skilled nursing, like in skilled nursing facilities, like where they like they were in like a critical care set kind of setting. And then now they need to be rehabilitated. And so they're moving into these other areas. But like what you're saying is that the ratios are not always fantastic in some. Yes, or safe.

Amber L. Peach (06:35.199)
comfortable.

That's what I was hearing from the nurses. They're safe. That was one of the things that I was hearing from nurses is, Amber, I don't feel safe. Well, I don't want you there because if you don't feel safe, you're not able to deliver the best care for those patients. So I really took that into consideration whenever talking to nurses too, making sure that where I was placing them was matching their comfortable level. know, med surg, tele might be like,

1 to 5, 1 to 7, ICU, 1 to 1, 1 to 2, max. It just really depended. trying to make sure.

Cara Lunsford (07:14.924)
And how many patients were you hearing that the nurses were having maybe in a skilled nursing facility, like in a SNF?

Amber L. Peach (07:24.223)
Wow. I would say 20 plus. Sometimes 25, sometimes 30.

Cara Lunsford (07:31.052)
Right? And some of...

Amber L. Peach (07:31.879)
Yes, it's so... yeah, it was not... yeah, it was not great.

Cara Lunsford (07:40.322)
Yeah, and so it's no wonder, right, that nurses are not, you know, they're not wanting to go into those areas post-acute care because they know that it can feel really overwhelming and not well supported.

And also just, you know, at the end of the day, not safe, right? And nobody wants to be responsible for, you know, hurting someone.

Amber L. Peach (08:19.657)
Right, exactly. There was numerous times.

Cara Lunsford (08:21.902)
I mean, can you imagine?

Right? No, can you imagine? Like, can you imagine having that, like, level of responsibility? Right?

Amber L. Peach (08:31.463)
It's scary. I'm so thankful for nurses. I do not have the ability to do it myself, but I love nurses because definitely need them and they are risking a lot. no, I can't, I can't imagine.

Cara Lunsford (08:45.922)
Was there something that drove you into wanting to do, because clearly you've worked in this area for a while, in the health care area for a while. Is there anything that drove you specifically, like personally, to want to be part of this industry?

Amber L. Peach (09:10.195)
don't know if it was initially that way. I think it was just very ironic that I started in recruiting, but as I've gone on and I have experiences, behavioral health, mental health, a pandemic, it has truly, the appreciation level is huge. Every time I talk to a nurse, thank you. Thank you for being a nurse. Thank you for being there.

Amber L. Peach (09:40.521)
Personally, I have been hospitalized and the nurses, the care, the level of care and the comfortableness that they showed and compassion is amazing and all I can do, all I feel is like, I need to give back. I need to find those nurses. I need to help them. Yes, yes. So yeah, no, it's, I think it was by chance, but the appreciation has just grown.

Cara Lunsford (09:57.89)
that.

Cara Lunsford (10:09.938)
So now you're in this kind of unique position, right? Because you've heard from the nurses, you've worked closely with them, you've heard what it is that they're looking for, what draws them to a job, and what kind of deters them from a job. And so when you're talking with,

Amber L. Peach (10:12.798)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (10:39.19)
Recruiters, when you're talking with facilities, hospitals, whoever it might be that's looking to employ nurses, and they're looking for ways to differentiate themselves in the market, to stand out, and to really attract talent, what are some of those conversations, what do those look like for you?

What are the things you kind of encourage them to entertain or to see things differently, maybe?

Amber L. Peach (11:16.979)
think it's telling the story. I think it's telling the story of who the facility is, what they can offer. Nurses are working, they're working hard, they deserve a lot, and what can we show them? You you have to have in that mindset of tell your story about your facility, just talking to a client today, and it was their culture, talking about their culture.

it's different on this particular.

Cara Lunsford (11:44.504)
Yeah. And what was their culture? what made that stand out to you to say like, you should talk about your culture.

Amber L. Peach (11:53.079)
It was very important to them because there was a stigma attached to it. The lesser known type of area. This was more of a, I guess it was outside of an acute setting. like a hospital who might be like really busy. This type of setting gave the opportunity for the nurses to have one-on-one conversations. But.

Cara Lunsford (11:56.718)
Mmm.

Amber L. Peach (12:18.884)
not in a hospital type of setting, like in a in a clinic type of setting, and it was more rewarding. So they did have time and a lot of times they had the same patient over and over. So it was like this is awesome. Yes, this is awesome. We have to tell your story. We have to share it with nurses.

Cara Lunsford (12:23.405)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (12:31.182)
That's awesome. That's awesome.

Yes, yes, and some of that's on us to try and, okay, I mean, I'm just gonna break it down really quick. And I'm sure that a lot of nurses who are listening right now are gonna probably nod their head in agreement. Some might not, but I know I felt this way and I know I've talked to lots of people who have felt this way that.

When you get out of nursing school or when you're in nursing school, the dream is to work in the hospital, kind of fast pace, a certain level of autonomy, being part of a care team where you're really having a big impact on people's lives.

because I think it's what we see when we are in nursing school. We think, I'm going to work in a specialty unit. And this is kind of where you feel like, quote unquote, a real nurse. And nurses have not have historically not been so great about viewing other roles outside of the acute setting as being

as meaningful or as important as if you work at a hospital, right? It's like, I'm a hospital nurse. And it took me a while, even when I was leaving the acute care setting and starting to work in home infusion, home health, eventually hospice. When I first made, I had like an identity crisis, like a straight up identity crisis. And so,

Cara Lunsford (14:28.686)
part of it is that we have to educate the nurses about why this is such a wonderful opportunity to work in places that are outside of acute care. You can actually make a huge impact in a patient's life when you have that ability, like you said, one-on-one, right? When you're sitting, even it's like home health, you're sitting in someone's house, there's no distractions, there's no bells ringing, there's no call lights going off.

There's no, you know, no one's overhead calling a code blue. There's, you just get to sit and be with that person. I mean, that is magical. That is wonderful. And we have to find a way to value that as nurses. Yes, I think having an amount of time in the hospital is a great place to learn.

Amber L. Peach (15:09.417)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (15:25.164)
And then I think that there's so many incredible opportunities. So I love that this client that you were speaking to had that opportunity.

Amber L. Peach (15:36.541)
Yes, it was amazing. Yes, it's a different perspective to look at it. I dabbled a little bit in home health too, in sales right around COVID actually. So got a different perspective on how that works as well. So yeah, no, I just, I...

Cara Lunsford (15:51.245)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (16:00.258)
Did you find it was hard to recruit for Home Health?

Amber L. Peach (16:03.623)
I didn't recruit for Home Health. I was actually like an account executive for Home Health. But I can see where it would be difficult, especially during COVID. Going into just that era was just, was crazy. But.

Cara Lunsford (16:07.839)
well, that's nice.

Cara Lunsford (16:24.226)
Yeah.

Amber L. Peach (16:29.309)
So if.

Yeah, that's the crazy ass.

Cara Lunsford (16:33.294)
There was a lot of craziness for sure. so okay, so telling their story. That's like, I couldn't agree with you more talking about the culture, talking about the mission statement. You got to back that stuff up. like I do, I, you know, I do feel like it's important that we when we're talking to customers or clients that we say, hey, look, you know, if, you're

Amber L. Peach (16:36.892)
Yes.

Amber L. Peach (16:40.735)
Mm-hmm.

Amber L. Peach (16:46.164)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (17:02.484)
mission or your culture is this, you know, you don't want them to show up on day one and look around and be like, really? Like, that's what you said your culture was, but I don't feel it. I don't see it. I don't hear it. So I think that that's also important that they understand that it's you got to back it up, right? You got to back it up with evidence of like, OK, well, why?

Amber L. Peach (17:28.243)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Cara Lunsford (17:32.876)
Why do you, what is it that you do that prioritizes nurses or where, if you say that mental health is important, well, why, what do you do? Right?

Amber L. Peach (17:45.567)
Mm-hmm. Right. Right. This particular client too, the scheduling. So you know, it's like no Sundays. Possibly like a 12-hour shift. Could be 16 at times, but I don't know. I just thought that they would be very ideal to share their message and to lead with that because that's what's going to attract the nurses. That's what's going to get their attention and...

Cara Lunsford (17:56.501)
nice.

Amber L. Peach (18:15.325)
a lot of them that maybe burn out from a hospital setting. Maybe it's time to go back and, you know, chill, take a break.

Cara Lunsford (18:25.23)
Yes, maybe it's time to chill and take a break. are some other things that you find, like when you're talking to some of these clients or customers, or even in the past, when you were recruiting nurses, what did you find were maybe the top five things that nurses were looking for?

Amber L. Peach (18:44.073)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (18:55.894)
when choosing a location to travel to, for example. Yeah, if they were traveling.

Amber L. Peach (19:00.031)
Sure, for like traveling. Number one is, yeah, number one coming out of traveling, recruiting just now, like number one is gonna be location. Number two is gonna be pay. Number three, is it weekly pay or is it bi-weekly pay? When am I going to get paid?

Cara Lunsford (19:20.711)
that's, that's not fair. Fair.

Amber L. Peach (19:24.841)
Very fair, very fair. How much is the stipend? What does the stipend look like? Is housing provided? Are there benefits? Are there other benefits? there, I would hear from nurses that have worked with other travel agencies and they were giving them incentives. Maybe, you know.

dog park kind of incentives or let's see hotel you know discounts anything like that or rental car kind of discounts so

Cara Lunsford (20:01.068)
Like they would take your dog to the dog park for you? Like what kind of dog park? Really?

Amber L. Peach (20:04.127)
Yes, like dog walking. Yes, like dog walking. Yes. Yes.

Cara Lunsford (20:09.356)
That's a great incentive that I have never thought of, but

Amber L. Peach (20:12.903)
I mean, a lot of nurses, yes, a lot of nurses, if they're not talking about their children, they're talking about their second children, their pets. And I can completely relate. I've got three dogs and two cats, so I know the importance of them. If a nurse is gonna be away, they're kind of thinking, who's gonna take care of my pet? Can I take my pet with me? What are the accommodations at the hotel or the Airbnb?

Some might be camping, some might be taking their pets camping. getting to know their surroundings and what kind of, again, what kind of incentives there are.

Cara Lunsford (20:54.37)
Yeah. Do you find that many places are offering like CEs as an incentive, like, we'll cover your CEs or we'll pay for your CEs as an incentive?

Amber L. Peach (21:09.215)
think that's amazing. I have not heard of it. It wasn't anything that I have experience with in recruiting as a benefit. But I think that would be awesome to continue that education.

Cara Lunsford (21:22.816)
Right?

Speaking of animals, I had to put myself on mute for a second and I had to yell at Gary. For those of you listening who don't know, I have, I have like a farm. It's not a real farm. It's, it's, it's a Los Angeles farm. But I have four chickens, two dogs, two cats, three snakes, two lizards. yeah, it's a lot. and, and, and.

My dog, one of them, his name's Gary, we call him Effing Gary, because he's usually a troublemaker. And so of course, he was getting into something while I was on the podcast, so I had to mute myself for a second. I was pretty sure that you were thinking, huh, who's she talking to? I'm talking to my dog.

Amber L. Peach (22:01.791)
He's a troublemaker.

Amber L. Peach (22:13.223)
Yes.

Amber L. Peach (22:20.243)
Who struck you?

Amber L. Peach (22:24.871)
I've had to barricade myself in here, like no pets because I'm the mom so everybody wants to be with me and then I'd have a cat or a dog walking around.

Cara Lunsford (22:32.914)
yeah. Well, two of our, know, not to, not, not to go too deep down into the pet weeds, but like, earlier I had to take two of the kittens out cause my cats are kittens. And so I had to take them out because they were chewing on the wire. And, one of them already ate through a pair of my headphones. So I, I was like, I, they've got to go in another room.

Amber L. Peach (23:02.247)
Is that an orange cat? An orange kitten? I have an orange kitten.

Cara Lunsford (23:02.587)
yes, yes.

I have two, I have two orange kittens. And so, I know, see, look at how quickly, how quickly we were like, let's talk about pets. You know, all we had to do was talk about nurses' pets and somebody paying to walk their dogs. And we were like, let's talk about pets. Who cares about recruiting?

Amber L. Peach (23:12.465)
Really?

so easy. It is!

Amber L. Peach (23:22.66)
Let's go. It's what matters. Like nurses love, like I said, it's either their children, their human children, or it's their feline canine children. Yeah. Yes.

Cara Lunsford (23:27.724)
Well, I come on.

Cara Lunsford (23:36.044)
Yeah, they'll appreciate us like kind of branching off for a second and talking about that. So that's actually a really cool incentive. I've also heard about dry cleaning.

Amber L. Peach (23:47.527)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Cara Lunsford (23:51.491)
I'm trying to, you know, I imagine that people listening, okay? Because we have a lot, most of our listeners are in the industry. Most of them are nurses. But we have a lot of nurse leaders. And so I think from an administrative perspective, when we're talking about differentiating in the market,

Amber L. Peach (24:02.111)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (24:18.552)
How can you make your hospital, your home health, your sniff or whatever, whatever place, how do you make it stand out? And so, you gave a couple of options, house cleaning services, food delivery, like those, yeah, like a home chef type of thing, right? So, yeah.

Amber L. Peach (24:37.327)
That'd be huge.

Yes. Yes, that would be great. I would say like discounts on scrubs too. If you teamed up with like a local, we've got a local scrub store here that teams up and gives, you know, like during nurses week or anything like that, we'll advertise like for the nurses to come in and get discounts and rewards and stuff. I think that'd be huge too.

Cara Lunsford (24:49.368)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (25:02.392)
Yeah, yeah, so there's all these great perks that you can, because I think when you put those types of packages together, what it says to nurses is, they really get me. Like they understand that I'm probably, I could be a mom where I've got kids or I have.

or I just have other responsibilities outside of this sometimes 12 hour a day job I'm doing. And even, you know, even something like a Netflix subscription, how many nurses are like watching Netflix on their day off? It's like, you see a meme, you see so many memes, right, about Netflix, watching Netflix on their days off.

Amber L. Peach (25:50.235)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Amber L. Peach (25:58.431)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (25:59.478)
I think that there's like a lot of, but at the end of the day, those are all kind of like nice to haves. What were some of the more serious kinds of questions that sometimes you would hear from nurses asking in terms of like maybe the reputation of a hospital or the reputation of a

sniff.

Amber L. Peach (26:32.016)
What I learned is that, so I worked remotely as a recruiter, and what I learned is that nurses talk. They share. They share information. They talk. Being this close to Nashville, Tennessee, huge healthcare opportunities there, lots of different facilities and hospitals and different settings and everything.

Cara Lunsford (26:40.454)
yeah.

Amber L. Peach (26:56.539)
they would ask reputations and actually they would share reputations with me and that way I could go back and you know talk to another nurse say listen I had a nurse that was in here and this is the snapshot that they gave me I haven't been in the in facility myself but this is the snapshot that they gave me and it it helped it helped to deliver that information reputation is a big thing.

You you want to work somewhere that's good for you, good for the patients.

Cara Lunsford (27:29.582)
When you were trying to, when you were in a situation where you were trying to staff for these different places, were you ever in a position where you could say to them, look, the reason why we can't get anyone placed at your facility is because of X, Y, and Z? Or...

Amber L. Peach (27:51.065)
sure. yeah. There were conversations that way and sometimes that would be a leadership role. That would be a leadership type of position or changes. Healthcare forever changing. It's inevitable. So yes, there were times that it would be, this is what's going on, but we need you. Do you want to be a part of this change? This is what's coming down. Whether it's new administration coming in.

new management and a change, anything like that. But yes, there were times that it would be hard conversations to have.

Cara Lunsford (28:28.642)
Yeah, did you find that places that were hard to staff, did they seem aware of the fact that, like they knew why there were challenges or they understood why it might be difficult to staff for them? was it kind of like, well, it seems like a great place to me.

Amber L. Peach (28:57.407)
it just varied. I worked as a recruiter for a direct

for direct facility, skilled nursing facilities. And it was easier to have those conversations, because I was on the inside and helping them. And they knew it was for, they knew that where I was coming from was for the best, for the good of the company. So giving them that information, hey, this is what's going on. This is the rumor mill. This is what the nurses are giving me feedback on. How can we improve this? Let's have a conversation. What can we do?

Cara Lunsford (29:10.828)
Mm-hmm.

Amber L. Peach (29:34.168)
an agency's At times at times I think it's an educational piece talking to an administration Leadership sometimes it's just an educational It's a hard truth You know, it's either it's either you accept it or you deny it and I feel like at times in an agency type of setting It might have been a little bit. I'm not on the inside

Cara Lunsford (29:34.466)
Did they seem receptive to that? Did you find that when they were receptive? Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (29:50.744)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (30:01.326)
Mm-hmm.

Amber L. Peach (30:01.457)
So giving my point of view, it took a little bit of building that relationship to share that. And if they heard it enough, maybe it would change for the better.

Cara Lunsford (30:06.221)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (30:13.666)
Yeah, it's tough because getting the right people in oftentimes is what's needed for change.

Amber L. Peach (30:27.327)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (30:29.292)
but also we're in such a climate right now where people are so, the people who could make the changes are so tired. And they're like, you know.

I want to go in there and have a positive impact. I want to go in and shake things up a bit and get things moving in the right direction. But I think a lot of people have lost hope. They've lost hope. They just don't have the faith that change is possible.

She seems like too big a mountain to climb.

Amber L. Peach (31:22.027)
and their effort may not be rewarded. They could go in and showcase all of this and then it doesn't change or it goes back or it's not accepted. And to your point too, they're exhausted. Nurses just want to be loved. They want to be taken care of. I feel like it comes down. It starts from the top and it always comes down. If a nurse is valued and taken care of and loved,

Cara Lunsford (31:24.855)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (31:31.651)
Yeah.

Amber L. Peach (31:49.895)
and show compassion, that's exactly what they're going to deliver to their patients and the family members. So yeah.

Cara Lunsford (31:54.136)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (32:00.364)
Yes, absolutely. mean, so much of what and it really it depends on, you know, every facility, every organization is not created equally. Right. Like there are rural hospitals that just don't have the same kind of resources, the same kind of support, same kind of.

finances available to them. And then there's like big, big health systems that have tons and tons of money. And in some situations, there's rural hospitals that are doing it better, that are actually doing, they have less, but they're doing more. They're doing better. And then there's larger systems that are not, you know, that

Amber L. Peach (32:30.601)
Mm-hmm.

Cara Lunsford (32:58.806)
are top heavy and there's not enough connection between executives and administrators and the people who are providing the care. And there's not enough connection and understanding of what is needed.

Amber L. Peach (33:12.041)
Right.

Amber L. Peach (33:17.139)
Very valid, there's a disconnect. There's a disconnect about, a leader may speak about what's going on, but have they been in the trenches? Have they been right there with the nurses on a day-to-day basis? So yeah, I completely agree.

Cara Lunsford (33:20.098)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (33:29.496)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (33:34.562)
Yeah. So speaking of.

Cara Lunsford (33:41.998)
Places that maybe are doing it well, we're not gonna call anybody out. Good or bad, sorry, if you're doing it well, we're not gonna call you out either. I'm gonna treat you all the same for the sake of the podcast. But.

Amber L. Peach (33:45.905)
Right.

Amber L. Peach (33:54.663)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (34:01.422)
Do you have any recollection of when you were talking to some of the nurses that would come back from working at a specific place who were really pleasantly surprised or were like, you know what, I would totally take another assignment at that place. And what was it that?

that they said made the difference for them or why they would go back to that establishment and take, know, or say, I'd like to extend and stay longer. Do you have any recollections of any reasons like why people were staying or would choose to stay longer?

Amber L. Peach (34:51.973)
I from my experience, just immediately out of travel, recruiting, I think it varied nurse by nurse. How they showed up, how they were treated by patients and how they were treated by leadership, how they were able to deliver. I think it was an internal thing that kept them coming back.

Cara Lunsford (35:16.792)
Mm-hmm.

Amber L. Peach (35:19.399)
because I could have another nurse that was like, no, same facility, at the same place, yes. I think it's an internal thing. I think it's situational, the capacity, at what capacity, if they feel valued and they feel appreciated, they're going to stay. They're going to stay, they're gonna wanna continue to show up, they're gonna go above and beyond, that's what I-

Cara Lunsford (35:22.444)
at that same place, same facility, yeah.

Cara Lunsford (35:56.504)
Interesting.

Cara Lunsford (36:16.931)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (36:26.338)
Yeah, it's so interesting. Yeah, I think you're right because it is.

Sometimes you can talk to one person and they can make lemonade out of lemons, right? Like they can walk into a situation and say, this is not ideal. I'm not really loving this place. The ratios are way less than ideal.

But I have this unique ability to connect with other people. And so I have been able to create very strong relationships with my coworkers, my colleagues. And sometimes like creating those really strong bonds with your coworkers, the other nurses, the CNAs, the LVN LPNs, the doctors that suddenly

something that would be otherwise unsustainable and really feel probably unsafe, if you have that support, well, things that feel unsafe can feel safer because you're like, well, you know what? Like I got a lot of patients and I'm really afraid I'm going to miss something. But I really know that like my colleagues have my back and they're going to help me. They're not going to watch me drown.

you know, they're gonna step in and they're gonna get help me take a break when I need to. And I trust them to take care of my patients because I've created these really strong relationships. So I think it's a really good point that you're making about, yes, of course, there's always, part of it is always gonna be on the institution, on the organization, the facility to create an environment, right?

Cara Lunsford (38:25.122)
then there is responsibility with the person.

Cara Lunsford (38:32.398)
So yeah, I don't know that it's like a 50-50 type of thing.

Cara Lunsford (38:41.878)
Yeah, I mean, I don't know that it's 50-50. Yeah, I think that, you know, we're not letting you off the hook, hospitals, sniffs, like, you know, we're saying like, burden. Yeah. Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (39:02.584)
Me too. I think that we have to hold out hope for a better future because we are all consumers of health care. And one day I'm the nurse and the next day I'm the patient or my parent is the patient. So we all have a responsibility and leadership and administrators in the hospitals and in these post-acute facilities and everything.

they and their families will be consumers and are consumers of this. So, but I love that.

What I love that you're able to bring to the table and why I was so excited that you are now working over here with us at nurse.com and Relias is that I feel like you can really connect with the customers that are seeking, you who want to get in front of nurses because candidly, you know,

We are talking to customers all the time who want to get in front of nurses, but we are also very honest with them. And that's what I really love about you is that you bring that level of honesty to the table, but a willingness to help them.

You know?

Cara Lunsford (41:10.562)
Yeah, I'm really proud of where nurse.com, like what we've done in terms of our solutions. I think that we've really acknowledged that the post and pray option, which is basically, you know, these places saying, I just got to post my jobs and I'm gonna pray someone applies. That's not how it works. It just doesn't work that way. Not for this profession.

And so I think we've done a great job of putting a nice menu of options together for our customers. And I'm so excited that you are with us and that you're able to speak to all of this in such an intelligent way, because that's going to really, it's going to be great for any customer who has the,

The privilege of being able to have you as their rep, well, you know what? That's a lucky customer.

Cara Lunsford (42:19.426)
Is there anything that you would like to say or share or say to nurses before we sign off?

Cara Lunsford (42:56.622)
Thank you, Peach. Thanks for spending 45 minutes with me.

Cara Lunsford (43:07.982)
Well, if anyone is ever interested in learning more about our solutions, well, you can certainly reach out to Apeach. I guess it would be like Apeach. see, that's so easy to remember. Who's not gonna remember, who's not gonna remember Apeach? It's like A for Amber, peach, Apeach, apeach at Relias.com, right?

There you go. So anyone who's interested in learning more about the solutions and being able to speak to and for nurses in a really positive and intelligent way and compassionate way, Amber's your girl. All right, love. Well, happy Monday to you. By the time everyone listens to this, it'll be on a Thursday.

All right, y'all. Thank you so much. Thank you, Amber. Thanks. Bye.