Episode 7: Remote Nursing

Cara Lunsford (00:01.805)
So I can catch all of our incredible banters, what I want to catch.

Felicia (00:07.626)
love it now I do not just say you know I do not have they didn't send me a headset so I don't have a headset so I'm using my computer okay

Cara Lunsford (00:15.201)
You sound fine. You sound, yeah, you sound okay. We can, fortunately, Riverside is working right now. Earlier, I just did an episode just before you could not get Riverside to work.

Felicia (00:20.245)
Okay.

Felicia (00:32.517)
Oh no.

Cara Lunsford (00:34.417)
So had to like switch over to teams. It was, I was like, you know what? I'm not digging the tech. I'm not digging the tech today. I'm really, I was like, is it Mercury in retrograde? Is it?

Felicia (00:50.3)
I'm sure you become an expert at troubleshooting and navigating technology with as many podcasts as you've done, right?

Cara Lunsford (00:57.997)
I keep thinking I've got this down. I keep thinking that, yeah, now I've got it nailed. I know exactly, but really it's just that I've gotten a lot better at being able to drop a link into the chat that says, go here.

Felicia (01:14.062)
Bro, I love it.

Cara Lunsford (01:18.738)
Never mind go here. That's my...

Felicia (01:22.845)
That's awesome. I love it. It's great. I love that strategy. That's great.

Cara Lunsford (01:26.937)
Yeah, I mean, I guess we could call it a strategy. It's a strategy-ish. So speaking of remote nursing...

Felicia (01:30.339)
It is. It is. It is.

Felicia (01:41.282)
That's one of the skill sets you do learn. I mean, I've been doing remote from what, six to eight, no wait, I see 2008. I've been doing it for 18, I can't, 17 years I've been remote. And so, you know, you do learn, that was one of the first things I had to learn was computers and emails because it was 2008, you know, not everything was remote at that time. So,

Cara Lunsford (02:09.461)
No, that was, you were remote before it was popular to be remote.

Felicia (02:10.399)
You know.

Felicia (02:14.018)
You're exactly right. Yes. And so as a Right. I love it.

Cara Lunsford (02:16.001)
You're like OG. You're OG remote.

Well, before we jump right in, we have, I have had you on the podcast before, but not talking about this subject. And for those of our wonderful audience who do not know who you are, Felicia Sadler, give us, give us just like a little bit of like a bio light about just like who you are, how long you've been a nurse. And

Felicia (02:29.842)
Yes.

Felicia (02:34.068)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (02:53.249)
what you're currently doing, and then we'll jump into talking about what does remote nursing look like?

Felicia (02:59.822)
right.

I love it. Yeah, no, it's our profession has just expanded. I mean, I feel like it's on steroids now, right, because we have so many opportunities. But just to give you a little bit of historical background, I've been a nurse for a very long time, we'll just say over 30 plus years, and I'll leave it at that. And really came out of nursing, not knowing or understanding what the profession truly was. I mean, I knew from very

early age I wanted to be a nurse and not understanding kind of the whole realm. I just, the only exposure I had was really my own, you know, as a pediatric patient, but also through television, you know, you get those idealistic presentations of nursing. I just didn't want to help people and I committed to that at a very early age, did a lot of volunteer work.

When I graduated, still didn't understand fully the profession. I just knew my idealistic view of it and quickly learned what nursing truly was. I had a great education program, came through a diploma program, so certainly I had a lot of experience through that and grew and had wonderful mentors and preceptors along the way.

ended up raising a family initially. So I committed, you know, very early on to raising a family and trying to find roles that really align to that.

Felicia (04:29.498)
family work-life balance, if you will, getting the hours and what you needed to be able to effectively raise a family, being able to spend time with your children and your family. So through that, I mid-life, if you will, went back to school and pursued, finished up my bachelor's, finished up and pursued my master's of jurisprudence in health law.

outside the typical traditional what we think, you know, MSN and nothing against that. I think it's great. I just wanted to choose a little bit different trajectory, passionate about quality, patient safety. And then I went on to then become a CPHQ and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. I just couldn't stop myself. I could not. I was just on a roll, right? I was in the zone and wanted to just go there and I did.

Cara Lunsford (05:06.871)
Yeah.

Felicia (05:27.726)
And but now I understand.

Cara Lunsford (05:29.549)
What is that? Wait a minute. Hold on. Back up for a second. You can't just throw those things out there and then just gloss over it. I'm like, wait, wait. We have to just explain that a little bit more.

Felicia (05:36.522)
I was crazy.

Felicia (05:46.354)
Yeah, well, you know, I just, I got the itch, if you will, just to really do more. I, you know, I wanted to always wanted to be

I wanted to pursue my clinical nurse specialist when I was in my 20s, and just things that didn't happen. And at a moment in time when I was just kind of on a roll, I thought, okay, this is an area of interest for me. I wanna be certified. I wanna be a certified professional in healthcare quality. As I was learning, going through my master jurisprudence, I started learning about the regulatory drivers. I thought, I really wanna embrace this world of quality and really...

be committed to the world of patient safety. And so that, I really started pursuing that. Through that, I started really wanting to embrace

the core principles and core elements of Baldrige, which is really, you know, high reliability things that are really, healthcare is really foundationally focused on. And so as part of my Lean Six Sigma project, it was to go in and learn and study the Baldrige core elements. I actually became a Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence trained in Baldrige principles, where I actually had to go in and survey institutions. And so,

I mean, I can go as deep as you want to in all these areas. I just became very passionate about it. Now I feel like I'm in a place remotely where I can give back. Like I've really learned and really inundated and immersed myself in all of those areas. And now I feel like I'm able to give back.

Cara Lunsford (07:10.841)
Wow, that is just amazing. I've just.

Felicia (07:32.458)
in those areas. I will tell you a side story on the Lend Six Sigma because you're like, why Lend Six Sigma black belt, right?

when it relates as it relates to pursuing that I really wanted to know could I do this. I'm a very big picture strategic kind of at the organization level person. I'm not in the details or in the weeds or I don't enjoy it. And I'm like, could I even do it if I wanted to. So that's why I pursued Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. I wanted to see, could I do this? And so it was just kind of on my bucket list as part of.

Cara Lunsford (08:08.501)
That's amazing. I'm always in awe of people. I know people, you know, sometimes will say the same thing to me. They're like, Oh, wow, I'm amazed, like the things you've done and this and that. And I think we minimize our own, our own stuff. Like, it just seems like it's not that big of a deal or, but it is, it is a big deal. And I, and, and it ties in really nicely to the fact that when you

Felicia (08:18.986)
Yes.

Felicia (08:22.922)
We do.

Felicia (08:36.19)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (08:38.369)
become such a subject matter expert in certain areas and you take the time to do what you did and to learn the things that you learned, that it opens up the world for you in a different way. And suddenly you...

Felicia (08:56.574)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (09:00.381)
are able to do these things like remote, be a remote nurse, because what is it that someone needs? They need what's in your head. They need that information. And you don't have to physically be somewhere to share what's in your head. Right?

Felicia (09:09.773)
Right.

Felicia (09:13.802)
Right. Yes. Right. It's through your education, your experiences that you gain, you become seasoned in those areas, and then you can give back and contribute in and expand your career growth path as well.

Cara Lunsford (09:30.921)
Yeah, I'm going to ask you really quick a question because I was recently asked to do, um, do you know what a stitch is? Don't, don't worry if you don't, because I did not know what a stitch was. It's a tick tock, it's a, it's a tick tock term and it's where you see a video and you want to respond to that video. And so they do what's called a stitch and it's a

Felicia (09:47.987)
Okay.

Cara Lunsford (10:01.045)
It's a feature and it's a social media tool. So the social media team said to me, Kara, would you stitch this video? Of course, like I was like, sure. I had no idea what they were talking about. And so they kind of schooled me and told me, okay, well, you just have to come in and we'll videotape you doing this and then we'll stitch it for you. And

So basically there was this video that had gone kind of viral on TikTok where a woman who was a nurse, not a nurse, sorry, she was a patient, she had looked up and she was videotaping this. She looked up and there was a camera up there in her room. And she said, a nurse just like came on and said, hi, I'm your nurse.

Felicia (10:55.499)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (10:59.721)
so-and-so today and I'm just checking in with you, wanted to see and I guess her face like came up on the screen and she could then see the patient, the patient's looking at her and she said, the patient made the assumption that they were, I think didn't have enough staff or that they had now

Felicia (11:01.387)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (11:27.001)
pivoted to having virtual nurses as opposed to real in-body nurses. And so I did like comment, I made like a video comment to this woman's video post that she had done on TikTok. And I said, look, you know, there is definitely, I don't want us to get super concerned over, oh my gosh, you know, we're not going to have...

Felicia (11:27.068)
Yeah.

Felicia (11:32.438)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (11:55.729)
in body nurses or in person nurses anymore, we're not going to have, I think that we're just starting to get really smart about how we can utilize people. And there is a lot of nurses who have 20, 30 years of experience who maybe they don't want to necessarily be doing the floor grind anymore. And they don't want to be working that 12 hour shift on their feet anymore. Or maybe we can even extend these opportunities to people who have

Felicia (12:06.751)
Right.

Felicia (12:17.495)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (12:25.441)
disabilities who maybe have gotten injured on the job and they can't physically do that, but that, but they still have all that, you know, 20 years or, you know, more of information in their brains where they can be a benefit to the care of that patient and be able to spend some time, you know, learning about the patient, maybe learning about, you know,

Felicia (12:26.858)
Right.

Felicia (12:36.736)
Yes.

Felicia (12:41.346)
Right?

Felicia (12:45.151)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (12:55.225)
how like the social determinants of health, like maybe just like, okay, like I think that this person might have these things that they're dealing with or even things like that. And stuff that like maybe like a bedside nurse just isn't gonna have the time to do, doesn't mean that they're not gonna do like a head to toe assessment or something, but there's a lot you can see about a patient without even putting your hands on them.

Felicia (13:02.892)
Mm-hmm.

Felicia (13:14.891)
Right.

Felicia (13:18.155)
Yes.

Felicia (13:21.695)
Right.

Yeah, I mean, communication is absolutely critical when it comes to the patient experience, and this gives them another touch point. Every encounter, I always say every encounter matters, every touch point matters. And if you can provide additional touch points where you can communicate, have that listening to a communication that occurs, there's a lot of things you can pick up on just through and maybe that patient may not remember at the time that the physical nurse comes in,

components that they may share with the virtual nurse who is who is present on the monitor. So I think it's a great extension. We used to call nurses physician extenders, those nurses who work for physicians, and this is almost an extender of the nurse in that relationship.

Cara Lunsford (14:09.475)
Yeah.

Absolutely. And I know that there's been some talk, I interviewed Bonnie Clipper a while back. I'm not sure. Oh, I love Bonnie Clipper. She's amazing. Just her innovation and she's just always so forward thinking. But we talk a little bit about virtual nursing and stuff like that. But I think what's

Felicia (14:21.838)
Oh yes, yes. There she is.

Cara Lunsford (14:40.725)
really interesting is that you are doing a type of remote nursing that is, it's different from your, you're not necessarily doing that type of remote nursing where you're, where you're providing clinical care remotely, to some extent. So I wanted to ask you a little bit about just

Felicia (14:54.327)
Right.

Felicia (14:59.082)
Right. Yes.

Cara Lunsford (15:05.585)
in your opinion, how you see like the different areas of remote nursing and if you're a nurse, like where could you see yourself going or where are the opportunities?

Felicia (15:16.374)
That is a loaded question, Kara. No.

Cara Lunsford (15:18.857)
I know, sorry, that's my job. It's my job. Bring it like here, just load up this truck with all of that information. You're probably not going to hit all of them, but I think there's a lot of different, different areas where nurses could potentially see themselves doing remote.

Felicia (15:27.604)
Right.

Felicia (15:32.331)
Sure.

Felicia (15:38.431)
There are

There are so many opportunities, my goodness. I mean, I know way back in the day, I had only hoped and dreamed for the opportunities, outside of the bedside, because you do get burned out. I mean, there are some nurses who stay at the bedside their entire career, which is fabulous, it's fantastic. But I think in today's agile work environments, there's certainly a lot more stressors placed on nurses, especially new nurses, and so they're always looking

How can I grow in this career? How can I extend, maybe stay in the specialty area? What are the opportunities? And there's a tremendous amount through technology that we didn't have back in the day. There are, for example, an ED nurse can go into triage, telephone triage. There's a lot of triage opportunities through various venues and vendors of technology that they can go and expand, grow and expand. There's the world of academia,

could actually go in and be an adjunct faculty, you know, through online academia. You can go into healthcare education software, such as the space that I'm in, where you can actually go into a consultative role and be able to expand your skill set and give back in that capacity. Nursing informatics, recruitment, telehealth, insurance companies, there's a lot of different avenues via insurance companies.

legal nurse consultants, you know, going into, being a claims reviewer as well. Virtual preceptorships, we're seeing this, we're seeing healthcare and hospitals really embracing different ways to expand a nursing role. There's a gig nursing that we hear a lot about. So nurses are kind of looking for those opportunities that are interested in a...

Felicia (17:36.258)
a remote capacity, if you will. Virtual nursing, certainly to support some of the newer staffing models that we're seeing out there happening. And then of course, as you advance skills, the opportunities open up and expand. And I haven't even begun to name all of them, but those are just a few ways that nurses can really expand into remote nursing.

Cara Lunsford (18:00.525)
I think that there is, this is an exciting time, I think, because in my opinion, take it for what it is. I don't mean that. But I really do feel like.

Felicia (18:06.994)
It is, yes.

Felicia (18:19.486)
It's really valuable, absolutely.

Cara Lunsford (18:28.785)
So many nurses want to stay in the profession. And for a variety of reasons, which we've gone into in almost every episode of Nurse Dot, that we do not need to belabor here, but that we are hungry for another option.

Felicia (18:34.359)
Yes.

Felicia (18:43.748)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (18:58.241)
and especially people who've been in it for a while, who, you know, I know that during like COVID, for example, there was all these people that were moving, you know, not in nursing, but all these other types of professions outside of healthcare, were moving into these very remote roles. And people were

Felicia (19:24.383)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (19:26.897)
you know, doing Zoom meetings and I used to laugh and joke with my wife. I was like, yeah, that's not happening over here. I was like, I can't just, you know, teleport my Star Trek self over into the hospital or home health. Or at the time, I was seeing a lot of patients at home.

Felicia (19:36.909)
Yeah.

Felicia (19:46.496)
I love it.

Cara Lunsford (19:57.149)
I thought, wow, wouldn't it be nice? But interestingly enough, we did start using a little bit of kind of virtual nursing, if you will, even in the hospice, the home health hospice space where I was in, like suddenly it was okay or acceptable because some patients, especially ones who were very fragile.

um, a lot of like my, the hospice patients, their families were like, no, we don't want anyone coming in the house. It's a bubble and we don't care that you're the hospice nurse. We don't want you coming in because you've been seeing a lot of other people and we don't feel safe that you're coming into our bubble. And so suddenly there are

Felicia (20:49.77)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (20:53.341)
It was like just we had to, we had to figure out a solution and we didn't really have anything like really in place. We had to be able to check in with these people and find out what was going on and if we need to do refills of medications or if there was enough, or if there had been any significant changes in the patient's condition. And so we would start doing just FaceTimes, like just...

basic FaceTimes, which was, you know, or, or just making phone calls and saying, okay, this is your check in and we're calling you and, you know, it also, it makes you realize that like, well, do I have to drive around as much as I used to drive around? And do I have to in every situation? Do I have to be there in person? Or am I able to provide a certain level of

resource and, you know, to these families from the comfort of my own home. And I do think that COVID actually opened that up for a lot of different industries that had not really entertained it before, but out of need, we had to do it.

Felicia (22:06.306)
Right, right. No, you're right. This business necessity drove a lot of that. And, am I here?

Cara Lunsford (22:13.609)
make sure I didn't lose you. Oh there you are.

Oh, sorry, go. You just broke out. It's technology. It's okay. You broke out for a second, but go ahead.

Felicia (22:22.318)
All right.

Felicia (22:26.934)
No, I completely agree. Business necessity drove a lot of that during COVID. We saw some concessions being made from the regulatory bodies around how to navigate through so that care continuity was delivered. And I think that's when really technology was embraced. And now we're still seeing some of that continuing even outside of the pandemic because we had some great

as a result and we have hospital at home. We have a lot of different you know we've got virtual ICUs. There's a lot of different ways.

Cara Lunsford (23:05.165)
Talk about that a little bit more, because I don't know too much about that. Tell me a little bit.

Felicia (23:09.194)
Yeah, well, it's just it's where the nurses really provide oversight. So as a registered nurse, as you know, we provide oversight of the plan of care, but it's actually where you can deliver some of that care virtually, where they have the necessary equipment in the homes and that the nurse is really still able to provide oversight to that. So I think there's some opportunities. We've got a lot of different models out there right now. Johns Hopkins has a great one that they've had in place for even pre-pandemic

pandemic. Yeah, so there's a lot of and I think they still if they still have it, I think they had it on their side about a year ago, but you can actually go in and to their side and take a look at what that model framework looks like. But there's a lot of innovation that's occurring because of technology. I only anticipate that through generative AI and the expansion of AI, we should proceed with caution. I'm going to always say that. But at the same time, there are there are places for that.

Cara Lunsford (23:42.018)
Wow.

Felicia (24:10.289)
But I will also say we will never be able to fully replace a human and especially licensed clinicians. So I want to make sure that I'm always pulling that into the conversation that it's only to complement what we do but we have full oversight when it comes to the plan of care there.

Cara Lunsford (24:15.927)
No.

Cara Lunsford (24:29.577)
Yeah, because that goes back to the art of medicine, right? And I really think that it's the people. It's the people that bring in the art of medicine.

Felicia (24:35.754)
Yes.

Felicia (24:40.564)
It is.

Felicia (24:44.89)
I love that. That's absolutely true. We think about structures, processes, outcomes. You can't eliminate people as part of that equation. So

Cara Lunsford (24:53.929)
No, no, you can't because there really is no, there is no substitute for just the energy that you bring into a room, the ability to hold space for people, the ability to show kindness and how that results in empathy, how that results in healing. Like we've seen that

Felicia (25:05.826)
Right.

Felicia (25:14.578)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (25:23.105)
you know, just how someone is cared for, and the energy and the positive energy that's directed at them and towards them, that does actually have, it's, you know, rooted in science, that there is, you know, that there is an effect to that. And that can't be done by anything other than a living, breathing, you know, person or, or

Felicia (25:39.977)
It is.

Felicia (25:49.998)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (25:52.993)
But you know, I do think like animals too. I mean, like there's, you know, there's that benefit of pet therapy and all of that stuff. But also those pets are brought in by people. They don't walk in all by themselves. And if they do, you know, that's questionable. So, but you know, like I, it's, I do think people get afraid or fearful of.

Felicia (26:01.579)
Yeah.

Felicia (26:06.332)
Right. That's right.

Felicia (26:15.164)
Run.

Cara Lunsford (26:21.729)
like, Oh my gosh, you know, I thought my job was, it was technology proof or something like I wasn't going to get replaced by technology. And, and I feel strongly the same way you do that I think it's really important to say like, yes, we proceed with caution, and we make sure that we're always keeping patient care and patient safety of top of mind. All

Felicia (26:23.999)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (26:48.901)
all every step of the way you have to put it up against is this is this helping to improve patient care is this making it more safe or is it making it less safe.

Felicia (27:02.614)
Right. Yeah.

Absolutely. And there's the emotion. We think Maslow's hierarchy, right? We've gotta have, you know, we've gotta be able to meet the different elements of Maslow's hierarchy. That will never really go away. That's just the human, that's what we need as humans. And thinking about interpersonal relationships, the two-way, being able to pick up on social cues, or being able to pick up on things that the patient may be experiencing, that person-centered care,

emotional intelligence that's required behind that, really the compassion, empathy, all should come from and humans are best in delivering that.

Cara Lunsford (27:45.365)
Yeah, and even if you're delivering it through a screen, you know, I mean, we know that it was, you know, it's not ideal. I mean, I think sometimes in certain situations, there's no substitute for being able to put your hand on someone's shoulder or hand them a Kleenex, you know, because they're crying or...

Felicia (27:49.578)
Yes. Oh, yes.

Felicia (28:08.902)
or

Cara Lunsford (28:13.177)
hold their hand, you know, that's something that you can't do from a remote place. But you can look in someone's eyes and you can listen and you can have undivided attention, which I think sometimes is very hard when you're at the bedside and the bells are ringing and your phone is going off and someone's calling from another room or pulling you out of that room to go somewhere else.

Felicia (28:20.01)
Right.

Felicia (28:27.539)
Mm-hmm.

Felicia (28:37.196)
All right.

Cara Lunsford (28:43.117)
There's something really nice about the idea of being able to be remote, not getting pulled somewhere else and just being able to be really present. That's got its own gift in a way.

Felicia (28:55.87)
Right. It does.

I think one consideration between the virtual nurse, there certainly should be a structure and a process where they're communicating any relevant information to the care team that's there on site, that there's this handoff if you will, they pick up on those cues. And I know you probably remember, we were in our academic programs in nursing school, therapeutic communication was always highlighted.

Cara Lunsford (29:16.119)
Yes.

Felicia (29:31.636)
conversation asking those open-ended questions to learn more but also being able to relay that information to the appropriate people.

Cara Lunsford (29:40.053)
Yeah, I mean, think about how nice it is like when we have co-pilot, like here as a part of our Microsoft Teams, right? We have co-pilot and you turn it on, you turn on the transcript and then it kicks out an abbreviated like notes of your meeting. Well, I mean, that's a good use of AI, right? As long as it's pretty...

Exactly. As long as you've looked at it, I think as a nurse, the person who was on that call, they should be looking at it and saying, yeah, this is a good representation of what we talked about and the takeaways are there. All the good takeaways are there. And then sharing that information in the patient's chart with the nurse.

Felicia (30:25.151)
Right.

Cara Lunsford (30:33.805)
that's at the bedside with the doctor, making sure that everybody has that information. But there's great ways of being able to utilize AI.

Felicia (30:44.266)
You brought up a really good point around, you brought up several good points, but one I wanted to circle back on was, AI is not 100% accurate. And we say, okay, it's gonna learn, but ultimately there should be oversight. And when we think about proceeding with caution, making sure that the licensed individual, that oversight is gonna be required by a licensed individual and the care, if it's ever pulled in

process at any point ensuring that there's someone looking at it for accuracy. Because we know we're seeing it in news channels where you know news transcripts where AI is being used it'll say this is you know created by AI and we find typos we find inaccuracies where words are used inappropriately in a Senate structure so it's definitely important to have that human oversight

Cara Lunsford (31:42.605)
Yes, yes. And because AI is really designed to allow us to do some things faster. And I think that's great. I think we can all benefit from something a little bit faster and maybe being able to utilize technology so that we can do what we're really good at and then allow

Felicia (31:53.949)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (32:12.093)
AI to do essentially what we would kind of consider busy work, you know. And, but I think the danger there is where we talk about, you know, you get lazy or you just kind of go, oh, it's fine. I'm sure it's right. And we don't have a process for making sure that like, okay, well, if you, you're going to have to sign, you're going to have to, you have to put your name to that. So

Felicia (32:15.958)
Right.

Felicia (32:27.242)
Yeah. Right.

Felicia (32:38.126)
Yes. Yep.

Cara Lunsford (32:42.057)
Um, make sure that if you are putting your name to that, that you actually feel confident that you know, what's in this document or in this, you know, uh, chart or whatever you have, wherever you have this information that you feel that it's, it actually, it, it accurately represents, um, what it is that you're, you're trying to, um, convey or share.

Felicia (32:50.935)
Right.

Felicia (33:10.175)
Right. Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (33:11.788)
with this team of healthcare practitioners.

Felicia (33:15.57)
Absolutely. And, and you know, that's one of the things that we're finding in healthcare, at least the key theme is around AI is being used to reduce those administrative burdens. So just as you mentioned, so that they can really function at the top of their license, the clinician can function at the top of their licenses, removing those tasky kind of things that tend to take up our time.

Cara Lunsford (33:39.413)
Yep. Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely that balance. It's consistently, I think, a balance. And like we were talking about earlier, just making sure that it is, you're always putting it up against, is this helping to provide safer patient care? Or does it potentially

Cara Lunsford (34:10.841)
our ability to provide safe patient care, you know, and I think we always have to ask ourselves about that. You know, it's, but like we were talking about earlier, I do think that it is an exciting time and I think that we will be able to explore more ways to be benefiting from nurses who are also

uh, you know, maybe physically not able to, to do the job.

Felicia (34:45.01)
Absolutely. I think there's a lot of opportunities in that space because, you know, let's face it, nursing can be physically demanding over the years. Your back, I mean, I'm just throwing out a few scenarios, but you know, feet, back, hips, knees, you know, I know I have a lot of colleagues who have had, who physically been impacted just over the wear and tear of the years. And so in the lifting, you know, patients turning and, you know, even though we use the best of ergonomics and

back safety strategies, you know, things happen. And so there, there's a lot of opportunities there. I want to I would love to touch on to when I transitioned over to remote

there was an enormous sense of, you know, I had a teamwork, had an instant team available to me, you know, anywhere I went, where I was in the office or whether I was at the bedside. When you're remote, you don't always have that camaraderie that you would have, you know, at the bedside or in another, you know, if you work in an office or managerial role. And so it's critically important to think about not only self-care, making sure that you're incorporated

that as a habit, but ensuring that you have a network, that you have a network of colleagues, preferably those who are also remote, but a network of colleagues that you stay in touch with so you still have that collegial relationship and you can have that support that you're going to need.

Cara Lunsford (36:17.837)
That's a really important thing that you're bringing up. And I hadn't even really thought about that. And you'd think I would because I'm pretty remote these days. But now that you mention it, even my own physical health took a toll. I was more sedentary. I kept getting these messages on my iPhone that said, you haven't closed your move ring today. And I was like, what?

Felicia (36:37.875)
Yes.

Cara Lunsford (36:45.849)
I was like, I haven't even seen that notification, but it, I was like, clearly I haven't done something. It's like, you need to stand up. And so it's got its own level of like, now you have to make sure that you're managing those things and that you are getting enough time and that you're walking and that you're going outside. Like sometimes I, I'm like,

Felicia (36:46.83)
I'll get those. I'm gonna move.

Felicia (37:04.238)
Thanks for watching.

Felicia (37:09.483)
Yeah.

Yes.

Cara Lunsford (37:14.477)
Did I go outside today? And also, I got really bored at my own house. I was just like, I have got to get out of here. And then my spouse gets home from being out all day, and I was like, oh no, I have got to leave. And they're like, but I just got home. And I was like, nope, we're going out.

Felicia (37:21.614)
Thank you.

Felicia (37:30.934)
Right. Yes, I know. We're going out. I get that.

Felicia (37:40.094)
Right, right. No, I'm with you. It's like I've been I've been in the house all week. I need to get I need to get out. You know, it's not it's not good. I've missed this whole 76 degree weather day with sunshine because I've been you know, connected to a computer all day, basically. So it's important.

Cara Lunsford (37:48.259)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (37:57.153)
Yes. And that's something to be mindful of as well. Like looking at a screen, that can be tough. So yes, you have to mix it up. It can sound really wonderful, just the idea of working from home and maybe not wearing pants.

Felicia (38:04.307)
Yes.

Yeah.

Felicia (38:23.114)
Night night.

Cara Lunsford (38:25.909)
I mean, I'm not saying that that's what we're doing. I'm just saying that people talk about like, well, they can only see you from the waist up. So what you're wearing down below, who cares? So it can seem kind of appealing when you've had to go out into the workforce for a long time and you have to get ready and you have to get new clothes all the time and all that stuff. But it does. It has its own level of...

Felicia (38:29.196)
Right.

Felicia (38:37.07)
Right, right.

Cara Lunsford (38:54.433)
being a little tiresome sometimes. The grass is not always greener on the other side is what we're saying.

Felicia (38:58.638)
It's not. And it just brings back, I mean, even though I've been doing this for what? I see 18, roughly 18 years. When I first transitioned, I was, I wanted to be sure I put in some self discipline components. So I would dress up like I was going to work every day. And I would start my day at the same time I would be at my desk. Because I wanted to just make sure that I kept

Felicia (39:27.952)
working from home or working remotely than I ever was in an office because you don't have any distractions. So you have this time to do even more work and get even more done. And I'm much, much busier than I was ever in an office setting because you have, you know, people coming in and they're talking to you or taking breaks, you're going to the coffee machine or you're, you know, there's things that you, you do that you don't necessarily do here, you know, or, you know, remotely. So, um, it's, it's definitely busier.

Cara Lunsford (39:52.129)
Yep. Yeah.

It's true.

Felicia (39:58.594)
for me, I found. And you have to be sure you cut it off at the end of the day. That's another thing because it's always available to you. There's always that temptation to go back and do one more thing or stay a little bit longer. So it's important to put in self-discipline.

Cara Lunsford (40:04.397)
Yeah.

Cara Lunsford (40:10.966)
Yep.

Cara Lunsford (40:14.685)
Yeah, those are all really great pieces of information, I think, to add to this picture, because I think it can seem very, we can romanticize it, right? I think that we really can, and especially if you have been a nurse for a lot of years and you're thinking, oh my gosh, what I wouldn't give to stay home and be able to just open up a laptop and that...

Felicia (40:27.05)
Yes, yes.

Cara Lunsford (40:44.265)
start my day and close it and I'm done, you know, and, and I get to eat and I get to go to the bathroom when I want to. All the things that, that sounds very appealing. And it is like, you know, but I do think that just like with anything, it's about balance, right? And it can have all of those wonderful aspects to it. And then there's a...

Felicia (40:46.698)
Yeah. Right.

Felicia (40:53.972)
No waiting eight hours before you go on a...

Felicia (41:05.29)
Yeah, it is.

Cara Lunsford (41:14.113)
Like what you're saying is an element of self-discipline that goes into that as well. So, I think that we did a really great job of painting a very full picture for the audience of all of the opportunities around, I mean, we probably didn't touch on all of them, but you shared a lot of different opportunities for remote nursing.

Felicia (41:17.069)
Yeah.

Felicia (41:38.986)
Yeah, and it's going to grow even from there. Like, you know, that's just today. But as we think about AI, as we think about the expansion of technology and expansion of technology and health care, I mean, it's only set to grow even more. So just a tremendous amount of rewarding opportunities like never before that we've seen in the profession. So it's an exciting time.

Cara Lunsford (42:03.669)
It isn't exciting time. Well, I think that is an incredible mic drop. Felicia Sadler.

Felicia (42:12.538)
Thank you, Tara Lunsford.

Cara Lunsford (42:15.385)
You're welcome. Well, as always, I love talking to you and you were the perfect guest for this episode. And I think that people are going to get a lot out of it. So thank you again for coming and joining me on the Nurse.Podcast.

Felicia (42:33.25)
Thank you for having me.

Cara Lunsford (42:35.061)
All right, talk to you soon. Have a great weekend. Bye.

Felicia (42:37.918)
You too. Thank you. Bye.