Speaker 1: Appogie Production. Hi, my name's beck Woodbine and welcome to
Speaker 1: Tenderness for Nurses. Do you need to burn out to
Speaker 1: have those insights?
Speaker 2: While I'm talking about it now? But you know, came
Speaker 2: to educate the world about it.
Speaker 1: But I didn't want anyone to know that I was
Speaker 1: so unwell. I don't know when it was ever okay
Speaker 1: to yell or scream or abuse somebody. We need to
Speaker 1: have support and know where to look for support, and
Speaker 1: know how to look after ourselves, not just professionally, but
Speaker 1: personally as well. It was quite profound and I learned
Speaker 1: a lot from that one action. Welcome everyone to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm a nurse practitioner with over thirty five years of
Speaker 1: nursing experience, and in twenty sixteen, I became a nurse
Speaker 1: practitioner in the cosmetic dematology space. I own a clinical
Speaker 1: Perfectly Smooth where skin conditions focusing on acne, rosasia, pigmentation,
Speaker 1: and I also perform cosmetic injectibles at an advanced level
Speaker 1: with another doctor and another registered nurse. The reason why
Speaker 1: I'm doing the podcast is a little bit complex, and
Speaker 1: at this stage I'll share some things and probably as
Speaker 1: we progress through the podcast, I'll feel a little bit
Speaker 1: more comfortable to share more. But a few years ago
Speaker 1: I started to develop very bad anxiety, burnout, and major depression,
Speaker 1: and I didn't deal with it very well.
Speaker 2: At the time.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of things in my life go
Speaker 1: on and within the business, you know, COVID daughter leaving,
Speaker 1: I'd hurt my back, had surgery that didn't go great.
Speaker 1: I had a brief marriage breakdown which we worked through.
Speaker 1: I just found I didn't take care of myself and
Speaker 1: I felt that as a nurse there wasn't a lot
Speaker 1: of support for me either. I found it one stage
Speaker 1: I was starting to drink too much, and I stopped drinking,
Speaker 1: and then I suppose my depression became worse and worse
Speaker 1: and worse. Hence why the Teninnists for Nurses with the
Speaker 1: dog Lola came into my life when I was actually
Speaker 1: really sick and has been a wonderful assistance dog. So
Speaker 1: I decided that we as nurses and healthcare professionals need
Speaker 1: to care for each other a little bit more.
Speaker 2: We need to.
Speaker 1: Have support and know where to look for support, and
Speaker 1: know how to look after ourselves, not just professionally, but
Speaker 1: personally as well. And I decided that we needed a
Speaker 1: podcast called Tennis for Nurses. Each week, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be speaking with someone related to health or just someone
Speaker 1: of interest that can help us develop as nurses develop
Speaker 1: as a profession and develop personally. There are times I'm
Speaker 1: going to be quite vulnerable, and there are times I'm
Speaker 1: going to find things really difficult to talk about. But
Speaker 1: I'm not going to shy away from the fact that
Speaker 1: I've had psychiatric problems and I hate the term psychiatric.
Speaker 2: It actually sends shivers through me.
Speaker 1: And how sad is it that in this day and
Speaker 1: age you say a word like that and it still
Speaker 1: has all these connotations. I think if I had had
Speaker 1: a little bit more support in going through what I
Speaker 1: had been through, things mightn't have got as bad as
Speaker 1: it did when things were really bad.
Speaker 2: If I had had.
Speaker 1: Some professional support around what I was going through, I
Speaker 1: think the outcome may have been a little different. But
Speaker 1: down the track we'll chat about that. So, as part
Speaker 1: of my recovery, I had TMS, which is transmagnetic cranial sequencing,
Speaker 1: which at some stage we will talk about with some
Speaker 1: professionals in that area. And I was reading through the
Speaker 1: information and the word psychiatric came up on the information
Speaker 1: sheet and I had a visceral response to it. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, you know I've got a psychiatric disorder me
Speaker 1: as a nurse, being empathetic working in the healthcare space.
Speaker 1: If I have a response like that to a psychiatric concern,
Speaker 1: what do the general public think? And I think it
Speaker 1: has these really old connotations about mental health institutions and
Speaker 1: crazy women or housewives that can't co people on meth
Speaker 1: or homelessness. And I hate the fact that I felt
Speaker 1: that way because so many people go through, at some
Speaker 1: stage or another in their life some form of psychiatric illness,
Speaker 1: whether that be anxiety, depression, major depression PTSD. There are
Speaker 1: now areas and once again we will be talking about
Speaker 1: this psychological safety, moral injury. It is so all encompassing
Speaker 1: in our day to day life and with social media
Speaker 1: and with expectations and the lifestyles we all live.
Speaker 2: And here I.
Speaker 1: Am, as a nurse practitioner, quaking at the term psychiatric.
Speaker 1: I think we need to address some of that and
Speaker 1: take away the shame that is around that, and I do.
Speaker 2: I can't help it.
Speaker 1: I feel shame that I wasn't strong enough to cope
Speaker 1: with issues that were in front of me. But then
Speaker 1: you know what they say, how much can a koala bear?
Speaker 1: You know, when you have so much stuff going on
Speaker 1: at once and you don't look after yourself, there's always
Speaker 1: going to be a breaking point for people, and I
Speaker 1: reached mine.
Speaker 2: A few years ago. I just have this really.
Speaker 1: Strong need to not share all my experiences, although probably will,
Speaker 1: but just to help other nurses navigate what's going on
Speaker 1: out there, navigate pra navigate the nursing MIDWI reboard, navigate legislation,
Speaker 1: mental health, their own personal health, good diet, sleep, moral injury.
Speaker 1: That has absolutely taken me by storm trying to understand
Speaker 1: that concept, which I think affects all health practitioners. I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that this podcast is going to be really positive
Speaker 1: for other nurses in showing them avenues.
Speaker 2: Of how to look after themselves.
Speaker 1: Or if they are in trouble, where they can go
Speaker 1: who they can see that there are people out there
Speaker 1: that absolutely have their back. I really want to see
Speaker 1: the nursing profession step up and help each other. You know,
Speaker 1: historically there has been vertical and horizontal violence in nursing.
Speaker 1: You know, I went through this, So therefore, if they're
Speaker 1: going to be a good nurse.
Speaker 2: They've got to go.
Speaker 1: Through what I went through. I disagree with that. I
Speaker 1: just think we all need to start sticking up for
Speaker 1: each other a little bit more and stepping into our professionalism.
Speaker 1: I really believe that nurses are a huge independent entity
Speaker 1: in the healthcare space. We have one of the largest
Speaker 1: workforces in the country, and we have a lot to
Speaker 1: offer research wise, healthcare wise, our knowledge, and I just
Speaker 1: feel like Tenderness for Nurses is going to incorporate all
Speaker 1: of that. I'm hoping I'm going to learn a heap
Speaker 1: of amazing things and speak to some amazing people. We
Speaker 1: will be talking about ethics and boundaries. I think that's
Speaker 1: a very important thing in this day and age. We're
Speaker 1: going to be talking about drug and alcohol and if
Speaker 1: you are having problems with drugs and alcohol, the pathway
Speaker 1: for nurses where we can go to seek help. We're
Speaker 1: going to be talking about workplace safety leadership. We're also
Speaker 1: going to be talking about other avenues nurses can go
Speaker 1: once they've done nursing.
Speaker 2: Like public health. We've got a professor.
Speaker 1: From America talking about health intelligence with public health and
Speaker 1: going down the intel space public health space. There's so
Speaker 1: many avenues in nursing, and we just need to start
Speaker 1: celebrating a little bit more, supporting each other and giving
Speaker 1: strength to our profession. We are about a vacating for
Speaker 1: nurses and their health, and also about how we treat
Speaker 1: each other and proudly speak about our profession and tenderness
Speaker 1: for nurses is about all of that. I really hope
Speaker 1: you all get something out of this. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be a blame podcast. It's purely going to be Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are issues. Let's work out ways that we can
Speaker 1: improve the profession because it's a profession to be proud of,
Speaker 1: and after thirty five years of nursing, I'm still really
Speaker 1: proud to be a nurse. I started nursing back in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. I was in eighty eight B at
Speaker 1: PA Hospital, and I've got to say I loved it.
Speaker 1: The old hospital there was amazing. We all worked super
Speaker 1: hard together, we partied hard, and we worked hard. However,
Speaker 1: there were parts of it that were exceptionally confronting, especially
Speaker 1: for a young country girl who was very, very innocent
Speaker 1: and had gone to boarding school. The first ward I
Speaker 1: was put on was M two, which was general medical.
Speaker 1: All the leftover patients went there. We would have people
Speaker 1: dying on that ward all the time. So at the
Speaker 1: age of seventeen, if you were looking after six beds
Speaker 1: or whatever that was in your area and someone passed away,
Speaker 1: you had to lay that body out, which means you
Speaker 1: had to prepare that body to be taken to the morgue.
Speaker 1: It's quite a confronting experience. It's funny because you developed
Speaker 1: little well, I did little routines and so back then,
Speaker 1: you know, you could open the windows at the LPA.
Speaker 1: I used to open a window to let the soul
Speaker 1: get out. I would always say a little prayer over
Speaker 1: the body. And it's funny because when I then worked
Speaker 1: at the mart Mums, every baby that was born would
Speaker 1: It's just a little routine I had. I would always
Speaker 1: say a prayer for that baby that came into the world.
Speaker 1: And then I then went worked in palliative care and
Speaker 1: once again, you know, say little prayer when the person
Speaker 1: passed away because we couldn't open up the windows, you know,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted that soul to be sent away
Speaker 1: in a good manner and very respectfully. So Nursing is
Speaker 1: one of those amazing professions where I always felt I
Speaker 1: was so privileged to be there at the beginning of
Speaker 1: life and so privileged to be at the end of life.
Speaker 1: I found it more traumatic nursing the prisoners at PA
Speaker 1: when I was very young and very naive, and the
Speaker 1: things that they in the prison guards used to say
Speaker 1: to us in the wards, very inappropriate to a young
Speaker 1: female and making lude comments in innuendo and coming up
Speaker 1: into bed with me, I'll let me patch your ass
Speaker 1: or I tried to avoid that as much as I could.
Speaker 1: I always preferred nursing women over men, nurse in a
Speaker 1: little uniform, and that was what it was like back
Speaker 1: in the day. It took eighteen months to become a
Speaker 1: registered nurse and I got my degree. It was still
Speaker 1: fairly new getting degrees in nursing, and I was very
Speaker 1: lucky I was still working in a nursing home and
Speaker 1: in hospitals as an enrolled nurse, paying my way through
Speaker 1: university in Timber. I then came down because I always
Speaker 1: loved the operating theaters when I was at PA, and
Speaker 1: got a postgraduate year at St. Andrew's Hospital, and not
Speaker 1: just doing you scrubbing and scouting, I also did anesthetics
Speaker 1: and recovery, which I loved. Within that space, I focused
Speaker 1: and specialized in eyes, plastics and women's health Guianian Fertility,
Speaker 1: which I really loved.
Speaker 2: So I then went.
Speaker 1: Across and worked at Queensland Fertility Group for a few
Speaker 1: years and did all areas there, so admissions, anesthetics, scrubbing,
Speaker 1: scouting and recovery. And then I had the kids. So
Speaker 1: during that time when I had the kids, I actually
Speaker 1: would work night duties for an agency or lates and
Speaker 1: I would go work at the different hospitals, doing like
Speaker 1: a four to nine, four to ten shift. My husband
Speaker 1: would come home I'd had him the kids, and I'd
Speaker 1: go off to work. I also did some aged care
Speaker 1: work and palliative care work at Winham Hospital. I then
Speaker 1: went back when the kids are a bit older and
Speaker 1: did a few years at the Marta Marta Mothers and
Speaker 1: worked in the theaters there and in the recovery and
Speaker 1: HDU there, which I really enjoyed it and loved. During
Speaker 1: that time, I started to notice there were some nurses
Speaker 1: that just worked so much harder they wouldn't sit down,
Speaker 1: but we all got paid the same. And that was
Speaker 1: when I started to look at starting my own business
Speaker 1: and I bought a little spray tanning business. Everyone was
Speaker 1: yellow orange and there was just one color. But it
Speaker 1: turned out to be the start of me working my
Speaker 1: way into the cosmetic dermatology arena. I realized that spray
Speaker 1: tanning day and day out was as boring as batshit, really,
Speaker 1: so I bought a laser machine and I had to
Speaker 1: write a business report for my husband and for the
Speaker 1: bank to show that I could make the income, because
Speaker 1: back then it was hugely expensive to buy a machine.
Speaker 1: And I started to teach myself skin. I went to
Speaker 1: every conference I could, and I really got into that
Speaker 1: dermatology space, doing lots and lots of pigmentation, hair removal,
Speaker 1: acnee roseasha, and people kept asking me about injectables and
Speaker 1: I really wasn't interested in doing that. I really liked
Speaker 1: treating skin. But things just progressed and it got to
Speaker 1: the stage where I was still doing two night duties
Speaker 1: a week palliative care and my business was really taking off.
Speaker 1: So I made the decision to stop and work full
Speaker 1: time in the business, which was terrifying because I just
Speaker 1: didn't have that extra income coming in every week. I
Speaker 1: set up the business perfectly smooth, and what fifteen sixteen
Speaker 1: years on it's still going strong. I have a doctor,
Speaker 1: another registered nurse. I have two demal therapists and some
Speaker 1: receptionists that work for me. It's a busy little practice
Speaker 1: and I specialize in advanced cosmetic procedures, roseatia, acne, lasers, pigmentation,
Speaker 1: and I do lots of dermal filler and I have
Speaker 1: also trained for galderma.
Speaker 2: I have taught at Torrens.
Speaker 1: University in the esthetic space. I have helped write the
Speaker 1: program for the UK for their diploma in injectables. And
Speaker 1: then I became unwell. I was burnt out, ended up
Speaker 1: with major depression, anxiety, and I had to take some
Speaker 1: time out. I was quite unwell. The aesthetic space I'm
Speaker 1: in it really is a little bit of doggy dog
Speaker 1: in that anyone that stands out, it's nice to chop
Speaker 1: them down. Want anyone to know that I was so unwell,
Speaker 1: I just told everyone I was taking a step back
Speaker 1: to work on the business. Took some time out, forced
Speaker 1: time out, and there was just nothing to support me
Speaker 1: as a nurse.
Speaker 2: I was too afraid, ashamed to.
Speaker 1: Talk to colleagues because historically nurses eat their own and
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be cheered up and spat out
Speaker 1: and gossiped about. It was a really scary time. And
Speaker 1: it was during that time I did a course on
Speaker 1: boundaries and ethics with Dr Wendy Macintosh. I have to say,
Speaker 1: if you ever want to do some study in that area,
Speaker 1: she is amazing. We were talking about tenderness and tenderness
Speaker 1: towards self, tenderness towards others, and it's really not a
Speaker 1: very recent searched area. Something just twigged and I don't know,
Speaker 1: the podcast has just fallen into place from there in
Speaker 1: that we really need to start looking out for each other,
Speaker 1: and we need to know where to go, and we
Speaker 1: need to stop shaming each other when things go wrong.
Speaker 1: And for a profession that's meant to be full of
Speaker 1: empathy and consideration for other people, I really think that
Speaker 1: sometimes nurses don't look out for each other. I think
Speaker 1: as a profession we really need to.
Speaker 2: And so the aim of.
Speaker 1: This podcast is to give you, guys all some strategies
Speaker 1: on how to look after yourselves, strategies and how to
Speaker 1: look after each other, some avenues. If you have any
Speaker 1: worries or concerns, where to go or contact us here
Speaker 1: and we can put you in touch with the right
Speaker 1: people how to be empathetic towards ourselves and towards each other,
Speaker 1: not just our patients. So I hope you will get
Speaker 1: something out of this. I'm not perfect, and the people
Speaker 1: that come on aren't. There's going to be some very
Speaker 1: vulnerable conversations. I just hope you guys will support it, listen, share,
Speaker 1: and give us feedback as to things you want to
Speaker 1: hear or talk about or know more about, and you know,
Speaker 1: we'll investigated and see where it goes.