Tobie O’Brien: Welcome to the fourth season. Trisha and I are so excited today because we are just going to take a little walk through memory lane. I don't think all of you have been with us this entire time, but Trisha and I started this podcast back in 2020 and so we thought it would be nice as we kick off the fourth season to kind of look back and see where we started and how far we've come. Trisha and I started this podcast back in the fall of 2020.

Trisha Williams: Toby, if you remember correctly, we started brainstorming this in actually the spring of 2020 because we all know what happened the spring of 2020. Womp womp. COVID happened.

Tobie O’Brien: In fact, I remember we were meeting with Kathy Cartwright to talk about doing this podcast. And, that is when everybody started, I remember the mayor, Lucas, had put the stay at home orders in effect like that day when we met with her. So we had this great idea, but then, we had to really put it on hold for, I mean, maybe four or five months.

Trisha Williams: Yeah, it was on hold for a while, but we really kind of had the opportunity because we were all at that stay at home order to sit back and really find a way to connect with our fellow advanced practice providers. And I think that, you know, like you said, our goal was to educate and inspire, but also connect us as a group of professionals that really provide a huge service for our community. So we started off with season one, didn't we?

Tobie O’Brien: We did. And it really was a fun process to get started and we sure had fun with season one. We had so many great people that we got to interview.

Trisha Williams: Yeah, we really did. We got to interview one of our colleagues, Scotti Brackett from the Urgent Care and her story about advocacy for children with Down syndrome. And we got to talk with Ashley Flynn, who's a Nurse Practitioner in Hem Onc, and her journey with fertility preservation. So we just, we really got to talk with some very strong, dynamic, Advanced Practice Providers at Children's Mercy.

And I think, I think during season one, like we really focused on their story and their journey and not necessarily like educational pieces. So it was really fun to hear their stories and their journeys with their career.

Tobie O’Brien: Absolutely. I think that another advantage of connecting with people was it really took us to a new level where we got to connect with the President of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, and that was a huge highlight for us at the end of Season 1. Remember?

Trisha Williams: Yeah, that was a huge highlight. Dr. Jessica Peck, talk about a dynamic force that woman is. And so during that time, she was the president of our NAP organization. And, now she has taken some lead roles in the AANP. And she has became, she's a professor at Baylor, in Texas. So she's quite the dynamic force. So talking with her and about her journey and leadership for advanced practice providers was amazing. And if you remember, we bonded over Elle Woods and Legally Blonde.

Tobie O’Brien: We did. She, she was really fun to talk to. Let's play for our listeners a little snippet from Scotti and Ashley and even Jessica, all of their words of wisdom.

Trisha Williams: That sounds great. Let's take a listen.

Scotti Brackett: My son has Down syndrome, and he is four and a half years old, and he is obviously my inspiration for a lot of this. Having had him and being a healthcare professional gave me a very unique perspective, and allowed me to see how things can be better, where equalities lie, not just for my son, but for others with Down syndrome and disabilities.

I just started networking. I started talking to people. I started letting people know my passion, know what I was about, know that I wanted to make the lives for people with Down Syndrome and other disabilities better. And how can we do that?

Ashley Flynn: Another interesting part of my job is I have joined the Fertility Preservation Team at Children's Mercy. When I was first diagnosed, the farthest thing that was from my mind was my future children, but luckily I had providers on my team that were thinking about my future. And, when I was just wanting to get the growing tumor out of my body, they were thinking about my life 5, 10, 15 years down the road. So, being able to join the Fertility Preservation Team here at Children's Mercy, I'm hoping to be able to do the same for my patients.

Jessica Peck: I would say Jessica, you think you have reached the summit, and you can't imagine anything higher or better than this. But know that this is just the beginning. You're learning now to make a difference in the lives of individual children who come to you for care. But 20 years from now, you'll be making a difference in the lives of children all over the world, and setting patterns of practice in place to influence generations to come.

Don't be discouraged when people tell you no, when doors close in your face, when people demean your education and say something can't be done, and you especially can't do it, and everything seems impossible. Find comfort in the integrity of your profession. Find strength in the courage of trailblazers who have gone before you.

Find inspiration in the precious faces of children everywhere. And find a way to do more than you think you can with less than you think you need. And remember, most of all, you are never alone, but joined by like minded experts in pediatrics and advocates for children with the same hopes and dreams for our future.

Trisha Williams: Oh man, those were some great words. I love listening to them. I could listen to their podcasts over and over and you guys can still listen to Scotti and Ashley and Dr. Jessica Peck. They're still available on all major podcasting sites and you can find us on the Children's Mercy website and check them out if you want to listen to their whole podcast. They're fantastic.

Tobie O’Brien: And then we jumped into season two just pretty quickly. Season two, we focused a bit more on providing education. We talked with Rachel Whitfield about taking care of teens, and she is so insightful and gave us some great information.

We also had a chance to hear from Christine Sims from Infectious Diseases, Jason Moberg from the Emergency Department. I mean, really, that whole season was definitely more dedicated to trying to do some education and we had a little bit of inspiration along the way too.

Trisha Williams: Yeah, we had a little bit of fun too. I think that the main takeaway from Season 2 is that between Season 1 and Season 2, Tobie and I tend to take the summer off to spend time with our kids and kind of regroup. And we decided to do a quality improvement survey around our podcast and we really listened to our listeners.

We surveyed them and to find out what they really wanted. And, and you guys, those listeners, really told us that you were seeking education and knowledge to help grow your practice. And so we took those words and kind of morphed season two into educational tidbits and really giving you some takeaway points.

And I felt like we really gave that to you. I mean, we hope that you think that we gave that to you as well. So let's take a hot moment to listen to some of our favorite highlights from season two.

Rachel Whitfield: As I said, I was trained in family practice, and I landed here in pediatrics because we really do a good job with preventative medicine. And addressing ACEs is a great form of preventative medicine, but we don't do a good job of teaching people how to carry that into adulthood, which is kind of my goal in adolescent medicine.

So as kids get older and they grow into young adults, we forget the impact of unaddressed ACEs; that they can have on a young person's development and decision making as they're transitioning into adulthood. And so I just cannot stress enough the importance of evaluating for those adverse childhood events and having these discussions with your adolescents and their caregivers about the importance of addressing those adverse events now because of the potential long term health effects later.

Tobie O’Brien: What is the best overall piece of advice you've heard lately or read lately and it can be pertinent to this topic we talked about or just in general life?

Christine Symes: So I'm not usually one that makes a New Year's resolution, but 2020 was really a challenge for I think everyone. So I was reading an article at the very beginning of 2021 about developing a personal mantra. So in this article I was reading, it was talking about the three G's and how they apply to almost any life situation. So those three G's were grace, gratitude, and grit. And so I put those words on a letter board in my closet, so I see them every morning when I get dressed and every night before I go to bed. And they have just been really great reminders for me.

Tobie O’Brien: What is the most sensible or useful piece of advice you have heard lately?

Jason Moburg: Wow, let's see. I would say just be present with your kids. You know, make sure you're there and make sure you're watching over them. Make sure you're just, you know, always being their advocate.

Tobie O’Brien: I love listening to those people as well. Those were some great highlights.

Trisha Williams: Brilliant people, right?

Tobie O’Brien: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And they're just, they're so easy to talk to and really, yeah, so much information. Okay. So then at the end of second season, Trisha started whispering in my ear about maybe submitting an abstract to Magnet to talk about our podcast.

So, really, doing this podcast has given us the opportunity to have so many experiences. So we submitted our abstract to talk at Magnet about the podcast and we were accepted for a podium presentation. And so Trisha and I did the podium presentation for Magnet, our ANCC National Magnet Conference, last October. And that was such a great experience.

Trisha Williams: That really was a great experience. Talk about stepping outside my comfort zone. Like I can sit in my closet. You all know I use my closet as my sound booth. So you all know I can sit in my closet and chit chat with you um behind my microphone, but to be out on a podium in front of, I think he had 30 or 40 people out in the audience of just brilliant human beings, people that are there to learn from us, was a little intimidating. But I felt like it was such a great experience. People were very engaged. They were very excited to learn about our podcast. It gave us some national coverage, because they were really plus, we had a catchy title, right?

 Our title was APRNs Heard Worldwide, and the reason why we chose that title of our podcast is because we are really heard all over the world, which is crazy that somebody sitting in the UK is listening to Tobie and I chat in our closet. So that was pretty cool.

Tobie O’Brien: Absolutely. And again, getting to hear the voices of the advanced practice providers we work with and hear how knowledgeable they are, I think it's really cool that people all over the world can learn from the people that we work with every day. So they have so much to share.

 But during our presentation, we got the opportunity to kind of poll our audience because, as many of you know, who listen all the time, you know, Trisha and I like to end each episode with a question. Each season we pick a different question. And so we had our audience, help us decide which question that we decided to, we were going to ask for this season four.

And then, we also invited one of the guests from our audience to be a guest on our podcast. And so we had the opportunity to interview, Megan Atashrew. She is an Advanced Practice Nurse, that is the Director of Advanced Practice for the Cardiovascular Health at Stanford Healthcare. So that was really cool to interview someone outside of Children's Mercy and hear what they are doing.

Trisha Williams: Yeah. It was an amazing networking experience, I think, for me, and I know you mentioned so as well, Tobie, this whole podcast journey, you know, working with our podcasting studio and working with all of the great advanced practice people that we have, has been extremely successful, humbling, encouraging, and kind of something that keeps me going throughout these difficult times in healthcare.

Tobie O’Brien: For sure. I know we all feel that. So as I mentioned, we had asked our audience at the Magnet Conference to help us pick and vote on a question that we would ask for this fourth season. So, Trisha and I are going to ask each other that question here in a minute. But before we do that, we are going to jump in and talk a little bit about our third season. Our third season, we really spent some time talking about leadership and that was, I thought, very helpful to me.

Trisha Williams: Yeah, I think that we all thrive on professional growth, right? And the leadership mindset and growth mindset. And so we had the opportunity to talk to one of our APRN leaders at Children's Mercy, Sherry Scheidel. And then we also had the privilege of talking with Robin Ferguson, who is actually a Leadership Coach at Children's Mercy Hospital.

And I thought those two podcasts were just chucked full of useful knowledge and good takeaway points for us as healthcare providers to fulfill our role as leaders.

Tobie O’Brien: I definitely recommend people go back and listen to those two because I agree with you, Trisha. I really learned a lot. Let's play a little snippet from Sherry Scheidel and from Robin Ferguson.

 Talk a little bit about your leadership style and your goals for advanced practice.

Sheri Shiddel: When I really think about my leadership style, honestly, I know the buzzword out there a lot is transformational. There's so many buzzwords for leadership styles right now. And I think my leadership style is honestly to try to be very thoughtful. And listen and come with a curious spirit so I can hear what people are needing at that point. I don't think there's one leadership style that fits all. So I hope that I integrate many styles into my leadership to then hopefully meet the needs of what's at hand and deliver. So that's honestly how I would answer that because I don't like to pin myself in a corner for my leadership style if I'm really honest about it.

But I do think how that influences then the goals for advanced practice, I think, is being collaborative. When I think about the goals for advanced practice at Mercy, I think it's integration into the healthcare system. We're at a point at Children's Mercy now that's an exciting time because we're looking at integrating advanced practice providers into a practice plan, that's new and different for us, and it's a journey, so we're learning as we go. But what I love about that is it gives us a chance to come to the table, demonstrate the value of nurse practitioners, show how they make a difference, show how we know that they influence and improve patient outcomes. How do we find ways that nurse practitioners and advanced practice providers can work at the top of their scope in all areas and yet be autonomous?

Like, that's the other thing that I think about to credit Children's Mercy; we have a very engaging executive leadership group that embraces nurse practitioners in our practice, but we still have opportunities in our world, in our community. I mean, we live in Missouri, so we're still a restrictive state. That also influences how we lead and how we think about things and advocate for nurse practitioners.

Robin Ferguson: Having a clinical background myself, we're really starting to, you know, shift our culture here at Children's Mercy to one where leaders are also coaches. And so coming from that coaching mindset and skillset, obviously there's those of us that are professionally certified and do that on a regular basis, but it is that idea that we are empowering people and the people around us.

And one of the things that I've noticed is that, you know, as clinical people, we're natural problem solvers. So that idea of we come in, we look at what are the symptoms, we diagnose, we look at what are the treatment options, and we work to fix things and make people better. And that's great on that level.

In leadership, that can sometimes get in our way because we tend to be fixers then, and we tend to problem solve for people. And as we look at the changing landscape and evolution of leadership, what we're seeing is that moving towards more of a coaching style where instead of being the problem solvers or having the immediate answer; that we ask more questions and that we begin to empower people in a way that helps them problem solve for themselves and develop those skills. And that's fairly new in the leadership realm in our organization. It's a fairly different approach, but it's one that allows people to feel more engaged, to feel like they have a voice in what's happening. And so moving to that space of, you know, one of our values is curiosity. So moving to that place of curiosity and again, like, how can I mentor this person, how can I coach this person instead of just immediately giving them the answer or advising or fixing. It's counterintuitive sometimes to our clinical mindset, but it's so important to be aware of.

Trisha Williams: I could listen to those two talk for hours. I just find them to be so inspirational and they just ooze leadership. I could listen to them for hours. But I am over the moon excited about our plan for season four. What do you think, Tobie?

Tobie O’Brien: Yes, I think I'm really excited. I feel like we've had some great past seasons, but this season I really want to focus on really hitting some key education points. I know we're all so busy and we don't really have very much time, so I really am hoping that this season we can interview some really great people and get some very important information that can help us in our everyday practice.

Trisha Williams: Yep. I'm really excited about season four, just to chalk packed full with educational tidbits and things, and hopefully to meet the vast majority of our listeners.

Tobie O’Brien: That is very, very true. So I am excited for the fourth season. So as we end our podcast today, it's time for us to do our question that we are going to ask each other. Okay, do you want to go first?

Trisha Williams: I know. I'm so excited. I know. We've never asked each other this question before. So I'm super excited. And then we get to reveal which question won during the Magnet Conference when we polled our audience which question. So I'm going to go back to what Tobie had mentioned earlier about, we polled our audience about which questions should we ask during season four.

And the questions were, when you face a challenge in your life, what are some encouraging words you hold on to? 2. Reflect on your personal hero and how they guide your way of life. 3. Success stories are the best. What are ways you support others in writing their own success story? And then the final one would, what would your younger self high five yourself for today? Which one are we going with Tobie? Which one won?

Tobie O’Brien: Well, let's see what your younger self would high five you for now is what our question is for the fourth season.

Trisha Williams: Okay. What would your younger self high five yourself for Tobie?

Tobie O’Brien: Okay, I've been thinking about this because I had a little time to think about it, and I think that my younger self would high five me now for being able to figure out a way to at least a try to be present mentally when I'm at home with my family and then when I'm at work and trying to be all there when I can be, but then allowing myself the grace to kind of know, okay, nope, you got to focus on where you are because really we miss so much of our life by worrying about what's in front of us, worrying about what's behind us, and like the real joy lies like within what we're doing right now.

And so I think that the fact that I finally sort of figured that one out, I'm not good at it all the time, I'm not great at it all the time, but I try for it. And I think that that's what a younger version of me would probably high five myself for.

Trisha Williams: I high five you for it now. Being in the present. I think that's great.

Tobie O’Brien: Yeah. What about you, Trisha? Okay. So what would your younger self high five you for?

Trisha Williams: I don't know what my younger self, I had time to think about it too. And I really think like when I was younger, I never saw myself being, um, a successful professional, raising a family, kind of having all my poop in a group.

Right. And I really feel like for the most part I do. And I feel like I have, you know, one in college and a senior in high school and I'm, I'm living a professional life and you know, just making it happen and staying engaged. And like you said, keeping work at work and keeping home at home. And sometimes we all falter.

We're human, right? But I really think that my younger self would just high five me, high five me for going back and getting my master's when my kids were younger and staying engaged in my career. And, and being that strong female role model for my kids. You know, I have a daughter who is going to be 19 and my son, I think it's important for my son to see strong female role models and to know that your dreams are endless and that you just have to go after them. And I think that's what I would high five myself for.

Tobie O’Brien: Oh yeah. I high five you for that now. I mean, it has been fun to watch you be so successful professionally, Trisha. So, I mean, my younger self knew you too. And so that's what I would high five your older self for.

Trisha Williams: Thanks. Let's high five each other.

High five!

Tobie O’Brien: Yeah. High five.

We so appreciate you listening to us today. And we can't wait to finish this fourth season with you. So, always know if you have a topic that you want to hear about, please email us, or if you even want to be a guest, we would love to hear from you. So email us at tdobrien.cmh.edu or twilliams.cmh.edu.

Trisha Williams: Yeah. Thanks for taking this trip down memory lane with us, guys. That's a wrap for the Advanced Practice Perspectives podcast.