Getting your Passion Back for Nursing through Creating Boundaries & Prioritizing Relationships: Season 2 - Episode 9 - Nena Hart

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this week's guest, Nina Hart. Nina is a registered nurse who started her own consulting business after losing her corporate executive job. She is now helping other exhausted nurses to do something different and leverage their skills to start their own nurse-owned business. As their own boss, nurses can experience the freedom and flexibility they've always wanted while still making a positive impact in healthcare for an income that reflects their contributions. Nina lives in Hawaii with her husband of 18 years and their 4 children. She enjoys cooking, reading, doing puzzles with her kids, and going to the beach during normal business hours. So let's welcome Nina to the show. Welcome to the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast, brought to you by The Nurse Speak, a show where we rally some of our nation's greatest nurse leaders educators, experts, and advocates to tackle some of our greatest challenges that the nursing profession faces. My name is Damion Jenkins, and I'm your host for this show. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn that nurses can do anything. All right, Nina, thank you so much for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Why don't you just take a moment and introduce yourself for the listeners? Let them know a little bit about yourself, where you started in nursing, and where you are today.

Awesome, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Um, I started in nursing as a CNA when I was 18 years old in long-term care. And, um, I actually just kind of worked my way up one degree at a time. I got my LPN and then got my RN. I went for my bachelor's and then my master's. And I did this fun thing where I have a kid, get a degree, have a kid, get a degree, have a kid, get a degree. So 4 children and finished my master's right after I had my, my youngest son. So, wow.

Yeah, you've been busy.

Yeah, it was a shade under a decade. I should be a doctor.

Wow. So all, all of that in how much time?

Um, pretty spread out, like 10 years.

Okay, but still, in 10 years, in 10 years, yeah, you went from being a CNA to an LPN to an RN, having 4 kids, getting your master's degree. This is insane.

Yeah, it was a lot. I, I was very focused on, um, working my way up the ladder. Um, I told my husband as soon as I started as a CNA, I was like, hey, um, things are not right here and these people are not being taken care of the way I want them to be taken care of, and I'm gonna be the DON, the director of nursing, at this place and I'm gonna fix it.

That is amazing that you saw that.

Right.

Yeah, but you know what, I bet you did a lot of things on the way to fix it.

I sure tried. Um, I realized that was a, you know, really prideful thing to think that I could fix it, but, um, that was always my goal. And I did become the DON, and I did, um, really try to help my staff understand, like, why this is so important. It's not just a task. Um, that's kind of a lot of what I'm going to talk about just today through our conversation.

I mean, that's perfect because I think many of us who are in these spaces listening to these types of podcasts, we all share a very similar calling, and that is to take care of people. And there's been many situations across our career pathways where we were like, this is not working. It's broken. Or we're doing things backwards, or we're working much harder than we have to, or we're recreating the wheel every couple years, someone else is starting the same process all over again and completely disregarding all of the work that people before us did and put into place. And so this is why I created this podcast.

I love it.

Not only to help share strategies so that we don't have to keep recreating the wheel and just hearing about these problems for the first time, but also to really be a platform for people to understand how much we really do as nurses that go beyond providing direct patient care resources, and so that we have a place that we can also celebrate our accomplishments and how we do overcome these challenges. So here we are. So awesome. So thank you for sharing your career history with us. It's quite impressive. Again, kudos to you for having children, 4 children, in between all of that studying and career development. I mean, not everyone can do that. So, you know, thank you for your dedication. All right, so the topic of the podcast, you know, strategies for nursing success. What is the challenge, the one thing that you have seen time and time again that has bothered you so much that you set out on your own personal and professional mission to try to correct or develop strategies for? What is that thing?

Um, I guess the best way to put it would be to tie our own personal value to our qualifications as a nurse and our job and For me, I consistently struggled. I never felt like any job I had was the right fit for me. Never felt like I fit in. I never felt like anything I could bring to the table was enough. So I'm getting these degrees because I wasn't enough for that job. I'm getting my bachelor's because just being an ASN wasn't enough. Getting my master's because just having a bachelor's wasn't enough. I'm, I'm looking at my DMP. You know, thinking that my master's isn't enough. And it's like, this is crazy. My 15 years of administration in nursing was never enough. It wasn't enough for me. It wasn't enough for my employer. And so coming from this place of lack and insecurity caused me to almost lose my marriage. So the one thing that is most important to me on this earth I almost gave up because I put my job as an area vice president for hospice, as I had worked up this ladder and worked so hard and gotten all these letters after my name, to feel like I had the recognition and the, the value of success in my mind, that I put that above the person who helped me get there and put up with all of my true lack, my real lack. Yeah, I almost let that be more important than that relationship. And I'm sure my, my kids went through a lot too. But kids are so resilient, right? Kids are like, oh yeah, my mom used to sit with people when they died. You know, like they just, they just kind of roll with it, right? My mom used to be gone 3 days a week for work. You know, um, but our relationships cannot be, um, repaired sometimes. So in my case, I'm very fortunate, uh, the type of person that my husband is, that he allowed me, um, to repair that relationship.

Wow, that's so incredibly powerful. And for any of the listeners who are in a leadership position or are aspiring to be in a leadership position, hear this from a person who worked their way up, got into the leadership position, and still felt like their skills and knowledge and expertise was not enough to handle the job. And honestly, this is what every nurse goes through.

And I'm hearing that from nurses who are just killing themselves picking up more hours and covering shifts that are in, in, in patient care positions. I'm hearing that from CNAs who are like, I am working to try and make sure my patients are being taken care of and I have no life. I can't, I can't maintain a relationship.

That is correct. EMS, firefighters, police, nurses, all of us. Teachers, even like grade school teachers working all these overtime hours, spending their own money to pay for supplies that they need to do their work.

Yep.

But, you know, honestly, from every position I held as a nurse myself, it's the same story. It's been the same story when I am at the mercy of the healthcare system in which we have. Or hospital administrators or insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies, when we're at the mercy of these bureaucrats— let's call it what it is, the people who make all the rules and make all the decisions— it's never enough. And so there is—

tie that to your value personally as a person. My job defined my success.

It's who I was. Absolutely. And so because we want to make things work, because we want to do the care that we set out to do, whether it's direct patient care or leading a team of nurses who are providing care, we always sign up for the same thing. We have to take care of the patients. We have to promote safety. We have to cover our staff. We have to make sure everyone is protected and nurtured and cared for. And so we do. We overextend ourselves. That's how I got my master's degree, because no one listened to me when I had really practical solutions to, you know, problem solve and get through a lot of the simple barriers that create cohesive teams, like breakdowns in communication. No one listened to me because I was just a new nurse. And after hearing that for the first year of my nursing career, after I already had 15 years of food and hospitality industry as not only a manager and head trainer, but regional store opener, where I helped the corporation, a multimillion-dollar corporation, develop curriculum for front-of-the-house staff and how to be hospitable and have good communication and build teamwork and all of these things that people want when they go out to eat at a nice restaurant. But they didn't want to hear from me because I was just a new nurse.

Yeah. And this is directly tied to pay scales as well and how we as nurses view our compensation for what we bring to the table is the same messed up structure that, like you say, you're a new nurse, so you get the lowest possible pay regardless of your contributions, regardless of what you bring to the table. You just accept that, and that like sets the standard for the rest of your career.

Yeah.

That despite starting a new job after 20 years of nursing, I'm at the highest rung on their pay scale, and it's nowhere near the value I have brought to my last 20 years of employment.

Absolutely.

It doesn't match up.

Absolutely. This is the, this is the chronic conversation I've been having with my husband about the fact that I'm being wildly underpaid for my years of experience, what I bring to the table, what I offer, the solutions the streamlining, the process improvement, the employee retention, all of these things that other people in other professions like HR or accounting or engineering, that they get major promotions and bonuses for doing this type of work. And here we are, nurses doing the most.

And this is expected from you.

And we're getting paid barely anything. I'm going to be very transparent. I had to go back to work full time because the pandemic affected my ability to, you know, have that steady revenue stream. A lot of my clients were pinching their pennies because the days were uncertain, and I'm making less than 6 figures a year again. And I'm like, how can I be 12 years into my nursing career with a master's degree, done all the things that I've done, and still corporations refuse to pay me what I deserve. But this isn't just my problem. This is a nursing problem.

Yeah, for sure.

And it sounds like it's something that we can't do on a one-off situation. One nurse at a time or one DON at a time is not going to be able to change the situation.

Yeah.

So, you know, I'm all about rallying and lobbying and political shifting and things like that. And you know that we're organizing ourselves and we're trying to get this to work. But in the meantime, right, in the meantime, before we have that big shift where the nurses are like, enough is enough, I'm going to create my own community health center and run it and have referrals, which we're perfectly capable of doing, guys. I just want to let you know, there is no reason why you can't open your own community clinic and just have the higher-level providers on call.

To be a referral care agency or any of these things, any of these, anything you want to do anyhow.

So in the meantime, while we're trying to figure out this major disaster that, um, we kind of allowed— I mean, nurses have really allowed it over the years.

Yeah.

While we're trying to figure out a way out of that, um, what strategies do you have right now to improve where people are so they don't feel like they have to constantly spend more time more money, more investment in ongoing professional development when at the end of the day, it's going to make you smarter, but it's not going to really change the situation.

And I don't discourage anyone from getting any degrees that you want to pursue. And for me, I kind of had this school addiction. I actually loved school and I actually loved the learning process. So I'm not saying that I discourage anyone from furthering their education. Absolutely. I just want to remove the tie, the mental mindset that that is tied to your value and what you bring to the table.

Yes.

Or that that's required for running a business of any kind as a nurse. Absolutely not required. No letters, no amount of education determines your value as a nurse and what you bring to organizations as solutions. Um, and that's my biggest point with that is that there is a belief, a limited limiting belief in nurses' minds that I'm not qualified because of XYZ. A lot of that is tied to degrees or certificates or all these things, um, and that those chains need to be broken. Absolutely. To embrace our value.

Absolutely. And I'm so glad you said that because, you know, I have in my own wheelhouse of network many, many, many, many, many, many, many nurses LPNs and RNs, either diploma program or ADN, associate degree level, with no additional certification, no additional degrees, and they are running million-dollar corporations.

100%. 100%.

And, and if you really look at the, the big business people that are out there, or people who have really successful businesses, many of them don't have terminal degrees. You don't need it. You need to have a good product, a good service, and you need to learn the basics of business and run with it.

Exactly. So I'm currently running a six-figure business as a nurse consultant myself, and I have a huge network of nurse consultants that I talk to. And at one point, you know, I— like I said, I love school. At one point in my life when I was looking at starting a business, I wanted to have a business for years. Um, I looked at Okay, I need to get my MBA. I should, I should, I should transition to my master's in business instead of a DNP. I don't really want to do research. I really want to, to have my own business. A DNP is the right solution for me. That's what's going to make this work, right? And I talked to these connections I have, and every single one of them said, do not do it. You will not learn how to open or operate your own business as a nurse if you just want more information on business and finances, and you just love school so much you're going to do it anyway, then do it. But just know, for opening and operating a business, this is not the answer for you, and everything you need to know, you already know. So I did not pursue that because I did not find one nurse working for themselves who said they valued their MBA as a key component of operating or being a successful nurse in business.

Absolutely. Um, I didn't go through any formal business training, and I opened up a very successful consulting business, education and, you know, consulting. Um, and again, before the pandemic, I was doing fine. I was, I was coasting. I had lots of big plans. I was going to be traveling all over the place. Um, but, you know, things happen. So I'm not bitter by it. I'm not upset by it because I'm still working on my future plans. I just needed to go back full-time somewhere to make some cash, to pay off some debt and then be okay. Cause I can't let my husband float me. So it sounds like we're very similar in that thing.

I'm the breadwinner here.

Very, very supportive. He was very supportive in all my crazy schooling and bouncing around, just like it sounds like you did. Um, and so now I'm just kind of like, okay, let me pick up the slack a little bit here and then come up with a master plan to really like rock it out when things settle down some, which They're starting to.

What happened for me was I was recruited to this job that I thought was my dream job. I thought I had finally arrived. You know, all this work that I had been doing all this time climbing the ladder. I was finally offered a CEO job here in Hawaii of a hospice here with pay that I had never dreamed of making in my life. And my husband and I both agreed this was the opportunity for us to take. So I accepted the job in early October of 2020. We moved in November of 2020, and I started the, the Monday after Thanksgiving, I believe. So after 3 weeks of orientation and 2 weeks of being on my own, they fired me.

Wow.

So they pulled me in and said, it's not a fit, and we're restructuring, and we're gonna eliminate the role. So after moving my family across the ocean and committing to a lease from that matched my cushy CEO salary, I am here the day after, after New Year's with no income.

Wow.

So, um, it was the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life. I know that sounds so stupid when I say it out loud, like it's just a job, right? But it wasn't to me.

Sure.

It was everything to me. So here I am, the only employed person in our house. We just spent all this money. We moved across the ocean. Christmas is over. Just got all the Christmas presents, got all the stuff for a new house, spent all this money, shipped our vehicles over. And 5 weeks later, without a real reason, I lose that job and have zero income. And that was kind of, for me, like the awakening moment that there is no job that is going to, to appreciate the value that I bring to the table. And it's just time to do something different.

Yeah, do your own thing.

Yep.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah. So I was—

this is where we are.

That's where we are. So I was really blessed that that happened. And for me, it was the catalyst that I needed to push me to working for myself. Because I would have never quit that they would have had to fire me. I'd have been miserable. Yeah, I'd be miserable there now to this day. I would have never given up that dream on my own.

Yeah, it sounds like the salary was enough, right? Which is, which is good. Um, but you know, these types of situations, exactly what brings us nurses to say enough is enough. I'm not winning doing the thing that I love doing I'm not truly making the difference that I would like to be able to make. You know, I become more and more burned out, more and more bitter, more and more jaded as time goes on. And I have always taught anyone who I've trained or, you know, educated that if you ever get to the point to where you feel like it's just a job, then it's no longer your place to be, especially in a healthcare professional role. If it's just a job to you, then you've lost your caring and your compassion, and it's time to do something different. And that's what a lot of us have come to do. We're like, we got to do something different because the status quo is not cutting it. And you're right, I've heard so many similar situations where nurses as awesome as yourself go through all of this time and training and expertise, and they really want it and the drive is there. And they accrue an enormous amount of debt getting those certifications and degrees. And they get these awesome jobs. And they're terminated without any reason. I believe that they weren't ready for the radical change that you were willing to bring. That's what I believe.

I believe that as well. I do.

I believe that they weren't ready for the rock star that you were. And that you doing the right thing was going to make them work harder than they had to and/or potentially uncover some dirt that they were trying to hide.

We both agree on that.

Yeah. So this is a story I hear time and time again. Right. So nurses, if you're feeling in a similar situation, this is part of the radical shift that I mentioned earlier, that we are changing the landscape of healthcare and how we dictate our own own profession and how we dictate our own alignment with what we want to do within our ability. Because nurses have lots of ability. Our scope of practice is huge.

Yes.

And it doesn't matter what state you're in. Okay. Yes. So awesome. So now you started your own business, your own consulting business. So tell us a little bit about that.

So, um, when I lost that job I was applying for jobs like crazy. I was panicked. I was freaking out. They offered me, um, a severance pay that was laughable for the sacrifice that I had made to accept that position over 10 weeks of preparing to move and then 5 weeks of actually being there. Um, so for a salary of a quarter million dollars, they gave me a severance of, um, less than a month.

Oh no.

For 2 years of agreeing not to work for any other hospice in the state.

Wait, excuse me?

For 2 years of a non-compete. Insulting, right? My lawyers contacted them and said, you're either going to have to get rid of the non-compete or you're going to have to raise the severance. And they said, this is so she'll go back to where she came from.

They wanted you off the island.

So I talked to my husband and he said, um, you cannot respond in fear to this. Like, we have to know that this happened for a reason and you need to turn it down. And I'm like, but what are we gonna do for money? So one of the jobs that I had applied for called me back and said, hey, um, we saw that you had done some consulting in the past and the job you applied for, the regional quality manager is already filled, but would you be interested in doing some consulting with us to help us with, uh, getting our accreditation? We see that you've got a lot of experience with that in the past. And I'm like, wow, I would love that. And they're like, how's $150 an hour sound for 24 hours a week? And I'm like, hey, you know what, that sounds great.

That sounds perfect right now.

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. So, um, that happened. I started consulting with them, um, the following month. And then a month after that, I launched my first download pack of tools that I had had sitting on my computer for over a year. I, I knew I wanted to take my director and culture change experience and share it with other directors of nursing and other nurses who wanted to be in leadership roles. I just didn't know what that looked like. And I was so embarrassed and, and afraid that I didn't even tell my husband I was doing that for months. And I never shared those courses with anyone.

Wow.

Ever. For over a year, they sat there.

Wow.

Um, just because I felt like I wasn't sure that I had enough knowledge to say, this is how things should be done. And it's that fear of putting yourself out there and being rejected. So I, I launched, I shared that download pack in one of my Facebook groups on a Friday afternoon. And on Monday morning, I had $2,700 of sales from that $27 download pack of forms that I had developed throughout my careers as a director.

Wow.

So that's kind of how my courses started and my course sales started, you know, after you get a little win, you, uh, realize like, wow, I wasted a lot of time in fear. Yeah, right. I wasted a lot of time ashamed of something I should have been proud of, right?

Because you're constantly being told you have to achieve higher, you have to do more, you have to do more. That's all I've ever heard in my nursing career. You're not doing enough, you're not moving fast enough. What, you really took a 30-minute break? Are you crazy? Who was taking care of your patients during that break? Oh, but you better not submit a letter to the manager saying you missed your break because we're not going to pay you. It's just, it's a nightmare. So it sounds like you found something right away that once you realize that people were buying the things that you developed to help you do your job, you're like, oh, I do have knowledge and insight in how to do things. And people need this information because it helps them. It organizes them. It gives them the tools that they've been desperately looking for.

Exactly.

And so you made $2,700 overnight.

Yep.

And so now you built on that and you expanded.

Yeah.

So how big did that go from there?

Um, well, that was in May of 2021 that I launched my first course/download packs. And, um, for the first 6 months, I ended the year at about $20,000.

Wow.

Yeah, so that was it. It's, it's not something that's, uh, you know, gonna be your only salary, but for some passive income, it's a passive income, right? It's amazing to wake up to that money right in there.

And, and for the amount of money you're charging, and I'm sure the value that it's providing to others, it's disproportionate. Yeah, that's okay. It's okay. It's okay that per download you're only getting a certain amount of money. Because you're still living to your calling, you're still living to your mission, you're helping people.

I have nurses say, this is worth— this is worth thousands of dollars of my time.

Of course.

I've had nurses tell me to raise the prices.

Of course.

You know, so it's evolving, it's always changing, and I'm, I'm out there to truly help other nurses, um, you know, make things make sense again. That is really like my heart. And it has really been like a lot of self-reflection for me as to like the awakening of my mindset to what was holding me back. And when you're in that moment, it's very hard to see until you get over the other side and you're like, wow, this is— I should have done this years ago. Right.

Um, but it's never too late to start.

It's never too late to start. It's never too late to just put it out there and see what happens.

Exactly. You know, um, try it and see where it goes. Yeah. And if it doesn't go anywhere, it might not have anything to do with the product or service that you've created. Maybe you're just not reaching the right audience. Maybe your marketing techniques need to be improved. Maybe you just need to have a mentor who has multiple revenue streams in a variety of spaces so they know how the, the marketplace works.

And that's what I did. As soon as I, as soon as I started really having income from my own business, I started to seek out coaches and mentors, and that has been the best spent money, um, that I have invested in for myself and my business.

The return is incredible. Every time I pay for a mentor or a consultant to help me. It's just, it's just tremendously helpful, and it's worth every penny. So let me ask you, Nina, um, are you a member of the National Nurses in Business Association?

I am. I'm speaking at their conference this year.

So am I! So I'm gonna see you there. Yay!

I'm so excited to meet you in person.

Yeah, so that's awesome. I actually realized that, you know, I was wearing glasses in the photo on the, on the information that Michelle sent out. Um, I saw your face, I knew who you were. So when you sent me the podcast request, I'm like, yes, we're going to be speaking. Um, but anytime I have anyone who talks about business, I always have to mention the National Nurses in Business Association. It is an extremely valuable network of amazing nurse entrepreneurs, people who have been doing things, a variety of things in business for decades. Um, Michelle Podlesny, the president of the NNBA, is a wealth of knowledge, including all of the board members, um, Donna Cardillo and Stella Insong and Keith Carlson and Dr. Renee Thompson, all of them. Um, and I'm excited to see everyone again this year, so I'm excited to see you there as well. For those of you who don't know, the National Nurses in Business Association is this year in July in Las Vegas. I believe it's the weekend of the 21st, um, Friday, Friday and Saturday is the main conference. Thursday is pre-conferences for anyone who's interested in doing a pre-conference. I will have the link to the National Nurses in Business Association conference in the show notes of this episode. That way anyone listening can click and then register for the conference because Nina and I would love to see you there because we're both going to be speaking, so we'll both be presenting. So awesome. So Nina, where else can people find you if they want to get in touch with you, see what else you're going on? You mentioned you have a Facebook group. Um, tell us a little bit about that and, and what's going on there.

So my Facebook group is Nurse Entrepreneurs Impact and Income as Your Own Boss, and I'm actually doing a challenge to help nurses find their passion again, to, to figure out what, um, their superpower kind of is as far as nurses, where their value, um, lies in their experience. And I think, um, just to get nurses excited about the opportunities. And it's not about, um, you know, trying to get nurses to leave the bedside, of course. Um, you know, it's about trying to get nurses excited again about the value that they personally bring. Yep. Um, because when I, um, realized that my value wasn't in my job, and when I realized that my priorities were out of place, that's when I was able to feel more confident in setting boundaries and prioritizing my relationships over tasks. It's been an ongoing battle for me, but those really are the things that you need to do to get your passion back for nursing, is to create margin for yourself to create space. I'm not a boundaries expert by any means, but— and in my mind, I always thought I had good boundaries, but when that slides, you don't always notice. When that slides out of control, that's not always obvious until you have a breakdown or feel exhausted or feel like you don't want to be a nurse anymore, feel like you're a failure, right? That's like the, the moment you realize you let your boundaries creep out of control and now you're feeling drained and depleted.

Absolutely.

That's really the point of all this for me is like, once you have that passion and that fire, you feel confident protecting that, you feel confident in your value and what you bring to the table, and you feel like, hey, I need to advocate for this because it is sacred and I protect it, right?

Absolutely.

And that's where you're like awareness of the prioritizing of yourself and your peace and your relationships really kicks in. Absolutely. That's kind of what I'm, what I'm hoping to share and inspire nurses with, with that, with that 5-day challenge, just to kind of renew that fire.

Well, that sounds incredible. You have such a wealth of experience at all different levels of nursing, um, that no matter where a nurse is in their career pathway, you have lots of expertise and wisdom to share with them. Not only that, but you have a lot of practical tools at your fingertips that you developed along the way to navigate the complex roles that you were in, and now you're in a place of consulting, so now you can share that information and give recommendations and give tools and, you know, help individuals again find what aligns with them best. And I want to echo the fact that I'm not trying to steal nurses from the bedside either, but this is a stern warning to hospitals and our healthcare industry as it stands today.

It is.

We're leaving because you're not making it good for us. You're not valuing us. You're not leveraging our skill set the way that we should be leveraged. And until you give us a seat at the table, we're gonna leave. And that's happening. So we have an opportunity as professionals to really make a huge shift and bring up our healthcare system and actually make a radical change that's gonna help everyone and not just line the pockets of the few.

I get asked a lot if I miss being a nurse, right?

And I'm like, I never stopped.

I, I, I reply with that I am a nurse every day and everything I do every day. My heart is 100% connected to improving the lives of nurses and thus improving the quality of patient care.

Absolutely.

Every day and everything I do So just because I'm not at the bedside, I haven't been at the bedside in years. I've been in administration and management for 13, 15 years.

Yeah.

And that's where my, my skill set lies is in making sure things get done and done the right way and, and, and making things make sense again. Yeah. And so I'm doing that in a different capacity now for as an employee, but for myself. And I'm also helping other nurses who want to do that, who want to become a consultant and don't really know what that looks like. Um, you know, you can do that and still impact the healthcare system in a positive way. Yeah, that's my message.

Yeah. And I want to piggyback on that and, and say, honestly, I have never used the nursing process more strategically and accurately since I left direct patient care, because it truly is the foundation in which we make magic happen. The critical thinking skills, our systematic scientific approach to make sure we're covering all of the aspects of what we need to accomplish, make things— make sure things are working well, make sure we're thinking about all of the possibilities, all the considerations, right? And so if anything, sometimes stepping away from the chaotic task-focused, you know, machine that our healthcare system has created with nurses at the bedside. We don't truly become nurses until we step back a little bit and we put on our hat.

Focus on people and meeting people's needs and really serving our relationships, the more those tasks feel natural and feel manageable and fall into place because we are truly serving the needs of the people that we interact with, whether that be customers or patients or just our spouses or our friends or colleagues or peers, right?

Exactly.

If we can keep ourselves in that mindset, that relationships over tasks, everything else feels a lot more manageable.

Absolutely.

You—

I couldn't have said it any better. So I just want to thank you so much, Nina, for being on the Nursing Strategies Success podcast with me today. I really enjoyed this conversation. I cannot wait to see you in July in Las Vegas at the National Nurses in Business Association conference. And I'm going to put all of the ways that people connect with you in the show notes. I know you have a website. I know you have LinkedIn. So I'm going to include all of those links in the show notes as well. And I look forward to future collaborations because you and I are on the same page. With a lot of things that we're doing. So maybe we can create some magic together ourselves.

I would love that, Damion. Thank you so much.

My pleasure, my pleasure. Have a wonderful night. It's evening now, actually. What time is it in Hawaii?

It's 2:13 PM.

Okay, well, you enjoy the rest of your day. I'm gonna get ready for the evening because it's okay past 8 o'clock here on the East Coast. All right, take care, and we'll be in touch soon.

Sounds awesome. Thank you so much.

My pleasure.

Bye-bye.

Bye. And that concludes episode 9 of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this week's guest, Nina Hart. We hope that everything that we shared for you in today's episode will inspire you to take action and align yourself with the career path that is best for you. As always, I will have all of the ways to connect with Nina in the show notes of this episode, including a link to her Facebook group, Nurse Entrepreneurs: Income and Impact as Your Own Boss. If you have any questions about anything that we've shared in today's episode, please visit thenursespeak.com/contact and get in touch with me. I would love to have a conversation with you. So until next episode, Take care, be well, and remember that nurses can do anything.