Identifying the Gaps in Education, Training & Professional Development for Nurses and Daring to Do Things Differently!

Thank you for joining me for another episode of 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 the greatest challenges that the nursing profession faces. My name is Damion Jenkins, and I'm your host for the show. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn that nurses can do anything. Okay, Jasmine, thank you so much for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Why don't you take a moment to introduce yourself to the listeners? Let them know a little bit about yourself. Where you started in nursing and where you are today.

Thank you for having me, Damion Jenkins, on your platform. Uh, this is amazing. I'm, I'm excited to be on your podcast. My name is Jasmine Waterman-Paris, and I am a nursing professional development specialist, and I am your favorite nurse career consultant. Nice. I am a registered nurse of 22 years, and I am passionate about seeing nurses succeed. I am passionate about seeing nursing students thrive. Uh, it is my joy to be a resource for others. And so this has been an alignment since I was little, and it's— everything has just lined up since then. And so my background is, uh, med-surg neuro nurse. Started out in med-surg. I, one of the people who love med-surg, believe it or not, And after about 4 years of med surg, I then pursued epilepsy. So, I was on an epilepsy unit for about 6 years. In that timeframe, I worked on different things, professional development, got my certifications in med surg, and then I pursued my graduate studies. I got my master's in nursing education. And then from there, I did some adjunct clinical instructor work. For a few years. I did some per diem vaccine administration. And after all of that, I began my career at my hospital for the past 12 years as the nurse educator, but we, we call them nurse professional development specialists. And our role is onboarding and orientation. Our role is annual education as well. We do program planning. We also do standards revisions, we do interdisciplinary collaborations, and it's been a joy for me to be in this role because I'm the first person that the new nurses see on day 1 of orientation, and I help people with their professional development. My areas that I cover include hemodialysis and rehab, psychiatry. I also cover outpatient areas, which include endoscopy, multiple sclerosis, concussion center, spasticity clinic, the Women's Center, which includes endoscopy. I also cover radiology, quite a few non-invasive cardiology. So I have quite a few areas of coverage on the outside.

Wow.

But on an inpatient, it's— they're all their own unique unit. And so it's, it's nice to be a part of an area that is very unique, and I get to learn from the staff and the leadership, but also help them with the education and professional development.

So amazing. First of all, hats off to you. Thank you so much for your many years of service and for covering all of these specialty areas, which are super important to the professional development of nurses. So you have learned a tremendous amount over the years, and you're still learning. I know you are because we never stop learning, right? Absolutely. You know, I want to piggyback on what you said about being the first person that the new nurses get to meet, and that's so important. And it's, it's one of the reasons why I became a nurse educator myself, is to build those relationships with the people who need the support. Um, because, you know, I felt at a time when I was coming up and needed the support, I didn't have it, and I wanted to do things differently. I wanted to kind of create a more warm environment and build a relationship rather than a checklist type situation. And so, um, it sounds like that's exactly what you've done. So thank you so much.

Thank you. And before I— before I became the nurse, that's where the challenges began. Yeah, I, in my junior year, had struggles. I had a challenging professor who was my clinical instructor. I made a mistake that was a turning point in my academic career. And I ultimately went on academic probation because my 13th— my 12th week of 13, I made an error in judgment, which I ended up failing my 6-credit course, which was 180 clinical hours.

Oh my goodness.

So from there, I, I was devastated. I never failed a class. My life.

Yeah.

And I will never not take a blood pressure before giving medication ever again. It's a lesson that I've learned. And this was something where you get into this routine as a student and you think, oh, okay, we give our morning meds, we go, we give our chem sticks at 12, we go to lunch, and then we come back, and then it's almost smooth sailing at the end of the, the rest of the day. But no, it's not. That's not the case. What happens is you still have to be thinking critically beyond lunchtime. So don't just ease up and get into so much of a routine that you have a lapse in critical thinking and judgment, such as I did. And for there, I was devastated that day. The person's blood pressure went into the systolic of the 70s, and I was so afraid to go back and talk to the patient or manage the patient. And the nurse educator was just like the professor said, go back and deal with the patient. So I was so scared and hysterical. But, you know, we know that we manage patients with lower blood pressures. But for me, I thought that I was going to, you know, kill this patient. So that really rocked me. And so as a result of that, there was no write an article, write a paper stating why you should or shouldn't. It was, no, you're failing. You're failing your 180 clinical hour, 6-credit course where people usually fail because of didactic. I'm failing because of clinical. So I was hysterical. But not only was that a challenge, it was a challenge to deal with a professor who ultimately would scream at you in the station, belittle you. And then I had to repeat the same course in the summer with same professor. So I would cry weekly. When I had to encounter interacting with this person. And so that is what really shaped me into becoming an educator, because that's what really was— I don't want somebody to experience this. I don't want somebody to feel that they have to deal with a person like this and that they can't speak up, because if you speak up, there's probably a power dynamic. You may be terminated, you know, dismissed from school. So I just kept it to myself. And there were things that were done that were dangerous, I mean, affecting my safety in terms of safe pay— in terms of personal protective equipment and breaching that with that professor with me. And so that was— it was a terrible time. So that's what really led me to want to be the educator. So I did my adjunct instructor. Education instructor work at a school where I could be the first to see those students and give them, you know, some light and some positivity and encouragement, but also make sure that they were doing what they were supposed to do.

Exactly.

So that's, that's why I did that. And then that's why I continue on in my hospital currently, which then led me to my, my business, my entrepreneurial business.

Got it. All right. So let's unpack that a little bit because you hit on a lot of things that a lot of us deal with, right? And it's very unfortunate that too many of us have similar stories to tell, and probably why many of us go into becoming educators. So I wonder, I've always wondered if the educators who do behave that way, did they have the same motivation and inspiration when they were a young educator and maybe just kind of lost it over time? Like, I just, I really never know. And I have sat down with some of these more experienced educators who have been guilty of displaying these types of aggressive bullying, power dynamic type behaviors. And I, and I have had them spill the beans that, yeah, they did kind of lose the compassion, lose the patience, lose the connection to wanting to do things because of the overwhelm and the burden and the, the power dynamics that they're struggling with and all that they pour into their jobs and performances and not feeling like they're getting anything out of it. And But somewhere the cycle has to break, right? We have to break the cycle somewhere. So going back to the challenge, right? So it sounds like the challenge really wasn't that you made the mistake. It was that the educator was not empowered with the proper skill set to handle that mistake and turn it into a teachable moment with proper plan of correction, with proper remediation, right? Because doctors make mistakes when they're in school and they don't get kicked out of the program, right? I know this to be true because tons of doctor friends, and I've seen residents make mistakes, life-threatening mistakes that usually the nurses or someone else stops and like, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, right? They don't get kicked out of their programs. They don't get told that they are failing or that they can't continue. Continue on to get their licensure. Pharmacists, you know, respiratory therapists, physical therapists— you're a student for a reason, right? Students are supposed to make mistakes while they're under the supervision of a licensed professional so that way they can learn from those mistakes.

And you're—

you shouldn't have been failed for that.

Because I will say two things though. I will say, to clarify, The— her, her action, her actions and her interactions with me, uh, I can't say on that day that led to that. This is just— this was ongoing interactions. But the day that I had the incident, there's nothing particularly that sticks out on what she did or didn't do on that day. I'm just giving a global view of interaction for the whole semester. But me failing, me failing, I can't say that that wasn't the answer. I'm not saying that it was or wasn't. I'm just saying that, that, that was a decision made not with just this person, with other leadership people who determined it was that, and there was no other alternative. So I can't say that that was wrong. It affected me deeply. Um, I can't say that that wouldn't have been a course of action for another student. OK. That's what I can say.

Correct. However, you and I both know by now that it was wrong. And it was wrong because, as an educator, you don't let your students give meds without supervision, like direct supervision. You cannot. You just can't trust your students to do everything by the book because they're still learning. Like, you just can't let them go in and independently give meds. The instructor is supposed to validate that they understand that they're giving the blood pressure medication for a certain blood pressure. So that means your instructor was not supervising you if she allowed you to give you a blood pressure med and the pressure was already low.

And I'm trying to remember, I'm trying to remember what the sequence of events were, but it was probably like, okay, I'm giving these meds, but this was a dialysis patient, you know, so blood pressures drop. So there are a lot of things critically, and so, Yeah, there, there can be some accountability on their end, but at the end of the day, you know, as that student, you're going to feel horrible, of course. And the fact that I must have been so concerned with, uh, you know, the, the everyday, you know, same in and out routine that I didn't think to critically think at that moment to go, hey, here's a different scenario. This particular patient is a dialysis patient, blood pressure might be low, but because that did not come into my head, then that was something that I will take ownership of the fact that I, I didn't think of that. And that's— these are the lessons learned that I'll never forget. But it cost me, you know, I— thankfully I graduated on time, but I had to, had to be with her again.

Mental anguish.

Yes, I had to come back in summer school and I had to, you know, work with this professor again and deal with, you know, inappropriate behavior.

So, and again, a, a failure on many levels, right? We're not going to just say it's this particular instructor's fault because it's, it's not. It's also their bosses, right, who are supposed to be coaching them and mentoring them and showing them the right way. And, and when a student fails from one instructor, the protocol typically is they have a different instructor. You never pair them with the same instructor. That is in all of the the textbooks of how to teach effectively. It's in the writing. It's evidence-based practice that you don't set your students up for failure with the same person who failed them the first time. Yeah.

And they, they probably were not aware of the behavior too.

If we're validating competence, right? If our job is to validate competence, then sometimes you need more than one perspective of validation. Right? So this is why typically when we're hiring, we have more than one person interviewing, right? So it's just these general principles that I find so many inconsistencies with throughout a lot of the things we do in the world, but where nursing is expected to be so, you know, systematic and theoretical and going by evidence-based practice, and we always turn back to that to prove our point. Or to validate or to hold accountability, whatever it might be, we always turn back to the data because that's the only thing we have. But these types of interactions, whether it's school, whether it's deciding if someone's going to continue employment, whether it's deciding if someone gets a promotion, whether it's deciding if someone needs to go on, um, administrative leave, they don't follow any evidence-based practices. And I find that to be so frustrating, right? So, but it sounds like through all of those challenges, right, you decided, I'm gonna do things differently. So I want to hear a little bit about that. And I think everyone listening to this episode would like to hear about that too. If you could just maybe 5 things that you definitely were like, I'm gonna do this differently because this is so important. And it's going to help so many people, including yourself, right, throughout your profession. So what are maybe 5 things that you vowed to do differently that you have consistently delivered on?

I, I wanted to be a resource for others. I wanted nurses to thrive. I am not that lady with the ball and chain in Matilda. I want people to, to thrive in their career, and I truly love being a nurse, and I wanted to be a nurse since I was a little, a little girl. And so for me, if I can help someone, someone in any way, if I can be a relief, if I can be a sounding board, that's the type of person that I wanted to be. If I have knowledge and I can share resource, people will tell you. If I can share with you how to do something, who you should connect with, I'm one of those connectors. I'm that type of person. And for me Learning should not be scary. People are not going to learn if they are afraid of you. People don't need to be disrespected. It doesn't matter what age you are. Some people, they're adults. They have children. They have spouses. You don't want people talking to them just disrespectfully any type of way. For whatever reason, we're treating the patient lovely, and then you just turn around and you're evil to your colleague. And so that type of thing, that bothers me, that you can just transfer this anger and displace it. Or, you know, this is very critical, this time of caring for people, and you want to do things that can become an unsafe situation for a patient. Essentially, this person either is going to be afraid of you if you're not a helpful colleague or you're, you know, you sabotage or you're condescending, then they don't ask you questions and they don't speak up. And then there's an unsafe situation that happens for the patient. So I'm all about patient safety. I'm all about self-efficacy. I'm all about building people up. And I don't like to have people, you know, get torn down. And so for me, I wanted my class to be fun as an adjunct clinical instructor on campus. I wanted my class to be fun, but I wanted it to be a safe learning space. I didn't— I wanted to give real-world scenarios, and I didn't want it to be scary, or, you know, that I'm this mean person or not somebody that is approachable, because that's what I, I hope for when I'm working with people. Yeah, I want somebody who's knowledgeable but approachable and respectful.

Yeah.

And so I want to know that I'm comfortable with this person taking care of my family member. If I leave and I go on lunch break, or if I'm off, that this person is in good hands. But some things are scary out there and how people, uh, navigate the world. And everybody comes from different backgrounds, and so some of the things that they may or may not be exposed to, I think that's where school is helpful to help people understand that you are going to see different cultures, different experiences. Social determinants of health is a very important thing for me. And so when people don't consider other things. And they're quick to say the things of, this patient is non-compliant, or this patient is this, or how come this person got this way? That's where I enjoy coming into trying to educate people to say, well, did you look at the circumstances? And let's meet the people where they are. So those things are important to me. So when I got my degree in education, did the adjunct instructor role, Then I became the full-time nurse professional development specialist. I did not have an entrepreneurial spirit until literally 2 years ago, and I saw others—

welcome—

and others who looked like me. Yeah, doing a lot of creative business. Um, and so I was just like, well, wow, why don't I go into consulting? Because I'm giving this resources all the time. I'm giving people tools and, and connecting people and helping people and Helping them to make it more simplified from something that just seemed out of their mind. And it's just like, wow, I didn't consider that. I've been doing that. And we do that as professional development specialists in the hospital.

We do.

That's what we do. We help people. We connect them to what they don't see. We help them actualize what they need. And so that was how this began. I had an interest in education technology. And so that didn't completely take off. But when I realized that why not go into a business and continue on with what I'm doing in an outside setting that can reach more people across the US, that's how this all connected. So I enjoy speaking to nursing students. I enjoy speaking to new nurses. I enjoy speaking to seasoned nurses. I can learn from anybody and others can learn from me as well. So that's why I feel we have a lot of great coaches. We have coaches for stress management and resilience. We have coaches for education consultants and that type of thing. And I just want to be the career coach that helps you navigate transition to practice because there's so many nurses who are, uh, they've gotten their degree, they were excited about it, and then somewhere along the way they're like, I'm leaving this, this profession.

And it's like they're disenchanted like right away.

Yeah, if I can capture them in their first year, I really feel that I can help them advocate for themselves because a lot of the times they'll say Well, I wish I knew this and I didn't know that. And that's what was the difference between them staying and leaving is because they didn't maximize the opportunities in orientation. They didn't advocate for themselves and speak to their manager when they had an issue with their preceptor. They didn't really talk to their, their educator and say, hey, this preceptor really, you know, doesn't really know how to precept, or they're not giving me feedback that's helpful. So like, that's the type of thing that I can help people do. I can't tell you that you're going to land your dream job with me. I can tell you what signs to look for, red flags. I I can tell you how to position yourself, how to be professional, how to communicate professionally. That's what I can tell you. But advocating for yourself, advocating for your patient, your profession, and also just, just being open-minded and flexible, because there's a lot of opportunity in nursing. You just have to be open-minded and don't look at it as a— this is a hardship. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe this is an opportunity for something else that you hadn't even considered. And take it and how can you repurpose it? You know, I'm all for repurposing a meal. You can do the same thing with your profession.

Amazing. So Jasmine, you really kind of hit a lot of things here. So I just want to kind of go back a little bit so that way we can paint a big picture for the listeners, right? So when I asked you to list out 5 things that you chose to do differently so that way you could have a more positive impact on people, I want to kind of focus on what those real strategies are, right? So what I heard from you is the first strategy is that you made yourself present. Your presence was the starting point for making that change, whether it was presence as a nurse on the unit that other people could come to you for, whether it was being that present clinical instructor that your students needed, and you always checked in with them. You made sure that they were okay. When you saw them struggling, you spent extra time with them. You really kind of helped beef up their confidence, talked about their personal life to help them manage some of that so they could perform better in the role of the nursing student. It sounds like you really set yourself up to be present, which is a strategy that some leaders struggle with, right? They get bogged down on the checklists and the to-dos and the meetings and the reports, and they forget that their primary purpose is to be there for the team. So presence is super important. So for those of you listening, the number one strategy that I'm hearing from Jasmine right now is be present, right? That second strategy that I heard really you speak loudly is that you were not only an advocate for the care being provided, for, you know, patient safety and nursing excellence, but you're an advocate for individual— individuality, that the person can be their authentic selves. They can have learning curves, cultural differences, perceptions or perspectives that are different from maybe the organization or from the rest of the team. And you made it your priority to recognize those differences so then you can help those people get up to speed to better understand that their perception isn't necessarily wrong, but there's more to it. And you found the resources to help them bridge that gap, which is something else that some leaders forget, that they can't just assume people are going to automatically assimilate to a culture. We have to teach them the culture that we expect them to assimilate to, right?

Right.

So that's the second thing I've heard. The third thing I heard is that you made sure you had the resources available to dish out, which means you made it your priority to constantly find additional resources. So you had that in your arsenal to help other people, which is something else that a true leader does. You don't, you don't wait for your boss to hand you the next new in-service or the next new library of information that you're going to pull from, you're constantly creating your own resource database, your library, your toolbox, if you will, on things that are going to be very helpful for people so you can help them beyond the day-to-day type stuff, right? And, you know, what I've done, and it sounds like you've done the same thing, is you look beyond your organization as well, because sometimes we're limited in our current role. And the, the need of the person might be outside of the organization, has nothing to do with work, but the problem is now transferring to work because they can't get it right on the outside, right? So maybe, you know, having the resources to help them with childcare in the community, maybe having resources to help them with continuing education beyond maybe what the organization provides. Because let's be honest, some organizations nowadays don't provide much assistance with continuing education or tuition reimbursement or any of that kind of stuff. So having having that opportunity for them. I'm sure you set people up for success in their practicums and help them out with their clinical hours if they needed. And because this is what leaders do, right? So, 4, right? The 4th thing I heard you say is that you showed up consistently, right? That every day that you clock in, right, that you show up, that you're there to be there for people. And there's probably not many circumstances where you shooed someone away, told them you don't have time for them, or, you know, told them you would get back to them, but you didn't actually get back to them. It doesn't sound like what you've set up for yourself, which is so important as a leader as well. It's okay to get busy. It's okay to not have time in that moment, especially when people drop by unannounced, right? You might have to hurry up and finish something. But making sure you're there for them is so important. And then when they know they can come to you, like you mentioned, when they're afraid of you, when they don't want to speak to you, when they feel like they're bothering you, you're right, that creates a lot of safety concerns because if they're not coming to you to report their challenges, then they're certainly not reporting nuances in the patient's presentation, right? Which means they're letting things go unaddressed, which is not safe.

And the stresses that can ensue personally and what they're doing. Are they doing any bad practices at home? Are they drinking off the job or on the job? Are they doing anything that could be self-injurious? You don't know. And so people have to be kind and have compassion.

Right. And then the 5th thing I heard is exactly that. You made a promise to yourself that you're never going to allow the overwhelm of the job to take away from the priority of your passion and your purpose, right? Your passion and your purpose. Why did you do this in the first place? Making sure that we align with passion and purpose at all the time in everything that we do. That is what drives us forward. It's what makes sure we show up consistently. It makes sure that when we are kind of running on fumes, we're still delivering at a high value because we made a promise to ourselves first and foremost. And we made a promise to those who we serve, whether it's an employee, whether it's a student, whether it's a patient or a family member, whether it's our boss, right? Whatever it is, we make a promise that we're going to show up in a way that aligns with our mission, our vision, our values, our purpose, and live that every day. So these 5 practical strategies build great leaders. And it sounds like, Jasmine, you've done exactly that. So now let's, let's talk about your entrepreneurial journey, right? So this is really amazing because I said welcome when you said that, you know, just 2 years ago, because a lot of us have recognized our talents and we want to be able to expand them bigger than sometimes the position we're in that we're happily in, but we want to help more people on a larger level. And so, you know, one thing that I know you did, and I actually have it right here, is a really great deck of cards that says Nurtured Novice Conversation Cards for Nurses. The moment I saw that you had this deck of cards, I didn't even bat an eyelid. I bought it because I thought I thought, how clever, a very simple idea that turns into a really valuable tool.

Thank you.

And so I'll give you a moment to talk about the inspiration and where it came from, but I just want to read like the very first card that I saw. And I don't know if you put this card on top on purpose or if it just happens to be the way the cards were shuffled when I got it, but the card that's right on top after the little instruction card says, what's your why? What made you choose nursing as a profession? And that question should be asked to every single student. It should be asked to every single nurse applying for a position, whether it is entry level all the way to CEO of an organization. We should always answer the question why. Did we choose nursing, right? So, you know, take a moment and tell everyone what was the inspiration about these cards.

Absolutely. So Nurtured Novice LLC is my, is my brainchild. It's my business that I started, and my, my theme of resourcefulness— I wanted to be a help to nurses and nursing students. I thought that having this go-to deck of thoughtful prompts to help nurses and nursing students talk through real-world scenarios would be very helpful. It's not just for a new nurse, it's for any nurse, even a retiree. It can be useful in a nursing organization meeting. It could be useful as an icebreaker for students. It can be useful in various settings, and it was meant to spark dialogue, connection, and reflection. So how might I handle said scenario, or how might others Have they, have they encountered this? If they have, I can hear how they have navigated it. And by the end of that discussion, you come away with some extra things that you haven't even considered that you might adopt. But also, it's not just clinical scenarios, it's prompts about professional development. How can you enhance your professional development? Have you attended a conference? What has been a conference that's been helpful for you? Because you may see lately that there might be a lot of nursing, uh, nurses entering the workforce, but they're not really tapping into the professional development side. They don't understand the importance of, okay, yes, you got the job, but there's other things you could put in your tool belt that's going to help you in your networking, in you getting another job that will help, uh, expand your career. So sometimes they're not clear about that. And so this kind of questions, bank of questions can help them as well for that. So I thought this was an easy way to reach multiple people, students and nurses, to get them to start to think about, hey, if I'm not yet doing this, maybe I'm going to get into this, or maybe I'm going to inquire about how to do so. So this is my first and only product. This is the Nurture Novice Conversation Cards, but I have services as well to complement the cards, and the services include one-on-one consultations, and they include workshops that are geared towards transition to practice, such as the New Nurse Orientation 101 workshop, such as Managing Expectations workshop. And then I have a Nurses Virtual Lounge, which is a virtual place for real-world discussion from a practicing NPDS professional development specialist, and we get to talk about anything that is related to nursing. Hot seat coaching can take place there, but it's an open space for people to, to talk with me for an hour monthly. So that's the virtual lounge. And then I do interview prep. So I want to help those nurses who just graduated get their job and help them talk through questions that would be asked to a nursing professional, as well as mock interviews, right? So virtually mock interviews and helping students who haven't yet gotten to a nursing school. Yeah. As well as my last offering, um, we talked about the cards, we talked about the sessions, we talked about the virtual lounge, and then workshops. And then I do, I do a lot of discussions with schools, nursing schools. So if anybody's looking for a speaker at a nursing school or nursing association I'm here to help with anything transition to practice.

Amazing. So look, it sounds like you are on a very similar track to what I've been doing for many years. Yes, I do appreciate that you said earlier regarding the entrepreneurship that you saw people that looked like you, right? Yes, I really do appreciate that because it's true. Underserved populations historically, right? It's time we have to, we have to raise everyone up equally. Because representation matters. You know, I am a Caucasian male, but I am of a subset of a minority group. I am part of the LGBTQ+ community. And sometimes offerings are not given to me because of that, right? So we have to make sure that we align our differences and our passions and our purpose and our powers, right? We have to really lean into what we're good at. And people will give us the opportunities when we rise up to say, you know what, I got it and I know I can share it and I know people will benefit from it. So let's get it together.

And so with that, I think to you too, yeah, sure, add to you too. And it's twofold for me. So for instance, pre-COVID, there was this boom for all people who were interested in being influencers, entrepreneurs, and in various careers and paths. But I saw, because I joined an organization called Saan Siel, um, it's with nurse scientists and innovators. All of the innovation that was being done as entrepreneurs, nurse entrepreneurs in that space, that was a— whoo, you know, all it takes is proximity sometimes for you to then— the light bulb to go off. Because we know entrepreneurs, we know business people, but it wasn't really until the Saan Siel group when I started seeing the patenting and the designs and the innovation that they had. And that's why I was interested in 3D printing. I was interested in education technology, and that really went off. And I was trying to find my place as what I could do immediately.

Yeah, of course.

And then I went to a nurse entrepreneur workshop, and I saw that there were many people who had established their businesses either as a nurse practitioner business or as a consultant for wounds, or someone who opened their own you know, practice or medical spa. When I saw that, once I saw that, that's the second time that it—

woo!

And these were people of color. These were all people of color in the second workshop. And so that's what really said, I can do it. That's made— that made me feel like, why are you not doing this now? And that's when the whole everything just started rolling. So proximity matters. People who look like you, it matters. Mentorship Matters. And I have about 5 mentors, but it wasn't until that, that shift happened— because I was— I would tell you, I want stability and I want to get a check every 2 weeks. That's my thing. But then when I got into the mindset of hold up, entrepreneurship, it changed. So that's that. It all aligned, but it's proximity and it's mentorship and it's seeing other people who are taking risks and just do it. And there's so many things that nurses can solve problems about. So as they're new nurses, they can see how they can make an impact and take, and take it off running with it and get their own business started. There's something for everybody.

Absolutely. And I would love for you to just plug— let's give a shout out to the organization where you learned so many people of color doing entrepreneurship with all of these different things. Nurses specifically What was that organization that got you so inspired and motivated?

Okay, first one was SONCIL. That's the, you know, Nursing Innovator Scientist Organization. And then the second was one of the chapters of the National Black Nurses Association.

Amazing.

As I'm a, I'm a past vice president of the New York Black Nurses Association, but the chapter, uh, the, the Greater New York City Black Nurses Association had a nurse entrepreneur panel. The month, uh, that I decided that I was going to become a consultant and get my LLC. And that was that. That was a great program that really— it just was a matter of you see it, they're giving you the tools to get started, and it's like, well, what is your excuse? Why didn't you start?

Correct.

So it's a— it's the best decision I've made in a long time.

Amazing. So I'm glad that you said that because I know there's a lot of people listening to this that probably didn't know that, that association, and now they're going to join. Now they're going to be ready to get in there and figure out how can they help them. Another organization that I always plug, it's been integral to, to my success. It's been integral to, I know, Farrah's success. It's— we all are members of it. You should become a member if you're not. It's the National Nurses in Business Association.

Yes, I know you were there this year and I so wanted to be there.

Yeah, so I've been, I've been a member since 2017. I've been going every single year since. It's really, really helpful. It is the most like inspirational, positive group of people you could be around.

I believe it.

We're all nurses, so we all know what's up, right? We all know what's going on. And, um, a lot of these nurses are millionaire nurses who are, you know, facilitating this, helping people, setting them up. You mentioned you have lots of mentors. Many of them mentored to get people to be successful.

Possible.

So whether you're looking to have a side hustle just to have a little bit more diversification of your career, whether you're looking for a full-fledged business that can make, you know, upwards of a million or more a year— yes, there's lots of opportunities out there, which is really—

I have subscribed. I've subscribed to, to NNBA. And to be funny, the funny thing about it is I have a book from many years ago that I wanted to give a nurse And who's the author of this book? Donna Cardillo.

Oh, I love Donna Cardillo.

Is amazing. And I went to a recent ANPD conference a few years— was it— was it— yeah, a few years back, and she was amazing. Or Magnet, Magnet conference. She was amazing. And then when I realized this is a book that was her book, I said, oh wow, she's awesome. So I know she's one of the people affiliated She is awesome.

And I'll just do a, you know, a guilt-free plug for her is she has a book that is called Your First Year as a Nurse.

That's the book that I have. That's the book that I'm talking about that I was just like—

It is on Amazon. And I, and I want every nurse educator out there, especially those nurse educators dealing with new grad nurses, right? I want every nurse educator to convince their organizations to give them a budget to let them buy this book for their students. It's not that much money. There's digital copies on Amazon. You can buy them in bulk and just send the code to the, to the employees or the new nurses. Um, and that way they have this. This book is so helpful to really drive up that professional integrity, to really get these folks to step into the professional role and not be so focused on task orientation. We don't want them to be task-oriented. We want them to step into the power of being a registered nurse. Like, that's, that's what we need. We need nurses. We don't need med techs, right? So this book definitely helps with that. And, you know, I've had the pleasure of helping Donna. There's a few excerpts in there that have my name on there, some like just testimony from my career and my experiences.

I love it.

No, Donna's, Donna's great. We've become good friends. She's really an incredible person. Actually, she actually has a deck of cards too. Which is awesome, Falling Together, which are really kind of like inspirational. I'll send you the link to them, um, after, and I'll just link them in the show notes of this episode too. I'll link yours in the show notes of this episode. And, you know, just give the audience, uh, just a quick rundown of where can they find you if they want to connect with you to collaborate, pick your brain, or even, you know, go into professional business, uh, dealings with you.

How can they get in touch with All right, so we've got, you know, business to consumer, we've got business to business, we've got two avenues here. So if you are an individual, if you're an individual and you're a student and you're looking to do one-on-one work with me, whether that's job interview prep or career clarity consultation, you can visit www.nurturednovice.com. N-U-R-T-U-R-E-D novice.com. If you are interested in mock interviews with me, I can give you feedback. If you'd like me to come to your nursing school and do a presentation for your nursing senior students who are, you know, about to graduate and do a transition to practice workshop, that would be great. If people are looking for speakers at conferences, please, I'm— I welcome you as well. Nursing organizations, if you have nurse residency programs, I'd love to talk to your nurse residents. If you don't have a residency program, I'd also love to talk to yours, to your nurses, because they can benefit from help and support on navigating their—

and, and I'm just gonna jump in here, you know, entrepreneur at fault, um, I also hear a future product or service that you offer is helping organizations build residency programs when they don't exist because they're super integral to the professional and patient or resident outcomes. So very much.

Yes. I mean, because not every institution can afford, you know, the, the full thing, right?

But there's still strategies.

Yes.

A couple of days here, a workshop there, a skills fair there that could maybe supplement some of what a residency would cover. Right.

Exactly. And I do speak at career expos and meet with people there. So help in any fair, career fair.

Amazing. And so, so the main channel to get to you is through Nourished Nurse LLC.

The other one, nurturednurse.com, is my website. But if you want to follow me on social media, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, I'm on Facebook, I'm on YouTube.

And so all under the Nourished Novice.

Nourished Novice. Yes.

So I will have all of those ways that people can get in touch with you in the show notes of the episode. I'll link your cards directly there so people could just click that link and go straight to the store. And I will also put Donna Cardillo's cards and book— I'll even put it there so other people can see where to find it, because these are all very helpful tools. I was actually just speaking to a very dear friend of mine that I worked with for years, and I pulled a card from Donna's thing just to say, hey, I'm gonna pull a card for you and give you whatever inspiration you need. And today said for her, I am open to learning new things. My mind is receptive and alert.

And so, positive affirmations.

Yeah, sometimes we just need to be reminded that all is well. We have the full power to step into action and not just let our fears and uncertainties hold us back. And, you know, I can see that you're living proof of that. I know that I'm living proof of that. We've helped so many people, and We're just getting started, Jasmine. This is really exciting.

But it takes a village because I have 5 mentors. So I, when I have uncertainties and doubts, you've got to speak life into people and they've got to speak life into you. So you've got to find your nursing tribe because not everybody wishes you well and they don't all want you to succeed. But there are people who will tap in and be a support, be a mentor, be a sponsor, you know. So those are important. But also, in addition to that too, with the cards, you can find them on Etsy, you can find them on TikTok as well too, um, and versus my, my site as well, which—

amazing. Yeah, I'm gonna send them straight to your site because we want to drive up that website traffic anyway. Thank you. So yeah, I'm just going to link them straight to your store. And, um, you know, just one last note about mentorship, right? So mentorship is so, so important, but what I really want to put out there for everyone listening It's not free. It takes commitment. It is an equal exchange of time and energy. It does sometimes cost money because sometimes the level of mentorship is so detailed and labor-intensive to pour into others, and people should be adequately compensated for the time and strategies and experience and tools that they worked hard to gather for you. So for my new nurses out there, for my experienced nurses, for business to business, whatever it may be, we need to stop expecting people to give education away for free. Education is not free. You can ask any Ivy League university in this country. No one goes to school for free. Okay, so we have to get paid for our time. But we will pour into you and we will guarantee that you're going to get what you need. The other thing about mentorship that's different than figuring it out on your own, the biggest thing is, is the huge savings of time and struggle, right? And in today's world where we're trying to get stuff done fast, we don't always have or can afford to spend 6 years to figure something out that we could figure out in 6 months with an expert at our side. Right? So it's really important that you just understand that, yes, Jasmine, myself, other people out there, we have the knowledge, we have the know-how, but you can't expect it for free. You do have to pay for it, right? When she's at her organization, she's getting paid. So hit her up if you're— if you work with her at the organization, hit her up, she'll give it to you. But outside of that, any consultations, please, you do have to pay for her time. It's super important. And the more money we make, the more money you make in turn, because we can do better things with more money and more resources. And that's really what it's all about. So I just wanted to say that for you because I already know the challenges that you're up against with the education. I've, I've been there. It's been my whole story. People always are so helpful— I mean, so grateful for when you help them, but when you ask for money, they're kind of like, wait a minute. What do you mean I gotta pay? You have to pay. Okay.

Yeah, you know, if you have a business, you have to decide what is going to be, you know, something you're willing to do for free and what you're willing to get paid for. And that's the, that's the, the challenge.

Well, this is, and this is really where the National Nurses and Business Association can help. Well, help, because a lot of us start off with, oh my God, I'm charging, I feel guilty charging. Because we're trained, we're trained to just give it away for free because we're nurses and we're, we're meant to help people. But you know, you can't run yourself into the ground and not have enough money to pay your own rent. So yeah, you have to be able to, to charge for your services. And even if it's low, you should get paid for that. So I just wanted to be creative.

If you, if you are scaling down, exactly, how can I be creative? And you get something, but you're not necessarily gonna get everything.

Exactly. Be flexible, be creative, have, have different tiered prices. And you know, that's something we all have to learn as we enter into business, which is awesome.

I will say one thing though, but I think it's tricky because we have to give things that people want. We have to be appealing, so people have to feel like they're getting value. So I guess the onus on the business owner is, are we putting out stuff that's value— of value for people?

Correct.

And marketing, that's a struggle. Marketing is a struggle.

You know, for me, so look, marketing's a struggle primarily because of how the algorithms have changed with the social medias and the AI and all of this. And, you know, but just like anything, it's a tool that you have to learn how to play with, right? It's— you have to learn how to work, and there's so much help out there that can teach you how to play with the algorithm and get noticed and get sales. And sometimes it winds up being in areas that you never thought you would want to invest time and energy. But if it gets you a lot of money, so then you can spend more time doing the things that you enjoy more, like the one-to-ones that might not get you that same amount of money. Yes, yes, you should invest in that, because if you have money coming in while you're sleeping, or you're making money in a different area that's completely unrelated—

automated. Yes.

Then you can go ahead and spend more time with your students or with clients to help grow them professionally and then later on teach them those automations and to improve their financial wellness so then they can show up better for the work that they want to do as well.

It's all through all of it. I'm enjoying the journey and, you know, the ups, the downs, the learning, learning curves. It's a new— it's a new thing that I was not exposed to earlier, but I am enjoying it.

It is a lot of fun. I'm enjoying it as well. You know, I've been doing this education consulting thing since 2016 professionally.

That's awesome.

And now I'm entering into another venture, another thing that nurses can do because nurses really can do anything. And I'm kind of, you know, I'm stepping fully into, you know, the nursing aesthetics world. I love it. I have an excellent mentor who's been doing it since the '90s. She has a patent on a machine that does electrodesiccation to get rid of skin irregularities, and she sells other machines and she knows everybody. Body in the world, and she's teaching me her ways. And I was just at my first aesthetics conference this weekend in Boston, and I just got back in the city of New York today. It was great. And they had esthetician students there, they had nurses there. I was educating them, showing them how to use these machines. It's still fully in my wheelhouse of educating and empowering others to make awesome career choices. And so, you know, I like to be able to do treatments for people because I love direct patient care. Um, it's just given me another avenue to be creative and to explore a world that I didn't know much about, and I'm learning so much, and it's so much fun beyond the bedside.

It's like once you open your eyes to the possibilities, like, there's nothing that we can't do as nurses in, in the health profession. Yeah, and beyond.

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Jasmine, for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Thank you for having me. My pleasure. Your real pleasure. You're here in the city in New York, so we're definitely going to have to meet up, you know, have coffee, lunch, whatever, catch up. And we definitely have some collaborations to do because you and I are on the same wavelength. And I really know that we can, we can create something really special for the community. Anything I could do to help you along the way, connect you in any kind of way, give you any services, tips. I'm here for you as well.

So thank you, thank you so much. I will be at an upcoming NNBA conference.

We're gonna be in Scottsdale, Arizona next year in July.

So that's awesome, that is awesome.

Go get in there, and if I can make any connections for you, I'll certainly do that. So thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you for having me.

My pleasure.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

And that concludes episode 5 of season 4 of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this episode's guest, Jasmine Waterman-Paris. We hope that everything we shared for you in this episode will help you to lead the charge and become the educator and professional development specialist that you set out to be. All the ways to connect with Jasmine will be in the show notes of this episode. And as always, if you have any questions about anything we shared please visit thenursespeak.com 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.