Poetic Expressions in Nursing: Sage Advice from an RN who has done it all! Episode 10 of Season 2: Susan J. Farese

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this week's guest, Susan J. Faris. Susan has been a registered nurse since 1978 and has done basically everything there is to do in nursing and more. She has been in clinical, administration, staff development, research, and consulting. She was even a military nurse for 13 years. She is the author of Poetic Expressions in Nursing: Sharing the Caring, which is a book available anywhere books are sold. Susan is the prime example of nurses can do anything, and she shares some great sage advice in this episode. So let's welcome Susan 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. Okay, Susan, thank you so much for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Why don't you take a moment and introduce yourself for the listeners? Let them know a little bit about who you are, where you started in nursing and where you are today.

Thank you, first of all, for having me, Damion. It's great to be here.

My pleasure.

Yes, I, Susan J. Faris, MSN, RN. I started my career in nursing in the Navy, actually. I was in the Navy for the first 3 years, and then I transferred to the Army for the next 9 and a half years. And then since 1990, when I, we left, I'm sorry, the military. I've been a nurse entrepreneur on and off ever since.

Okay.

At this point in time, I run my business. It's SJF Communications, which is public relations, marketing, social media, websites, filmmaking, producing, acting, modeling, coaching, and mentoring. And I'm an author.

Wow.

Yeah, I've done, I've done a very diverse career.

Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. So you're doing quite a lot. You offer a lot of services, you have your hands in a lot of different areas. And I'm sure a lot of that you've transcribed or transferred your nursing skill set to be able to manage all of these different avenues. And, you know, one of the things that I say on the podcast time and time again is that nurses really can do anything because we are equipped with the ability to do such amazing things. We can manage our own businesses, we can get involved in public policy. We can do, you know, marketing. We could do movies. There's so much stuff that we can do, right? We have a lot of transferable skills. So you're running your business, SJF Communications, which, you know, I started looking into before you're getting on the show and you do offer a lot of services, which is fantastic. So let's talk about how did you get there, right? Because you started off in nursing and then So somewhere along the line in your career path, you've identified either something that wasn't in alignment with what you wanted out of nursing, or maybe it was a recurring issue or problem that you saw that maybe you felt you could fill the gap and try to correct. So what is that thing? What have you seen over the course of your amazing career that just bothers you so much that you sought out to create some kind of strategy for success?

Oh my gosh, I have so much to say about this. Well, one of the main things in my life was being introduced to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the assessment. When I was stationed in Korea, one of my roommates had a friend that had done that for us while we were in our hooch, you know, in our little cottage, and I was fascinated by it. So when I got out of the military, I needed a transition from bureaucracy. Yeah, nursing as well as military.

Yeah.

And my husband said to me, well, what do you want to do? And I said, I want to motivate people and I want to do staff development and professional development. So I started Prosper Development Systems for the first 9 years of being an entrepreneur, and it stood for professional, staff, personal development, which comprised me doing a lot of continuing education. I had a provider number. I taught some NCLEX review courses. I did documentation consulting for Joint Commission. I worked for companies doing their research in facilities. It was a potpourri of things that just kind of fell into my lap as this started. And this was before we had social media, websites, or even computers. I knew that I had kind of a gift of getting the word out and being more extroverted. By the way, the Myers-Briggs type showed me that I was very entrepreneurial, backing up. So I'm an ENTP and creative and entrepreneurial. So I'm kind of an apple in a basket of oranges or vice versa. And I was a little unsettled about that when I was younger, because I just wasn't mature enough or developmentally ready to embrace my gifts.

Right.

It's okay to be different, not to fit with everybody as well.

Right.

I mean, there's a time for teamwork and collaboration, definitely. But the way I got here today is by a lot of geographical moves and just transitions in my life, whether it was schooling, moving, becoming a mom, moving again, lots of relocation because of being in the military and being married to a corporate executive. So we were always moving. In fact, I used to get an itch. When am I moving again? When am I changing? But, but I'm just very, very satisfied. And I've learned from mistakes. I've learned from being burnt out in my very first nursing job that I didn't know I was burnt out with years and years ago. So I have a lot of things inside of me that I would love to share with your audience, especially new nurses or nursing students, that kind of thing.

Yeah.

Because wisdom comes from, you know, life, mistakes, transitions, and those kind of things.

Absolutely. Experience, right? With the experience that we face. And, you know, it's, it's, it's amazing that you said in your very first nursing job that you experienced burnout and you didn't even realize you were experiencing it. No. And your story is not unique to just you. It happens to almost all of us. You know, I've shared this, um, in many of my episodes and Anyone who knows me professionally knows that nursing almost lost me. The profession almost lost me. I was taken aback by how different things were from what they were supposed to be and how every time I tried to find a solution to what I saw as very simple, you know, fixes, I was told, who am I? You're just a new nurse. You don't know anything. This is the way things have always been. What you want from us is going to take too much time and too much money. We can't do that. And I was just like, this is crazy.

Absolutely.

And I almost left. I almost left by that.

Look at what a gift you have helping new people out, too.

Yeah.

I mean, well, with my situation, I was working general medicine as a 20-something-year-old. There was death. There were— and I was in the Navy, so we had soldiers or sailors that came in. Vietnam vets that came, and I was just encumbered with so much at a young age that I was not developmentally ready to handle the stress.

Yeah.

And I didn't know how to verbalize it. And so one day, the supervisor from evening shift came and made rounds and looked at me and said, by the end of the day, I want you to tell me where you want to work when you come back and how much vacation or leave you're going to take. And I looked at her like, what? I didn't really know her very well either. So something about my faces, or just demeanor, was not myself. And I think I know, I mean, we had a lot to handle back then. And I know that with COVID the pandemic, I don't know if I could be able to deal with it. It is so stressful right now, or has been. So actually saved me, kept me in nursing. I changed to cardiothoracic step-down telemetry, loved it. It was a whole new life from general medicine, and started doing some nursing education in-services then and knew that I love to teach. So the worst thing that could happen can be the best thing that can happen.

Absolutely.

Right?

Right. And I love that, that, you know, for the message for those listening, again, nurses can do anything. But really what kept me in nursing, and what kept me from leaving is the fact that I don't give up very easily. And when they kept saying, oh, you're just a new nurse, you don't know anything, this is the way it's always been, I decided to make it my own professional mission to change that. So what I did is I went back to school and became an authority in nursing education, and then I was able to come back with the credentials and the additional experience to say As a matter of fact, we have research and evidence-based studies that show that this simple solution will make a major impact. And then guess what? Lo and behold, people started listening to me, and I started to be able to create that positive change that I saw very early on was pretty easy. And nursing is a second career for me, so I didn't come in completely wet behind the ears. I had 15 years of food and hospitality industry industry, opening up restaurants up and down the— up and down the Eastern Shoreboard, dealing with multi-million dollar corporations. So it's not like I was new to working, right? I wasn't new to, right, taking care of people and discussing and problem solving. But because I was a new nurse, they didn't value my prior experience.

And I was just thinking of that V word. I was thinking of value and validate. They did not validate you, and that is such a shame. Let's change this.

Yep.

Now, and especially with your audience, that, you know, to speak up. You had maturity and you had experience, and that should have been translated into respect and validation.

Absolutely. So, you know, once I identified that I could find, um, the passion in nursing with correcting some of these deficiencies, filling in some of the knowledge gaps, bringing in some of my customer service skills into the clinical setting, which nurses don't get trained on customer service. We just don't. We don't get trained on conflict resolution, really. We don't really get trained on risk management. We don't really get trained on marketing. None of that stuff.

Or change, even change, embracing change, even embracing change, right?

We have to learn things so, um, strict to the rubrics that if we deviate from the rubrics, we did something wrong. So You know, a lot of change is on the horizon. We're doing a lot of amazing things to change the way that we do things. But it looks like what you did is you kept pivoting, which is—

always—

which is so important. When one thing's not really working for us, it doesn't mean it's the end of your career. And it doesn't mean it's the last thing for you to do. Pivot and find something else that you love and keep moving forward. Because in everything you've done, let me ask you, has your nursing knowledge and skill set helped you achieve everything that you've done?

Most definitely. In fact, I use my nursing process with clients that are in the entertainment field. How about that? I— we assess what their needs are, what do they want from us. We plan what our strategy is. We do a statement of work. We implement by doing social media, press releases, whatever. And we evaluate and say, what do we do wrong? What can we do better? Oh, we can get ads. We can boost your, your social media. We can do that. So, that's just one example. I did want to tell you too, way back when I did transition out of the military, some things fall into my lap as well as me searching for a change. So, a junior college had reached out to me to teach a few professional development topics for them. And they said, once you develop these, they're yours. And that's how I started Prosper Development Systems as well. I started doing continuing ed on topics such as values clarification, goal setting, conflict management, leadership, change, all these things we've been talking about, right? So be the one— I have many lessons for people, but one lesson is to be ready, have readiness. Yeah, pay attention, be aware. I mean, I learned that on film sets as an actor too. If you— even as a background actor, if you show that your demeanor is ready, they will say 'You come here, be in this scene, get featured. Oh, we can bump you up to a principal role.' So I have so many examples of that where you— I don't know, intuition is one of my favorite friends too. Yeah. Okay. Creative arts, kindness, networking with people, being a professional image in nursing, a demeanor. Finding a mentor, coaching other people if you have experience.

Yeah.

Wear your different hats.

Yeah.

You know, if you have skills in education or motivating or in a code, if you're the one that gets right to the airway, that's a, that's a skill. That's fantastic. Whereas there's value in the person that sees the big picture. Yep. You know, that makes sure everything else is going okay. Someone's at the lab, someone's with the family, whatever. There's so many things in nursing that we have learned, but we don't identify them or define them in things such as change theory, leadership, or whatever. Of course, that is such an important aspect. And I don't know how the leadership management courses are recently, but I don't think I learned much when I was an undergrad. I think my master's program really changed me in terms of embracing change and being a change agent.

Absolutely. And honestly, I think we really need to start squeezing some of those fundamentals into even the degree programs, because what we keep seeing time and time again is a lack of maturity, a lack of professional development, a lack of conflict resolution, leadership skills, managerial skills. And unfortunately, even our brand new RNs, um, coming out with an associate degree are being put in those positions because of the shortage. We have no choice but to put them in those positions. So the schools really should step it up with making sure that we're getting these essential skills. Um, I don't want anyone to call them soft skills anymore because they're not soft, they're hard. It's hard to do this work and this work makes big differences.

Absolutely. So you're almost on target.

Yeah. So I mean, these are the things that I'm also working on. It sounds like, you know, a lot of the career trajectory you've done with NCLEX review and professional development, doing the same thing. And this is where it kind of bothers me because you done this however many years ago, why are we doing it again? This is the thing that bothers me the most in nursing, is we are just recreating the wheel every few years. We're recreating it because it drops off. People start it and it drops off because we don't have the systemic support across the entire profession to make sure we keep moving these things forward. And a lot of that, I think, has to do with how nurses are supported across our healthcare system because we are a bottom dollar in many facets in the modern healthcare system that we have. Hospitals find us very taxing and very expensive and, you know, needy, right? And I've, I've sat with administrators, so I know how they feel about nursing as a whole, and they just don't support us to be able to do this work. So this is where things like this podcast and networking with individuals like yourself, we can use our powers that be to really help nurses realize that you don't have to be at the hospital. You don't—

oh, absolutely not.

You don't have to be at the nursing home. You don't have to be in the home care. You could really create your own system that best suits the patient population in which you want to serve, or leverages your nursing knowledge and skill set to create a business, a clinic, a school, whatever it is you want that best aligns with what you need to accomplish your career, right?

Not just what you need, but what your passions are. Yeah, what really drives you, you know? Yeah, so yeah, the sky's the limit.

The sky is the limit. Awesome. So, you know, so if I hear you correctly, one of the first things you said— you offered a lot of sage wisdom there. Uh, one of the things that you said that is a strategy that people can take right now is to speak up, you know, to say it is what it is you need, what it is you want, what it is you will or will not accept, and start there. So you have to speak up, because if you don't say something, then no one knows. No one's gonna know. It's the same thing that we all learn in nursing school. If we see something with our patient that is abnormal we have to say something. We can't just let it fly under the radar because we are assigning significance to that change, and that's not really our job as nurses. We don't get to assign significance to a change in a patient's status. It's either a change or it's not. And so people need to know about that change. So it's the same thing for yourself. If you're not happy with your role, you need to let your supervisors know so that they can either help you shift into another role Or maybe they say, okay, this isn't working. So then you get to be free so you can try something else.

Exactly. And another thing would be a role conflict. Say you're just out of school, you get your first job and something's just not right. You're just not— you're not yourself. Something's bothering you, but you don't know what to say. But you're just not yourself. You know, that aura about you. Well, it could be a role conflict. I went through that too. I went through that after graduate school. I was a nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist in that track, and I was certified for 10 years as a nurse practitioner. But I chose to work in an administrative role and more of an entrepreneurial role. And that's the best decision I could have made. Right. That's where I serve my purpose. So it's not a failure either. It is not a failure. And besides speaking up, ask questions. If you don't feel, you know, sure about a skill that you're supposed to do or whatever, it's always good to ask questions. People will— and if people don't treat you well when you ask a question, that's a problem with the system. Yeah, many problems are systems and communication based in our lives.

Absolutely.

No matter what system we work in or what field we work in. Absolutely. Um, you know, respect that it could be a systems problem, it could be a role conflict. Could be a lack of knowledge, it could be a lack of maturity. There's so many things that are factors into it. Yes, don't worry, we're so happy that your audience is choosing nursing. We need the right people in nursing with the heart. Yeah, with a still a heart and an intuition and a caring, um, you know, facet about it.

Yeah. And so, you know, a lot of my listeners are nursing students or new graduate nurses, but I do have quite a large following of professional nurses and I'm hearing the same calls from them, the same issues, is, you know, how can I still support the healthcare system in the state that it's in without being the punching bag all the time? And this is a hard question to answer. I can't really say with confidence that you won't be the punching bag from time to time because we all are, and it's almost any role we hold as nurses um, we are meeting people sometimes at their worst.

We are.

When they have really complex needs that sometimes are, you know, emotionally charged. And sometimes we are the ones to, to hold the person up while they're grieving or whatever the case may be, when we're doing direct patient care or patient care-related services. But again, there's so much more outside of nursing that go beyond taking care of patients.

Right. One of the things I remember from my military nursing, so it was almost 13 years, is that we were assertive. We were a team. We were interdisciplinary, respecting each other. And I do miss that. And I miss hearing about that. I just see so— if I'm on Twitter and I do the hashtag #NurseTwitter, you wouldn't believe all that's going on in nursing.

Oh, I believe it. I think most of the people on this podcast believe it.

Right. We know some of the same people. So, because I've been on a couple others.

For sure.

Yeah. What a great discussion. I really appreciate this.

Yeah, no problem. It's my pleasure. It really is. I love hearing from people who have gone through so much in the profession and have found their passion, have found strategies that really help them to succeed. You know, guys, as you hear, Susan's done so much in her career. Stayed within nursing, embraced nursing the entire time, but you stepped away from direct patient care, right? Because there's other things that you're more passionate about or that align with your purpose. And, you know, you also did some poetry, I believe. Oh yes, right, lots of expressive poetry.

That's, that's another, uh, oh, you can't see it.

It's okay.

Oh, there it is.

So it's Poetic— what's the name of the book?

The book is Poetic Expressions in Nursing: Sharing the Caring. I wrote it in '93, and I republished it last year with the pandemic and how much stress nurses are undergoing, and to celebrate nursing and to show that cultivating a creative art is extremely cathartic and therapeutic. It can be. You know, it was for me. Another of my stories is, I became a poet in '91, seeing the movie Awakenings. A character reminded me of my grandma, my maternal grandmother, who, at age 60, passed away from complications of Alzheimer's, early Alzheimer's. So I was a child growing up with a grandmother who was my soulmate. And she had to be ultimately institutionalized because there was no daycare support. There were no organizations back then or anything.

Right.

And the movie— a character in the movie reminded me of her when she was almost on her deathbed in 1971. And I was crying in the movie theater at Awakenings with Robin Williams, uh, Robert De Niro. Went home a couple days later, could not get to sleep. My husband was on a business trip. I took a bath, I had a glass of wine, nothing helped me sleep. So I grabbed a journal that he had given me the holiday before, and I'm all alone, and I sat on the couch and thought about that movie and my grandmother, and a 3-page poem poured out of me that rhymed, that was in sequence from childhood to 20 years after her death as a nurse reflecting. And that was so powerful. I would read it to groups because I was a nurse entrepreneur, or the Chamber of Commerce. People would come up, they wanted to talk about their aunt, their grandmother, their spouse.. And I knew I had something. I didn't know what it was. Called my mother, read the poem to her. She said, "I want you to share it with everybody." So, I've been doing that. So, it cultivated that I had the courage to ventilate with writing and continue to write. The book was published. I did nursing continuing education seminars. I was distinguished lecturer for Sigma Theta Tau with poetry years and years ago. And just recently, the last 4 years or so, I started doing haiku workshops for the general public and for brain-injured clients. And I continue to do that. In fact, I did one yesterday at a library where haiku can help. It's a succinct method of getting your words out for any profession, but nursing especially with what's been going on the last few years. So, one of my lives is that I am a poet and a published author, and I love talking about poetry and even teaching some simple things about getting that pen to paper. But I also believe that nurses especially should have some cultivation of a creative art or a passion. Yeah. So that you can put that other side of you, the human side of you, and just rest and relax and feel good and smile. You know, whether it's nature walks, photography while you're walking, filmmaking, producing, theater, comedy, You name it, right? Podcasting.

Exactly.

Another hat. Wear those other hats.

Exactly. Look, Susan, you have done so much and you continue to do so much. I really appreciate all of the service that you've given the profession and continue to do so. I really am excited to continue collaborating with you. I think that we could work on a lot of future projects together. And you have a lot to offer individuals. You do a lot of education and a lot of spaces that people need that help, whether it's creative, uh, outlets or whether it's from some of the nursing experience and nursing education that you're a specialist in. So awesome. So Susan, tell everyone where can they find you if they want to connect with you and learn more about your products and services?

Great. So my company is SJF Communications. I'm in the San Diego area. I am online at sjfcommunications.com, and that stands for Susan J. Faris, by the way, my company name. I am on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok as @SJFCOMMO. Okay. I'm on LinkedIn with my name, Susan J. Faris, MSN, RN. And my book is Poetic Expressions in Nursing: Sharing the Caring. It is available everywhere you purchase books. You may have to order it if it's not there, but it's on Amazon and all over. It's a paperback, paperback, I'm sorry, ebook, as well as an audiobook, which I narrated. So that's that. I'm available for consulting. I'm available for haiku workshops, but my website usually has different links on there for everything. And I wanted to remind people to read journals and join organizations, not ABCDE, all of them, but the ones that pertain to you for professional development.

Absolutely.

Always be a lifelong learner and enjoy life. Enjoy life again, especially the last few years.

That's so nice of you, Susan. Thank you. So before I wrap up, since you mentioned professional organizations and you're a nurse entrepreneur. Um, are you a member of the National Nurses in Business Association?

I was a long, long time ago, so I'm thinking about joining again. I think that it would be valuable for everybody.

I highly recommend that you do. I think there's lots of strategies that you could still learn, um, with all of the amazing entrepreneurs that are part of that group. And I'm not sure if you know Michelle Podlesny, the president of the organization, um, powerhouse, and she knows everyone.

Awesome.

Definitely someone to connect with. I'm going to be at the conference this July. I'm speaking on how to develop a successful education and consulting business. So I will be presenting that. And then we have a really great lineup. So, you know, was a member before, you're always a member, but we would love to see you back in the organization. And if you can come in July, that would be fantastic. It's the 21st through the 23rd in Vegas.

Oh, I might be able to do that. 21st, I'm gonna write that down.

Awesome. So thank you so much, Susan, for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. It was such a pleasure having a discussion with you and sharing strategies for our listeners, and I can't wait to see you next time and collaborate some more.

Definitely, Damion Jenkins. Thank you so much for all that you do as well.

My pleasure. Have a wonderful evening. Take care.

Take care. Bye-bye.

Bye. And that concludes episode 10 of season 2 of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this week's guest, Susan J. Faris. We hope that everything that we've shared for you in today's episode will help you develop strategies for career success and career alignment. All of the ways to get in touch with Susan will be located in the show notes of this episode. And as always, if you have any questions about anything we've covered in today's episode, feel free to visit thenursespeak.com/contact and get in touch with me. I would love to have a discussion with you. So until next episode, take care, be well, and remember that nurses can do anything.