A Nurse First: Recent Episodes
Sigma Nursing
A Nurse First is a podcast about firsts—stories from nurses who have been there, done that, and have lived to tell the tale, so to speak. It explores the world of nursing from all sorts of unexpected angles, sweeping you along in stories and giving you pause to think, “What would I do if it were me?”
Admittedly, Imelda Reyes' path to nursing followed a non-traditional route, joining the Navy and starting in healthcare finance. Now a nurse practitioner and faculty member at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, it was also rather unconventional for her to volunteer as a graduation marshal just a few months after starting her new role. Following the "norm" wasn't what was important. Being there for her students—being part of something bigger—that's what Imelda cares about.
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Linda Casale spent 25+ years as a psychiatric mental health nurse serving the Veteran's Association. She witnessed the struggles veterans faced, especially once the VA recognized the additive effects of opioids and benzodiazepines and aggressively worked to reduce their use. Despite her understanding, Linda felt like it left her toolbox empty. Though retirement was in sight, she kept hearing about the many benefits of medical cannabis from her patients, and she decided to embark on a new mission to deliver integrative holistic care to veterans.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
Throughout her life, Mar'yana Fisher has turned to poetry to express her feelings creatively and fearlessly. Before leaving Ukraine and immigrating to Canada, she even published a short collection. Her muse struck again when she started graduate school in Canada after immigrating from Ukraine. Poetry helped Mar’yana process her fear and anxiety during this time and became a powerful tool for self-expression and advocacy in her nursing career.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
Daniel Suárez-Baquero is the person he is today because of his abeula. She inspired his dream to work in women's health, and modeling her courage, he became the first male nurse in birth and labor rooms in Colombia. Now his research focuses on reproductive justice in order to pay tribute and give back to the many women who built him.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
Cora O'Leary's research study on the challenges faced by nurses caring solo for children with complex healthcare needs led to recommendations for improvements in support and governance. With her study's findings in hand and national policy changes on the horizon, she crafted a new nursing role for herself as Ireland's first Clinical Practice Specialist.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
Though still very much a new member of Gamma Tau at-Large Chapter, Trish Eusala went all in, volunteering to lead as the chapter's Community Outreach Chair. The outcome? New connections, invaluable experiences, and unshakeable friendships across the nursing continuum.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
When Aron King shares that he is an assistant nurse manager, he knows questions are coming. Only 7% of nurses are Black and male so he gets, "How did you get into nursing?" a lot. Most don't mean it to be a microaggression, but regardless, it is. Through his research and community involvement, he's out to change the mold society has formed for healthcare workers.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
We hope you've enjoyed the past 10 episodes! We'll be back with more in February 2023.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
Melissa Sherman knew that helping her best friend with her end-of-life care would change her. She expected grief, in all its forms, but what she didn't see coming was an opportunity to change life and death for others.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
Facing down a certification exam day, Shanan Thode wrestled with self-doubt, fear, and dread. Needing some words of encouragement, she posted on The Circle, Sigma’s professional networking platform. Her anxiety told her no one would respond, but Sigma members showed up to prove her thoughts wrong.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
Losing both her parents at age 7 left Kathleen Eviza facing an uncertain future with her five siblings. Knowing her strong will and determination would take her to the places she dreamed of, she prioritized her education and career as a means to support her family, but as an adventurer at heart, she grew to realize she'd eventually have to leave them to find a new sense of home.
Connect with Sigma:
- Tweet us at @SigmaNursing
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Share your A Nurse First story
On this special Founders Day episode, a chance encounter at a biennial convention leads to an unexpectedly deep friendship between Nancy Thompson and one of the women who gave life to Sigma 100 years ago.
It should have been a normal trip home up the 15 from the veteran hospital in Las Vegas. Maria VanHart was in vacation mode, excited to road trip to Indiana to see family. But a nurse is never really "off duty," and the scene along the highway brought the emergency room to her.
First nursing class: only four Black students. Entire nursing school: only one Black professor. Jamil Norman had big dreams, but they started to feel out of reach without someone who looked like her to model the way. Now an educator herself, she's determined to move past diversity, equity, and inclusion conversations straight toward action.
Growing up in the Philippines, Paul Biluan’s family was tight, religious, and in Paul’s words, dysfunctional. Despite wishing otherwise, his parents decided nursing school was his ticket to the United States, and he couldn’t argue with this plan to escape the abuse, live freely as a gay man, and pursue his ultimate dream—a DNP.
Ariella Teater thought she’d buried herself far enough under her grief until a phone call with her dad opened the door to the painful memories of patients she had loved and lost.
She thought her colleagues would be supportive as she neared the end of her master's program. Instead, Amanda Shilo was blindsided with questions like, "Why don't you just go to medical school?" and "You clearly don't want to be a nurse. Why are you here?"
When chest pain interrupts her vacation, former emergency room nurse Diane Sieg finds herself in an ER bed rather than beside it. She's scared, and she's anxious—but from this experience comes an invaluable validation about compassion.
You may have noticed our podcast has taken a bit of a hiatus the past year. Taking this break gave us an opportunity to look at the podcast world with fresh eyes and make way for—surprise—a new start! We hope you'll come along with us.
In this episode we discuss how Kimberly Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, CWE, uses social media to bring together a large interdisciplinary research team to answer a compelling research question.
In this episode, we discuss the body of nursing research with Linda S. Franck, PhD, RN, FRCPCH, FAAN, a Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame inductee (July 2020), Jack and Elaine Koehn Endowed Chair in pediatric nursing, and professor in the Department of Family Health Care Nursing at the University of California San Francisco.
In this episode we discuss the body of nursing research with Peggy Compton, PhD, RN, FAAN, a Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame inductee (July 2020) and associate professor and van Ameringen Endowed Chair at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
In this episode we discuss the body of nursing research from Jason E. Farley, PhD, MPH, ANP-BC, FAAN, FAANP, AACRN, a Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame Inductee (July 2020) and a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.
In this episode we discuss the research of Dr. Bukola (Oladunni) Salami, Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame inductee (July 2020) and associate professor at the University of Alberta.
In this episode we discuss the body of nursing research with Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP, a Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame inductee (July 2020) and professor and dean at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing.
In this episode of SigmaCast we discuss research related to the Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing article “Evaluating the outcomes of a Web‐Based Stress Management Program for Nurses and Nursing Assistants.”
This episode discusses research related to the Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing articles “A Longitudinal Analysis of Nurse Suicide in the United States (2005–2016) With Recommendations for Action” and “Sustainability and Outcomes of a Suicide Prevention Program for Nurses.”
In this episode we discuss the need for professional identity and brand recognition in nursing when working with the public and other healthcare professionals.
This episode we will be discussing clinician burnout, how it has impacted the profession, and what leaders and front-line staff can do to mitigate it. The authors will accomplish this by examining the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience and the report Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Supporting Professional Well-Being.
This episode we will be discussing research related to the Worldviews on Evidence Based Nursing article "Prevalence and Correlates of Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Healthy Beliefs, and Lifestyle Behaviors in First‐Year Graduate Health Sciences Students."
In this episode, we discuss research related to the Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing article “Authentic Connections Groups: A Pilot Test of an Intervention Aimed at Enhancing Resilience Among Nurse Leader Mothers.”
In this episode we will be discussing research related to the Worldviews on Evidence Based Nursing article “The MINDBODYSTRONG Intervention for New Nurse Residents: 6-Month Effects on Mental Health Outcomes, Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors, and Job Satisfaction."
Guests in this episode:
- Marlene Sampson, PhD, MSN-Ed, RN, Associate Director for Nursing Education, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
- Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, APRN-CNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, Dean and Professor, The Ohio State University College of Nursing
- Jacqueline Hoying, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice, The Ohio State University College of Nursing
In this episode, we will discuss how to convert a face to face course into an online/virtual course during COVID-19.
This episode will discuss how to avoid publishing in predatory journals and at predatory conferences. Avoiding predatory journals is relatively easy yet, as evidenced by the predatory journal websites, academics do publish in them. Avoiding predatory conferences is also easy, but we continue to hear about academics who respond to their ingratiating invitations.
In this episode, the discussions center around the need for doctoral education and the several types of terminal degrees often seen in nursing.
In this episode, the discussions center around creating awareness of bullying and incivility and ways to create a safe and healthy working environment, regardless of the setting.
Here is the first episode of our very own podcast!
To kick this off, we're talking all things preprints in nursing scholarship: What are they? What are the benefits of sharing them? What are the concerns about sharing them?