Wellness Nurse Revolution: Alison Boser RN

Wellness Nurse Revolution: Alison Boser RN Transcript

Nicole Vienneau  00:00

Welcome, everyone, to the Integrative Nurse Coaches in ACTION! podcast. My name is Nicole Vienneau. I am your host, and I’m really grateful that you’re here with us today. So today we have an exciting guest who is doing something that many Nurses would love to be doing… 

Well, I won’t, I won’t say that all the Nurses want to do this, but I think a lot of our Nurse coaches out there would love to have a job like this guest. So let’s welcome Alison Boser, who is the first wellness Nurse at a local hospital, and she lives in Tucson, Arizona. So welcome, Alison. 

Alison Boser  00:43

Thank you. Thank you for having me here, Nicole.

Nicole Vienneau  00:47

Yes, well, we’re excited, and we want to learn all the nuts and bolts of what you’re doing, but before we go there, we’d love to take a trip down history lane. So we love to know a little bit about you and why you even wanted to be a Nurse?

Alison Boser  01:04

Oh gosh. Well, my story about wanting to be a Nurse is not as dreamy as other people’s stories. I had worked a bunch of different jobs, first, a lot of jobs that required like suits and horrible things like heels. And one day, I decided that I just like, never wanted to wear heels or a suit jacket again. 

And I also really wanted to be able to buy a midweek ski pass and ski like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays. So I did feel embarrassed by this when I went to Nursing school. And I mean, of course, I wanted to help people. But part of the draw for me, of Nursing, was the the lifestyle of the scheduling.

Nicole Vienneau  01:48

I love that. So Nursing is a second career for you, and you love the schedule. And of course, you wanted to help people because, of course, and that seemed to be the big draw. So tell us what you did before Nursing.

Alison Boser  02:02

Oh sure. So I had a bunch of different jobs. I was a Parks and Rec kid. I worked at my local library, and then after college, I kind of bopped around. I did a bunch of really fun tourism type jobs, like I worked at a ski resort, I worked at the National Park, and I kind of found my way into, like, sales and marketing for conference and hotel venues. 

So I worked at a big ski resort, I worked at a casino as, like an events planner and coordinator in Reno, Nevada, and I worked at a big hotel in downtown Anchorage. And then I left that, and I did recruiting, so again, still with the suit jacket, but I did like headhunting and recruiting for several years, and then one day, just really wanted a job that was much more tangible and hands on, where I could feel like I was directly of use to people. 

So not entirely selfish, but I did also want the ability to have weekdays off, and so I went to our local vocational school and became a CNA because I had already had a couple careers. So I wanted to make sure this was, in fact, going to be a good fit for me, and that I was going to be okay touching people because I’d been in a lot of low touch jobs. 

So I became, like a certified Nurse’s aide, and I worked for a while doing that, and I did love it. And so then I just proceeded on to Nursing school. Do you want to hear about what I did as a Nurse? 

Nicole Vienneau  03:36

Sure, let’s go there. 

Alison Boser  03:39

Sure. So as a Nurse, I did an accelerated BSN program, which was really, really fun. It was in the Midwest. So I was back in my hometown. I had a great cohort. We learned a ton, and I worked at a transitional care center when I got back to Anchorage, which if you are a new Nurse out there, this is a fantastic first job. 

I know everyone wants to go ICU, straight to the hospital, but working in a Transitional Care Center is a great like skills turn relational job. It’s a fantastic place to start. And then at about a year, I went to the ER. So the rest of my career was emergency trauma, and I did do, like a fellowship or new grad type residency doing that. So everything was about being really efficient and task oriented. And then now that’s like the opposite of what I do. So it’s pretty exciting.

Nicole Vienneau  04:42

So you had such a varied career. I mean, I love the idea of seeing you or imagining you in heels and a suit, and now I see you in scrubs or just regular clothes, and then just, you know, being a CNA, that’s a tough role. You know? That’s a tough role.

Alison Boser  05:03

Really tough role. Yes.

Nicole Vienneau  05:06

And then doing that work in transitional care, and then moving into ED. And so, yeah, so then you’re in ED, and then how did you get to the role where you’re at now, as this wellness Nurse in a hospital?

Alison Boser  05:24

So I did some travel Nursing in the ER throughout the pandemic, and then needed to get some sunshine, so we came down to Tucson. So I arrived here, like as a seasonal or contract Nurse, and got a different kind of job. So I worked in our observation unit. And then the hospital I work at— Tucson Medical Center— actually has an entire Wellness Department, which I had never worked at a hospital but had that, and so I started using their services. 

They had a coach. They were not a Nurse, they were like a personal and physical trainer type coach. They had all these wellness programs for Nurses. You could earn money towards your, you know, insurance. They did organized hikes. And I was sitting there in that office one day after a free yoga class that they offer, and I said to my coach, who worked there, why don’t I work somewhere like this, like this is fantastic. 

And I think in some ways, I spoke it into being. I don’t know if we’re allowed to see that, but her contract was ending, and so they… I ended up meeting with the director. And I didn’t want the job at first, I was like, No, I’m really happy on my unit. I’m not looking for something different. 

But you know, if you were gonna have someone do this, I had all these ideas, right? So I met with them, and then I just kept thinking about the job and thinking about, like, what could a Nurse… what could a bedside RN do to improve the health and wellness and work environment of all of their hospital colleagues, like, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

And so about month or two later, I wrote them an email again, and was like, I’m still not interested. Obviously I was. But here’s my very long list of programs and ideas I think you should consider for whoever takes this job. 

So then I went in and met with them, and it was just kind of one person at first, and more and more and more people from the office just sort of like trickled into the interview, and then by the end, I think we’d all talked ourselves into me having the job. So it was, it was really neat how it happened. 

Nicole Vienneau  07:20

Wonderful. See, you must have talked it into existence.

Alison Boser  07:41

Well, I had never imagined like, as, you know, a 12 hour shift bedside Nurse, you know, I had never imagined the ability to do yoga as part of my day at work before. Like that seems so foreign, right? Like getting food and drink seemed like really crushing it when I was working bedside. So just having a completely different pace, it, yeah, I don’t know it did something in my brain where I was like, oh, Nurses can do this? Like, interesting, hmm.

Nicole Vienneau  08:19

So this particular organization never had a Nurse in this role as a full time position. So this is like a brand new role that the organization saw as a value to the organization, to bring a Nurse in as a full time wellness component. So you are essentially creating this job as you go, right?

Alison Boser  08:40

Yes, and that is both really exciting and a nice, beautiful, clean canvas for being creative, but also a lot of pressure. If you can imagine, you know, all the times you were working and thinking it would be cool if this happened, I do feel some internal pressure to make sure like we’re making, putting really good stuff out there, making really good opportunities for staff. 

Because I would love for every hospital and every health organization to have a Nurse coach, right, to have a wellness focused RN that worked on that. And I think, as many of us know, if you’ve ever tried to explain your job to someone who’s not clinical or not a Nurse, it’s really difficult, right? 

Or if you’ve ever left the bedside, it can be difficult for people who have never done it to understand, you know, what it’s like in the inner workings of a hospital. So in some ways, I’m a little bit of a spy too, because I’m like, well, that’s not going to work for 12 hour Nurses because of X, Y or Z, and so it’s a great opportunity.

Nicole Vienneau  08:41

That’s funny that you see it as being a spy. I would think that you’re our spokesperson for all the Nurses at the bedside.

Alison Boser  09:30

Maybe like a translator, like a clinical to non clinical translator or advocate, would probably be a more positive way to say that, certainly, and words matter.

Nicole Vienneau  09:30

You’re like a fly on the wall, and you could see all the aspects and know, know what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. So tell us a little bit like, maybe, maybe, like, a day in the life of Alison in this role?

Alison Boser  10:24

Oh, sure. So the great thing about being able to answer this question is that there’s really no typical day, but I’ll give you a sampling of things I work on during the week. So I do a number of one to one coaching sessions with any employees. So I did go through the INCA Nurse coach program, and graduated from that. 

So for staff members who want to come and talk or make a plan or distill their concerns or goals, we offer that one on one, and I do those both in person. I can do them remotely. We have remote workers, and sometimes we do them walking or hiking, if it’s, you know, I have a new grad whose goal is to get more physical activity and to spend more time outside. 

So that’s what we do when we meet to coach. We go outside and we walk, which is, I think, pretty special. I don’t think all new grads have that opportunity to have that level of mentorship and support, so I have those in my day. I also am on our Workplace Violence Committee, so anytime an employee is unfortunately involved in a workplace violence incident, I reach out to them and make sure they’re aware of all the broad resources we have, and I’m available to talk then. 

They get my personal cell phone number. For some people, they’re able to come right back to work, and other people need to make a plan to feel safe at work again. So we work on that. I also go to departments that have maybe had an unexpected patient loss or really hard time, and do some kind of crisis intervention group support. 

I’ve done office hours before for units that are maybe struggling or their manager just wants them to have a little TLC. So I’ll get bagels and coffee and kind of hang out in their break room, just as an extra person to you know, they can vent or talk or ask questions. I am lucky. 

I get to work with you sometimes, with the new graduate Nurses, which is really rewarding, because a lot of Nurses, they didn’t know what they were getting into, they thought they did, and navigating the realities of our profession with, you know, having a full life outside of work is pretty special, too. 

And then I just spend a lot of time developing new programs. And I’m really lucky I have a phenomenal director, and her mode is just like, try it. Like we don’t know, so try it. So we started doing an online class. This is my new favorite thing is that we’re doing wellness at your work space. 

So I teach a seven minute weight lifting class over teams like this. So you can just pop on seven minutes better than zero minutes gets you moving. We record it so night shift can do it later if they want. And then we’ve expanded that. So I work with our spiritual care department as well as our healing arts department, which also great departments to have. So we do some meditation, we do some desk mobility and stretching work. So it’s a real mix of activities.

Nicole Vienneau  13:41

I think what you’re explaining is, is that you don’t have a day to day specific schedule. In fact, you are creating your work as you go. So you’re seeing what does our hospital need? I mean seven minutes of lifting weights. I mean, who doesn’t have seven minutes? Well, probably not a lot of Nurses. 

They certainly don’t have 30 minutes. So, you know, you really have paired that down to say, okay, even seven minutes is better than zero minutes is what I heard you say, which is so great. I mean, they can pop on, they can watch it later. 

You know,  you’re really listening and discovering and going out there and figuring out what people would be attracted to and what calls to people as well. So tell us some more. And really, the unique understanding is that your day to day is not exactly the same every day.

Alison Boser  14:41

Right. And I would say that because of the coaching aspect of it, I do get that kind of inside scoop we talked about, about what’s really weighing on people. Like sometimes you get themes and everyone’s sort of having the same challenge one week.

 So you know, if everybody is struggling with low energy, and we look at what people are eating, and I need to, you know, curate a bunch of high protein, high fiber, easy to make recipes so that Nurses and staff can be fueled at their other shift. That’s, that’s what I’ll work on. 

Oh, I forgot to mention my very favorite thing that was the first thing I started when I got there, is that we started a couple book clubs at the hospital, and they’re kind of a lure, right? Like, come in and we’re going to talk about fiction. But if you’re a reader, you know, when you talk about fiction, what are you talking about? Ideas, feelings, possibilities, getting to know other people in kind of a gentle way that’s building connections and community throughout the hospital. 

So, you know, you’re like, oh, man, I have a problem, and I really need this. Oh, actually, I know the gal who’s the manager of that department, and I can call her directly. So it’s a pretty… it’s paid pretty big dividends, I think, for the community that’s involved in it. So, yeah, not a typical week, very responsive to what the concerns are in the hospital. Which I enjoy.

Nicole Vienneau  16:14

I love it. I love it, and I think it’s really well needed in all hospitals to have a boots on the ground RN, who can be there, who shows up in ways that are truly like fun ways, like book clubs and these classes and so forth and also the important times when there is an unexpected loss, or I also heard you say workplace violence, losses of colleagues. 

I mean, there’s so much that really goes on in the day to day lives of Nurses on the floor. When you’re thinking of, you know, however many units you have in an organization, and those little sub pods and the needs specific to those areas. So you’re really showing up in a different way, and they know that you’re a Nurse, so you don’t have to, you know, spend energy or prove yourself, because, no, I work at the bedside too. So yeah.

Alison Boser  17:20

I do think that showing up phrase that we use is, I think there’s some also special stuff there as a Nurse coach that you really dig into with INCA training, and that, you know, showing up physically to these units, on teams, calls, you know, on a on a digital live weightlifting class, you know, but also in person, that gift of presence that I think you really work on fine tuning in the training, being more comfortable with silence, right? 

Having like, let’s just take a couple deep breaths together. I feel like when I was in my INCA training, I spent half the time just writing down the really exceptional things that my instructor said, like, Oh, I’m going to remember that. 

You know, knowing how to be with people who are having a hard time and both give them space but ask questions that help them dig in a little bit, or be comfortable, and those things, you know, you’re physically present, but you’re also offering this sort of emotional and intellectual presence, if you will. 

And also that sort of demonstrates to people how they can be supported, right? Because none of us have a hard time alone. And when a Nurse helps a patient or a family that’s going through a hard time, that’s not the only one, right? So when they are able to support, or when I’m able to support someone in a way that is helpful, it then becomes a blueprint for everybody, like rippling out, right, or like, amplifying kind of that support, because they’ve seen it demonstrated. 

So it does add pressure to when you go to the coffee shop and get your coffee that you want to make sure you’re showing up fully and graciously in all elements of your day. Because, you know, part of my job is showing that you can do that.

Nicole Vienneau  19:22

Yeah, I love that. So showing up physically, yes, showing up with deep presence and a true understanding and really the empathy, because you do understand as a Nurse, what it’s like to be faced with a unexpected patient loss or death. 

Or, you know, those really tough situations, the families who are struggling and, you know, acting out, or whatever that is, you know what that feels like, what that looks like, and how that like can get into your heart sometimes. So just that, really deep connection that you can have with another Nurse is really irreplaceable.

Alison Boser  20:05

It’s pretty special. And then, just like always in Nursing, you know, you have the ability to escalate to higher levels of care, if you will. So you know, if I’m having a particularly long chat with someone who really needs spiritual care resources, I feel like I have a pretty close relationship with the spiritual care department. 

And, they also see our employees, right? They’re not just for patients, they’re there to support people. So that’s, I think, really special. And then also, our hospital does have quite a bit of mental health resources and other forms of support, like the hospital will pay for headspace, which includes, you know, therapy or psychiatry, so the ability to also sit with people when they’re having, like employees who are having the worst day of their life, and listen to them, and then also navigate them to more help. 

You know, it also feels, I don’t want to say satisfying, but it’s nice to be able to, like, complete the circle for them, like I’m not sending them home with a pamphlet. They can come to my office. We will log on. We will do it together. They will not be wandering through the wilderness of you know, employee assistance programs alone, I have tried to use all of our programming so that I can genuinely speak to whether it is easy or not easy to use.

Nicole Vienneau  21:38

That’s really cool that you’ve done that, that you’ve actually, like, tried all the programs. So you, you actually are a voice, the voice to say, Okay, here’s how it works, here’s how it really works, and here are the things that maybe are a little tricky, but we’ll work through them together.

Alison Boser  21:54

Yes, and I’m nerdy, so I even time it every time. So I feel like this can take you 12 minutes. I promise it’s only 12 minutes start to finish.

Nicole Vienneau  22:03

So important for the Nurse, right? For any Nurses, for any human, really, we want to know what’s the nuts and bolts? How am I going to get through this fast? It’s scary to say that you need the help, I think, sometimes too. And so having someone who is like side by side helping you along, and the process is just, it’s just a beautiful thing. Yeah, yes. All right, so some other questions that kind of came up as you were talking are, you know, what are the best times of your day?

Alison Boser  22:39

Oh, the best times of my day. Well, I will share that twice in the last 12 months, a new graduate Nurse has sort of pulled me aside and said, I would like to be a wellness Nurse one day. How do I do that? And I mean, I just put that on my list of like, when you count your blessings, right? I love that, when people like the work and think they would like to do the work, because those are two different things. 

So I like that. I do love when I check in regularly with employees that I’m coaching, whether it’s, you know, Nurses or other employees, and when they will, like, text me or email me and be like, I met my goal, right? Like I did it, and I told you I would text you when I did it, and I did. 

I also sort of love when they graduate from coaching, like, when they come and they are like, have their momentum, and then they like, don’t need to come back. It feels great to help people adjust their course and then just see them thriving. Also, I love baked potato bar day. It comes twice a month. I also love that.

Nicole Vienneau  23:54

That sounds great. Oh, my goodness, that’s wonderful. So what are some of the challenges that you face?

Alison Boser  24:06

Sure, I feel that what I am doing and attempting to track, and this will resonate for anyone who also identifies as a caregiver, is that a lot of the really, really excellent things that we do in a day, whether we’re bedside or in another role, are invisible, right? 

Like, great customer service is invisible. Making someone feel supported is sort of invisible. It’s not billable. You can’t be like, I packaged 10 boxes versus I made 10 people feel heard. It’s hard to quantify in the same way that organizations, you know, they try to do culture change. 

Well, how do you measure that? Right? So I feel like I work in this sort of qualitative space, a very, you know, social, cultural, emotions, job satisfaction. It’s lovely when I have a concrete example, and I can say this person was going to quit their job and they didn’t— that like is a quantitative example of the effects of my job. So that I think is hard to feel like sometimes I have, like metrics to show my success.

Nicole Vienneau  25:23

That’s a really great point, because there… it’s limited the amount of metrics that we have to support this type of work. And we also don’t want to necessarily go down the rabbit hole of too much metrics, like too many metrics, right? Because then it takes away this, this beautiful, heart centered approach to helping someone figure out their needs, right, or taking action on those needs. 

But, and I also really like, when you do hear those stories of, like, the testimonials, or like, yeah, I was gonna quit, and now I’m not quitting. I mean, that’s a huge money savings for an organization. When I think the average, what is the average like, startup for an RN, is like, $55,000 so saving that Nurse is saving the organization at least $55,000 at least, at minimum, right? More than that.

Alison Boser  26:26

And with our profession, right, we lose… when we lose Nurses, we often don’t get them back, right? When Nurses take a break from Nursing, they try it, they don’t make it through their first fellowship, their first year. They feel like it’s not for them. Now, our entire society has lost this skilled caregiver, right? So there is an economic impact directly for our organization, but also, you know, all the time and work that that individual put in to get those skills and education, we want some stewardship of that desire to care for others as well.

Nicole Vienneau  26:54

Absolutely, yeah, I think that that’s a really great point, because sometimes you don’t think of that aspect. I think a lot of maybe some organizations may think, Oh well, they’ll just go to another organization. You know, grass is always greener, and yet, a lot of Nurses actually do step away from the profession completely. 

So they’ve invested all that time and energy and money out of their own pocket to go to school and that is lost. And then we’ve of course, lost a beautiful Nurse who could potentially be working for 25 years, and now they no longer want to do that job anymore. Yeah, the impacts are great.

Alison Boser  27:45

Yeah. I mean, I have thought about maybe just walking around the hospital with, like, a little notepad and be like 18 people smiled at me. That’s how I measure my effect on the hospital. Smiling, you know?

Nicole Vienneau  28:06

I love it. So what are some up and coming programs or goals that you’re working towards? 

Alison Boser  28:12

Okay, so, I mean, if we’re… 

Nicole Vienneau  28:18

Or maybe even even dreaming about, how about that? 

Alison Boser  28:20

Well, I was just thinking about my global wellness Nurse revolution, right? I think that what you want is a Nurse with some experience, to go through a coaching program, to have the skills, to be present, to listen, to ask really good questions, to help people identify their own goals. 

But that would be so fantastic if you finished your primary, like, health appointment, and then you went and saw the Nurse coach that worked for them, right? Because sometimes it’s as simple as, like, well, you need to take vitamins. Which vitamins? I don’t like to… like, there’s so many layers as anyone knows if they’ve ever tried to do a habit. 

And I think that this could be great for non healthcare facilities, right? Like, everybody wants their employees to be healthy, but being healthy— for you on the podcast, I made those really annoying quotation mark fingers— Like, what does that mean? And what and that means different things to different people. And so it’s not one size fits all. 

It’s a really flexible, you know, definition based on your stage of life, where you are. And I think an awareness of wellness as this sort of amorphous different things at different times for people would be fantastic. I think wellness, like capital W wellness, has a bit of a negative connotation that, like you must be very thin and muscular and do hot, you know, yoga or something, but that’s not it. 

You know, it’s like walking your dog. It’s your grandma who can carry your groceries into her house still at 95 and she gets them after she goes and plays cards, right? It’s like strong communities. So I’d love to see all of the skills from Nurse coaching and all the Nurse coaches ripple out like that. 

My current little, little project I’m working on is figuring out a great high protein, high fiber meal prep for Nurses, right? So they have three meals, three lunches, three dinners that like are going to actually completely fuel them throughout the day without monster or Red Bull or Aulani. 

But of course, everyone can do what they want to do. I think that would be really amazing to see what strong fueled Nurses look like in a hospital. Yeah, world peace would be great. I don’t that’s not on my to do list yet, but I’m thinking about it.

Nicole Vienneau  30:54

Of course you are. Don’t stop there.

Alison Boser  31:00

I mean, Nurses have an obligation to be anti violence, right, and anti war, like we cannot be for things that cause harm and suffering. So just, I guess, moving through the world knowing that, like that’s an important tenet, like, of our identity of Nurses. Well, this got awfully serious, didn’t it?

Nicole Vienneau  31:25

It’s okay, because I’m going to shift it anyway. So let’s see about you know, I know that you took this course recently, and it was on recycling.

Alison Boser  31:38

Oh, yes, I’m doing that. So also, as part of my job, I try to show up in different ways that align with my goals as the hospital’s wellness RN in our community and in the hospital. So I’m a part of our like our pride committee and our Sustainability Committee, and the city of Tucson recently offered a master recycler class. So it was a five week program. 

Got to go on Wednesdays and learn about how to be an efficient and correct recycler. And so I mean that is, environmental wellness is certainly a part of overall wellness. So that was a neat, a neat experience.

Nicole Vienneau  32:27

And take that information and then bring it to the hospital and have a class?

Alison Boser  32:32

Yeah. So we have, I had worked with them previously to bring the city’s composting. So our city does a food cycle program where you can take your composting to some central locations. But sometimes those classes are hard to get to for busy people, so two years in a row, good memory, Nicole, we had the city come and do their composting, their city composting program at the hospital. 

And I think we had over 50 people the first year, and we had about 40 the second year. But I also got to go on the news and talk about the program, which was pretty special. And everyone got a home compost bucket and codes for the compost location, and we collected a bunch of cups for our community water stations, which were really neat. 

And the other thing that I learned in that program is, you know, recycling or sustainability is similar to wellness in that there’s all these different facets of it, right? So I learned about some really cool food waste initiatives and resources for people through that program, which I use myself and have also been really helpful for some of our new Nurses or clients who are being food insecurity, right? 

I mean, it’s really hard to meet your protein and fiber goals when you are paycheck to paycheck, or you don’t have access to buying a ton of chicken at Costco. So I learned about the Too Good To Go app, which we have a lot of locations here in Tucson that do that, including Whole Foods and also Flash Foods. 

So those have been just like huge money savers for people who use them. And it also, right, it saves all that labor, all that, you know, we grew the strawberries, and we don’t want the strawberries to just go in the garbage, right? How do we get them into the mouths and bloodstreams of people who need them?

Nicole Vienneau  34:31

Yes, yes. I love this connection to environment. You know, many people want to be connected more to how they can support the environment. And so what you did was you like went out and sought, you looked for these opportunities, and also it was a perfect chance to become connected to the resources within the city that you live in. So you’re connecting all of the pieces, right? And then you become a resource for the hospital itself and the community.

Alison Boser  35:04

Yeah. And I think if I personally have one, like, special skill, it is that, like, I’m good at knowing my resources right? Like, as humans, we just cannot retain things. We can’t retain all the things right, and the confidence to know I don’t know that, but I know where I can look to find it, or I know someone who does know that is pretty important. 

But also that community aspect, you know, it was pretty powerful to be with a group of citizens in my local community, and also to be in a place where they call you a citizen, like just constantly, well, you’re a citizen of our community, you know, being around people like that, it was very… it was really soul filling. 

And everyone had their reusable utensils and their reusable, you know, water bottle, and it was pretty great. And not specifically related to that element, but, you know, being in community, being part of a village, is also a huge part of wellness, right? And, you know, you can go to the gym, and, I don’t know, crush your protein and, you know, meditate every day. 

But you also, you need some friends, right? You need people who can pick you up from your day surgery. You need to pick other people up from their day surgery. There’s a really fun thing that goes around the internet where they talk about, you know, being a villager, right? Everyone wants to be a part of a village, but I think my job is also being a villager and demonstrating what that looks like.

Nicole Vienneau  35:05

Connecting all the dots. It’s like a little web.

Alison Boser  36:28

You know, and it might even be like, if you can make your brain do it, it might be like a three dimensional web, right? Like, our connections are not just lateral, yeah.

Nicole Vienneau  37:10

I love that, yes. So you are doing some really incredible things and some really inspiring things and inspiring others, and also, like, there’s this thread that’s throughout this conversation, which is, you’re also learning to take care of yourself as well.

Alison Boser  37:30

And that is so tricky, isn’t it, Nicole? 

Nicole Vienneau  37:33

Really tricky. 

Alison Boser  37:35

You know, I was in the job for a bit, and they’re, you know, they want you to get your exercise in and drink your water. The office I work in, they sit and eat lunch together for their 30 minutes, like they actually leave their desk and everyone goes out and they eat their homemade food, which just blew my mind. You are absolutely supposed to eat in community with others and not eat at your desk. 

But even, oh, this is such a juicy topic, right, knowing what you’re supposed to do and actually doing it. The space between those two things can be very… it can be a wide river, right? And then how do you cross it, like, how do you make it happen? 

So this actually segues into an awesome part of the INCA program, which was that, as part of it, you had a small group cohort. So, you know, I was paired with two other women, and we had to do a triad coaching. So, you know, I would coach Tanya, and Tanya would coach Marissa, and Marissa would coach me, and we would take turns, you know, watching each other. 

And I mean, probably, everyone says this, I got the best group. I mean, we still meet like after our required sessions. We still met every week through the rest of our program, and we meet probably every two weeks, or at least monthly now, we have a zoom session to check in on how people are using it. 

Like one of the gals works at a functional medicine clinic now, so it’s really neat to hear how she’s doing that, another gal is integrating it into like all the education she does at the hospital. But also these are the two RN coaches who hold me accountable for doing the things that I’m supposed to be doing. 

So I am, for the first time in my life someone who exercises regularly, like I think in 14 months, I missed one workout because I didn’t think I could go that wasn’t travel related. Never, never in my life have I been that consistent. So it does help to build a community that likes your good ideas but also wants to see you complete them.

Nicole Vienneau  39:59

So good.

Alison Boser  40:03

And then side note, you know you love this language, this coaching language. I don’t… you know my husband the other… this was a couple months ago, but I was like hemming and hawing, like, oh, was I gonna go for my lap swim that day? 

And he said, you’re gonna love this, what I’ve been hearing you say, Allison, is that you’d like to be a swimmer, so you should probably go swim. And I was like, Oh, someone’s been spying on coaching class. I went and swam. 

Nicole Vienneau  40:33

And you did. He totally got you. That’s amazing. Well, in our last few moments, I would love to ask the question that we always ask, and that is, and you’re welcome to take a moment to just contemplate and take a breath, and the question is, what is on your heart that you would love to share with our listeners today?

Alison Boser  41:10

So I just finished the book, Severance by Ling Ma, and it is a pandemic novel, but it was written in 2013. So we had book club this week, and we talked about it. But I do think that we all need to just give ourselves and our friends and our families and our, if you know healthcare workers, a little bit of grace. 

This book did not touch on any of the medical parts of the pandemic, but for those of us who worked through that, you know that was such a huge disruptor for people’s careers, their professions, their relationships, their lives, and just acknowledging that, like rebuilding things takes time, right? 

And so if you are someone who used to have dinner parties pre covid, and you’re not quite back to having dinner parties yet, like, don’t forget that you did love them, right? I don’t know. I think that we can try to access some of that joy again. 

Nicole Vienneau  42:19

Thank you. Thank you. 

Alison Boser  42:23

Welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Nicole Vienneau  42:25

Yes, well, before you go, let’s say, like, how do we find you if we want to find you? 

Alison Boser  42:30

Oh, sure, yeah, so I’m on LinkedIn. I’m Alison Boser. I am lucky I work at Tucson Medical Center, which is, I mean, I work there, but they do not pay me to tell you this, it is the best hospital I’ve ever worked at, and I came to it because another traveler told me, like years before I got here, how great it was. 

I have a LinkedIn. I said that already. I’m on Instagram. My handle is @howtoloveanurse, because for those of us who are Nurses or caregivers, it’s how to love another one, but also yourself, right? Like, how do I love myself as a Nurse? How do you love you know, other people who who do that work. 

And I’m also on Substack. Substack is kind of my new baby. I’m really into it, but you can be a little more long form. So if you care about being evidence based and having links, it’s a great spot. I’ve been trying to put some good stuff on there, so either one— Substack or Instagram, it’s How to Love a Nurse. 

I’d love to see you all there. Feel free to message me if you have any questions, or just want to talk wellness Nursing. I look forward to hearing from you.

Nicole Vienneau  43:43

Wonderful! Thank you so much, Alison, there’s so many little nuggets and pearls that we can take away and just think about contemplate and thank you. Thank you so much for bringing your wisdom to us today.

Alison Boser  43:57

Oh, thank you for having me and thank you for sharing all of yours.