Be Bold: How Nurse Coaching Empowers Nurses to Transform Healthcare- Elise H. Peterson MS, MPH, BSN, RN, CPN, AMB-BC, AHN-BC, NC-BC

Be Bold: How Nurse Coaching Empowers Nurses to Transform Healthcare- Elise H. Peterson MS, MPH, BSN, RN, CPN, AMB-BC, AHN-BC, NC-BC 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 also a board-certified Integrative Nurse Coach. And I’m coming to you from Tucson, Arizona. And I have the absolute pleasure of interviewing amazing integrative Nurse coaches from around the world. 

And today I have a special guest, and let me tell you just a little bit here, because there are some people in the world that you meet and you think that’s fascinating. So let me tell you a quick little story, because I reached out to some colleagues saying, “Hey, who would you like to hear on this podcast? Who would you like to have interviewed?” 

And I have this person reach out to me and give me like 7, 8, 9 people that she thinks should be interviewed on Integrative Nurse Coaches in ACTION! podcast. Which then starts me thinking, I think that this person who gave me all those names really needs to be interviewed, because if she’s willing to elevate other people before herself, then she too needs to have a voice here on this podcast. 

So I reached back out to our next guest and said, you need to be on our podcast, and with a little bit of coaxing, she said yes. So we are welcoming Elise Peterson, and she is from Denver, Colorado area. So let’s have Elise’s voice come on to the podcast.

Elise H. Peterson  01:38

Hi, everyone. Thanks, Nicole, for having me, and you’re right, I had forgotten that is how we got connected for this.

Nicole Vienneau  01:46

Exactly. I’m like, if you’re going to give me that many names, girl, you need to have your voice on here.

Elise H. Peterson  01:54

I do love elevating others. It’s a strength, it’s fun.

Nicole Vienneau  01:58

It is. It is a strength, and what a great strength to have to be the voice for other people and help elevate them, which I know that you are really keen on empowering self and having Nurses stand up for themselves to not be afraid, and so I would love for us first before we get to that exciting topic, because that is, that’s a juicy one, but before we go there, we love to take a trip down history lane. So, Elise, tell us a little bit about why did you even want to become a Nurse?

Elise H. Peterson  02:33

That’s a great question. I love people, and I loved my anatomy class in high school, and decided that I would be a Nurse with no medical family members, and not knowing what the profession was. I dove into University of Michigan as an undergrad Nursing student. 

Four years later, came out, still was weary about what track I would go on, and I ended up in the pediatric ICU in Illinois for my first role, and I took that role not because I was enamored with the ICU setting, it was truly because of the interview process, and the manager that interviewed me, she said come to this pediatric ICU, like to help you find your fit in the field of Nursing. 

And I remember thinking how great it was that she was so supportive, and that’s how I got into the Nursing field. After that, moved to Florida, and went to University of Florida for my master’s of public health degree, and simultaneously worked in the pediatric ICU. 

Then I turned the tables and was a travel Nurse for a long time. I hit up LA, San Francisco, Denver, Denver, Denver, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Michigan, San Diego. Always working in the pediatric ICUs or pediatric cardiac ICUs, and I did that for about five years, and then I decided some roots down in Denver, Colorado. So I’ve been here ever since.

Nicole Vienneau  04:21

Wonderful. What vast experiences you had. And I, too, was once a travel Nurse, and that is definitely an exercise in building excess resilience, because, you know, you’re showing up in places you have no idea where the bathrooms are, or where the supplies are, or anything. 

You don’t know anyone, and it’s like you instantly just have to step in and perform, especially in these high stakes environments that you were doing– pediatric ICU. Would you mind sharing us maybe one or two, one or two things that you learned through that process?

Elise H. Peterson  04:59

Biggest thing I learned is this taught me how to be kind of powerfully bold in Nursing. It set the stage for being a self advocate, and of course, advocating for my patients, but gave me a unique perspective that things are done many different ways around the country at many institutions, and it was up to me to follow guidelines, policies, procedures, to create good quality of care for my patients wherever I was. 

So, the biggest things is it really kind of taught me how to be courageous, be bold, and gave me the empowerment to do different things in my career.

Nicole Vienneau  05:45

Yeah, awesome. Yes, I feel like travel Nursing did that for me as well. Although there were so many humbling moments within that too, I remember there was a surgical ICU that I was going into, and the very first time I was there, I could not figure out how to work the soap. I could not make the soap come out, so I had to be humble, and I went to the unit secretary, who always knows everything, and I said, “Please help me, I cannot figure out how to use the soap!” 

And she just looked at me like I was crazy, like, Oh gosh, here we’ve got a good one here. And she showed me how to do that, and then I knew that from then on, but it was just like, so humbling, because you have to ask for help, you have to ask, and when you said be courageous, it comes in so many forms, and that’s one of them, the humbling ones, you know.

Elise H. Peterson  06:44

I remember in San Diego, helping with the placement of an arterial line, and bags in the pumps, and even some of the, some of the materials you use are all different, and I had used a few different setups at this point, and I do remember someone saying, like, oh, you don’t know how to open an arterial line? 

And I said, I actually do, I know how to do it three or four different ways, I just don’t know how to do it this way. So that kind of gave me a way to be an advocate for myself, and of course, ask for help, was very humbling, and I’m so lucky I had the experience to kind of move forward then as a what they call a resource Nurse in the pediatric ICU. 

Then I went on and worked in the PACU, the post anesthesia care unit, and then I worked in a bariatric surgery center for adolescents, and all along the way I started teaching Nursing students at a few different universities, and then becoming an American Heart Association instructor for ACLS, PALS and BLS, got into some global medical trip work and some legal work on the side, but really it was travel Nursing that allowed me to function on the fly, if you will.

Nicole Vienneau  08:10

Right, your experience is so vast. I love this so much. So, all of this experience brings you to today, and you know we’re here because we love integrative Nurse Coaching, and how that has helped us with our lives personally and professionally. So, tell us how you found the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy.

Elise H. Peterson  08:34

So, after kind of these early challenges really shaped my perspective and confidence in Nursing, there comes a point in anyone’s Nursing career where you start thinking, what’s next, not only what’s next for you as your career, but like, what’s next for my patients, like, what’s next for what America needs, or others in the world need, and that led me into looking into Nurse Coaching. 

I had already had some different certifications that were much more geared towards pediatrics or ambulatory care, if you will, but when I first heard about Nurse Coaching, my initial thought was, I think I might be doing some of this already, but I want to know formally how to do it, and I looked at a few different programs, relied on a friend of mine, who told me about her positive experience at INCA. 

And then I signed up, not knowing exactly what I was going to be learning, but through the process really liking that the collaborative partnership had to do with empowerment, healing, and connection, and that’s kind of how I ended up at INCA, and then sitting for the Nurse Coaching boards, and then the advanced boards as well.

Nicole Vienneau  09:53

Congratulations! Okay, so tell us one major alteration, I guess, I don’t know, for lack of a better word, that you discovered through the Nurse Coaching program.

Elise H. Peterson  10:10

I’m a self-proclaimed micromanager, right? I like the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed, and I felt like, particularly when I was in many of these settings, that in order for me to function well, I needed to know everything at 110%. 

And some of that ended up getting relayed as me educating or being bossy, educating or being bossy, educating or being bossy, and I felt like Nurse Coaching brought me back to the fact that these are the patient’s decisions. We only see a slice of their pie when they’re inpatient or an outpatient, for that matter. 

We don’t know what goes on in their homes, they are the best judge of their own lives and what they need, and anything that I want for them they need to want more for themselves. So that’s kind of what Nurse Coaching gave me was just a way to empower others to elevate their own experiences and not have me micromanage their healthcare needs, if you will.

Nicole Vienneau  11:31

Yeah, yeah, I mean, even just yesterday, I was working with some of our newest Nurses, so it was their first day in their new grad residency program, and we were talking about discharge planning, and you know, we have a checklist. Or we are trying to get all these things done. 

And it was really important for me, as a Nurse Coach, to remind these new Nurses, like, yeah, we have to get that stuff done, but wouldn’t it be more joyful for you as a Nurse when you find out something about the patient? What does the patient want? Like, what do they think is most important out of that whole list, you know, or even off the list, right? 

And so we had a really good discussion about that, like, what does that mean in practice, and when we can turn it more towards what the patient thinks is important, that’s when we become really impactful as Nurses, not just getting xyz done and completed. 

And I feel like that’s one of the things that helped me the most, or what one of my learnings was through Nurse Coaching and continued learnings, right? Because just because I’ve done that program doesn’t mean I’m not continuously learning and coming back to some of these foundations as I practice today, you know, 13 years, 14 years later, right? 

Elise H. Peterson  12:58

Absolutely, and I think too, the program allowed me to step back, and renewed my sense of purpose and inspiration for hope for Nurses in the future, and it actually kind of led me down a path where a brick and mortar wasn’t what I needed to function as a Nurse anymore, so went into a completely different sphere that I never would have bet money on myself doing. 

Nicole Vienneau  13:28

Ooh, so tell us about that! That sounds exciting! 

Elise H. Peterson  13:32

It is. Well, one of them, as I mentioned, I never thought that I would have been a strong enough Nurse in my skill set, or in my charge Nurse skills, or anything, to dive into global medical trips, but I’m actually headed out on my, I think it’s going to be my 10th or 11th trip this week.

Nicole Vienneau  13:55

My gosh, Elise, that’s amazing! 

Elise H. Peterson  13:55

Yeah, I’m really excited about that, and when you don’t speak the same language as someone, there’s a different kind of Nurse Coaching that comes in– body language, you can still do amazing micro practices with folks that you don’t speak the language with, so I do pull a lot from the Nurse Coaching. 

But I’ve stepped into this health space, which is very different, outside of my comfort zone, but I’ve been uniquely positioned to see different aspects of care across a tech company, because I’m a Nurse, and it’s been really satisfying. So, not only am I able to do Nurse Coaching with actual caregivers and patients, but I’m actually doing it with my colleagues and with staff, so that’s been exciting.

Nicole Vienneau  14:50

Yeah, I feel like with Nurse Coaching, learning the foundations of coaching, I mean, we use that definitely in our healthcare space, but I’m also using it every day with just personal relationships, and even with people at the grocery store, sometimes you know it’s just. it has become now part of who I am, how I communicate, how I want to show up, like there’s different things that I’m now… that have been ingrained in me that have been very helpful through taking this program.

Elise H. Peterson  15:21

Absolutely. And I think it’s given me a boldness to say, tell me more when you make that, or how ready are you for change? It’s okay if you’re not going to be ready for whatever change, x, y, or z until six or nine or 12 months from now, it’s been a nice way too for me to look at like a holistic approach for physical, emotional, social, spiritual needs, equity needs, and just really allowing others to take ownership of their well-being, that I don’t have to be the sole person as the Nurse dictating those aspects.

Nicole Vienneau  16:07

Right. Yeah, because if we dictate, I mean, just isn’t it… it’s not meaningful for anybody, not even us, it’s definitely not meaningful for us either.

Elise H. Peterson  16:16

No, and that’s kind of where my bossiness and educating, bossiness and educating, such a flow, and I was missing kind of the versatility and transformation that can come from coaching someone about what they would like to do in the future, not what I would like to do in the future.

Nicole Vienneau  16:39

Beautifully said, beautifully said. Okay, before I ask another question, I’ve got to ask this question, which is, Where are you going on your medical mission?

Elise H. Peterson  16:47

Oh my gosh, I am headed to Guatemala with Operation Smile, so repairing cleft lips and palates. It’s one of the biggest volunteer organizations in the world, and yeah, we have about 60 to 70 children that will be coming through to the recovery room, and I will act as their PACU Nurse with another group of national Nurses.

Nicole Vienneau  17:15

Thank you for doing that. It’s such a mission of service.

Elise H. Peterson  17:20

It brings me back to a lot of good Nursing skills, assessment skills, listening skills, different expectations of a country’s need, and learning from different healthcare workers that do this day in and day out in these countries, so it’s really, it really empowers me as much as it is a service.

Nicole Vienneau  17:48

Wonderful, I love that, the win-win. Right? Yes, yes, yeah. Okay, so now I know that you mentioned, or you did mention that you stepped into a role that you never imagined yourself doing. So, tell us a little bit about that. What is it that you’re doing? You mentioned caregivers, and you mentioned patients, and it’s online, and so tell us more. What’s going on?

Elise H. Peterson  18:16

Yeah, so I work for a company that really is trying to kind of change the landscape of healthcare, and the focus is keeping people with dementia in the home, and our job is to support the caregivers, so it is a Nurse for life model, and people are paired up with a Nurse at our company for a variety of access issues, and so much of it is really focused on not only home care but really supporting the caregiver. 

What’s unique about this is this is the first time the federal government has looked holistically at a program and done some reimbursement and some good work around how we can make this better for caregivers.

Nicole Vienneau  19:13

Wow.

Elise H. Peterson  19:14

Every day is different, every day is different.

Nicole Vienneau  19:16

I bet it is. So working with caregivers who are caring for a loved one that has been diagnosed with dementia, and they want to keep them in their home, so living like aging in place and being absolutely in a space that they know and recognize, and wow.

Elise H. Peterson  19:39

And the outcomes of this could be huge. Of course, I think that we all want to see and want to prove that this keeps people out of emergency rooms, urgent cares, less PC visits, more wraparound services, more cohesive interdisciplinary team coordination, and that’s what a lot of this does. 

The company I work for has some different subsets as well, but right now this is their main focus, and so I get to work with folks from all different groups at the company, whether that is commercial to customer success to partnership relations to support team to intake team to provider team to engineers to data scientists, so it’s really fascinating.

Nicole Vienneau  20:35

Sounds fascinating, and every day is different you mentioned.

Elise H. Peterson  20:38

Every day is different, and with any sort of like health technology, and then you throw in the startup aspect, and there’s a lot to work out with policies, procedures, guidelines. Some of that is even saying, like, How should we address families? How do we talk to them about end of life subjects? 

How do I support the support team who’s doing scheduling when a caregiver is frustrated or upset? How do I explain to the data team that we have patients with multiple same names and multiple birthdays that are the same, so it’s a lot of those types of things that we’re scaling very quickly, and our executive leadership team is dynamic and are all about Nurses and making this model work.

Nicole Vienneau  21:37

Sounds like a wonderful job, and exciting too.

Elise H. Peterson  21:40

It’s exciting, for sure.

Nicole Vienneau  21:44

In many, many different directions of excitement, I’m sure.

Elise H. Peterson  21:46

It really is. I mean, what’s interesting is that the same kind of excitement that I get having dearest patients undergoing bariatric surgery that are adolescents is the same kind of excitement that I get with this role. It’s just much different, but it still has to do with collaborating rather than making decisions for people. 

It still has to do with helping people take ownership of where they’re at, meeting people where they’re at, enhancing kind of patient care and professional growth, delivering quality of care, so a lot of those principles are the same.

Nicole Vienneau  22:28

Sounds like a great job. Nurses are looking for jobs like this, right? And Nurse coaches are positioned for such roles.

Elise H. Peterson  22:37

Absolutely, because of my previous work in bariatric surgery with adolescents, I’ve had to make peace with the idea that our patients and families, they need to want it just as much as I do, so I can’t be bossing and educating people that may not be ready to receive information, so it’s a really nice, like stepping back, if you will, to seeing where we can meet people.

Nicole Vienneau  23:10

Yes, yes, I just want to point out, you know, one of the aspects of the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy’s program is this self-awareness piece for Nurses and developing that part of it because we know as coaches now, before if, you know, if we don’t know about ourselves and what we’re doing ourselves, how in the world could we possibly coach someone else? 

I mean, there’s just no way to do that, and you’ve mentioned this bossy and educating, bossing and educating quite a few times, so I would just love to know what was that turning point for you when you recognized, holy cow, this is what I’m doing and it’s not going to work for me anymore.

Elise H. Peterson  23:56

I mean, I think it was one day I woke up, headed to work at an institution that I loved, where I worked for a total of 18 to 25 years, I had some ideas about what I could do for my patients through some innovative programming ideas, but knowing through no fault through institutional parameters and healthcare barriers that I wouldn’t be able to achieve those, and I just remember thinking something has to change. 

And the more I thought about it, this was about kind of six months after I was done with the Nurse Coaching program at INCA, and I was studying for my boards, I was like, I have all the tools and methods to enact caring and practice, and I need to actually do that, and be bold, and put my money where my mouth is, and try something new if I’m seeing my patients to think about trying something new. 

So that was kind of my aha moment, driving, sitting in traffic on the way to work, thinking what is going to come next, because I don’t know if I am meant to do this for the next x amount of years in my Nursing career.

Nicole Vienneau  25:13

Yes, and it takes so much courage to reflect on ourselves. I know it does for me, and every day when I’m doing that, I’m like, oh, am I really gonna.. am I.. is that me, you know? Am I showing up in this way? Oh, yeah, that is me. Like, I have to reflect back to myself in order to help anyone else shift in their own behavior as well. Yeah.

Elise H. Peterson  25:38

Absolutely. I think about how much I try to always empower not only patients and families, but how much I try to empower new Nursing staff, or even my students, and then I think about how bold I think many of them are for even going back to Nursing school or seeking certain kind of medical treatments for their disease processes. 

And I was like, I need to be bold and empower myself to this too, and Nurses were uniquely positioned to do that, and I really think through empowerment and being a bit more bold I can transform healthcare in many different ways.

Nicole Vienneau  26:19

Agreed, agreed. Yes. Okay. Now I know you are involved in another bold project, an innovative project, which is the Integrative Nurse Coach Association. So, please elaborate on that for us, about what this is and what is going on here.

Elise H. Peterson  26:45

Sure, so the Integrative Nurse Coaching Association was kind of born out of a need that many people have identified that we did not have an association that was particular to Nurse Coaching. Of course, there’s the American Holistic Nurses Association, which is wonderful, Sigma Theta Tau, so many. 

We’ve got the American Nurses Association, so many wonderful great associations, but there isn’t one specifically for Nurse coaches. So some wonderful masterminds, Dr. Barbara Dossey, Karen Avino, and some others got together and said we should really do this. So we’ve got a strategic approach by region and then by state to start chapters. 

In the state of Colorado, we were already very lucky, I was already invited into a Facebook group. I already knew three or four Nurse coaches because of my own investigative work on social media. So, we’ve decided… there’s three of us, and we’ve decided to be the chapter leads for our date, and it is very well thought out and planned about exactly what we need to do to get our chapters up and running, from how does one organize monthly meetings to what kind of marketing and messaging we want to be hitting. 

So it’s really exciting. We hope to go live with the state of Colorado in September ’26. We’re letting some other states go first, and be partaking. What I think is really special is the two other women. One focuses on Nurse Coaching with students, one focuses on Nurse Coaching for women’s health. 

I focus on right now Nurse Coaching at my current role as adjunct with students and in my current day job with the health tech startup, and then, as I mentioned, I love obesity medicine, and I do a lot of Nurse Coaching for GLP one and obesity on the side, but I’m excited because we bring such different strengths to kind of our chapter in this Rocky Mountain region.

Nicole Vienneau  29:12

So it sounds like there will be state by state and region chapters, that’s what you’re saying. So, what happens when our listeners are like, how do I find it? What do I do? How do I get going on this?

Elise H. Peterson  29:28

So they can go to the website, which is International Nurse Coach Association, and believe it or not, right when you get to their website, it’s empowering Nurse coaches as they transform healthcare. There’s a Nurse Nurse Coach directory that they can sign up. The leadership team is noted. 

What is Nurse Coaching? We have different international, national, and regional meetings right now as we all get up and running. But I would say the best thing to do is to go to the website of International Nurse Coaching Association, and then from there getting connected on whatever social media preference they use. For example, I’m only active on LinkedIn, and there is a LinkedIn group and a LinkedIn page for this already. 

There’s also this on Facebook, so those would be the best ways to do that. And just to clarify, what’s really interesting is some states that don’t have as many active Nurse coaches, or that we all don’t even know about, are pairing up with one another to create more of interstate chapters, if you will. So, I know some states in the South are doing that, which is really great, and I believe some states in the East Coast are going to do that too.

Nicole Vienneau  30:52

Okay, this is great to know. I think I called it the wrong name, I said the integrative, but it’s really International Nurse Coaching Association.

Elise H. Peterson  31:01

Yeah, it’s International Nurse Coaching Association. So, anyone that’s ever done a Nurse Coaching program, has gone through the certification, anyone can join this. I will say there are a lot of us from INCA in it, but we do welcome others as well that perhaps didn’t know about INC beforehand, and or are finding us through different avenues.

Nicole Vienneau  31:25

Oh, yeah, we want all Nurse coaches to be part of this, right? Yeah, it doesn’t matter what program you go to, just join up.

Elise H. Peterson  31:36

You know, we’re already in the works of offering CEUs and doing book clubs and spearheading presenters and different events, so it should be really rewarding. It’s been an awesome project so far.

Nicole Vienneau  31:52

Oh, fantastic, and it’s a great thing to have. I mean, definitely involved in my own chapter for the American Nurses Association here in my city, and doing a lot of great things there, but the thing is, is that when Nurse coaches come together, now that’s a whole other different breed of Nursing, right? So it just makes sense to have all of us get together and have chapters, and then come to the national and then international realms, so that we can support each other along the road.

Elise H. Peterson  32:25

Agreed, and what’s been really nice is I’m just finishing the Watson Caring Science Institute, kind of their Caritas coaching as well, and I’m seeing an amazing interface synergistic effect of Nurse Coaching and the Watson Caring Science Institute, and I think all of this is helping us just co-create healing context with patients or with ourselves, and that’s kind of what’s needed right now. 

So I’m very excited. Again, I’m feeling very lucky because we already have a group on Facebook of about 50 or 60 Nurse coaches who at least all know each other’s names and all can speak the same language of motivational interviewing and appreciative inquiry, just some other tools, the micro practices that we all know about. So that part I feel very lucky that we all have been through some Nurse Coaching programs before, and are connected already.

Nicole Vienneau  33:25

Awesome. You know, I always have this thought about being lucky. I feel like we’re not lucky. I mean, I think we’ve all… we’re positioning ourselves and making decisions in our lives to move ourselves to where we need to go. 

So for me it’s like not about being lucky, it’s more about like what decision am I going to make that’s going to support me in the path that I want to take, and so you know, putting ourselves in these positions is not luck, I mean, like winning the lottery, now that’s luck, although you did have to make a decision to buy a ticket, so maybe you know, maybe there’s that.

Elise H. Peterson  34:03

I can see your point, because one of the women that I’m the chapter lead with in Colorado, I used to work with in a hospital setting, and I remember one sentence conversation that she did Nurse Coaching, and then after I was done with my program, reached out to her, and she said we actually have a Facebook group, and so then I joined that. 

And I’ve always been very detail-oriented, and I can remember first and last names well, and then putting these different pieces together, like, huh, I’ve heard that name before, then they would pop up on LinkedIn, then I would see an offering around town, so kind of connecting these links, so I can see your point there, Nicole. I’ve set myself up well.

Nicole Vienneau  34:46

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.

Elise H. Peterson  34:51

I’m always learning. 

Nicole Vienneau  34:52

Oh, for sure. Yeah, me too. I mean, what else is there to do? It’s boring when you know everything, I mean, gosh, or you think you know everything.

Elise H. Peterson  35:03

That’s what I like so much about Nurse Coaching. I felt like it got me away from, like, the “we know best” attitude to like collaborative sharing partnership. I felt like so many years as the charge Nurse, you’re that final call to make decisions, and today a lot of it is settings we do know best based on staffing and bed numbers and different flows, but I’ve liked getting away from the “we know best” to the “you know best. How can I support you to move forward.”

Nicole Vienneau  35:42

Yes, yes. Well, this makes me think this is one of the perfect times to ask my favorite question that I ask almost every guest on our podcast, and that is, and you take a breath and take a moment to ponder, what is on your heart that you would like to share with our listeners?

Elise H. Peterson  36:07

That’s a great question. I am going to take a nice deep breath on that one. I think the biggest thing that I want to share is that bold empowerment, partnership can bring us to a better humanity for the Nursing profession, right? 

Like, we take more chances to do different things in our careers, we look at a patient with diagnosis in a different way, because we have this set to get to the heart and get to the root of what’s in their heart, perhaps, and always learning that there doesn’t need to be stagnation or dread with going to a job that isn’t feeding your soul every day. 

And there’s just cool, cool things going on in our profession right now, and if I didn’t do the Nurse Coaching program through INCA, I would have missed it for sure. Absolutely, so that’s kind of my big takeaway: humanity, connection, empowerment, boldness, and just healing, whatever healing looks like for someone.

Nicole Vienneau  37:24

So wonderful, so good. I’m just soaking it all in, soaking it all up. So, Elise, if people want to connect with you, what is the best way to do that?

Elise H. Peterson  37:37

Well, I’ve had my same cell phone since college, y’all: (734) 717-8356. I have previous patients that I no longer care for text me. I have students that are now 15 years out that text me. I believe that I have… my phone number is all over. 

You’re welcome to text or call, but also LinkedIn is my kind of social media of choice these days. I made a very conscious effort to slow down on some of my intake, and I found that LinkedIn kind of aligns with my interests. So, if you want to find me on LinkedIn, it’s Elise H. Peterson, so you can find me on LinkedIn.

Nicole Vienneau  38:27

Okay, well, we’re going to share your links.

Elise H. Peterson  38:30

We might even share your phone number as well. Everyone has it. My mailman has it. I have I have neighbors who say, can my, you know, my daughter’s neighbor contact you about Nursing school. Of course, you can. And I’m a lifelong student getting my doctorate in Nursing administration and leadership, and besides being kind of a servant leader, definitely kind of play on my strength, networking and paying forward to all, and I feel like people reaching out is a way that I can give back, so that’s fine with me.

Nicole Vienneau  39:16

Yes, I love it. Yes, thank you so much for your time, for your wisdom, for all those little nuggets that we can munch on and think about. Thank you so much, Elise.

Elise H. Peterson  39:28

Of course, and best luck to you, Nicole. And get out there, be bold.