Learning Like a Renegade with Antra Boyd and Karen DiMarco
Antra Boyd met Karen DiMarco when Karen was teaching nurses how to work and advocate for our patients by thinking outside the box. Through that chance meeting, they formed a company called RNegade. They are changing the way that nurses and others learn and make it fun and informative. RNegade offers continuing education credit by listening to podcasts with guests from various backgrounds and experiences, but all knowledgeable in the content they are speaking on. No more boring grind to get CE credit, but learning on the go that is fast and simple.
Antra and Karen are also expanding to offer more content to nurses. They are looking for content creators to bring even more information. If you feel you have something to share, check out their link and learn more about it. We all benefit when we share our knowledge
Learn more about supporting the Don’t Eat Your Young Podcast with a membership — visit Don’t Eat Your Young’s membership page!
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Intro:
Welcome to Don't Eat Your Young: A Nursing Podcast, with your host Beth Quaas.
Before we get started, we have a few quick notes. Don't Eat Your Young is a listener-supported podcast. To learn more about becoming a member and the perks available to you for becoming a patron yourself, visit patreon.com/don'teatyouryoung. You can learn more about the show, share your story to join Beth as a guest, or connect with our wonderful community in our Facebook group. You can find all those links and more at don'teatyouryoung.com.
And now on with the show.
Beth Quaas:
Hello and welcome to Don't Eat Your Young, I'm your host Beth Quaas. Today I have a couple great nurses on the program, Antra Boyd and Karen DiMarco. They've been nurses for a long time, but they are working to fill the gaps and the needs that nurses need now. They have an incredible way to offer continuing education for nurses, and we're going to hear from them about what they're offering and what's new coming up in the future from them.
Welcome Antra and Karen to the show. I'm so happy to have you here today.
Antra Boyd:
We're happy to be here.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, woo-hoo. This is like the third time I've got to see you in not too long.
Beth Quaas:
We have been chatting, and we're going to chat about a lot of things today. What you guys are doing for nurses and filling the need. Tell us a little bit about your nursing careers.
Antra Boyd:
So my name is Antra Boyd and I graduated from nursing school in 1996 and I went right into the United States military. I was a Navy nurse on active duty for six years and, in that time, I did a year on med surg. I did a year in the recovery room, which I could not stand because you have all of these beefy marines and ... Bless them, they were the biggest babies.
Beth Quaas:
Bless.
Antra Boyd:
I couldn't stand the whining. I mean, mad respect for all the Marines, but oh, my gosh, they cried in the recovery room.
Karen DiMarco:
She's married to one, by the way.
Antra Boyd:
And I'm married to one. So, I went directly from the recovery room to the operating room, and they sort of grew me up as a nurse there in the OR, and then I spent 20 years in the operating room.
When I got out of the military, I was employed at a small community hospital in a 10 suite OR, and really did everything. Everything from plastics to general surgery, to ENT surgery, but my love was orthopedics and I eventually, pretty much, stayed in ... Well, I was the urology peepee queen for a while and took over that service. They called me the peepee queen at work. Then I went to orthopedics and I stayed there and did total joint replacements for the last few years.
Then when I decided to leave bedside nursing, I left because I was spinning my wheels inside a system that was super slow to change. I hated that we, as an operating room team, it's the team, and yet, in a timeout you'd have nurses more interested in their charting, anesthesiologist asleep at the desk, surgeons out of the room. And it was such a simple thing to change and to help patients have good outcomes, and we just couldn't. It was really hard to pull together.
Of course, I've been in some amazing timeouts, but it was just this constant fight to communicate, to not be afraid to say what needed to be said, to, just, collaboration on behalf of the patient. So I left, thinking I could probably help patients better on the outside, help them navigate the system.
I started Connected Care Patient Advocates in Portland, Oregon with another colleague, nurse, friend, colleague. She's also part of RNegade. We've been doing that for the last five years, and super huge learning curve because, of course, I don't know everything there is to know about everything that walks in the door. So we see lots of clients with cancer who get really frustrated because they can't figure out the best treatments, or the clinical trials, or just having trouble coordinating their care. A lot of it is care coordination.
But then, just everything. So, of course, anytime a client comes to us that needs a big surgery, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, that's my sweet spot. I can totally help you." It's my one place where I'm like, "I got this."
Then after that, Karen and I both went through a patient advocacy course. She was actually faculty at the course that I subsequently took, and that's how we met. Then that is how RNegade came to be, but we can get to that later.
Beth Quaas:
That's a lot of good nursing experience that you're bringing to the table. How about you, Karen?
Karen DiMarco:
What did I do?
Antra Boyd:
[inaudible 00:05:18] crazy pants.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, [inaudible 00:05:19] crazy pants here. That's what my bio says on our website. Everyone else got this lengthy thing that I wrote, mine just says [inaudible 00:05:28] crazy pants.
Antra Boyd:
Then underneath it says, "And that's all there is."
Karen DiMarco:
No, we didn't forget anything.
I graduated University of Michigan, went out to New Mexico from Ohio. I grew up in Ohio, went out to New Mexico, pin the tail on the donkey style. Went like this on a map of the Southwest and my finger landed on Las Cruces, New Mexico. So I went out there, started out in ICU, flight nursing, trauma, and traveled a lot. I mean before I was married I kind of be-bopped around, and then got married and we be-bopped around. So everywhere I went I was either, "Oh, I don't know. Trauma or ICU this time? I don't know," And sometimes I do both.
Then, periodically, throughout the years I did that, I kept seeing people with ... If the patient was a healthcare professional or they had one in their family, they always had better outcomes. I mean, it was just a nicer stay, right? Not only it was lower morbidity, mortality, shorter length of stay, less re-admission, just because they know the questions to ask. They know the standard of care that should be delivered. And that always bothered me.
Plus you hear from your friends. If you're a healthcare professional, you're always hearing from your friends some horror story they went through, and that voice in your head that nags you and goes, "If I was there, that would not have happened." You don't know for sure, but like, "Oh, why didn't you say something? You could've just done this. You could've just asked this," and they don't know. So I thought that if people don't have a nurse in the family, they should be able to buy one.
Beth Quaas:
I love that. I agree.
Karen DiMarco:
There's got to be a business there. So I kept starting little pilots. I'd do pro bono work as a private patient advocate and take notes and see what works. I talked to people in hospital administration, I talked to some deans of nursing schools and, "What do you think of this?"
And everybody loved it, but I was having babies, so it was stop, start, stop, start. Well, meanwhile, out in Arizona, this woman whose course I went through and eventually was faculty on, and that Antra went through, Karen Mercereau. In the 10 years I was having babies, she was doing what I was doing, but, say, making all the fails and seeing what worked and didn't, and actually created a course. She had, I think, really, one of the first ones in the country.
Antra Boyd:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Karen DiMarco:
Hers was different than any, because I went through a couple of them, but they were more conflict resolution, and this and that. Hers was all about functional and integrative medicine, and systems biology, and epigenetics, and nutrigenomics, and all that stuff that points to root cause.
So we became kind of forensic investigators of somebody's chronic illness. Not only what were they doing in conventional medicine here, but what are they doing around the world that's not only minimizing, but reversing and curing. Things like that.
It was fascinating work. My last shift I worked was in ... I started my business in 2011. 2014 was my last shift in a hospital. It was just so fun to really, like really, "I'm just a nurse," but you get all this ... She really teaches you how to learn, and how to investigate, and how to talk to doctors and bring them your research and say, "Hey, can we try this?" How to ...
You're not the enemy, you're on the team. But when someone hears patient advocate, sometimes that means, "What do you mean they need an advocate? No, that's what I'm here for." So then that evolved into corporate wellness, and that evolved into research, and it just kept evolving. I just embrace the flakery. I used to get upset by everybody's upset of my constant career switching, but it all just evolved. It didn't hop and jump, it evolved.
That's when I met Antra, during those years, and we knew we were going to do something together because we're just in love. We just talk for hours about how to save the world, and how to save ourselves. Whatever came-
Antra Boyd:
[inaudible 00:09:46].
Karen DiMarco:
No, and just that day, like I said, that day ... I told you the story, but for your listeners, just briefly, I went on a hike ... My nursing license was up for a renewal. I went on a hike and I was dreading it. I won't tell you what I got in the mail. The inconvenient, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh. This again," And we all wait until last minute.
So I decided to procrastinate, or progress-tinate, which is my, "I'm still learning something, but I'm still procrastinating." So I'm progress-tinating. So I listened to a podcast with an author, James Nestor, who wrote a book called Breath. It was two hours of absolute fascinating and [inaudible 00:10:26]-
Beth Quaas:
I have listened to that podcast.
Antra Boyd:
So good.
Karen DiMarco:
Right?
Beth Quaas:
Yes.
Karen DiMarco:
It's really good. So it's two hours, I'm like, "This is making me better at what I do for a living for my clients, and it's also making me better at my life. Why is this not worth two hours? This is stupid."
Antra Boyd:
What it did for me was, and you'll probably relate to this, I was surprised, in an OR you're constantly cutting things out of people, right? I was surprised at how ill-informed our patients actually really are after listening to that podcast. Just the whole sinus surgery and how we do that. It's a bread-and-butter case and we don't really question why we have those filters in there in the first place.
"Well, they're giving you problems, let's just cut them out," right? So it changed my practice, in a way, because it made me think, "What do our patients really know when they go back to an OR?" It can be for anything. In being informed about chemo, whatever it is. I was much more critical about making sure that my patients were informed, as best as I could help them be and as best as they could be.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah. Like, "Hey, Doc, have you asked them if they're okay with never feeling again like they're able to take a deep breath?"
Antra Boyd:
I mean that's the extreme, but still.
Beth Quaas:
Yeah. I used to show a video from the American Medical Association to students. There was a woman that couldn't read. She went to the doctor and they decided to do a hysterectomy, and she went through surgery, and at the end she had no idea that her uterus was gone because she didn't understand what they said. Of course, she signed the consent, but only because she didn't want to feel stupid, or look stupid.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah, I've seen that video.
Beth Quaas:
Yeah. It's incredible what people will agree to when they don't understand.
Antra Boyd:
So I live in a fairly educated area, the demographic is fairly educated, wealthy. And even for my hospital, I was interviewing a patient one day and I was like, "So what are we doing for you today?" She said to me, "Well, we're doing a hyster, hyster ..." I was like, A hyster ..." Wait, what did I say? I said, "A hysterectomy ..."
No, I said, "A hysteroscopy?" And she said, "Yeah, that's what it is," and I'm like, "Well, that's interesting, because the schedule says hysterectomy, but you feel like you're getting a hysteroscopy." She didn't even know the difference between the two, and you could see how easily you could confuse the two.
Beth Quaas:
Yes.
Antra Boyd:
But this is minutes before we're getting ready to go to the OR. So it's one of those things that just happens like that, and it doesn't just happen to people who are illiterate and can't read.
Beth Quaas:
Right. How many times have ... Because Antra and I both have worked in the OR, and do we bring patients in, and when we roll into the room even, we say, "What are you having done?" "You know? That one thing, I can't say the word," and, "It's a something."
Antra Boyd:
Oh, my God, it's so often.
Beth Quaas:
Right, and you wonder what they really understand they're having done, but I trust that the surgeon had his conversation, and that we're doing the right side. I'm hoping we're doing the right side because we all hear horror stories about that too.
So you guys are now educating a lot of people. So I was on LinkedIn and I saw a post that you guys put up, and it was educating nurses getting continuing education for listening to a podcast. My mind was blown because I thought, "How incredible is that?" You're not wasting your time reading some flimsy thing that was sent in the mail and getting credit, you're actually driving down the road listening to a podcast and learning, or walking. I was blown away.
So talk to us about what you guys are doing for offerings.
Karen DiMarco:
I told you about my Joe Rogan podcast with the James Nestor moment, and we just got to work. It's one of those things, I call it common sense artistry. It's when something is right in front of you, and you're already doing something, it just ...
After seeing that, it's like, "Wait a minute, now I'm angry." I'm listening to 20 hours of podcasts and audiobooks a week. I'm just such a geek, I love to learn. I just love to know how things work, and I go down rabbit holes and Antra doesn't see me for weeks-
Antra Boyd:
That's so true.
Karen DiMarco:
But it's like, "So why do I have to go pick through a pile of crap every two years when I've already done it?" That's insulting. That's insulting to my precious time, and my pathological curiosity.
So we just got to work trying to understand. Now, the purest form of the idea was, how can you get credit for stuff you've already done, or are already doing? RNegade, the podcast, is kind of like a little nuance apart from that, because people weren't ... I mean RNegade, the podcast, didn't exist yet, right? So we had to create something. So they weren't really already doing it, they might have been already listening to podcasts. So it's a little, it's almost-
Antra Boyd:
That's how we made the [inaudible 00:16:02].
Karen DiMarco:
So we got our continuing education providership through the state of California, which those CEs are good in, well, every state except for Hawaii, I think. But we are in the process of starting our application to ANCC. Anyway, so we can award continuing education.
So we would find amazing people to listen to, one of the criteria for our courses, our pod-courses as Antra has dubbed them, number one is, "Would you listen to this? Would we take this course."
Antra cries on every podcast, it has been ... I always say that, but I've cried on a couple too. But it's just, they're people like us. They're people who are unafraid to blow up the box, and speak their mind, and do things differently, and use common sense artistry to make the world better.
We've listened to so many nurses doing so many innovative things, and also some, you know? Naturopathic oncologist, who's like ... And people who love to teach, and they love to share. It's not only educational to listen to these podcasts, and you'll not only come away, Antra will tell you about a couple of hers that she talks about all the time, but you come away inspired because the information and their expertise and their passion is delivered through the Trojan horse of their own personal story, which usually, about eight minutes in, our mouths are hanging open about something they've been through.
Antra Boyd:
It's so amazing too, because we thought, "Okay, podcast." That just seemed like the natural extension of Joe Rogan and James Nestor. Karen and I got on Amazon, ordered a couple microphones. We were sitting in the same chair, it's one of those big wicker things and there's enough room for both of us. And even the other night, we were watching the outtakes. It's hilarious, we had no idea what we were doing. We just pressed record and off we went.
The fascinating thing is, even the very first couple of guests changed my practice. We talked to a wound care nurse, we talked to an expert on lymphedema, and then every subsequent episode, different subjects, different discussions, but always a take away clinically. It was just so interesting to see, like, "Oh, my gosh, this isn't even just our theory, this actually works." And it's fun. I mean, like Karen said, crying, laughing hysterically, just fun. So fun. And why? Why can we not do that as nurses?
Then the other thing, too, is, especially with the nurses that we've interviewed, it made us realize we're so qualified to teach each other in ways that are interesting and fun, and it should be easy for us to do that. It's not. So that was another big piece.
Beth Quaas:
And the hour goes by very quickly because you guys do a great job of interviewing, and teaching, and your guests are very interesting. So it is definitely worth it for people to check you out.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah, it's just been a blast. It's been so great.
Beth Quaas:
What's the process once they're done listening? How do they get their credit?
Karen DiMarco:
Well-
Antra Boyd:
That was [inaudible 00:19:23].
Karen DiMarco:
... now you just opened another can of worms.
We actually made it possible so that anybody can do what we're doing. The reason that happened was because we thought, "Oh, this'll be easy. We'll just get our CE providership and do a podcast, and go, 'Hallelujah, you got a CE.'" No, no, no, it is not that simple.
Antra Boyd:
Mm-mm.
Karen DiMarco:
To keep it all digital, so it's easy. Antra was the best tester because she's like, "I have to be able to do it. It has to be easy for me." She kept, "This is not easy," like going onto a platform that we kind of built through ... Well I didn't build it, somebody who is better at that than me. And it was just clunky, it wasn't easy, it wasn't straightforward.
So Luke, who we dub the Bus Driver, launches like, "This isn't easy," and he got frustrated and then went and tried to do it himself, because how hard could it be? He saw, "Oh, man, we can't make it this hard for people to give us their money." So he built something so simple and so elegant from the ground up. Not only was it easy for someone to just go on rnegade.pro, R-N-E-G-A-D-E dot pro, you sign up, easy to register. You can buy a podcast à la carte, just one at a time. You can get a membership and listen to as many as you want, and just, infinity, as long as they come up, and get as many CEs that way, through the RNegade podcast.
For people who are interested in becoming content creators now, we have this easy thing. Luke's like, "Yeah, we can make it anybody could do this now." So, like you, Beth. Or we have somebody who is ... We just start testing it now and trying to break it, and end of it's going to be, at least, I mean latest, early November, Antra, is that right?
Antra Boyd:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Karen DiMarco:
Should be, in a couple weeks it should be ready. But we already have some content creators beta testing it. Like one nurse has a podcast called, it's a rapid ... Is it called Rapid Response?
Antra Boyd:
Mm-hmm, The Rapid Response Podcast.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, she has tons of listeners and she has gotten feedback from her listeners that are like, "Oh, my gosh, I had a rapid ..." She had a podcast about a diabetic ketoacidosis rapid response, and two days later a listener reached out and said, two days later after that podcast, "I had a rapid response with DKA and I knew exactly what to do."
Beth Quaas:
That's incredible.
Karen DiMarco:
And her podcasts are now going to be awarded CE credit through our RNegade.
Antra Boyd:
She saw us, like you did, she saw us on social media, and she had always kind of thought it was just up ... Well, it was upsetting to her that she couldn't give continuing education credit for her podcast that was clearly changing and making other nurses' practices better. So when she saw, she reached out.
The other thing, too, is that we make it hard. As nurses, if you've ever tried to get continuing education for your content, it's not easy. Either you have to get the providership, which takes a long time, or you have to find somebody who's willing to assign the CEs, but then it costs so much money. It's just not easy for nurses.
I mean I myself would not pay $3,000 for X number of CEs on content. It has to be something that's affordable, that's easy and doable. So it was like, "Well we could do this for nurses." Because if we invite them onto our platform as content creators and we give them ... There's an upfront review fee so that we make sure that the content matches the syllabuses. Then once the content is on board, as nurses come on to consume that content, we can revenue share. So it's a win for all of us, and that's the way it should be, right? It's all boats should rise, all of us should get something out of it, instead of this like, "Well, I'd really like to have my content out, but it's too much money. And where am I going to put it?" It's just tricky, and stupid actually.
Beth Quaas:
Well, and I appreciate that you're allowing nurses to teach each other. I know the last time we talked, that's what you said, "We should be sharing information."
Antra Boyd:
Totally.
Beth Quaas:
We should, and we should be teaching each other.
Antra Boyd:
We should.
Karen DiMarco:
We already do, and that's how it should all feel. Think about when you get off work and you all go to, or like Bloody Mary Mondays, or Mimosa Mondays after Sunday night shifts, right? After work and you just kind of debrief. When we sit around and talk about case studies, and we laugh, and we go, "[inaudible 00:24:11]," and then we think, "What could we have done better?"
That's like that what I was talking about in the very beginning. You're learning already, it's what you're already doing, and that kind of learning ... We have two meta-analysises. Analysises-es. Analysi?. I don't know. We have two big compilations of studies that show that nurses learn and retain best on the unit or after work with other nurses, over and above PowerPoint, talking head lectures, or even conference stuff. Nurses sitting around with a mentor and talking about case studies is one of the top learning retention, and desired, motivation and learning retention ranked ways that nurses learn.
Antra Boyd:
I mean, ironically, we have so much nursing literature that it talks about critical thinking, and lifelong learning, and intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, and yet we don't practice what we preach.
Karen DiMarco:
We do the opposite-
Antra Boyd:
We do exactly the opposite. Blergh.
Karen DiMarco:
... research [inaudible 00:25:15].
Beth Quaas:
What a great way to move our profession forward, is for us to be in charge of our own education.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah.
Antra Boyd:
Exactly.
Karen DiMarco:
Teaching school by podcast.
Beth Quaas:
So many things are moving online these days, and a lot of things can be taught that way. We don't have to be in-person for everything.
Antra Boyd:
Nope, and I think that's the underlying message, is it's time that we just took control and empowered ourselves to create the kind of profession that we want our profession to be. Then it became, that Karen always says, is the CE is the happy side effect, but the message is, "We're done. We're done asking permission. We're doing it our way," because we know the way. We know it.
Beth Quaas:
We need people like you guys to get out there, forge the way, because this is the future. What you guys are doing is the future.
Karen DiMarco:
I feel like I should stand up and salute, or something. Put my hand over my heart.
Beth Quaas:
You should. I'm sorry you people can't see her, but she's doing it right now.
Antra Boyd:
Karen wrote, she rewrote the Declaration of Independence as she was writing copy for the website and for our portal and everything, and it was just so, it was such, maybe we could include it in the show notes. Because, literally, after she read it to me, I wanted to give her a standing ovation because it was so empowering. It was like-
Beth Quaas:
That would be awesome.
Antra Boyd:
... "You all suck at this, you're fired and we're doing it our own way."
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah. I did, I wrote that in the nursing ... Like when the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, it was basically saying to King George, "You all suck at this, and you're fired."
Beth Quaas:
I would love to put that in the show notes. We'll get that in there.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah. We should, it's so good. It's so good.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah.
Beth Quaas:
Tell us where people can find you if they're looking for you and want what you're offering, and why wouldn't they?
Antra Boyd:
Well I think there's several ways. First, if you want to be a content creator, then you're going to reach out to us on LinkedIn, or on Facebook, or on Instagram, or on our website.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, in a couple weeks you could just go to the website and it'll say-
Antra Boyd:
Mm-hmm, [inaudible 00:27:30] soon, it's going to be all automated and you're going to just be able to-
Karen DiMarco:
... something cheeky that invites you to become a content creator.
Antra Boyd:
So that's for any nurse, any healthcare provider who has content that they want to share, that they want CE, that they want continuing education for nursing continuing education right now.
And there'll be a revenue share, so as nurses come on the platform to consume the material, then every time something gets purchased, that that'll be a revenue share for the content creator.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, so not only do you not have to pay us to award continuing education to your content, you get paid.
Antra Boyd:
Then the other way is to sign up on the portal. That's the other thing that we kind of glossed over, but the portal was built because I don't ... You probably remember, Beth, back in the day. See, you had your CE certificates and they were everywhere.
Beth Quaas:
Yes.
Antra Boyd:
They were in filing cabinets, they were stuffed in the bedside table, they were in your locker at work. There was just no place to store any of them. I mean I put graphics up on LinkedIn all the time of, "Here's your portal. And here's a picture of a filing cabinet with all your CEs scattered everywhere," because it was always just a cluster.
Beth Quaas:
It was the worst part of renewing your license was the dreaded, "Oh, my gosh, what if I get audited?"
Antra Boyd:
I know, right? No place to keep them. There was just no system. Even now, there's not a platform that really does a good job of keeping CE education in one place.
So you can sign up to the portal, and it's free, and you're going to get notifications of when your license is up for renewal, or when your certifications are up for renewal. And you can export and import CEs, so if you have a bunch that you've done outside of RNegade, you can take a picture, export them in. If you get audited, or a board needs them, you can export a list of every CE you've ever done, whether with us or with somebody else. So that service is just for signing up. You don't have to pay a dime for that.
Then, as you want to renew your license or get your certifications, CEs, you can buy a membership for the RNegade podcast, or you can peruse the content creator platform, and hopefully, our goal is to have 100 content creators by the end of next year. So there'll be lots of content.
Beth Quaas:
Phenomenal.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, I think we're going to blow through that. Yeah, that CE storage feature is just, it's a really cool and useful way for us to manipulate you in staying on the portal long enough and buying CEs from us.
Beth Quaas:
That's worth it alone, just having a place to find your CE-
Karen DiMarco:
Full disclosure. No, no, no. I just joking. No, it's actually a useful thing, it's not a free ebook.
Antra Boyd:
Exactly.
Beth Quaas:
Right, thank you very little for that. I love that you offer that.
Karen DiMarco:
Just to clarify, because we're still kind of hammering out how to speak about this so it's not confusing. I'm just thinking if I was somebody listening to this, what's the difference between RNegade and MyPortal?
Antra Boyd:
Yes.
Karen DiMarco:
Rnegade.pro is the website, that's where you can go, you can enter there and become a content creator, you can enter there and listen to CE by podcasts, from either us or any of our content creators. So that's rnegade.pro, R-N-E-G-A-D-E dot pro. That's really the only place you have to go.
MyPortal is just the engine that was built to make it all possible.
Antra Boyd:
To make it easy.
Karen DiMarco:
So when you click on, "Go listen to a podcast," the URL above will switch to myportal.pro. Or if you go and find your CEs, it'll say ... But that's navigated automatically for you, depending on where you're clicking.
Antra Boyd:
What's so funny, and kind of ironic, about the whole thing, is that it was the CE by podcast company powered by our website. And because it was frustrating to get the certificate, and it was just frustrating, it's now like our whole company has morphed into education technology.
And it was just so organic and so cool that we were able to build that product kind of on a ramen budget, and we were with the talents of our own team, and that we were able to build this product that is actually functional and working. There are some kinks to be worked out still, but I don't think, if you'd ask Karen and I when we first did our very first podcast, we would've been like, "Education technol ... What's that?"
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, that's what I'm doing.
Antra Boyd:
[inaudible 00:32:18]. So that's been a really cool.
Beth Quaas:
I am not a techno person, so I'm glad you're working out the kinks.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah. Very cool.
Beth Quaas:
That's amazing. What else would you guys like to share with our listeners?
Karen DiMarco:
Are you sure you want to ask that question? I feel like, for you, it's been like drinking through a fire hose.
Antra Boyd:
I know.
Beth Quaas:
I love drinking from a fire hose.
Antra Boyd:
Well, you're our people, totally. I can't wait for you to be on the platform.
Karen DiMarco:
I know.
Beth Quaas:
I'm excited. You're right, after all these years, I've been in nursing almost 30 years, I have a lot to share.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah. I know.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, I'm so excited. Our number one question, because when you go through the content creator, it's a fully automated process. It is. It holds your hand and spoon feeds you how to create the syllabus. Because it has to be kosher with California State Board of Nursing, what entails a CE, like what it has to be. It can't just be like self-help, that's not a CE. It has to be scientifically-based, something that up levels a nursing license, or up levels, you know? Could be entrepreneurial.
But those criteria are listed there so you can chew them up, "Well, is this this?" But the very first question we ask, because there's a five question quiz about whether you can become a content creator, and the first question is, "Would you take this course?"
To me, that's the most important thing. You and I talked about this a little bit yesterday, Beth, but it's not the material as much as the educator, and that's the difference. To teach is to fill an empty vessel with your wisdom and knowledge. To educate is bringing out that which is within.
I told Beth yesterday, Antra, I'm like, I want people to feel like whenever they take a course on RNegade, the educator is done with them, but now there's something alive within. They want to go find out more, or they want to listen to more from that educator, or they want to go find out more about, "What was she saying about the receptors? If you could just learn which chemical activates as an agonist or antagonist to which receptor, then you can kind of just read what any drug does." If you know that stuff instead of just memorizing. That feeling.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah.
Karen DiMarco:
I don't care if it's a talk ... And like I said with that podcast, and with our guests, it's when you listen, their story and how they teach in their own passion and excitement for what they teach, is the Trojan horse through which the information gets in.
Beth Quaas:
And I will tell you, your guest, I have it written down, is it Tina Kaczor?
Antra Boyd:
Mm-hmm.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah.
Beth Quaas:
Mic drop. I listen to that podcast, I'm like, "Well, if I ever get cancer, I'm finding her. I don't know where she is, but I'm finding her, and I'm going to her." It was no-nonsense. It was not about treating the cancer, it was about treating the individual patient. Not just a patient, but you as the patient. It was fantastic.
Antra Boyd:
And I mean, she is such a science geek, and it was just such a great combination to see all of that geekiness come out, but also her love of patients, and the person, the whole person. [inaudible 00:35:36]. Yeah, she's amazing.
Beth Quaas:
I think that's what we have as nurses, right?
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah.
Beth Quaas:
We all do. We all have it, we just need to do more of that.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, for sure.
Antra Boyd:
Well I think it's like what Karen said, it's also drawing that out of people. Because we have a younger nurse who's going to be on the platform, and it was funny, she just sent me kind of some of the content she's creating. I was just so excited to see her introductory, because this is a nurse who's young, who hasn't been in ... Left bedside nursing after, I think four years, because she was so stressed out and burned out, and whatever.
She just took a flying leap off of a ledge and started creating this stuff that she's passionate about, that can help other nurses. I just looked at this introductory video, she's like, "I just want to see if you think I'm on the right ..." I was so inspired and proud of her. I just was like, so cool, so cool.
Beth Quaas:
Yeah, you guys are doing great things.
Antra Boyd:
I just was so impressed.
Karen DiMarco:
Go, girl. Then Lianne. So we have a couple cancer ones, so Tina's the great top [inaudible 00:36:45] a different way to treat it, that combines conventional and functional and naturopathic, and she knows ... Anyway, but then there's the other side, the Lianne Saffer, who wrote a book called Please, Don't Send Me Flowers. It was the patient's perspective. Also a way to up level a nurse's practice, and from seeing it through the patient perspective.
The title of that one is Define Your Fine, and that also changed my practice because it's not a one size fits all. She was a young spin class instructor, fitness model. Got breast cancer, immediately just treated her like they would a 68, 72 year old, sedentary-whatever-lifestyle. Double mastectomy, this many rounds of chemo, blah-di-blah-di-blah, and she started going, "Wait a minute." Then she started doing her own research. What? It was like 10 treatments of chemo in, or something, she's like, "How come, in that country, they're only doing six, and I'm on my 10th, and I feel like this? How come ..." And then they actually said, "Oh, we can stop."
Antra Boyd:
No, they said, they admitted that they probably over-treated her, but it was too late. She'd already had all the treatments.
Beth Quaas:
Aw.
Karen DiMarco:
Just her experience, and you listen to that and you're like, "Ugh." It changed step one of my patient advocacy process, is now became define their fine. Because fine for a 67, 72 year old is not going to be the same for a 34 year old spin instructor. They'll take a greater risk for the quality of life that they want, they've got their whole lives.
Antra Boyd:
I mean, you ask her and she would tell you she would've done everything different had she known that there were options.
Karen DiMarco:
"You're going to be fine. You're going to be fine." That's what she got told. Well, what they were saying, how they defined fine, was not her definition of fine.
Beth Quaas:
I'm going to find that next, that's where I'm going after this, to find and listen to that podcast.
So that's what your listeners and nurses are going to get from what you're doing. You're interviewing real people, and it really does inspire you to want to know more, to learn more. So I applauded both of you for what you're doing and what you're going to do in the future.
Antra Boyd:
Aw. Thanks-
Karen DiMarco:
Thank you. It's exciting to talk about it, thanks for the opportunity.
Antra Boyd:
I know. Yeah.
Karen DiMarco:
We're so embroiled with it that we don't get to ... I get, I've had chills a couple times today talking about what we're doing-
Antra Boyd:
Yeah. You've re-inspired us.
Karen DiMarco:
[inaudible 00:39:33]. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Beth Quaas:
Fantastic. That's what this is all about, to get out people's stories and let other people find you. Maybe someone, many of my listeners, I hope, come and find you and learn what you have to share.
Antra Boyd:
Well, and I hope that they come and learn what you have to share, because we're going to have you on our platform and I just can't wait to see ... That's just so, how cool is it that we're on each other's podcasts, that we're ... I mean, it is so more than I could have ever imagined it to be.
Kind of, sometimes, it's heads down, and getting through the hard work of it, and you kind of sometimes lose sight of why you're doing it. So it's so fun to be on these podcasts, especially, I will say, with other nurses, that's been a real treat.
Beth Quaas:
Yes, I agree. I have met some incredible people just having guests on this podcast, and it connects you with people. I know Karen and I talked last night about Maggie Ortiz, she was a guest on my podcast, and she's part of your-
Antra Boyd:
Oh, yeah.
Beth Quaas:
It's just amazing the connections that we make.
Antra Boyd:
She's a fireball, man. That girl.
Beth Quaas:
I was going to say, she's a firecracker. She is.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah. Yeah, I love her.
Beth Quaas:
She's got a lot to teach as well.
Antra Boyd:
Totally. I mean, I haven't even seen much of her content, but just by having a conversation with her, she changed how I would manage myself in a nursing management office if I was being asked to do something that wasn't kosher. She was so good at how, what does she say? "You want me to violate my Nurse Practice Act? I'm here for you. I'm here for you."
Beth Quaas:
When I interviewed her for my podcast, I think my mouth hung open most of the time just listening to her stories, and what she's seen and done. It's incredible.
Karen DiMarco:
Yeah, and how many nurses she's saved, and their license-
Beth Quaas:
Yes.
Karen DiMarco:
So I can't wait until she's going to create content, and it's going to be so valuable. I mean, nurses don't know how much they're risking their license every single day, with cultural, sacred cows. The things that, "Well, this is just the way we do it." Well, the way we do it is illegal and malpractice.
Beth Quaas:
[inaudible 00:41:51]. Well, I would say to anyone that hears this podcast, please go check out what you guys are offering on RNegade. The opportunities are incredible and they're only going to grow from here, so I'm very excited.
Karen DiMarco:
And I just relocated the nurse's declaration of independence, so I can read it.
Beth Quaas:
Yeah, go ahead.
Karen DiMarco:
You want me ... You want to close out the show?
Beth Quaas:
Either way.
Karen DiMarco:
Okay.
Beth Quaas:
Fantastic. Well, I want to thank you both for being here, and you guys, let's end it with the declaration.
Antra Boyd:
Yeah, thank you.
Karen DiMarco:
Healthcare has been evolving rapidly for the past, well, forever. Nurses have always adapted and adopted to shrinking resources by either increasing their workload in the same 60 minute hour, or creating new roles to fill in the cracks that the healthcare industry has created. Community health nurse, case management, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, et cetera.
With each step up, we get more stepped on. We have allowed, yes, allowed this for far too long, and we're done. A nurse's declaration of independence.
When, in the course of events in healthcare evolution, it becomes necessary for the nursing profession to dissolve the bonds with authorities and administrations that have royally screwed things up, and to reclaim the power to which nurses are entitled, by the laws of nature and of nature's God, and with respect, declare the causes which impel them to say, "You all suck at this, and you're fired. We'll take it from here."
We hold these truths to be self-evident. All nurses have an equal right to safety, contentment, and the freedom to grow, at work and at home. Some of us had more, or better parents. Some of us had more, or better love. Some of us had more, or better education. Some of us had more money, or more intelligence. Some of us had more, or better opportunities and connections. Some of us had more trauma and tragedy to take us down, or help us grow. But we are all equally sovereign and free, and no-one is the boss of me.
Those rights are not earned or granted by any human or administrative entity. They are the birthright of every nurse inherently. To secure these rights, we give our consent to the administrations which govern the places of our work and instruction to educate, organize, and regulate our profession, because we're too busy living our lives, raising our families, and serving our patients to do it ourselves.
When the authority that we have entrusted to any administration that governs our profession ceases to protect our rights, or becomes a source of their violation, it is our right and responsibility to reform, or abolish, the systems that have become antiquated, corrupt, and irresponsible, and institute a new and better way, founded in integrity with the principles from which our right to safety, contentment, and freedom are derived. We don't do this lightly as it is a pain in our collective asses to move the needle against the gravity of the status quo to which we have become accustomed. But when sustained and evolving abuses to our profession and dignity become intolerable, it is our duty to remove our consent to their authority and establish a new guard of our sovereignty.
Run from what's comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I'll be mad. Rumi.
Outro:
Don't Eat Your Young was produced in partnership with True Story FM. Engineering by Andy Nelson. Music by the Lighthearts.
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