All for one and one for all nurses
Preface:
Have I mentioned that I’m all for supporting us as a profession? I think you may have heard me talk about it a few times. I tend to give the “collaborative, promoting you, community” spiel every now and then. Well, I’m back at it again, but I really want to set the record straight after I ended up having a post removed from a forum that I’ve been a member of for roughly a decade now.
I’ll try my best to be brief and to the point here, but allow me a paragraph or two to build the story.
So, as you are probably aware, I’m the co-founder and co-host of RN.FM Radio along with my esteemed colleague Keith Carlson. The show has really grown beyond our expectations and we have our community and all of the amazing guests to thank for this growth. Keith has a growing business and many other projects that he is involved in, and well, I’m getting back to burning the candle at both ends as my primary consulting company is going through some growing pains again and I’m also collaborating on a few new projects. Don’t get me wrong, as an entrepreneur I certainly appreciate being busy, but I’m reverting back to the 14 hour work day. I realize this is not good for my self-care, but I’ve promised myself that it will be short lived and I will get back on the bike and playing golf soon so that I too can avoid being short lived.
I don’t want to deviate too far from my purpose of this post, but what I want to do is reiterate to you publicly that I’m doing this all in what little spare time I have and I’m dedicated to this community, the radio show, and many of the other projects that I have my hands in. I’m pretty sure Keith feels the same. We want to promote you, and although our show and our blog doesn’t equate to being “gainfully employed”, we certainly hope that we could make that happen some day. Simply put, I’m just having so much fun at the moment and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
I suppose this is where I discuss my point:
So Keith and I are hosting a student nurse roundtable on November 19th where we’ll be interviewing student nurses from around the country with various backgrounds and experiences. Our show continues to evolve just as I think any good business, platform, or community should to better allow for the opportunity to grow and meet a bigger need.
Well, going back to this forum that I’ve been a member of (nope, not going to directly call them out by name) for about a decade, I decided to reach out to a few of the student nurses on this forum to see who might be interested in being on the show. I do want to share with you that Keith and I have already received enough interest to start this roundtable, however we’ve been tossing around the idea of having this be a regular series.
Over the years on this particular forum I’ve observed quite a few of you student nurses soliciting the advice, support, and input from nurses from all subspecialty areas. In many cases one (or more) of your classes may have an assignment that involves interviewing a nurse about a certain topic, stance, or subspecialty area that you have to include as part of the requirement to complete it. I personally enjoy providing input and in many cases having the opportunity to provide a teaching moment to assist you in your current and future practice.
I took it upon myself to post a new thread on this particular forum posing the question to all of you student nurses out there gauging your interest in being a guest on our show. I thought I was very careful to not “self-promote” and although I did mention the name of the radio show (to indicate some credibility), no link was posted directing members away from the site. No “listen in here” was ever mentioned, no “subscribe now” was posted, just a simple good gesture and recognition for what you’re going through and our willingness to hear what you have to say. So as stated before, the post was removed.
So am I being a little naive here? Did my one and only post about this particular show send the wrong message to the owner and moderators of the forum about my true intention of just extending an offer to turn the table and give a student nurse an opportunity to discuss what’s most pressing and what value they may bring to our current practices. What are they seeing that we might have lost sight of? Again, it’s really just acknowledgement about the sacrifices they’re making to achieve these goals to become a nurse, and also a little gratitude at the very least by thinking of us as a “resource” or an “expert” that they’ve come to for help. Thank you all!
Feel free to play devil’s advocate, because you’re of course just hearing my side of the situation. I’m not going to sling any mud here. We actually have a current political campaign that’s slinging enough mud to bury us all. It just seems like a very similar ecosystem that nurses in general who feel asphyxiated are trying to break free from. Shouldn’t we be able to exist in an environment where we feel both supported and promoted?
I’ll go ahead and stay on my soapbox for a few more sentences here at Innovative Nurse and tell you again that I will continue with this community, promoting other nurses, and helping as many of you as I possibly can. Holding my cards close to my chest and being unwilling to collaborate or share ideas is not the way that I practice or run my businesses. In fact, I contribute the successes and rapid growth of these endeavors to my determination to maintain a collective effort in everything I do.
Social media platforms are becoming ingrained in our daily lives and the ability to share, promote, and have conversations is what keeps them sustainable from both the standpoint of a successful business model and a dynamic presence that extends our reach. This platform here will adhere to the same practices.
Innovative Nurse and RN.FM Radio will maintain our mission and philosophy to bring value to both your personal and professional lives. We will help you extend your reach, be your potential, and elevate our profession together.
So can I go ahead and actually promote us now?
Tune in live every Monday evening at 9PM EST.
Catch our archived shows on iTunes, ProMed Network, and of course on BlogTalk Radio.
You of course can find me here at Innovative Nurse, on Twitter, Facebook, and Google + just to name a few of the platforms.
You can also find Keith here, on Twitter, and Facebook.
Who else needs promoting? You’re in the right place.