NurdiConnect and Psych NP

Ava welcomes Lindsay Hill, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, to the NursiConnect podcast. Lindsay discusses her private practice, which primarily focuses on telepsychiatry and brief psychotherapy. She also mentions her boot camp for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner students and new grads, as well as her membership community called the Psych NP Network. Lindsay explains her motivation for choosing psych nursing and describes a typical day working remotely. She emphasizes the importance of balancing her career with motherhood and acknowledges the support she receives from her family. Welcome to the NursiConnect podcast. My name is Ava. I'm the chief executive and founder of the remote nurse staffing agency, NursiConnect. On this podcast, we talk about all things remote nursing. So yes, I did graduate as a remote nurse today. Her name is Ms. Lindsay. I'll let her further introduce herself. Lindsay, welcome to the show. Thanks, Ava, for having me. So I'm Lindsay Hill. I'm a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. I am here in Arizona, and I've been practicing for nine years, and I am new to the private practice world. My private practice is primarily remote, so I do telepsychiatry. I do brief psychotherapy at my private practice. So yes, I have a boot camp for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner students and new grads. It's approved for continuing education credit hours, and it's basically a support program because there's really this gap that exists between when you graduate as a psych NT, and then you start your first job. And I've found that a lot of people feel not prepared and just feel kind of like they're thrown into the role. And so me and my sister, who's also a psych NT, put together this boot camp and really tried to make it the practical things that you would want to know if you were like starting a job tomorrow. So I'm really passionate about that. And then I also have another business called the Psych NP Network, and that one is basically a membership community for psych NPs where we run case consultation groups on a weekly basis, and we network and share resources. We basically wanted a community outside of like Facebook and social media that was more private and just a little bit more, you know, some of the Facebook groups can get a little bit negative when you try to stop cases. So we wanted something that was a little more protected in that way. So the Psych NP Network's a lot of fun. And right now we're having an offer where if you sign up for the boot camp, you get one year free on the Psych NP Network. So kind of fun. I love what I am doing. I love doing a mix of patient care, but then some of these other things that I'm really passionate about. I love that you do that with your sister. That is so nice. It's mainly fun. Mainly fun. And you're both psychiatric nurse practitioners, which is also very cool because psychiatric nurse practitioners are like very slim, far few in between. It's like 6% of nurse practitioners practice psychiatric. Everybody else is the SNP. Is that true? Interesting. Yeah, only 6%. Yeah, 6%. I did not know that. And then the other 92, SNP. Really? Interesting. Yep. I learned that trying to recruit some nurses. I was like, oh, y'all kind of, y'all kind of hard to find. Yeah. Let's see here. The next question I'm going to ask is why did you choose to advance your practice in psych nursing? When you are RN, you just like, this is me. So in my undergrad, I really did not like my psychiatric nursing undergrad rotation. It was in Ohio and the hospital and the people, the patients just weren't really getting better. And I felt like the nurses, I don't know, it just seemed like they would hand medications out. Like I was like, oh, this seems kind of like a little bit like it would be depressing because these people aren't really getting better and you feel kind of like helpless to help them. So I really never saw myself working in like psych nursing. And then my first nursing job was an outpatient gig at Arizona State University and community health nursing. And I saw the role of a psych NP for the first time in that role. And I was like, this is really cool. This is amazing. And she's really helping these students who are struggling going from like not functioning to being able to function, to being able to do well in school or hold a job and things like that. And I'm like, that seems really like it would be very fulfilling and I think I would love it. And so I was like all about trying to learn everything I could from her. Yeah, I was always like, can I can I come in and like observe a shadow? And yeah, it was fun. OK, so can you talk about like what a day in the life looks like for you working remotely as a psych NP from start to finish? Yeah, absolutely. So wake up, take a shower, play with my little guy a little bit. He is going to be four in a couple of days. So he's a lot of fun. I try to I try not to get too like busy in the morning that I can't be playful with him. And, you know, I don't feel like I have to just start the day like rushed. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I try to play with him for a little bit. And I've kind of created that space intentionally where I don't have to start right away. And so we love that. We have fun. Sometimes we'll go out in the pool or the hot tub. We'll go on the trampoline. We'll read a book, you know, we'll do whatever. So that's fun. And then because being a present mom is really important to me also. Then I will, depending on what day it is, usually I'll see a couple of clients. I only see patients like two days a week, though. So like yesterday, I had probably like five clients and then I have dedicated days where I'm working more on, you know, one business than the other, since I do have the three different things going on. And sometimes what I need to do for more of like this, I can be network or the boot camp is more like creative juices need to be flowing. So I tend to like to like separate that a little bit, like from the days where I'm seeing my patients and doing more of that private practice stuff. So for the private practice day, you know, I will basically do what I'm doing right now, except for with my patients, you know, we'll get on like Zoom and we'll do our telehealth appointments and do medication management, do some brief psychotherapy. And and then the boot camp, there's like a live coaching component. And so we do that on Mondays for 90 minutes. I love that we get to connect and kind of brainstorm with psych students and new grads who are just kind of feeling stuck in different ways and wondering, like, hmm, do I want to go straight into private practice? Do I want to what do I want to do? You know, so being able to kind of help coach them, I found really fulfilling. So it's kind of a mix and I'm still figuring that out. It's still a learning process as far as like self-structuring, because for so long, my days were just like built out for me, you know what I mean? I just had like a full day of patients, you know, 10 hour days. So I didn't really have to like self-structure. So that's been new for me. And I'm kind of constantly re-evaluating and adjusting, like, how are these days going? Are they aligning with my values? And like, am I spending my time how I want to be spending my time? Because it's easy when you're passionate about something to be like doing all these things and you're like, what am I what am I doing? I'm doing everything. You might know how that goes. Yeah, I want to circle back to the motherhood part that comes with remote nursing, because I do work remotely with a two year old, right, three days a week. I still work. I work 312. So the four days that I have off is like trying to like balance my time with her, kind of similar to you, balancing your time with your toddler. And I'm also a business owner like you. So it's balancing what you're doing on the days that you don't see patients is, yeah, it's a whirlwind a little bit. But, you know, yeah, the number one thing I get asked about when it comes to remote nursing is being able to care for your child while you're working in that capacity. And I always tell people it just depends on what you have going on. Your your situation is very unique. You see, you see what you see patients two days a week. Right. Yeah. And yeah, so you're able to spend more time or divvy up your time a little bit better. Your child is four years old. I see patients three days a week. My child is two years old. So it just depends on what the situation is. I don't have like a blanket answer for that. But on TikTok, that's like my number one question. How do you care for your child and still be a nurse at home? And it seems like it's just based on your situation, right? Yeah, I think it totally varies. And it's even varied for me. Like it's changed for me since I've been doing it the last couple of years based on kind of what's going on with my son. You know, he didn't go to preschool until, I don't know, maybe a year ago. And so, you know, but my but I was super blessed in that my mom could nanny for us and we would pay her to nanny. And it worked out because she didn't really like the job she was at before. So, you know, she wanted to do that. And I really love my career, too. You know, I did take six months off where I just spend it with my son. And I enjoyed it. I just found that like I needed for my mental health to also have like the outlet of like my career, basically. That is the only thing. Yeah. Yeah. So that really helps me. But I did have a period where I was just like burned out and I just took six months off and I enjoyed the time with my son. I did. But I think I'm a better mom. I show up more presently when I have kind of that balance. So, yeah, right now we're in a phase where my husband, he has his own business, but that doesn't require him a lot of time. And so he was working for a company, but then he lost that job about two months ago. And so now he's able to be really present with Liam. You know, then they're going to Home Depot. They're going to be cleaning the yard together today. So very blessed in that, you know, I think having that support does make a huge difference. I don't take that for granted because I know not everybody has that. Yeah, that support does make a big, big difference. But anyway, yeah, I just want to talk about motherhood and remote nursing a little bit because, yeah, like 50 percent of the candidates that I talked to, I asked them why I didn't want to work remotely. Family, children, family, children and only if women. So they're like, I want to be with my child, I want to be with my child. So I understand. Yeah. Yeah, it was yeah, it was interesting because where I was working before, it was a great job. It was super supportive. But I I wanted just like those 45 minutes of like driving, commuting. I wanted like that time back, you know, even though it doesn't seem like a huge deal. I'm like, oh, but it's that 45 minutes in the morning, you know, that. So your priority shift, it does. And you don't realize it until you stop doing it. Those things, how much time it takes. Right. Even when I was working at the bedside, I didn't shift report. I don't have to do shift report anymore. I'm done with my workday is done at 7 p.m., not 7.30, 8 o'clock. Then I have to drive home. So, yeah, when you realize you don't have to do that stuff anymore. Yeah. You're talking. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Well, we kind of answer this question. Talk about work life balance. Do you like working remotely? How do you feel like it's impacted your nursing practice? I do like it. You know, it wasn't something I ever saw myself really doing, you know, and then the pandemic hit and then we all had to adjust and figure it out kind of. And then and then I had my son during the pandemic. And then I was like, well, yeah, now I love like especially I love this because, you know what I mean? I I do love like seeing people in person. Like I love seeing co-workers and patients in person. But I think right now with the phase of life I'm in, I love I love this a lot more. I love the flexibility more. I still feel like I can have a really good rapport and relationship with my clients. I don't feel like I'm like missing this major ability to connect with them. And I don't know. I think that varies person to person, how they feel about that. But I think having experience has helped. You know, if I was brand new, I was struggling when I was brand new. You know what I mean? I think that could be more difficult to figure it out without that support. So but yeah, other things that I enjoy about it, like as far as the work life balance goes, being able to travel more, you know, becoming more of like a business owner, doing more entrepreneurial things. We've cut back on our spending a lot because we're like, well, we don't know what this means yet. Right. Like it's it's a learning process. It's not that steady paycheck that you get when you have your salary somewhere. So so one thing we've taken advantage of is like home exchange, which is kind of fun. We've done a couple of home exchanges. It's an app or, you know, website that you can sign up for and exchange houses like. And so you can do it like reciprocally at the same time or you can do it like at different times. It's kind of interesting. But we've had some cool experiences doing that. It's been an affordable way to, yeah, get to travel like Airbnb or something. Kind of. But it's like these are people's houses, you know, so they're not set up for like Airbnb. And so it's like not everybody's open to doing it. Like some people are like, oh, I would not want to do that. I feel weird about that. But like there's reviews too on like the people who host you or who you would host. So it's really pretty cool. So we just finalized an exchange for July because it's way too hot here in Arizona in July. And I'm really excited about that. So, yeah, I think your listeners should know about home exchange. So you just do it whenever you just want to pick up and move? I mean, it takes some more. I mean, it takes some like planning and you have to like request quite a few different situations to find a swap that actually works. You know what I mean? But when you find one that works, like it's great. We had a really cool experience in Half Moon Bay in California during like their pumpkin festival thing at this beautiful house for like two weeks. I think that was last fall or the fall before. And so we've had some fun experiences. Interesting. Did I ask you how you end up transitioning into remote work? I touched on it just basically the pandemic, you know, was really kind of where I was working. I was working all in person and then we had to kind of figure out telehealth, you know, right away with when the pandemic hit. So that was kind of when it happened. And then I was still like hybrid for a while after that. But then when I realized just kind of like the possibilities in terms of like the income earning potential, you know, along with like having more time to be present with my son, it just it seemed like working remotely, you know, fit best with kind of my values of where I'm at in life right now. So. Yeah, the pandemic for like mental health, telehealth, like they were like trying it out, see how it's going to work. But it stuck like almost 50 percent of mental health services are delivered online, 50 percent plus. So people really enjoy being able to talk to their therapist via telehealth. So you made the right shift at the right time. And you talked about income. I'm not a psychiatric nurse practitioner, but y'all are paid very, very, very well for what y'all do. I was talking to one company in California, they were willing to pay one of the nurses $200,000 plus, fully remote, to see patients a couple of times a week. I'm like, OK, that's that's a lot of money. Yeah. For a nurse or a psych NP or? Psych NP, yeah, I was like, and it's kind of been like that. Well, California is the highest paid, I see. But regardless, y'all get paid very, very well. I thought CRNAs were like at the top. Y'all right behind them with the pay. If I, if I do. Yeah, yeah. That's been one of the things, actually, that's been kind of an interesting dynamic is I think when the pandemic hit, more things opened up as far as like access to care and remote positions. People, it seemed like a lot more people started going to psych NP school and there were more for profit programs that were like accepting people in, not as stringently. And so there's definitely like this controversy out there of like, you know, are people doing it for the money and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, so it's interesting. It's an interesting dynamic that I've heard. But I think that. Yeah, I think we've seen definitely an increase in people wanting to become psych NPs since kind of seeing those possibilities. Yeah. And I just read the other day, the AACC was the only one offering the certification to psych NPs. Now another branch or company has now opened up to put more psychiatric nurse practitioners through to get their certification. So it is it is growing like wildfire. And I talked to a few candidates the other day. They're about to go to psych NP school. And I'm like, OK, it's going to go from 6 percent to like 30 percent here in a little bit. So I know I would not be surprised at all. You know what I mean? So kind of interesting. But I love it. I'm really happy that I chose the path I did. You know, I got some negative feedback because I was pretty young when I went back and I didn't have psychiatric nursing experience. I was a community health nurse for like a year and a half. And that's another big, you know, area of like controversy is like, you know, do you have to have psych nursing experience? But anyway, so I definitely got some negative feedback. Back up. I didn't know that. So you don't have to have psych nursing experience to go? So this is where it gets kind of interesting. You know what I mean? Like there's exceptions that are made, you know, in certain programs. And like I said, some of the for-profit programs, I think, have been less strict about that. But it depends on the program, you know, and and in terms of do they enforce that like X years of experience, you know, I would recommend somebody get psychiatric nursing experience, which I guess is kind of hypocritical because I didn't. But I think it was rough for me. You know what I mean? It was a rough transition for sure. I was very stressed out, very anxious. I think I would have been more confident if I had had that experience under my belt. So I do think it was more difficult for me that way. But yeah, I do know people who like in their letters, you know, will write like about kind of their why they want to become a psych NP. They definitely look at that stuff. You know what I mean? Like kind of what your story is and your motivation and your experience. Because, yeah, a lot of us do have exposure to psych, to mental health, even when we're not working directly in psychiatric nursing, per se. I knew I didn't like psych nursing and nursing school when we did the rotation, I was like, oh, no, this is not for me. So I can't imagine like you going in there and be like, oh, this is what it's like at the advanced level. OK, let's just keep going. So you're very brave to do that, like just to jump in. It helped that I worked with those two psych NP's at, you know, Arizona State because I really like clung to them and like they were like my mentors, you know what I mean? I was like observing when I could and that helped. I think that helped a lot. But yeah, it wasn't easy for sure. No, I can imagine. Now I'm seeing the circle right now that you you know what it's like to have a good mentor. Now you're going to be that to somebody else because it may be different for you. Oh, huge difference. It's huge. Yeah, exactly. You're lining for me now. Now, all right, what are some of your remote nurse essentials? What are some things that you use day to day for your nursing practice or just in general while you're working remote? Well, I like I love my desk. It's like I'm not at my desk right now because it was in the living room and now it's been moved to the bedroom again because we're having a birthday party this weekend. So our house isn't huge. I don't have like a dedicated office space, you know. So my my desk is something I love because it like goes up and down. And it's also like a whiteboard like on the top of it. So I can like write on it and I'm kind of nerdy about that. And then I also love, oh shoot, I don't have it over here, but it's like it's like a time timer, but it's like a mini whiteboard. And I use that a lot. My son was like writing on it last night, but because I'm like I have ADHD and it helps me to like have visual timers so I can write like things I need to get done on my like tiny little whiteboard and set the timer. And it just feels more like feasible to break down tasks that way as opposed to just like, hey, I got to do all these charts or you know what I mean? Just like I'm going to go work for eight hours like that does not work for me. I do much better with like that Pomodoro technique, they call it, like where you're breaking it up. You're like working focus for maybe like 25 minutes and then taking a little break. So. So, yeah, I like that time timer, a little whiteboard. I do like my planner. I have my my Erin Condre planner. I do like that. Do I use it all the time? I try to. I go through phases, you know what I mean? And so, you know, yeah, I do that when I'm like able to see a visual of like what's my week looking like, what's my month looking like, my microphone. I like I use this. I have a podcast, too. That's newer. I don't know if you knew that, but it's called Two Psycho NP's and a podcast. No. Oh, they're so cute. It's not like P's and a pod. OK. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So my friend Rachel, who's also from North Carolina, she and I connected on social media. I think it was like last May and she's the one who co-founded the Psych NP network with me and who's doing the podcast with me. And she's actually coming to Arizona in June to hike Kavasu Pie Falls with me. So we've created this like friendship and bond. We've never even met in person, you know. And so I think it's like kind of shows the power of like social media and also the willingness to put yourself out there. Like that is something I think it is. I think you seem like you have that. I definitely have that. And I think that like that bodes well for you if you're trying to do the things like we try to do, because yeah, because you really do have to be willing to kind of put yourself out there. And I think if you're too like worried about and I have social anxiety, don't get me wrong, but I've really overcome a lot of like worrying about like, oh, I'm going to be like bothering this person. Like I try to be well-mannered, but at the same time, like just being willing to say like, hey, a lot of times people are open to like you reaching out to me to do this. People are open to it if you if you like are and you followed up on it, even when I like dropped the ball. Like, you know, that kind of thing. Like Rachel said that to me the other day. You're persistent, Lindsay. And I'm like, I am? It's like, yeah, like because I guess I like kind of reached out to her a few times about this, like mentorship stuff. And that was kind of what ended up connecting us. So I think it's a good little like tip for nursing students and, you know, like psych nurses, like, yeah, I think being willing to kind of put yourself out there. Yeah, well, that's how I found you. I was following on like my TikTok live feed and I'm going to get on the live feed anyway. And then I saw you on there. I was like, I haven't seen her before. What's she doing? What is she talking about? And I hopped to see her live. I listened for a little bit. I was like, oh, that sounds like that sounds interesting. I need to follow up with her. And then I just kept watching your page and watching your page. I was like, well, you were kind of going through a similar process that I was going through as far as getting like, you have a course accredited through the ASCC, right? Or CE course? Yes. Not through it. Not through. Well, where is it accredited through? I don't know. I went through the Colorado State Board of Nursing to do it. That was who, like, guided me through the process. But. Yeah, it's approved. Yeah, yeah. I was like, OK, she's going to do what I'm going to do right now because I'm creating courses for my company, for my nurses to take the inpatient virtual nursing course. And I'm making a course for psych EMPs. It's not like how to be a psych EMP. It's like how to transition to practice. Right. Still staying in my lane as Orange. Yeah. Like just how to transition into the practice. And so I was like, how can I get this to where it's worth the nurse's time to take it? Like, I didn't want to just put something on social media. So I went through and I hired somebody to help me get, like, accredited and everything. And I was like, OK, I was like, I was watching to see if you want to post more stuff about your like, what happened, your process. Because I was good. I didn't because people are asking me about that. Yeah. Honestly, you know, and that's a lot of times we are talking about that on the network. It's kind of a benefit of like, oh, you join the network, you pay your thirty seven dollars a month. And then like we have these groups where like yesterday one was like a psych MP visionary group. And and then we like kind of brains. I brainstormed with somebody who's, you know, on social media trying to figure out kind of her next offering as far as like, do I want to do coaching? Do I want to create a course? You know, there's so many different options out there. So I think that's really cool. I'd love to meet with you like again and learn more like exchange ideas, you know, I think. I'm really trying to grow my listeners. No, I'm really trying to grow Narsy Connect to be like this powerhouse to where if you're looking for a remote position, this is where you're coming. If a company is looking for a remote nurse, this is where they're coming. We're starting with these three roles. But like, I'm trying to grow it to be a giant. OK, so that's cool. This is about you. I know, but I am curious. So I'm having to like not ask a lot of my questions, but we're going to need another meeting for that. So just to be prepared, we are going to need another video for that because I was looking because when I started posting on social media, people kept asking me, how do you get into inpatient virtual nurse? How do you do that? And the more I looked at it, it was nothing really to get into inpatient virtual nursing because it's such a newer position in nursing. I feel like I didn't learn about it in nurse school. And I mean, so, yeah, OK, there needs to be some type of training, some type of place where nurses can come and learn about it. And that's what was going to start it. But then I started noticing more and more telehealth positions are opening up across like all forms of nursing. And I was like, oh, no, this needs to be like a whole agency, like remote nursing. So it kind of just like snowballed from there. So you work with a lot of psych MPs? Yes. Yeah. Connecting them. I talk to a lot of companies that hire psych MPs, like I'm just trying to like build up the network. That is that is the goal. That is that is the goal of this agency is to build relationships, build up a network. And because referrals in the business world, it's like the number one way you get business is through referrals, by just talking to people, like interacting with them, just, yeah, like, you know, you know, because a lot of what we do, like if you're trying to get into owning a business is like networking and talking to people. And I think for some people who are really like more black and white in their thinking, it's kind of like, well, what benefit is this to me or you know what I mean? And it's like you have to kind of just be open. Yeah, you have to be open because it might not benefit you now, but six months later, they might be like, oh, hey, I know somebody because that just happened to me. I had somebody like you on my podcast. She referred me to somebody she knew and now we're getting our first customer. So super excited. I love that. That's amazing. Yeah. So I definitely want to stay connected on that end, too, because, you know, on the network, we have a lot of people who are well and on just my social media followers, people who are looking for, yeah, positions as like MPs. So, um, look, we got a lot of topics, but I was going to say something else to you. I was going to say something else. It's OK. All right. The next big thing. Oh, my gosh. This is like the biggest issue on my TikTok right now. People in the comments fighting back and forth about this. How do you feel working remotely has impacted your nursing skills? Like, are you stressed about it? Are you OK with not being able to start an IV or start IVs anymore? I don't know. Like, how do you feel about it? Before I tell you how I feel. OK, this is how I feel about it. I have always been a soft nurse girly. I have always excelled in my soft nursing skills. OK, I'm not going to lie to you. Even when I was a community health nurse, like the medical assistants were kind of like scoot over, like, it's fine. I got that, you know, and and my brother, he does. He just came and did an IV for my sister and I poolside the other day because he works for an IV business. He's a paramedic firefighter. And he was he was laughing at me because I'm like, you know, he's like, did you not do IVs? And I'm like, I did. I did. He's like, you've been in psych for too long. Wow. But anyhow, so I never I never wanted to really work in the hospital. I never have since I've been a nurse. I've always worked outpatient. I've kind of just known what I like. Do people criticize that? Yeah. But do I really care? No, not that much, because I have found a good path where I'm like helping people. And yeah, so no, I don't miss any of it. I don't care because I know that I'm like also doing what I love. I think if you know that you're like doing something you love, you know, and you're not stressed about like, oh, am I going to need to go back and work med surg? Like, no, baby girl's not going back to work med surg ever. You know what I mean? Like, that is like people every time I post a vlog about, you know, my day in the life that like, well, you know, you know, are you worried about your nursing skills? You know, draw labs off a pig, start an IV, you went to med surg. And I was like, I'm OK. Like, if I if I ever do go back in person, you know, it'll be there for me to do. If I don't, then I'm going to be the best virtual nurse you ever saw in your life. Like, I'm happy. I'm still a nurse. At one point, I was like, oh, nursing is not for me. During that pandemic, I was like, nursing is not for me if this is what it is. And then I turned to virtual. I was like, maybe nursing is for me. Maybe I'm one of the soft girls, too. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's so many different things in nursing. And I am I'm really grateful to my dad for that. Like, he always told me that, you know, because he was like working in it as an admissions counselor at the college I went to. And he'd see these people graduate with like these massive amounts of like loans. And then they wouldn't really be able to get jobs like to pay those off, you know. But it's like with nursing, there's so many things you can do, you know. That's a different that's a different take. You know, I thought you said I thought you were going to say he was a nurse, too. But he saw it from a different perspective as far as. No, he worked in sales. And so neither of my parents went to college. And he was like, I want you guys, especially if you guys are going to take out loans. And, you know, I want you guys to do something that where you can actually earn an income, you know, because he was like on commission, you know, with four kids. Like it was not always easy financially speaking for us. And so so he really my both my parents, you know, made sacrifices to be like, we want you guys to have these different opportunities. So it's funny, it's a different perspective that like I have even than my sister, because we have three nurses in the family and then a firefighter. Oh, wow. And, you know, it's like, I don't know, I'm grateful for for it, that he kind of challenged me to think about that, you know, Nursing is nursing is great. We're going to talk about that. But nursing is great. All right. We talked about your nursing skills. Let's see. All right. We are coming around. Oh, no. I do remember why I asked you. So I saw one video on your TikTok. It looks like you were speaking at an event or something. Can you talk about that a little bit more? And do you think it's beneficial for nurses who are looking to be in like this remote telehealth space to attend a networking event like this? Yes, I do. Okay. So first of all, I hate public speaking with a passion. I was I have so much like performance anxiety. So there's that. So I think probably what you saw was me doing like a testimonial at Site Congress. And they had asked me to do that. And while I was at this conference, right, and there was a guy on my TikTok who was like, in marketing, he's going to be a site camp, he's going to go to site camp school, but he knows a lot about like marketing and things. And he's like, be careful with that or like something like he's like, just DM me afterwards. Anyway, we got on a call afterwards and he's like, he's like, don't do anything for free. Like try to try to get like some free tickets or like something to like there anyway, long story short, I did do like a little bit of like networking that way. And now I'm able to attend their conference and and well, the end of this month in Vegas. And as a result of being willing to like promote the conference and and then me getting like comp tickets. So kind of cool. I just wouldn't have thought about that. I was just like, oh, cool. They're asking me to do a testimonial that he was like, oh, no, you can like ask. They have usually like a budget, you know, and if they're looking to promote their conferences, they might be interested in that. So it was out of my comfort zone. But I am glad I asked because now I get to go to this conference at the end of the month that's geared for new grad and mainly new grad in their first five years of their practice and share about all the things, you know, meet up with my boot campers, meet up with my psych NP network people. I'm pumped. I used to go to conferences every year, but I'm not going to lie. You know, I had my CEU funds and I was also going for the for the fun times. You know what I mean? I was hanging out with my son at the Broadmoor, drinking my lemon drops, having a great time, not going to every session. But now that I have my own business, like I definitely went with a different mindset this last time to network. And I was very inspired by I don't know if you follow Kirby. Kirby is a psych NP who does mentorship for your psych NP new grads, but I was inspired by her because she was working at conference like she she had a plan, you know, she worked she was like different than anybody else I've ever seen at a conference. But I'm like, oh, this makes sense, you know, because she's strategic and she's growing and she's she's like and I'm like, OK, I'm learning from you, Kirby. So it was fun, though, because then, too, they were like, are you interested in being they call them like speakers in training or leaders in training? I don't know. They're like people who like present with like some of the bigger people who present like a voice in training. I don't know. But I was like kind of panicked. I was like, no, I know that's uncomfortable. But I was just like, yeah, maybe, you know, because I'm like, I would be good to grow in that area, you know. And so who knows? Linda, you don't know me, but I'm proud of you because that's hard. You have public you have anxiety with public speaking and you still put yourself out there. Good, bad, ugly, indifferent. I'm proud of you, girl. I'm proud of you. It's a new it's a new thing for me. I'm not going to lie. It's a new thing for me since about a year ago, but it's been it's worth it. It's been worth it. Yeah, it's actually been liberating. I mean, you probably know this, but yeah, we're wrapping up. So what is the best part of being a nurse for you? The best part of being a nurse for me is probably just the ability to make a living and feel like I have a very like purposeful, like I feel like a lot of purpose in what I do in a career where I can connect with people. I really like connecting with people, hearing their stories, you know. And so the fact that I get to do that as part of like my job is pretty like amazing, you know. So I'm really grateful, too, for the flexibility. You know, I mean, when I see just even, you know, I don't know, just different people. Not everybody gets an opportunity to like have this kind of flexibility, you know. So I think the gratitude part, like not taking it for granted, you know, I don't. You know, it's very like, yeah, not everybody's getting to work in this capacity. So I think when you have that spirit of gratitude, it just changes how you approach things. You know what I mean? It makes you enjoy your work, number one, a lot. And I think that's kind of what happens to me, like working at the bedside to a nurse, I was not grateful. I was very like, I don't know, I was super stressed, super anxious, shifting into a whole work. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I get to have this time that I didn't have before. I absolutely love doing this. I want to keep doing this. I want to help other people do this so they can stay in nursing. So that leads from you loving to doing what you want to do all the way into the point you want to help somebody else do it, too. Exactly. What would you say to all the nurses listening to the podcast who aspire to work from home or to get into psychiatric nursing? I would say network, network, network. It sounds annoying and cliche, but like get on LinkedIn, like connect with the staffing agency, like connect with, you know, other people who are doing similar things to you and different things than you and try to learn from people, try to learn from other people's experiences, because you can save like a lot of headache by, I think, learning from other people who have done the things that you want to do. And so, you know, so for me, that's like networking, sometimes investing in like mentorship or coaching and just being willing to put yourself out there. You know, I think, honestly, leveraging social media is a good idea. I would recommend it. I know it's not for everybody. You know, my sister, like she doesn't love it, you know, but she, I think, is starting to see like the value of even the, what opportunities it's affording us and me, you know, as I build my brand and my platform. So I think that that's totally new for me. I never saw myself being on social media as a nurse, as a psych NP. I thought that was kind of weird, honestly, I was like, no, that'd be awkward. But I also think like just working for myself, it's been like liberating because I'm like, what if I say the wrong thing, then like, I'm not stressed out about like, it's going to reflect this company. I'm like, well, it's me. So if I have to sit in front of the board, because I get in trouble, then okay, I feel pretty good about what I do. So I'll be fine with that. I love that thought process, because I'm sitting here editing my videos, I'm like, should I say this? And I'm like, I don't care what they're going to do to me if I say, if I do this or I say this, who are they going to report me to? It's mine. This is mine. Okay. Y'all get mad. Y'all can just get off the page. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 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