Shownotes Transcript
Hey guys, welcome back to Friends Anonymous. My name's Lindsay and who do I have with me? I am Dr. Lori Laws. Amazing. Can you give them a little intro of who you are and your background while you're here? I am a, well, I got my start as a CNA because I just feel like that's important to say back in the day. So I got my start and worked my way up to an integrative nursing professor and a nurse scientist. Very cool. Yeah.
Very cool. I also see that you are an author. I am. Which is very cool. That's a book I wrote for our profession and all the nurses out there who are being treated less well. Yeah. Give us some background into what made you want to write this book. Well, I don't want to say I got mad, but I got a little bit angry because after 50 years of being in the profession...
it occurred to me that we're still having the same burnout narrative. This gaslighting, this blaming the victim, this, you know, what could you have done differently culture? And, you know, as a nurse scientist, I'm like, how come we're still having the same conversation five decades later?
So that informed some research questions and some geek flags came out and I was like, let me get to the bottom of this. So I really started looking at burnout phenomenon and then I started looking at the middle range theory of nurse psychological trauma, which is a gift that all of us can use to have these difficult conversations we need to have with management. And I was like, how can I get myself
in the living room of nurses worldwide with an evidence-based framework that can help instead of gaslight. I mean, let's just start there. Yeah. And so I did the research. I self-funded it. So there's no funding agency that has no grants that told me what to do.
And I did the research and I wrote the book and now it's available worldwide and I priced it affordably. So anybody who wants help, it's here for you. I got you. That's really cool. Have you had...
since you've been a, you said you started as CNA and then nurse and you worked your way up through to PhD. Right. Did you have specific experiences that you can remember, like specific stories where you're like, I feel like I'm being gaslit right now. Oh, like, you know, if we watch, we watch you of course on all your outlets and others, and we're all kind of in the same boat. And so I came up at a time when nurses had to wear all white and
Like who came up with that first of all? All white. What were they thinking? With blood, poop, and guts. Yeah, and I'm a CNA at the time. But the thing that was really, it was the patriarchal aspect of it that sort of pissed me off for, you know, we can just talk real, right? Yeah, absolutely. And so back in the 70s when I was coming up, if you were at the nurse's station doing your charting and a physician came up, you had to avail your seat to them.
Sometimes I feel like we still have to do that, but it was necessary then. Yeah, and all but bow. And I'm like, you know, and 19, 20-year-old me was like, what in the actual what? Yeah. And so 50 years later, I'm doing research, and I'm like, you know, this burnout thing...
What if it's not just burnout? That became my research question. What if it's not just burnout? What if it's something more? And that's when I stumbled upon the middle range theory for neuropsychological trauma. And then I started deep diving. I'm like, it's not burnout. Wow.
Sometimes it's burnout, but most of the time it's nurse specific traumatization, much of which, most of which is avoidable. So it's like avoidable and preventable. Avoidable and preventable and almost secondary to healthcare system or organizational inadequacies is the nicest way I can say that. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. So what, how can we avoid it and how does it present?
Right. How do we prevent it? How do we avoid it altogether? All of the things. And so it's really nuanced. And part of it is for us as nurses to take a step back from the burnout Kool-Aid that we have been forced to drink. So if we look at the World Health Organization's definition of burnout, it's occupational stress that has not been effectively managed. Mm-hmm.
That to me sounds like gaslighting. That to me sounds like, you know, blaming the victim.
And so when we start, so that brought my second research question in was like, okay, well, what's the difference between burnout and then no specific traumatization? Let's unpack, let's do what we call a symptom cluster analysis and let's rabbit hole the F out of it and get right down to it. And so when you start doing a symptom cluster analysis regarding burnout and nurse PTSD, just to keep it short and sweet,
you use SAMHSA's criteria to evaluate, it's like almost every symptom overlaps. Interesting. Yeah, and so you can look for evidence of it in all the normal domains, you know, behavioral, cognitive, relational, social, existential. So for example, if you're a person who is chronically fatigued,
having GI problems, sleep disturbances, maybe higher risk behaviors. And I'm raising my hand over the years for all of these. Okay, hold on. Check, check, check. Oh, wait, this is a book about my life. No, literally. And also, because I have lived this,
I had to figure out how to get myself through the gaslighting and the marginalization and the oppression that I experienced in my role and get to a place of, can we call it what it is? And so how do we prevent it? I think the first thing is that we have to shift the narrative
from this blame the victim burnout thing. If you deep dive the literature around burnout, which I have, it's a term from burnout syndrome from the 1970s, again when I was coming up, that's not trauma-informed. So none of this compassion fatigue literature, burnout literature, none of it is trauma-informed. None of it takes into account
the organization and the health care system's responsibility to provide an occupationally safe workplace
Because that translates to the safety in our nervous system. So I unpack a little bit about polyvagal theory and cell danger response theory. And I talk about like we're hanging out here. It's not like just because I'm a nursing professor, this isn't a textbook. I promise. Promise. It's like we're hanging out with Lindsay, okay? Yeah.
And so what happens, though, is that the symptoms get confused between burnout and nurse PTSD because it affects us in the autonomic nervous system, which innervates, I don't know, should we say everything? Yeah. Okay, let's go with everything. Yeah. Everything-ish.
And what happens over time is that if the chronic trauma exposure, and I do kind of want to unpack so nurses can recognize how they're being traumatized in the workplace. But as a result of that suitcase to be unpacked, what happens over time is that we get into a place where our mitochondria literally cannot produce the energy that is needed to sustain us.
in that high stress, high trauma exposure environment. Interesting. And that's why military personnel, they do tours. The military has figured this out. If you're in a high trauma exposure,
And there's no lack of headlines, sadly. And my heart goes out to all who have, and myself, who have been physically assaulted in the line of duty. Like, that's a hard thing to even talk about, but we simply must. Oh, absolutely. You know, and I know you're doing such a great job, you know, bringing that awareness, and I'm so grateful. Like, like, like, like, like. That's me. Thank you. Thank you.
So what happens over time is to the mitochondria is that the mitochondria, which is also receiving signals from like the midbrain and our autonomic nervous system, trying to keep up, right? With a 12, 14 hour shift where you can't hydrate, where you're getting beat up and verbally abused and gaslighted by your colleagues and all of this, not to mention nursing, can we just throw in?
the role, right? All of these things are happening and over time the mitochondria are like, yeah, we can't do this anymore. And so the first thing that happens is they get rigid and then up goes the oxidative stress and that feeds all the chronic conditions. And if we still don't get it, which is nurses who have been in practice for any degree of time, this is all of us, all of us.
Then those mitochondria get rigid, they get dysfunctional, and then they contribute to this whole sequela of mitochondrial dysfunction-related illnesses, such as the things that they can't really say. Like, oh, and I've personally been misdiagnosed, as I'm sure many of us have. Oh, you have depression. No, I didn't. You have anxiety. Nope. They said no. Tested negative.
oh, okay, you have chronic fatigue syndrome. Nope. Negative for that too. Next. Next. And down the list with IBS and migraines and all of the different ways that we embody the unintegrated trauma that we have experienced, which is different for all of us. Sure. And so you start really looking at this and you're like, this is...
I don't know, should we call it Code Brown of Nursing? That's what I love that you said. I was like, oh, that has to go in there. Code Brown of Nursing. And it is. It's the shit. It is the S-H-I-T. Oh, you're the shit. No, no, no. No, not that shit. The bottom of the barrel. Like that stuff on the bottom of the floor.
And so what is happening is that we have, as a global profession, and I'm working with nurses and healthcare organizations all over the globe, and even though the healthcare systems are designed differently, the oppression, the systematic oppression and marginalization of nurses...
universal. And it has, you know, a whole lot of historical roots that we don't need to unpack because we already know because we're living it. Right. Right. And so when you start looking at this, and if you were a healthcare organization, say, if you were a healthcare system, say, in any of these countries, and 30 to 50% of your workforce is unwell, then
and unsafe due to your system inadequacies. Would you call it what it is, nurse-specific traumatization, that's what it is, nurse-specific traumatization, it is real, or would you try and push it off on, you know what, Lindsay,
You need to work on your resilience. Oh, my God. If you would just take better care of yourself. They put it on us. Right. And so it's blame the victim culture, which flies in the face of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, the IHI. We're trying to get a just culture up in here. Right? I mean, last I heard. Right. Right? And so is it a just culture if I've been assaulted at work?
and I go in and follow policy and I'm literally bleeding in your office. This has happened, true story. I am literally, someone has drawn blood on my person and I'm in here reporting it and you fill in the blank. What's the first question you're going to ask me if you're admin? Well, what could you have done better to avoid this in the future? That is called system-induced trauma.
It is a form of nurse-specific traumatization, and it's avoidable. If you didn't know, you're a baddie. Do you know that? I'm serious. Some people, so it's so funny, people online would say, a retired baddie. You are not a retired baddie. You are a baddie right now. That's awesome. That's awesome that you've done all of this and that you're spreading this awareness and using what you have learned to teach other nurses because you're right. A lot of new grads specifically in my DMs,
will take on the responsibility of what administration has told them. Well, it's your fault. For instance, you said, I'm sure you too. Absolutely. I think all of us as nurses, if you haven't been assaulted yet, unfortunately, probably will. Sadly, probably will. The first time I was, I was a tech. I was trying to help a patient who was having an episode and he bit me and broke the skin. Yep.
I had to go, you know, through all the employee health and all the things. And whenever I went to my management to tell them, that's exactly what they said to me. And I still went to nursing school after that, which is crazy. But I didn't know. We don't know what we don't know. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And so this is how we know. So maybe this would be a good kind of place to unpack, like, all right. So I got some of these symptoms. And there's way more. But I don't want to make this, like, you know, further complicated.
troubling by going down the whole laundry list of symptoms. But I have a five-question quiz on my website. You can take that, do a quick self-assessment. There's a book and, you know, I want to kind of keep this, keep it real for everyone without making it too heavy, right? I don't want to further traumatize anyone out there. I promise. I'm here to help.
So what we've learned, so those of you who are being told that you're lazy because on the weekends or your days off, you had planned to go. This was me. I planned to have brunch. I was going to go take a hike. I had evening tickets to the show and a beautiful set of days planned, days off. Couldn't get off the couch. Like the biggest thing I could do was where is my...
Where's Uber Eats? And where's Netflix? Right. And so the people around us and even our colleagues might say that you're lazy or, you know, you need to work harder on your self-care. That is literally your autonomic nervous system
and your dorsal vagal nerve putting you in energy conservation mode because those mitochondria literally cannot produce the energy. It's not a personality flaw and it's not a character deficit. Please hear that. Know that to be true. So when we start looking at what is going on, okay, so first of all, it's like, okay, maybe, what if? Ask yourself the same research question I asked. What if it's not just burnout?
what if it's something more? And the something more is nurse-specific traumatization. Well, how would I get traumatized at, you know, how does that work? So,
Well, there's two main categories. There's the individual traumas that we all experience by virtue of being human. The acute car accident, the chronic mold exposure in my case almost killed me a moldy house, go figure. I know, right? But that's like, come on, that's some random thing. Okay, there's a fun fact. And so there's the chronic, you know, or the complex, which is any combination of the things I'm going to talk about.
There's the developmental, so the attachment traumas, the ACEs. Mind you, I could be a poster child because I have experienced each and every one of these categories, which I think was kind of in the bigger picture a walk that I had to go through to do this research to bring. So not only did I do the research, I've lived. Yeah.
It's realistic. Every single one of these. Like, it's effing real for me. And then we have the developmental traumas that happen. Okay, so that's all of us. Humans. The human condition.
And so the way the healthcare system is set up is that we should just leave that part of our nervous system and we should just leave our cells that have been traumatized and where we're holding trauma that hasn't been integrated in our body, which is muscles, fascia, skin, and all of our neuroplexies. So we should just like take those out and leave them at home so we can go to work. Right? And so it's just like contorted.
worldview around nurse professional well-being and occupational safety. So we're human and so we bring our whole selves to work because that's how it works here on the planet. And then we have two types of trauma that happen at work. Nurse specific trauma. The first is unavoidable. So secondary vicarious trauma. It's real trauma.
And we feel it. And we get, I don't know, maybe this much training. Between nursing school and our new grad program, maybe this much training. But we get something. It's a breadcrumb about how to...
Manage that. And then there's trauma from disasters. All right. Which we do get some training about, you know, if there's a major earthquake, we could all respond. Yeah. I might be the tin man in responding, but I could do it. I could pull it out from somewhere deep within. Right. But then the other, so those are unavoidable. And so that of itself makes nursing a very challenging job.
for what I call the healer's heart, which is our why for what matters most in our life, both personally and professionally.
So then it gets really effed up really fast. So here is what you all need to watch for and step away from that Kool-Aid that says burnout and come on over to the well of truth where we're serving nurse-specific trauma exposure. And let's have these real conversations about real safety and real professional wellness so that we aren't losing one in four or two in five new grads each year. And
established nurses such as ourselves are like, you know what? I gotta go. Yeah, exactly. So here's the way that you, that many of you, and by many I mean millions, are being avoidably, avoidably traumatized in your roles. And it is being marginalized and minimized as just burnout and a self-care deficit and a resilience challenge. Yeah. Okay, so don't drink that Kool-Aid.
Knock that cup over. We're done with that. We're done with her. We are so done. All right. And so then we're going to move into how it was. Okay. So the first thing is that we have what's called historical trauma. All right. Nurses have been an occupationally repressed class since the beginning of time. Can I guess why? At least one of them? Oh, you can go, girl. Women? Women.
Because my... Women dominated. My reproductive organs, they're innies instead of outies. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I see why you guys... If you guys don't know, her friend Gail is over here. I like her.
And so by virtue of that, and throw in some patriarchy and some colonization and all of the different ways in which we are oppressed as humans, right? Throwing that all into the nursing bag, you might say, well, yeah, but that happened in the past, right? How is that relevant now?
It's called nurses eating our own. So we are unknowingly, as a profession, transmitting ancestral trauma from one legacy generation of nurses to the next, to the next, to the next, and we're not even aware of it.
So when that happens, and I have a case story, they're stories not studies, just again. It's an easy read, I promise. Where this gets unpacked about how nurses are feeling as though
it doesn't matter that nurses eat their own because it's always been this way. And it's like, no, that is unconscious transmission of historical nurse trauma. And so let us put that under the spotlight. So that's one way. Another way that nurses are being traumatized at work is the system-induced trauma, where the system itself, and I'm looking at you, system,
I'm here to help. For all of you nurse leaders and administrators out there, I have programs for your new grads and early career nurses through my nonprofit. So I'm not here to bash the system for the sake of bashing the system. I'm shining a spotlight on what my evidence is showing, and I'm bringing forth evidence-based solutions, hopefully in an entertaining way.
Absolutely. But also I think that's important because I have definitely fallen into the category of just bashing the system before, without,
because you get so angry. But then you're right. If you can bring an evidence-based practice solution to them, why would they not take it? Right. They should. They should. But, you know, healthcare systems being what they are. And so we talked about that system-induced trauma where the system itself or the organization or the unit itself through policies, through procedures, through how those are executed, right?
Yeah. Right? A lot of variance in that. And so, again, you know, you go in bleeding out and with a black eye and perhaps a concussion or worse. I mean, I've been, you know, same as you. I've had my skin broken by a bite and had to go through all
all the things. Yeah, exactly. That's a big all the things thing. Yeah. Right? And then to get another layer of traumatization on top of that from my organization. Right? And so this is where we have, now we have evidence. We have a middle range theory. We have tools now, starting from 2024 to now,
So in the last 15 months, we now have tools that have never been here before. We have what we need in our nurse toolkit, and that's me running my mouth trying to get it out there. So that's the system-induced trauma.
Now, another one that we all are too familiar with is workplace violence, which we have touched on, and you're doing such a beautiful job. I mean, every time I watch your content, I'm like, oh my God, she's talking about this nurse-specific trauma, that nurse-specific trauma. I mean, I'm just like, Lindsay, go!
That's awesome. But, you know, you're showcasing the workplace violence, which is not only the physical, but the verbal, the emotional. And then there's all the workplace incivilities. You know, the gaslighting, the bullying, the hazing. It's still going on. I am working with new graduate nurses right now who are being hazed in their trans. Like, is it 1954 and I just missed the memo? Like, how is this still happening?
And then I go, "Oh, that's the historical trauma that's now showing up as..." That's so interesting. Yeah. And then we have the insufficient resource trauma. All right? And we all are like, this is probably one of the biggest ones that are driving nurses. So you want me to do what with how many patients?
and we don't have the PPE or the supplies that we need. I myself have herniated severely L3, 4, and 5 because there was one Hoyer lift for four floors on a hospital. Oh my gosh. My patient went down. Wait, was I going to like go 350 yards going room to room trying to find the Hoyer lift? Exactly. No.
Wet my discs. Right? That's what happens. My gosh. And it's not just me. It's all of us. Absolutely. It's all of us. And so the insufficient resources are a huge source of trauma exposure. Mind you, on top of everything else that comes with being nursing. Right? And then the other one is second victim trauma. And this is when you have been part of a near-miss relationship.
an adverse or sentinel event. Now, we are nurses, we all have what I call our healer's heart, or we would not have put up with nursing school and NCLEX and transitioned to practice.
If you don't have a healer's heart, you get shaken out. Exactly. So those of us who remain, we give a lot of fucks about people and those in our care or those in our colleagues. We care, and we can't not care. And so when we are the subject or somehow involved in a near, miss, and adverse or a sentinel event, that weighs on us.
But here's the thing, is that 99.9% of the time it's a system problem. When you do the RCA, when you do the root cause analysis, it's a system or an organizational factor. It's not the nurses. And that's why I classify this as avoidable. So if you're a bad actor and you've done a bad thing and you feel guilty about that, then that's yours to make amends and resolve. When it comes down to root cause and we look at it and it's a system factor...
And that, but yet the nurse, the nurse who was involved is carrying the guilt, the shame and the blame and perhaps even the stigma of that. And that is shame and blame and guilt that was never theirs to carry in the first place. It belongs to the system. Yeah.
All right. And so learning how to, and this is what I kind of go over through my book, is learning the language of your autonomic nervous system, your vagus nerve, learning how your mitochondria work, like all the stuff. Guess what? I'm a nursing professor. I teach in a BSN program with an integrative health focus, the first in the nation, which I love. It's my jam. Yeah.
And I can't get this content in our curriculum. I petitioned the AACN when they were doing the new essentials, which is how nursing schools have to teach our students, and they're not trauma-informed. For the next decade, my beloved colleagues, for the next decade, they are going to be training nurses with the same gaslighting burnout narrative, that you need to do better self-care, you should have a code lavender.
You should do all of the things. We should have a positivity squad, says the AACN. I'm sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I'm sorry. I'm going to be okay. I'm going to be okay. Not to be disrespectful to any of my colleagues, but let's also keep it super real. Yeah, absolutely. So those are the ways in which you are being told that you have burnout. Mm-hmm.
Because that way the insurance company doesn't have to pay for your treatment. The organization doesn't have to do a thing. And then you can, you know, just work until you burn out. Or become so desensitized and, in my case, dissociated in a functional way, right? That you're, you know, this is what we call presenteeism. Like, I'm at work and I'm doing my best, but guess what? My give a crap, it's broken. Right?
And I've got brain fog and my mitochondria can't keep up. And y'all aren't letting me hydrate nor nourish myself. And you wonder. You wonder, exactly. And you're going to tell me I'm burned out. Yeah. Yeah. So why do you think, you said that the, who, A-A-N-C?
Yeah, the AA, so that's the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Colleges of Nursing. Sorry, acronyms in healthcare. No, that's okay. They're now going to, again, go on another 10 years of teaching what they've always taught. Right. Why does that benefit them, do you think? Well, I think what it is, is that, and I don't think it's any one person's fault. I think what we have, and this is what, you know, I'm bringing forth in a very non-traditional public way, is
Like, you know, as a professor, I'm supposed to publish in peer-reviewed journals, and I have, you know. And, you know, I've done my research, I've done all, check, check, check. But did you read any of my peer-reviewed journal articles? Because I'm going to probably guess. I'm sorry, no. Yes. Who could? Nobody has access to them. They're locked up and they cost 60 bucks if you could even find them.
And so I decided to bring this book out and start a non-profit with programs for individuals and whatnot. And now I forgot the question. What was it? I was just thinking, how does the AACN not see that this is beneficial to teach? What's the benefit of them ignoring it? I think it's because we have a flaw in our evidence base. That's what I was getting at. Thank you. I am a grandmother after all.
And so what we have, and that was the glaring gap that I found in the evidence base, is that when you look at compassion fatigue, when you look at burnout syndrome, when you look at resilience, right? Everything stems from this patriarchal that the nurses should be superhuman and
And we should be able to take whatever abuses, and I mean abuses literally, we've just unpacked a whole bunch of them, and we should just suck them up buttercup because your reproductive organs are innies instead of outies. Traditionally speaking, that has changed. Right. But, and so it...
It's something that we really need to rethink as scholars, as nurse scholars. This is kind of where I live in the world with my professional role. So as nurse scholars and as scientists, I had to go cross-discipline over to social and behavioral sciences where I did a whole bunch of my research. And that's where I was like, wait a minute, they're not drinking the same Kool-Aid that's in the nursing literature. Hold on here. Yeah.
I'm like one of your dogs with one of their toys. I'm like, oh my God, I think I found something. And I just couldn't let it go. That's awesome, though. Yeah, I don't think it's a flaw in leadership. I think it's a flaw in the evidence base. And so we need to stop already.
the Kool-Aid of burnout. And we need to pour us a fresh new refreshment bar called nurse-specific traumatization. Let's call it what it is. Let us get workplaces that are occupationally safe. Because when we're safe in our nervous system,
then we are able to be open-minded. We are able to better critically think. We are better able to be giving heart-centered, patient-centered care. But if we are stuck in sympathetic flight or flight overdrive, which is most nurses, or they get to the point where they're in that dorsal freeze where the mitochondria are like, I got nothing. I got nothing. What do you want from me? Where's the remote?
And so that's where most nurses are practicing. And so let's start talking about the reality of nurse-specific traumatization. Let's realize the limitations in our evidence base on these topics and make them trauma-informed. And so that's what I did when I petitioned because they have a whole process. And so they're like, we're seeking public comments. I'm like, I got a few. I have some.
I got 400 pages of comments. But they wouldn't let me just send them the book. So anyways, this tedious form, and it went on and on and on and on. And so I went through each and every one of those essentials that translate to nursing curriculum, which translates to NCLEX questions, which translates to blah, blah, blah. And so every single one, I'm like, nope. How about we try this?
How about we make this trauma-informed? Like, the one that, I think the one that galled me the most. I mean, if I just had to, like, just throw a little shade. Yeah. Which I'm not above doing.
When I got to the one, and don't quote me on the numbers or whatever, it's been over a year since I wrote this up, but I remember how pissed off I was. So therefore, that embedded in my brain, was that in these essentials was a provision that nurses, if they need to legally strike
If they need to engage in an organized legal movement of any sort, that it would be the nurse's responsibility to find their replacement that day. I'm like, are you kidding me?
Like, we can't even organize. Like, we are teaching our students that they are disempowered out of the gate and that we are so subservient
In our roles, you would have us believe. Right. Not true. Not true. Not drinking that Kool-Aid. But that's the slow drip of four semesters of nursing school. And that's the slow drip that comes in in that transition to practice year. Of that, oh, well, you know, you're a hero.
Yeah. And your patients need you. So how about we just abuse you? And then if you do decide to self-empower and make strides for safe, safe,
professionally well work conditions. How about if we hamper you by saying you should then you're ethically bound to find your own replacement. Yep. Do I look like a staffing person? Yeah, exactly. All right. So I'm gonna rant. Maybe, maybe not over. No, that's okay. That's exactly why you're here and you're doing a great job. We want the rants.
And it's coming with, again, like really great information. And when you handed me this, you said, you don't have to read it. I'm going to read this. I'm going to read this because I think that's really important. And you're very powerful with your words. So maybe like, okay, so can we, so when we hear burnout, here's what I would, here's what I would love. When you hear the term burnout or resilience or self-care, which I do not use any of those terms in my book other than to like start where, where we are. Sure. Right. And then I like toss those,
gaslighting terms right off my train. Yes. Not allowed in my book. So when you hear those terms, I want you to think Code Brown.
This is the code brown of nursing. This gaslighting. This systemic oppression of nurses that would keep us marginalized and small. When in fact, we are the linchpin of the healthcare system. Now, I know that it is hard for people to...
sometimes do make difficult choices in terms of navigating leadership and unit dynamics, colleagues, cultures, not to mention I need the Benjamins to keep my household running. Right? That's all real.
But now we have the evidence, we have programs, non-profit, I mean everything I do is non-profit. I am not making any money off the backs of my colleagues who are suffering. In fact, I'm six years and six figures of my own money into this. So this is like, this is me saying, when I retire I will have done everything I could. Yeah, right.
And so we can start having these conversations and we can start educating ourselves and learning the language of our nervous system
and how to navigate it. So first and foremost, we need to know how to protect our mitochondria. We need to know how to stay safe in our nervous system, even when our external working conditions are not. Yes. Right? So it starts, each of us have our own personal healing journey to do, and it's different for all of us, which is why my framework is, you know, the framework is your innate care plan. So each reader, each nurse,
can take the information of the book and because guess what? Contrary to popular belief, we know how to take care of ourselves. Go figure. Go figure. And so taking all of your knowledge and you are the expert of your lived experiences and taking this framework and tailoring it in a way that you can stay safe and professionally while at work. That's step number one.
Step number two is then learning how to navigate the trauma responses of those in our care and our colleagues. Because most of these difficult personalities, most of these challenges that we encountered are, I identified ten archetypes that trauma responses tend to embody from the volcano,
We've all met the volcano. I've been there. To the ostrich. What problem? I don't see a problem. Everything's fine. Everything's wonderful. Wow, yeah. I'm just going to take a handful of pharmaceuticals. I'll be fine. And so how to maintain your personal healing gains is
while navigating the shit show that is your workplace, your set, your organization. And then by virtue of recognizing it'll change the dynamic of how you interact with your colleagues because you'll realize, you'll recognize, oh, and not in a judgy way, in a compassionate, I feel you way.
My my sister my brother my other yeah, I feel you and I know whatever has happened in your life Which I do not need to know I see that this is how it's manifesting for you So I'm gonna hold my nervous system in regulation With compassion because I have now learned how to do that by chapter five or six in the book you got it wired and
And I know how to do this. So by virtue of my nervous system being regulated and me being compassionate to you, we don't have to do anything else. Because guess what? The autonomic nervous system, it will co-regulate. That's how we've survived over the millennia. Yeah. Right? So you don't have to fix a colleague. You don't have to talk to them. You don't have to change them. The only thing you have to do is keep yourself safe.
in your, what they call your window of tolerance, where you are grounded and centered. And yes, stress comes in and there will be blips of a sympathetic response, but because you have these tools, you recognize them, you know what to do. And then when you encounter that patient or that family or that colleague who is just like your biggest nightmare...
then you have tools to maintain not only your personal healing gains, but also by virtue of your nervous system being regulated. Because we all know that person, right? We all know that person. Gail's my person. She's always like the person you want to be around. Because I'm driving into this apartment, this complex here, and I'm like, oh my God, I don't know where to go. She's like, oh, it's so beautiful. Right?
I'm like, I can't see the colors. I'm trying to find a way to park. It is stressful to be there. Well, you know, and I live in the country, so being in the big city is like, ooh, what happened here? And so we all have that person, right, that is in our life that is grounded and centered who you want to be around.
And you love them, but maybe you don't know what they're really doing for you at a deeper level is because they're so regulated in their own nervous system that within moments, I was like, oh, this is what's happening. Oh, and I just allowed my nervous system to downshift a little bit. I'm like, oh, I'm in sympathetic. I'm going to go meet Lindsay. Oh, my God. I'm like trying not to fangirl downstairs getting a juice. I'm like...
Is my makeup okay? You're so funny. I'm going to fangirl over you after this podcast. I'm telling you. And so we all have that person. So we can each learn how to be that person at work. And so when the dumpster fire happens, because it's not if, it's when. When, exactly. That you're one of the people on your unit or on your team that is like,
I think I want to be around Lindsay. You know, like we don't even know it consciously. We just gravitate because that's how we've survived as social beings is that we go where we can co-regulate. And so then the last part of the book and what we do in the academies, I offer framework for change agents and people who are in leadership or management. Can I fix the healthcare systems of the world? No, I cannot.
But what I can do is bring you the evidence and then I bring off three sets of integrative nursing principles that can guide the conversations.
that each of us can and must have. So I'm envisioning like my, like, you know, we all have to dream big or why bother? I mean, really, you know, I mean, I didn't come from 1970s CNA to today's, you know, nursing professor, today's baddie. I'm so like, I want a badge that says that. I
I'm going to get you one. A tattoo. Oh, not today's baddie. I don't even have a tattoo, but that could be my first one. Yes. Okay. After the show. I know a girl. Stay tuned.
That's hilarious. So then we have the frameworks that people can use. And so it takes you through this whole arc of how to recognize and decouple yourself from the burnout Kool-Aid. What you can do to prevent and address, right? Yeah. In really palpable ways. And then once you kind of get your own innate care plan, you know what you need. You're the expert of your life.
You don't need me telling you what, but some tools are helpful and some framework is helpful. And then you got this and I got you and we all got this. And then it's like, okay, well, I don't want to go to the dumpster fire at work and lose everything I just did at home. Don't worry, got you there. And I was like, yeah, but then, so now my unit's doing better, but we're still at this shithole of a setting. I'm like, okay, well, I got you. Here's chapter nine.
Here's your launching off point. And then, you know, if we all... I take the philosophy that each of us as humans, as nurses, none of us can fix this by ourselves, right? I suffer no illusions. But I do know that each of us has one grain of sand.
that we can hold and give our very, very best to. Now, my grain's different than yours. It's different than Gail's, right? But this is my grain of sand. And so I've given it everything that I have, and now it's kind of surreal. It's like sending, I mean, I'm a mom and a grandma. It's like sending your kid off to school, and it's like...
I hope their manners are good. I hope they know, you know, chew with your mouth closed, be a nice person. I hope my baby's ready for the world. And so I'm kind of in this, like, the book just launched. I'm like, oh, I hope my baby's ready for the world. So you guys let me know if it's ready for the world. It is. I guarantee this is going to be, this is awesome. You are awesome, too. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so, I think you're awesome. See, we're fangirling and we're getting matching tattoos. It's happening.
Thank you. Is there anything else you could add? Well, I did have something special for you and your beautiful community, of which I'm a member. And so on my website...
at drlaurielaws.com and I'm gonna I'm gonna spell it because my mom got creative I know I know so it's d-r-l-o-r-r-e l-a-w-s dot com slash friends love it I have all the resources you need the quiz I have where you can get the book it's like it's
under $20. I mean, it's accessible. Yeah. And then also we're doing a raffle through my nonprofit. So one nurse out there can get a free scholarship to the Halen Academy, which you can transfer to a friend or loved one.
as needed to go through our preventing and addressing their specific trauma academy. It's $2,000 value. That's amazing. Thank you. So head on over and we'll take good care of you. I'm going to have the link in the description of the podcast episode.
But this has been amazing. Where can everyone find you on social media? Because you do have social media. Well, I do. And it's so cute how grandma's trying. So just know that. Grandma's trying. It says that in your bio, I think. It does. I think it does say that in my bio.
So I met Dr. Lori Laws on all outlets. And, you know, I show up without my makeup. I show up with my makeup maybe one out of a hundred times. And so you get the stripped down Aunt Lori to the world. And I'm here for you. And I'm here for each of you. And thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. I have one last question for you. It has nothing to do with anything we spoke about.
Perfect. So I'm starting a new thing where I ask everyone this. You can answer to any which way, and that's why I chose this question. What's one thing we would find in your nightstand? It could be anything. Did you all see the 28 filters that came up?
All right. So probably the most interesting thing that you would find on my nightstand, and that a lot of people don't know about me, is that I'm a spiritual healer and a channel and an oracle. So you will always find crystals. I love that. On my nightstand and a feather as I clear the energy from my field at the end of each day, as I release anything that I've picked up that is
that is not mine to carry. And I replace it with the light and the love that I am that you are that we all are. That's what's on my bedside table. You're cool. You're very cool. Batty tattoo coming soon. Stay tuned. And again, go follow Dr. Lori Laws, Dr. Lori Laws. And thank you again so much. Thank you. My pleasure. Bye guys.
Bye.