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HELPING NURSES MOVE BEYOND the BEDSIDE3linearfmnflowers

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HELPING NURSES MOVE BEYOND the BEDSIDE

What is The Stay at Home Nurse?

We inspire & equip nurses to move beyond the bedside
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So what is The Stay At Home Nurse? I believe it means something different to everyone, but basically it is moving outside of the traditional bedside nursing role to the life of your dreams. Here is why and how The Stay At Home Nurse came about. I hope that by reading my story it inspires you to build the career and life of your dreams.

The Beginning… Am I a Stay at Home Mom or a Full-Time Nurse?

Crazy question I know, but there was a time in my life when I identified with both of these roles. I was home with my 4 children during the week. I was able to homeschool them, take them to dance class and theater practice, and be there to kiss their boo boo’s like any other stay at home mom. But on the weekends I worked three 12-hour night shifts as a Labor & Delivery Nurse. I loved and identified with both of these roles, I wanted to be a stay at home mom and I wanted to be a nurse. I was making it work.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. After a series of events I found myself unable to work as a Labor & Delivery nurse due to an injury, divorced, in a ton of debt and working 2 jobs just to barely make ends meet. And to be honest sometimes those ends didn’t meet. I had no time with my children who were growing and leaving home quickly, and because I was working so much I was not enjoying my role as a nurse, it had become a job.

The Blessing In Disguise

Although in addition to my experience as an L&D Nurse I’ve had many roles as a nurse: Med/Surg Nurse, Oncology Nurse, Hospice Nurse, Critical Care Nurse, Ambulatory Care Nurse, Home Care Nurse, I always self-identified as a Labor & Delivery Nurse. Being unable to tolerate the standing and walking required for that job left me devastated. But had that not happened I would never have moved into Case Management, and I would not be living the amazing life I have today.

You see a good friend of mine, Debbie, had been trying to convince me to transition into a case management position with a managed care company for over a year. But I loved hands on nursing. Starting an IV, scrubbing in for surgery, and assisting with procedures; those are the things I wanted to be doing, not sitting behind a desk all day. But since I was not physically able to do those things I decided to give case management a try. And I’m glad I did!

The Birth of a Business

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I fell in love with case management, just like I fell in love with L&D. And after a few years as a case manager it was time to get certified. But when I tried to find a book to prepare for the Certified Case Manager Exam I became frustrated with the lack of appropriate resources. I decided to write my own book. The result was CCM Certification Made Easy: Your Guide to Passing the Certified Case Manager Exam. Just over 2 years later I’m honored that the book has been bought by thousands to help them prepare for and pass the CCM Exam.

But from the beginning I had a bigger vision than just a book. I could see the silver lining of my cloud, and I wanted to help other nurses find their silver lining. When it was time to come up with a name for the new company “The Stay at Home Nurse” seemed like the perfect fit. I was happiest when I was a stay at home mom/full-time nurse, a “Stay at Home Nurse”. I wanted to help others do the same.

So The Stay at Home Nurse was born. It started as a website and book to help other case managers studying for the exam and quickly grew. Having no business or technical background I brought on a partner, Abi Carmen, who had experience in these areas and from that partnership Veritas Web Solutions came under the Stay at Home Nurse umbrella. Next we started a publishing company Blue Bayou Press, where along with publishing, we are able coach other nurses through the writing of professional books. As a way to further assist our case managers we along with Anne Llewellyn, RN-BC, MS, BHSA, CCM, CRRN created an online course The Online Case Management Certification Review Course and built the Case Managers Community.  

While building The Stay At Home Nurse business we purposely kept it location independent. Both Abi and I have children and family scattered across the country. It was important that we be able to work from anywhere. And since we are able to work from anywhere in September of 2016 we picked up and moved to Puerto Aventuras, Mexico! This has afforded us the ability to live on the beautiful Caribbean Sea, learn a new language, and live in a culture where everyone is happy and relaxed.

So What’s Next?

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As excited as I am to see how far we have come in a few short year, I am even more excited about the future. We have several new projects in the works to continue to provide value to those we serve. The first is the Case Mangers Cruise. We love the community of case managers we have built and wanted to do something fun with them. So we thought why not mix some education with fun aboard a cruise ship! So the first Case Managers Cruise will set sail in the spring of 2018. Onboard case managers will be able to earn CE Credit, network with other case managers, and most of all HAVE FUN!

We are also planning new books and courses to help health professionals learn about and transition into case management as well as books and courses on specialty areas of case management.

And last but not least we will provide inspiration and encouragement for nurses who want to move beyond traditional bedside nursing.