Patient and Nurse Advocate, Lori Schellenberg

Today, I’m honored to welcome on the podcast, Lori Schellenberg, a registered nurse with nearly 45 years of experience. Lori’s career is a true testament to the power of embracing change. She began at the bedside and followed her curiosity into home health, occupational nursing, and workers’ compensation—discovering along the way just how transferable nursing skills really are.

Through her journey, Lori built partnerships, mentored colleagues, and helped healthcare businesses grow. When retirement left her seeking a new purpose, she turned her focus to patient advocacy, founding Stepping Stone Advocacy Services. And when she noticed nurses themselves struggling with burnout and limited career vision, she created the Stepping Stone Nurse Academy—a platform offering courses, mentorships, and internships to help nurses transition into fulfilling alternative careers.

Lori’s mission today is dual: to support patients navigating the healthcare system and to empower nurses to realize their untapped potential. 

In the five-minute snippet:  I’d like to see this one on the big screen. For Lori's bio, visit my website (link below).

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Transcript

Michelle: Today, I'm honored to welcome on the podcast Lori Schellenberg,  registered nurse with nearly 45 years of experience,

[00:09] Lori's career is a true testament to the power of embracing change.

[00:14] She began at the bedside and followed her curiosity into home health,

[00:19] occupational nursing, and workers compensation,

[00:22] discovering along the way just how transferable nursing skills really are.

[00:28] Through her journey, Lori built partnerships, mentored colleagues, and helped healthcare businesses grow.

[00:36] When retirement left her seeking a new purpose,

[00:39] she turned her focus to patient advocacy,

[00:42] founding Stepping Stone Advocacy Services.

[00:45] And when she noticed nurses themselves struggling with burnout and limited career vision,

[00:51] she created the Stepping Stone Nurse Academy,

[00:55] a platform offering courses, mentorships, and internships to help nurses transition into fulfilling alternative careers.

[01:06] Lori's mission today is dual:

[01:08] To support patients navigating the healthcare system and to empower nurses to realize their untapped potential.

[01:17] In the five minute snippet:

[01:19] I'd like to see this one on the big screen.

[01:39] Well, good morning, Lori. Welcome to the podcast.

[01:42] Lori: Thank you for having me.

[01:45] Michelle: Well, I'm so excited that we're going to talk today. We met on LinkedIn, which is a wonderful platform for just connecting all kinds of professionals. And you are certainly one of those professionals, and I'm glad I met you.

[01:59] Lori: Same. Because it looks like we're doing very, very similar work in different ways, but definitely doing the same thing. So, again, thank you for having me.

[02:10] Michelle: It's my pleasure.

[02:12] Okay, so we're just going to jump into it. That's how I like to do it.

[02:16] And I, this just amazed me that your nursing career has spanned almost 45 years.

[02:25] So. Wow. First of all, wow, that's amazing.

[02:28] Lori: You know how it is.

[02:32] Michelle: Can you take us back to the beginning? What first drew you into nursing?

[02:38] Lori: Well, it was a kind of a story, like so many of us, that in our younger years or at one point in our lives, we encounter a nurse and we need the care of a nurse.

[02:50] And how that influenced me is similar to a lot of stories that I hear out there from future nurses.

[02:58] And that is that I became sick and in the hospital for the first time at 17 and needed to have emergency surgery. Never knew anything about hospitals. I was young, I was still in high school.

[03:12] It's a very, very frightening for me.

[03:15] And that's where it started.

[03:17] The nurse that, one of the nurses that was caring for me came in. She actually was a family friend,

[03:23] and she was a head of admissions at that point in the hospital that was a nurse.

[03:28] And she took her time after she got off her job that day to come in,

[03:32] and she just knew exactly what to do to allay my fears,

[03:39] to position me, to comfort me. I thought she had some, like, magic wand or something that she used, because I just was amazed because I've been laying there just in misery and so scared,

[03:51] and within, like, 10 minutes,

[03:54] I was feeling so much better, and I'm like, oh, my gosh.

[03:58] And at that point, you know, a junior in high school, you're trying to start to talk. Your parents are starting to talk to you about careers and things like that. And so that was my story.

[04:07] And I just thought,

[04:08] I know what I want to do now.

[04:11] And that's it.

[04:13] Michelle: Wow, that's fantastic.

[04:15] I bet that nurses probably don't know the influence that we have on our communities, our patients,

[04:25] our families,

[04:27] and that's an amazing influence. A nurse that cared for you,

[04:31] and then you ended up going into the profession. So that's so cool. I love the stories.

[04:37] Thank you so much.

[04:38] I just, yeah, thank you.

[04:41] So you've moved through many different roles. Bedside, home health, occupational, nursing, workers, comp.

[04:48] But what drove your willingness to embrace change when a lot of people prefer to stay in one lane?

[04:56] Lori: You know, if you asked my mom today about who I was as a nurse and as a person at 18, when I started on my nursing journey,

[05:09] she would tell you that I grew and matured.

[05:14] And as I got married and had children,

[05:18] I needed to figure out a way to make my career work for me and work for my family and my husband doing shift work,

[05:27] you know, that made my options a little bit different on how to make this all work. And so I just began to look outside of the box and think it was driven more not internally at that point, as it is now.

[05:43] Now what I'm doing today in my life as a nurse is so different.

[05:47] Back then, it was more driven by outside factors of my growing family and the needs of my family and how I could take those skills that I was using at the bedside and figure out a way to make it work for everything.

[06:01] And that was my driving factor back then.

[06:06] Michelle: And I would agree that probably many nurses today,

[06:10] that is their driving factor as well.

[06:13] And maybe they got into nursing for one reason. And now,

[06:17] you know, as you said, they have families and they're trying to juggle husband and children and job. 

[06:24] And do you think sometimes nurses,

[06:28] when they're in that, they kind of lose sight about,

[06:32] you know, their why, like, why they got into the profession?

[06:37] Lori: I do think they lose sight of it because,

[06:40] like, we're saying there's so many things that are happening and so many things that happened in the world,

[06:46] you know, that happens in the world. And,

[06:49] and how what we,

[06:51] What that impacts, how, what our job becomes at the bedside, it's so much more,

[06:57] I think, what for me, what really did it. The driving factor, you know, because of my family.

[07:02] But once I realized how much power I had and that I was able to make that transition, and it opened up this whole new world for me, I kept going with it.

[07:15] Like, I kept going with it not only for external reasons, but it became internal, too. I just grew and built upon who I was as a nurse, who I was becoming as a nurse.

[07:28] And I just, every time I did one of these pivots,

[07:32] I think nurses would come to me, my friends, coworkers, and they'd say, Lori, how'd you get that job? Or that sounds really cool. How'd you do that?

[07:42] And I'd be like, well, you know, I just like,

[07:45] kind of took a chance and picked up the phone and called. And I don't know what inside me developed that confidence, because like I said early on, I was not that, but it's part of growing and maturing, I think.

[07:59] And so that's what happened. And then from there,

[08:03] what I say happened is that I stacked my skills,

[08:09] I stacked my resume, I stacked who I was as a person and as a nurse.

[08:16] And you could see that if you look back, and I can see it as I look back over time,

[08:22] and as I was doing that, becoming a mentor for other nurses, as I was doing it became very important too. Like, I saw the value in helping other nurses, you know, give them a hand up,

[08:35] you know, and I felt so much satisfaction.  I wasn't in a leadership,

[08:41] official leadership role within a hospital system, and many of the jobs I was on were not in leadership positions. But you can still be a leader as a nurse,

[08:54] whether that is, quote, unquote, a leadership position,

[08:58] because you in, like we said, you influence as a nurse, you influence others so much just because you are a nurse.

[09:07] And I think that's an important message to get out that you know, that you can still influence others and make a difference in making changes all along your journey as a nurse.

[09:20] Michelle: You are so right. And I had this conversation with Brandon Young and Blayne Smith,

[09:27] the Army Ranger and the Green Beret,

[09:32] who are totally in leadership positions, right? And we were talking about exactly that. The nurse at the bedside that is maybe not recognized as a leader because he or she doesn't wear a badge that says, you know, I'm a nurse executive,

[09:49] I'm a CNO, I'm a nurse manager. But they have so many leadership skills.

[09:55] And, and how can we foster leadership in those nurses who are the boots on the ground?

[10:02] And I think you just said it very well.

[10:07] So, Lori, looking back, what do you think is the biggest lesson that you learned just about the transferability of nursing skills across so many sectors?

[10:17] Lori: So what I would say, what I learned along the way of the gathering all of those skills,

[10:24] is that you can be empowered to even be an entrepreneur and take those steps,

[10:30] skills to that next level as a leader again in our healthcare, in the healthcare community, as a leader, recognized leader in different ways. And I think that's the another thing that I learned through this.

[10:44] Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. And now after 150 episodes, I've spoken with so many nurse entrepreneurs,

[10:53] and you are certainly one of those. I want to hear about the Stepping Stone Advocacy in a moment. But, yeah,

[11:01] you know, I think if you do have those leadership skills, it has to be so much,

[11:07] maybe not easier, but I don't know, maybe it is easier to step into the entrepreneur role.

[11:17] So after retirement, you found kind of a renewed purpose in patient advocacy,

[11:24] and you founded Stepping Stone Advocacy Services.

[11:28] And tell me about what that is and then what was the moment that made you realize that this was the work that you wanted to do?

[11:38] Lori: Well,

[11:38] it was created out of a void that I felt when I quote, unquote, retired at age 62.

[11:49] And I still, and a lot of us as nurses,

[11:53] we still feel a passion,

[11:56] we still feel the desire to want to have a purpose.

[12:00] And I think for me, living in Florida, especially,

[12:05] seeing so many elderly that came down to Florida to retire,

[12:10] left family and friends and had this fun life, when they turned 55 or 60,

[12:16] you know, they decided, oh, this is a better place for me to live. And coming down here,

[12:22] they started to age out,

[12:24] they started to have problems.

[12:26] They started to,

[12:28] you know, and I saw that I'm in a 55 and older community.

[12:31] And so I started seeing a lot of this in my community too.

[12:35] And I just saw that there was a need for somebody to act like a daughter or,

[12:40] you know, someone to support them and having healthcare knowledge and background. And I just realized that there was something I could do.

[12:50] And an HR friend of mine directed me.

[12:54] We were talking and I was saying, what can I do? I don't want to go back to nursing in the traditional sense.

[13:01] What can I do to still have a purpose?

[13:04] And she said, have you ever heard about becoming an independent patient advocacy advocate? And that's when I started on a journey of researching and connecting and networking to find out more about this.

[13:19] And I realized that it was a really good fit for my background as a nurse  to start this. And then began the journey to building Stepping Stone Advocacy Services.

[13:33] Michelle: I mean, it's so typical of a nurse. I've seen it so many times that they see a need and they want to fill that need.

[13:43] And that's an amazing thing, and one of our superpowers, for sure.

[13:49] And, you know, you're right. I retired at 57.

[13:53] And then I was like,

[13:55] oh, my gosh,

[13:57] what did I do?

[13:59] Lori: It was such,

[14:02] It was terrible. I mean, I'm always active and I, you know, I'm just not a bingo player. I always say that. But what drove me was, I'm not a bingo player. But 

[14:14] I do love to have fun, you know, But I think what you're saying is that we're not quite there yet.

[14:23] How can we figure it out? How can we find something unique and different and feel fulfilled?

[14:29] Michelle: Yeah, exactly. Yes.

[14:33] Okay. So we know that from being nurses, and even you don't have to be a nurse to know that people struggle with navigating the healthcare system because it is so complex.

[14:46] From your perspective, Lori, what are the biggest barriers that people face,

[14:51] and how does advocacy help break down those barriers?

[14:56] Lori: The biggest barrier, like you said in navigating the healthcare system is what we call the gaps in care.

[15:04] And all the medical providers and services that are out there operate in their own silos of care.

[15:15] So in the hospital,

[15:18] you have a nurse case manager that is working on a discharge plan.

[15:23] So in that discharge plan,

[15:25] she's contacting home care providers or an acute rehab facility or whatever she needs to do for her little job, which is to get the patient out of the hospital.

[15:35] Because time in the hospital means money,

[15:38] and it is all about the money.

[15:41] And so they are referring off getting a plan in place, and they send the patient out the door.

[15:50] A lot happens between the exit of the hospital door and when they go into that home or into the facility,

[15:59] and a lot of things get dropped. And I think people don't realize what these gaps,

[16:07] what awful feelings of fear and just anxiety that happens to patients and families when they get dropped. Into one of these gaps.

[16:20] And there's really not a place or a person that helps with that.

[16:25] So, for example, if somebody comes home,

[16:28] discharged from the hospital,

[16:30] and they are sent home and say they need IV therapy or they need caregivers in the home or wound care or whatever,

[16:42] they go home,

[16:44] and all of a sudden the home care, they're supposed to call and they're supposed to come, and you'll see the hospital home health tomorrow. And I did home health care too.

[16:54] See, so I already have an understanding. And I did hospital work. So you can see how this transition to patient advocate for me was so easy because I could see it and I knew what the gaps were.

[17:06] So that gap, when they're discharged home and nobody calls and nobody follows up and the caregiver doesn't show up,

[17:16] and the family is in crisis,

[17:19] the patient is in crisis, who do they call? It's very scary. Often it's the family that steps up and fumbles around to try to make it work.

[17:29] And that's where we come in, because we walk hand in hand with that patient across the healthcare continuum. So from hospital to home health,

[17:39] to inpatient care,

[17:43] to a SNF to hospice to palliative care, whatever those life needs are,

[17:51] we become that filler of that gap. We become the quarterback of care.

[17:56] And for me, it's the most fulfilling thing because not only do I understand understand from a medical perspective, but I understand from the insurance perspective. I have insurance,

[18:09] advocates that work with me too,

[18:12] that I can help that help me because it's too complicated. My background's more the medical, the nursing piece, but I recognize that it has to do with money and being a good steward of my patients money and their insurance or whatever.

[18:26] So all of this goes under the term of advocacy work.

[18:32] And so that's just an example of how one example of how that patient advocate works and then continues to be that advocate for the family and the patient throughout the time that they're needed and beyond.

[18:50] Michelle: Well, that has to be an invaluable service to your clients,

[18:55] because it is so complex. And as a family of nurses, we have six nurses in our family,

[19:03] you know, we encountered these same challenges with caring for my mother and my father.

[19:11] And recently I've had some health challenges, and I have had a ringside seat to see how messed up the system is with,

[19:23] you know, oh, we referred you to this doctor, but then I wait three weeks and I finally call that doctor, and they say, oh, we never received a referral.

[19:34] And then I call back my provider and they say,

[19:38] oh, well, we sent it. Tell them that we sent it on this day. I'm like, no, you tell them that you sent it and you make sure that they get it.

[19:46] And you guys talk to each other and somebody better call me today with an appointment because I've already been waiting three weeks.

[19:56] So you have to have an advocate, whether you're a nurse, whether you're a patient, whether you're a family member,

[20:04] to have somebody looking out for you that knows how the system works across many levels as you do, because you have experience in all these different sectors. Again, that just has to be such an invaluable service that you provide.

[20:20] Lori, do you have a story of a patient that you've helped that just really captures the impact of advocacy?

[20:27] Lori: I can share a story which I'm recently,

[20:32] like, coming to, not the end, but a pause in their services, which happens a lot. Doesn't mean it's the end of services, but they get to a point where the goals have been met for now.

[20:44] And this family came to me just as a family.

[20:50] Their loved one was down here in Florida and there was some contention within the family on what was the best thing to do for this loved one at this point in time.

[21:03] And I was able to really figure out what was the end game, what did everybody want for their mom?

[21:11] And then was able to provide a forum for safe discussion among the family with me so that everybody could be heard.

[21:24] Because it's a tough time. It's a tough time. Everybody loves their mom, but in the all love them in a different way and see a different way to do it. Right?

[21:33] So for this family, I was able to move this patient in the end to be able to help with getting her medically stable and help facilitate a transition to a different state for her to live in a different level of care and coordinate that transition and support for the family and provide them with the tools they needed to then empower them to be able to take it from there for the care of their mom.

[22:08] So it is not just a,

[22:13] It can mean wearing, thinking outside the box all the time,

[22:17] how to really hear what the patient and their family need and then figuring out a way to make it work for everybody,

[22:28] keeping the mom front and center of the reason why they're having.

[22:35] They want an advocate there for them.

[22:39] Michelle: Well, that's fantastic. And man,

[22:42] you said it right.

[22:44] When it comes to families, there are many different opinions, right?

[22:50] Everybody is working for the benefit of their person. But as you said, they all have different ways of going about it, and it can be pretty chaotic. And to be able to organize all of that and come to an agreement, that's the best thing for the patient.

[23:11] That's amazing advocacy.

[23:14] So I want to switch gears for a moment because you support patients, you advocate for patients, but you also advocate for nurses.

[23:24] And you have the Stepping Stone Nurse Academy.

[23:27] And I have to say that, that there's an amazing blog on that website.

[23:32] I encourage everybody to go to that because there's so much information and it's just so well done.

[23:38] But while building your advocacy practice,

[23:43] you noticed something powerful that nurses themselves needed advocates.

[23:50] Can you tell us about that realization?

[23:52] Lori: It started,

[23:54] I was in my own kind of bubble.

[23:58] And where I was in my career was obviously not at the bedside,

[24:02] but there started to be this noise, this rumble that I started to see from bedside nurses and started really during COVID when, you know, it changed the dynamic of everything in care, in health care during that time.

[24:19] And I started to realize that, wait, you can be upset, you can be angry,

[24:28] but there's, I wanted to give them real solutions because I had the solutions. I did that. I moved beyond the bedside. I did it many, many times.

[24:39] And I wanted nurses to have a place in a way to have a real solution for real pivoted jobs that they could do based on their translatable skills.

[24:50] And that's where Stepping Stone Nurse Academy grew from.

[24:55] Michelle: Okay, burnout.

[24:57] Let's talk about burnout. And you mentioned COVID. And I will say that COVID is where I experienced a lot of burnout and it probably contributed to my early retirement,

[25:10] but it is such a pressing issue in healthcare today.

[25:14] So how does the Stepping Stone Nurse Academy give nurses tools to kind of reimagine their careers?

[25:23] Lori: So what I wanted to do, well, it started with me developing for the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates,

[25:31] a 12 week mentorship program for nurses that were interested in becoming patient advocates. Because I'm like, wow,

[25:40] really? There's nothing really out there to help nurses. Like, I love what I'm doing now. Like, I had to dig and, you know, network and figure all this out. And once I understood it, 

[25:51] I was like, wow, this is like a great career. This is a great transitional career. So that I started that and then I realized,

[25:59] oh, I could probably train nurses in other roles too. I could help them to pivot to other roles through training.

[26:10] So the first two courses that were born out of what I already was, like, what I knew personally.

[26:21] And that was that of a workers comp case manager and that of a patient advocate,

[26:27] which are two wonderful pivots for nurses that want to move away from the bedside.

[26:32] You know, that's kind of where it started. But then I'm like,

[26:35] what if I reached out to nurses across the country that are like me,

[26:40] that have been in nursing a long time that have pivoted to these really cool careers,

[26:45] non traditional careers,

[26:47] and see if we could give nurses a pathway or a roadmap to confidently then be able to apply these job for these jobs. Because the jobs are out there.

[27:00] The translatable skills that nurses have are there.

[27:04] They just don't know, number one, what jobs are out there, and number two, how to do it.

[27:10] So this gives nurses stepping stones, as I like to say,

[27:17] to transition to new careers.

[27:20] And I've mentored nurses throughout my life, pulling them along with me. Come check this out. This is really cool. Now I'm saying the same thing from my platform at Stepping Stone Nurse Academy.

[27:33] Come check this out.

[27:34] These things are so cool. And you don't have to be stuck.

[27:38] Like, here are some things you can do. And that's just,

[27:42] that's just now what my new passion is. Patient advocacy and nurse advocacy.

[27:48] Michelle: Well,

[27:49] I got on your website and it's pretty amazing, as I mentioned the blog, but there are so many courses and across such a wide spectrum,

[28:02] I feel like there's something for everybody there.

[28:05] Lori: That's my hope.

[28:06] Michelle: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty amazing. So after mentoring so many nurses, what is the most rewarding part of just watching somebody rediscover their passion?

[28:19] Lori: The rewarding part is to actually not only rediscover their passion, but when they come back to me and say that,

[28:27] what I told them or how they helped them help them to do 

[28:33] That keeps me fired up for feeling that purpose.

[28:38] So I guess that's how it affects me the most.

[28:44] Michelle: Oh yeah. That feedback is so, so important. It keeps us going,

[28:49] like you said.

[28:50] Well, if a nurse listening right now feels stuck or exhausted or just unsure of their future,

[28:58] what words of encouragement would you offer them?

[29:01] Lori: I would encourage you to keep an open mind,

[29:05] to not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.

[29:09] And I would encourage you to do your homework,

[29:12] start learning,

[29:13] listening to podcasts like this and going to my website to see what's out there as far as. And I'm adding all the time, if I learn about a new job that I haven't heard about yet.

[29:28] I noticed that you mentioned something about emergency management, and I am actually talking to a nurse right now about developing a course on emergency management to help nurses in that way.

[29:39] So I'm constantly looking for that. And the nurses, the instructors that I have,

[29:45] they all have the same mission and their passion, they've been in nursing a long time and they want to pay it forward to other nurses. So I encourage you to reach out to me.

[29:58] I'm always happy to talk to nurses anytime. And you can, you know, you can reach out to me through that website for a discovery call,

[30:07] do your own research, do your own homework, and then when you're ready,

[30:11] take care of whatever that emotional thing that's, that's hampering you right now. Burnout is real.

[30:17] I even actually have a little free course on there. I offer some free courses to help nurses, to help them if they want to become an entrepreneur or just little different things that go along with different of the different career paths.

[30:32] Just little something extra to help them to dig a little deeper.

[30:36] And so like I said, I even offer a little bit of support about burnout and next steps. And I just encourage you to get the help that you need emotionally if you're feeling stuck,

[30:48] but also move beyond that and find a new, I always say find your new happy place.

[30:56] Michelle: That's an important message, to not get stuck because we tend to do that and we tend, I think it just contributes to more burnout when we get stuck and we don't see what's out there.

[31:11] And so for you to offer so many services,

[31:16] it really, even I was like,

[31:19] looking at all those different avenues to take, and I was like, oh my gosh, there are so many that I never thought of. You know, some of them I had seen, but there was so many that I was like, I didn't even know this existed.

[31:34] This is amazing.

[31:36] So that's really incredible that you offer so many of those services.

[31:41] Lori: It's even touched my daughter.

[31:43] Oh, sorry, go ahead. So it's even touched my daughter, who's also a nurse. So she was a pediatric nurse for many, many years, and because of circumstances with her son, she had to stop working.

[31:57] And she used to always tease me in her younger days that, you know, that big adrenaline as a Ped-ONC nurse, she was on the front lines and she used to say, mom, when are you going to become a real nurse again?

[32:09] And I used to say, well, I am a real nurse and you know, come full circle.

[32:15] And now she's been offered a job as a school nurse in her son's school. And she's just so very enthusiastic and so excited.

[32:26] And we actually are in the process of framing out a school nurse training course as well up there. So come full circle.

[32:37] It just goes to show you that you don't have to be stuck.

[32:42] Michelle: That is a great message. Well, what's next for you for Stepping Stone Academy or Stepping Stone Advocacy Services and the Nurse Academy.

[32:52] Lori: So on the advocacy side, we just launched a pediatric advocacy service in addition to what our focus was in the beginning, which was more of the Medicare population.

[33:06] So now I'm able to offer pediatric services for kids on the spectrum.

[33:14] Autistic ADHD,

[33:17] sensory processing disorders and medically complex kids, because we can provide support.

[33:26] When you talk about Medicare, the Medicare population, we're focusing the support towards the caregiver or the daughter,

[33:36] the family. On the pediatric side, it's the parents that need the support and the advocacy.

[33:44] And that looks different on the pediatric side because advocating for a neurodivergent child may mean that we have to educate, we have to be an educational advocate as well, because whatever their disorders are, affect them in school.

[34:02] And as a child, school is the most important thing.

[34:06] And so to be able to go in and I'm building a team around me of education,

[34:13] special ED consultants and PT&OT and speech consultants and nursing consultants and advocates and building a team of services for this client,

[34:30] this client population.

[34:32] Because now we can say at Stepping Stone Advocacy Services that we advocate for people from birth to 105 and beyond.

[34:42] So that's my future of Stepping Stone Advocacy Services.

[34:47] Michelle: That's fantastic, Lori. And as a PEDS/NICU nurse for 36 years, I will say that those pediatric services are so crucial and so necessary and so lacking.

[35:01] So to know that you're doing that is just really comforting.

[35:06] Lori: There's a big need for it. We're just getting off the ground. It's a lot of work. The one thing I've noticed as a business owner now is that I have to like, I am so enthusiastic and passionate about it,

[35:22] but I know that it takes time to amplify the message of what we're doing and building a business.

[35:30] And I think that's where I struggle the most,

[35:35] if I'm going to be totally transparent, is trying.

[35:39] I'm so enthusiastic that I think everybody needs an advocate,

[35:43] but, which is true, they do.

[35:45] But you're probably right.

[35:48] But yeah, it is true. But you know, not everybody can afford an independent patient advocate. We are a concierge service,

[35:56] but we certainly have resources and are there to,

[36:01] you know, help in any way we can. And again, on either side,

[36:06] people can contact me directly through the website on the advocacy side and talk about what their needs are, and I can help them on that side or the academy side.

[36:18] I make myself available to answer questions.

[36:24] Michelle: That's fantastic. Yeah, I'm with you. I think probably everyone needs an advocate,

[36:31] but as you said, maybe the resources aren't there. So I think what you're doing is so important, Lori, and so beneficial for first of all, patients and families and then your advocacy for nurses.

[36:47] I have a feeling that this has been a lifelong thing for you,

[36:53] that you have mentored nurses throughout your career,

[36:56] wherever you have been.

[36:59] And it's not usually that something just, you know, that it just pops up. It's in you.

[37:06] And I see that. I see the passion, I see the love for your patients and your fellow nurses, and it's inspiring.

[37:16] And this conversation has been so great today.

[37:19] Lori: I am too. And I'm glad that I was able to share with you a little bit about my journey and also hopefully share a little light for nurses out there,

[37:32] patients, caregivers, and anybody that needs those kind of resources.

[37:39] Michelle: I would say that you certainly have done that today.

[37:43] So I have gotten many great guests from other guests. And so I will ask you, and you don't have to tell me right now because it's kind of a on the spot question,

[37:56] but is there someone that you think would be a good guest for the Conversing Nurse Podcast?

[38:04] Lori: I know so many. Can I think about that and get back to you?

[38:12] Michelle: Yeah, you absolutely can. It's hard to think on the spot, especially when you know so many professionals.

[38:19] So, yes, absolutely, I certainly will.

[38:22] And then for those that want to reach out to you today, where can find you?

[38:28] Lori: So they can find me on either website,

[38:32] www.steppingstoneadvocacy.com that actually there is a link there that you can get to the Academy, but I also have a separate URL that you can go right to the academy, and that is www.steppingstonenurseacademy.com.

[38:52] Michelle: Perfect. Thank you.

[38:55] All right, Lori. Well,

[38:57] we've reached the end. And so if you've listened, you know that at the end we do the five minute snippet, and it's just five minutes of fun for everyone to just see.

[39:09] You kind of let your hair down. And we usually have a lot of laughs. So are you ready to play?

[39:16] Lori: I am ready to play.

[39:21] Michelle: Everybody always gets a little bit nervous at this part, but 

[39:25] It's fun okay? I promise.

[40:08] Okay, if nursing had a superhero costume,

[40:13] what would yours look like?

[40:15] Lori: Probably a big heart.

[40:17] Michelle: Love it. Yeah. Yep, I can see that.

[40:20] Okay. You have worked in so many different healthcare roles.

[40:24] If your career were a movie,

[40:27] what genre would it be? Would it be drama,

[40:30] comedy, adventure,

[40:32] or just a mashup?

[40:33] Lori: Adventure?

[40:36] Michelle: Ooh,

[40:37] I mean, that's perfect because,

[40:40] Yeah, you've been so adventurous. You've taken so many risks and stepped outside your comfort zone. So, yeah,

[40:50] okay. If you could give burnout a funny mascot to make it less scary.

[40:57] Lori: A bucket of water.

[41:01] Michelle: I love it.

[41:04] That's great.

[41:08] We are the masters of creative problem solving.

[41:11] What's the most unusual or unexpected item that you've ever repurposed to get the job done?

[41:20] We love workarounds. Right?

[41:21] Lori: Yeah, I, you know,

[41:24] I mean, from a personal perspective, I'm trying to think of something,

[41:28] something that I've done. I'm terrible with,

[41:31] I'm good.

[41:32] Here's the funny thing. So I'm really good at using my heart and my mind for things,

[41:40] but when I think of MacGyver,

[41:42] I think of, like repurposing something in a different way, I guess.

[41:47] Repurposing my skills of my heart and my brain. Like, I think of that as opposed to in my everyday life of repurpose, because I'm not real good at problem solving, fixing something in that way.

[42:01] I don't know if that makes sense.

[42:03] Yeah, I always do. I always go to my husband and say, 

[42:07] Can you fix this light? It's not working right.

[42:12] And he'll go, yeah. And he'll tear it apart and he'll make it work. And I'm like, oh, my God, that's so amazing. I can never do that.

[42:17] But as a nurse,

[42:19] if it's something that needs a solution.

[42:24] Anybody needs a solution in that way. 

[42:27] I'm on it. And I'm able to do that.

[42:30] Michelle: You got it.

[42:32] Wow, that's great. Again, you're thinking outside the box. You know,

[42:37] we could be talking about an item, like something that we use in our everyday life, but you're saying,

[42:43] I MacGyvered my way of thinking to benefit people in a different way.

[42:51] And that's amazing.

[42:52] Lori: I like that term, MacGyvered.

[42:54] Michelle: Thank you.

[42:54] Lori: I'm gonna use that. I'm a good, I am a MacGyver. I just didn't know it right.

[43:01] Michelle: I turned it into a verb.

[43:03] Lori: I love it.

[43:06] Michelle: Oh, I love talking to you, Lori. You did great in the five minute snippet. It's always just a way to kind of offload some of the stress of,

[43:15] you know, the things that we experience.

[43:17] And I thank you for indulging me and having fun with it. And thank you for everything that you've brought to this conversation today, all of your experience,

[43:27] as I said, almost 45 years,

[43:31] and just the hope that,

[43:34] you know, many nurses need right now that there is something better and different out there if you're willing to take a chance and do something different.

[43:48] And so thank you for that, because hope is everything, right?

[43:51] Lori: Patients and families and nurses, too.

[43:54] Michelle: Yep. I love it. Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day, whatever you're doing there in sunny Florida.

[44:01] Lori: I think I'm going to go for a walk today because it's absolutely beautiful and enjoy the water and the palm trees.

[44:10] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. Sounds idyllic.

[44:13] Lori: Thank you.

[44:13] Michelle: Thank you, Lori. Take care.