Feeding Our Young
Encouragement for today's student nurse... and life lessons for the rest of us!
Have you ever heard the phrase “nurses eat their young?” Feeding Our Young® is more than a podcast – it’s a movement. It’s a desire to see new nurses of all ages be supported and uplifted by their peers.
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Feeding Our Young
156 - Crystal Gower: There’s Still Rainbows Through the Storms
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Join tenured nurse, entrepreneur, and Arizona native Honored Guest Crystal Gower as she talks about her love of learning, the importance of grit, how she ended up in healthcare (being a respiratory therapist before nursing), the importance of processing trauma and emotions, her passion for nurse coaching, creating her own private practice, and more!
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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Feeding Our Young® Podcast. Happy Monday, everybody! Monday is typically, for whatever reason, a day that people dread. Not me, because, well, first of all, I'm a nurse, so I don't know. What day's Monday for us? You know, sometimes Sunday's Monday, sometimes Wednesday's Monday, Monday's Monday, who knows? But this Monday's a great Monday. Why? Because I get to sit in studio with an amazing human being, and I'm not gonna waste her time, yours or mine. eh And so without further ado, I'd like to introduce the relatively newly christened nurse coach, and we'll get into that later, the one and only Crystal Gower. Crystal, how are you this fine afternoon? doing good thank you Yay! Well, I'm so excited that you're taking time out of your busy schedule to just come and chat nursing, all things nursing, and I'm really excited about the topic you bring to the table, as you already know, because as you were telling me about it, I'm like, I have never heard of this before. I need to know more. Therefore, other people need to know more. So before we get into all of that fun stuff, let's just start with the kind of the standard opening questions, which are, Who are you? Where are you from? Where's home for you, Crystal? Yeah, my name's Crystal Gower and I consider myself from Arizona. I grew up in Arizona for about 30 years and really loved it there. And then have also lived in Portland, Oregon for about five years and have been in this area, Spokane. I live in Hayden, Idaho for the last four years and I absolutely love it up here. Although the weather lately with all this rain and all this snow and all this winter, I am so ready to get back to spring already. The spring and summer are beautiful. I'm a little bit tired of this stuff already, but we're just kind of beginning it, I think. We got a few months ahead, right? Yeah, allegedly. I was gonna say spoken like a true sun lover, which I am also married to, and so I know that feeling well. Not personally, because I grew up in Seattle, so that just tells you everything you need to know as far as what I'm used to. uh But with that then, Crystal, I'm going on a wild limb and saying you're already a nurse and not in nursing school. Maybe. Maybe you're a little bit of both. So what degrees do you hold? Where did you get them? And or are you chasing any other degrees? so I started with my associate's degree in nursing and received that from a community college in Arizona, Casa Grande Community College. That was actually after being a respiratory therapist for 10 years. So nursing is a second career for me, still in healthcare though. m And then I went ahead and got my bachelor's in nursing from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. and am still a nursing student as I am finishing my master's degree in nursing here at Gonzaga University in Spokane. let's do the other two standard opening questions, which is because you have graduated various levels of nursing school and are currently going through it, uh what three words, we'll talk about them at the end of your episode, but what three words would you like to, did you choose to describe nursing school? Yeah, when I think of nursing school, I think of challenging, growth, and inspiring. Those are my three words. I love it. Can't wait to talk about those more with you at the end. And then the fun question that everybody loves to hate. What are three of your favorite songs in life right now? Right now, I'm going to surprise you because I've got quite a mix of genres. I love music. I love all different music. I work out to hip hop, but I listen to country and love to country dance and everything in between. Crystal. I guess we're just gonna have to end here. It's been nice knowing you. Country music, you know, we had you till then. All right, well, you guys, Crystal's been great. No, I'm just kidding. That's all right. My best friend loves country music and so I've learned to tolerate it. Sorry, everybody, for those of you that are country music fans. But that was rude of me. Go ahead and continue. That's OK. Actually, maybe I can redeem myself because I just noticed that the songs I've thought of that are my top right now, none are country. uh My first one is Get Up by Shine Down. My second one is Ice Ice Baby from Vanilla Ice. And my third one is a spiritual song. It's called Tell Your Heart to Beat Again by Danny Goukey. Ooh, the third one I have not heard, so I'm looking forward to hearing that. But my gosh, Shinedown, like that's a great, you're talking my language. ah Our kids, they, our road trips were an eclectic mix of music as well. So Weird Al, Rio Soundtrack, ah know, kids music, and then 80s, we're definitely gonna raise them right. So Ice Ice Baby in there, definitely. um And you know a lot of sir mix a lot and you know Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston all of that and then also for whatever reason Shinedown and my kids to this day They're all teens and you know a semi adult summer adults and they all love Shinedown And so they just released a new album recently and I was like guys a new Shinedown album just busted out on Spotify and one of them already knew I'm like alright. Well there you go. So awesome awesome So a little bit more about you then, Crystal. We'll kind of get into the meat of our conversation now, but first a little bit more about your background and things of that. I loved the answers to a couple of these prompts, so let's just explore those. What's your superpower? My superpower I feel is grit. I just feel that life has thrown me some things that I look back on and I you know before I overcame those things I was like how do I do this? Why is this happening? And then I was able to work through it come out on the other side and look back and go wow okay I am strong I can figure these things out and I feel like that's happened since childhood. know, just been through a lot of really hard things in my life. I think most people have, everybody. At this stage of the game, I feel like 99.9 % of people we meet have probably gone through some traumatic events. ah And so I would say grit is my superpower because I will just keep coming back. Awesome, awesome, my gosh. And that is going to inform the uh bulk of our conversation coming up here for sure. A little foreshadowing for you all. But otherwise, I also loved your answer to this one. What day would you like to relive? Yeah, I just don't feel like I want to relive anything. I just want to look ahead, move forward, let's go new, find new opportunities, new days, new things to explore. I love it. And so I would not relive anything. Awesome, awesome. And so on that note too, speaking of exploration, what are some of your hobbies that you are enjoying when not chasing this master's degree? Yes, well, when it's not crummy outside like this, I love to be in the forest, hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, love horses. My dream really is to get some land, get some horses, mini cows, goats. I just want a small farm. I actually, in order to try to manifest that, bought a Lego farm and I have that in my living room. as a reminder of what I want someday. And so I have this mini farm in my living room that has horses and goats and a couple dogs and all the things just how I'd want it with the big red barn and everything there. So that's how serious I am about getting that someday. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're speaking a similar language here, the language of Lego, only because it's so funny you mentioned that. We went through this whole stretch where we were paying down debt. had, for those of you, this part of our story is an open story. We're an open book when it comes to this, because we like to help people who are through the same situation. But we had $20,000 worth of credit card debt. And as you can tell, that would definitely weigh anyone down. um And so we took a stretch and just focused on paying that off. I worked so much extra, all the things, blah, blah, blah. And we had our own way of inspiring the fan. Like we got the kids in on it. We always do a pizza party thing. And long story short, we made these cardboard pizzas with slices and each slice was worth$1,000. So when we'd pay $1,000 off, the family would get to quote unquote, eat a slice, pick a slice, take it off and, you know, go destroy it or whatever. So fast forward, once we got that done, then it was like, okay, now we need to build a little bit of a savings. And so we had an X, you know, a certain dollar amount, you know, in our mind. And in order to help motivate ourselves for that, we wanted to do that certain dollar amount by like Christmas of that year. So we got this little Lego Santa and we had the Lego Santa on display and for each, you know, a hundred dollars or whatever, it was a brick or something. I don't remember what the ratio was, but it was the same thing. The whole goal was we need to build Santa by Christmas. and then we know we have our savings together. this episode's about you, not us, but my gosh, I just love that you're like, you're like, I'm manifesting this. Oh, well now, okay, so now you're gonna have to send a picture of the Lego farm to put on your bio page. I don't know, I'm just kidding. uh I love it. Oh, we're gonna do this then. Okay, so, okay. Right here, right now. So I'm putting you on the spot. When I get done with recording these episodes, what I ask of my honored guests, so I have a couple of asks, one of which is like information for a bio for the Feeding Our Young®website. The other one is the promo clips you guys see that release the Sunday before every episode drops on Wednesday. And they're like 30 second video selfie, you know, nothing, you know, don't put a lot of energy into it. Some people put way too much energy into it. I'm talking to you, Stella. I'm just kidding, it was amazing, Stella. ah She's one of my coworkers and she did, she did this whole like golden bachelorette thing. It was funny. But most people, you know what I mean, 30 seconds or less. Anyway, when you do your promo clip, that's where you've gotta, we gotta see the Lego farm in your promo clip. Do we have a deal? Yes, okay. Love it. On the spot and obviously if it doesn't happen, I'll cut this part out of the episode. Anyway, moving along. uh Alright, so you talk about farm animals and things of that nature and so that leads me to kind of one final question and it's a hodgepodge question. uh What would you like to share? Tell us about your family slash heroes because there might be overlap there and that can include children or fur babies or anything of the like. Yeah. So well, my family right now is my son and I, Tommy. My son is 19. He'll be 20 in April. He also goes to college at Gonzaga. So who knew I'd end up in college with my son. um But um and he's a great, wonderful kiddo. Love him to death. When it comes to heroes in my life, I would speak of my dad. He comes first to my mind. um He passed away. four and a half, well almost five years ago now, January of 21. He was 86 years old, lived a really great long life, and he was legit my role model for grit. I mean, he would get hit with life, and he would bounce right back, and he would problem solve, and he would jump hurdles no matter what. It was just like, wow, like he can figure it out. And so when I've had those aha moments in my own life of looking back and thinking, wow, I can do these things, even though they're hard, I think of him and I think he is the man who taught me that. And he was just amazing. He had a great sense of humor, really funny, would give this shirt off his back to anybody, loved people, and worked really hard to provide a good living for me. So as I grew up as an only child, so yeah. that is incredible. Well, my hats off to your father. And sorry for your loss in that regards. But just incredible that, you know, yes, he has died, but he lives on, right? He lives on through you and in you. And they're inspiring you to uh reach for higher highs and kick life's rear back when it tries to kick yours, right? Awesome. Well, let's dive into the nursing centered topics here. And for anyone who's listening, of course, I love talking about nursing school. I love talking about all that. But with Crystal, we're going a different direction here. I do have my standard opening question, but there's something she does that she's passionate about ah that just I was like, my gosh, kindred spirit. I love this stuff. So first, Crystal, you do mention that nursing is a second career for you. Why nursing? How did you end up, you did already tease the respiratory aspect of it, but how did you end up in healthcare and then why nursing? Yeah, I ended up in healthcare because I grew up with some health things, which was asthma. And I thought that I could resonate with my patients, that I could have some common ground with them. Maybe I could help them with their asthma, make them feel better, uh having learned certain things about treating my own. And so that was really why I chose respiratory therapy. I was young, probably 20, you know, when I went into that. And I found myself as a respiratory therapist in the neonatal ICU and pediatric ICU. And I loved the children. And I saw that I wanted to grow even more and expand my brain, learn more about the body, be more involved with my patients and their care. And that is what drove me into nursing about 10 years later. And so I love making a difference in people's lives and nursing. is the career for me that has allowed me to do that. And discovering nurse coaching, actually, I feel like leveled that up even a little bit more. Because what I noticed was my peers and myself going through nursing, we end up in situations that create trauma that are very difficult and challenging to navigate. And sometimes we don't have the leadership or the mentors around. or the right ones around that can help us to do that, especially when we're new nurses. And I started to ponder on that about a year and a half ago and thought, you know, I really feel like, especially in the hospitals and probably a lot of other settings, uh nurses could really use more support with debriefing from these events that we go through. And that is when I started to discover nurse coaching. Something popped up in my feed about a nurse coaching program. And I also remember thinking these influencers on Instagram, there's a lot of health influencers on there and some of them are really good, but they're not medical background or nursing background. And I also remember thinking, wow, if they can do uh health guidance like that, preventative holistic health guidance. Why can't I do that as a nurse? What is it that I could get into that I could promote that more and get on that uh movement? And so then I discovered the nurse coaching program that I found. There's a bunch of them out there. And I did a little research and chose the one that I did. And it was wonderful. And I knew that going through it would grow me more personally and professionally, whether I decided to pursue it as a career or not. And that, I just love that. love self-help books. I love to dive into myself internally. And I really believe that this world kind of causes us to lose our power and our ability to tune into ourselves and really align with what we want ourselves. We end up living a life that's more tuned to expectations of the outside world or the, you know, the things that the world wants for us. Well, Do we ever stop to think, well, what do I want for myself? What do I want for my life or my health or my financial situation? And do I believe that I have the power to change that and move it in the direction that I want to? And when you've been hit with trauma and emotions and things and you don't know how to process those, it can get really difficult to align your life the way that you really want it because you begin to live in this fight or flight mode, stress mode, survival mode. And I really think that's running rampant in today's world, not just in nursing, but in the world in general. But um yeah, but I definitely wanted to assist my peers and I have since learned there's a movement going on here with this and there are programs being created within hospitals to provide this kind of help. And so I'm really excited to get more involved in that. that's incredible. before we go down that road, um so you've been a bedside nurse for how long? And I'm not trying to age you. You've already let the cat out of the bag. You have a 19 year old, so. Yes. Yes. No, I've been a nurse since 2012, so it has been about 13 years now. and a mixture of what type of specialties. goodness. So I love to explore. So I've done adult medsurg, pediatric ICU, pediatric and neonatal, pediatric emergency room, adult emergency room, PACU. I was a flight nurse for a year. um Yeah, I love to explore and try new things. I've gone full circle and currently continue to work in a neonatal ICU at the hospital. That is really, I love the babies. I love to work with the families and teach them care for their babies. so I'm currently, that's what I'm doing as I am pursuing and developing my role as a nurse coach. Awesome. And when you, for most of the audience, I'm sure when they hear what you're referring to in regards to trauma, they understand what you're saying. for those that may not have that background, obviously a well-informed, lots of specialties experience. When you say this trauma that happens to us or to nurses, what does that look like? Yeah, that can be varied, right? Everybody's gonna have their own subjective thoughts or opinions on how situations have made them feel. But some examples could be taking care of a mental health patient who begins to be combative, fight with you, kick with you, abuse you. Maybe they're saying abusive things and they're triggering an abusive relationship that you were in in your past or something like that. um There's so many different examples that um could be had in the intensive care unit. Maybe you have had to withdraw care from a patient. Maybe that's even a pediatric patient or a baby. That can be devastating. That's emotional. So what supports are you looking for or are you even looking for supports to help process through that, especially as a new nurse, when you end up in those types of situations for the first time? that's going to be begin this cumulative of events that could affect you down the road as it happens maybe again and again. And so it's really important to be aware and to identify those and to seek the resources that are there to process those as you go. Because if you don't, you're going to end up with burnout, compassion fatigue. uh There's been a lot of discussion lately about that and nurses overcoming that. went through COVID. COVID created a lot of trauma for nurses. We had a lot of nurses leave the profession because it was so traumatic. And so I think there needs to be an internal awareness of ourselves and what works for us and what doesn't. And we need to take the initiative to find the help that we need. We don't have to do this alone. We shouldn't do it alone. And we need to reach out for the help that we need. But what's hard is that I think some nurses don't feel safe reaching out. They don't know where the safe places are to reach out. And sometimes employers don't feel safe to reach out, psychologically safe. And so um there's a lot, it can be a little complicated. So yeah, so I really want to make sure that nurses know that there are resources out there that are safe and even that are free. There's scholarships available for nurse coaching sessions through different nonprofit organizations. uh And so as far as nurse coaching goes, you know, we could talk about it as a career potentially for anybody that might, you know, might intrigue them. Or we could talk about it as a resource for those of us who have gone through hard things and need some support for that. Incredible. So let's dive right into this topic then because this is obviously what you're passionate about and I just love that about you. So you've kind of talked about the journey to become uh a nursing coach and for you specifically unless there's more you want to add to that. what is, let's just start with that basic question. What is a nurse coach? What does nurse coaching look like? So a nurse coach is going to want to focus on shifting the paradigm from a sick care model to a preventative wellness care model. We want to create wellness for everybody, for the world. We want to shift the nutrition, moving your body, getting good sleep, managing stress, uh managing finances well. uh Being able to pause and there's so many different tools out there that people can use and it's really about Helping them to discover what tools work for them uh That could be changing your your the way that you eat Increasing movement, you know where what activities bring you joy Do you have joy and play in your life because that can make a huge difference on your stress management? um Getting out just really balancing. So my passion is regulating the nervous system and Figuring out you know, have you been living in a fight-or-flight state for too long? And how do we bring in the parasympathetic? Nervous system back in so that you have balance there and you can do that through things such as meditation visualization Some people like tapping um There's music therapy. There's play therapy. There's so many tools out there that we could go through, but I feel that a lot of it is processing emotions. So what emotions have you not processed and gone through? Go back to the trauma. How do we resolve that so that your body can feel safe again? That's the ultimate goal is feeling safe. And I believe there's a balance in Western medicine and holistic care. And I, know, sometimes if we have mental health, maybe we deal with anxiety, depression, and we need medication to manage that for a time. um And there should be no shame in that. We should use the tools that we need to use to create healing. And that's the ultimate goal is to heal. And we can also do that through connection with others, you know, getting inspiration from others around us who have gone through similar things. And so nurse coaches are going to help people to navigate that and to go internal and to find out what aligns with them. You know, maybe it's setting boundaries. You don't know how to set boundaries and you're creating all this stress because you're letting yourself go to the wayside and you're not looking out or showing up for yourself only for others. there should be balance in that. And so we just help to navigate that and figure that out, whatever the situation might be, and hopefully bring some tools to awareness. That is incredible. let's, at this point, we're gonna bifurcate the conversation and I wanna start on track A and then we'll circle back around to track B. Track A is those individuals that are listening going, my gosh, this sounds incredible. Like it sounds like an incredible resource. So how would you speak towards nurse coaches being a resource? And additionally, How do, if I, like I'm just, I'm Joe Blow out here, I'm Suzie, whatever, and I want to find a nurse coach. I want to get in connections with a nurse coach. What resources are there for me? Yeah, so um there are less than 3,000 nurse coaches in the world today. And so it is growing and it is catching on more rapidly, but it's still pretty unique. um So some of the resources out there would be to find somebody like me who's in a private practice. I'm going to be beginning a private practice and providing debriefing coaching sessions for people. that can look a myriad of ways. Maybe you only need one here and there as you need them and you can do a package like that. Maybe you want to do an hour or two hours a week for six weeks or three months or maybe you want every other week. um Many nurse coaches in a private practice will customize a program depending on the individual needs of that person. And um then there are non-profit programs out there, one that I will mention that I recently worked with on an outreach trip is debriefing the front lines. And they have a website you can go to. They raise money and fundraise and provide nurse scholarships for nurses who are struggling financially and maybe want to partake of those free nurse coaching sessions through them and their nurse coaches. They're wonderful nurse coaches. Some of them have been doing this for a long time. I think the owner of that Nonprofit has been doing nurse coaching for at least 10 years So, you know nurse coaching and I was surprised to find out nurse coaching has even been around for as long as 10 plus years I really thought it was brand brand new, but it's not it's just getting discovered So yeah, mean, sounds to me as though, you know what I mean? It's not in its infancy, but it is a burgeoning, you know what I mean, area of professional nursing, right? Incredible. there's a board certification that you can take that will credential you as a board certified nurse coach. The programs out there are typically about eight months long that you do online modules. You also have to obtain 60 CEUs in order to graduate from that program. And that is through actually doing nurse coaching sessions. You will find friends and family of your own. um I think I had to find six or eight of my own people to do nurse coaching sessions with, five hours a piece total. And then four of them were provided through the program with our peers that were in our cohort. And so you end up already doing nurse coaching in your program to help you to get comfortable with the tactics and strategies involved. And it's a wonderful program. Like I said, I knew doing it would influence me and grow me. whether I pursued it as a career or not. It was a wonderful program. Incredible. And I mean, you're kind of already answering that part B of the bifurcated conversation, which is then, you know, I'm listening to Crystal go and I want to become a nurse coach. I, know, it sounds like that's the way to do it. Is there anything you want to add in regards to how do we go down that road ourselves? Yeah, so you can look at the AHNA website, which is the American Holistic Nurses Association. uh There is through the AHNCC, which is the credentialing for that, you can find the board exam information and eligibility information for the nurse coach board exam. There are, I believe about 10, programs out there. The one I did is called the Nurse Coach Collective. There is a company that's called INCA that many people do and I cannot remember what that stands for right now. ah But you can Google those nurse programs, nurse coaching programs, and there's different costs. They're all fairly similar, but there's different costs. There's different ways that they do it. The one I did is all online modules, sort of at your own pace, but with a cohort. um Very accessible. uh I loved how smooth it was. My instructor, our mentor was amazing. And the creators of that program were ICU nurses from Oregon who created that. So they're very passionate about this movement as well. And I'm sure all the programs have very passionate nurse coaches involved in their doing the mentoring and the education for this. So they're great programs. Wow. So I, you you talk about your early exploration of this idea, whether or not you were going to pursue it as a career, and it sounds as though you're leaning that direction. ah So what do you want to share as far as that goes? uh I know there's some different ideas there as far as like, you know, similar to any sort of kind of nursing ventures where you could have nonprofit versus your own, you don't mean private practice, things of that nature. So where are you headed in this nurse coaching career? Yeah, so I have chosen to create my own private practice. It is North Star Vitality. uh The North Star has always been a symbol in my life and I know it symbolizes guidance and I just love the North Star and that's why I chose to include that in the name of my business. My um website is northstarnurse.com and my Instagram is North Star Nurse. So you can find me there. I have chosen to pursue private practice at this time, mostly because of the huge learning curve for creating a nonprofit. There's a lot that goes into creating a nonprofit and it feels a little bit overwhelming to me right now and I really want to get out there and start to help people with whatever they're needing help with. But as a spin on that, I have chosen to partner with nonprofit organizations in their missions. And so recently, I just went on a trip out to North Carolina to serve with Debriefing the Frontlines and another organization called Rekindled Nurse. And they came together to create this outreach. This was their second year doing it. And we went out and we served the nurses who survived Hurricane Helene last year out there. They were really taken by surprise in Asheville, North Carolina. And that town is amazing. The way it's recovered, the amount of strength. You can see the grit out there in that community for sure as they have come back from this. And so we went out and loved on those nurses because many of them were called to serve in the housing that they had, the shelters they had to set up very quickly and unexpectedly. They were riding their bikes through the mud and the storm trying to get to places to help get people out. uh and to safety of the facilities. And so we went out to love on them and we served them food and we brought them gifts and we got to interact and connect. And it was an amazing experience. We had one nurse come up to us and say, you know, we have a sunshine committee here who's in charge of spreading cheer around, but man, you guys are like sunshine on steroids. oh just warms your heart so much to be a part of that work and to fundraise, to help with the fundraising and things. mean, it's just good things are going on out in this world and it's just really meaningful to be a part of that and to have these meaningful conversations with people and to see and hear the trauma that they went through in that experience. And so, and many of them have reached out since learning about nurse coaching and the resources available. They're like, I still need some help, you know, overcoming what we went through in this storm. And, um and I just, I love that cause there's still rainbows through the storms and there's people out there willing to help and provide help and support through those things. And that's really what I want to do. That's my passion. Wow, and that passion is evident, Crystal. I just, I thank you for sharing that. Before we close in our traditional manner, I, cause I'm looking at everything you sent me and I feel like we've touched on everything you definitely wanted to talk about. But I do like asking that last all encompassing question, which is, is there anything you have not been able to share that you wanted to share? Whether it's about that, your journey into nurse coaching, nurse coaching itself, or anything else. I don't think I can think of anything. I really think you've been awesome with the questions you've asked that have triggered me to get the answers out and information out that I really want to share with others. So I feel really good about that. Awesome, awesome. And you guys, again, check out her bio on the Feeding Our Young® website, feedingouryoung.org. Look for Crystal Gower. And in her bio will be links to her website and any other links that she chooses to share. So, Crystal, we'll pull this back around then. You had given three words to describe nursing school. Remind me, what were they and why'd you pick them? Yeah, I chose challenging, growth, and inspiring. And I really feel that my career as a nurse has been the greatest cause of my own personal growth. And we encounter so many unique situations that are so challenging to navigate. And it forces us to develop skills with collaboration, uh communication. you know, providing grace and compassion for others, holding space for others, walking with others in their journeys, and so many other skills. Nursing has been an amazing profession, and there's just so many possibilities and opportunities that we can go down in nursing, different roads that we can take, or we can create our own roads. And that is what is really exciting to me. And I knew, like I said, I knew that deciding to become and study becoming a holistic nurse coach would also create more growth for me personally and professionally. And it definitely has been an amazing journey through that as well. um yeah, challenging growth and inspiring, those all really resonate with me when I think of nursing. somehow oddly all fit hand in hand, right? Wonderful. Well, um you know, we made it all the way through. Someone wasn't paying attention. And shame on you, whoever you are, this imaginary person who keeps just not listening to the episode. But they always tune in at the very end and they want to know just one thing. And so what is the one thing you'd want that person to take away after listening to your episode? Yeah, if I could give one thing of advice for nurses or nursing students, I would advise to just continue to follow the path that aligns for you. Tune into yourself, seek alignment, and let those things that don't align with you fall to the wayside. If you're working in an area that doesn't feel like a fit for you, Seek for something else that is a fit. Don't be afraid or ashamed to do that. You should be able to work with joy and satisfaction and positivity and optimism and support. And so I would say just continue to seek for that. Continue to find that area of care that you're passionate about. there will be, you know, where there's a will, there's a way. So there will be a way for you to get into that. Sometimes you have to have a certain amount of experience to get a certain place, but just take those stepping stones and you'll get there someday. But it's about discovery and exploration and finding those things that align with you. So just keep seeking, keep with that curiosity. and at the risk of minimizing everything you've just shared. I feel like you are the poster child for discovery and exploration. So, it's not do as she says, not as she does. It's do as she does both and all the things. So, Crystal, thank you for taking your time on this somewhat dreary and gray Monday afternoon. And I guess, you know what? Being a sunshine on steroids. There you go. I love it. Awesome. Have a wonderful rest of your day, Crystal. Okay, you too, Eric. Thank you.