DNP Ep. 51: The Journey of the Traveling Neonatal Nurse Practitioner

Tammi Boswell

Sandra Pagenta: [00:00:00] Hi, Dr. Nurse podcast. Welcome Tammy to the podcast today.

Tammi Boswell: Well, hello. Hi. Thank you for having me. I love the opportunities like this to kind of tell my story and my journey and nursing to hopefully encourage others out there to pursue their dreams in nursing, or even a change in their clinical special.

Sandra Pagenta: love that. And I love what you’re doing. You were doing some, cool stuff, and you’ve done even cooler stuff, being a flight nurse, and just things that we haven’t had on the podcast yet. So I’m super excited to hear all the things that you’ve done in your career and kind of how you led up to the spot that you’re in.

Today, which I believe you’re kind of, part-time locums. You’re just getting full autonomy over what you wanna do, cuz you’re just, you’re so specialized and you’re so in need that you can just be like, I I’ll give you what I can give you, which is [00:01:00] just incredible spot to be in.

And you worked really hard to get there, so I can’t wait to hear about it. Okay. Let’s take it from the top.

Tammi Boswell: Okay. Sounds good.

Sandra Pagenta: So tell me a little bit about kind of like I was saying what your current role is kind of what you’re doing for a living, how you divide your time and your different roles.

Tammi Boswell: My main role now obviously is a neonatal nurse practitioner. And I have been in nursing overall for 30 years. The first 10. Well, yeah, 10 of it I did in the NICU. As you said, I was a flight team nurse. For six years, I was a NICU bedside nurse for four years. I even had a short stint for a little over a year in the PICU.

But then decided after my. Six years. And as a flight team nurse, which is a whole other realm of nursing very specialized, which I enjoyed greatly. I can’t, if you, anyone out there has an interest in it I suggest that you talk to someone who’s a flight team nurse. Maybe [00:02:00] if there’s an opportunity in your healthcare organization to shadow someone, that would be awesome.

Cuz my institution, we do a lot of services, my home base institution. We do ground fix wing jet and helicopter transport. So we have four modes of transport. Babies, not just to our tertiary center, like bringing babies from outside communities in my area to our children’s hospital. But also we do transport out of the country.

We go and pick up children yeah. From out of the country and bring them to us. And even a, from one state to another that a hospital organization may Higher. So to speak our institution, to move a patient from one organization to another, for NICU, specialized treatment. So, but after six years of doing that, I decided that, Hmm, maybe I wanna step away from that.

And I went back to get my [00:03:00] master’s and become a neonatal nurse practitioner that took me. I’d say three years, it was three years. It felt more like five. I actually started out in orientation with one child and by the time I graduated, I was pregnant with my fourth one. So that was a journey in and of itself.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh my goodness.

Tammi Boswell: It was crazy. It was crazy.

Sandra Pagenta: Did you have twins in there?

Tammi Boswell: It was no, I did not.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh my gosh. How are number two, three and four are very close together.

Tammi Boswell: There was a lot of crying. I’ll just leave it at that. A lot of moments where I said, I can’t do this. I’m quitting. You know, I had an awesome advisor.

My husband was incredibly supportive and basically said, listen, Tomorrow’s gonna come, whether you’re in school or not. So you might as well just finish it. And side note, we’ve spent a bunch of money for you to do this, so you need to finish so, but he was awesome. He was very encouraging cuz he had to pick up a lot of slack at home and.[00:04:00]

You know, there are a lot of people who wanna do that, but they’re discouraged because they don’t maybe have a significant other who’s willing to help them while they pursue their dreams. Mm-hmm or maybe, you know, people at their workplace are not very supportive. And I want people to know from my message overall, that there are people out there that will help you.

even if they’re not in your workplace or in your personal life, there’s somebody there that you are not aware of that will help you pursue your dreams, whether that’s just encouraging you through school or helping you, if you have children at home that you need taken care of while you pursue your dreams to make your life better and still do what you want as a career as aspiration.

So once I did that, I got out and I worked for a while here in my home hospital organization. Let me stop you real quick. Mm-hmm

Sandra Pagenta: your new needle specific or specialty. That is a completely separate degree from like a peed nurse practitioner or like completely sorry, you [00:05:00] know? Okay. So you are only neonatal or can you do peds.

Tammi Boswell: Only neonatal because you have to be certified. So you now it’s a four year, you know, you have to have a BSN then an MSN, your MSN has to be a specialty and neonatal nurse practitioner. So wow. Does every school offer that? Not every cause I don’t think every school offers.

Yeah. Every university offers that. Yeah, anyone’s interested. You can always contact me. I’m on Instagram nurse to NNP nurse to NNP and I will direct you to where you can go to investigate your options as universities, but you have to be in a program that specializes in neonatal nurse.

Practitionership that is an actual degree. Yes. Just like I peds there’s acute and. As well as primary care, those are two separate degrees and a master’s program. [00:06:00] NICU is just the one for a neonatal nurse practitioner, but then when you graduate from that accredited program, then you go, you sit for your boards.

Yes. You do have to take another, board’s another certification it’s through the NCC, the national certification corporation. Once mm-hmm you pass that exam, then you’re off and running. Gotcha. So, okay.

Sandra Pagenta: That, and so you sat, you went back for your masters. My masters staff for boards had a bunch of babies when you were in school.

That’s insane. That’s and then that’s insane.

Tammi Boswell: That’s so then got out and worked for probably let’s say eight years. And then I decided, you know what, this isn’t really working for me because I had, my kids were still fairly small and I needed more flexibility in my schedule. And, long before the pandemic, long before everyone was like, I’m gonna do travel nursing.

I was traveling as an NNP, which people [00:07:00] don’t realize nurse practitioner. Traveling is different than nursing, because so much goes into being, working as a nurse practitioner regardless of your specialty, because you have to be go through the board of nursing, the medical board, you have to have a DEA in some states, you have to have a controlled substance certification as well.

In some states you have. Then you have to do whatever organization you’re gonna work for. If you’re traveling there as a locums, that’s what they call it. When you are a nurse practitioner, PA, or physician, then you have to go through credentialing at the hospital, which is basically I tell people it’s basically a vet process.

So in that generally takes anywhere from 30 to 90 days, depending on how fast that you do that, , as opposed to one, you just have to get. License in that state. And then you go to an agency, they present you, the hospital says they take you, B [00:08:00] bang, boom, you’re working there. It’s not that simple.

Yeah. When you’re working as a nurse practitioner and that’s not a provider, including, you know, they have to clear your. Your national provider identification number. There’s so many things that go into it when you’re working as a Loco. So I started dabbling into working as a lo. And I love the idea of going to different hospital organizations to see how they practiced, did that for, you know, kind of on the side.

So I was full time at my home hospital. Then I went in my home state, then I went part-time and then I went PRN after doing locums for two years. Cuz I said, you know what? I can get as much work as I want or work as little as I want and do my own schedule. I can make my schedule flexible for me. And I know people are always interested.

They’re like, wow, you really did it. I was like, yeah, I’ve been doing this [00:09:00] for the better part of eight years now.

Sandra Pagenta: Do you think that you’ve got a lot of options because you are so specialized in the fact that you can set your own schedule? If you’re super broad, I feel like maybe there’s less options, but because you are so niche down, do you think that you’ve got more options?

Tammi Boswell: Well, I think I’ll tell you, I’ll be honest with you because like, people contact me because they just see nurse practitioner. They don’t even see neonatal nurse practitioner. And once you work with an agency and they present you at various hospitals across the country that have openings, obviously with your permission, your name gets floated out there.

I have companies that I’ve never even worked for, send me jobs for things that I don’t even have a specialty in, like psychia. Interesting urgent care. Like I don’t like I am a neonatal nurse practitioner. Thank you for the offer. So there’s so much out there and I tell people who are nurse [00:10:00] practitioners, regardless of their specialty, or those who want to pursue a, a degree in a nurse practitioner, specialty that go ahead and do that and then get out there.

Get your bearings worked for at least two years. in one setting and learn as much as you can, because then if that is your goal or something you may want to dabble or pursue, then try doing locums because I love I’ve. I personally have had a great experience, not just in my, I don’t have to ask anyone for PTO.

I make my own. when I wanna work. I work when I don’t, I don’t, it’s amazing. Now I know some people are like, well, what do you do about insurance and whatnot? You know, I don’t have to worry about that. I’m very fortunate that my husband has excellent insurance. But there are plans there companies out there who just do like the ones I work for, because most companies [00:11:00] that do just.

Physicians PAs and nurse practitioners, they don’t do nurses because it’s so specialized. And getting them credentialed. Yeah. Through the process is so much more advanced. And I don’t wanna say advanced more complex than nurse

Sandra Pagenta: you’re saying that getting nurses. Using nurses is more complex

Tammi Boswell: providers, PAs and nurse practitioners into another.

It’s a big deal for them to get me. It’s harder. It’s yeah, it’s hard. P like I’m getting credentialed right now for an organization in Arizona. And you wouldn’t believe just this morning before this phone. I had to go and, do a drug screen. I had to do this. I had to do that. And that’s just a little things today.

That’s not all the paperwork that has to go through cuz they have to present me through credentialing and I just finished and got all my information back from the Arizona board of nursing. . [00:12:00] And so now I’m going through the medical board. So it’s a whole, it’s a whole process, but if, if you want to go get back to my original point, go with a staffing company.

Once you’re a practitioner and you’re out and you’ve worked for two or three years, they have. Options where you can get insurance through them. And they have full benefits. I just don’t need that portion of it. Right. My husband, who does have a financial background, so he, we run me working as a locums.

And at home I work PRN at a lot of local hospitals. We run it like a business. We, how do, what do you mean if you, how do you mean that? Let’s say if I was full time, they would take out taxes. I would have benefits. I would contribute to a 401k. I don’t have that anymore because PRN, well, they obviously take out taxes, but like, I don’t, [00:13:00] I don’t work with the w.

to, I don’t work like that with locums. So we manage all of my finances. Like it’s a business.

So how many hours a week are you

Sandra Pagenta: working?

Tammi Boswell: I mean, if you’re PRN at the home hospital, like my home I’m hospital, so to speak, I’m not working there at all this week, but say today, I’m not working. I haven’t worked since last. Friday, I flew home. So I have been off, I will fly back out on Wednesday and I will go to another state to work Thursday and Friday, and then I will fly back on Saturday.

Sandra Pagenta: So how did this work when you had little tiny babies and you, were you flying out or were you just doing PRN?

Tammi Boswell: I dropped to part-time and then I started working locums. Like I would work one day at home and then [00:14:00] fly out and then work two days someplace else and fly back late that night.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh wow, It was at first I had to tough with kids. My goodness.

Tammi Boswell: I did it for about a year and then my husband’s like, yeah, we can do this. We can do this. In fact, it’ll be better if you do this because you know when you’re at X hospital, they’re.

You’re working around everyone. They’re telling you your schedule. No, one’s telling me I work like, no, I mm-hmm. if a hospital asks me, well, Hey, we need you to work three days this a week. And I was like, well, it just depends on the day because it’s how you set up. They present, I do shift work. I don’t do contract work.

I’ve been at a very well known hospital organization. I won’t mention the name obviously for the better part of three and a half years. . And I basically make my own schedule. I work at several of their hospitals. Prior to coming to this organization three and a half years ago, [00:15:00] constantly calling my staffing company and saying, well, is she available?

Can she do this? Is she available? And they come to me, my staffing guy. And I said, no, I cannot possibly do. I can cause I’m not gonna over. Cause that would defeat the purpose of why I’m doing this. I get the hours that I want. I work the days that I want yeah. To work very, very few weekends. So if I work a weekend, it’s because I choose to work that weekend.

Not because I have a weekend requirement. I still get to do what I love. That’s incredible. I learn so much from different institutions because I can see a.

I’d like to say this institution, they do that at this institution. They do this, they do this, so yeah, good outcome. Or, you know, they have a better outcome than this organization. So it’s really a learning experience. Almost as much as it’s a convenience for me, it’s a benefit for me. And that’s what I tell people all the time on my lives is that [00:16:00] nursing is so flexible.

Guys. You can do. Anything, anything, and you can make it work for yourself. So when I hear people or they contact me and they’re like, oh, well, I just don’t know if I can do it. You know, I, I, I don’t know if I can do this or how would I do that? You won’t know until you try and your options are in abundance, especially right now.

And I definitely wouldn’t say go to school. Yeah. And then come hop right out and do this. I, I would, not me personally. I wouldn’t recommend that, but it’s definitely an option. And I think if you’re someplace where you’re getting a lot of experience and you truly are enjoying what you’re. Doing and you feel that you could benefit from the flexibility?

I definitely would encourage somebody to do it in any specialty. Once they’ve gotten at least about two years of experience as a practitioner, so, [00:17:00] gotcha.

Sandra Pagenta: Mm-hmm so I was  gonna say a couple things came to mind when you were talking. One of which was, I was wondering how you got started. in the NICU and neonatal and why you chose that field?

Because I was thinking like, you know, Again, everyone gets a calling and has a dream. And they like, this is what I’m meant to do. And it sounds like you’ve been pretty laser focused from the time that you graduated as a nurse in treating children mm-hmm and taking care of kids. And that’s been something that you’ve liked from the beginning, which I think is great.

I think that a lot of nursing programs. You know, kick out nurses and they’re like, you have to do med surg. It’ll give you your, get your feet wet in med surg, but you really just kind of laser focused in on this is what I really, really like, which I think is really cool. And can you touch on, how did you discover that this is what you wanted to do

Tammi Boswell: first off, if not everyone knows what they wanna do right.

When they get outta school and [00:18:00] that’s at a nursing school and that’s okay. That’s completely okay. But for me, I’ll be honest when I was in nursing. My first thing was, I’m gonna be an adult ICU nurse. That was what I was gonna do. I was gonna be a C B I C U nurse, worked with cardiac patients. That’s what I was gonna do.

Loved it. And when I went through that rotation, but then I had my peds rotation and Pete, I liked, I really liked it, but then we got to go to the NICU and we only spent, I think, three days in the NICU and I was. I love this. This is what I wanna do. I love this. And I got cuz you know, granted, wow. Went in nursing school quite some time ago.

I’ve been in nursing 30 years. So you guys can do the math. But all my instructors were like, well, you’ll have to be in med search first. I was like, okay, well, when I graduated, well, just before I graduated in my home [00:19:00] city, I had come home one weekend and my mom had told me that she had heard that there was a program for nurses who were gonna be new grads at.

My now hospital, my home hospital, shall I say? And so I called them up and they were like, yes, we have a peds residency program. And those that are accepted in the program, they’ll rotate through various peds units such as the general pediatric floor, peds rehab, newborn nursery, the pediatric ICU, and the ni main NICU and the NICU stepped down.

So there were six. So I was like, Ooh, I wanna apply. And they were like, okay. So I applied, I was lucky enough to get in because not everyone pick, pick me got in, you know, obviously they have a limited spots, so I was lucky enough to get in. Sure. All the rotations definitely. Like some more than others love the NICU.

Oh, that’s awesome. So at the end of the rotation, they tell you that, you know, the nurse managers will come that have spots [00:20:00] open and offer those who they are interested in spots. And if you desire, you can take that spot. So I was like, oh, please do something NICU person like me, please let them like me.

Well, I didn’t get a call from her. I didn’t get a call from her. Yeah. I got a call from the PICU newborn nursery and one of the peds floors. And so I was kind of disappointed. So I ended up taking the pediatric ICU job. That’s where I was for. My first year and a half. But then, yeah, that’s where you were.

Yeah. In passing one day, I was actually in the elevator and I saw the nurse manager and I was like, should I ask her, should I ask her? And so cuz she had said hello. And so I asked her, I was like, oh. Do you know, if you have any positions coming open soon, cuz I’m really still interested. If that would be an option for me.

And she said, oh, well actually we would love to have you. And I would’ve loved to have [00:21:00] taken you. And it wasn’t because they didn’t like me at all. It was cuz they had no positions. So she was like, if one comes up. We will call you. So probably about six months later is when she called someone had went out on maternity leave and it was only part-time and it was on night.

Cool. And so she, she will you take it? I was like, I’ll take it. So that’s how I got into the NICU. I Got certified in peritoneal dialysis for neonates there mm-hmm yeah.

Learned to put in pick lines or for little babies and then I was in the flight team. Oh my gosh.

Sandra Pagenta: You just got in and you just had such a lucrative, not just like lucrative, a very fulfilling and rewarding career. It’s something that you weren’t initially picked for and that you went back and were like, no, no, no, no.

This is my calling. I know this is what I meant to do. And so you circled back. You didn’t let it go. I

Tammi Boswell: love that. And [00:22:00] you don’t know unless you ask and if they say no, You’re no worse than you were before. And I remember I was this little, fairly new nurse. Well, I was new. I was at that time, I think maybe six months, six or seven months.

And I asked her, I was like scared. I was like, here’s this nurse manager of this huge NICU, what do I say? And I was in the elevator with her and I asked her and she was like, yeah, sure. If something comes up and we’ll definitely, we just didn’t have any positions open when you came through the residency.

Sandra Pagenta: I think it’s neat that if you would’ve been like, well, they didn’t want me. I wasn’t good enough. If you were living in that, in that mentality, then you would’ve never had the strength or the courage to ask and then to find out that it wasn’t anything about you, they just didn’t have positions.

And so it’s. Yep. I would’ve been like listening to this impost syndrome or whatever negative mindset and it wasn’t the truth wouldn’t have been the truth. So I just think that’s such a great lesson.

I think that’s a, a really good message to, for nurses to hear, just not to give [00:23:00] up. One of the other things I was thinking about while you were talking along your path, and again, one of the things I like to encourage nurses is to create mentor relationships, finding people that you can learn from.

I do hear that you often throw yourself out there. Like if you’re interested in this, give me a call, reach out. Has anyone done that for you throughout your career? Have you had any mentors or are you really into mentorship because you didn’t have any mentors?

Tammi Boswell: I had really had someone when I was starting out as a nurse practitioner, a neonatal nurse practitioner who was really.

My biggest advocate. Well, two people outside of my advisor in my graduate program who were like, you can do this because I had a nurse, a manager as an N P who. Really wasn’t one of my fans. , we’ll [00:24:00] just leave it at that. And this other manager at one of our sister, hospitals was like, she reached out to me, actually the medical director his wife reached out to me and said, Hey, we have this position.

At one of the other hospitals, do you want it an NP position? Because her husband, she said he really wants you to take it. And I said, yes. So this person who was the NP coordinator reached out to me, she was my biggest advocate. I can’t even tell you. I love her. I affectionately call her my white mother. She gave me the best human best advice, which I tell people all the time is if you listen to the voices outside your head, they will become the voices in your head.

You create the voices in your head. So come

Sandra Pagenta: on. I like

Tammi Boswell: that line. That is [00:25:00] so good because I had got in my head with this other manager said, and it was hard because I grew as a clinician as I grew as a person. Because I didn’t, and now I. I honestly, when I see this individual who wasn’t my fan still probably isn’t, but she’s still at this institution and still a man, a coordinator of NPS at our main children’s hospital.

I honestly wanna thank her. And I don’t mean this being sarcastically I mean that sincerely because her. Lack of support is what drove me to where I am today because I have some of the best hospitals in the country that people come from all over asking me to come back to come back medical director. I love where I am today. I have no regrets, [00:26:00] zero. Regrets about my past. I mean, I would tell the, then Tammy, that girl, you have no idea what your future is ahead. There are tons of people out there who want you not just to fill a position, but because they see your worth, they see your worth.

Sandra Pagenta: And that typically is kind of the last question that I ask is a piece of advice you would give back to your younger self to hold onto, and then a piece of advice to toss, because again, kind of in that state of. Okay. Wish what do I wish I would’ve known?

What do I wish I, would’ve not listened to? You’ve kind of answered that question about, I wish that I would’ve told my younger self, like it’s gonna be okay. Like, and I love how you describe that. Nothing happened on accident, everything that was meant for you came to you throughout your career. And I wanted my listeners to know that since you do locums, right, and you’re not kind of [00:27:00] at the mercy of one hospital, How’s your pay because I, I really want a little more pay transparency for nurse practitioners.

Right. And that may make people uncomfortable. So you don’t have to say numbers, but it would be nice to know, like, okay, no working my schedule as a locum, I’m making more, less, or the same

Tammi Boswell: If someone offers me 95 an hour, they’re kind of low balling me. And I determine what the acuity is of the NICU that I’m working in for a low ACU. No, no, I. You’re no, I’m not. You’re kidding me. That’s low balling me. That’s low.

That’s a little low ball. That’s low balling you

Sandra Pagenta: $95 an hour.

No. Okay. Full transparency. I make $52 an hour.

Tammi Boswell: No, mm-hmm no, that’s insane. You make almost double. No, what I make, but like I said, an hour, that’s insane. let’s just say $90 an hour, that’s incredible. You still have to take my [00:28:00] taxes out.

Okay. My husband always says, and my husband is very much. My husband is a CCP of former CPA. He is a project manager. He has a very, oh wow. Extensive background. I know if nothing else I keep, I like your husband. Yeah.

Even if you are getting paid more than what you want at home, just a little bit, let’s just say just $10 more. What is your time worth? You’re not asking anyone for PTO. You’re scheduling yourself. You’re not involved in any of the unit politics. You, he says you think of yourself as Basically a hired Hitman. You come in, you get the job done. You. You’re in, you do the job. You’re mercenary, that’s it? You’re not going to staff meetings. You’re getting your time back. That your time is valuable, Tammy. He says that all the time and people don’t think about that.

Sandra Pagenta: You need [00:29:00] someone in your corner reminding you of these things as you pursue things that might be not the norm or a little more uncomfortable. I mean, it’s not comfortable to travel.

Tammi Boswell: I want people to know if you are considering locums as a nurse practitioner, you know, first off, yes. You’re gonna be away from home and that’s something you need to, it’s uncomfortable to go to a new hospital, learn a new. EMR to be in a new setting, learn new policies.

I always tell people don’t even worry. So much about the policy, worry about your clinical practice, cuz trust me, the nurses are gonna tell you you’re doing it wrong and it’ll be easy for you to figure out. The thing that I remember yeah, most is yes. I’m away not sleeping in my bed. I still have tons of, I have as my travel person at the staffing company, cuz they book all my flights.

She was like, honey, you can literally buy every seat on the plane and that’s not an understatement. She said, and you would still have points left.

Do you get to pick your [00:30:00] hotels? Yeah. You get to pick your hotels. You can, if, if there’s one close by, so if you’re like Hilton

Sandra Pagenta: only baby, that’s

Tammi Boswell: all I say. The only one that they talk to is Mart. Only because Marriott, yeah, you still get the points Mart. You have to present a card as it’s of checkin.

And they won’t, my company doesn’t do that. They pay prepay Hilton will do that, but if I wanna stay at Marriott I can stay at Marriott, pay for it and then submit it. And then they give me the money back. Yeah. They pay for my rent car. The only thing I have to pay for the rent car is the gas. What they even paid for my tolls.

Sandra Pagenta: What about like food and like what they do,

Tammi Boswell: they’ll give you, like, they give you stipend dinner voucher every day you work, like, you know, you get $20 or whatever, $20 for the day.

Sandra Pagenta: How many days out there do you do, like in a certain city?

Tammi Boswell: Could end up being like six days or five and a half days.

[00:31:00] Cuz I gotta fly out there the day before then I work, you know, Three four days. And if I don’t fly back the travel into that fourth day, that night, if there’s not a flight, depending on what time I, my shift is over, then I have to fly back first thing that morning. So I keep all that in mind, cuz again, I don’t want to, the money is fantastic.

Sandra Pagenta: And that =Is the doctor nurse podcast. It’s all about creating the life that you want. Cuz so many nurses are burned out and tired and exhausted and they think. I’ve gotta just keep sitting at this table and eating this food. There’s no other options for me. And I’m like, oh no, we’re we, we have a buffet, like, go put that plate back, go get you another plate.

Like, cuz there’s too many options. You shouldn’t be unhappy. And if you are, you just need to move yourself because there’s just so many things you can do. And. This is again, another one I’ve had another locums nurse practitioner on and she [00:32:00] again said a very similar thing. I feel like I work for myself and a lot of the things that she was describing, you know, you’ve also touched on that.

You’ve gotta be a little more proactive with certain things that you typically kind of leave on autopilot and you don’t really pay attention to. But I think when you’re invested in how you’re investing your money, when you’re invested in, okay, so how much taxes am I paying? And you start to see these numbers.

It’s kind like it doesn’t just come outta your paycheck and you’re asleep. You’re like, I pay what in taxes. We need

Tammi Boswell: get somebody in office. It’s too much. You what? I’m start to different decisions

Sandra Pagenta: differently. You are managing this stuff by yourself. And so it’s not a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing. It’s the smart thing to do because you’re totally aware of what’s going in and out. you’re managing your life more so than just letting it kind of just happen on its own. So I actually kind of like what you’re describing.

If I didn’t have a baby, I would probably be travel nursing right now because it just seems like such an incredible thing. My husband [00:33:00] works from home too, so it’s like he could just pick up and go. We could go someplace every week and be someplace new and be traveling. Cuz it’s so wonderful. But I think for children, they.

A level of stability and I don’t wanna be away from him anymore than I have to be. So that might not be the thing for new moms or moms of littles, but it might be a thing for moms that right. Are their kids are a little bit older. And so it’s like, whatever exactly could do locums here or there. And I’ve been reached out to do locums urology because there’s just not a lot of neurology nurse practitioner.

Tammi Boswell: , it was hard enough. Believe me going to school when, when they were all so little, because I was gone so much.

And wow. But I don’t, I don’t know if I could do it. I probably could do it a little bit when they were little But not at the extent that I’m doing it now. Cause I wouldn’t wanna be away from them that much. But, but yeah. So I personally encourage everyone who is thinking about nurse practitioners to reach out to a nurse practitioner and a specialty that you’re interested in. Even [00:34:00] if you’re not quite sure If that’s what you wanna do, because I am a huge, huge advocate of mentorship. Because there were so many good ones that were, there are so many good ones out there. And I had two amazing ones.

So I would not be doing them justice because they reached out to me and they helped me and listen, I I’m getting older every day. We all are. I’m not gonna be doing this forever. so I need more NPS and I’m especially trying to get more nurse practitioners in general of color and whatever, especially obviously I have a.

Key interest in neonatal nurse practitioner and anything for that matter maternal health. But I want more people to consider their options. Don’t feel like you’re trapped. You never know, unless you try and for goodness sakes for goodness sakes, do not let people guilt you into burning yourself out on something.

That [00:35:00] you love, and if you love it and you get burned out on it, I promise you. You’re not gonna like it. I’ve been doing this for 30 years now. And believe me when I say and people always say 30 years. Oh my gosh, please. No one say that. That people who loved it, that I worked with and burnt themselves out.

And now they’re not even in nursing. including neonatal nurse practitioners, NPS.

Sandra Pagenta: You burn yourself out to the point where you leave something that you love and that’s how you protect. I think that you protect yourself from burnout by listening to yourself and determining I’m not happy at this place. Cause there’s the trifecta, right? Like there’s the right boss, the right job at the right time in your life.

Right. And so if you are somewhere out of line on that trifecta, It’s not gonna work like the job, isn’t gonna be perfect. You want all of them to be aligned. And so it can be the right job, right. Be, have a really bad boss. Kind of like the story you were describing before. It was like, this woman just didn’t like you and you were like, I don’t [00:36:00] understand.

And so this other person came in and then you were in the right job with the right boss at the right time. Boom. You were happy. And so again, if you are okay, that sounds really cool. That sounds like a really cool job. It’s the, the boss sounds great. Absolutely. But I’m a mom of a little and can’t do that.

So now there’s a misalignment, you know what I’m saying? So you have to be at that right. Sweet spot

Tammi Boswell: your life, isn’t working for your job or profession, and that’s where people get confused. And now I’m a little bit older, a little bit wiser, and I know if it don’t work for my life, then we can’t work together.

And if you keep that perspective in your mind and you learn to use the word no, when appropriate, you’ll be okay. hundred percent. Yes. You have to, you have to your work and your profession has to work for your life. We can’t [00:37:00] focus on your kids. You know, we can’t make every event that your children are in, or yeah. That someone on a special event that your loved one has I. But you shouldn’t feel that you are missing everything or you are so exhausted. You can’t participate in anything outside of work so that that’s not good.

Sandra Pagenta: That’s really good, Tammy. . Finding that work life balance by listening to your heart and realizing, and knowing that the truth of nursing that we want to plant today is no one happens.

You have options. There is an abundance of opportunities. Do not. Let yourself be miserable and burnout from a career that you love. Don’t let it happen. You have to, you have to protect that you have to protect your piece. You have to protect what you love. And if a job is taking you and making you not love something that, you know, you love, Nope.

Then it’s time to go. No, it’s time to go do something else because I love this. And I know that I do. [00:38:00] So this must not be okay in that triangle for my life right now. All right. So I gotta. Because it’s not lining up

Thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing your story,