DNP Ep. 55: The Journey of the Dermatology NP Coach

Sandra Pagenta: Hi, Dr. Delgado. Thank you so much for coming onto the Dr. Nurse podcast today.

Patricia Deladgo: I’m so happy to have you on thank you so much for having me, Dr. Pagenta.

Sandra Pagenta: I cannot wait to hear about your journey through dermatology, to now your coaching business. Again, can you start us off by telling my audience what it is that you do for a living exactly.

And kind of how you see yourself as you’re making a living in your nursing career.

Patricia Deladgo: I am currently a dermatology certified nurse practitioner, so I do work in a dermatology clinic. I’ve been working in dermatology for seven years, since I graduated as a nurse practitioner in this particular clinic that I’ve been at for almost three years, I also do work in research and the research is dermatology psychiatry, fibromyalgia migraines.

So we do a little bit of everything in the research side, but my focus is definitely within the clinical dermatology side.

Sandra Pagenta: That D N P is probably really helpful as you’re [00:01:00] starting to kind of go into the research side of things. I got such a bug in my spirit during my D N P mm-hmm about research that I hadn’t had while getting my master’s degree.

It was very strange. Like research was kind of annoying in my master’s, but I walked away from my doctorate just being., those nurses are kind of awesome at like what they’re doing. What research are you involved in? I’m just interested.

Patricia Deladgo:  So my current research is I like it’s clinical trials, like actual clinical trials, but I find it interesting what you’re saying about when you’re in your masters and kind of the difference between the masters and the DNP.

Actually, when I applied for the master’s program at the time, I think it was 2013, they had changed the programs instead of being RN to MSN, it was RN to DNP. So I was like, well, I guess I have to go for DNP, cuz I really wanted to go to UCF and that’s all they had at the time. Then in the middle of it, I guess they realized maybe it was a bad idea.

So they switched it back to allowing people to graduate with their masters. [00:02:00] And I was like, well, you know what? I’ve already started, you know, getting ahead on the DNP classes. So let me just continue this path. And as I entered the actual DNP portion, it’s just like you said, I was like, I was starting to get the bug and.

They start actually showing you how to implement a practice improvement project. I was working in dermatology. I was actually able to implement an entire project in the practice and see it and collect data. And you, you sort of finish like, whoa, I did that. And you present your project and you, you get the DNP, but it’s not just, okay.

Now I’m Dr. Delgado. It’s more like I was able to improve this clinic for my physician, for the practice owner. This is who I am now. And so now I feel like I can go somewhere and if I see something that needs to change, I can, I can do it.

Sandra Pagenta: So, in case that is in case, yeah, that is still said, I do recommend it.

We really are that gap between getting the research into clinical practice. I think I read somewhere that it takes, what is [00:03:00] it? 20 years? There’s some number of years from the time that something is. Found and research for it to reach clinical practice.

I’ll link the actual research that it actually shows that there’s this long gap between figuring out that hand washing can save lives until we actually start doing hand washing.

Right. And so there was this huge gap, but nurse practitioners being involved in. And then also being by the bedside, being that clinical, you know, specialty, we’re able to close those gaps with the DNP. And I really think when they market it that way, it really has big benefits and you’re getting to directly use it in your practice, which is so cool.

So cool. I just think that’s like totally like the holy grail of the DNP and really getting to see that those changes in people’s lives in your clinical practice and know that you’re making a really big difference. That’s just so cool. So, and then, so you also do a little side, a little [00:04:00] side hustle, a little, a little Dr.

Delgado, her own thing. So what she got on the side.

Patricia Deladgo: So what I got on the side, so. You know, just a little bit of background before I became a nurse practitioner. I worked for five years in critical care and especially the three and a half years in, in ICU, I actually feel like I got burnt out. I definitely was going through that and really was kind of counting down.

I remember the day I got. Except it’s the program. I was like, yes. You know, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I was reading about some of the other guests that you’ve had and I listened to a couple of them about burnout and you know, it is psychologically draining it, everything that you go to with patients with the family, especially in intensive care, your coworkers sometimes the, the physicians don’t always act, you know, appropriately and, and it takes a toll on you.

So I was really kind. thinking about what I wanted to do as a nurse practitioner. I knew I did not wanna come back to the hospital, but I love teaching and I [00:05:00] love I love that aha moment when I worked in PCU, which is stepped down, I loved, you know, talking to patients about their medications and during discharge and that feel.

And that, that look when they’re like, wait, you’re telling me I’m supposed to keep taking my hypertension medications. Even if my blood pressure’s normal. And I said, yes. And I’m like, whoa.

Sandra Pagenta: And it’s like, that’s why you’re here.

Patricia Deladgo: Oh my gosh. So, you know, it’s just a great feeling to like, okay, maybe now they’ll be able to stay out of the hospital.

And so that’s one of the reasons why I was like, I wanna help people stay out of the hospital. But dermatology, I was, I had heard the dermatology like, oh, it’s, it’s a fun fun specialty. Like the hours are good. And the pay, the pay is good, you know, quotations. And I was like, well, I don’t wanna do something just because hours are good and pay.

So I wanted to explore it. So in my program, I was able to do some hours in dermatology and, yeah, and it’s funny because I wanted to do a whole rotation in dermatology, but because I, I had I [00:06:00] received a grant when I was in school for primary care for the underserved. They wanted me to do some of my hours at a volunteer clinic in primary care.

Great, which is totally fine. Cause a lot of it is also dermatology, but I was able to split some hours in dermatology and that’s where I really discovered how much I love it. I loved teaching people about their skin. I love how relevant skincare is. You know, it’s just about anyone you talk to. They’re like, oh dermatology.

So like I’ve got this thing or, oh my gosh. Wrinkled or, oh my gosh. Like my toe has this microphone. Yeah. It’s really interesting when you’re. You know, and like I’ve literally had audiences. So tell me what is Botox. Exactly. You know, just educating people, but But, yeah. So I had heard though that dermatology was really hard to get into.

So after I did my clinicals, I was like, okay, well that was really cool. You know, that was fun, but I wasn’t, I’ve never been someone that’s like, that’s what I wanna do for sure. Like that’s specialty, just cuz in nursing and in healthcare, there’s so many ways you [00:07:00] can help people. So, so like exploring different jobs and it just so happened that when I graduated from the, from my nurse practitioner program, The clinic where I had done my clinical hours, they needed somebody for this office that they had opened up previously.

And the patient load was starting to ramp up, like just right. And it happened to be a, a very Hispanic area. And, and the physician was like, cuz my my preceptor told me this story. She said, yeah, we were sitting there and he was trying to decide who he was gonna hire. And he said, gosh, who knows rheumatology, who knows the practice and can speak Spanish?

Like what nurse practitioner could that be? And my preceptor was like hello, Patricia was just here. And she was doing everything for me. And he’s like, oh yeah. And he texted me and literally. Hey, you know, we need somebody and if you wanna get the job, I’m gonna meet me and we’ll talk about it. And, and it’s yours if you want it.[00:08:00]

So fantastic. It worked out. Yeah. And when I started it, I was just like, this is amazing. I was. I love it. I love the setting. I love the specialty.

Sandra Pagenta: Did that inspire you to create your side hustle?

Patricia Deladgo:  So, so yes it did the fact that I loved it so much and I just felt so happy and fulfilled.

And then I. I had people reach out to me. Sometimes I was the president and founder of the Florida chapter of the dermatology nurse association. So with that sort of title, anytime anyone emailed the national DNA and was like, Hey, I’m in Florida. And I’m interested in dermatology. They would sort of just like shepherd them to me.

To answer their questions to give them advice. I had an RN come shadow me for a day, you know, just do a job shadow. And I was like, yeah. And something else I noticed was sometimes, actually one of the RNs I said, oh, so what attracted you to dermatology? She said Dr. Pimple popper. I love it.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh, all. It’s the YouTuber, right?

Patricia Deladgo: Yeah. Funny. Dermatology, it can be anything that you want it to be. You can sort of evolve your career. You know, you can focus on aesthetics, you can do more surgeries as she does. You can see more medical. You can even if you want to like, kind of specialize in certain conditions and then people in your practice just sort of know that you’re that person.

But I was, I was kind of excited to show her like, Hey, This practice, isn’t all popping pimples. There’s a lot more pathology than just, you know, extracting cysts and like squeezing ’em and watching the stuff go everywhere.

Sandra Pagenta: You decided to launch a coaching business, teaching nurses and nurse practitioners. Mm-hmm, how to get started in dermatology, because it seemed like the feedback you were getting was, it was so hard to get into these jobs.

Patricia Deladgo: Mm-hmm . Right. Yes. Yes. It seemed like, yeah, everyone wants [00:10:00] to get into dermatology.

And honestly, that was something that I was even in dermatology. I was finding not only nurse practitioners and nurses, but I’ve also helped coach PPA and PA students. Oh. Because a lot of our medical assistants were. They were college graduates that were planning to go into PA school with the hope of yeah.

Eventually working in dermatology. So of course they wanna get their patient experience hours at a dermatology clinic. So I would help them and coach them letters of recommendation, cetera. All the different ways that I was approached about it. I decided to come up with my coaching business.

So I have different tiers to it. Right now. I have three, the first tier it’s called der mentor. It includes two 30 minute coaching sessions, which can be spaced out either weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the person’s needs or. Where they are in their career. So for example, I have clients that have just graduated from their programs and they’re ready to hit the ground [00:11:00] running. I offer the CV and resume proofreading and maximizing for dermatology jobs, there are certain skills that you’ll wanna highlight, and there are certain skills or experiences that sometimes I’ve had. Nurses tell me that they’ve done. And they’re like, oh yeah, I left that off because it’s not important. And I said, no, put that back on. It’s so important. And you know, that’s good. And I’ll tell them why I’ll explain why.

And then you write it in the resume or in the CV that certain way, where it highlights, how or why it’s important. So I help with that cover letter assistance strategies for job searching. So in dermatology, again, also a little bit different mm-hmm , if anyone wants to publish, I can assist with that assistance with finding preceptors networking.

I have some discounts to some dermatology courses through the DNA and other ones with my certification. If the person’s in a DNP program. I can help with that as well. I can give ideas for projects, practice improvement projects. I had a client [00:12:00] recently. She was telling me, well, if I don’t get a clinical rotation in dermatology, how am I supposed to do a project?

And I said, girl, like , 90% of patients in primary care, have a. On their skin, hair or nails. Yeah. So there are ways that you can implement or, you know, come up with a project in a primary care clinic. That’s good. That actually still has to do with dermatology and improving practice in a primary care clinic for dermatology patients.

Sandra Pagenta: So that’s tier one and then tier two and tier three. Yep. So it’s just more of that. Just increased frequency. Exactly.

Patricia Deladgo: So it’s more of that. It’s three calls instead of two, the, yeah, the second tier is definitely there’s. I will offer you contacts, the pharmaceutical reps.

You’ll get invited to dinners where you can meet other PAs and in PEs you’ll meet physician. That’s great psychology. Cause honestly,

Sandra Pagenta: For me, your net is your net worth, right?

Patricia Deladgo: No. You know, and I kind of, yeah, [00:13:00] love being that person that once you’re with me, I open the doors for you.

Full transparency. I don’t inject filler very often. Like I’m not a filler expert, but I know people that are filler experts. I know people that work in different practices in the state, different practices in the country. , if you have a question about someone I can kind of, you know, connect you with those people.

With the pharmaceutical reps with recruiters how. To attend a conference, the best conferences to actually attend. Cuz there are so many dermatology conferences, but some of ’em if you’re on a budget it’s just not worth spending your money or your time there.

Yeah. Or if you’re still in your nurse practitioner program, you know, you gotta focus on just getting through the program, but there’s certain conferences that if you put that on your resume, that you participated in these, that you did these workshops that you’ve got hands on experience. It’s gonna look really good.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. Agree. You know, one of the things that I describe in my podcast. All the time. And one of the things I advocate for nurses to do is to [00:14:00] utilize their knowledge base, to create something that they can improve the lives of other nurses and nurse practitioners or their patients, and to be able to generate extra revenues.

You’re not just dependent on your job solely to bring in income. And what I love about what you’ve developed here is that you’ve actually been able to just leverage what you are already doing. Leverage your network leverage the work that you’ve been doing and you’re using it to now help other people close gaps quicker, get in the door faster and to

prepare themselves for their dream jobs. And all you’ve done is just been like, I’ll just take all the stuff I know and make something, and then I’m gonna just sell it to people. And again, people want that, that experience because again, Your network is your net worth. And so being able to get in and, and talk to people and Hey, listen, I’m looking for this job.

What do you know? And, oh, we got a part-time position here and we can get you in here. Oh. It just really allows you a, a level of flexibility that I [00:15:00] think, and a level of access that I think is, is worth paying for is worth having, The person in your corner that kind of looks out for you. ,I don’t see anything wrong with what you’ve done at monetizing this being able to sell it. And again, if, as long as you do good work, you’re serving people. Why shouldn’t you get paid for that? There’s just so much stigma, like, oh, you should do stuff for free.

It’s like why you don’t expect other people to do things for free? Why should I do this for free? You’ve discovered a niche. You discovered something that was missing, that the help that people need to kind of get this part of their career off the ground.

Has it always been roses for you or have you had some challenges along the way that have made you think along the journey Dr. Delgado, this is it. You’re not making it or you.

Or has there been a moment that you’ve had to kind of overcome a challenge to kind of get you to where you are today?

Patricia Deladgo: So you actually mentioned one of the biggest challenges and it’s kind of thinking to yourself, you know, like, is it wrong to charge people?

Like I helped so many before I actually created the coaching business. I told you about as the president of the Florida DNA, a lot of people reached out to me. I’d have people shadow me, you know, and I’d share my contacts. I’d get people invited to dinners without, and, and I would take the time to email people for them and, and do the research and do the work.

I was spending a lot of time. And, and then also part of me is like, am I really an expert at this? You know, so there’s a little bit of imposter for yeah. Cause sure. When you’re only a nurse practitioner for a couple years or maybe four years. Yeah. Like when is it O appropriate or okay. To, to [00:18:00] say that, well, I’m an expert at this and so I can teach you about this.

So, you know, if the first hurdle is realizing that, okay, I think I’m comfortable enough to become a preceptor now. And I was excited for that because. You know, I wanted to give back, you know, one of my first inspirations and mentors was my preceptor in dermatology who was gracious enough to take me as a student, cuz she actually told me afterwards, she was like, I don’t really she’s like, I don’t normally take students, but we run a dance team together and she said, but you know, I don’t know if she liked the way salsa dance, what, but he accepted dance.

Patricia Deladgo: So preceptor had like some family problems and emailed me the first week of that final semester and said she couldn’t do it. Oh my gosh. So it was a challenge, you know, realizing that it’s number one, I’m, I’m ready to, to monetize this and two that it’s okay to monetize it. And I actually hired my own business coach because I’m somebody who needs accountability, for sure.

Like, I need [00:19:00] deadlines. I need, you know, someone to make sure that I complete things. So I have my own coach and I thought, well, if star athletes have coaches, it makes sense for us to have coaches too, for the things that

Sandra Pagenta: we’re passionate about for things that we wanna like tiger woods has a coach.

It’s like exactly, Tiger’s got a coach. We all need a coach. He’s top of his game and he’s got someone that’s helping him make his game stronger. You’re helping nurse practitioners make their game stronger. To get to where they wanna be. This feeling that a lot of nurse practitioners have? I think it’s cuz we are in this, this mindset that we are. Just supposed to give from the bottom of our hearts, it’s kind of taught to us in school, empathy and all these things.

There’s also the money side of things. Like there’s also my time and my time is limited. My time is valuable. And so if I am extending these services, which you did for free for however long you did it for, which is the same for me, I’ve done things [00:20:00] for free. And I just give it away, give it away, but eventually you’ve gotta go.

This is worth something. And. I’m valuable, like what I’m bringing to the table. And so many nurse practitioners don’t realize that, that, that gap between, I don’t know what I’m doing to what I’m doing. And I’m also pretty good at what I’m doing might be shorter than you think it is. And again, We’re always gonna be learning.

So as long as you’re always learning and you’re always in that state of learning, even if you’re like, okay, so I don’t know everything, but I do know something. So just figure those things out, start writing them down, start figuring out what am I really good at? What are the things that Excel in that I could be an expert in and then begin to figure out how you can monetize that.

Because this thing in between your two ears is one of the most powerful ways of generating money. And when you read all these business books, they say that all the time, that your ability to create and to dream and to pull things from that space and put it on paper and create a business around it. [00:21:00] Is what America was founded on.

It’s the pursuit of happiness. It’s all the things that I think are America. It makes us right. Just so blessed to live here and to work here and more of us need to be tapping into what it is that we know and figure out how we can help people. But also monetize that there’s nothing wrong with that. And I wanna normalize that more and more.

Cause I think there’s just this undertone of like, no, you should do it for free. It is something that everyone has to overcome at some point. And so I think that that challenge is very normal and very relatable. How would you say if you had to give one tip to my listener to overcome that fear? Cause what if somebody’s not exact same boat and they’re just like, okay.

Yeah, I’m kind of where she is. Like, I feel like I know this really well, but like. I mean, how can I ask somebody to pay me for this? Like, what is a tip that you had to kind of give yourself besides getting, hiring a business coach and things like that, what did you do to overcome it?

Patricia Deladgo: So I’ve read a couple of like [00:22:00] really fun, inspirational books that, you talk about ways to.

Give back to the world and give back to people it’s all in here. Like it’s all in our, in our creativity, in our minds, in our own experiences, cuz sometimes people think, well like who am I to, to do this? Because there’s that PA over there and there’s this nurse practitioner over here, but it’s what makes you unique?

You know, it’s like, cuz honestly like. I, and I feel like sometimes maybe people are competitive with things, but it’s like, there’s no need to be. There’s so many people that, that could use your help with whatever it is. And you ask yourself, what do people come to me for? Like, what is it that I have, or that I do for people that maybe they don’t usually approach other people for.

So you kind of take that and realize that, well, they’re coming to me for this. Not, not that person, so that’s something special and unique that you can offer.

Sandra Pagenta: There’s only one Patricia Delgado on the planet. [00:23:00] There’s only one Sandra PTA on the planet.

There’s only one of us. Right. And so you owe it to yourself and you owe it to the world to be the fullest of Patricia Delgado. And I owe it to the world to be the fullest of Sandra PTA and whatever that looks like for either one of us. Again, we all have our priorities. We have are what I like to call my core values.

The things that I can’t deviate from because it would be untrue to myself. Right. And then outside of that, we get to how we influence the world and how we impact others. , you owe it to the world to do you, because only you can do you. And when your life ends at the end of your life, do you wanna be sitting there thinking.

I didn’t do that because I didn’t think I knew enough or I didn’t think I was good enough and I didn’t give it a shot. more nurses and nurse practitioners need to step into that space and just go . I’m here to make an impact the way that I can make an impact that you can’t, because you’re not me.

And so I’m not gonna be for everybody. People are gonna listen to my [00:24:00] podcast and just be like, Ugh, she’s the worst. And that’s fine. I’m not for you, but there are people that will hear it and they’ll see it and they’ll go, you know what? She’s, she’s speaking to me. I feel like I know Sandra.

I feel like I understand her and that’s who I’m for and four. You’re only gonna be for the people that you’re meant to be for. And when you find your group, you find your tribe. How beautiful is that? You’re just like, this is where I belong. Yes. That’s what I’ve been searching for.

You’ve described some people along your path that you felt like were mentors, people that kind of reached out to you? what would you say has been anyone that’s come along your path to really kind of help you on this journey? One of the things I’ve found is that nurses really don’t do a good job at mentoring one another.

I think we tend to kind of going back to what you say, compete with one another. Maybe it’s like girl games. I don’t know. But I think it’s really wrong because if we are. Actually looking out for one another. What we find is as Dr. Delgado excels in her career, and by having a relationship with you and having you at my network, I can [00:25:00] actually get to places that I would like to be. If that’s something that I wanted. Have you had that or has this just been something that you’ve been building kind of all on your own without very, very much me.

Patricia Deladgo: One of my biggest inspirations is my brother. I think I was in my nurse practitioner program, maybe just starting.

And it’s funny because this isn’t even about healthcare. This is about dance. Oh, he’s like, Hey, what are you doing? He lives in New York city. And he said, what are you doing? Are you, are you, are you drawing? Because he knows that I used to draw a lot.

I, I have a little bit of artistic flair. I’m like, no, he’s like, are you painting? Are you, are you dancing? Cause cuz you left to dance. I was like, yeah, I’ve been dancing a little bit. And I was thinking about joining the dance team, but I don’t know. I’m not sure. He’s like, just do it, you know, go out there and do it, Patricia, you know, love your brother can happen.

What’s the best that can happen. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, are you like, what if I’m not good enough? And he’s like, it doesn’t matter when you just go there, you put yourself out there, you you’re just putting yourself outside [00:26:00] your comfort zone. Just that’s gonna help you grow Patricia. And you don’t know who you’re gonna meet.

And he, you know, told me some story about someone he met and this great connection. I was like, okay. All right. So he like really kind of pushed me and I was, I felt very invigorated. And I was like, no, I’m gonna do it.

I’m gonna join the dance team. And I did. It was a wonderful experience and low and behold, that’s how I met the nurse practitioner in dermatology. That’s right. That’s right. And he had told me, he’s like, you know, all these connections that you make. I made wonderful friends, you know, not just her, but I made great friends.

I became a better dancer. I fell in love with it even more. The nurse practitioner, that was my first preceptor. She was a mentor in her knowledge and in her patients with me and providing resources for me Then moving along.

My advisor for my DNP project was also very inspirational. I actually kinda had two cuz one, one on the sabbatical in the middle. So like they both one was like a total cheerleader and was like, you got this, come on, you’re doing great. Like just, you know, work on this one piece. [00:27:00] You’re it’s gonna, it’s gonna work out.

And then the other one really helped me kind of hone in on my actual topic. and I told her I really wanted to graduate on this in this one specific semester. And I, I was like, am I gonna finish in time? What do you think? And she’s like, yes. Like she helped me really like hammer things out, time, everything properly.

both of them were very inspirational in my journey. And currently I have another mentor who I met at this most recent practice, and she’s been a knowledge mentor, self-esteem mentor, just someone that I can vent to. And. Is just one of the most knowledgeable healthcare providers I’ve ever met.

Sandra Pagenta: Wow. Is this an MD or is this an nurse practitioner?

Patricia Deladgo: She’s an MD. Yeah. And she’s like the dermatology slash rheumatology.

Sandra Pagenta: Rheumatologists are so smart. She’s amazing.

Patricia Deladgo: Ah, yeah. Rheumatologists will text her to like

Sandra Pagenta: ask her question. Like the one that the rheumatologist call.

Yeah. Rheumatologists are [00:28:00] like smartest people. I don’t know how they figure out all the stuff they do, but. Yeah. It’s a very

Patricia Deladgo: complicated, special. Yes. I mean, everything’s pretty complicated in fact, and my new like discoveries, I feel like psychiatry because

Sandra Pagenta: people are complicated. Yeah. Cause you’re getting your psych, you’re getting your psych degree, right.

You’re doing a, a postmasters. Yeah. The certification I saw that. Yeah. Yeah.

Patricia Deladgo: But yeah. So, and she actually used to work in a room derm clinic. And then prior to that, she did her residency in a room D psych. Kind of, like she said, they were all kind of next to each other. So the patient would go to one then to the other and to the other.

And I said, that’s how healthcare should be. You know, because I feel like our mind kind of affects us in every way in the way that our diseases express themselves in the way that we manage our own diseases, our perceptions of our diseases and our conditions. So, so yeah, I thought that was really cool.

Really interesting. Yeah. And it’s good exposure. And she, and she’s a big supporter of [00:29:00] advanced practice providers, which I love.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. She sounds like she’s a really neat person and that she’s a good resource to just go to and you need like a friend, she just sounds like a friend that you can go to and talk to and bounce ideas off of. We don’t realize that when we impact others and we are open to affecting their lives and improving their lives. What ends up happening is they go places and they tell people about what you’re doing to change their life. It’s this thought that if we hoard our information, then nobody else can use it.

But when we realize, when we give away what we know and we share what we know, what we end up doing is we end up elevating ourselves. Despite the fact that we’re concerned, we’re gonna fall. We’re like, oh no. If I tell people what I know that I won’t be the smartest person in the room. But what you find is that other people around you.

This person’s incredible. Yeah. You just walk up to them and they’re able to tell you whatever they know and they’re able to spill over. And so you then become this person that people elevate as you begin to just pour out of [00:30:00] yourself and you’re thinking, oh, I’m gonna pour too much. It’s like you can’t it literally is this cup that you cannot.

Overfill, it will never bring you down. It will only lift you up. And that’s what I want nurses to hear over and over again is that you do not need to hoard this stuff. Yes. You do not need to have a scarcity mindset around the knowledge and the experiences that we have. We need to give this stuff away and by giving it away by sharing it with others.

What you end up doing is you end up changing people’s lives. You impact things for good. And you end up elevating yourself in a way that you did not realize that people would go onto a podcast and talk about you and say that this person has been so influential in my career. And what better of a legacy to leave on this earth than how we impact people? That’s the only thing that gets left on the planet is the impact that you have on others. When you go to people’s funerals, they talk. The moments, the memories, the times, the impact that you have, they don’t talk about, you know, all this other stuff that we think is important. Well, she [00:31:00] drove a Porsche, you know, 5 29.

I don’t even know if that’s a car and she had a 5,000 square foot house. We don’t care about that stuff. We care about the impact , and the difference that you make in others. That’s really what it’s all made of.

Patricia Deladgo: I don’t wanna call it a life hack, cuz I feel like it’s just kind of a thing it’s when you help people and you, you see them growing or like getting better because of something you did, it’s just such a great feeling and it does, it literally kinda lifts you up.

There’s a really awesome book that I had read is called who not how. And it was one of my favorites because sometimes,, we think about, and I’ll talk about the first time I ever published.

I knew I know myself and I can’t like I’ll sit down and start writing something and I won’t finish because I’ll tell myself I’ll finish it by Friday, but no, I need somebody to hold accountable. Yeah. So when I started at this practice, I E I had this topic I really wanted to write. I saw the other nurse practitioners that were in my practice that were DPS as well.

And I said, Hey, would you like to write this [00:32:00] article with me? You know, would you like to do this with me? And one of ’em was like super busy. She’s very involved and engaged. So I was like, totally get it. I wrote to another one, didn’t respond. So I wrote to someone else and she was like, Hey, that sounds great.

You know, let’s do this. So we like set a day to meet and we set deadlines and we did it. We actually wrote a paper together and it was the first time that I had published. And I was like, you know, using her, you know, Just use each other, right? Like our, each other’s accountability, each other’s writing skills, our experiences, and every time you work with someone, you kind of grow a little bit, you.

You extend yourself to them and they extend to you and together now she’s published as well. I think she was already published actually, and now I’m published. And so it’s like, it helps everyone. It’s wonderful. And now, you know, you just, you grow a little bit inside and sometimes you don’t even. Is how, or how it’s gonna affect you.

But, but it does. Yeah.

Sandra Pagenta: That’s really special. And again, I think it’s [00:33:00] interesting too, that you had to reach out to multiple people. Like somebody didn’t respond, which goes to show you like stay persistent. Don’t give up.

Patricia Deladgo: I love that those people that are like, Hey yeah, you know, I wanna support you. I think. Because they remember that we, we all started somewhere, you know, we, and that’s why I was eager to like, get that comfort to precept because I’ve heard people say that, oh, dermatology providers don’t really like to precept.

And I’m like, well, that’s not fair. You know? It’s oh, it’s really hard to find a dermatology preceptor. You know, so I wanna be that person that my preceptor was for me, you know, and my moment of like, ah, because my preceptor canceled on me, I wanna be that

Sandra Pagenta: salsa, dancing, salsa, dancing, dermatology connection for nurse practitioners.

Patricia Deladgo: I can, you know, for an added fee, I can also teach you to salsa dance.

Sandra Pagenta:  So little known fact about me. I actually am a pretty big salsa dancer as [00:34:00] well prior to getting married. I yeah, so my husband is pan of man, but he doesn’t dance salsa. I probably I everyone’s like you’re marrying a non insulted answer.

I’m like, he’s just a wonderful human. So I’m marrying cuz he’s a wonderful human. Despite the fact that he does advance salsa. But I used to go to conferences all over the state of Florida dancing salsa. Oh my gosh. Stay out to 2, 3, 4, 5 in the morning, dancing. My feet hurt. I’m pretty sure that bunion on my foot is because I’ve been in salsa shoes for God knows how long and walking barefoot back to my hotel room.

That’s amazing. Oh my gosh. I am. I. Love dancing, salsa. Chatta you know, Chacha. I love it all. It’s all beautiful. I totally feel your mutual love for salsa. And then for the last question of the podcast is what advice do you give for a nurse starting off that. She’s new.

She’s like, I don’t know what I do. I like Durham. That sounds really cool. Again, I heard great hours. Great pay. This sounds like something I might be interested in. If you could go back to Dr. Delgado, [00:35:00] fresh RN, what would you tell her? What’s a piece of advice that you would give her that you wish you would’ve known starting off in your career.

And so a piece of advice to keep and a piece of advice that you would say this is gage. Don’t listen to it.

Patricia Deladgo: My advice would be well since it’s little baby Delgado or little baby, Patricia, I would just go back and tell her everything’s gonna work out the way it’s supposed to trust the process. Tough things are gonna happen, but those are the things that are going to shape your future and guide you to what you’re truly passionate about.

Patricia Deladgo: Don’t listen to what people say, do what you do, what you’re passionate about. Yeah. If you wanna do something, set your mind to it and it’s gonna happen. And sometimes the route can be a little bit, you know, Weird or complicated exactly convoluted. But when you get there, all that path that you took is going to shape the provider that you [00:36:00] become.

Sandra Pagenta: On my episode with tax deed Wolf, he says success is not a linear. Path it’s like this like squiggly line of like, you know, and so,

Patricia Deladgo: yeah, it’s like up down sideways and then sometimes you like go down, but really down

Sandra Pagenta: is not down. It’s actually an up, it’s still progress. It’s the other thing, too, even though it might be going down, it’s still it’s sometimes.

Well, thanks for coming onto the podcast, Patricia, and sharing your journey and what you’re doing with your career. It. Incredible. Like I said, that you have found a niche and you’re trying to fill it with your knowledge and, and you are filling it and you are helping people get to their dream careers quicker.

So I love it.

Patricia Deladgo: Thank you, Sandra. Thank you for having me. It’s I, I like wanna keep talking. This was so much fun. Good.