DNP Ep. 92: NP Conference Highlight: Sunrise Dermatology & Procedure with Stephanie Simmerman, DNP

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Dr. Nurse podcast, fam. Welcome to another episode of the Dr. Nurse podcast. I am so excited to have on our next guest for today. Her name is Stephanie Simmerman. She is a BSN RN in 2007. She finished her DNP in 2012 and she is. Got most of her experience in working in dermatology as an RN and then also as an NP now.

And she, on her fun time, would likes to weight train, be outdoors, anything outdoors she likes. And she’s got two babies and she’s a wife and a mama and doing all the things that women do to keep work life balance. So. Welcome Stephanie to the podcast. I’m so excited to chat with you today about what you guys have got going on in your neck of the woods.

Dr. Simmerman: Thank you, Sandra. I appreciate you having me. This is such an honor and a privilege, and I couldn’t be more excited to be here today.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Oh yeah, man. Let’s dive in because we were talking before the podcast and I just, yeah, we’re just so aligned. I just feel super comfortable talking with you. So this is exciting.

Dr. Simmerman: Happy birthday, P.S.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Thank you! True mama fashion, working on your birthday. Celebrate yourself.

Dr. Simmerman: That’s so true. What are you doing? You’re spending your birthday with me?

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Love it. Hanging out with a nurse practitioner. Honestly, they’re my people, so I’m with my people today. It just feels wonderful. Well, thank you for having me.

Yes. So tell me a little bit again, how you see yourself, kind of what it is that you do doing day out on top of all the roles that you’ve got going on. Gotcha.

Dr. Simmerman: So I am a career working mama. I I’ve got a lot of focus right now. I’ve kind of taken a pivot over the last few years of my career of just kind of always thinking of myself as a clinician, a dermatology nurse practitioner.

Right. And just like this was my role and this is what I was doing. Three years ago, I just started to get the itch that there was something else out there. There was something that I could take from good to great. And so I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do and how I could incorporate the knowledge base that I’ve gained over the last 11 years of practice in dermatology and have really just kind of decided to lean in on some of my industry as resources to help me professionally grow and evolve as I move.

I’m trying to essentially evolve myself into more of a business clinician that has impact not only on patient care, but then also on decision making within an organization because it has such an impact on us that are taking care of

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: patients. Ooh, I like that. So you’re starting to kind of move from the individual trees to like the forest, like How do I?

Kind of get like more of a global picture and really affect change and a way that can actually trickle down to help the individual and piece. I love that. I absolutely said, yeah. So tell me a little bit about just kind of. What you guys are building on the side, you and Patricia reached out to me wanting to share something with my community and you were like, Hey, we’re building something kind of in that same vein, kind of tell me about what you’re building on the side here.

Dr. Simmerman: So I’m part of the Florida DNA chapter and we, the Florida DNA is the Florida Dermatology Nurses Association. Okay. And so we are the Florida chapter of the national organization, the Dermatology Nursing Association. And so we’ve been trying to grow this organization to grow not only NPs, but also be inclusive of our PA population, what we kind of lump together and call us APPs, Advanced Practice Providers.

And so we’re not this exclusive group where if you’re a PA, you can’t, you know, participate. We want strength in numbers. We want everybody involved. And so really our mission and goal here is to create a conference that’s a little bit different than everything else that’s out there, right? How do we set ourselves apart?

And so we have a restricted number of seats because we want to keep ours a little bit more intimate, if you will, like to have a boutique feel so it doesn’t feel as corporate and there’s hundreds of people and there’s so many that you just get lost amongst the crowd. Transcribed Unless you already know people or know how to network really well, because let’s be honest, a lot of people starting out are learning how to do these things.

And so what we’ve done is this is our second year of hosting the conference. We’ve kept it rather small so that we can have that real close knit, hands on intimate connection with people to where you remember people’s names and you get time with those that you’re looking to engage with, whether that’s us, whether that’s industry, you know, so many of the leaders within the Florida DNA.

They’re starting their own side hustle. They’re looking at starting their own practices. And so you’ve got this group full of primarily women but there are men also there that are just really challenging the narrative and really saying, Hey, you know, we’re resources. And if you have questions when you’re here, connect.

Interesting. Don’t be afraid.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: So it sounds like what you guys are trying to build is a community for other APPs that are wanting to create community, it sounds like that’s what you guys are trying to foster is like a community of nurse practitioners and PAs that are kind of trying to kind of trailblaze their own way, but then don’t feel like.

Like, where, where, where are my people, like the people that are trying to kind of create stuff for themselves. Is that kind of

Dr. Simmerman: like what I’m hearing? I do. And I think that that’s just something that naturally happened because the group of people that Patricia are, you know, president started to put together, have a real entrepreneurial spirit.

And so, you know, the goal was build the organization, build the conference, share education, help with networking. And then I think what a lot of us realize is Holy smokes, you have this group of leaders here that have. Another like set of skills and an ability to make impact in a different way. And I think that we’re now starting to really capitalize on some of those skills with whether it’s the presentations that we’re having or the demonstrations.

And so it, it, it really is kind of this culmination of a lot of things, but that I think we really add something to the table.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah, that’s really, really cool. And for someone that’s maybe not have that maybe doesn’t have the entrepreneurial spirit yet. Is this something that is for them as well?

Dr. Simmerman: Oh, I love that question.

Yes, I didn’t. I was the person that would go to a conference or Congress and I would take off my name badge and just go sit and listen to lectures, right? That was just never, it was never something that I thought I was going to do. I was raised, I have two incredible parents, so it’s not knocking my parents, but the way I was raised was very much, you work for the man.

Right. It’s safe. It’s secure. It’s comfortable. And, and that’s good. And you have a wonderful job and, you know, it was never to have that entrepreneurial spirit and drive. And I’ve noticed even my brother and I, as we’ve gotten older, we’re starting to challenge that a little bit. So I would say 100%, and I don’t like saying that, but it is absolutely for those people because it’s a part of it.

It’s not all of it. And you’ll never know that inspiration. You might walk away from the conference with the thing. Huh. That challenges my narrative. That challenges some of the things that I thought, right, would be for me the rest of my life, which is a clinician.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. You know what I’m thinking about too?

Even if you don’t have the entrepreneurial spirit, even if you’re just working as a dermatology nurse practitioner and you’re thinking, okay, what could I be gleaning by getting in a community, getting into these conferences with other nurse practitioners is, and, and PAs, you’re just going to be hearing ideas so that when you go back to work, you can start to maybe find gaps.

You can maybe start to go, Hey, listen, I’m actually really interested in this. Just in general. And so maybe I can just start while I’m here getting paid by the quote unquote man I can start to really perfect and hone in on these skills So that maybe eventually down the road if I do want to go off on my own I can work up underneath the tutelage of a physician or whoever, you know Another nurse practitioner or PA get really good at this and then maybe hone in on those skills and do them later It actually helps you begin With the end in mind, because if you’re able to be around people that are at a certain point in their careers where they were able to go, Hey, listen, I’ve worked this long and now this is what I’m moving towards. Hey, listen, like I always tell my husband, like when the, when the ship is going down, follow the rats, you know, like where’s everybody going? You know, like, where are you all going?

So that you can then go ahead and go. Maybe I am going to end up in that same spot at some point I might evolve into that. And so maybe I should start thinking about that now so I can maybe get, I can build something for myself eventually. And so. I think it’ll be super rewarding for someone to even just start to be in those spaces career wise so that you can grow as your life evolves.

Dr. Simmerman: Go ahead, what were you going to say? Thank you for letting me interrupt because I think it’s like you just saw into my soul, right, because this is so where and what and being strategic what I’ve tried to do, which is here is what my ultimate goal is, you know, my goal is to achieve what I’d like to within my organization, but the reality is that may or may not happen, right, for a number of reasons.

So I have to be able to pivot, but as I navigate this, maybe I’m not doing it step by step the way I thought I would, but each time an obstacle presents, It’s actually an opportunity and I’m not trying to sound like a self help talk right now, but I really have learned throughout the last couple of years because it was so deflating.

If something didn’t go the right way, we couldn’t get a meeting scheduled. I didn’t get the position I was hoping, right? That it’s like, wait a minute, something else presents. How did that then help me grow? So, well, one part of me may have been disappointed and hurt. I was growing another four or five parts of me, my public speaking ability, right?

My ability to feel more confident, you know, whatever it was. And your point about. I’m being paid by industry. So not only am I growing, it’s a side hustle. I am making money at it, right? And so it’s like, I’m not paying to go to these classes where people are teaching me. They’re teaching me and paying me for my time.

And then I’m getting to perfect it. As I’m working towards these other things.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s kind of going with the next question, which we’re talking about is like the benefits of conferences and why we do these conferences with other nurse practitioners. And we’ve talked a little bit about some of the benefits such as networking, you know, hearing about things that other people are doing, being able to just kind of sit and like, listen and absorb and learn.

But it just goes kind of go back to that and what you’re saying, like it allows. That processing that thinking that investment in yourself, which is the thing that when we do, you give yourself opportunities when you invest in yourself and conferences are an opportunity to do that investing in yourself.

So tell my listeners kind of what you and Patricia are building as far as a conferencing opportunity for dermatology and maybe dermatology interested nurse practitioners and because if you’re interested in dermatology. I noticed that it’s really hard to get into. So it’s kind of helpful if you know some people.

And so even if you’re like, I’m only kind of interested in dermatology, how, what’s kind of what you guys are launching and when, and yeah, kind of give you your stick.

Dr. Simmerman: Thank you. So I think that’s a really great part about our organization is that you can be Derm Naive and also join. This is new for like the masterclass, right?

So dermatology, we do have higher level. Lectures, but we also have very hands on things as well. And so we share best practice. What makes us a little bit different than others is, you know, we introduced a little bit of humor with like comedians there, right? So it’s not just a data dump for like eight or nine hours where you’re sitting there and you’ve just, you’ve lost me now because I’m exhausted.

And we’ve been sitting in this hard chair for hours on end. And so what we get to see are these workshops where your hands on last year, we did suturing workshops. This year, Dr. Resnick is coming out because he’s a supporter of APPs and wants to help educate, which is incredible. And so he’s going to be doing a HS, which is hydroadenitis supertiva.

It’s an inflammatory condition, right? But a lot of people don’t really know a lot about it is under the breath. Yeah. Growing. And so he’s coming out to help train, and this is a hands on, right experience. And because we’re smaller in volume, you can do these things that you don’t do at larger, bigger conferences without paying a steep price to go the day before to do workshops.

So this is all included in the like 99 fee for the conference. And so it really, really highlights how and why we’re different because a lot of people, you’re, you get a certain, you know continuing education. Right. Budget or allowance. Where do you want to spend it and how? And so it’s a really reasonably priced conference in a great location.

That that is different than the rest. Once you learn about what we’re offering in terms of hands on experience. Yeah,

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: I even think for like a primary care nurse practitioner, this is something that like this would be helpful. I mean, these are concepts and things you see in primary care that I mean, depending on your clinic and depending on if you’re an entrepreneur and you own your own primary practice, these are things that you could learn to treat.

And if you got decent at it, good at it, you could actually be treating them. Almost kind of like in a concierge medicine type way. And so it’s not just for Durham. Like you’re saying it could be for any nurse practitioner that’s going to be interested in that technique and learning certain things.

Dr. Simmerman: What do you think? Really? I wholeheartedly agree with you. I think that there is so much that we can offer. Because it’s not that master class that we talked about, right? So you can be a beginner, you can be not even in DERM, and you’ll learn something at this conference, and you won’t be so overwhelmed, you’re like, that was just a waste of my time and money.

I think you know, last year we had quite a few RNs that were there at the conference, and that I thought was pretty special, because these are people that are looking to get into, you know, dermatology as an RN, and that’s how I worked for my organization, and then went back to school. People who have, you know, you’re dealing with burnout in the hospital and fatigue and all those things.

And so you have a different time right now with the workforce. And so I think that not only are we at that NP level, but I think that there’s something for RNs as well.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. So tell me a little bit about how the conference is broken up. So it’s a full day conference and starting at what time ending at what time, like, who are some of the kind of the headliners?

I know you just kind of shared 1 with that physician that’s coming to talk about the, I can never say that.

Dr. Simmerman: Hydrodonitis. HS. Hydrodonitis superdiva.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yes, that right there. That. So what else do you guys have at this conference?

Dr. Simmerman: So I’m very blessed to be standing with a wonderful group of people. Some of the people that are there with me, we’ve got two PAs.

We’ve got Shanna Maranti and then Sarah Drew. They both work in my practice. And so they’re going to come up and do some lectures and Patricia Delgado.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yes. So she’s been on the podcast.

Love her. She’s so sweet. And she is super motivated in having other nurse practitioners and PAs grow their dermatology careers.

Dr. Simmerman: We’re going to start on Friday morning. We’re going to on October 20th, this is in St. Pete at the Hilton. And we’re going to start with a breakfast from 745 to 845 and then we’ve got a welcome speech.

And then we dive right into it with Keisha Cash, Dr. Cash doing a doc on atopic dermatitis. Now we’re going to do a product theater, which I’m speaking at for Arcutis on the topical psoriasis. Kristen Crump is doing a breakout session, which is our basic procedure workshop, which was fantastic last year.

And we also have Dr. Resnick, who’s going to be there doing the HS de roofing demonstration for us. And then we go into some more lectures throughout the day. We do another product theater. We’re talking anywhere from psoriasis, hair loss, vitiligo. I’m doing a talk on business sense. So building your brand and your business, you know, as a clinician.

So. We’re really attacking a lot of different angles with inflammatory disease, building your brand, the product theaters to help, you know, support industry and learn about medications and then also things like acne. And then Sarah drew is doing a presentation on cosmetics, right. And what to look for and what do you do when things go wrong?

So just really diverse set of topics. Yeah.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: So we’re talking like Botox, Juvederm, all those like. Those, those lady, those lady fillers

Dr. Simmerman: and exactly anybody, anybody that wants to have them, but then we return back on Saturday. It’s from 8 about 3 30 that day and just on some biologics and things like that.

Dr. Glick is another fantastic app supporter. That’s coming over to talk about biologics and therapeutics. And so we’ve really, we’ve got a great. group of people who are really supportive of our community and want to help us and collaborate. And I think that that’s another point that I want to really emphasize on is, you know, there’s, there’s a shortage of providers, right?

And so essentially what’s happening is we all need to make sure that we do our best to build relationships with collaborative physicians so that we have the volume of well trained APPs to take care of people. And so I really like to highlight those that come out to support us because it’s so important.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah, I think what you said is, is important because of the fact that you want well trained, you want a well trained nurse practitioner, you want a well trained PA and these opportunities that you guys are creating with your conference allow for nurse practitioners to invest in themselves to be the best that they can be as we are stepping side by side with physicians and working in a different way, but still working alongside of them to be the best that we can be.

And that’s one of the things that, again, is something that I think it is on. It is a calling on all providers. Nurse practitioners, PAs, doctors, all of us to be the best that we can be operating and investing in ourselves so that we can then turn and, and give those benefits to our patients. And you don’t want a doctor any more than you want a nurse practitioner that hasn’t been investing in themselves.

In years, and it’s just been kind of drudgely practicing, like, I want the guy that’s up on the latest and the greatest, and he’s been keeping up with certain things because I don’t want that in a physician. I don’t want in a nurse practitioner. Like, I just want you. We want our providers to be especially MPs because that’s what we are.

But to be up to date on what’s the newest thing. What are people doing getting exposure and hearing things? And that’s what’s really cool. Because when a doctor, you know, you go see a physician, he’s like, actually, I’m not great at this, but let me show you who is. He’s been networking with people that he knows is good.

And so if you notice like, Hey, listen, I’m not great at this, but this one is you can refer patients so that they get the access to the care that they need. Like, I just think that that’s. Practicing good medicine and these conferences, right? Yeah. Who doesn’t want to go ahead.

Dr. Simmerman: I really like that. You keep going in on like the investment you’re making in yourself, right?

It’s knowing your value, right? As an APP and what you’re capable of doing with the proper training, but like what higher dividend are you ever going to get back then taking time to invest in your own, right? Personal growth, knowledge development and things like that. And that’s what these conferences I feel like do and what they can offer.

And I just, I don’t know, you know, what we do here is a labor of love. It’s on our own time. It’s, it’s not, we’re not paid to develop these conferences and this is all right volunteer work. And so there’s such a mission behind it and a belief that you spend time away from your loved ones, not earning any side money, but just because you believe in the mission and what it provides for people.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah, yeah, and it’s a 2 day conference to again, you know, invest in yourself and grow your skills, grow your networking. Because, as you know, your network is your net net worth. And so I love that. And just knowing that, like. You’re going to be chatting with other people in the industry and they’re going to be exposing you to things that you might not have known about.

And it’s just going to be this collaborative effort. Like you said, and I think it’s going to be, it’s going to be really growing. So where do people sign up? I know you had said that the price was about a hundred bucks, like for a two day conference. That’s insane. Yeah, I was like, wait, what am I doing on that day?

Dr. Simmerman: Like, should I go like, We’ll give you a voucher if you’re coming. So where you can sign up is you can go to our website at sunrisederm. org and it’s all right there. Thank you. And they did such an awesome job. Like even on the website, when I was looking at it this morning, again, you know how sometimes you’re like, Oh, what’s my NPI?

What’s this, right? All that information you need to be able to register for. The links are there to help you find that. So it’s not like, Oh, I don’t, I can’t remember that. I got to go to the board of nursing website and all of those things. So. Patricia did like they made an awesome website. It’s easy to navigate and it’s, you know, pretty centrally located in Tampa.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Okay, perfect. And then so that’s where people sign up a hundred dollars. And then 1 of the things I think as kind of, you know, 1 of the, I guess, people that are kind of building this up, I know you’re probably thinking, like, I want. If you could get someone to kind of say, like, I want them to go to this conference and leave with this one piece of advice or like thing that you’re like, I just want this conference to be this thing.

Like, what’s your vision for it? And if you could put that vision on each individual nurse practitioner, PA, nurse that comes, like, what would be the 1 thing that you’d hope that they would glean? From the conference,

Dr. Simmerman: that is such an excellent and yet challenging question. It was the one, like when I reviewed the pre questions, I thought the one thing.

Right. And it’s one thing. And I’m like, I still struggle with what and how to be able to answer that. Because not to sound cliche, but I think it offers so much, but it’s like, what was my takeaway from it? You know, last year there was just so much growth. It was just that there’s so much opportunity.

And it’s that, it’s that growth mindset and just how it best supports that and just being able to be aware of what’s out there because you have people who have navigated it for over a decade, try to just give you a high level of, you can do whatever you want. This is what’s out there. Chase it if you want.

Stay in clinic. If you want, you know, it’s just, I really think it’s that personal professional growth

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: for me. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that’s it. Right. That’s the 1 take home is that she wants you to leave and walk away and go, Oh, my goodness. I didn’t even know about all the things that we do, all the opportunities that I had and.

I can literally grow this thing in any way that I want. I could take my nursing degree, my nursing license, my nurse practitioner, you know, skills and opportunity and scope and just, and run in a direction. And I can be amazing at this thing or that thing, or I can be, again, I think sometimes too, when we see these physicians and they specialize in something like so small, you know, it’s like, I’m a doctor that just does this thing.

It’s like, wow, like he’s the expert in that. And like, Maybe in these conferences, you’ll find something that you just go like, Oh, that’s my jam. Like that’s it. Or I hate all of that. I don’t want to do any of it, you know, or whatever it is, whatever it is that you come away with. Right.

Dr. Simmerman: I love that you pointed out like where it’s how you realize the gaps, right?

Cause that’s essentially where my LLC has come from. It’s me looking at it and saying, wow, everybody’s out there talking about disease state mechanism of action, but who’s out there talking about recruitment, retention, emotional intelligence, right? All of these things that elevated operations that I’m trying to build into.

I’m not sure what yet has to offer. And so I think that it’s just incredibly empowering. Yeah. What’s the name of your LLC? Elevated

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: operations. Elevated operations. So that’s the name of it. Okay. I didn’t think it was that on your LinkedIn. I don’t think that I saw that on your LinkedIn. It’s not there yet.

Dr. Simmerman: I have to do a better job at some self promotion. So I literally was just, and this is another thing that I was hoping to segue a little bit into. I know we’re running over on time. Probably not at all. Keep going, keep talking. No, you’re good. So we didn’t talk, I didn’t introduce enough about industry. And so industry has a lot to offer.

And when you’re at these conferences to be able to intimately network with leaders that are there because you’ll have sales reps that are there, you’ll have thought leader, liaisons, thought leader, liaisons, TLLs are kind of the people that connect. I’m using a lot of acronyms, but yeah. Yeah. So. In industry, I’m considered a key opinion leader.

And so a key opinion leader, like an eczema and psoriasis, and now on operations is where I’m getting some attention. And so now I’m being invited out to conferences, not just to do a product feeder on a topical, but now also like, Hey, Steph did a talk at podium about emotional intelligence, hiring, recruiting, building your template, all of these things that have helped her become a high level clinician, but also be happy with what she’s doing at work.

Right. So how do, what’s that sweet spot? And so industry

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: industry, I just wanna make sure I’m understanding when you say industry, you mean kind of where we get the products from, right? You’re talking like pharma pharma. Okay. So you’re working on that liaison between pharma and the providers.

Dr. Simmerman: Yeah, so pharma has really stepped in, whether it’s with certain companies with their strategic teams or their TLLs, their thought leader liaisons there’s people in industry that want to know you, they want to know what you want to do, and when they find that out, they want to help promote you.

And so when you get on the circuit, yeah, it’s been incredible. So the last nine years of my career, I was a clinician, young kids, my kids are a little bit older now. So it’s created a little bit more opportunity for me to expand this. Yeah, but essentially within the last three years, I have gone from just a clinician to now I travel almost twice a month to go do a national podium talk or I mean, it’s, it’s absolutely incredible because when you network with the right people, they see you, they see your drive and passion and talent.

They help build you as you are growing because they know where you’re starting from. They have a vested interest to see you be successful because when you look good, they look good. Right. And so it’s, it’s really, really incredible. And the providers of the companies that are there, they’re there because they have good products, right?

You can be selective on sponsorship and who you want there. And that’s the other thing. It’s not just, Oh, because they gave us money for our conference here. We want you to network them. It’s like, no, these are people we wanted here because we believe in what they’ve developed. We support it. Right. And then they support us.

So when I was raised, my dad worked retail and it was always support those who support you. Right. He worked for Walmart. Was I going to go shop at target? No. Ooh.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Right? I see what you’re saying. But there’s no different than like affiliate marketing and like all these other brand things that we follow on Instagram of people being like, I love Thrivecart.

I love ButcherBox. Like they all have, you know, and again, they’re, they like those companies for different reasons and there’s no different. And from the healthcare standpoint, I think for being like, Hey, listen, we believe in this brand because of these things and we, we know what patients need and these companies prioritize these things.

And so we support that. Yeah, it’s incredible

Dr. Simmerman: because you look at that, like even my team, my, my MAs, I’m very blessed. My team has been with me. I’ve got a 10 year MA, a five year MA, and then we have our newbie now. I know it’s just

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: that, right? Yeah.

Dr. Simmerman: Yes. Thank you. Yeah. So it’s just phenomenal. And even my girls will talk about that, right?

So it’s not, we’re loyal to a product because I’m speaking for them or because they support a conference that I’m at. We’re loyal to a product because it works. They’ve got a great patient assistance program. right? They’ve got samples available for us. They’ve essentially made things and you can tell the companies that do it well because they already know what a clinician is going to look for and what they want, right?

To best support their patient care and or the clinician and the girls, right? Don’t have this administrative burden with the prior authorizations and all these things that go into it. And these companies get it and they’re doing their best to support us. And in turn, we’re supporting them. And it really is ultimately all about our patients.

Okay. Because we’re using things that work and it’s how do we get it to them faster, right? And cheaper. So there’s just so much to it. And in that small, like the exhibit halls that you’ll often see at a conference, we have one. And it’s just really nice because it’s small. There’s not, you know, 40 vendors that you need to go get stickers to sign up on your page to get a reward.

You know you just get a lot of nice time and one on one where people really get to know your name and about you.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah, that is so neat, man. You guys are really building something cool here. I think it’s going to be a big benefit to a lot of nurse practitioners, PAs and RNs that work in Durham or maybe are Durham curious.

That’s like a, like a term, like, are you Durham curious? But I think that’s kind of, yeah, I kind of like it too. Like I’m kind of interested in this. And so you can kind of, again. Get that exposure network, but then also, and what you said, that big takeaway is just to see the opportunity to see what you can do with your degree and with your nursing license and with your nurse practitioner scope and, see what’s available for your career. So I think that’s really neat. And I, I, I was going to do rapid fire with you, Stephanie. If you want to do rapid fire, I always do rapid fire after my episodes. Just try to like fly by the seat of your pants. Just see what okay. So in honor of birthdays, I think I’ll just go there.

What do you think is the best age to be?

Dr. Simmerman: Oh, my goodness. I just turned 40 this last year. And I will tell you it’s been pretty much one of my best years and so I’m really embracing it. I’m just like, this is, you know, it’s part of it. Like, I just feel like I’m coming into one of, probably I’m hoping is one of my best decades, where you’ve gotten through some of the thick of it with work and starting your career and building your home and things that are supposed to be really exciting and fun, but can also be very, very stressful.

So now I’m 10 years into practice and you’re feeling a little more comfortable, never, you know, arrogant or anything like that, but you’re like, wow, I’m, this is. This is really cool. You

know, we talked be. I’m making impact, right? And, and my kids are seeing a career working mother. Hold it down and be present. So when I am here, it is, it’s about them. And I may not be here every single night, but that’s okay, right? Because their dad’s here. My parents live next door to us, right? We have all of these support structures in place that you can do it all. And so I think in that respect.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: I think this is it, Stephanie. And then if you had to give a book to someone as a book for maybe career or life development, what would it be? What would be a book that you’d just be like, That’s my, my calling card, or

Dr. Simmerman: a business card. I really like the book, Good to Great.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: I hearf you say, Go from Good to Great. So like, when you said that, I was like, Oh, she’s been reading! Homegrown’s been reading! Such a good book.

Dr. Simmerman: It’s also the foundation with my dad, like with Walmart. Like, I really like Sam Walton’s. Autobiography. I think it was autobiography. Because it really talked about finding opportunity, right?

He walked around stores and people showed him what how they were doing things and then he took that and he created Walmart out of that, you know, because people were just like, oh, this little guy walking around in his jeans and his little accent. And, you know, like, who is he? And then he took all of that information and built what he did.

And I found that to be like, Hmm. Inspirational.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. No, I love that story. And then for the last one, we’ll do three. Oh, are you what’s your favorite season? Like, if you had to like, pick a season, you’re like, this is me, like, in a season, winter, fall, spring, summer.

Dr. Simmerman: This is when I’m just definitely. It’s definitely fall.

Definitely fall. Yeah. Definitely fall. The weather starts to get nice. You can go outside more. You know, fall in Florida, right, relative, but it’s, it’s just, it’s super motivating. I just feel like, you know, it’s the opposite of, of when I grew up in Michigan, up north, you stayed inside all winter, right? Well, it’s like the opposite.

You stay inside all summer down here. True. And now all of a sudden it’s tolerable. You can go out and bike ride and just do all the things that you want to do that you can’t in the summer. So it’s just refreshing. It’s just to go outside and take a deep breath, and it’s not full of humidity, and so I just find it really invigorating.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yea, I’m with you. I actually love autumn here as well, and it, I think, I think it starts to kind of feel, like, really peaceful. I don’t know why, like, Yeah. You’ve just been, like, hot all summer, like, crocodile skin, like, you’re just like, Ugh! And then finally, like that you have for your conference, and I’ll throw that in my YouTube video when but yeah, I’m with you.

Good. Good pick. Good pick. Well, Stephanie, it’s been a joy to chat with you. Thanks for coming on and sharing about your conference. I’m actually going to have you guys give me that PDF that you have for your conference. And I’ll throw that in my YouTube video when I launch this.

Dr. Simmerman: This has been fabulous.

Thank you for having me. And I hope you have a spectacular birthday.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again. Like I said, it’s better thing to do than just to hang out with a nurse practitioners. I’ve enjoyed it. Well, thank you guys. And again, don’t forget to enjoy the journey of your career. Thanks for hanging out guys.

Bye bye