BCEN & Friends

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Bill Malone.

Bill Malone is a flight nurse, respiratory therapist, and emergency medical technician from northern Mississippi. After obtaining his respiratory therapy degree in 2004, Bill later pursued nursing and graduated with a nursing degree in 2011. Bill has been flying full time for five years now and remains part time in the CCU, PICU, and critical care ground transport.

Bill holds three board certifications in respiratory therapy which include both neonatal and adult specialty certifications. Since becoming a nurse, Bill has obtained all 5 BCEN certifications and also holds the CCRN certification in critical care nursing. In 2020, Bill was honored by North Mississippi Health Services with the Excellence in Nursing Award. Currently enrolled in the University of Mississippi, he is pursuing a master’s degree in Nursing.

Bill and his wife Amber, have two children, Cooper, and Laurel. As well as two dogs and two cats.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Bill, about his career as a flight nurse, respiratory therapist, and emergency medical technician. Find out how holding certifications in respiratory therapy and nursing can complement each other.

This episode is called, The Combining of a Nurse and Respiratory Therapist

Bill can be reached on Twitter @malone16

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Brett Dodd.

Brett Dodd is the Associate Director for the Women’s Guild Simulation Center for Advance Learning at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA.

He spent 6 years in the pre-hospital environment working as a paramedic and has been a Registered Nurse for over 20 years.  He has an associate degree in Emergency Medical Technology, master’s degree in nursing, and recently completed his MBA. 

His background is emergency and flight medicine, disaster management, trauma, critical care, education, and simulation. In his current role, he coordinates, develops, and uses simulation to create highly immersive multidisciplinary educational programs.

Brett is an instructor and course director for many programs including TNCC, ENPC, ATCN, DMEP and PHTLS. 

On his off time, he spends weekends enjoying the outdoors in the Eastern Sierras snowboarding, mountain biking, and hiking.

Come along as Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Brett about his career journey – Past, Present, and even what he sees for the future.

This episode is called, Simulation in Education Programs

Brett Dodd can be reached on LinkedIn

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Antoinette Weathers.

Antoinette has many years of healthcare experience. She progressed from a novice stretcher-side nurse to management, leadership, and professional development roles. She believes strongly in life-long learning, and it shows in her background. She recently received a 35-year pin from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nurses.

Janie Schumaker and Mark Eggers talk with Antoinette , about her career of over 35 years in Emergency Nursing (she has something that many people do not have … a 35-year pin from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nurses). They also talk about the book she recently wrote and highlight some of the stories it holds.

This episode is called, From the Stretcher-Side to the Boardroom 

Antoinette Weathers can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, but prefers contact via email.

Facebook Hummingbird Publishing.@VirginiaAuthor 

LinkedIn & Instagram

Preferred method of contact is email: [email protected]

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Scott DeBoer.

Scott DeBoer is a dynamic seminar leader with over 30 years of emergency, critical care, & flight nursing experience. After 25 years of flight nursing at the University of Chicago, Scott is now the primary seminar leader for Pedi-Ed-Trics, a company dedicated to teaching better ways to care for kids. 

Scott holds a master’s degree in emergency/critical care nursing as well as the CPEN certification and retired CEN, CFRN, and CCRN certifications. He has been published over 150 times in journals around the world and has been the recipient of a number of professional healthcare awards.

Scott is also a husband and father and a cancer survivor. And if you happen to travel, you may run into him playing paramedic at a popular Orlando tourist destination! More on that later but first, welcome, Scott DeBoer!

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Scott about his healthcare career and specifically his focus on pediatrics. Also come along and find out about Scott’s new part time job!

This episode is called, Better Ways to Care for Kids

Scott DeBoer can be reached at PediEd.com

And on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PediEdTrics

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Kory Scheideman.

Kory Scheideman was born and raised in Colorado.  Kory grew up as a fire brat with his father as a volunteer firefighter and would often respond to calls with his father (it was the 80’s). Then in high school Kory became one of the first school-to-career fire fighters and started his fire career.

He worked as a career firefighter for 5 years before he was offered a job in the Emergency Department as an EMT in a critical access hospital in SE Colorado.  Kory fell in love with emergency nursing and went to nursing school.  He started working on the surgical floor for a year until he was able to get in a Level II trauma center ED for 12 years.  In that capacity he was a stretcher side nurse, relief charge nurse, permanent charge nurse, educator, and now manager of a Free-Standing Emergency Department within the same system that he has been in for over 15 years. 

In 2019 he was asked to help develop and roll out a Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program in 6 emergency departments, and since then he has developed a strong connection with the community partners. 

Kory is an active member of the Colorado ENA serving as the treasurer and sits on the IQSIP committee and fundraising committee.  He works with the Colorado Naloxone Project http://naloxoneproject.com/  and he also works with the Northern Colorado MHSUA (Mental Health Substance Use Alliance) and the NOCO (Northern Colorado) Harm Reduction Alliance

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Kory about living in Colorado his entire life and his career from firefighter to emergency nurse and everything in between. Kory talks about opioid abuse and what he is doing to combat the opioid epidemic in his region.

This episode is called, From Firefighter to Emergency Nurse

Kory Kay can be reached at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kory-scheideman-300190171

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Jessica Evins.

Jessica Evins is a registered nurse in the Pediatric Emergency Department at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital—the only Pediatric Level 1 trauma center in New York City.

Jessica has worked in the Pediatric Emergency Department for her entire nursing career, beginning in 2014, and became a Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse in 2016. Jessica is a strong advocate for simulation-based multidisciplinary education and serves on her department’s simulation committee and as the co-chair of her hospital’s vascular access committee.

Jessica authored a pediatric emergency nursing handbook that is in use by her hospital and has presented and been an invited speaker on medical simulation and clinical debriefing at a number of national and international conferences—and has also advised business leaders on teamwork in high pressure settings.

Jessica is passionate about expanding the roles of both palliative care and child life in the emergency department setting and also works as a sexual assault forensic examiner. Prior to becoming a nurse, Jessica was an aerospace engineer at the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command, where she received the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Jessica holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Science in nursing from New York University. She resides in New York City with her husband, one year old daughter, and dog. Jessica is the recipient of the 2022 BCEN Distinguished CPEN award.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Jessica, about being a pediatric nurse and what her role entails. Congratulations to Jessica Evins for being BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished CPEN Award Winner

This episode is called, Getting to know BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished CPEN Award Winner

Jessica Evins can be found on LinkedIn by searching for Jessica Evins

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Shayna Stevens.

Shayna has been a nurse for 20 years. She graduated from Stephen F Austin State University and currently attends West Texas A&M University for Gradate school. She is seeking a master’s degree in comprehensive nursing. Shayna has worked as a nurse in ICU stepdown, ICU, surgical, dialysis, and most recently emergency room settings. She is currently a trauma clinician at a level II trauma center in Plano, TX.

Shayna has a spouse Richard, and they have been together for 11 years. They have an amazing group of friends that we love to visit whenever their busy schedule allows. They have 2 dogs and a cat that keep them laughing. Their favorite thing to do is travel. Their last trip was before the pandemic, and they got to visit Costa Rica and loved it.  

If a pandemic has taught Shayna anything, it is the importance of self-care. If you don’t care for yourself, how are you expected to care for anyone else? Her hospital has been very supportive of all of everyone taking the time to do just that.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Shayna Stevens, about being a trauma nurse and what her role entails. Congratulations to Shayna Stevens for being BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished TCRN Award Winner

This episode is called, Getting to know BCEN’s 2022 Distinguished TCRN Award Winner

Shayna can be reached on Facebook, Shayna Stevens and Instagram sstevens143

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Kay Brown.

Kay Brown is a 73 yr. old Grandmother, Mother & wife who is blessed with a caring family. Kay doesn’t mind telling her age because she says she worked very hard for all those years, and she doesn’t mind claiming all of them. She was a Commercial Property Manager until her heart issues made it impossible & she had to retire in her early 60s.

Kay was diagnosed with Cardio Myopathy (congestive heart failure) when she was about 55 yrs. old & told she had about 5 yrs. to live. Thankfully, the drug Coreg was discovered and extended her life for years.  As time passed, the congestive heart failure symptoms increased as it is a progressive disease.  In Sept 2016, she had her 1st heart failure episode and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.  From then on she was having heart failure episodes about every 2 months.  

They progressively got worse until the last of June 2017.  While preparing to go home from the hospital, another episode happened with left her on life support & unconscious.  One young doctor gave her husband a death message and said this would be a life ending experience.

The regular cardiologist knew that the only hope was a LVAD & she was transferred to Baylor in Dallas.  In a couple of days from arriving, they gave her the LVAD.  That was almost 5 years ago, and she is living a full life and thankful for God and the medical staff who have given her another chance to live.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Kay about her life with an LVAD. Listen to Kay as she tells you what an LVAD is and what it does. Kay also shares how important it is to be part of a support group.

This episode is called, Battery Operated Grandma

Kay can be reached on Facebook, Kay Alexander Brown – personal account

Also on FB, LVAD Support Group / of NW Louisiana & NE Texas

Kay is the creator and Admin

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Laura Kemerling.

Laura is a registered nurse and works for the Children’s Mercy Critical Care Transport team in Kansas City, Missouri.

She graduated from Missouri Western State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and began her nursing career in the operating room at Children’s Mercy Hospital, later transitioning to adult ICU nursing for several years. Laura returned to pediatric care in 2010 to work for the Transport team.

Upon completing a Master of Science in Nursing Education from Benedictine University in 2018, she began clinical instructing for BSN students. Her current full-time role focuses on Transport and EMS relations, outreach education, and caring for critically ill neonatal, pediatric, and maternal fetal patients in the out-of-hospital setting.

Laura maintains a national certification in neonatal and pediatric transport through the NCC and she is an active member of the Missouri and Kansas Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC), as well as the Air and Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA). She is an instructor for the Pediatric Advanced Transport Course and the S.T.A.B.L.E. Program, and has hosted multiple webinars, symposiums, and workshops focused on evidence-based pediatric emergency care in the transport environment.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Laura, about her role as the coordinator for Children’s Mercy Critical Care Transport program. What an amazing story.

Listen as Laura tells us about the app that was developed for pediatric emergency care, how it came to be and what the driving factors were behind it!

This episode is called, Pediatric Emergency Care .. There’s an App for that?

Laura Kemerling can be found on LinkedIn and Facebook

Website:

https://www.childrensmercy.org/health-care-providers/transport/outreach-and-education/

Social media:

LinkedIn:       https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-kemerling

Facebook:      Laura Kemerling

This episode of BCEN and Friends lets you meet our friend Sam Quinones.

Sam Quinones is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, a reporter for 35 years, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, and the border. He is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years. Before that, he made a living as a freelance writer residing in Mexico for a decade.

In 2015, Sam Quinones authored Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury, 2015), which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation’s history. Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2015 and has been selected as one of the top books of 2015 by Amazon, Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, and many other organizations.

His latest book, released in November 2021, is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. In The Least of Us, Quinones chronicles the emergence of a drug-trafficking world producing massive supplies of dope cheaper and deadlier than ever, marketing to the population of addicts created by the nation's opioid epidemic, as the backdrop to tales of Americans’ quiet attempts to recover community through simple acts of helping the vulnerable.

Michael Dexter and Mark Eggers talk with Sam about two of his books, Dreamland: The Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic and The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth. Come spend some time with us as we listen to Sam tell about these books and some of the stories within the pages. Sam also shares some of his history of being a writer and his love for crime reporting.

This episode is called: Hope: during America’s Opiate Epidemic

Sam Quinones can be found:

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @samquinones7

Facebook: samquinonesjournalist

Instagram: @samquinones_author