Timeless Topics

026: Building Community to Repair Broken Systems

Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss everything from how broken the healthcare system is to unit culture to the importance of belonging in all relationships -- including those between clinicians. In true Timeless Topics nature, we try to answer the question "How do we fix it?" Please let us know how you feel we did.  We're grateful you're here with us. We look forward to hearing your thoughts! Reflection prompts for this episode: * Reflect on your relationship with where healthcare is culture-wise. How do you navigate its ups and downs?  * What are some ways that you build community in and out of your workplace? Resources we mentioned during this episode: * May 2026 FCC Taskforce Webinar [https://youtu.be/AoKrQB7Y1fs?si=k-L98eIYjPp8KZlr] Family Centered Care Taskforce [https://www.fcctaskforce.org/]          * Identifying stigmatizing and positive/preferred language in obstetric clinical notes using natural language processing - PubMed [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39569431/]    * Stigmatizing and Positive Language in Birth Clinical Notes Associated With Race and Ethnicity - PubMed [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40358949/] * Toward equitable documentation: Evaluating ChatGPT's role in identifying and rephrasing stigmatizing language in electronic health records - PubMed [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40596800/]  Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU [https://www.instagram.com/TimelessTopicsNICU/], and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

025: Words Have Power

Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss everything from the compounding nature of trauma in the NICU to how an individual is shaped by their lived experiences - positive, negative, and neutral to how our words have power. We wrap up the episode with a bit of a soft launch, so be sure to listen until the end. We're grateful you're here with us. Tracey had some video issues, but we persevered! We are so grateful you are here with us. We look forward to hearing your thoughts! Reflection prompts for this episode: * What are some ways you practice humility in your work setting?  * Reflect on the way you show up in the face of someone else's trauma. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Resources we mentioned during this episode: * Trauma and Violence - What Is Trauma and Its Effects? | SAMHSA [https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/trauma-violence]         * Identity-First Language - Autistic Self Advocacy Network [https://autisticadvocacy.org/about-asan/identity-first-language/]   * Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change - Sherri Mitchell [https://www.sacredinstructions.life/]         Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU [https://www.instagram.com/TimelessTopicsNICU/], and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

024: Bookclub Recommendations and Gumbo

Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss everything from microaggressions to the insidious and pervasive nature of racism and other systems of oppression to gumbo. Yes, gumbo. We wrap up the episode with an introductory bookclub list, so stay tuned for that! We'd love to hear what other titles you would recommend. We're grateful you're here with us. We start out the episode hot talking about an experience one of us had with defining microaggressions. We are so grateful you are here with us. We look forward to hearing your thoughts! Reflection prompts for this episode: * Have you ever experienced or committed an act of microaggression? Reflect on your experience(s).  * Have you read any of the books we shared during this episode? If so, what lessons do you carry with you from them? Resources we mentioned during this episode: * “Weathering” and Age Patterns of Allostatic Load Scores Among Blacks and Whites in the United States - PMC [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1470581/]        * Microaggressions are a big deal: How to talk them out and when to walk away [https://www.npr.org/2020/06/08/872371063/microaggressions-are-a-big-deal-how-to-talk-them-out-and-when-to-walk-away]   * Full article: Who Gets to Be a Child? Clinical and Cultural Reflections on Racism, White Infantilization, and Kyle Rittenhouse [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10481885.2025.2524320]   * Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum | Hachette Book Group [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/beverly-daniel-tatum/why-are-all-the-black-kids-sitting-together-in-the-cafeteria/9780465060689/?lens=basic-books] * Hood Feminism – MIKKI KENDALL [https://mikkikendall.com/hood-feminism/] * Beacon Press: White Fragility [https://www.beacon.org/White-Fragility-P1631.aspx] * How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi: 9780525509301 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564299/how-to-be-an-antiracist-by-ibram-x-kendi/] * Decolonizing Therapy [https://www.decolonizingtherapy.com/] * The Body Keeps The Score | Bessel van der Kolk, MD. [https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score] * My Grandmother’s Hands paperback – Central Recovery Press [https://centralrecoverypress.com/product/my-grandmothers-hands-racialized-trauma-and-the-pathway-to-mending-our-hearts-and-bodies-paperback]         Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU [https://www.instagram.com/TimelessTopicsNICU/], and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

023: Collaborative Growth: Combining Technical Skill, Job Satisfaction, & Compassion

Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss everything from interspecialty collaboration to supporting the family's full experience to calling out that thriving in a high stress environment like L&D or the NICU isn't mutually exclusive to practicing with a foundation of compassion. We are honored to be joined by Rose Horton as our special guest! Rose is the founder and CEO of NotOnMyWatch Consulting Partners. Her work centers around empowering nurses to use their voices, roles, and power to fight for equitable outcomes for all pregnant people and their newborns. We are so grateful you are here with us. We look forward to hearing your thoughts! Reflection prompts for this episode: * Reflect on your practices around informed consent and shared decision making.  * How are they similar? How are they different? How could you grow your practice to be more affirming and trauma-responsive? Resources we mentioned during this episode: * Interventions to address inequities in infant mortality and morbidity in the NICU and beyond: A focus on the mother-infant dyad - ScienceDirect [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0146000525001181]       * A Woman Asked To Be Saved Over Her Baby In Case Of Childbirth Complications [https://www.scarymommy.com/parenting/mom-asks-husband-to-save-her-during-birth-complications-viral-tiktok]  * Pregnant persons and birth partners' experiences of shared decision-making during pregnancy and childbirth: An umbrella review - ScienceDirect [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107832]  * The importance of shared decision-making in the neonatal intensive care unit | Journal of Perinatology [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41372-019-0507-6]  Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU [https://www.instagram.com/TimelessTopicsNICU/], and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

022: Stepping Out for Community

Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss the importance of stepping out to create and support your community. Things like learned helplessness and a scarcity mindset keep us believing that an individual cannot impact a system, but y'all know that we don't subscribe to that over here! The power of human connection and community is stronger than systems that promote hierarchy and supremacy.  We are so grateful you are here with us. We look forward to hearing your thoughts! Reflection prompts for this episode: * What are the ways in which you can step out for your community? * Reflect on your own self-awareness. How does it serve you to be aware of your own patterns?  Resources we mentioned during this episode: * Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders | PBS [https://www.pbs.org/show/freedom-house-ambulance-the-first-responders/]      * Black Angels Book [https://www.mariasmilios.com/]    * National Black Nurses Association [https://nbna.org/] * From Scarcity to Solidarity - Standing Up for Racial Justice [https://surj.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/From-Scarcity-to-Solidarity-Guide.pdf] * Serve and Return: Back-and-forth exchanges [https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/serve-and-return/]  * Harry Harlow's Monkey Experiments: 3 Important Findings [https://positivepsychology.com/harlow-experiment/] * Clear Is Kind. Unclear Is Unkind. - Brené Brown [https://brenebrown.com/articles/2018/10/15/clear-is-kind-unclear-is-unkind/]             Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU [https://www.instagram.com/TimelessTopicsNICU/], and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛