Laurens Bio

Hello! Im so happy youre here! I can believe that I am writing this right now as it means that I am so close to beginning the most exciting journey I have been on. My name is Lauren. Im a Registered Nurse with my BSN from University of Texas in El Paso. I have really had a long road that has led up to this point. So lets dive in and ill tell you how I got here. I graduated High School in 2009 from an extremely small town. I was in the biggest graduating class at this school in the 100 years it had been open at the time. 36 people! Most of whom I knew since I was in Kindergarden. When I graduated, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to go to college for the "college experience", and not necessarily to learn. Well I definitely had my fun, let me to you! Once I got all that out of my system and changed majors more times that I can really count, I decided on going into nursing. Mainly because my parents were tired of me trying to figure out what I wanted to do. To be fair, I was taking my very sweet time trying to decide and costing them money in the process. My college years were the most transformative years of my life. I learned so much about myself and what I wanted and mainly, what I didn't want out of life. Fast forward to applying for nursing. I got accepted to LVN and RN school. So I had to make a decision. And I don't think I realized the importance of that decision till later on down the road. I decided to go ahead and do RN school. That required me moving almost 2 hours away from my parents. I had never lived that far before and it was very intimidating. Even though I was moving to another small town, it wasn't 700 people anymore. It was 25,000. That was pretty big for me. Especially in a place that I didn't know very well. I commuted for the first month, then found an apartment. I had so much time on my hands, I didn't know what to do. Disclaimer, this next bit doesn't show me in the best light, but its my story and I'm sticking to it! So, RN school. whew. Let me just say that my high school principal had it right when he said my senior year "none of you know what it takes to succeed in college. You have no idea what's out there waiting". Another preface, I was a jock in high school. I was in all the sports for as long as I could remember. That meant my teachers unfortunately didn't care about my education. Mainly because most of them were coaches and small towns care mostly about sports. Not education. Most of my tests were vocabulary, open book, or completion grades. I struggled in the maybe 2 classes I had to put forth any effort in. So, lets jump back to nursing school. I didn't know how to study. I didn't know I actually needed to READ the text. My first test, I studied vocabulary works!! (insert laughing crying face here). I thought that's all I needed to do was learn vocabulary of everything. I spent a significant amount of time writing those flash cards too! Imagine spending that time "studying" and getting there on test day and staring at the questions like I had no clue what was even in front of me. It was practically a foreign language! After that test and as time went on, my test grades did not improve. Can you believe that I actually didn't even know what I was doing wrong? I ended up failing out with a 77.5. You need a 78 to continue on through the program. No rounding up either. I also rather struggled with one of my professors. Im not sure if she had a grudge against me, or just knew that I was nowhere near fit to be a nurse. So, round 2 it was!! STILL I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing wrong. Looking back I just want to slap myself, maybe kick my own ass a little bit! So, if I still didn't know what I was doing wrong and trying to figure things out as I went with that same professor giving me the hardest of times, what do you think happened AGAIN?! Yep, you guessed it. I failed again. I couldn't believe it. II threw so much time and energy into what I thought was studying and I couldn't get it. Again. Im not sure you can even imagine my frustration, disappointment, depression, and anxiety at that point. So... I took the only other chance I had at becoming a nurse. I went to LVN school. There I met 2 girls that completely changed the way I did everything. We read everything 3 times. Have you ever seen the size of a freaking nursing school book? They are stupid massive. But here we were... reading everything 3 times over in order to grasp the information being shoved down our throats. Of course i still had previous knowledge from RN school. That definitely helped, but still. I failed twice so obviously I wasn't grasping much during that time. We hung on and graduated that next May! I learned more basic information that was needed for my learning building blocks. I went on to succeed through transition school from LVN to RN. And then went on to get my BSN. All while gritting my teeth and punching myself mentally because I wasted so much time my first 2 tries. I kept saying "I could have been through this so much faster if I would have just done all this from the beginning". But in all honesty, I really didn't know what was required of me till I went to LVN school. Then I was able to shoot off and achieve all my scholastic goals. After LVN school, I applied at the dialysis center here in town and got a job there. Once i received my RN, I went to a primary care office. That's where I was when I finished up my BSN. After that, I went to the State Hospital, and that's where everything really began to unfurl. I had left my previous positions because I was frustrated with one thing or another. Mostly with administration or feeling like I wasn't doing very much as a nurse. When I got to the State Hospital, my eyes were opened more than I really ever wanted. I loved my psychiatric patients so much! They were an absolute trip! Unfortunately, psychiatric patients weren't all I was dealing with. I honestly don't even know if I can put into words the things I experienced there. But the best thing that came out of me being there was meeting my Co-Partner in this business, Pam. We were partners on the unit and she saved me more times than I can count. She was my rock, and I was hers. We always joked around on hard days "as long as our brains together equal 100%, we can make it". Let me pause here by saying if you don't want to read vulgar language and about psychotic episodes, here is your time to exit. Because we are diving into the most influential time in my life. The psychiatric hospital. And we will just do the tip of the iceberg since I could write on and on and on about my time there. But it's honestly exhausting just thinking about it. One day I'll turn it into a blog series, but right now let's just hit the highlights. "you druggie bitch! those medications don't work! you're sucking all the medication out of me! Suckin me dry!! you're keeping me here!". I've had poop thrown directly at me. Like in an attack mode. The patient went to the bathroom and pooped into her hands for ammo and was targeting staff for this! The was.. a shitty restraint! lol. My favorite name I've ever been called is "swine cunt". And in all honesty, the patient who called me that was one of my favorite psych patients!! She was a wild one, poor baby. Unfortunately, sometimes there's only so much you can do to help these patients due to one reason or another. All was more or less well until we started getting patients who were not psychotic and they were more behavioral. No consequences would stop them from doing what they wanted to do. Wreak havoc. Going through those times with Pam helped me realize that we were not where we were meant to be. I refused to keep doing the same thing anywhere I went. I always had to play by corporate rules, which is fine, but when the corporate rules begin to lean more towards making money instead of patient care, I have an issue. I'm not sitting here saying that the State only cared about money. But there was no help offered and the patients weren't getting any better. Pam and I both decided that we had more to offer. That we were not going to be stuck in the merri-go-round that is health care. We wanted to become something bigger that could change people. So we decided to start with ourselves. I was struggling in excess with anxiety and depression. I have a history of getting on and off my medication because I don't want to be on it for the rest of my life. When i ultimately left the State, I was under a voluntary mental health leave. I was having heart palpitations, extreme anxiety, my eating was practically nothing, weight loss plagued me, and i was growing distant from my family, friends and husband. So I left. We decided to start diving into herbalism and how to better ourselves in holistic manners. And although I'm currently on anxiety medication, I am taking the holistic approach to my health and that is really pushing me to be the best version of myself. We were also tired of seeing everything the healthcare system was offering people because it wasn't enough. As nurses, we are educators and we are taught to help and educate people. And that's is what we are doing now. In the Nurse Coach Collective, I was taught about the sick care model. It is the health care model that the United States thrives on. Its waiting for the patient to get sick and then to help cure the ailment. But what really needs to happen is educating clients how to take care of themselves before they get sick and have to take medications that have the potential to cause other issues. We are not here to bash the health care system or to say we know better than the doctors prescribing medications to patients. But we do want to push preventative health as an alternative to getting, and more than likely, staying sick. So I went through the Nurse Coach collective to get my education and am standing by to take my boards for coaching and holistic nursing. I really wanted to get this company up and running first because I wanted to start helping people as soon as possible! So, if you made it this far and you can accept me with my faults and "failures" (I really like to call those "life shapers"), then please allow me to help you with your goals and help you get our of the funks that life throws our way! Contact me through my cellphone, email, or through the website. Im so excited for this opportunity and to meet you all!!