Interview with Nurse Coffee Talk
Jamie Baker and Sarah Matthews, hosts of the Nurse Coffee Talk podcast
Are you interested in honest conversations about the challenges currently facing the nursing profession? Jamie Baker and Sarah Matthews, hosts of the Nurse Coffee Talk podcast, are highly experienced nurses that have seen and done it all. They are committed to using their platform to help other nurses successfully navigate the bureaucratic red tape that is commonplace in today’s healthcare systems. Their ability to discuss complex issues with humor and to discover practical solutions will re-energize your passion for one of the greatest professions.
Listen as Jamie and Sarah tackle some of the hottest topics in nursing today and discuss how these challenges can be resolved.
1. Jamie and Sara, tell us a little bit about yourselves. What are your backgrounds and education? What initially attracted both of you to a career in nursing?
2. How did you two meet and become friends?
3. What do you think is the best part or most rewarding aspect of a career in nursing?
4. What was the catalyst for starting your podcast, Nurse Coffee Talk?
5. In your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges currently facing the nursing industry?
6. What resources or tactics would you recommend to a nurse that is seeing these big challenges play out in their facility?
7. In some of your more recent podcasts, you’ve addressed topics like wellness for nurses, PTSD in nursing and violence towards nurses. What are the consequences that can result from failing to adequately address these issues?
8. What do you hope listeners will gain when they tune into your podcast?
9. On the Nurse Coffee Talk website, you invite your listeners to send in their questions, stories and taboo issues for discussion on the podcast. Have you noticed a reoccurring theme in the topics that are submitted? What advice or recommendations would you give for that topic?
10. Is there anything else that you would like our clinicians to know about you or Nurse Coffee Talk?
Jamie Baker, MSN, BSBA, RN – Jamie entered nursing as a second career after working for many years in marketing. She is a Master’s prepared nurse in nursing leadership with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on marketing. She has worked as a nurse for over 10 years in a variety of clinical areas, including neuro ICU, palliative care, hem/onc, PACU and hyperbaric critical care. However, her passion truly lies in emergency nursing to which she has devoted more than 10 years. The loves of her life are her husband and their three young children and her favorite place in the world is at home with her family.
Sarah Matthews, BSN, RN – Sarah is a BSN prepared nurse who currently works in a major U.S. city. She has worked as a bedside nurse with kidney, liver and pancreas transplants, as well as in GI and general surgery. She has also held roles in bed management, case management and utilization review. Sarah comes from a huge family of nurses (her maternal grandmother ran away from home to be a nurse in the army in WWII) and jokes that she can feel nursing in her blood. Her parents taught her to always advocate for her patients and fellow nurses and to try and keep empathy in her heart, even on the toughest days.