CONTENTS

01. Alicja Shares her License Suspension Story | From the Blog 💻

02. Julia Ailts RN, MSN, PMHNPBC | Meet Our Providers 👩🏻‍⚕️

03. The Happiness Advantage | Book Corner with Dr. Newman 📚☕️

04. Alicja Shares her Skeletons | Alicja's Documentary 🎥

05. Creative Writing & Relationships | Interview with Author Keith Donnelly🎙️

Julia is a psychiatric nurse practitioner and holds a master’s degree in nursing from Ohio University and an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota. Prior to becoming a nurse, she worked as psychosocial specialist helping patients who have mental health challenges navigate the healthcare system and community resources. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Idaho State University. For the last 11 years she has practiced as an intermediate ICU nurse in a variety of specialties. Since the beginning of her professional career, she strived to advance her understanding of physical and mental wellbeing as a hole. Her journey of continued learning has allowed her to gain a more rounded understanding of what health means to each person individually. Julia is a passionate mental health advocate and believes in building a strong therapeutic relationship. She is committed to partnering with her patients to help them find wellness, balance, and happiness in their lives.

As the days are getting shorter, and we have more darkness around us, it is a great time to bring in some extra light! What I am referring to here is some internal sunshine, or the benefits of positive thinking. Many people believe that positive thinking is something that happens mainly when we have an absence of negative thoughts or "things are good" in our lives. The reality is that positive thinking requires an intention and action on our part. Being optimistic and positive thinking are not the same concept. Optimism means to project into the future a wish for a positive outcome, or hopefulness. Positive thinking is about keeping in the present moment and choosing to notice and use resources that are important to you in achieving a goal.

 

Author Shawn Achor gives us some initial insight and tools on how to cultivate a happiness mindset in The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life.  It is a myth that we will be happier once we succeed, make more money, have great relationships or meet any other personal goals. The reality is that it takes a happiness mindset to make those things happen. The good news is these skills can be easily sequenced and taught.

 

Pick a good book today on happiness and add some light and positivity to your routine. All you have to lose is the negativity that is dragging you down. That is not a bad deal.  Happy reading!

Alicja Shares her Skeletons | 04

Feel free to watch our video (Click Here to Watch) in which Alicja shares how her license was suspended from November 2016 through March 2017. In her story, Alicja shares how hard she worked to help patients and how, ultimately, overworking herself led to administrative errors that ended in license suspension. While her license was reinstated in March of 2017 and she has continued practicing nursing, she shares how the auditing process took her passion away. She discusses how nursing regulatory bodies care deeply about pristine charting and how ultimately nurses are forced to pay attention to charting more than to their patients. Alicja feels that recently nurses are expected to be robots and not human beings and she discusses her frustrations with the system.

 

Filmed by Looking for James Media

Author Keith Donnelly: Creative Writing & Relationships | 05

Alicja interviewed Keith Donnelly and his wife Tessa! Keith Donnelly is the author of eleven books featuring private investigator Donald Youngblood. Donald Youngblood is not your typical private investigator. His background is Wall Street. As you read through the series and uncover more of his background you will discover things that make his second career more plausible. Billy Two-Feathers, a Cherokee Indian, is Don's partner. They are about justice more than they are about the law and in the end of each book justice is served. They evolve as the series matures.

Donnelly began writing the first Donald Youngblood Mystery in 1999. The author and his wife, Tessa, reside in Kingsport, Tennessee. In our episode, Keith and his wife share how they met, what inspired Keith to start his writing career, and how Tessa helps him with all of the tasks that go into writing! Tune in to listen to the interview and click here to buy books personalized by Keith. Personalized books make great gifts for Christmas!