Registered Nurse
BSN Board Certified Health and Wellness Nurse Coach
Integrative Nutrition Coach
Nurse Rita is a double board-certified BSN holistic and health & wellness nurse coach. Rita has been a practicing nurse for over 30 years. Her passion is to help the seasoned nurse THRIVE as they care for others without sacrificing themselves. She lives in a suburb of Chicago with her husband.
Like so many nurses, I went into healthcare wanting to make a difference. Over my 30-plus years of nursing, I've been up close and personal at the bedside as well as more on the perimeter, working in insurance review. I felt I eventually landed somewhere in the middle, practicing surgical nursing.
In the operating room, I recognized the need for stress reduction and self-care for the nurse. Working 10 to 12+ hour shifts in a stressful environment, not knowing when someone would come to relieve me for lunch or a washroom break, can be very trying. Often this occurs when the patient is under anesthesia and they have no clue the effort the nurse is putting in to take care of them. This can be very tiring and often feels thankless. As I talked with my colleagues that work in other areas, I found they had a similar version of my story.
I decided I needed to discover and reacquaint myself with the things that replenished my spirit and body. In addition, I recognized that I needed accountability, which reminded me to "put my mask on first" figuratively and physically before I could help others effectively.
What I love now is that I have self-supporting practices in place that allow me to care for others without sacrificing myself.
If you are someone that struggles with feeling stressed and depleted as you need to care for others, let’s connect to see how you can get off of the “ caregiver’s treadmill”.
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How Stressed Are You Quiz
7 Tips To Reducing Stress
7 Day Healthy Habit Tracker
"My issues were rheumatoid arthritis and stress management. Diet was out of control as was my stress levels and blood pressure. I feel my diet is in better control due to the coaching. With ideas and suggestions on meal planning, anti-inflammatory foods to consider and of course exercises. Some of my hesitations were revealing private information outside of a hospital/doctor setting. I wasn’t sure how this coaching stuff worked and how confidential it was. The coaching sessions were enlightening and refreshing. It was focusing on how to improve my current life style, with gradual changes that will become more of a habit than a quick fix. My favorite part of having Rita as my coach was that she was patient. When I didn’t stick to the plan or wavered she gently swayed me back in the right direction. As a recommendation, I would say that Rita was all-inclusive in her coaching. She dealt with all aspects of my health. It wasn’t just diet and exercise and, she also encouraged meditation, stress relief and finding things that make me happy. She was extremely professional and most of all patient. My favorite part of having Rita as my coach was her consistency, I am not a very consistent person and if I don’t see immediate results I tend to stop. However, she would not allow me to stop but gently guided me back to the plan of action. I enjoyed my sessions with Rita and plan on doing them again, especially since I have a tendency to not complete tasks and her nudging really did help me along the way."
"My brain was all over the place with some key problems in my life that kept on coming back, I wondered how I could sort out these problems/ issues that caused discontent that endlessly kept on circling around in my brain. Rita helped me focus on ways to look at the problem at hand and ways to see the different reasons why I was not moving ahead and resolving them. Also, I always thought that I was very good at being kind to myself- Rita helped me see how I was very strict/unforgiving with myself while being very forgiving with others. Huge discovery for me since I always thought that I was different from the type of woman that always apologizes and feels guilty about everything that goes wrong! At first, I had a fear of disclosing some of the thoughts I’ve never shared with another human being. Turns out, I looked forward to discussing life events that made me unhappy/ unsettled and having a neutral person help me sort out my feelings. Being able to bounce off one’s concerns with a neutral person w/o fearing hurting or angering someone . My favorite part was getting a neutral person’s perspective on events and thought processes. It felt so calming/liberating. There are times where we all need to figure out what is keeping us from moving ahead - when we spin our wheels with thoughts that seem to just go around and around in our heads- a coach can come in and help you figure out where you’re getting stuck. Having a trustworthy trained listener is invaluable- sure some people have good friends that are good listeners- but at times you need someone who is trained at picking out repetitive harmful patterns or someone who can give resources that help in moving ahead in one’s personal growth - this was Rita for me."
"My life was being pull in many directions and I needed to get things in line with what the word of God was saying. Once I began to talk with Coach Rita, I begin to see the road to where I needed to go more clearly. At first, it was a little hard for me to say out loud all the things that were happening and needed to get done. After the first meeting, I was more confident and calmer. Coach Rita explained that everything was confidential, and I could say as much or as little as I wanted, there was no pressure. Therefore, working with Coach Rita was relaxing, thought-provoking and successful. My favorite part of working with Coach Rita was that she checked on me, I had accountability and I stopped procrastinating. Thank you, now if any things need to be done, I’m on it. I feel productive. If you need someone to bring out your best qualities and do it in a way that makes you calm and relaxed, then Coach Rita would be the person who I would recommend. I would like to put pen to paper and say thank you for coming around when you did. I know that there’s a reason for everything, however, we must move when we are supposed to or the opportunity would go away. Thank you for moving and directing me to move!"
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