The Functional Nurse Podcast - Nursing in Functional Medicine · Brigitte Sager, DNP

Interview with Lindsay Vanderstraeten, MSN, BSN, RN

·55 min·3 clips

Lindsay says ayahuasca in Peru was 'life-changing' after she felt she couldn't reach internal healing.

1. The Functional Nurse Podcast interview centers on Lindsay Vanderstraeten's move from critical care nursing into functional and integrative medicine. 2. Bridget Sager hosts Lindsay Vanderstraeten, MSN, BSN, RN, who brings 14 years of experience in the emergency department, ICU, and critical care transport. 3. The episode asks how a nurse trained in high-acuity care can build a future in functional medicine without abandoning bedside nursing. 4. Lindsay says two siblings with special needs and repeated hospital stays made nursing feel like the clearest way to help people. 5. She describes going straight into the ER as a new graduate, then spending five years there before moving to ICU for a different critical care skill set. 6. Lindsay says cardiac ICU was a major part of her practice, but burnout pushed her to add per diem critical care transport during COVID. 7. She says transport felt different from the hospital because she could teach EMTs, focus on one patient, and have deeper conversations. 8. Lindsay explains that yoga helped her back spasms, meditation helped her across many areas, and those experiences pushed her further into holistic care. 9. She says she went to Peru twice for ayahuasca and also worked with psilocybin and an indigenous medicine woman from Colorado for two and a half years. 10. Lindsay says she entered the Functional Medicine for Nurses program in cohort 12 and is currently in the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy nurse coaching program. 11. She says nurse coaching changed her from telling patients what to do to deeply listening and letting them find their own wisdom. 12. Bridget notes that the patient, not the nurse, is supposed to be in the driver's seat in coaching, and Lindsay says she is still learning how to switch hats. 13. Lindsay says ICU and ER experience taught her that Western medicine is strong for trauma and emergent surgery but much weaker in prevention and promotion. 14. She connects hospital work with constant alarms, sleep disruption, and stress for both patients and caregivers. 15. Lindsay says she used an aura ring and discovered that she had almost no restorative time during the day even when she thought she was resting. 16. She says she now uses breath work, mini yoga timeout moments, and her own body awareness to help patients and EMTs manage stress. 17. The conversation on scope of practice includes California's rules, the 2020 law change that took effect in 2023, and Lindsay's plan to keep reading the fine print. 18. Bridget and Lindsay discuss integrative health centers, functional medicine clinics, nurse coaching, and how California's NP environment could shape Lindsay's future practice. 19. Listeners interested in critical care nurses moving into functional medicine, coaching, and integrative health will likely want this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a purely technical pharmacology or procedural episode may skip this one.

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