I left occupational nursing after six amazing years, but within a month of leaving, I started receiving calls from the people I’d left, asking if I was available to talk, to help. After about a year of these calls, I did some research on coaching as an actual business and stared LifeSync. Since opening I have had the pleasure coaching medical professionals, employees in the oil and gas industry, US government, business owners, stay-at-home moms, soon to be retirees and so many others. Never would I have thought I could actually make a living doing something I could love like this. Yes, I loved nursing, but there were some things I could’ve lived without. The most rewarding part of being a nurse for me was teaching the patient how to live better during and after a healthcare crisis. But ‘back then’ it was just that, teaching. Discovering coaching has brought out a new level of passion to help. I love seeing my clients grow past the things they feel are holding them hostage. Holding them back from living an amazing life!
I graduated from Southern University in 1995 with a Bachelor’s degree in nursing. Since that time, I’ve worked in specialties such as neurology/neurosurgery, mental health, chemical dependency, and home health. I have been fortunate in my nursing career to have worked in some rather interesting areas. One was working several years with the Louisiana Department of Health in the Program Integrity Unit as a nurse analyst. This unit was responsible for investigating Medicaid fraud, often working with agents from the Louisiana Attorney General’s office, Office of the Inspector General, FBI and DEA. A most interesting time for sure! After leaving the health department, I was offered a position at one of the world’s largest oil and chemical companies as an occupational health nurse. During my time there I learned so much about occupational medicine and how to help the employee stay safe and healthy. Occupational nursing is much more than helping the injured employee keep working and to return to work, responding to medical emergencies within a refinery, or organizing travel vaccines and annual flu shots. For me, it was ability to actually coach employees to better health, physically and emotionally. I was able to sit in my office, as long as they needed, without interruption and work on a plan for a healthier more rewarding professional and personal life. We were able to set attainable measurable goals and schedule times to meet and discuss progress on the goals, to determine if they were being met, needed to be changed or dropped altogether.
