Welcome to the Nurse Connect Blog!

Hi, I’m Jenn. I’m a nurse, nurse coach, educator, and the founder of Maul Wellness Co. I’ve been a nurse for more than 20 years, and much of my work in recent years has focused on hospital-based nurse coaching, exploring how coaching, connection, and whole-person support can change the experience of being a nurse from within healthcare itself.

Along the way, though, something began to expand.

The more I worked with nurses, the more I realized that what we need doesn’t always fit neatly inside the walls of a hospital, or even inside the label of nurse coaching. We need places to connect as humans. To talk about work, yes, but also identity, health, relationships, transitions, purpose, joy, and all the other pieces of ourselves we carry with us when we put on our scrubs.

Nurse Connect grew from that realization.

It doesn’t replace my hospital-based nurse coaching work. It widens the circle. Nurse Connect is becoming a space for the whole nurse and, just as importantly, the whole human behind the nurse.

Because I’m more than my work, too. I’m a wife, mom, yoga student, traveler, sometimes-successful sourdough baker, and fellow human figuring things out as I go.

And that’s a big part of why this blog exists.

In some ways, writing here again feels a little like coming full circle.

About seven years ago, I had a blog where I shared much more of my own journey: personal growth, things I was learning, challenges I was navigating, and plenty of figuring-it-out-as-I-went moments. I loved having a place to put words to what I was experiencing and, maybe even more importantly, hearing when something I shared resonated with someone else.

Years later, that same belief in the power of sharing our experiences showed up in a different way through the Nurse Connect podcast, where I had the privilege of creating space for other nurses to tell their stories.

And now, Nurse Connect is growing again.

Over the past few months, it has begun taking shape as a broader space for nurses to connect, reflect, and grow through conversations, Circles, resources, learning, and now this blog.

In many ways, this feels like bringing several threads of my work and life together.

I still believe deeply in nurse coaching, nurse well-being, and hospital-based nurse coaching. I believe nurses need spaces where they can feel supported, connected, and seen. And I believe healthcare can be different when we start taking better care of the humans who are doing the caring.

But I also believe we are more than nurses.

We are people trying to figure out careers and relationships and boundaries and purpose.

We are people making dinner, taking trips, reading books, growing gardens, moving our bodies, questioning our choices, laughing at ridiculous things, navigating transitions, and occasionally learning surprisingly profound life lessons from reusable grocery bags.

At least I am.

And the more I’ve thought about what I want Nurse Connect to become, the more I’ve realized that all of those things belong here.

So, what exactly is this blog about?

The short answer?

Life. Nursing. Coaching. Connection. And probably whatever else comes up along the way.

Some posts will explore nurse well-being, connection, identity, boundaries, self-compassion, transitions, or those moments when we realize something in our lives isn't quite working anymore.

Some will be practical. I’ll share coaching tools, questions, resources, and ideas you can use whether you are a nurse coach, someone interested in coaching, or simply a human trying to become a little more intentional about how you move through the world.

There will also continue to be plenty about hospital-based nurse coaching: what I’ve learned from bringing coaching into healthcare organizations, ideas for getting started, lessons from the messy middle, and ways we can support nurses differently from within the systems where they work.

And then there will be the other stuff.

A recipe I can't stop making.

Something I noticed while traveling.

A book or podcast that got me thinking.

A lesson from my garden.

Something funny.

Something hard.

Something that has absolutely nothing to do with nursing and, somehow, everything to do with being human.

Because I don't think our well-being exists in neat little categories.

The thread connecting it all

One framework you'll probably see woven throughout these conversations is The NURSE Framework:

N – Notice
Become aware of what you're thinking, feeling, experiencing, needing, or repeating.

U – Understand
Get curious about what is underneath it, with compassion rather than judgment.

R – Respond
Choose an intentional response instead of automatically reacting.

S – Support
Consider what support, resources, boundaries, or connections you need.

E – Empower
Take what you've learned and move forward in a way that feels aligned with who you are and who you're becoming.

Sometimes we'll walk through the framework intentionally.

Other times, you might not see the letters at all.

But the spirit of it will be here: slow down enough to notice your life, get curious about it, and choose how you want to move forward.

Connect. Reflect. Grow.

Those three words have become the heart of Nurse Connect.

Connect with yourself and with other people who understand.

Reflect on what you're experiencing instead of constantly pushing through it.

Grow into whatever comes next, without believing you have to have all the answers first.

And maybe that's what I want this little corner of the internet to be.

Not another place telling nurses how to optimize themselves.

Not another list of things you should be doing for your well-being.

And definitely not a place where we pretend to have everything figured out.

Instead, I hope it's a place where we can talk about the real stuff.

Where professional growth and personal growth can coexist.

Where evidence and experience both have a seat at the table.

Where we can have meaningful conversations about the future of nursing one week and share a really good sourdough recipe the next.

Where being a nurse is an important part of who we are, but never the entirety of who we are.

I’ll continue sharing opportunities to go deeper along the way, too, through Nurse Connect Circles, podcast conversations, courses, coaching resources, and whatever else this community grows into.

But mostly, I want this to be a place to gather the pieces.

The professional ones.

The personal ones.

The profound ones.

And the completely random ones.

Because they're all part of the story.

Welcome to the Nurse Connect Blog.

I’m really glad you’re here.

Connect. Reflect. Grow.