Watch The Episode

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In This Episode

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Highlights

• Jen’s journey from small-town ERs to the epicenter of a global pandemic—and how intuition became her compass.
• The science behind “gut feelings” in medicine: why intuition is more than just a hunch.
• Real-life stories of acting on instinct before the evidence was clear—and the lives it saved.
• The hidden toll of nursing: grief, trauma, and the patients who live rent-free in a nurse’s memory.
• How trusting intuition can be a tool for mental health and burnout prevention.
• Navigating skepticism: what to say to colleagues, doctors, and doubters about the legitimacy of intuition.
• Practical advice for new nurses on listening to their own bodies, setting boundaries, and seeking support.
• The importance of therapy, community, and self-compassion for those who give everything to their work.

Resources

• Jen Johnson’s website: www.nursejen.ca (that’s J-E-N-N)
• Book: Nursing Intuition: How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity, and Survive Your Career
• Scott Allan’s private readings, public events, and book: www.mediumscottallan.com
• Past episodes of The Enlightened Life: Podcast Archive
• Watch Scott on Dark Echo (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV in 2026)

Unedited Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01.998)
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to know? Truly know what’s happening with someone before the tests, before the charts, before anyone else. My guest says sometimes all you need to do is listen, not just to your patients, but to the quiet voice inside yourself. Tonight we meet Jen Johnson, a wife, mother of two, and a veteran ER nurse from Ontario, Canada.

After 16 years on the front lines, found herself facing more than just medical emergencies. She endured heartbreak, witnessed the best and worst of humanity, and served the relentless pressure of a global pandemic. Through it all, she discovered something unexpected. The power of intuition, that gut feeling, the one that whispers a warning or offers a nudge became her most trusted tool.

often guiding her to act before the evidence was clear. intuition isn’t just a hunch. Jen’s here to share the science behind it, how it changed her own nursing practice, and why she believes it could save not just patients, but nurses themselves from burnout and despair. Her new book, Nursing Intuition, How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity, and Survive Your Career, is a rallying cry for every nurse who’s ever felt alone.

darkest days. How do you find hope when the world expects you to be unbreakable? And is it possible, even now, to bring back the love of nursing? This is The Enlightened Life. I’m Scott Allen. And tonight, we listen to The Voice Within.

Speaker 1 (01:59.95)
Jen, is such a joy to have you here with us today. Welcome to the show.

Gosh, thank you so much for that intro. I’m like riveted

I want to listen. What’s next?

want to listen what’s happening now.

So, you know, I’m hoping you can take us right back to when you first realized your intuition was guiding you in the ER. What was that like? You know, how did you respond to it?

Speaker 2 (02:22.968)
Yeah, I remember looking back and you know, I’d gone from my first job, which is a really small hospital where it was just me in the ER as the nurse and then a physician to we had moved and then we moved into this very large epicenter. And you know, you’re seeing 80 to 100 patients in 12 hours. And I remember sitting at triage and you know, you’re making life or death decisions within five minutes.

every single person that you’re seeing and so I remember sitting there thinking you know I think I’m gonna play a game I think I’m going to just try and guess what people are coming in with just to see if I can keep myself a little bit entertained keep myself engaged and and goof off a hundred percent this is before they well so this would be they were standing in the waiting room waiting to be triaged but they hadn’t talked to me yet

before they actually showed up.

Speaker 2 (03:18.894)
I understand. So I would see them and I go, you know, someone’s clutching their chest. that’s pretty obvious. It’s chest pain or they’re holding their abdomen. You’re like, okay, abdominal pain. So I would try to guess just generically, you know, what are they coming in with? Just very, maybe just a system. Is it cardiac? Is it lung? it GI? What is it? And it was enough to keep me interested and going and to the point where then I was excited to

triage the next because I was pretty right with that one so let’s triage the next one and see what’s happening there and the more I did it the more it turned out to be like okay I was pretty bang on with most of these all right so let’s let’s up the ante a little bit let’s get a little bit more specific you know is it is it cardiac chest pain or is it lung chest pain or is it you know pregnancy related or is it maybe a little bit more something rare and again I just thought I was

at my job and that’s what was you know the thing behind it and so when you’d come across people then who you’re looking at them you’re like things are not adding up like I’m not feeling great about this it’s like okay let me just I’m gonna put in a little bit more blood work than we typically would order you know I’m gonna make sure to follow you through your ER journey I’m gonna triage you as somebody who may be a little bit sicker than I’m anticipating just because I feel like

there’s something missing. And the more I would get really good at that feeling, then those were the people who turned out to be really sick, like something was brewing, then a burst appendix or pancreatitis that very quickly turned septic and or somebody had a seizure that they weren’t even there for a seizure, like seizure complaints, they had no seizure history. And

So I thought, okay, I’m just really good at my job. Like, look at me go. I’ve done some reading. I’ve gotten some extra certifications and here we are. So let me just do this. And it wasn’t until pandemic hit, I ended up writing down some stories for my kids to kind of, know, heaven forbid I passed during the pandemic. How do you explain to kids that mom chose to continue to go to work?

Speaker 2 (05:42.464)
I thought, let me just write down my stories. And it was only after looking back at those stories going like, my gut rang off in every single one those scenarios. And, and here were the consequences. And so I thought, I looked back, I’m like, I’ve been doing this for years. And just thinking it was a game. It was just kind of the most fun revelation that I thought, okay, let’s see what happens.

Yeah. So you mentioned listening to your body, right? So what are some of the physical signals or sensations that tell you something might be off even be able to test for data, confirm it.

Yeah, usually the most obvious one is just a heaviness in your gut, like a really true, all of a sudden, just this really uncomfortable, heavy gut feeling that it just makes you kind of stop and go like, am I nauseous? Am I not feeling well? Like, if you weren’t understanding that this was your body just trying to talk to you, you think, maybe I’m coming down with something, maybe all of a sudden, I’m not feeling too well. Yeah.

And so that’s how it starts. And I found the more you go into it, you don’t have to wait for kind of such a big signal. then becomes, know, your so I’d be at triage and questions would just kind of pop into my head. And I would find I would ask them without even thinking where it wasn’t a conscious effort to, know, this is the next question I want to ask. This is the next question I want to ask. All of a sudden, I’d go on a tangent with something.

where I wouldn’t these wouldn’t be typical questions that I’d ask at triage you know when you’ve got five minutes here I am going down into like family histories and like you know what what about you know social aspects and stress and and this kind of stuff going down on a side path I’ve had it where you know an ear rings and it’s enough to kind of make you stop and go okay like what’s happening around me then

Speaker 2 (07:46.262)
something’s up. And I’ve had it where I’ve been walking down the hallway, there’s patients lined up in our hallways, unfortunately. And I physically stop in front of a patient where I wasn’t meaning to stop. And so I go, okay, why have I stopped? And here’s the patient, I’m going, I don’t like the look of this, like what’s happening here? And when you actually stop and look a little closer, are their breathings a little bit off?

their color is not so great, like, don’t know what’s happening, but let me get more information. And it turns into something where somebody has a second set of eyes on them and we all go, oh, no, this isn’t right. This isn’t where this person is supposed to be. They’re supposed to be on a cardiac monitor and with some oxygen and they don’t have that in the hallway. So let’s move them.

Gosh, yeah. Do you get that when you’re not at work? Do you get it? know, people ask me all the time, do you see dead people in the grocery store? Do you get that when you’re out shopping or when you’re just around other people?

I do. Yeah, it’s less prominent. I feel like it’s because I kind of go into work mode when you cross through the doors, it’s almost like, okay, I’m allowing these things to happen. Here’s my boundary. I’m opening up a little bit. I choose to let this in a bit. But there will be people or things happening around me where, you know, then my regular intuition kicks in my, you know,

any woman over the age of 12 knows this feeling intimately as in you walked into a room, it’s a party, a lot’s going on, but yet there’s some guy in the corner and he’s kind of looking at you and without saying one word to this guy, you’re like, absolutely not 100 % factor. I’m out. Yeah. And, you know, that’s, that’s more related to just my safety. And that’s why we trust that aspect of it. But it’s,

Speaker 2 (09:47.022)
Absolutely everybody has that. It’s just unfortunately women are much more attuned to it as we’ve been, you know, you’re always looking out for your personal safety whether we realize it or not.

Well, and not just your personal safety. let’s just say, mean, you get children, right? Yes. How do you differentiate between mom intuition and nurse intuition? You know, because sometimes what you know, or the feelings that you have for people you love and care about are very similar. The information is similar. So it’s sometimes hard to decipher where it’s coming from.

Yeah. And again, it’s just another level of, you know, that’s the mom brain side. Not to say that my judgment with my kids is 100 % medically, because there have been times where I’ve, something’s happened and I go, my gosh, we got a little hospital and I go, okay, wait a second. Let me imagine myself at triage, somebody else brings my child in. What would I do?

right? If I was allowed to laugh them out of the ER, I’d laugh them out of the ear. Okay, okay, I’m fine. We’re good. This is nothing like I actually have to take myself as a mom situation. Right, right much and and you just go down a whole side path of really random things. So it

perspective, you understand what people are dealing with when they come in. Absolutely. Yeah. How do you balance trusting your intuition with the need for evidence based practice in this? I mean, the emergency room is, it’s kind of a high stakes environment. So how do you balance the two?

Speaker 2 (11:17.464)
Huge.

Speaker 2 (11:30.998)
Yeah, I, I’m always taking it with a grain of salt. I’m always going to act on it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m always right. I could I could be a little bit hypersensitive to the situation, you know, other people’s emotions are maybe clouding my judgment just a little bit, or their sense of urgency has somehow leaked into my sense of urgency. And being aware of personal bias.

You always have to be aware of your own personal biases and just make sure that that’s not something that’s clouding your judgment. You’re not putting somebody off because of ingrained beliefs that you’re trying to change, but unfortunately it’s hard.

I get that. I get that.

it’s just you’re you’re being aware of it you’re acting on it um because i would rather act on it and be wrong than not act on it and and have been right in the first place because acting on it is much sicker.

I get that. was gonna say, but were you ever acting on it when you’re wrong? Have adverse reaction.

Speaker 2 (12:46.944)
No. So funny enough, the science says that, if a nurse thinks that a patient is sick, and maybe they’re new, they’re learning what sick, not sick, really sick looks like, and they get the physician to take another touch point on that patient, even if they’re wrong, the patient’s not actually that sick, you know, maybe there’s a minor tweak in care, but just that patient or just that physician having another touch point on that patient,

still improves patient outcomes regardless of whether they did anything or not.

I understand, sure.

Yeah. So it’s sorry. It’s, it’s really, you know, no harm, no foul. Okay, still improving. Even if you even if you’re wrong, and still have the physician look at the patient, you’re still improving patient outcomes. So it’s like, why not?

Go ahead, I’m sorry.

Speaker 1 (13:41.848)
Yeah, yeah, it’s not like you’re, it’s not, it’s not like you’re gonna use an extreme case here, but it’s not like you’re taking the paddles to them when they have a common cold and everything else is fine. No, you know what I mean? It’s not like that kind of thing.

Fun fact, we don’t use paddles. Well, they’re there in case of worst case emergency, but we actually have huge stickers, size of like your palms. One goes on the front, one goes on the back and it hooks up to the machine and you shock them through there. So we don’t typically use the paddles anymore. I wonder if I could use the paddles.

I watched his-

Speaker 1 (14:19.598)
Oh my god. So okay, so I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a minute. And trust me, I’m into this stuff because I do what I do. Right? People look at me with, you know, like I have three heads. But you talk about the science behind the intuition. Has anyone actually done research or created findings that support the idea that intuition is a legitimate tool for nurses?

So not only is there so much information on intuition, but so much information specifically on intuition in nursing. It is a very, it’s a very well known tool within nursing, but it’s very hush hush. It’s very, you know, 20 years ago, we didn’t have the science to support it. I mean, we had some, but not nearly to the extent that we do now. And so, you know,

we talk about it, but at 3am on a night shift, you know, you’d be finally get all your patients tucked in and then it’s like, hey, what happened to that guy last week with the chest pain? my God, you know how my gut rang off off about that? He da da da da and then we did da da da da da. And you know, we actually got him to the cath lab and Tom we saved his life. It was he came back the other day and thanked us and it’s like, okay, well now I’m getting goosebumps and and okay, so it’s a very

you know, we just don’t talk about it. And that’s truly the problem. You know, if I hadn’t had one professor in university say one time off hand to, she said, trust your gut. And like, that was it. It was totally off topic. She didn’t expand on it. She went off onto some other lesson. And had she not said that, I don’t know if I would have bit into this as hard and as fast as I did.

I get it. more I talk about it, the more people open up, the more people have their own stories, and it’s like, okay. Clearly, you know, this was me meant to do this. The book, at least the majority of the stories, and most of the basic information with intuition, it was written in six weeks. I don’t remember writing it.

Speaker 1 (16:41.198)
Isn’t that crazy?

I remember waking up really early and staying up really, really late, but I don’t for the most part remember writing any of it. And again, most of it’s my stories. So it’s, it’s trauma that I’ve a hundred percent blocked out and didn’t deal with, but it’s, it was there and it, clearly needed to come out. And the more I, I do go around and speak to it.

when people say, well, is there science background? I’m like, yes, there is all this science. And so we’re taught if there’s science, we should be teaching it. So if somebody’s gonna teach it, let me teach it.

So what do you say to skeptics who argue that intuition is just hindsight or luck or whatever it is they believe that it is and this is no real science that goes along with it.

Sure, I mean, you have your right to your opinion. I’m not here to persuade you one way or the other. I can say, here’s my book, read it, have at her. I can say, here’s like the 20 plus science, you know, peer reviewed within the last five years, scientific evidence behind me. You can talk to any other nurse who’s been working.

Speaker 2 (17:58.894)
Statistically, it’s critical care that tends to trust their intuition more for the simple fact that they just don’t have time to second guess themselves. And of course, then they end up being right. So then it becomes this tool that they rely on. But talk to people, talk to nurses, anybody who’s been in it more than five, 10 years, talk to them. Be like, hey, if you’ve had an instance where you’ve trusted your gut, you’ll get stories. Go to somebody else, you’ll get stories.

It’s just something that we all do that we just don’t realize that we’re doing.

So was gonna ask you this and maybe you just answered it, but do you have to convince colleagues or supervisors to take intuition seriously or it’s just kind of that’s just part of it?

No, the toughest part usually is physicians. If there’s a physician that I don’t know or is new to the department, they don’t know me, they don’t know my background. You know, it’s you, you tend to say things a little bit differently. So it’s then it’s, you know, I’m just advocating for this patient, or I’m just not sure what’s going on. Could you help me out? You know, you

change your tune depending on who you’re talking to. If it’s one of my regular docs that I’ve been working with for years like, hey, my gut screaming at me, I don’t want this person to die. Can we go? They understand that I don’t stand there and say, you got to see this person now, unless I truly mean it. They go, okay. They don’t even ask me if I’m sure it’s just like, okay. they kind of…

Speaker 2 (19:34.826)
stop whatever they’re doing and they they know and we go they know and the docs the docs call it spidey sense and that’s acceptable that’s an acceptable curse

call it.

Spider, spider,

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Might be sense. So you’re like, well, if that’s an acceptable term, why isn’t like intuition or trusting my gut? right, right. So sometimes it does take the new physicians time to learn. Because again, that’s not being it’s not being taught in medical school either. At least they’re they’re teaching, you know, trust the nurses. But when when I’ve got a new doc that I’m saying, hey, you got to come see this patient, they’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, in a minute. I’m like, well, okay.

I’m just gonna chart MD notified, no new orders received, and any nurse who reads that in the chart knows exactly what that means. It means I’ve advocated, I got put off, but I’m charting to say that I advocated.

Speaker 1 (20:32.44)
That’s right. Good for you. Wow. Have you ever had intuition lead you astray?

Speaker 2 (20:41.442)
I mean, there’s been plenty of times where I thought, you know what, think there’s, you know, I just, there’s something else going on kind of thing. And it turns out that no, it’s just your average complaint. There’s been one time where, you know, I thought it’s night shift. This like 16 year old comes in super drunk, just so drunk. He’s not even really responding to us. I’m like, okay, here we go. It’s Friday night, whatever.

So we’re getting them all hooked up. He’s puked everywhere. And I’m like, I’m going to leave you in your puke clothes. You can have at it. This is going to be a learning opportunity. Really gave him the gears, like super gave him the gears. It was horrible. was a nurse ratchet to the nth degree. And the brother comes in and they he starts giving it worse to the kid than I did. I’m like, thank God. Family’s on board. Yes. Fantastic.

So the kid finally wakes up, he’s finally coherent and he goes, oh, well, what time am I getting out of here? I’m like, dude, it’s like four in the morning, stay put, you’re not even walking steady just yet, just hang on. He goes, no, I know, like, I gotta go to work and all these other things. I’m like, what are you talking about? He’s like, well, this isn’t a big deal, I’ve been drunker than this before. I’m like, and that hit me. I was like, whoa, what do you mean drunker than this before? He goes, I’m like, I haven’t seen somebody this drunk in a long time.

goes, Oh, I’ve been drunk and business before all the time. Like, when was the last time he’s like, I don’t know, three days ago, like three days ago, like, how often he goes out a couple of times a week, couple times a week. Like, how long goes well, three months, six months. I’m like, what happened three months ago? He goes, Oh, I, I watched my dad die in our kitchen. Oh, oh, and so I finally it all clicks and I go.

holy crap, you’ve got PTSD. You can’t sleep unless you have, unless you’re blackout drunk because the, you’re getting nightmares and you’re waking up and you can’t sleep and you’re scared to sleep unless you’re, you’re, you’re blackout drunk. And I thought, holy crap. It’s awful. It’s awful. So I’m like, okay. So now our whole, my whole plan that I thought I had about my patient.

Speaker 2 (22:59.904)
we’re turning on its head. So now all of sudden, I’m like, man, we got to get social work involved. We got to do all these things. Excuse me. And so I go to my doctor and I’m like, hey, that drunk kid, goes, yeah, yeah. And he would say the same thing I would, you know, some offhand comment. I said, ooh, about that. We got a, I’m like, here’s what happened. This is what I just figured out. The brother didn’t know the older brother had kind of stepped into doubt foot

footprints, it was a larger family, mom was struggling, the whole family was struggling. And it was a culture where nobody was talking to each other. Everybody was internalizing. So I’m like, that’s okay. So I told my doc, I’m like, Hey, can we get x, y, z, blah, blah, blah, all these people involved, and especially because he’s 16, he’s still a kid, a pediatric. So we’ve got all this extra support. So let’s get them hooked up with everybody goes, Yeah, we’ll do all the referrals. I Perfect. Go back in, the kid still wants to leave and all this and

I’m like, well, you know, okay, now you’re kind of walking a bit better and you’re a little bit more coherent. Now that I know exactly what’s going on, I said, okay. And to the brother, I said, did you know that this was going on? goes, I had no idea. I said, okay. So I said, I’ve never done this before. I said, here’s my number. Call me, text me if you need anything. Please. I’m here. Please, I’ll

just make sure that I can support you and whatever you need. So they never ended up calling, they never ended up texting. It was just one of those things where I’m like right place, right time, but I came at it from the absolute wrong angle to start. So it was a good life lesson, but again, you never know what somebody’s going through.

Yeah, but you know, talking about situations like this burnout, I’m sure is a huge issue for nurses. I know it was for me in the funeral business. How do you think or do you think that developing intuition can help nurses preserve their mental health?

Speaker 2 (25:07.182)
100%. If you could, if you could put a stop to the situation that potentially will live rent free in your head for an entire career, if you don’t have to carry that patient, because you acted because you intervened because you didn’t, you didn’t let the doc say no. And you avoided a traumatic, awful scenario.

If that’s one less patient you have to carry, I’m in because I’m carrying at least four, if not more on a daily basis. Was there anything I could do for most of those? No. But if I don’t have to add to it, that would be fantastic.

So if nurses already, when I say buy in, I can’t think of a better word, buy into intuition, understand that that’s part of it, who is the book for?

The book is for newer nurses, especially those coming in. The learning curve from degree to department is just 100 % straight up. They focus more on kind of bringing you into the language of medicine and what your role is without then giving you a lot of the support systems that you actually need to last. Grief, we never talk about grief.

I grieve my patients. How can you not? We don’t talk about therapy or how important it is. We don’t talk about just all the soft skills that can help you really not be swallowed whole by your career.

Speaker 1 (27:01.378)
Yeah, I get that. get that. Yeah. For for those coming in that want to develop their own intuition, where can they start? I mean, obviously your book, right? But yeah, where can they start it off?

A great plug, I love it.

Shameless.

They can start just by, you know, there’s really only two steps. There’s really just figuring out that your body is telling you something. So be a little bit more open to when something feels off. You know, if you’re getting that feeling that you would in a party when you’re, you know, the creep factors up and you just you’re just not into it. If that kind of sensation is coming around, but you’re at work.

And there’s nobody really around you that you would kind of have that feeling about. Then just give it a minute. Just give it five seconds. Instead of immediately dismissing it, just give it five seconds. Just to say, okay, I understand that this is happening. What is it trying to tell me? And take a look around. Like physically look around. What is it about my environment that is causing my body to ping me?

Speaker 2 (28:21.654)
and to say, better like heads up, you’re missing something, pay attention. And to kind of always work, I mean, especially in the ER, like I operate on the fact that I’m always missing at least five to 10 % of the story, if not more, for a variety of reasons. But, you know, people lie.

and it may be an omission, may be overt, it may just be that they don’t know what medications they’re taking or what time they took them or what’s happening. So you’re always missing something. So to operate on that basis is a great place to start. And then when you get that twinge and you say, okay, here’s the five seconds, what am I doing with this? You know, just look around and see if there’s anything.

anybody that you don’t feel great about. Like is it a situation? Is it a patient scenario? Is it how a patient looks? So you you can kind of get, as you know, grey, waxy, green kind of colouring, purple, you know, maybe the skin tone has changed and it’s very subtle but your your guts picking it up before you do.

Because your mind’s constantly processing so it’s processed that and said holy crap something’s changing and is letting you know so Once you figured out what’s going on It’s just a matter of are you gonna do anything about it or not right and and just being very intentional about being open to fail and And saying that you know, I have to be okay with failing because this is another tool. It’s another skill that takes time

to learn and take time to hone. If you don’t want to go straight to the doc, cool, not a problem. Go to your charge nurse or somebody else who’s got 10, 15 years in, go to them. And somebody you trust and say, hey, I just don’t know what’s happening with Mr. X over here. Could you come and take a look? We do that all the time. I do that all the time, where it’s just like, I just don’t know if I’m missing something or if I’m being overly sensitive, let me know. And so somebody else comes in, sees a patient,

Speaker 2 (30:37.486)
who they probably haven’t seen already and then they’ve got a clean slate. go, ooh, no, don’t like this scenario. Let’s get the doc. Let’s do this, that and the other. And you’re like, okay, I was on the right track. Let’s go with that.

One last question. When it comes to trusting yourself, looking back now, looking back on your career, is there anything you wish you would have done differently?

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:08.138)
Hmm. I know that there was, you know, one of the first patients who died that was actually under my care. That we’re pretty sure it was a pancreatitis that perforated and they went septic very, very quickly. They died within five hours. And they’d already been on admitted onto the floor. They they were there. And I had pushed for the doc to come because I thought something was up.

The vital signs were changing, the patient suddenly ground out in pain. But I was so new and the doc kept putting me off and putting me off and putting me off. And it took them hours to come in. By the time they came in, they still kind of dragged their feet on seeing my patient. And by the time they saw them, they’re like, my God, yeah, he’s sick. Let’s move him into the cardiac room and we’ll work them all up. And then within an hour,

He’s on medications to bring up his blood pressure, which is never a good sign. Within another hour, we’re doing chest compressions. Within the next hour, he’s dead. So I took that one to heart. Like I didn’t push hard enough. Knowing what I know now, I did push hard enough. I called the doc like four times as a brand new grad, which is a lot.

know it wasn’t until I quit that job five years later that that doc kind of said to me like don’t let anybody know tell you that you don’t know what you’re doing and without context I thought I know exactly what you’re talking about and I can’t believe that you waited five years and for me to leave to tell me this because I’ve been in my head for the last five years about what I could have done better.

It’s gotta be hard, you know? It’s got to be.

Speaker 2 (32:56.744)
So awful. I wished that at the time, I would have had the guts to say to the doc after everything was said and done, before the end of the shift, this is on you. I wish I would have had the guts to do it. Would it have changed anything? No. Did I have the balls to do it? No. Would it have changed anything? No. But

I wish that I would have pushed so that I would have potentially gotten that validation earlier, because that would have changed a lot for me in those first five years. Like the first five years were awful, like to start, but yeah, I was, I was pretty pissed.

Yeah, I would imagine. What else would you like to shoot with our listeners? Anything we haven’t talked about. This is your time.

my gosh. I’m proud of you for getting through the pandemic. You did it. We’re working our way through. It’s time that we all take a really serious look at how much damage it did mentally. Because again, we’ve pushed it off and we haven’t dealt. So I challenge you to go find a therapist or see the one you’re seeing and just dive into it just a little bit.

just to take a little bit of the edge off because I know as nurses, we all put it off. I can’t even imagine what the general public did to cope. So take the time to celebrate the fact that you got through it and that you did what needed to be done. And just…

Speaker 2 (34:50.606)
Yeah, trust your gut. It’s not just nursing. It’s not just, you know, in a bar. It’s every day. It’s in business. It’s in deals. You know, if you don’t feel great about a business deal that’s about to go through, well, why not? There’s a multitudinal way of doing things. And sometimes we just have to pick our head up and out of our phone to figure out that there’s a lot more going on.

Beautiful. Thank you, Jen. It’s been pleasure having you on. And I want to thank all of you for joining us on this heartfelt conversation with Jen Johnson. If Jen’s story resonated with you, I encourage you to visit her website at www.nursegen.ca. And that’s J-E-N-N. To learn more about her work and her new book, Nursing Intuition, How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity, and Survive Your Career.

you enjoyed this episode, I’d love for you to check out our other conversations on the enlightened life. can find past episodes on my website at www.mediumscotalan.com on YouTube and everywhere that podcasts are shared. And if you’re curious to see more, you can now watch me on Dark Echo streaming on Amazon Prime Video and coming to Apple 20 TV in 2026. So for those seeking comfort, connection or clarity, I offer private readings and public events. All the details are on my website.

website. You’ll also find information about my book in the presence of light a funeral directors journey from morning to mediumship which is my personal story in the lessons I’ve learned along the way. So thank you all for listening for your openness and for being part of this community until next time take care of yourself and keep seeking the light we’ll see you next time.