🪔 A Flourishing Nursing™ story · Care for the caregiver
When the Chiropractor Needs a Nurse Practitioner
A firsthand reflection on nursing leadership and protecting staff sleep.
By Flourishing Nurse Ninja Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM · October 16, 2026
🧭 On this page
A personal recollection from Nathanael’s time as Clinical Administrator at TrueNorth Health Center (April–November 2023 · Santa Rosa, California). His professional relationship with TrueNorth began with a nurse practitioner internship in December 2018. This is former employment, not a current affiliation. The full approved career account lives on the About page, so it is not repeated here.
🤝 About this title. It echoes our Dr. Ron Weiss story, When the Physician Needs a Nurse Practitioner, told on Kitchen Monk as Your Nurse May Notice Something Important. In both, the point is collaboration: every clinician, whatever their title, sometimes needs a colleague who notices what is hard to see from where they stand. It does not suggest that chiropractic practices must employ nurse practitioners, that a title determines anyone’s competence, or that nurse practitioners replace physicians or specialists.
🪔 Who nurses the nurse?
Lifestyle medicine teaches restorative sleep, stress management, nourishing food, movement and connection. I believe in those principles, and I keep asking a simple question: how are they applied to the clinicians and staff who deliver care?
Flourishing Nursing™ grew partly from noticing moments when the people caring for others needed care themselves. This is one of those moments, offered as an invitation into flourishing rather than condemnation.
📞 A phone that rang at shift change
While I was working in a management role at TrueNorth Health Center, I noticed a routine that seemed small but mattered. Here is what I remember, kept separate from what I know today:
- 👀 What I remember observing: a phone-system practice caused unnecessary ringing that affected the night-call nurse around shift change.
- 🛠️ What I remember helping change: I worked with the team to change the phone system so that this needless disturbance would stop.
- ❔ What I have not verified: whether it still works that way today. I did not measure sleep or health outcomes, and I am not identifying the nurse.
Why tell it? Because it is concrete. A routine could be changed, and someone noticed. One improvement does not describe an organization’s overall employment practices, good or bad; it simply shows what nursing leadership can look like in an ordinary week.
💬 The question I asked on October 16
On October 16, 2026 (4:00 p.m. Pacific), Plant Based Support held a members-only online event, Can Fasting Extend Your Healthspan?, with Alan Goldhamer, DC. I submitted a written question about employee wellness: specifically, the health and well-being of staff, including night-call staff. My concern was the clinicians’ own sleep and working conditions.
Thank you to Plant Based Support and the facilitators who made the conversation possible and invited questions.
🌙 What I was still hoping to hear
As I understood the response, the discussion returned to patient benefits and the fulfillment of clinical work. I appreciated the discussion of sleep and stress, and I was disappointed that I did not hear the practical staff-focused answer I had hoped for.
The satisfaction of helping a patient heal does not answer a question about a clinician’s own opportunity to rest.
This is my recollection and perspective, not a transcript. If the official recording becomes available, I will review that exchange before saying anything more about the exact words. The talk also covered fasting research and other medical topics that this page does not summarize or evaluate; please rely on the organizer’s recording, the original studies and your own clinician for those.
🌿 Restorative sleep belongs to the care team, too
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine names restorative sleep and stress management among the six pillars of lifestyle medicine. My conviction is that these pillars are worth applying to the people who deliver care, not only to the advice we give patients.
My DipACLM is an individual credential. Nothing on this page describes any organization’s ACLM certification status, and ACLM has not reviewed or made any finding about the experiences described here.
🛠️ What would a direct answer about staff flourishing include?
Here are questions any care team can work through together:
- 📵 Which calls are truly urgent, and which can wait or go to an on-duty colleague?
- 🔁 Who owns each part of the handoff, and how is that confirmed?
- 🛏️ Can a colleague rest while appropriate clinical coverage remains available?
- 🗓️ Are meetings, training and other activities scheduled so they don’t cut into night staff’s sleep?
- ⏱️ How are interrupted nights considered when planning the next duties?
- 🗣️ Do staff have a safe, confidential way to report fatigue or suggest improvements, and do they feel their own health needs are heard?
These are discussion points, not descriptions of TrueNorth’s current arrangements. Any change to phone routing needs clinical and operational review so that urgent patient needs always reach someone.
📚 The resources behind these questions
NIOSH’s training for nurses on shift work and long hours describes employers and managers as responsible for designing work systems that reduce fatigue risks, and suggests scheduling meetings and training so they don’t cut into night workers’ sleep. These materials support looking at systems alongside personal habits; they do not evaluate the center described here.
🪔 Nightingale, mentorship and Flourishing Nursing™
Florence Nightingale taught nurses to observe and to care for the conditions surrounding health. I think of those conditions as including systems and routines, and of staff as whole people with their own needs. Sometimes a practical change, like a phone that no longer rings needlessly, is how compassion shows up.
Dr. Ron Weiss’s mentorship helped shape my understanding of nursing and lifestyle medicine. My own observations of what nurses need deepened it, and together those experiences helped give rise to Flourishing Nursing™. That is why this story sits beside his.
Dr. Weiss did not take part in the October 16 event and has not reviewed or endorsed this page.
🌿 Two stories, one commitment to care
The live event was listed as members-only; replay access may differ. The exact October 16 recording has not been verified, so it is not linked here yet.
🧭 About this reflection. Written by Nathanael from his own recollection and perspective. Current practices at TrueNorth Health Center have not been independently verified, and no person or organization named here has reviewed or endorsed this page. Factual corrections and added context are welcome. Last updated October 17, 2026.
🪔 Who Nurses the Nurse? · Sleep & Stress Learning Path
Choose a short starting point, look at the evidence, then discuss one practical change. Created by Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM. No registration is needed to read this guide.
1 · Watch with a clear question
Open the selected Alan Goldhamer recordings. The PLANTSTRONG #255 publisher transcript places daily sleep habits near 4:13 and the Alec Burton sleep anecdote near 1:14:03. These are approximate transcript times, not independently checked video chapter boundaries. Ask: what is the speaker actually describing, and who is the advice about?
2 · Distinguish the kinds of evidence
| Material | Useful for | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Goldhamer interviews | Understanding his general-health views and anecdotes | Do not establish TrueNorth staff conditions or workplace outcomes |
| CDC/NIOSH shift-work education | Examining workload, schedules, recovery and fatigue risks | Needs adaptation through local clinical governance |
| AHNA toolkits and research directory | Finding staff well-being resources and research to appraise | Access and evidence strength vary by item |
| Nathanael’s first-person story | Understanding the experience that inspired this resource | Personal recollection; no measured outcome or present-day audit |
3 · Pair personal support with workable systems
NIOSH’s organizational strategies address schedules, time off and psychological work conditions. Its work/home demands guide considers physical, emotional and cognitive workload alongside recovery demands. Explore AHNA’s free toolkits and source directories for complementary staff-support ideas.
4 · Run a respectful team conversation
Ten-minute discussion: identify one avoidable interruption; confirm urgent coverage and handoff responsibility; ask night-call colleagues what would help; choose a small change; name an owner and review date. Use aggregate feedback and preserve patient privacy. This is a suggested discussion format, not a validated assessment or a guarantee of results.
🖨 Download the one-page rest checklist · Read the checklist online · Read the personal story separately
5 · Find the right next resource
Free public guidance: CDC/NIOSH and AHNA public resource pages. Source-linked research: inspect each abstract and full-text access label. Membership access: AHNA describes journal access as a member benefit. Paid education or services: verify training, CNE, certification and consultation fees with the provider. YouTube viewing does not award a professional credential.
AHNCC explains nurse-coach credentials. Education providers, professional associations and credentialing bodies have different roles. No individual coach’s credential or opinion is verified by being mentioned in this discussion.
📖 The Book of the Lamp and the writing journey · 🤝 Suggest a future caregiver-wellness topic. Please omit patient details and private employment records. An invitation into flourishing rather than condemnation.
Updated October 17, 2026. This independent learning path is educational and does not imply participation or endorsement by featured speakers or organizations. The exact October 16 PBS replay is still awaiting verification.
🎬 Alan Goldhamer · Selected Sleep & Well-Being Discussions
A focused selection of recordings with identifiable sleep-related discussion. These are older recorded interviews, not a live broadcast or the October 16 PBS replay. The full interviews also cover other topics; the topic links below help locate relevant passages. New videos are reviewed for relevance before inclusion rather than automatically pulling an unfiltered channel.
🌙 PLANTSTRONG #255 · Sleep, daily habits and a clinician’s sleep anecdote
Alan Goldhamer discusses sleep among daily health habits, and later recounts an anecdote about his mentor Alec Burton’s own sleep concerns during supervision of very long fasts. This is a historical anecdote, not evidence about TrueNorth employee conditions or an occupational-health program.
▶ Approx. 4:13 · sleep among daily habits · ▶ Approx. 1:14:03 · mentor’s sleep-deprivation anecdote · Publisher’s episode and transcript. Times come from the publisher’s AI transcript and may differ in the video.
🌿 PLANTSTRONG #142 · Sleep in the wider lifestyle conversation
The publisher’s transcript includes Goldhamer discussing sleep as part of healthful living. This is a broader patient and general-health conversation, not a staff-wellness presentation. The publisher also marks a rest-during-fasting section at 44:30; medically supervised fasting rest is different from workplace fatigue management.
📝 Work demands, sleep and stress · written companion
Mastering Diabetes E36: publisher’s transcript contains a discussion of work demands encroaching on sleep and the burden of commuting. A matching YouTube recording has not been verified, so this entry is labeled written material. These are general observations, not an assessment of TrueNorth employees.
Employee-health videos: no recording specifically addressing TrueNorth employees’ sleep, stress or well-being has been verified for this collection. Use the nursing-resource library for staff well-being and occupational-health context.
Open a recording and press Play; sound and playback depend on YouTube and your browser. Speaker opinions and anecdotes are not individualized medical advice. Educational pairing does not imply endorsement. Source relevance checked October 17, 2026.
🌙 Protecting the Night-Call Nurse’s Rest
A team discussion checklist by Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM. Start with one avoidable interruption, agree on a safe change, and review what happened. This is an educational planning aid, not an assessment of any named employer’s current practices.
1 · Map the calls. Identify which calls need an immediate clinical response and which routine messages can wait for the incoming shift. Keep an effective urgent-response pathway at all times.
2 · Name the responsible clinician. Document coverage start and end times, the handoff recipient and backup escalation. Confirm responsibility has transferred before changing routing.
3 · Test the phone workflow. With authorized staff and test calls, check day, night, shift-change and backup routes. Do not use real patient details in testing or public examples.
4 · Protect recovery. Ask staff whether scheduling, workload and call expectations allow a realistic opportunity for rest. Review fatigue concerns with nursing leadership and occupational health.
5 · Make reporting safe. Offer a clear way to report avoidable interruptions and fatigue. Include the affected night-call staff in designing changes.
6 · Review a small pilot. Assign an owner and review date. Track aggregate routine interruptions, urgent-call response and staff feedback without collecting unnecessary personal or patient data. Stop or revise changes if clinical coverage is compromised.
Team worksheet: Interruption to address: ______ · Coverage owner: ______ · Backup: ______ · Change: ______ · Start: ______ · Review: ______ · What improved or needs revision: ______
Evidence resource: CDC/NIOSH: work organization strategies for nurses. NIOSH describes organizational responsibility for reducing fatigue-related risks. This checklist is our practical discussion framework, not a validated instrument or a NIOSH-endorsed tool.
🪔 People who helped light the path
Dr. Ron Weiss: mentorship and the connection between lifestyle education and everyday care. Alan Goldhamer, DC: education during Nathanael’s time as Clinical Administrator and questions prompted by the October 16 presentation. Barbara Porter, RN: Nathanael’s first nursing boss and an early influence on his nursing journey. These are personal acknowledgments, not endorsements or announced collaborations.
▶ Explore the PBS replay collection · 📖 Explore The Book of the Lamp and the writing journey
📖 A lamp for the caregiver
Who notices when the person holding the lamp needs rest? A compassionate system makes room for that question—and gives the team a practical way to respond.
An original reflection written for this resource, not a quotation or excerpt from the published book. Explore The EVERgreen Chronicles™ — The Book of the Lamp through our books page. A verified book excerpt can be added separately with its edition and page reference.
An invitation into flourishing rather than condemnation.
🌙 Put caregiver rest into practice
Open the PDF and use your device’s Print command. The checklist is an educational planning aid, not a validated instrument, regulatory standard or demonstrated intervention.
Replay status · October 17, 2026: the Plant Based Support replay collection is linked and embedded on our Plant Based Support page. The exact October 16 Alan Goldhamer recording has not been verified yet; once it is, it will be featured first there, above the general collection. A YouTube upload collection is not a live broadcast.
