Finding Your Voice as a Nurse With Andrea Dalzell

Finding your voice as a nurse is challenging for some of us. And sometimes, whenever we try to speak up, something gets in our way.

Sometimes, we listen more to others than ourselves. We fail to listen to our voice and we forget that we even have one. We are caught up with so much noise and what people tell us to do.

But it is time we start listening to our own. We must find our own voice and speak up about what we want. How can we do that? Is there a process? What happens when we find our voice?

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Andrea Dalzell, also known as @theseatednurse. She studied biology and neuroscience while earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Andrea was diagnosed with transverse myelitis at the age of 5 and began using a wheelchair full-time at the age of 12. She is an advocate and inspiration to many nurses around the world.

QUESTIONS FOR GUESTS

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know. Looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off your questions and wherever else our conversation goes.

1. Can you give us a quick bio about yourself?
2. What was one of your biggest struggles in becoming a nurse?
3. How difficult was it to be a nurse or land your first position in your situation?
4. How did you find your voice through your disability? 
   • “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Access”
5. How are you advocating for creating more diverse and inclusive nursing environments?
   • Disability is the fastest and largest growing minority in the world. Without disability inclusion, we could be limiting opportunities for our future selves.
6. What is some advice you have for women who roll?
   • Nursing can seem intimidating or unattainable to someone who uses a wheelchair because of the physical demands, but that doesn’t mean they are out of reach. 
   • The misconception comes with the fact that a disability means you’re incapable. Not true.
7. What are the future goals that you’re pursuing? It can be nursing or broad. 

ENDING QUESTIONS

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests. If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be & why? 

Catch Andrea on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at @theseatednurse.

You can also check out her website https://www.theseatednurse.com/ and connect with her through her LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-dalzell-bsn-rn-b17a75b6/

Find your voice by clicking on the full episode here 👇

TIME STAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
02:01 Going through life with a disability
05:53 Life, liberty, and the pursuit of access
07:10 Bias in Healthcare
12:09 Advice for overcoming fear and adversity
17:17 How to solve roadblocks in nursing
25:47 Overcoming the feelings of judgment
30:52 Other success stories
32:26 Finding acceptance and what is normal
39:07 Creating change for people with disabilities
41:09 How other countries accommodate disabilities
42:24 Managing time while in NP school, building a nonprofit, and starting a new career
46:55 Coffee with grandma one last time and role models
49:33 Wrapping up the episode