Tess: Well, Rebecca and I have been friends and gym-buddies for a long time. We talked a LOT about nursing and found ourselves talking twice as much as exercising…
Rebecca: Yes… and we continued our conversations after the gym… solving the world’s problems… and we kind of laughed about having our conversations on some kind of radio program for nurses.
Tess: yep — and then around the same time, I met Andrew when he was a student of mine in the family nurse practitioner program… and I knew he had a lot of tech knowledge along with connections with people in the tech world.
Rebecca: And I remember you said that we ought to have a radio show… you said that years ago… and I said, ‘over my dead body will I do that — there was no such thing as a podcast!
Tess: — when I was driving home from the gym one morning, thinking about our conversations, I called Andy and asked him about podcast — whether he had connections that we could get this done… and he immediately said “yes”… well… and there we went.
Andy: — Tess was/is a mentor, I’d never met Rebecca until we started Friends of Flo, but now they are the sisters… I don’t have siblings… I listen to them speak, I think wow, I have to listen to them because they carry this… this knowledge and wisdom — like, years of their stories and experiences —
Tess and Rebecca together— Andy/Andrew!! We’re not that old!!
Andy: — those experiences that you bring to the table — that I listen to and learn from.
Tess: Oh Andrew… perhaps Andy brings something to the table too! Right, Rebecca? He is always agitating and innovating…
Rebecca: Yes! I am amazed at Andrew’s knowledge — his empathy for his patients, and his passion for teaching and his leadership skills.
Florence Nightengale
With respect to the formidable Florence Nightingale, we quickly realized that our passion for Nursing reflected Nightingale’s tenets. That is, Nightingale intentionally positioned herself, through education and connection with social, political and religious activists to become a social reformer, herself, with particular interest in statistics and educating women to become trained nurses. Among her foundational writings, Notes on Nursing, remains as pertinent today as it was when published 160 years ago. As nurses, scholars, and friends, we professionally aim to base our work on increasing the social, political, and spiritual awareness of our sisters and brothers in Nursing in the collective healthcare of our society.