In this episode, Dr. Connie Schumacher, RN, PhD and Associate Professor at Brock University, explores how nurse-led conversations can support people with chronic illness to manage their health, avoid emergency department visits, and live well at home. Drawing on over 25 years of clinical experience and current research into caregiver burden and chronic disease, Dr. Schumacher offers practical insights into relational nursing, mutual care planning, and why communication is a radical act of care.

For more information visit: radicalnursetalk.com

In this thought-provoking episode, Dr. Elise Tarbi invites us to move beyond traditional models of clinical communication and explore the deeper, more human side of nursing. Rather than focusing solely on information delivery, Dr. Tarbi emphasizes the relational and existential aspects of serious illness conversations — the kind of dialogue that helps patients and families feel truly seen and heard.

A board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner with advanced expertise in hospice and palliative care, Dr. Tarbi is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of Vermont and Associate Director of the Vermont Conversation Lab. Her research centers on improving the quality of communication in serious illness care, with the aim of reshaping healthcare to prioritize connection and meaning.

This episode is a powerful call to embrace high-quality, human-centred conversations in our practice — and to rethink what it really means to care. Prepare to be inspired.

For more information visit radicalnursetalk.com

How do you effectively communicate with people who require prolonged mechanical ventilation and thus cannot vocalize? How can we better connect with people who cannot speak for themselves? What assumptions do we have that need to be challenged? What practical tips and tools could improve and humanize communication and therefore patient safety - for you, the nurse and for patients and their families?

In this episode we hear how curiosity about these questions and others compelled Dr. Laura Istanboulian to explore interventions to support adult patient communication in the intensive care unit during and beyond. She eloquently describes patient, family and nursing perspectives that can deepen our understanding and praxis in important ways.

For more information visit radicalnursetalk.com