San Diegan offers free video series for nurses

City News Service

Special to Valley News

As COVID-19 continues to take its heaviest toll in the health care industry, a San Diego nurse attorney, author and veteran of the AIDS crisis is offering nurses a free video series to help them survive the new pandemic.

Lorie Brown put together the video series to provide tips for nurses on the front line of the coronavirus fight. It features 18 experts who provide advice such as keeping up immunity, getting better sleep, practicing mindfulness and understanding nurses’ rights.

“I wanted to bring them the best experts that I can,” Brown said. “Being a nurse myself, as well as an attorney, I know what it's like to deal with the stress of exposure to illness while still wanting to provide the best care possible to patients. I was a nurse at St. John’s Hospital (in Santa Monica) at the height of the AIDS crisis. Multiply that times a thousand, and you can only begin to understand what nurses across the globe are going through right now. I wanted to do something to help nurses get through their day, armed with a new perspective, an enlightened opinion or maybe just a fresh glimmer of hope before entering into the front lines of COVID health care once again.”

Brown is the author of three books and is president-elect of the American Association of Nurse Attorneys. She founded Empowerednurses.org in 2012 to help nurses protect their licenses while learning “to speak their mind, stand in their power and be a change agent to improve health care.”

The video series is called “COVID-19 Video Survival Guide for Nurses and Health Care Practitioners” and is available at https://www.empowerednurses.org.

The speakers include Gabrielle Traub, a homeopathic nurse; Mady Stovall, an oncology nurse practitioner and moral injury specialist, and Dr. Alexander Stemer, an internal medicine and infectious disease specialist.

Other topics include yoga instruction, depression, meditation and legal advice.

Brown has worked for the state of Indiana in medical malpractice defense and for a private law firm. She started Brown Law Office, P.C. in 1999 as a legal consultant. She represented nurses and other health care providers before licensing boards.