Timeless Topics

Timeless Topics
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Timeless Topics is an unscripted space for reflection, reckoning, and reconnection hosted by three neonatal nurses who show up first and foremost as people. In each episode, we dive into the real-world challenges, soul-level questions, and timeless truths that shape our lives inside and outside the NICU. From trauma-informed care and advocacy to vulnerability, burnout, and belonging, no topic is off-limits. We don’t come with scripts or solutions. We come with curiosity, compassion, and a shared commitment to care deeply and live fully. Because who we are is just as important as what we do.

  1. 4d ago

    039: Balancing Humanity with Technological Innovation

    Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss everything from thermoregulation (one of Jessi’s favorite soap box topics) to AI to the seemingly global drain on individual capacity. The rise of tech in healthcare/everywhere is making us more connected in theory, but in reality, seems to be driving us further apart. Star Wars makes another appearance and we even bring the Jetson's into it! We're grateful you're here with us. Reflection prompts for this episode: What are your thoughts on AI usage in healthcare? How do you manage the increased cognitive load we all carry? Resources we mentioned during this episode: Negative Bias: Why We're Hardwired for Negativity  How Artificial Intelligence Is Shaping Medical Imaging Technology: A Survey of Innovations and Applications - PMC       Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    039: Balancing Humanity with Technological Innovation

  2. Oct 26

    038: Evidence-Based Practice vs Evidence-Influenced Practice with Markus Wilken

    Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we are joined with Markus Wilken, founder of the Feeding Tube Dependency Institute, established in 2005. He holds a Ph.D. in psychology. During his time in high school, he was taking care of children on the autism spectrum. During his time as a college student, he came into contact with families struggling with feeding tube dependency of their babies. Since then, he developed, established, and evaluated a home-based tube weaning program. The needs of babies, small children, and their parents have always been the basis for guiding families through an intensive weaning program. Because about 50% of feeding tube-dependent families show symptoms of pediatric medical traumatic stress in the aftermath of intensive treatment, he focused on early trauma treatment in the last five years. To support these families, he developed a treatment program for traumatized babies called Affective Revival. His newest focus is on trauma-preventive care. Markus has published numerous research papers and is collaborating with clinics around the world. During our conversation we talk about how integral play is to survival and learning and the over focus on protocols in a lot of healthcare settings. We are grateful you are here with us.  Reflection prompts for this episode: How do you feel about the use of over protocolization happening in medicine? How has the environment changed since your childhood? Do you feel like the environments are safer? Resources we mentioned during this episode: Perspectives in Infant Mental Health  Psychodynamic Treatment for Infants with Feeding Tube Dependency  Early full enteral feeds for preterm or low birth weight infants | Cochrane Mitochondrial Disease Diagnosed Following Preterm Birth at 29 Weeks of Gestation and Postpartum Heart Failure: A Case Report and Literature Review - PMC The Preterm Phenotype – Dieter Wolke Infant Driven Feeding - Dr. Brown's Company Delivery room intubation and severe intraventricular hemorrhage in extremely preterm infants without low Apgar scores: A Japanese retrospective cohort study - PMC Intubation Attempts Increase the Risk for Severe Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Preterm Infants-A Retrospective Cohort Study - PubMed Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    038: Evidence-Based Practice vs Evidence-Influenced Practice with Markus Wilken

  3. Oct 19

    037: Using Community Engagement to Revive the Soul of Healthcare

    Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss exhaustion, burnout, and how end stage capitalism is ruining the soul of healthcare. Sounds like a delight, right? Don't worry, we come full circle like we always do and remind everyone there is still hope even when it feels impossible. Promoting engagement, community, and plain ol' caring about another person help turn this ship around! Reflection prompts for this episode: Reflect on the legacy of the clinicians/individuals who helped shape you. How do you pay it forward for others? How do you manage engagement and work-life balance? Resources we mentioned during this episode: The Trauma Stewardship Institute Nurse Workload and Missed Nursing Care in Neonatal Intensive Care Units | Nursing | JAMA Pediatrics Standards for Levels of Neonatal Care: II, III, and IV | Pediatrics What does ‘late-stage capitalism’ really mean? UC Berkeley professor chronicles an ‘apocalyptic’ history       Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    037: Using Community Engagement to Revive the Soul of Healthcare

  4. Oct 12

    036: Reaffirming Humanity in the NICU with Dr. Natalie Duffy

    Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we are joined by Dr. Nat Duffy! We discuss the importance of centering the humanity in neonatal care. Her work on the baby's lived experience is truly a must read! Dr. Duffy is a neonatologist working in neonatal intensive care and emergency infant retrieval medicine in Melbourne, Australia. She is the Medical Lead for the Infant and Family-Centered Neurodevelopmental Care Special Interest Group and has co-authored Victorian statewide guidelines in this field. Nat is a Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) Trainer with NBO Australasia, teaching healthcare professionals across Oceania and internationally. She is also a co-author of the Newborn Traffic Light Tool©, an educational resource designed to help clinicians recognize and respond to infant communication during painful and stressful experiences. Nat has a particular interest in infant mental health and improving not only the physical health of hospitalized infants, but their developmental, emotional and social wellbeing. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne, using qualitative methodologies to explore the infant’s lived experience of neonatal intensive care. Her research has been published across neonatal, developmental and infant mental health literature, and she is an invited speaker at national and international conferences. We are so grateful you are here with us. Reflection prompts for this episode: What are some ways you affirm humanity in the NICU? Reflect on the last time you communicated with one of your neonatal patients. What did you learn? Resources we mentioned during this episode: The lived experiences of critically ill infants hospitalised in neonatal intensive care: A scoping review 360-degree phenomenology: A qualitative approach to exploring the infant experience of hospitalisation in neonatal intensive care - ScienceDirect A study of the infant's lived experience of neonatal intensive care Synactive Model of Developmental Care - NIDCAP Articles Effect of parental touch on relieving acute procedural pain in neonates and parental anxiety (Petal): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial in the UK Nurse Workload and Missed Nursing Care in Neonatal Intensive Care Units - PubMed     Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    036: Reaffirming Humanity in the NICU with Dr. Natalie Duffy

  5. Oct 5

    035: We're All in This Together

    Welcome back to Timeless Topics! This episode is a bit of a spicy one! We talk about the siloing in neonatology and the lack of camaraderie amongst neonatal organizations and clinicians. We're all in this together, y'all! We make our way to conference design, stepping out of your comfort zone, and of course ego and capitalism. We are so grateful you are here with us. Reflection prompts for this episode: What are the ways in which you foster camaraderie amongst your neonatal peers? How are you managing the increased cost (in all the ways it can be measured) of being a person currently? Resources we mentioned during this episode: Premedication for Nonemergency Endotracheal Intubation in the Neonate | American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Report  Value-Based Care | CMS Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice Caring Science as Sacred Science - Teaching Series - Watson Caring Science Institute Nursing's global covenant with humanity - Unitary caring science as sacred activism - PubMed   Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    035: We're All in This Together

  6. Sep 28

    034: Permission to be Human with Lottie King

    Welcome back to Timeless Topics! We are excited to have Lottie King join us for this episode. We discuss everything from neuroscience to the NICU experience for grandparents to respectful curiosity and remind everyone that we all have a nervous system in the end. Lottie is both a NICU and a surviving twin mum, she founded Leo's in 2018 in memory of one of her twin boys who passed away. She's worked developing and building a unique lived experience led organization in the North East of England and has dedicated the last four years of her life to understanding the neuroscience behind trauma and the role of the autonomic nervous system. She now runs and delivers neuroscience and lived experience based training to healthcare professionals through @NICU_Neuroscience. We are so grateful you are here with us. Reflection prompts for this episode: What micro deposits of safety have you left recently for your patients, their families, and your peers? Do you feel like you are able to show up as your full human self in your personal and professional lives? Resources we mentioned during this episode: Lottie King (@nicu_neuroscience) • Instagram photos and videos TIP 2.0 - 2026 What is Polyvagal Theory? Minority Tax on Medical Students: A Review of the Literature and Mitigation Recommendations - PMC The Spoon Theory Standing at the Edge Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    034: Permission to be Human with Lottie King

  7. Sep 21

    033: Micro Deposits of Safety to Decrease Medical Mistrust

    Welcome back to Timeless Topics! In this episode we discuss everything from how clinicians manage their emotions when they feel like a family does not trust them to using micro doses of safety to combat mistrust to the vibes of varying relationships in the NICU. We are so grateful you are here with us.  Reflection prompts for this episode: Reflect on a recent time where a patient or their family did not trust you or the system. How did you handle it? How do you manage receiving constructive feedback especially when it stings? Resources we mentioned during this episode: https://publications.aap.org/journal-blogs/blog/31715/Medical-Mistrust-Distrust-and-Trauma-The-Impact-on  Medical Mistrust: A Concept Analysis - PMC  Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington: 9780767915472 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books The Black Angels by Maria Smilios: 9780593544921 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books The (intractable) medical ethics of Dr. J. Marion Sims: The historical record set against his ethics - PMC 5 Whys: Finding the Root Cause | Institute for Healthcare Improvement     Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    033: Micro Deposits of Safety to Decrease Medical Mistrust

  8. Sep 14

    032: Relationship Building to Promote Safe Partnership with Katrina Moline

    We’re excited to share our first guest episode of season three of Timeless Topics! Katrina Moline, Executive Director for Hand to Hold, joins us for some circle time. Her courageous vulnerability makes this episode a must listen! We discuss everything from posttraumatic growth to including parents in rounds to the relational ecosystem of the NICU.  Katrina became Hand to Hold’s Executive Director in 2024 after joining as Operations Director in 2018. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Communications from Texas State University. Katrina first connected with Hand to Hold in 2009 as a peer mentee following the birth of her son at 24 weeks, later becoming a peer mentor herself. Before Hand to Hold, she spent 14 years as an Account Manager at Screen Solutions, Inc. Now, she focuses her talents on a mission close to her heart, advocating for NICU families and supporting better outcomes for babies and their families.  We are so grateful you are here with us. We start the episode with Katrina sharing her son’s birth story and fuel for her NICU parent support work. Reflection prompts for this episode: How have your family-centered and trauma-informed care practices evolved? Reflect on the rounds for one of your recent patients. Were the family present and encouraged to participate? Resources we mentioned during this episode: Hand to Hold    2026 NICU Mental Health Conference - Hand to Hold    Virtual Family-Centered Rounds Promote Parent Attendance, Infant Outcomes | AAP Journal Blog | American Academy of Pediatrics Postpartum care in the neonatal intensive care unit, PeliCaN: a randomized controlled trial - ScienceDirect  Do you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is timelesstopicsnicu@gmail.com. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

    032: Relationship Building to Promote Safe Partnership with Katrina Moline
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Timeless Topics is an unscripted space for reflection, reckoning, and reconnection hosted by three neonatal nurses who show up first and foremost as people. In each episode, we dive into the real-world challenges, soul-level questions, and timeless truths that shape our lives inside and outside the NICU. From trauma-informed care and advocacy to vulnerability, burnout, and belonging, no topic is off-limits. We don’t come with scripts or solutions. We come with curiosity, compassion, and a shared commitment to care deeply and live fully. Because who we are is just as important as what we do.

Information

  • Creator
    Timeless Topics
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Timeless Topics
  • Show Website
    Timeless Topics

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