Timeless Topics

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 | CochraneMitochondrial Disease Diagnosed Following Preterm Birth at 29 Weeks of Gestation and Postpartum Heart Failure: A Case Report and Literature Review - PMCThe Preterm Phenotype – Dieter WolkeInfant Driven Feeding - Dr. Brown's CompanyDelivery room intubation and severe intraventricular hemorrhage in extremely preterm infants without low Apgar scores: A Japanese retrospective cohort study - PMCIntubation 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 [email protected]. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

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 InstituteNurse Workload and Missed Nursing Care in Neonatal Intensive Care Units | Nursing | JAMA PediatricsStandards for Levels of Neonatal Care: II, III, and IV | PediatricsWhat 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 [email protected]. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

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 review360-degree phenomenology: A qualitative approach to exploring the infant experience of hospitalisation in neonatal intensive care - ScienceDirectA study of the infant's lived experience of neonatal intensive careSynactive Model of Developmental Care - NIDCAPArticles Effect of parental touch on relieving acute procedural pain in neonates and parental anxiety (Petal): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial in the UKNurse 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 [email protected]. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

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 | CMSEquity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and JusticeCaring Science as Sacred Science - Teaching Series - Watson Caring Science InstituteNursing'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 [email protected]. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛

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 videosTIP 2.0 - 2026What is Polyvagal Theory?Minority Tax on Medical Students: A Review of the Literature and Mitigation Recommendations - PMCThe Spoon TheoryStanding at the EdgeDo you have feedback or suggestions? You can find us on social media as @TimelessTopicsNICU, and our email address is [email protected]. Please share with your friends and colleagues! -Jessi 🖤, Tracey 💙, and Mary 💛