The ProLife Team Podcast | Episode 4 with Shawn Zierke & Rachel Owen | Super Nurse

Listen to Shawn and Rachel talk about the ideal super nurse for a pregnancy medical clinic.

Expert Guests:

Shawn M. Zierke, MBA, MPH – Policy, SHRM-CP

Rachel Owen, Executive Director of Informed Choices – Medical Clinics

Jacob Barr :

Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast this is our episode where we’re going to explore why you, the Executive Director of your center or clinic, want a super nurse on your team we’re going to talk about the benefits and the logistics and the details. And I would like to introduce Sean, who is a incredible talented and seasoned expert in this area. And so, Sean, please introduce yourself and then we’ll invite Rachel to introduce herself.

Shawn Zierke :

Thank you Jacob. I have been in this industry professionally since 2006 Converted pregnancy counseling center to a medical clinic went on to with Rachel form informed Choice of Iowa. All on the basis of. Making sure that we were truly giving an abortion minded woman an informed choice unlike Planned Parenthood who sure they do ultrasound but they would never show you your baby. That has been something that’s been very passionate about of mine to be medically on the same level but offering pro-life Christ centered care and so. I do have a Master’s in Public Health policy in the MBA and social entrepreneurship and have applied that education to my work experience in pro-life nonprofit so I’m going to talk about the RN apprenticeship in women’s ambulatory health for pregnancy, health, medical clinics and why that’s the next level for your organization awesome.

Rachel Owen :

Excellent, excellent well, I’ll jump in here, Jacob. My name is Rachel Owen and I’m the Executive Director of Informed Choice of Iowa. Sean was here for a year or so and helped us get started and then I jumped in and took over. That was about 13 years ago or so and we have been able to, you know, expand this amazing program here to others. Other cities in Iowa, about 5 different cities and the mobile clinic. So God has been, you know, busy we give all the glory to God. And then I’ve also helped other clinics get started. About six others get rolling in the nonprofit and also in a medical format. To stand in the gap for women who are headed to the abortion clinic, you know, to really provide for them full medical care so that they could have an another choice, you know, it’s that informed choice they can truly have all the information they need to make the choice that’s right for them. So that’s what we do we come alongside and do that and I’ve been able on and off, been working with Sean for years. On these different projects and we are so excited for what we’ve been able to put together and what God has helped us it’s been that kind of the perfect timing with this beautiful internship program.

Speaker 1 :

So, well, awesome. It’s a so Sean, tell me apprenticeship internship so, Sean, tell me about what are the benefits of a super nurse in your opinion or a nurse who has these 10 special specialized skills? What are the benefits to A Prensing clinic in your opinion?

Shawn Zierke :

Well, first, it probably would be good for us to talk about what each one of them are and why they benefit so first of all, I’m just going to talk about what an apprenticeship is recognized by the Department of Labor. If you’ve ever been around an electrician or a plumber or welder, you know what a journey worker is and you know what an apprentice is. Having an apprenticeship in Healthcare is new, especially because an RN already has their license. But the original part of developing an apprenticeship it for RN’s is there is such a skills gap when they came out of school, that was identified. And so that’s where Truemont was the first in the nation when we had an opportunity to use a grant through CARES Act funding to recruit nurses. Through registered apprenticeship, we then created this specialty in partnership with Truemont. And so not only you get the core competencies for nursing, which is a hundred and fifty one hours of online training, but they work 2080 hours they’re already working in your clinic and that’s the OJT and then we added on certifications which really differentiate the specialty and create that super nurse so the first one. Because we were having young women come in that if they’ve been raped and had been within 120 hours of the rape, we would have to send them to the local emergency departments, our policy and where they would of course be offered Plan B they would not get christ centered trauma counseling and it’s a missed opportunity so we added Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner certification and. I incidentally just found out that in the state of Florida, there are only 44 Sexual Assault Nurse examiners in the entire state for 20 million people. And so the opportunity to partner with law enforcement that they know that your medical clinic is now an integral part of the community, that if a young woman they encounter is raped, then they can bring them. To you, instead of a busy emergency department, Rick, you What do you think kathy, who has her own story, is a nurse, is excited about this.

Rachel Owen :

Yeah, we are super excited about this program overall in our own hometown here in Iowa City, there are about 5 rapes reported to the Police Department every year and there’s about 368 reported to the rape advocate. Advocacy group so that’s what you call a rape culture that’s where girls are not reporting these rapes. We have it at one time or another we’ve had two or three come in one day that have been raped. And so for us to be able to provide these services right here right then so that they don’t have to go through the trauma of going to the ERA busy room with, it’s going to be amazing we have an incredible nurse who’s also has her own story. Of going through rape and redemption and forgiveness and all of that beautiful story that God takes with the enemy meant to destroy us and turn it for good, right. And so she is so excited to get, you know, her fingers into this and get rolling with this. We have a perfect place to pilot this and we’re really excited about that training go ahead, Sean. You have something.

Shawn Zierke :

To add. A lot of young women come in and then they don’t. They’re hesitant to report the rape because they think it’s going to go on their insurance and their parents are going to find out. And one thing that executive directors need to know is that your state Attorney General’s office pays for these exams. And so and in Florida it’s 500$ an exam for the sexual assault exam.

Speaker 1 :

Is that in what what what? Is that in most states or just in some states?

Shawn Zierke :

In every state it is the office of the Deputy General I. The amount varies from state to state and what they compensate. But in Florida it’s 500$ an. Exam and the cool thing for us in Iowa at Informed Choice Informed Choices medical clinics is that. We had with that grant the opportunity to purchase equipment and we thirty thousand dollar top of the line system for video interview charting and the culpa scope for doing the full forensic exam. So not only trained nurses, but the proper equipment to do that role as well.

Rachel Owen :

And it’s. Yeah and it comes with the training for that so our nurses are super excited and it’s not even, you know, you might think it might be overwhelming i want to encourage other directors in this realm it is not overwhelming it’s empowering and to have the support that goes along with those machine and then the training that goes along the same training i mean it’s empowering to your nurses. They want to have that continuity of care that is super important to a nurse and to, and it should be to you too as the executive director to want to have continuity of care not only in the ministry part of what we’re doing, but also in the medical care for their body so we’re ministering to them, spirit, soul, body right there, and we’re fulfilling that need that’s there.

Shawn Zierke :

So another thing that of a certification that we have for the specialty is fertility education and medical management certification for telehealth and nursing and the teacher certification course. And why would you think that Femme would be important certification? Well, it goes along the same lines of having your clinic be integral part of your community. First of all, it’s natural family planning, and there’s an app that goes along with it you’re teaching your nurses to be able to be in the school should that opportunity arise. But even more than that, it’s natural family planning and hormonal care from adolescence to senescence. So if you’re already in a local church there, and you know that your pregnancy medical clinic has. Femme offered And your daughter is 16 and having your regular periods, why not send her to the femme counselor, The nurse that’s trained to teach their daughter about their body so that if they make a different choice down the road and find themselves in a situation with an unplanned pregnancy, where are they going to go? Their trusted clinic that they already have a relationship with? Or if you’re. You know a young grandma and you’re perimenopausal and you want good sound counseling, you can go to your local clinic as well and it just creates your clinics importance in place within your community, the pro-life community as well by offering those that type of care for femme. Kristen is the nurse down at Informed Choice. And she is certified as a teacher also. How is she using that, Rachel?

Rachel Owen :

Oh, you know, guys, it’s been incredible for us to see these young women come in the door and empower them and who they are right now, millennials alone are leaving the birth control pill by 30 % every year and they’re going to apps, They’re going to it right on their phone, right they’re tracking themselves. And of course this FEMA has an app that’s relevant to the Gen z’s it’s relevant to everyone up to paramedic clause, all that good stuff. And the cool thing is that they get really it’s a sound biblically place. I don’t know about you guys but I grew up in the evangelical world and when I got married you know it was it was the thing to go ahead and go on birth control. I did not know at that time that it was abortifacient. And that I was, and I was also feeding this whole industry of pro abortion and movement in our country by taking these birth control pills. And so I lucky for me, it did not agree with my system at all, in any way, shape or form and so I did my research and I started doing Natural Family Plan, I think 25 years ago. I just dated myself seriously there, y’all but it’s been an incredible road for me and I’ve been able to see once you understand how amazing your body is, what happens and I’m just, I know we got mixed group here Jacob but I’m telling you, when a woman understands that she is a Co creator with the creator of the universe and how amazing God has made us. By skipping over that beautiful education, we’re doing a disservice to our Christian women, being able to provide that and give them an empowerment in that what is amazing is that I want to protect my body. And when we teach young girls this at a very early age, we taught my kids and then many. I mean, right now it’s dozens and dozens of young girls have been taught through our clinic. And it’s been amazing. They want to protect so they’re not going to go out and have promiscuous sex i mean one thing that happens within this is it what’s taught is abstinence alongside of it and really delayed gratification and all of those the fruit that comes from that is incredible. So I highly recommend it in the in the faith-based community and what it does is exactly what Sean does said. It sets us up to be part of the community leader when it comes to those questions about sex. I mean just plain and simple about a woman’s health, about the reproductive system instead of planned Parenthood is on every school campus, every high school campus in the country, every college campus in the country. And we need to compete with that we need to become, we need to replace that. And so we have to become experts in that level and that’s what Femme does for us so training our nurses and femme is critical i cannot speak that. More directly or intensely to the executive directors out there, it is part of who you are and you’re going to be able to take back the narrative and in our country and create a cultural life like never before.

Shawn Zierke :

So the next thing that we added on was what most people do, which is limited obstetrical ultrasound, both the didactic and practical training and I. You probably don’t need to belabor that point. Then of course, if you’re not already doing STD and STI testing, you’re missing an opportunity. Because what do you do when you counsel someone with a negative pregnancy test? They are involved in risky behavior that’s why you do that inventory. So having nurses trained and certified in sexual risk avoidance. Strategies and sexually transmitted diseases, both the diagnosis, prevention and treatment protocols for both men and women is another area. And then to piggyback on the sexual assault nurse examiner part, something that’s new is human sex trafficking awareness for medical providers. And Rachel can probably talk more about the day-to-day of the patients that are coming in, but we already know who we’re seeing that have been trafficked or raped and so they kind of go hand in hand, but making nurses aware of what things that they may not realize, behaviors, a language, cues to tell you that someone is in your office who has been trafficked. Rachel can do you have an example about that?

Rachel Owen :

Oh yeah, this is super critical to. I’m just going to dovetail also the SV testing and how that plays a critical role in being able to be a safety net in your community for girls who are trafficked. We have had, we’ve had numerous girls come in the door who we’ve been able to help guide to get help to get out. Of a traffic or domestic violence situation because they come in for STD testing we’ve even had, you know, traffickers, they call them Johns or in slang would be pimp, you know, so these Johns would bring the girls in and we would be able to because our team was trained. To be able to see and acknowledge what was happening and be able to ask the right questions and be able to separate them and go through the whole process of really finding out what’s happening in her life. We’ve been able to rescue and get these girls into situations that can promote healing and healthiness. So again, what’s been amazing is I’ve even had nurses share the gospel with John’s people i mean, literally, I mean, these nurses, when they’re in their room, there’s like no whole bar they’re going straight after it they’re like, you know what i got you in here for a few minutes and you’re sitting here, I’m going to share the gospel with you and so it what it does is it boldens them to know, you know, they’ve got this training that just sets them right on fire so it’s kind of cool I’ve seen. Lots and lots of things and I highly recommend not only that the teaching of being able to identify trafficking and having an understanding of what’s going on in our culture, but also the Ste testing opens that door we share the gospel more in the STD room and then anything we do. It’s incredible it’s almost like a it’s a it’s a moment, it’s a come to Jesus moment, you know, and where they’re able. To open up to the nurses in a real way and they’ve seen what you know they can not only feel the love of God but they also see what’s been going on in their life and they don’t like it anymore because it’s setting them up for disease and death and they want to do a one eighty so we see lots of one eighty ‘s in that room.

Shawn Zierke :

And then the last three parts of the specialty certifications kind of cover what a lot of the clinics have. Patient advocates in the past due, but we wanted the nurses again and i’m going to when I switch back after talking about these, I’m going to ask Rachel to talk about how the her clinical operations model focuses on the nurse being at the center of everything. But the additional certifications are in adoption counseling information to referral training for nurses. So while they’re not at the legal level like Catholic Charities or other adoption services. We’re giving nurses training so that they can competently give options, counseling regarding adoption, social services and supports and enrollment and referral training so one of the services that inform CHOICE offices offers, excuse me, is presumptive Medicaid, which is prenatal care up to 16 weeks of pregnancy, which if you’re billing for services at least to Medicaid. That is, short of the delivery that is the largest revenue bringer for prenatal care is the diagnosis and initial establishment of prenatal care after 16 weeks while they’re waiting for their Medicaid approval. So teaching these nurses how to help them enroll in Medicaid, child care support services, SNAP if they should need it, Getting them connected with churches and other support groups. Or many of those other services. I mean Informed Choice of Iowa has their own programs also where they provide diapers and clothing and so on for these young women, not at the level there’s a lot of churches doing that in the area, but they still offer them. But those other social services and then the last one, Rachel actually developed the teaching for the program on his relationship coaching, which is a billable insurance component of health coaching. And so if you have the opportunity to continue those relationships with these young women for 10 weeks relationship coaching, you have that constant reinforcement of relationship and accountability that is Christ centered. So Rachel, talk a little bit about how the nurses are the center of the service platform model that you use.

Rachel Owen :

Yeah. Well, we have always been set up this way that really for an extended liability reason, but also for continuity of care with our patients. We have just seen this bear a lot of fruit over the years where they have the nurse and they stick with the nurse. So our patient advocate program actually takes a kind of a back seat to this because the nurse does all the initial counseling. So when that patient comes in the door, within 15 minutes, she’s already filling out the decision guide, which we use, the Ottawa decision guide. She’s sitting down with the nurse the nurse is answering her medical questions about abortion. She’s in meeting her needs right away because what comes off of that decision making guide is her needs and so the nurse is already able to meet some of those needs and that’s within the 1st, 15 minutes so what we’ve done is we’ve helped her take her feet here and set it aside so that she can see her baby, right? And she can clearly see because fear keeps us from seeing the truth, right. And so we want to keep that flow and that care. So we’ve always had the nurses do all of that plus. She’s asking medical questions you know, how far along can I have an abortion? What is the abortion procedures what is an abortion like when does the heartbeat start? And so we want that to be a medical professional answering those questions. And we’re a medical clinic and we want that to be a medical professional. And it also starts to build a relationship with that nurse. And we’ve seen when we first started our clinic here in Iowa City, we saw about 60 % of the girls would choose life. That was with seeing the ultrasound we’re in a very liberal college town here. And so that was pretty good when we added that the nurses did all the counseling from start to finish, they had that linear service in mind. Right, that we were going to be there for her and she was strong enough to do that when we added that. And then also the decision guide so the nurse could very pointlessly go through that linear service with her and literally find where her needs were and meet their needs before they went to the ultrasound room, we went up to 91 % of women choosing life. So we feel that it is the best model. I know it takes more money to hire those nurses. I know it takes for us, it doesn’t take much more energy because actually there’s more energy in training advocates. But what it is, but it’s critical i think it’s critical we’ve seen it’s empirically, statistically the data shows that it works. And so I just want to encourage. If anybody has any questions on that, they can ask Sean and I on that how that works. It really does and especially when you put a super nurse in there that’s trained and she’s in that room and she’s doing the counseling and she picks up that this was a product of a rape or that this girl’s been raped within so then she can immediately that continuity of care, she’s has her in there doing that exam and everything’s running smoothly and that girl feels loved and she is wrapped around and there is a time where we can really help pull that fear out of her so that she can feel the love of Jesus Christ right. And so I just feel like when we tossed these girls around from advocate to nurse to it create doesn’t create that security because why are they in this situation in the 1st place, Jacob? I mean, we’re they’re in this situation in the 1st place because. They have, there’s a loss of control in their life. There’s a, there’s a loss of there’s, you know, not only fear, but they don’t have the safety measures and in around them, right. And so we want to make everything safe and secure and that has been a game changer. I mean, 30 % is huge. So that is kind of where I stand that’s one of my soap boxes i know this. I get pretty passionate about it, but I feel like if we put a super nurse in those positions, we have some really amazing patient care that is focused and is pro-life and is saving women and babies every day.

Shawn Zierke :

And if you’re an executive director and you want to recruit nurses, what better way to do it with? Because this is nothing new to nurses are used to preceptors. Any new job they start and you know in a hospital setting for sure, they’re going to have a preceptor assigned to them for a period of time, at least three months and so and then we train our preceptors and mentors they have an 8 hour online training where they are taught about adult learning, concepts, nursing, leadership and culture and so and Kathy our nurse manager who went through that training there and it did inform choice, she tells you that it really helped her focus on her why and how to deliver that daily to Kristen and be a great coach for her. And so you want that because it helps people stay in their jobs so retention of nurses once you’ve got them in the door is very important. And if you don’t already offer professional development, boy this is the ultimate professional development for your nurses in your clinics and that’s why we did this so if you are strategic planning, you know you don’t offer STD or treating treatment and testing, but you want to then or you want to offer other services in your community, why not get your nurses trained and certified so that if you go to your board and your medical director, you can say, hey, we have nurses trained at the top of their licensure they are competent, you can trust them. How about we add this service and instead of hey we want to add this service, let’s scramble to get people trained. You know this way you’re training them. Nurses stay they’re engaged. And while you may not offer every one of these services right away, you’re poised to do so if you want to be triple A H C accredited because you want that street cred for your medical clinic in your community so that some pro abortion person can’t come shut you down, then having your nurses trained at this level. And then all you’re adding is quality improvement studies because I’m sure you’re peer reviewing your charts. I’m sure you are doing patient satisfaction surveys. So if you have quality policies and procedures, what else is there to seek accreditation not much. Those are the big things. But if you have highly trained staff, you can engage in that level of accreditation. But if you want to bill for services, even just nursing level services, it’s a little extra revenue. So there’s so many things that you can build on having highly trained nurses that are focused on the mission of saving lives and advocating for women at whatever point of crisis they are in their life.

Rachel Owen :

Well, and it just takes one little step at a time, Sean it’s nothing that we have to buy it off today it’s nothing we bought off in one day i mean we have been climbing this ladder of excellence from the beginning, one step at a time. You know, first we did accreditation for you know, and then it’s just been one step at a time and I will tell you, I wanted to add this to also about the nurses and STD testing one of the things I think people miss when they when they add STD testing to their crisis pregnancy clinics. Is that they don’t. I’ve just seen this mistake over time and I think we need to be very careful as a team to uphold and encourage each other. But it really has to be everything has to be facilitated by a nurse because you’re going off of a nurse to actually do that testing and to have it under the licensure of the physician, it has to be an A nurse assessment. She has to assess that they need the testing first. That can’t be done over the phone. It has to be assessed and then done in the office. And so when you have the nurse, the center of your care cycle, I mean she is providing all the care. What happens is that happens naturally and you’re protected by that does that make sense i mean it is it is really critical for us as. Crisis pregnancy, there’s not to just add STD testing in there without the nurse who’s doing all of the assessment in that.

Shawn Zierke :

So it’s at a critical point Jacob, what would you have us share that we haven’t already?

Speaker 1 :

First, I want to say I really love your heart and your excitement and you know, just the amount of the amount that you have poured into serving your communities through, you know, expanding and going beyond. The basics and I i’m also excited to see clinics follow in these footsteps So I have a couple of questions one is what is it like to get referrals from law enforcement when it and let me add on one other question is when it comes to when it comes to providing I think it’s called same what what’s it like to get referrals from law enforcement and what benefits. To the client who experienced a rape situation, what benefits does she receive at a Prezi clinic that she would not receive at an.

Shawn Zierke :

Well, I can answer the last part. The benefit of the pregnancy clinic is that you’re going to get Christ centered trauma counsel. So they’re going to be trauma aware, but you’re going to have the love and compassion of someone who is there for your benefit, not just because they are there for a paycheck. They are it is holistic, total Christ centered care, bottom line medical care. And now forensic care because of sexual assault, nurse exam is forensic medical care, but you’re able to look at the cues of wherever they’re at in whatever mental state they may be i mean, Rachel knows that there was a young woman who came in who was dealing with some serious mental health issues. So being able to have Kathy counsel for the mental health medication she was on with that Christ centered trauma care, right?

Rachel Owen :

Oh yeah, there’s just. I can’t tell you how when there’s trauma involved and dealing with medical professionals, how important that is as there is there administering their healing process, right. We’ve been really blessed here in our communities where we have some really amazing relationships with law enforcement officers. We have some really stellar law enforcement officers that are trained highly in trafficking, so we know how to we go directly to them when we have someone who’s been human trafficked and we have that relationship that goes back and forth, they’ll call and say, hey, you know what we’ve got someone that needs STD testing rachel or I have something here that’s a little suspicious i’m sending your way. Just, you know, that kind of a thing so also we have had police officers. We had one in particularly precious police officer who had a prayer meeting in our clinic. He invited all the pastors in town because he wanted all the pastors to know where to send their girls when they had girls who were experiencing trauma. When he had, they had girls who were experiencing unplanned pregnancies or STS or anything, he wanted them to know because this is where he refers his, these girls to what he meets on the street. And so it’s huge. It’s been really incredible and we’re looking forward to partnering anymore because we’re still, we’re still going through the training process on that we’re still getting started on all of that aspect, but we have these great relationships already that have been in the community through all the human trafficking work that we’ve done. And so God is, I’m super excited of the hospitals are excited, there’s the campus ministries are excited for us to be able to do these same, the same kids and everything, and we’re really, it’s going to be amazing what God’s going to do with.

Speaker 1 :

It sounds like essentially it’s adding up to helping you reach more women who need the clinic services, and it’s helping you service them. In a more complete manner such as when Sean was saying about the you know, the continuity, you know the care from A to Z continuity, I guess it is we’re essentially adding you know more angles and ways in which that client can be served and helped, which makes a lot of sense in order for and also the fact of having less people in that process by having the nurse. In there, you know, handling multiple parts allows for that rapport to be, you know, built and then used repeatedly, more so than having to pass someone to a different team member by essentially, yeah, leveraging that rapport that’s been built at that time. And that also makes a lot of sense.

Shawn Zierke :

Yeah you really, you know, patient trust, especially in these crisis situations, is so important and you cannot trust to that to have to rebuild again. You don’t know what their triggers might be. And so once you’ve developed that trust and rapport, you want to continue because your goal is to influence healthy behaviors and changes and decisions and you could only do that with that trust relationship that’s created as we all know.

Rachel Owen :

Well, and again, it’s really in the numbers i mean what we’ve seen the girls making positive decisions compared to not it had, I mean it was really through that continuity of care in that building and that rapport and that relationship keeping those nurses with that particular patient all the way through is critical like my nurses now they we don’t even have anybody else do any of the follow up phone calls or any of the packaging preparing our nurses. This is their patient and they see this patient all the way through and they’ll be doing the relationship coaching with them for 10 sessions and by the time they get done we have about 17 sessions that one patient can go through with that nurse. It can be from STD testing to pregnancy to ultrasound to femme training to healthy relationship coaching that’s about 17 sessions when they get done with that, they have a rapport and a relationship with that nurse. That nurse has called them monthly or called them weekly depending on where they’re at with their pregnancy and has been caring for them and providing for their needs.

Shawn Zierke :

And I’m sorry, Shawn, did you have a question that you want to add if because we’re running short on time i just want to say one thing because if I’m an executive director, I’m saying, OK, great, What if I want to do this? How do I pay for it how much do it cost who can I call? And if you’re not in Florida and under this grant that I have in Florida and you’re not trying to go work for Rachel in Iowa, then you need to know that in your state Truemont can provide this through your office of apprenticeships, workforce boards, your state level offices. Because the incumbent worker training grants through Weowa, the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act, which those are available in every state and they will pay for the 9000$ of this apprenticeship if you work 32 hours a week if your nurses are full time at least 32 hours a week, it’ll take them 15 months to do through the OJT and finish the whole program. They get a national certification from the Department of Labor and from their state. But the incumbent worker training, if you have less than 50 employees then not only do they pay for the training, they pay for a portion of the salary, typically 75 % up to 25$ an hour of a thousand forty hours or half the OJT time. So you have salary offset to up to nineteen thousand five hundred dollars in a year so you can’t afford to do this. And if you’re interested, you can reach out to me through Truemont because I am a clinical liaison for this specialty apprenticeship program. And if you want to know how to implement it and roll it out, you need to talk to Rachel Owen at An Informed Choice of Iowa.

Rachel Owen :

Well, and Sean, I know I get a lot of these questions too people are like, well, is this a federal grant and now are you getting federal money? But really this goes through Tremont, right?

Shawn Zierke :

It goes in Florida, it goes through Tremont but if you’re in a different state than Florida or Iowa, you would actually be receiving local funds, potentially state level but most career source or workforce boards are locally run by local boards and so that would be local a non governmental organizational funds. If it is state level, then it would be state, not federal. Then the only influencing edicts or policies that are out there are the EEOC and FLSA, and the FLSA is the Fair Labored and Standards Act and so that tells you that there is a minimum wage required in your state for an RN apprenticeship. And that floor is not low, lower than 20$ and forty cents an hour, but it’s a little higher in many other states. You just need to pay your nurses what they’re worth. And then the EEOC. But there is the Title 7 protection so if you are a religious healthcare organization, if your mission, vision and values are sitting around sharing the gospel, then no one is telling you who you can hire, who you can’t hire. You can’t do your pastoral references and ask that they sign an agreement to you can trust that nurse when that door closes, that they’re not going to refer for abortion or birth control or other things, and so no one is telling you how to run your business.

Rachel Owen :

Yeah and I think that was 1 something that we needed to just explain clearly to the executive directors and boards, Boards don’t want to have anything that would inhibit that because that’s why we’re here, right, is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we just needed to, I wanted to make sure we made that clear so that everyone can see that.

Shawn Zierke :

But this is Money that’s on the table that we need to be taking advantage in the pro-life movement so that we can have some super nurses, right?

Speaker 1 :

It’s awesome. Well, I really appreciate you, Sean and Rachel i really appreciate both of you sharing your vision, your story, your experience, your insight. And I really hope that the executive director or the board member who sees this video will build a heart’s desire to have this in their state in their clinic and then that they will reach out for steps for you know what where they should go in order to find this in their state and for their clinic. And I really hope that this will show. To show the director and the and the board and team that this is a way to provide better care with additional angles for how they can help their client in order to reach more clients they wouldn’t have talked to otherwise because those clients may have been referred to the and if they were to provide this service then they would get referrals or potentially the law enforcement may end up utilizing their team. Instead of just utilizing the and then also being able to help women in a greater way by also connecting back to the law enforcement as you both described And that I just think this is brilliant and that’s sort of the whole point of this podcast is to share brilliant ideas that will benefit small pro-life teams across the country as we’re working as a larger pro-life team against the opposition. And so I really appreciate your time, your energy, your passion and intelligence and wisdom in this area. And so thank you for being on the show and for sharing these ideas.

Shawn Zierke :

And I’ll be working to, Yeah, to pass these along and hopefully people will pass them along again over and over. That’s right.

Rachel Owen :

Well, we appreciate you too, Jacob and just you taking this on and helping to just encourage direct executive directors all over the country, I think it’s incredible you know, just from doing this for 13 years, it’s kind of lonely. You know, there’s really no one really knows in your own community what the energy that you’re putting in, the hours, the sweat, the sacrifice, you know, pastor knows but it’s a little bit different too and so thank you so much for taking this on from all the directors around the country awesome.