Nurse Entrepreneur Cross-Pollination: Collaboration on Steroids!

In a recent correspondence with one of our fellow nurse entrepreneurs and former RN.FM Radio guests (Pat Bemis of the National Nurses in Business Association), we were discussing the issue of collaboration when I used the term “cross-pollination”. So, what do I really mean by that?

Collaboration is the cornerstone of RN.FM Radio’s ethos, and we feel that nurses and nurse entrepreneurs need to move completely away from any notion of competition when it comes to building our brands and supporting one another in our efforts to elevate the profession on all fronts. Competition is, in our view, very 20th century, and in the 21st century we need to embrace collaboration in a deep, all-encompassing manner.

During the course of this particular correspondence to which I referred, here is what I had to say about what cross-pollination really means to me:

“I see cross-pollination as the ways in which we support one another, inspire one another, and otherwise promote others’ work through collaboration and mutual consideration. For instance, nurses who are not entrepreneurs support nurse entrepreneurs, and vice versa. And those nurse entrepreneurs sometimes inspire the non-business-minded nurses to consider what they can do to bring in multiple streams of income and create more financial freedom for themselves. Or, like our guest on RN.FM Radio tonight (JParadisi, RN) nurses who are artists and writers inspire others to pick up the pen and paint brush, or look for ways to collaborate and create ‘mash-ups‘ of various disciplines that we’ve never thought of before.”

So, in my personal dictionary, collaboration means working with others in order to achieve a mutual goal. And when it comes to cross-pollination, it goes way beyond collaboration to the point where nurses and nurse entrepreneurs enter a space of deep cooperation and synergistic response that provides more than simple mutual promotion.

Cross-pollination is the love child of collaboration and mutual celebration, as well as cooperation, respect, and any other term or notion that may fit the bill. If you have one to add to this ongoing list, please leave a comment and let us know what it is!