Episode 68: Gratitude and Reflection with Marna Regehr, FNP

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Dr. Andrew Wong:

Martha is one of our original practitioners here at Capitol Integrative Health. For those who have been her patients have gotten to know her over the years when ch opened eight years ago, which was in 2015. Now Marna was and has been always a vital part of this team that’s brought this vision to life. And we admire Marner for the way that she cares for patients really focuses all our attention giving 110% with each visit, and appreciating all the wisdom and knowledge that she shared with both our team and her patients. As Martin prepares to retire at the end of this year, we wanted to do a special podcast with Marta to honor her time with us. So the more I can share more about her story and what she’s learned throughout her career, so that we can take those lessons to help ourselves move forward to help her patients, you know, move forward. We talk a lot about what inspired her become a nurse practitioner, what her patients have taught her along the way we know that our patients are our best teachers, and also what changes Marna hopes to see and healthcare in the future. Please enjoy this conversation with Martina and also just Marna we wanted to thank you from the bottom of our hearts at ch for being a amazing practitioner and an even better person. So thank you, Marta. Welcome back to the podcast. Great to have you on again.

Marna Regehr:

Thank you.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

So Marna we’ve been at this for about eight years now. We’re just I was just counting the years like you know, 2015 1617 all of a sudden it’s 2022.

Marna Regehr:

I know we’re here.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yes, exactly almost 10 years. So today’s episode is in honor Marner of the years you’ve spent caring for patients at CH and beyond. And you know, as a nurse and then now as a nurse practitioner, that’s the heart of nursing and the heart of medicine is really caring. And so first of all of martyr we just want to thank you for your amazing caring spirit all that you embody here at ch. And so we hope that this conversation today we’re going to be kind of chatting, just having an informal conversation about how we can capture some of the best wisdom that you’ve gained in your years of practicing both nursing and also clinical medicine. So let’s kind of start with first Marna how you became a practitioner, what drew you to become a nurse practitioner and specifically to get into integrative medicine. Okay. Yes, that’s

Marna Regehr:

quite an interesting story. I guess, you know, I always had and my sister was really an influence on me when when I was a nurse, you know, so and she has this little herb shop and she started treating her children sort of naturally and with herbs and everything else. So that had a big influence on me. And then I was a nurse was a nursing got my a degree in 1984. Then I think, got my bachelor’s degree after I’ve worked at Shady Grove Hospital for a while at the University of Maryland. And then sort of like a crazy old lady. I went back to school to get my practitioners license and I graduated. I think I was the oldest person in my class and graduated in 2010. From Marymount, Marymount University, so but I’m really always, you know, even sort of after my sister’s influence, I had always just real bent for natural health, you know, so, really I was introduced a lot through some of the pioneers in integrative medicine you know, like Dr. Christine Northrup, you know, Dr. Jonathan Wright, they were some of the pioneers you know, in integrative medicine at our living McAllen integrative is sort of like complementary medicine way back when I got there newsletters, I’d stacks with their newsletters, and I just, they just really resonated with me. I mean, it just really like, there is something more than just traditional medicine and I learned a lot just from reading that, uh, reading their newsletters, and I even took a little naturopathic correspondence course, you know, and so after all that after I’ve been in nursing for a while, you know, I thought well, how can I really best help people and that’s what I thought, Okay. To use this some of the knowledge that I acquired, you know, and then I thought I could just maybe be a nurse practitioner and go back to school and see if I could just sort of help people that way. So,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

anyway, that’s so great, and the road is much better for it for you to become a nurse practitioner, especially here at ch so you know, you’ve been practicing as a nurse practitioner now for for many years first and Leesburg. Yes. And then here in Bethesda. Yes. But I think what we wanted to ask you to is, you know, with all your years of practicing, what are some of the best lessons you’ve learned? Through years of practicing about becoming and being a compassionate, effective practitioner?

Marna Regehr:

Yeah, good question. You know, when you when you first started when I first started You know, you’re sort of deer in the headlights, you know, and you just have to learn to relax a little bit, you know, and, you know, like we’ve talked about lots of times, you know, it’s just who, you know, just be there with the patient, you know, and we don’t necessarily have to have all the answers all the time. But I think for me, it’s just that to recognize that patients want to be heard, they want to know that they are heard, and so they want somebody to listen to them. You know, and I think that from me is something that I’ve tried to embody at times is just, you know, try and put myself in their shoes a little bit. And just listen, you know, and I think that is just really important.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

You are the master at listening and just listening to you listen to patients, because sometimes I’m in on your visits, you know, joint visits, I can see the intensity and the focus and the awareness. And I feel like patients, you know, feel that too. Yeah. So they do definitely feel heard with you. And you’ve really been a model here for us all other practitioners at this, so thank you for being that model of someone that really listens to and you know, really pays attention to these these patients that maybe have never felt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, medical journey before,

Marna Regehr:

exactly. They’ve, as we both know, they’ve been too often some of the patients that we’ve seen here have been to multiple practitioners, you know, and just haven’t found the answer. So it’s, sometimes it’s a sigh of relief, to have somebody to have some hope. And just to have somebody to listen to them.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

And we don’t have to know all the answers, right? We’re,

Marna Regehr:

I sure don’t know all the instruments, you know,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

the universe and having to, you know, really wanting to partner with patients and kind of having a curiosity about hey, what’s what’s going on with your, your body today? What’s going on with your spirit today? You know, and this is something where maybe people haven’t had that type of experience before and you’re providing that, you know, with that with that kind of intentionality. So you are, you know, one of our most experienced practitioners at this point, when he fight to write you were initially like, deer in the headlights follow you now you’re like, hey, let’s, let’s get some of the road map from Marna. Here, what advice would you give a new practitioner, maybe they’re just out of NP school, or PA school, or just newly minted MD? Or, you know, any, any clinician really? Yeah. What would you give them advice? You know, advice would you give them in terms of someone that’s just starting out?

Marna Regehr:

Yeah, I think it’s something even what we just said, mostly refer to, you know, I mean, in the list, you know, sort of goes along with listening. But time, you know, you I remember, even just as a new nurse, you know, just as a regular RN, it takes a while just to get it takes at least a year just to be acclimated to be a nurse, you know. And same way, with a nurse practitioner. I know, for me, since my background was just more pediatrics, this was quite a jump, for me to jump to primary care and do adult nursing, you know, I almost dropped out of Nurse Practitioner school, when I had to learn all the rhythms for the adult population, you know, because I was used to, you know, just a few pediatric you know, bradycardia and tachycardia with pediatrics. And I thought, Ah, I don’t know if I can do this, you know, but give yourself time, you know, you just, you can’t learn it all at once. And there’s so much to learn. So just take one day at a time and give yourself a break just to, you’ll learn a lot from your patients. And that’s how I learned a lot to give yourself time to learn. And you will just even learn a lot from your own study, but you’ll just learn a lot just from your patients.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Patients are the best teachers, patient best teachers. Little funny thing came to me as you’re saying that in my pediatric rotation, I remember them saying that kids are not little adults. Maybe the dosing you know, we can always change that, but they’re not exactly adults. They’re not adults are not big kids. Maybe some adults are big kids, but yes. So So you’ve really treated the lifespan right as a from a nurse to Yes. You know, feeding kids being a school nurse. You’re a school nurse. Yes, yes. And then of course, treating adults here are 12 and up, we should say, you know, some some teenagers.

Marna Regehr:

We started with little kids when I first started here. I had a three year old.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yes, that’s right. I remember or maybe even younger, no, I treated. I remember treating a nine month old to Yeah, but food sensitivities. That was one of our first patients. We’ve definitely treated some. Right. Yeah. So So you know, never fear patients will teach us the way that we need to, you know, learn things. Yeah. Partner with them. Yeah, that’s great. That’s great advice. All right. Well, let’s get into some of the some of the other kind of interesting questions we have for you here today. Marna Um, so we do a lot of, you know, functional medicine in our practice, and we have some tests that can get to the root causes of things that can dig in really deep, almost like a archaeologist or something. Yes. However, sometimes these tests can be kind of expensive. And a lot of times you want to heard of these tests necessarily. And, you know, we think about supplements to, you know, they can be really helpful. But one of the things that we always come back to as some of the foundation bedrock is lifestyle medicine. Yeah. Is lifestyle. And, and we know, we’ve been like a no, have you seen a lot of complicated patients here? A lot of complicated cases, sometimes even those cases come back to lifestyle. Yeah, yeah. Right. What are some of the lifestyle practices that you’ve seen make a big difference in your patient’s health to really move that needle? Yeah.

Marna Regehr:

You know, even when years ago, you know, I think somebody told me, you notice, as I was learning all these things from way back when stress is the underlying cause of all, dis ease, you know, and I think that is true, you know, we all have stress, and some stress is good. We need stress, you know, but I think when people want, especially when they’re so chronically ill, they can be just so stressed out about worrying about what should we do and when I’m not getting well, you know, so I think, dealing with exactly what you said, lifestyle, you know, lifestyle measures, you know, whether that’s deep breathing, whether it’s yoga, whether it’s prayer, whatever, you know, just exercise, you know, dealing with stress, I think is a bigger is a big thing. And then I think secondarily to that, too. And they sort of go in hand hand in hand, and you know, what, ever we all say, but nutrition and exercise, I mean, I think even exercise is so important just for your mental health, you know, even if you don’t feel really good, sometimes when I don’t feel really good, I just go for a walk, you know, because it gets the circulation going, gets the circulation to my brain and Claire’s it out. And then nutrition, I’ve often said this that I think the nutritionist here at CHF, heal more patients and probably some of those practitioners, because changing to good nutritional practices just makes a huge difference in how you feel, and in your state of wellness. So those are sort of outside like stress, and nutrition and exercise, you know, and then we build on that, you know, with supplements, testing, and all the things that you mentioned.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

And those are, you know, at least relatively inexpensive. We all have to buy food and go to the grocery store and things like that. But you know, moving our body, you know, eating real food, right, managing and dealing with stress. Yeah, some of the foundational things. Yes, ironically, some of the simplest things can be the ones that make the most difference. Yes, it sounds like yeah, that’s really great. And also these are things that patients can do themselves. Exactly. These are very empowering, right, kind of, you know, lifestyle tips here.

Marna Regehr:

Yeah, deep breathing doesn’t cost any money. That’s right.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah. A little bit of awareness.

Marna Regehr:

A little belly breathing, you know, I try and do a little bit of that often, not every night, but before I go to bed, and that really just sort of helps you relax and focus a little bit.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yeah, yeah. So kind of looking forward to things, you know, we know that there’s a lot of change and, you know, transformation in the healthcare system. Yeah. And there’s a lot of health problems out there a lot of a lot of issues that patients are, you know, dealing with. And you know, the world is getting more complicated over time. You also, what do you hope for Amarna, and the future of health care? What kind of integration would you like to see or changes that you think should be made in this in the healthcare field? Why? Wow, I stated.

Marna Regehr:

If I could answer that question and solve the medical crisis right now, that would be amazing.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

I think we should go to the White House. Right. Yeah.

Marna Regehr:

Exactly. Let’s talk with them. You know, I mean, obviously, we could talk about policies and so many different things, you know, but, you know, it really comes back to, like, even when I was in nurse practitioner school, you know, I always had like, and, you know, following some of these other gurus, these early gurus, you know, where it’s all about prevention and wellness, you know, and, you know, like, when I had to pick a theorist, you know, for my project in nurse practitioner school, it was, I think of them my nursing theorists was pinned or you know, who did wellness or, or had, like, health promotion, you know, was her theory, you know, and the theory that I built my project on or on my paper or whatever it was, and I think that’s where it has to come back a lot to you know, for our help All, you know, is prevention and wellness, I go back to the very beginning, you know, because our system is broken. I recently, just a couple weeks ago talk to this clinical nurse nursing clinical specialist that works currently in the hospital. And nurses are leaving the field in droves, you know, there’s the insurance pressure on the hospitals, you know, to get people out, you know, and all that, which puts us pressure on the health care providers, you know, and then with COVID, I can’t imagine a new nurse starting out during this COVID thing. So, I mean, that’s, I want to talk about all those things. But I mean, I think it for overall health, we have to get back to prevention and wellness, you know, and, and not just 15 minute visits, where we throw out an antibiotic really quickly, you know, and how we’re going to navigate that. Whew, that’s going to require a lot of thinking by a lot of people smarter than I am. But and I guess on another thing, I mean, I know we hear a capitol, integrative health, large, large group of a certain went to California recently to a health conference. And, you know, they’re talked about there to how we need to make integrative medicine more affordable and more available Yes, to the common public, you know, and I think that as integrative medicine has grown, I think that that is a focus that that is a good focus that we need to see how we can do better at that, you know, and it’s one thing that I’ve always said, I’ve appreciated here that we’ve taken, we do take insurance, we have, you know, a little bit of a fee, a monthly fee, but just taking insurance that does make it more available. But I think moving forward, from functionally speaking, that we need to just figure out how we can continue to grow in that area of being able to provide integrative medicine to a larger group of people. Yeah,

Dr. Andrew Wong:

thank you. Thank you for that. There’s a big wide swath of the population that has a lot of these truly preventable diseases when medicine and you know, we always we always know what I think a wise person said, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. salutely Right, yeah. Ben, Ben Franklin. So I think it was invented and you know, set a lot of things. It’s a safe bet we yeah, we can attribute it to him. You can always say, Franklin. Well, Marna, we want to say here since you know, this podcast also is an honor of you, because you’ve been here for the entire time. Here at at ch with me. I mean, we we kind of on the medical side started this together. And of course, you know, Liz and Carrie in every way, Diane. And everyone Amina, you know, but yeah, I would say that, you know, you’ve been there with me from the beginning. So I just want to personally, thank you for being such a rock, anchor, like someone that really has been through, you know, all the all the easy times all the difficult times, you know, everything in between? Yeah, you know, we’ve been riding that wave, you know, but you are going to transition away from patient care. Yes. And then in the near future, I know that we’ve been kind of talking about this. How are you planning to spend your time? You know, moving forward?

Marna Regehr:

Yeah. Good question. I think, obviously, I’ve been thinking about that for a year. And obviously been thinking about it more and more all the time. And, you know, like, I am gonna just stick around here in the wings for right now for a little bit, probably do so during the month of January is going to be sort of a sort of a transition time still, with some of my patients will still be transitioning, and I’ll be helping with that transition to other practitioners. And then I think that we do some doing some classes, you know, and stuff as well. And then I’ll just sort of see how it goes from there. I mean, my family you know, I’m from the Midwest, originally, you know, and my family is scattered from Kansas, Colorado, Chicago, all different places, you know, and I feel sort of during all these years, when I’ve lived on the East Coast, you know, and it’s hard to, you know, a job like, this is sometimes hard to travel, you know, a lot of their long distances. So, I’m looking forward to doing traveling, spending some more time with my family. And, you know, I think, to sort of, you know, I want to be involved in still helping people in different ways. There’s, I mean, I, there’s this verse in the Bible that says, If you give yourself to the afflicted and satisfy the desire of the needy, then your life will arise, like, you know, be more bright and your gloom will become like midday, you know, and I think, okay, you know, in medicine, it’s really important to cap boundaries, but the set but still for my life, I think it’s when giving to others where you get back, you know, as well, you know. And so. So there’s other things that, you know, I have, you know, I’ve tossed around, there’s a friend of Germany that works a lot with refugees or something like that I’ll maybe I’ll go visit her for a while or something, you know? I don’t know. So there are just and there’s different other things that I have thought of doing, you know, even out in the community a little bit, maybe taking some of these classes out to the community or something a little bit. So. But bottom line, as I’ve thought about this a lot, I’ll figure that out. I think in the next couple of months. I think I need to just take some time to de stress and clear my brain and then I’ll really sort of figure out what I’m doing. Take some deep breaths, take some deep breaths, sleep for a week, you know, do nothing for a week.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

The WNBA is still recruiting. They’ve been going around and you know, some of the parts in the garment County, right. Check it out. Some people like right, you know,

Marna Regehr:

I still like to play basketball. That’s right. I so that’s why we still have to have our basketball game.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Yes, we will. For sure. I’ve been working on my jump shot. I need to polish that a little bit.

Marna Regehr:

I’m not very good at my jump shot. I’d like to my long shot from the behind the free throw line at the more at the circle, you know, try and do that, that that shot. That’s why I always try and perfect sir sharpshooter, your three pointer. Yeah, three pointer. I like the three point shots. So anyway, so I’ll have to work on work on that a little bit.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Even if the shots don’t fall. Sometimes defensive. Rebounding is underrated. So Right?

Marna Regehr:

Well, it’s a great form of exercise when you do it by yourself. Because you know, I sure do not make all my shots and you get a lot of exercise catching all those rebounds.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Don’t make any shots unless you start shooting them. Any further thoughts you’d like to say to your patients?

Marna Regehr:

Well, yes, I mean, it’s sort of what I alluded to earlier, you know, that you learn from your patients. And you learned a lot from your patients. And that’s just not, I’m not just saying that to say that, you know, because you’re, especially even here in functional medicine, a lot of the patients here have you’ve done, they’ve done a lot of research, and you do truly learn from them. But it has been a privilege to take to get to know each one of each and every one of you, I mean, and there have been some definite emotional moments in the last month on both sides with patients and with me, so I will miss you. I will miss many of my patients. And thank you for the opportunity to let let me get to know you and to work together with you. And I truly wish you all the best. I know that. We just do have so many good practitioners here now that we can follow up with but it’s been amazing. So thank you.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Well, thank you so much, Martha, thank you for being a shining light here at ch you mentioned that verse from the bible Bible. So I want to say that you’ve been a real shining light for us here. And hopefully we’ll continue to use that as inspiration moving forward, and then we will so thank you so much. We love you so much and we’ll chat soon. Okay,

Marna Regehr:

thank you for the opportunity.

Dr. Andrew Wong:

Thank you for taking the time to listen to us today. If you enjoyed this conversation, please take a moment to leave us review. It helps our podcasts to reach more listeners. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss our next episodes and conversations. And thank you so much again for being with us.