In this episode of The Bossy Nurse Podcast, we dig into how bullying shows up in leadership and what it takes to heal and rebuild.
Today, Marsha Battee speaks with Dr. Vanessa Abacan, DNP, APRN-CNS, RNC-MNN, EBP-C.
Key takeaways
- Bullying can occur at every level of nursing, including leadership roles.
- System issues drive burnout and turnover more than individual “resilience” gaps.
- Retention beats replacement: tailoring interventions to unit-specific pain points is essential.
- The UNFOLD™ and HEART™ frameworks offer a trauma-informed path from awareness to recovery.
- Simple wellness perks don’t fix culture; listening to nurses and acting on data does.
Show notes / what you’ll hear
- Dr. Abacan opens with her origin story, immigrating from the Philippines and discovering nursing as her path.
- Bullying shows up twice in her journey—first as a student, later in leadership—revealing patterns that harm learning and culture.
- A pivotal Microsoft Teams termination marks the inflection point, followed by a candid account of its personal and professional fallout.
- From moral injury to meaning: journaling becomes the seed that grows into Heartfold Healing™.
- UNFOLD™—uncover, name, feel, own, learn, declare—frames a process for moving teams from confusion to clarity.
- HEART™—heal, empower, advocate, rebuild, thrive—translates insight into sustained action.
- “Resilience” can be weaponized in healthcare; the fix targets staffing, culture norms, and aligned accountability instead of blaming individuals.
Where to find Dr. Vanessa Abacan online
- Website: www.heartfoldhealing.com
- Email: vanessa@heartfoldhealing.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-abacan
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/heartfoldhealing
Bio: Dr. Vanessa Abacan, DNP, APRN-CNS, RNC-MNN, EBP-C
Dr. Vanessa Abacan, DNP, APRN-CNS, RNC-MNN, EBP-C, is a Clinical Nurse Specialist, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing DNP graduate, and the 2025 NANN APRN Rising Star Award recipient.
Born in the Philippines and immigrating to America as a daughter of 2 nurses, Vanessa built a 13-year nursing career specializing in maternal, neonatal, and pediatric care, the highest-stakes patient populations in healthcare. She rose to system-level leadership, overseeing evidence-based clinical practice across three hospital campuses, where she was responsible for ensuring nurses practiced at the top of their scope using the highest evidence.
That career came to an abrupt end when she was terminated over a Teams call for repeatedly speaking up about unsafe clinical conditions and experiencing bullying herself. The experience of workplace retaliation, bullying, and moral injury became the catalyst for what she does now: helping other nurses heal from the same systemic harm.
Vanessa founded Heartfold Healing™, a trauma-informed recovery system for nurses experiencing bullying, moral injury, and burnout. Her signature framework, UNFOLD™ and HEART™, guides nurses from awareness to recovery to reclaiming their careers on their own terms. She also developed Heartfold Insight™, an evidence-based nurse retention diagnostic that helps hospitals identify and address the cultural drivers of turnover.
Vanessa has been featured on FOX26 News, served as an opening speaker for DNP Week, and is a published contributor and peer reviewer in nursing literature. She’s a fierce advocate for nurses’ voices, workplace safety, and transforming the toxic cultures that harm healthcare workers.
Timestamps
- 0:00 — Opening and why silence in nursing matters
- 1:00 — Meet Dr. Vanessa Abacan
- 3:30 — Bullying in practice: what it looks like
- 9:00 — Training and early perinatal career
- 27:00 — Moral injury and the termination story
- 36:00 — Founding Heartfold Healing
- 41:00 — UNFOLD™/HEART™ and system fixes
- 43:00 — Retention tools, healing circles, impact
