Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1426211
28 patient & nurse focus cannabis patient care | vol. 2 no. 3 cannapatientcare.com it throughout their care team. Many hospitals are also fearful that they will lose their federal funding if they participate in referring patients to cannabis. Pichette hopes that cannabis becomes more accepted among employers. As with some jobs, employers may opt for employees to take drug tests to prove that they aren't using illegal substances. "I use cannabis, but I am not impaired. If I were to get drug tested, I would be positive for THC. And peo- ple don't understand a drug test for THC and how to use can- nabis medicinally," said Pichette. She mentioned that there are a lot of people out there, in- cluding medical professionals and big corporation executives, that still believe that cannabis is only about smoking a joint and getting high. They aren't familiar with the various alterna- tive routes, such as tinctures, patches, topicals, and so on. Pichette would like to see the option for medical patients to be able to access their cannabis in the hospitals while they are undergoing treatment. Such a stature was seen in Cali- fornia with the passing of Ryan's Law. "That's huge because when you're on the outside of the traditional system and you're using cannabis as medicine and you would then have to go to an inpatient stay or you're in the emergency room or in even sometimes a hospice setting, there are certain plac- es that deny you the right to use cannabis as medicine," she said. "We're supposed to do no harm. And we're supposed to take this oath about the other ethical position that we're sup- posed to take as healthcare professionals. Yet we're under the scrutiny of—I'm not really sure what it's called, but I supposed it's Big Pharma or it's unfortunate, but it comes down to mon- ey. That is my opinion and what I've seen through my journey with medical cannabis." Cannabis helped Pichette incorporate the mind and the spirit in her journey to healing. "I've learned over my journey that spirit is breath and breath is life. We have to breathe for life, and nurses know that in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, airway is the top priority," she said. "But when you move to cannabis, it helped me understand that breath in life is about love. And I learned through my breathing and adding plant medicine that I learned how to star t to love myself and heal all the broken par ts of me from the inside out. That for me, personally, pharmaceuticals that I tried in the past to help me through that recover y numbed those emotions and hid those emotions." Cannabis helped Pichette on her internal journey of finding who she was authentically, understanding that it was okay to be herself with a mastectomy, with her mental health issues, and becoming the person that she is today. Founding the Cannabis Nurse Navigator Af ter her second bout with breast cancer, Pichette created her clothing line called "Nique Wear," which was a cannabis and body building brand, and became a par t of a program called "Entrepreneurs For All" (4). Through this program, Pichette was asked what she was planning to do with the clothing line and why she was not utilizing her skills as a nurse. She then revamped her brand into the "Cannabis Nurse Navigator." This program is dedicated to helping patient s and their families navigate their way through the medical care system, be a par t of the treatment team, and to also be a voice to help other patient s and doc tors bridge the gap between the mind, body, and spirit medicine. Pichette is currently getting her graduate degree in this space—focused on debunking cannabis use disorder and justif ying the need for a Cannabis Nurse Navigator position. She hopes to see the Cannabis Nurse Navigator as an of f i- cial position for nurses at hospitals and other healthcare facilities one day. Pichette is also involved with the Cannabis Nurses Network (CNN). In this global network of nurses, Pichette tries to as- sist in whatever way she is capable in bridging cannabis nurs- es together in love. Pichette was humbled to be part of Dr. Carey Clark's book Cannabis Nurse Handbook, who was also the past president of the American Cannabis Nurses Associa- tion (ACNA). "It takes a village and we're really trying to bring together all of us. Because as cannabis nurses, if we could all work together, what a different force that we could emulate and bring about the much-needed revolution in health care," said Pichette. Cannabis has the power to heal and unite people in the breast cancer community, among many others. It's certain- ly not the path Pichette saw herself taking nor did she expect to be sharing with the world. "I'm really humbled and hon- ored, and I never, ever thought that my life would be where it is today. And through this and through Nurse Heather and my journey with cannabis I have been able to take her theory on Post Traumatic Growth, The Lotus Theory, and take a petal off the lotus flower and turn my cannabis experience into Posi- tively Processing Perception (5). And help people change their perception and change their life." Pichette hopes that other breast cancer patients and survi- vors may be touched by her story. Through her discussion of her dual breast cancer diagnoses and medical cannabis jour- ney, others may be inspired to look deeper into alternative routes in their healthcare and receive the positive benefits she found with the cannabis plant. References (1) https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast. (2) https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/breast-cancer. (3) https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics. (4) https://www.cannabisnursesnetwork.com/speaker/nique-pichette-msn-rn/. (5) https://www.positivelyprocessingperception.com/.