Meet Leah Helmbrecht

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Helmbrecht, BSN, RN.

Leah, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I graduated Nursing School in 2009 during the economic recession and found myself making $21/hr and living paycheck to paycheck in Virginia. I had been working as an Operating Room Nurse when I learned about Travel Nursing and decided to give it a try. After getting my 2 years experience as an OR nurse I started traveling to different states to work 13-week contracts. Denver was the location of my second travel assignment. While I loved it here, I wanted to see other places.

Over 7.5 years of driving across the country working in different locations, I was able to visit 49/50 states (I still need to make it to Maine). I felt confident in solo travel through the United States and decided to take three months off and travel throughout Australia, Asia, Africa, and back to the US. This was back when “content creators” were starting to become a “thing.” I started an Instagram @offtheclocknurse to document all the adventures I would take while I wasn’t working. I wanted to encourage more nurses to seek out the “travel life.”

In February 2020, I decided to put down some roots and also leave the nursing field to become a Travel Nurse Recruiter to help more nurses reach that nomad lifestyle that I was so lucky to experience for many years. However, just a month later the entire nursing/medical field was turned upside down with Covid. During this time I felt guilt of having my nursing license and not using it. I decided to go back to nursing just 6 months after I had left.

I got a job working at a Nurse Advice Line, talking with patients about their symptoms and making recommendations on whether it was necessary to go to the ER or if there was something they could do at home for their illness. It was at this time I noticed all the calls for people who had just been sexually assaulted or been injured by their intimate partner. They were too afraid to go to the ER due to COVID. I didn’t know much about either Sexual Assault or Domestic Violence so I found a free online program through the University of Colorado SANE/SAFE program for so I could learn more to better serve my patients.

Up until this point in my life, I had no idea how much of an issue SA/DV and Human Trafficking were in the United States. I continued with the UCH program and did my clinical in Colorado Springs before finding a Forensic Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner job in Denver in 2021. Since then, I have changed my online platform to educate the general public about Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Human Sex Trafficking as well as finding ways to spread awareness within my hospital organization to help healthcare staff have a Trauma Informed Care approach to medical treatment.

Outside of the hospital, I have been assisting in putting together a Human Sex Trafficking prevention program called Walking Wise with the mission to teach kids how to recognize sexual exploitation and report it. This self-paced, online module system is estimated to be coming out in 2024 and can be purchased by healthcare systems, school systems, and individuals.

Working in such an intense field, I still turn to travel as my release. In September 2023, I started hosting international group trips for healthcare workers who wanted to travel but were nervous to go alone and didn’t have anyone to go with. I soon realized many people are single or don’t have a travel partner, so I opened up the trips going forward to anyone. These trips give people the opportunity to connect with others from across the United States and all over the world. I pride my platform and these trips as being a safe space for all.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth ride getting to where I am now. I still struggle with “the system.” Trying to make a change, especially surrounding Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Human Sex Trafficking is extremely difficult and frustrating.

People don’t believe it could ever happen to them until it does. I quickly realized the further up the chain you try to go, the less people care unless you can somehow show them how it directly or indirectly affects them. Also, the very people who are in charge of making change are often the same ones who have been complicit in the status quo of the issue.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Forensic Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. I work with patients who have just experienced Domestic Violence Strangulation, Sexual Assault, or Human Sex Trafficking. Collecting evidence is just a very small portion of what I do. I am a nurse first and my main priority is to make sure my patient’s mental and physical well-being are taken care of.

We live in a country that continuously blames and shames those who come forward.  One of the most important parts of my job is being able to tell the survivor that this wasn’t their fault, that I’m so sorry that person did that to them, and that I believe them. Sometimes that can make all the difference in their healing process. I also make sure they know their reporting options, because many don’t know they don’t have to report their Sex Assault to Law Enforcement right away (as long as they aren’t within mandatory reporting guidelines). We can also give them prophylaxis medications for STDs, HIV, and Pregnancy (if they are within the time frame), and post-trauma resources.

I was able to raise $3,000 to keep our office stocked with cell phones for our Domestic Violence Strangulation patients. One of the ways an abuser can maintain control over a victim is to break or take away their cell phone. Strangulation is often the last escalation before homicide. There are many reasons our patients are not ready to leave or end up going back to an abusive partner. Our job is to not judge, but make sure they know who to contact when they are ready to leave and have a way of making that contact.

I am also very proud of the hospital I’m at for working with me to put up flyers in all of the bathrooms throughout the hospital buildings and clinics that have Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking resources. Often the only place a patient can get away from their abuser is sitting on a toilet. This lets the general public know that these are everyday issues right here in our community, lets patients know that we care and believe them, and provides resources to create a safety plan for when they are ready to leave.

In the United States, someone is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds and every 9 minutes that person is a child (prepubescent), and yet there is only a 2% conviction rate. Many people believe DV and SA are all about anger management issues or wanting sex, but what the abuser craves is power and control over another person.

So while I can never undo what was done to my patients, I hope that when they are in my exam room, I make each one of them feel safe and empowered to make decisions about what they want to tell me, what evidence they feel comfortable with me collecting, and overall give them that power and control that was once taken away from them.

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m for sure a risk taker. I figure I’ve been able to keep myself alive all these years and no matter how hard things get they tend to work themselves out for me. My friends would say I’ve always been that person who says out loud the things that everyone else is just thinking and it often gets me into trouble.

However, I don’t believe anything big has ever been accomplished by not taking risks and when you are in a state of privilege you must speak for those who can’t afford to lose anymore. So, I will continue to be an annoyance to those who have the power to make change. I will never stop correcting those around me no matter what their title is or credentials they have after their names.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/offtheclocknurse
  walkingwise.com 
• Instagram: @offtheclocknurse
• Facebook: Off The Clock Nurse Travels

Image Credit:
Leah Helmbrecht, BSN, RN