How the Food Allergy Nursing Association (FANA) is Redefining Food Allergy Care

The Food Allergy Nursing Association (FANA) is celebrating one year of transforming the landscape of food allergy care. In this special anniversary episode, I’m joined by FANA’s president Dr. Olga Kagan, and secretary Sarah Pederson to talk about their mission to elevate nursing education, improve patient care, and establish certified allergy nurse educators.

Together, we discuss how FANA is working to integrate food allergy education into nursing training programs and what this could mean for families and patients in the years ahead. This conversation is a heartfelt look at how nurses make a difference every single day and how their compassion and clinical expertise shape the food allergy community.

Join us as we celebrate their one-year anniversary and look toward the future of allergy care. You can also attend FANA’s free online celebration event on December 9. Tickets are available at foodallergynursing.org

https://www.allergicliving.com/2022/04/04/why-we-need-certified-allergy-nurse-educators/
.

Special thanks to Kyle Dine for permission to use his song The Doghouse for the podcast theme!
www.kyledine.com

Find Dr. Whitehouse:
-thefoodallergypsychologist.com
-Instagram: @thefoodallergypsychologist
-Facebook: Dr. Amanda Whitehouse, Food Allergy Anxiety Psychologist
-welcome@dramandawhitehouse.com

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Welcome to the Don't Feed the Fear podcast, where we dive into the complex world of food allergy anxiety. I'm your host, Dr. Amanda Whitehouse, food allergy anxiety psychologist and food allergy mom. Whether you're dealing with allergies yourself or supporting someone who is, join us for an empathetic and informative journey toward food allergy calm and confidence..

0:22

Today we're celebrating a group of people who's very special in the food allergy world. It's the one year anniversary of the Food Allergy Nursing Association, also known as FANA. This group of passionate, highly skilled and experienced nurses from across the country came together to elevate food allergy care through advocacy education. Collaboration. I've had the pleasure of getting to know several members of this team over the past year, including those with me today. Dr. Olga Kagan, who is the president and one of the founders of the group, and Sarah Pederson, the FANA secretary, The two of them are here to share with us what they saw as a need in the field of food allergy and the path that they're trying to carve out to make sure that nurses everywhere have the tools, training, and confidence to support their patients with compassion and accuracy. And any of us who live with food allergies or allergic diseases know that when it comes to our care, nurses are at the heart of that. So thank you to all the nurses who created FANA so that we can get the best allergy care from you. And thank you to nurses everywhere. We will celebrate today what FANA has accomplished during their first year and where they see the future of food allergy nursing heading.

amanda-whitehouse_1_10-16-2025_200629: 1:27

today I'm so excited to have here with me to celebrate the first anniversary of the Food Allergy Nursing Association. The founder, Dr. Olga Kagan, and the Secretary Sarah Pederson. Thank you both so much for being here.

squadcaster-6c9h_1_10-16-2025_200630: 1:40

Thanks for inviting us.

Sara Pederson, RN: 1:43

Yeah.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 1:44

Olga, we can start with you. Would you mind just introducing yourself and how you got involved in the food allergy community in your nursing role?

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 1:52

All right, so, I actually became a nurse in another country in, 1996, and then I moved to the United States where I pursued my nursing degree, again and got involved. And my first job was really in, A cardiac, cardiothoracic, ICUA recovery step down. So I had critical care background, and then after nine 11, I transitioned to work for the world Trade Center Program at Mount Sinai. We would build the program from scratch. In order to see workers and volunteers that worked at ground zero. So that was part of environmental occupational medicine, ecosystem that I worked at. And then since then, I went back to school. I got my master's in informatics administration and then my doctorate degree. And slowly, slowly, you know. Got involved with food allergies because of my personal connection with my own children. And also having worked in that, occupational environmental allergy space. It kind of all came together. And, my research is an allergy, also and primarily around policy. My dissertation was about, willingness and readiness to act in a food and logic emergency in effort to then. Implement that as a similar to what we have with, automatic, external defibrillators or, you know, with narcans, something that could be available in public spaces in, allergic used, in allergic emergencies. Just like those other emergency avail treatments that we have. So that's basically where my journey was. And, I wasn't the only one. It was few of us nurses. In 2019, we kind of got together because we sold the gaps in food allergy education and practice and nursing research around food allergies. And we really wanted to understand how can we best fill some of those need, gaps and meet some of those needs. And, at a time we were just, you know, in discussions, publishing some articles and, In 2022. So it was Susan Kelly, myself, and, a couple other people who are with us still, currently. And that's how it kind of evolved. And, and in 22, after we published this piece in Allergic living about that vision for Allergy Nurse educator role, which I have to give a lot of credit to Sue Kelly for that. And, We did get a, such wonderful feedback And that sort of sparked interest in our groups. So many nurses were reaching out and and we knew that we had to do something and that's how we. Decided to incorporate and create this organization to meet the needs of those individuals.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 4:22

That's a fascinating path in your career. Where you started to how you, landed here. I wanna ask you so much about all that, but I'm gonna pause. Sarah, would you give us a little bit of your background and the same thing, how did you land working with allergy patients?

Sarah Pederson, RN: 4:36

when I graduated from nursing school, I kind of fell into this job working for an allergist, And, I have just kind of stuck with it and I've morphed it into Many different types of clinics, in different populations, which has been really interesting and fun and unexpected. I think that we get very little education in nursing school about allergies in general, whether it's food or environmental. All we hear about is, possibly a amoxicillin, penicillin allergy. And we don't, we don't really hear much about, specifics and, what our role would be in caring for that patient. And that family. So, so I fell into it and I just, I just stayed. I'm almost. More than 25 years we'll say. And I'm unusual because I don't have any kids that have a food allergy. So I, I, that isn't why I got into it. It was more just an interesting, path I've seen a lot of changes in, in allergy over those years and, I think that's what's made it fun. But it's also helped really drive my passion for wanting to see something else with allergy nursing. Such as more formal, uh, group. Of allergy nurses, and also better connecting of allergy nurses. And then also how do we, get the word out and how do we make it better than what it is? And I think that's something that at this point in my, my career, it's, fun I really see the, the value of having, nurses who are really informed and know what's going on. It's fun. I love working with people.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 5:59

That's so nice to hear you say because with a lot of people, we talk about it's stressful and the risks and the dangers and life threatening and so many scary words. So to know that you're there in, those settings, working with us and finding it fun and interesting and motivating is reassuring, at least to me as an allergy mom.

Sarah Pederson, RN: 6:14

Yeah. And the, and the, all those things are very true.. But I think once you deal with it all the time, it actually helps you to be able to then, support and educate and, and inspire confidence in the patients and families because you are doing it all the time and you see the outcomes and you, You can be there to say, Hey, you know what, we can figure this out and problem solve it. And I feel like that's also a big benefit. And again, that's another reason why I love nursing because there's so many aspects of, of what it, what it is in different areas. So, and I think allergy is just gonna continue to grow. So why shouldn't we pursue an educator role and all the things that go along with, really supporting nurses to join in and wanna stay with it.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 6:55

Yeah. And it sounds like that was really, one of the biggest instigators of becoming a more formal organization was this discussion, and it being highlighted in allergic living the allergy educator role. Can you explain to those who don't really know what you mean when you're talking about that?

Sarah Pederson, RN: 7:10

So the allergy nurse educator role would basically be, be a, a well-trained, nurse that can really step in and address all, all aspects. They're not, they're not diagnosing, prescribing, they're simply there to help formulate, education, plan a nursing care plan basically. And then work with families and patients to, to, Utilize it. Providers don't have time, uh, in today's world to really sit down and spend all the time that patients and families need. And there's so many questions and so many nuances with food allergy that, you really know one patient is, is exactly alike. That I think it's so great to be able to have, an informed nurse that can really sit down and know what things should look like, pediatric nurses, definitely could be really well informed to support their providers as well. On the. The things I'm sure they get a lot of questions about, especially as their role, the providers in pediatrics really have, a burden, with having to talk about so many things and, that, three month old's life about what's supposed to be happening. So it's nice to know that we can kind of step in and also offer that. We also spend a lot of time with patients and so it makes sense that having, a more official role I think just really makes it, Complete,

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 8:24

Now that we have the technology, especially tele nursing we call it, or telemedicine, or. Telehealth, which is this bigger umbrella. Because we have this technology, we're now able to really utilize that role of allergen nurse educator to reach to those underserved and under, represented communities in rural areas that where specialty care is scarse. And I think, you know, that role could really be an extension of the allergists, in order to deliver that. Quality and timely accessible care to patients across different, geographic regions. And of course, we've seen that model work with other specialties in nursing. Like for instance, we have diabetes nurse educators, lactation consultants. We have all these different types of navigators, educators, et cetera, but not an allergy. And that's one of the area which I think could greatly benefit from that. And we've heard that from physicians from all who are. Very much in support of this because they know that they're strapped for time. Sometimes there's like six to nine months wait list to see them and they want to be able to, delegate some of that to someone who's well-versed in allergies in terms of conti with education, follow up, referrals, you know, things of that nature that they can. Rely on that potentially allogeneous educator role to do while they see more patients and, reduce those wait times. And clearly, for them it would be a win-win situation. So I think this role could really change, how we deliver care in not just. Rural communities, but also in very busy, urban settings as well. And even in hospital settings, you know, we do now every hospital system has a diabetes nurse educator because they see so many of those patients. So who's to say that we can't have an algae nurse educator for health system? And if you ever interface with a patient. Who has food allergies, whether they're there for cardiology or oncology care, now you still have to feed that patient. And to have that allergy nurse educator, through your system is a huge help because then now nurses can rely on that resource to help you care for that patient to the best of their abilities.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 10:33

As you're describing it, it's both making me excited and it's kind of making me sad for myself that we didn't have someone to do this. When I met the two of you, we talked about how really it's medical information. Obviously you're medical professionals and you're the bridge to that support and all of those things you mentioned that you can do are the source of anxiety for the patients that I know. So it's, it's bringing those two worlds together, which obviously as a psychologist makes me excited.

Sarah Pederson, RN: 10:59

Definitely, nurses spend a lot of time with patients and families, during a food challenge, we, we could be with a patient for hours and, so it's a great time to just. Chat connect, and, kind of troubleshoot through and answer questions that maybe they wouldn't ask during a, a visit with, with their provider. Mostly because there's so much going on and their, your kid is all over the place and, but if we're in the middle of a procedure testing, let's say, it's a great time to just ask those things that they're worrying about. And so I feel like as a trusted person, we can, we can help, work as a team. With the providers. I feel like the patients in our practice really, seem to recognize that. And I think sometimes too, they just need someone to hear them too. And, and nurses could do that too.

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 11:46

Not every allergist has the ability to hire a nurse or a mental health professional or registered dietician. So if you are in a large academic center, you may have that luxury to have that interprofessional inter disciplinary team. But for many private practices, this luxury doesn't always materialize. And then they have to outsource some of that to other specialties. If they already have a nurse on staff, oftentimes that nurse sort of becomes that person that picks up the pieces when it comes to. Counseling, whether it becomes to that education and follow up and even, dietary, how do you prepare things? how do you read labels? All those things, kind of fall on the nurse's shoulders if there is no ability to have registered dietician or the mental health professional on staff. And I know many practices don't even hire nurses, and so physicians oftentimes have MAs. Or, other, paraprofessionals that unfortunately it's not within their scope of practice to do some of that work. And so, hopefully the physician picks up that on their end. But if they don't, clearly patients are not given that full care, that, multifaceted, holistic care that they deserve.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 12:59

It's such a good point and, I'm sure the two of you are like me, just dreaming about, oh, what would it look like if I could have my dream of how this is structured and how it would operate? And, and yeah, it's amazing to imagine,

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 13:10

Actually, it's interesting because a few years ago, we're at the FARE Summit and one of the panels that we put together was precisely that, is that interdisciplinary care team. We need the dream team in order for every aspect of their care taken care of.'cause they do eat and they do have, mental health concerns that they need to be addressed. And they do have physical concerns and they do have, that educational needs. So we need to be working together in order to make that happen for them. So they are living their full lives.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 13:40

Definitely. Well, thank you for the steps that you're taking to move things in that direction, I can't resist while I have you here to ask a couple more questions about this end of things because when the procedures that are difficult for people with allergies, especially kids, nurses are usually the ones doing those, right? My child's allergist isn't the one who comes in and does the skin prick test. They're not the one checking their heart and their skin when we have a food challenge or, or are doing, you know, an updose in our OIT program. So you're talking about the trust that they develop in you and the relationship with, which is huge. You are the people that I love to hear from. In terms of what helps kids, what do you want people to know about all those procedures that really are challenging for us?

Sarah Pederson, RN: 14:24

Oh, well, they, they can be really challenging, but in different ways for the parent and the child. I do think there's some things that stand out that really just being prepared. Understanding what is gonna happen. So being prepared with how many pokes there might be or, whether it might hurt, what is just generally gonna happen. Kids always do better when they, they know. But also I think parents just really need to know too, because a lot of the anxiety seems to start. And then, is very present during any of those procedures if the parent is unsure about it or, and has any, worries that they haven't had addressed. So I think that, and just really, having a bit of a plan, you know, like a what kind of breathing we're gonna do, what kind of, What kind of, things are you gonna do after this? There's a lot of distraction that we can employ. We have been fortunate to have child life services at, our clinics, but even those services are becoming scarce, so, we spend a lot of time prepping, I would say. This goes along with the planning, is that the more you talk about it. And delay it, the worse it goes. That's why being prepared is so important. So we'll call ahead, try to answer all the questions, give them information to read. We find that happens.'cause again, the more chatter that maybe the parent needs. The child does not need that, and so that can make it really go in a different direction. Also just taking advantage of what the, the pain relief, options are. And distraction like, whether it's vr, that's something that's even available, or just, a simple, a buzzy device. a little bit of numbing cream, things like that that just make it all better. But I do find too, it's prep. And it's all about how you talk about it. I think one of my favorite, things that I've heard in clinic is, the owie makes me better. The owie makes me safer in getting, her injections. And I think that just always has stuck with me

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 16:08

Thank you. And it's so helpful, and as you're describing it, I'm just picturing too, what I know you are doing just by your presence is that co-regulation. So if I'm alone in the room with my child and I'm nervous versus when a really calm, confident nurse is in there helping me and checking me and reassuring me as the parent that. Just goes so far. So shout out to all of the nurses who have helped us along the way and, and all of you out there doing that tough work that it, it makes such a difference in, in our experience as patients..

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 16:36

And I know we focus on pediatrics a lot, but we also, don't wanna neglect our adult population because as people are aging, they are living with food allergies and now we're seeing them entering long-term facilities and nursing homes, et cetera, which aren't prepared. In accommodating those individuals with food allergy. So this is like an untapped area, which, our organization is also looking at. So we're really looking at patient's journey from childhood to, geriatrics because we wanna make sure that every patient is cared for in the best possible way.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 17:10

That's a great point. Tell me more about all the projects that you're trying to create, your programs, your initiatives we wanna know about in your short year as an organization, what you've been dreaming up and doing

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 17:21

Oh gosh, there's a lot going on. So, well, uh, we are trying to really live to our mission, which is live up to it because, uh, one of our things that, we're trying to accomplish is education is number one'cause. In developing a more allergy informed nursing workforce is one of our, core pillars, that educational leadership piece. And then our other pillars, innovation and collaboration, because we do wanna develop and, and, and support those innovative and scalable care models like we discussed earlier with the allergen nurse educator role, for example, which would be another project. And then the. Third pillar is research and scholarship.'cause we do an advanced nurse-led research and we wanna be able to translate that evidence into practice because everything we do in nursing is evidence-based. And so working with other professionals. Allergists, paraprofessionals, allied health professionals, to come up with the research projects that,, again, have this holistic approach to patient care. So those are the three main pillars that we work around, and we do support leadership. We wanna develop next generation of nurse leaders in that space. We also have some mentorship built in. We, you know, had several nurses through our committees. We have several committees that they work on, on different things. We also have, projects. Through our partnerships. So for instance, most recently we've partnered with the food diversity and because they have all this helpful resources that our nurses could benefit from when they care for their patients, we're now able to host those resources and, Inform our nurses about their availability. We also have partnership recently we had with the AANP, which is American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and they're also a global organization. And we had this entire social media campaign around food allergies during months of May. We were able to reach nurses beyond our own organization. So really spreading that information and awareness in our nursing circles. And just to put it into perspective, there are over 5 million nurses in the United States and about 28 million nurses globally, and we're the largest workforce in healthcare, yet we're not well informed on food allergies, which have been on a rise steadily, not just in the United States, but worldwide. And so nurses are bound to care for patients with food allergy at some point in their career, no matter what settings they work in, whether it be, schools or primary care or hospital settings. So, we know that they're gonna interface with them. They're gonna be responsible for feeding them, for giving them medications, doing follow up, doing care coordination, you know, doing all that stuff with those patients. When they care for those individuals, they have to be knowledgeable, what to look out for. especially, many patients when they're not able to advocate for themselves, nurses become their advocates. And so they need to really be allergy informed. So that's what we're trying to accomplish. And it starts with nursing curriculum, which unfortunately isn't. Teaching a lot about food allergies, at least not yet. So hopefully as an organization we can make a dent in that at some point. And of course, with the nurses who are already in the workforce today.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 20:39

I would imagine that nurses are eager for this information and for this education. What was the response when you started talking about, expanding and formally, creating this group? What did you hear from the nurses who ended up joining up?

Sarah Pederson, RN: 20:53

well, yeah, they were pretty darn excited. Really. the reality is that people do want more information and, and they do want to be part of something that is, Official, like what they already do, right? You're already working in this field and and there's nothing we can go with, certification and asthma educator, but there's no allergy, certification, things like that. So people wanna be part of something, and learn and but also validate their knowledge They look for that, nurses look for that. We got a great response. And it's exciting to see it grow. The benefit and the value that is added by a nursing, association membership. Such as FANA, which is I think is pretty cool that we offer ce, with our speaker series. And the ability to network, and also do research projects. Some of us have a book that we're working on. We have many, nurses that are involved in that different chapters and that's really fun to find. People that have an area that they would like to contribute to the book and, and putting it all together. It's a big job. And I am not in charge of that luckily, it's exciting and I think that's gonna be really helpful because that will be a book for nurses, to learn about, food allergy nursing. So yeah, I think the response has been super positive. And also with providers, I think providers are excited to have. The collaboration I'm excited to see, see what, other people bring to the table. It's been fun to hear, and meet lots of, nurses that work in, more technology side, like Olga has all this experience besides an allergy, um, and it's really fun to see there are so many areas when they come together, they can do a lot of things.

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 22:28

When we formed, we really made sure that our board had this diverse skillset and knowledge that we could compliment each other. And I'm so glad that we're able to bring this amazing group together on our board, we must work together in order to make this happen for our patients. And so it's just amazing to have that. Group, a core group of our board members that, is able to compliment each other in so many different ways.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 22:56

Right, I'm learning from you. There are so many angles, there are so many different settings and roles and specialties and certifications nursing to me just seems like one of those so widely spanning fields that I can't really grasp what all the nurses out there are doing. So I appreciate you helping us to understand

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 23:14

the only one. Even some of the nurses can't grasp.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 23:20

Yeah, you're jacks of all trades. What were some of the barriers or, challenges that you ran into trying to make this a reality?

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 23:27

Yes, we've had several challenges, as you could tell. It took us some time to incorporate. So we started in 2019 and 2022 when we opened it up to a larger audience. In 2022, we started talking about. Should we incorporate, if we wanted to get any sort of funding or for CEs, we couldn't do that as an informal group. And we knew we kind of outgrew ourselves. So we kind of felt on that cusp of, what do we do with this? Now we've got all these people who are interested, which wasn't just in the US. It was international too, We had some amazing humans who were willing to donate their in-kind services from attorneys to accountants, to our own families who chipped in to support our endeavor. Already in the. Just less than a year. We've had such an impact. And, um, again, very proud of our board and our members and the families who've supported us through this because there's so many families who felt the need for this. And if you look at some of the testimonials on our website, some of them come from patients where they felt that nurses meet such a difference in their lives and they wanted to support'em. And so it was just incredibly, um, rewarding to see that. Once we took that leap that it actually is now finally making a difference. So we're able to offer ces now. We're able to, work with, industry and with other professionals, and apply for funding and be able to offer scholarships to our, nurses for conferences, especially new nurses who wanna learn more. We want them to be able to afford to go to a conference so they can learn more. We want'em to be able to afford to. Take those CEEs, like for our nurses, who are students and, retirees. We have like a$10, annual membership fee, which is,, really just a nominal fee, just so that they can join and make it affordable so they can learn Needless to say, it's not being taught in a nursing curriculum. And so we are that organization that kind of helps bring that information forward for nurses to take advantage of, having that international membership truly is, Amazing because we're now able to look at best practices across the globe. We've got nurses from Australia, from Europe, from Africa, from Asia, and we are actually going to have, an international panel on December 9th where we have our one year anniversary. To talk about that different international perspective of food allergies because you know, if they're doing something better than us, we wanna know and vice versa.'cause we want to be able to share, what we are doing and what's helping our patients the most and try to implement it.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 26:04

It's amazing to me to think of all of the things that you have accomplished already and all of the things that you already have put into place., What do you see in the future? What else are the next goals that you wanna tackle?

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 26:16

Yes, we do have quite a few things that we wanna accomplish. First of all, I think it's important for us to continue building those bridges with our colleagues in organizations with industry partners we're also hoping to grow our membership, bring several meaningful projects to fruition, hopefully food allergy nurse educators being one of them. Also hopefully work towards development of the allergy specialty so that it's a recognized specialty and the nurses can go into that specialty and then that would create a larger pool of. Knowledgeable nurses for allergists to hire from. And so when they're coming into that workplace, there can hit the ground running as opposed to having this learning curve. So, a lot of work to be done and we're just starting.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 27:01

You're welcoming and encouraging new members, right? And not just nurses. For those who might be interested in joining who it might be appropriate for and what you want them to know about, joining your organization?

Sarah Pederson, RN: 27:12

I think we're looking for any professional that is really interested in, Seeing this go somewhere, learning, supporting.

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 27:21

We are open to any healthcare professionals. You don't have to be a nurse. And of course, like I mentioned earlier, we wanna make it very affordable to students and those who, retired and they still wanna be involved and pass on the wisdom to, the younger generation of nurses. So we want them, in our circle., Anybody who wants to subscribe to our list, they can and they will be getting newsletter. and, be informed as to where we are in our journey.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 27:44

Great. So tell us where we can find that and, and how to find your website please.

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 27:48

Food allergy nursing.org is our website. Uh, hello@foodallergynursing.org is our email. And of course you can follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. That's where we're at. We do have a speaker series and calendar link where you could see all of the events that are scheduled, for the next few months.

Sarah Pederson, RN: 28:10

One more thing, that I wanted to say about, having, patients and families support, this, that even if they're not joining, I feel like it's would be great if they mentioned to their practices and the nurses that they meet is, Hey, did you know, you know, this exists? Getting the word out is hard. That also is another way to be supportive of, food allergy nursing in general

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 28:30

I agree with you you don't have to necessarily be involved in order to help. So you can help as a volunteer. You can help by making a donation. You can help by just gifting a membership to a nurse in your circles. Maybe you have a nurse. Who's your relative or a friend and you,, wanna give them a gift. Just spread the awareness. That would really be much appreciated.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 28:49

Thank you so much for sharing with us what you're doing We'll have to have you back sometime in the future to continue sharing where things go

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 28:56

Thank you so much for inviting us again. As we wrap up this conversation, I hope you're feeling as inspired and as grateful as I am by the expertise, leadership and innovation that this team is bringing into the allergy world. Here are a few ways you can take action. Number one, follow the Food Allergy Nursing Association. food allergy nursing.org. Stay connected to their mission, events and educational resources by following them on social media and visiting their website. Again, all the links will be in the show notes. Number two, sign up for their free event next week,

29:30

FANA is inviting. All of our listeners to join them for a one year anniversary celebration, taking place online, December 9th at 7:30 PM The tickets are free and they can be obtained on FANA's website,

Olga Kagan, PhD, RN: 29:42

food allergy nursing.org.

29:44

And number three, please share this episode with a nurse, with a healthcare professional, with someone that you know who works in healthcare or supports food allergy patients as a way of saying thank you for their great work and as a way of continuing to help the mission of the Food Allergy Nursing Association. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you to the incredible FANA team for everything you do to make food allergy care more informed, compassionate, and connected. If you like what you're hearing, I would love if you would rate or review the show to help me reach more listeners. the content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any questions about your own medical experience or mental health needs, please consult a professional. I'm Dr. Amanda Whitehouse. Thanks for joining me. And until we chat again, remember don't feed the fear.