October 2, 2024 • 21 mins
Why I Left Nursing: A Journey to Chiropractic Care | Conversations With a Chiropractor
In this heartfelt episode of Conversations With a Chiropractor, Dr. Stephanie Wautier shares her deeply personal journey from nursing to chiropractic care. Stephanie opens up about her experiences in nursing, the challenges she faced, and the pivotal moment that led her to leave the profession. From caring for critically ill patients to finding her true calling in chiropractic, this episode offers insight into the motivations behind her career change and the lessons learned along the way.
🎧 In This Episode, Discover:
- Nursing to Chiropractic: What led Stephanie to leave her nursing career.
- Critical Care Moments: Her journey through ICU nursing and personal reflections.
- Finding Purpose: How chiropractic care became her true calling.
🔗 Stay Connected & Support Us:
- Follow Us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@ConversationswithaChiro
- Follow Us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/wautierwellness
- Email Us for Show-Related Inquiries and Sponsorships: drstephaniewautier@yahoo.com
Credits:
- Podcast production by Brand|Sound. Start your podcast journey by emailing brandsoundpodcasts@gmail.com.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Conversations with a Chiropractor
00:51 Dr. Stephanie's Journey: From Nursing to Chiropractic
03:33 Travel Nursing Adventures
06:47 Life-Changing Moments and Challenges
08:53 The Turning Point: Leaving Nursing
15:05 Discovering Chiropractic
17:37 Building a Chiropractic Career
19:13 Reflections and Gratitude
20:54 Conclusion and Contact Information
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hi, this is Dr.
Stephanie Watt here, and I'm the hostof Conversations with a Chiropractor.
This is not a health how to, butrather a conversation with some
amazing people I've had the pleasureof being with on my journey of life.
Think of it more like Tuesdays with Maury.
A fireside chat orchicken soup for the soul.
(00:27):
Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoythis conversation with a chiropractor.
Speaker (00:41):
On this episode of conversations with a chiropractor, you are going
to hear from the chiropractor.
This is Dr.
Stephanie Wautier.
Thank you so much for listening.
I've had so many people ask me alittle bit about my journey as I'm
talking to them about their journey.
And I thought I would cover thistopic that, it's not controversial
(01:02):
for anyone, probably, but me,but, um, why I left nursing.
So I'll tell you a little bit aboutthe history of how I became a nurse.
many of you may know that when my mom wasin her thirties, when I was like about 10,
she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
And I am the second of five girls, andI just naturally became a caregiver.
(01:28):
not inappropriately, it's not likemy little sisters were latchkey kids
and I was making food for them, butprobably somewhere within me that
natural caregiving just came out.
when I was growing up, therewas a huge focus on grades.
And the conversations were not,are you going to college, but
(01:49):
where will you go to college?
I had little ideas when I was growingup that I wanted to be a beautician,
that I wanted to be a dentist.
and then as I became olderin my high school years, I
settled on becoming a nurse.
It was practical.
It was a great way to make money.
I could support myself.
(02:09):
So almost without having manyother options or choices or
thoughts, I went to nursing school.
I went to Michigan State University, hadan amazing experience there, loved my
time at MSU, loved the College of Nursing.
Then when I graduated, I startedworking at Sparrow Hospital.
(02:31):
Actually, I started workingthere as a nurse's aide, even
while I was in nursing school.
And then my first job was as aMedSearch float nurse, which basically
in a 12 hour shift, you could goto three different floors for four
hours and see a variety of patients.
(02:51):
And as anyone in the world of nursingknows, a lot of times the float
nurse gets the worst assignments.
So I quickly decided to go, not quickly,But after probably about a year and
a half of being a MedSurgFloat, I gota job at Sparrow in the Neuro ICU.
And that was my first ICU experience.
(03:13):
And what I really loved is havingone or two patients, being able to
spend so much of my time with them,although they were very critically
ill and sometimes even intubated orcomatose, I really enjoyed having that
relational piece with the families.
(03:33):
So I did several years at Sparrowin the neuro ICU before I decided
that I wanted to do travel nursing.
So my first assignment was inGreeley, Colorado, north of Denver.
They call it the meat capital of Colorado.
There's a meat packing plant there,but my dear friend from high school
(03:57):
lived in Denver and it was wonderful.
We were able to hang out and she taught mehow to ski It was a very cool experience.
From there, I went to Seattle.
I worked at Harborview in their neuro ICU.
Stunningly beautiful views of theharbor from that neuro ICU, huge
(04:18):
place, level one trauma center.
We saw four state radius, Montana,Idaho, Washington, and Alaska
for any brain hemorrhages.
That position definitelygrew me as a nurse.
I stayed in Seattle for four, I think Ire upped four times, so for about a year.
(04:40):
Before I moved to San Francisco,and there I was at a Kaiser Hospital
on Geary, I vividly remember.
Here's a funny Yooper story.
I always would basically check intoa furnished apartment and, find
on the map where the hospital was.
And this is before iPhones and iPads.
Anyways.
(05:00):
So the first morning that I worked at mySan Francisco hospital, I walked to work.
It was like five blocks And the womanwho was my mentor that day said,
Oh, where did you park Stephanie?
And I said, Oh, I actually walked.
And she said, don't ever walk inthis neighborhood alone at six
o'clock in the morning again.
And this Yooper girl, when I was inSeattle, like My car was vandalized.
(05:23):
I had all my windows broken and inSan Francisco, the apartment that
I lived in, which was very nicein Japan town, there was a note by
our mailboxes that said be careful,don't let anyone in the door because
we've had people robbed at gunpoint.
Not only was I having some great nursingexperiences, but I was also having
(05:43):
some eye opening life experiences, andany time I go to the post office in
Marquette, Michigan, and there's a lineof four people, I think, oh, I remember
standing in line for more than two hoursin San Francisco to pick up a package.
One of the best things aboutWorking in San Francisco was
that my sister lived there.
(06:04):
She and her husband, lived there.
And so I would actually volunteerin her classroom sometimes because
I worked three, 12 hour shifts,which afforded me a lot of working.
Those three twelves was really amazing.
Wherever I went, I becamea tourist in that town.
Seattle, we went to different places.
(06:24):
took the ferry to Victoria, BritishColumbia, went to the rainforest,
skied up in the mountains.
I call these my gypsy years becausethey truly were an amazing time
for a single woman to be able tosupport herself and see the country.
And that is what I was able todo when I was in San Francisco.
(06:47):
my grandmother, my mom's momgot sick in Minneapolis and then
she did end up passing away.
So after San Francisco, Iwent to Minneapolis to live
in her home and to help her.
Get it packed up and readyto sell in Minneapolis.
They didn't have a specific neuro ICU.
So I think that it was working intheir surgical ICU at the time.
(07:09):
from Minneapolis.
Then I went to New Haven, Connecticut.
I was looking for a high bonus andI know why they give high bonuses at
hospitals because there was a lot of.
There was a lot of angst andhostility in that department.
In fact, it's probably the leastwelcome I've ever felt as a nurse
(07:30):
in a travel nurse situation.
And I remember playing theBeyonce song, I'm a survivor every
day that I had to go to work.
After my New Haven experience,I decided to go home.
I decided to Give myselfa little bit of a break.
So I landed at my folks house in Escanabaand three weeks later, 9 11 happened.
(07:54):
I vividly remember my dad, whyhe was home from work that day.
I don't remember, but he woke me upand we were staring at the television.
Both of us wide eyed in shock and awe.
And I remember thinking, Oh, I can help.
I can go there.
I can help.
I can do whatever needs to be done.
(08:14):
I'm a nurse.
And I actually called thered cross very early on.
And they were like, we don't need nursesbecause these people have all died.
a truly horrific time.
And I'm sure that anyone who's livedthrough wars, I think so much about my
dear friend, Nicole, who was born inLebanon and came to the United States at
(08:35):
age six, because of war in her country.
I know that those of us who arein the United States can't fathom,
couldn't probably fathom havingthose terrorist attacks on our land.
So thank you to all those who have served.
I commemorate those who have lost theirlife on 9 11 and so here I am living
(09:00):
in my parents home at 20 somethingand this tragedy is occurring in
our world so I start working at ourlocal hospital in Escanaba, Michigan.
I buy a house.
I don't really know what's going tohappen with my future at that point.
But let me tell you that through all ofthese travels, through my time at Sparrow,
(09:25):
Colorado, Seattle, San Francisco, NewHaven, Connecticut, I really had never
felt like I had found my niche in nursing.
I thought, Oh, maybe if I get to laborand delivery, or maybe I could do NICU, or
maybe there'll be something that fills my.
My heart to its fullest, I reallylove caring for people and I still do.
(09:49):
And hopefully those of you whoknow me can see that, there was
just something that was always.
An overloading intensity,hostility, negativity.
And maybe I thought that going to likeL and D or NICU would be happier or a
little bit more loving with the staff.
(10:09):
Working in the hospitalsetting was very hostile.
I knew that when I say hostile, not liketerrorist threat hostile, but just that
the environment was very fluctuating,depending on who you were working
with and who the nurse manager was.
In fact, I rememberrunning into a woman in,
The New Haven, Connecticuthospital in the med room.
(10:31):
And I would always introducemyself, say, Hey, I'm Stephanie.
I'm a travel nurse.
And this nurse said, just keep toyourself, keep your head down and you're
not going to have a bad time here.
Basically the hostility, thenegativity was so thick in that unit.
anyone who's worked with women canprobably deduct why and personality
(10:54):
conflicts and power conflicts, and thenadd this very intense ICU experience.
And I think I was just soured fromthat, but I worked in Escanaba,
this wonderful, warm place to be,but the unfortunate thing was that
I still looked very young and.
(11:15):
Although I had all this really amazingexperience traveling and working at
all of these very critical hospitals,we were not even technically in ICU.
We were in SCU, a special careunit, because we didn't have certain
parameters for care of our patients.
So I had a very critically ill patientwho was ventilated and, mean, I don't
(11:38):
want to throw anyone under the busand that's not my intention for the
hospital or for, for anything, butjust this was my personal experience.
So I was working night shift.
I was calling and calling this physicianbecause the patient wasn't doing well.
I knew we needed to do something,and at that point, what would have
been appropriate is to transferthem to a bigger hospital.
(12:02):
So I worked, let's just say it was aFriday night shift, and, Saturday morning,
the physician on call came in and said,Who was that nurse who was badgering me?
And, I always looked at nurses being theeyes and the ears of the physician and
giving them as much information as wecould for the main goal of helping the
(12:22):
patient not only get better, but survive.
So I come back in Saturday night.
This patient is still there.
He's now too unstable totransfer quote unquote.
And.
I'm still in this frantic stateof, we got to get him out of here.
we're not, we got to get him out of here.
So the charge nurse takesover, calls the physician.
(12:43):
We get an order for that patientto be airlifted and he codes in
the helicopter, and then he codeswhen he gets there and he dies.
I don't want anybody to think thatdeath, when I just said that I
took it lightly, I was sobbing.
I was so emotional because I really feltthat death could have been prevented.
(13:04):
So here I am, this young nurse who'sstriving for justice, and I really wanted
to talk to the ethics committee aboutbasically this physician slandering me.
For trying to get him to eithercome in or give me an order for
a different meds, et cetera.
And the director of nursing was like,no, you're not going to do anything.
(13:25):
You're not going to sayanything about this.
And I went back to my nurse manager Iwas just wanting for someone to give
me some support in all of this andshe said, Stephanie, I think maybe a
different job would be better for you.
So at that moment when I felt likeI had found my landing spot and
(13:45):
this team of nurses, I was gutted.
I felt like, okay, nothing thatI do matters, like nothing that
I do will make a difference.
I follow the orders.
I do what the physician wants me to do.
And again, I'm not doggingphysicians and I'm not saying that
I'm the hero who can save everyone.
(14:05):
I just felt so muchlike my hands were tied.
So in processing this event, I wastalking to my parents and my dad
said, you want to be the doctor.
You want to be The one who can reallymake the most difference and at that
moment, I thought, you know what?
maybe I do.
And at that point, I was 29.
(14:28):
I was getting ready to turn 30.
I was still, single, notmarried, no children.
And I thought, okay, this is the time.
This is the crossroads.
This is the time for meto go back to school.
It's now or never.
I don't want to have a career where Iam dreading going to work for 30 years.
And unfortunately I did work throughthose years with many nurses who
(14:49):
would come in and you'd sit down tolisten to shift report and they would
announce how many days, minutes,hours, months, years till retirement.
And I didn't want that to be me.
So we're going to shiftgears a little bit.
I'm going to tell you how and why I.
was interested in chiropractic,but that was really the moment
(15:13):
where things changed, where Ithought I can't keep doing this.
So my folks brought me to thechiropractor since I was about 12.
I had an interesting experience wherewe were doing some sort of dance for a
Christmas program at school and my leglike went out from under me and I fell.
I felt like during the rehearsaland it was really embarrassing.
(15:36):
And my dad had used chiropractictruly his whole adult life.
He started his twenties job as beinga truck driver, his back would go out
and he would be literally crawlingfrom the ground up the couch and would
go to the chiropractor, get adjusted,and he would be back on the road.
And for a family of five totalkids and my dad being the, Primary
(16:01):
breadwinner that was essential that hebe healthy and strong and able to work.
So splatter in a dad whose back is goingout and a mom who's having these symptoms.
It was probably like two yearsbefore she got her diagnosis.
She would have, first she had opticneuritis, and then like she would
(16:22):
have one side of her body feelcompletely numb and or like cement.
She went to many local hospitals, thenMarshfield Clinic, then finally Mayo.
And that is where she got the diagnosis.
She started on certain medicinesthat unfortunately gave her
really bad side effects.
In fact, I remember one night mydad bringing her into the bathtub
(16:45):
because she had such a high fever.
So my parents were really lookingfor alternative ways to help my
mom other than pharmaceuticals,because way back then we did not
have the research and the technologyand the new meds that we have now.
And Ms was still a little bitof a mystery to many physicians.
(17:06):
So my mom and dad found a chiropractorthat was based out of Boulder, Colorado.
Her name was Erin Elster.
She actually was correlating diseasessuch as multiple sclerosis, neurologic
diseases with upper cervical subluxations.
So my folks actually moved therefor six weeks And got, I think,
(17:27):
daily adjustments by Erin Elster.
So chiropractic and natural waysof thinking were very much at
the forefront of my growing up.
And as I was at this crossroads intrying to determine what my next step
was, chiropractic just felt like avery logical and reasonable next step.
(17:48):
I went to Palmer College of Chiropractic.
I think I turned 30 while I was thereand the rest is sort of history.
I truly at my core believe that this wasmy life's calling to be a chiropractor.
I think that all of those experiencesI had as a nurse seasoned me.
(18:09):
they helped me be the bestchiropractor that I can be.
there was nothing negative thatcame out of my nursing days.
I had amazing experiences,amazing mentors.
And I love that quote that sayssomething like, smooth seas
never made a skilled sailor.
So all of these ups and downs anddiversities and challenges and
(18:34):
experiences, I think truly helped toform me, to create me, to be resilient.
And I'm trying to relay that tomy own children, as we have just
such a different generation, but.
I tell people if I am not in my officein Marquette, Michigan, they will find
me on a beach somewhere with an adjustingtable, taking coconuts for payment.
(19:01):
I really love what I do.
I know the power that madethe body heals the body.
Every single day I'm able to enrichthe lives of people by getting them
feeling better and functioning better.
And, I think one of the things that I.
Wanted to do by starting this podcastwas to really honor those people who
(19:21):
have been in my life because every singleday I have this gift of them, being
vulnerable with me and sharing with me.
And very recently I had, Anotherhealthcare person, patient, and he
said, you're doing narrative medicine.
And I was like, I've never heard of that.
(19:42):
And my practice is not high volume.
I'm not seeing onepatient every two minutes.
I really believe in that power, in theconnection with people with other humans.
And as I'm recording this, I'mactually coming off of the heels of
my amazing team and staff, surprisingme with 15 years of Wautier Wellness.
(20:07):
So 15 years ago, I started the business.
I purchased the businessfrom John McLean and.
That was 17 years agothat I was a chiropractor.
So pretty spectacular times.
I'm so grateful for all of theopportunities that people have
given me to be in their life.
And I just have been asked so many times,
(20:30):
Why did you leave nursing?
And for the record.
I did let my nursing license lapse,and I just went through two years of
intense hoops jumping through, includingretaking my national board exam.
So I am a registered nurse and adoctor of chiropractic, and I'm
(20:50):
so happy that you've given me theopportunity to be in your life.
If you're listening, thank you so much.
I hope you have a spectacular day.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Thank you so much for listening.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,would you please rate it,
review it, like or subscribe?
You can find me on social mediaat WautierWellness.com Dr.
Stephanie Wautier on Instagram,or Wautier Wellness Chiropractic
and Massage on Facebook.
(21:26):
And I'm so curious where yournext conversation will take you.
Hi, this is Dr.
Stephanie Watt here, and I'm the hostof Conversations with a Chiropractor.
This is not a health how to, butrather a conversation with some
amazing people I've had the pleasureof being with on my journey of life.
Think of it more like Tuesdays with Maury.
A fireside chat orchicken soup for the soul.
(00:27):
Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoythis conversation with a chiropractor.
Speaker (00:41):
On this episode of conversations with a chiropractor, you are going
to hear from the chiropractor.
This is Dr.
Stephanie Wautier.
Thank you so much for listening.
I've had so many people ask me alittle bit about my journey as I'm
talking to them about their journey.
And I thought I would cover thistopic that, it's not controversial
(01:02):
for anyone, probably, but me,but, um, why I left nursing.
So I'll tell you a little bit aboutthe history of how I became a nurse.
many of you may know that when my mom wasin her thirties, when I was like about 10,
she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
And I am the second of five girls, andI just naturally became a caregiver.
(01:28):
not inappropriately, it's not likemy little sisters were latchkey kids
and I was making food for them, butprobably somewhere within me that
natural caregiving just came out.
when I was growing up, therewas a huge focus on grades.
And the conversations were not,are you going to college, but
(01:49):
where will you go to college?
I had little ideas when I was growingup that I wanted to be a beautician,
that I wanted to be a dentist.
and then as I became olderin my high school years, I
settled on becoming a nurse.
It was practical.
It was a great way to make money.
I could support myself.
(02:09):
So almost without having manyother options or choices or
thoughts, I went to nursing school.
I went to Michigan State University, hadan amazing experience there, loved my
time at MSU, loved the College of Nursing.
Then when I graduated, I startedworking at Sparrow Hospital.
(02:31):
Actually, I started workingthere as a nurse's aide, even
while I was in nursing school.
And then my first job was as aMedSearch float nurse, which basically
in a 12 hour shift, you could goto three different floors for four
hours and see a variety of patients.
(02:51):
And as anyone in the world of nursingknows, a lot of times the float
nurse gets the worst assignments.
So I quickly decided to go, not quickly,But after probably about a year and
a half of being a MedSurgFloat, I gota job at Sparrow in the Neuro ICU.
And that was my first ICU experience.
(03:13):
And what I really loved is havingone or two patients, being able to
spend so much of my time with them,although they were very critically
ill and sometimes even intubated orcomatose, I really enjoyed having that
relational piece with the families.
(03:33):
So I did several years at Sparrowin the neuro ICU before I decided
that I wanted to do travel nursing.
So my first assignment was inGreeley, Colorado, north of Denver.
They call it the meat capital of Colorado.
There's a meat packing plant there,but my dear friend from high school
(03:57):
lived in Denver and it was wonderful.
We were able to hang out and she taught mehow to ski It was a very cool experience.
From there, I went to Seattle.
I worked at Harborview in their neuro ICU.
Stunningly beautiful views of theharbor from that neuro ICU, huge
(04:18):
place, level one trauma center.
We saw four state radius, Montana,Idaho, Washington, and Alaska
for any brain hemorrhages.
That position definitelygrew me as a nurse.
I stayed in Seattle for four, I think Ire upped four times, so for about a year.
(04:40):
Before I moved to San Francisco,and there I was at a Kaiser Hospital
on Geary, I vividly remember.
Here's a funny Yooper story.
I always would basically check intoa furnished apartment and, find
on the map where the hospital was.
And this is before iPhones and iPads.
Anyways.
(05:00):
So the first morning that I worked at mySan Francisco hospital, I walked to work.
It was like five blocks And the womanwho was my mentor that day said,
Oh, where did you park Stephanie?
And I said, Oh, I actually walked.
And she said, don't ever walk inthis neighborhood alone at six
o'clock in the morning again.
And this Yooper girl, when I was inSeattle, like My car was vandalized.
(05:23):
I had all my windows broken and inSan Francisco, the apartment that
I lived in, which was very nicein Japan town, there was a note by
our mailboxes that said be careful,don't let anyone in the door because
we've had people robbed at gunpoint.
Not only was I having some great nursingexperiences, but I was also having
(05:43):
some eye opening life experiences, andany time I go to the post office in
Marquette, Michigan, and there's a lineof four people, I think, oh, I remember
standing in line for more than two hoursin San Francisco to pick up a package.
One of the best things aboutWorking in San Francisco was
that my sister lived there.
(06:04):
She and her husband, lived there.
And so I would actually volunteerin her classroom sometimes because
I worked three, 12 hour shifts,which afforded me a lot of working.
Those three twelves was really amazing.
Wherever I went, I becamea tourist in that town.
Seattle, we went to different places.
(06:24):
took the ferry to Victoria, BritishColumbia, went to the rainforest,
skied up in the mountains.
I call these my gypsy years becausethey truly were an amazing time
for a single woman to be able tosupport herself and see the country.
And that is what I was able todo when I was in San Francisco.
(06:47):
my grandmother, my mom's momgot sick in Minneapolis and then
she did end up passing away.
So after San Francisco, Iwent to Minneapolis to live
in her home and to help her.
Get it packed up and readyto sell in Minneapolis.
They didn't have a specific neuro ICU.
So I think that it was working intheir surgical ICU at the time.
(07:09):
from Minneapolis.
Then I went to New Haven, Connecticut.
I was looking for a high bonus andI know why they give high bonuses at
hospitals because there was a lot of.
There was a lot of angst andhostility in that department.
In fact, it's probably the leastwelcome I've ever felt as a nurse
(07:30):
in a travel nurse situation.
And I remember playing theBeyonce song, I'm a survivor every
day that I had to go to work.
After my New Haven experience,I decided to go home.
I decided to Give myselfa little bit of a break.
So I landed at my folks house in Escanabaand three weeks later, 9 11 happened.
(07:54):
I vividly remember my dad, whyhe was home from work that day.
I don't remember, but he woke me upand we were staring at the television.
Both of us wide eyed in shock and awe.
And I remember thinking, Oh, I can help.
I can go there.
I can help.
I can do whatever needs to be done.
(08:14):
I'm a nurse.
And I actually called thered cross very early on.
And they were like, we don't need nursesbecause these people have all died.
a truly horrific time.
And I'm sure that anyone who's livedthrough wars, I think so much about my
dear friend, Nicole, who was born inLebanon and came to the United States at
(08:35):
age six, because of war in her country.
I know that those of us who arein the United States can't fathom,
couldn't probably fathom havingthose terrorist attacks on our land.
So thank you to all those who have served.
I commemorate those who have lost theirlife on 9 11 and so here I am living
(09:00):
in my parents home at 20 somethingand this tragedy is occurring in
our world so I start working at ourlocal hospital in Escanaba, Michigan.
I buy a house.
I don't really know what's going tohappen with my future at that point.
But let me tell you that through all ofthese travels, through my time at Sparrow,
(09:25):
Colorado, Seattle, San Francisco, NewHaven, Connecticut, I really had never
felt like I had found my niche in nursing.
I thought, Oh, maybe if I get to laborand delivery, or maybe I could do NICU, or
maybe there'll be something that fills my.
My heart to its fullest, I reallylove caring for people and I still do.
(09:49):
And hopefully those of you whoknow me can see that, there was
just something that was always.
An overloading intensity,hostility, negativity.
And maybe I thought that going to likeL and D or NICU would be happier or a
little bit more loving with the staff.
(10:09):
Working in the hospitalsetting was very hostile.
I knew that when I say hostile, not liketerrorist threat hostile, but just that
the environment was very fluctuating,depending on who you were working
with and who the nurse manager was.
In fact, I rememberrunning into a woman in,
The New Haven, Connecticuthospital in the med room.
(10:31):
And I would always introducemyself, say, Hey, I'm Stephanie.
I'm a travel nurse.
And this nurse said, just keep toyourself, keep your head down and you're
not going to have a bad time here.
Basically the hostility, thenegativity was so thick in that unit.
anyone who's worked with women canprobably deduct why and personality
(10:54):
conflicts and power conflicts, and thenadd this very intense ICU experience.
And I think I was just soured fromthat, but I worked in Escanaba,
this wonderful, warm place to be,but the unfortunate thing was that
I still looked very young and.
(11:15):
Although I had all this really amazingexperience traveling and working at
all of these very critical hospitals,we were not even technically in ICU.
We were in SCU, a special careunit, because we didn't have certain
parameters for care of our patients.
So I had a very critically ill patientwho was ventilated and, mean, I don't
(11:38):
want to throw anyone under the busand that's not my intention for the
hospital or for, for anything, butjust this was my personal experience.
So I was working night shift.
I was calling and calling this physicianbecause the patient wasn't doing well.
I knew we needed to do something,and at that point, what would have
been appropriate is to transferthem to a bigger hospital.
(12:02):
So I worked, let's just say it was aFriday night shift, and, Saturday morning,
the physician on call came in and said,Who was that nurse who was badgering me?
And, I always looked at nurses being theeyes and the ears of the physician and
giving them as much information as wecould for the main goal of helping the
(12:22):
patient not only get better, but survive.
So I come back in Saturday night.
This patient is still there.
He's now too unstable totransfer quote unquote.
And.
I'm still in this frantic stateof, we got to get him out of here.
we're not, we got to get him out of here.
So the charge nurse takesover, calls the physician.
(12:43):
We get an order for that patientto be airlifted and he codes in
the helicopter, and then he codeswhen he gets there and he dies.
I don't want anybody to think thatdeath, when I just said that I
took it lightly, I was sobbing.
I was so emotional because I really feltthat death could have been prevented.
(13:04):
So here I am, this young nurse who'sstriving for justice, and I really wanted
to talk to the ethics committee aboutbasically this physician slandering me.
For trying to get him to eithercome in or give me an order for
a different meds, et cetera.
And the director of nursing was like,no, you're not going to do anything.
(13:25):
You're not going to sayanything about this.
And I went back to my nurse manager Iwas just wanting for someone to give
me some support in all of this andshe said, Stephanie, I think maybe a
different job would be better for you.
So at that moment when I felt likeI had found my landing spot and
(13:45):
this team of nurses, I was gutted.
I felt like, okay, nothing thatI do matters, like nothing that
I do will make a difference.
I follow the orders.
I do what the physician wants me to do.
And again, I'm not doggingphysicians and I'm not saying that
I'm the hero who can save everyone.
(14:05):
I just felt so muchlike my hands were tied.
So in processing this event, I wastalking to my parents and my dad
said, you want to be the doctor.
You want to be The one who can reallymake the most difference and at that
moment, I thought, you know what?
maybe I do.
And at that point, I was 29.
(14:28):
I was getting ready to turn 30.
I was still, single, notmarried, no children.
And I thought, okay, this is the time.
This is the crossroads.
This is the time for meto go back to school.
It's now or never.
I don't want to have a career where Iam dreading going to work for 30 years.
And unfortunately I did work throughthose years with many nurses who
(14:49):
would come in and you'd sit down tolisten to shift report and they would
announce how many days, minutes,hours, months, years till retirement.
And I didn't want that to be me.
So we're going to shiftgears a little bit.
I'm going to tell you how and why I.
was interested in chiropractic,but that was really the moment
(15:13):
where things changed, where Ithought I can't keep doing this.
So my folks brought me to thechiropractor since I was about 12.
I had an interesting experience wherewe were doing some sort of dance for a
Christmas program at school and my leglike went out from under me and I fell.
I felt like during the rehearsaland it was really embarrassing.
(15:36):
And my dad had used chiropractictruly his whole adult life.
He started his twenties job as beinga truck driver, his back would go out
and he would be literally crawlingfrom the ground up the couch and would
go to the chiropractor, get adjusted,and he would be back on the road.
And for a family of five totalkids and my dad being the, Primary
(16:01):
breadwinner that was essential that hebe healthy and strong and able to work.
So splatter in a dad whose back is goingout and a mom who's having these symptoms.
It was probably like two yearsbefore she got her diagnosis.
She would have, first she had opticneuritis, and then like she would
(16:22):
have one side of her body feelcompletely numb and or like cement.
She went to many local hospitals, thenMarshfield Clinic, then finally Mayo.
And that is where she got the diagnosis.
She started on certain medicinesthat unfortunately gave her
really bad side effects.
In fact, I remember one night mydad bringing her into the bathtub
(16:45):
because she had such a high fever.
So my parents were really lookingfor alternative ways to help my
mom other than pharmaceuticals,because way back then we did not
have the research and the technologyand the new meds that we have now.
And Ms was still a little bitof a mystery to many physicians.
(17:06):
So my mom and dad found a chiropractorthat was based out of Boulder, Colorado.
Her name was Erin Elster.
She actually was correlating diseasessuch as multiple sclerosis, neurologic
diseases with upper cervical subluxations.
So my folks actually moved therefor six weeks And got, I think,
(17:27):
daily adjustments by Erin Elster.
So chiropractic and natural waysof thinking were very much at
the forefront of my growing up.
And as I was at this crossroads intrying to determine what my next step
was, chiropractic just felt like avery logical and reasonable next step.
(17:48):
I went to Palmer College of Chiropractic.
I think I turned 30 while I was thereand the rest is sort of history.
I truly at my core believe that this wasmy life's calling to be a chiropractor.
I think that all of those experiencesI had as a nurse seasoned me.
(18:09):
they helped me be the bestchiropractor that I can be.
there was nothing negative thatcame out of my nursing days.
I had amazing experiences,amazing mentors.
And I love that quote that sayssomething like, smooth seas
never made a skilled sailor.
So all of these ups and downs anddiversities and challenges and
(18:34):
experiences, I think truly helped toform me, to create me, to be resilient.
And I'm trying to relay that tomy own children, as we have just
such a different generation, but.
I tell people if I am not in my officein Marquette, Michigan, they will find
me on a beach somewhere with an adjustingtable, taking coconuts for payment.
(19:01):
I really love what I do.
I know the power that madethe body heals the body.
Every single day I'm able to enrichthe lives of people by getting them
feeling better and functioning better.
And, I think one of the things that I.
Wanted to do by starting this podcastwas to really honor those people who
(19:21):
have been in my life because every singleday I have this gift of them, being
vulnerable with me and sharing with me.
And very recently I had, Anotherhealthcare person, patient, and he
said, you're doing narrative medicine.
And I was like, I've never heard of that.
(19:42):
And my practice is not high volume.
I'm not seeing onepatient every two minutes.
I really believe in that power, in theconnection with people with other humans.
And as I'm recording this, I'mactually coming off of the heels of
my amazing team and staff, surprisingme with 15 years of Wautier Wellness.
(20:07):
So 15 years ago, I started the business.
I purchased the businessfrom John McLean and.
That was 17 years agothat I was a chiropractor.
So pretty spectacular times.
I'm so grateful for all of theopportunities that people have
given me to be in their life.
And I just have been asked so many times,
(20:30):
Why did you leave nursing?
And for the record.
I did let my nursing license lapse,and I just went through two years of
intense hoops jumping through, includingretaking my national board exam.
So I am a registered nurse and adoctor of chiropractic, and I'm
(20:50):
so happy that you've given me theopportunity to be in your life.
If you're listening, thank you so much.
I hope you have a spectacular day.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Thank you so much for listening.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,would you please rate it,
review it, like or subscribe?
You can find me on social mediaat WautierWellness.com Dr.
Stephanie Wautier on Instagram,or Wautier Wellness Chiropractic
and Massage on Facebook.
(21:26):
And I'm so curious where yournext conversation will take you.
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