Meet Colby & Christopher: Behind the Scrubs

Episode Transcript
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Christopher Henderson (00:00):
Welcome to Nursing Lyfe 101, the most
important nursing class younever got to take in nursing
school.
We will be traversing differentobjectives, like interviewing
what to do in nursing school,boundaries, burnout and so much
more, if this interests you.
I hope you are taking goodnotes because class is now in
session.
Hello and welcome to NursingLyfe 101.

(00:50):
We're so excited to have youhere with us as we dive into the
world of nursing, sharing ourexperiences, insights and a
little bit of fun along the way.
I'm Christopher and I couldn'tbe happier to introduce my
co-host.

Colby Daniels (01:04):
Colby.
Hello guys, my name is Colby.
Together we're going to bebringing you guys real stories,
practical tips and discussionsabout all things nursing,
whether you're a fellow nurse orjust curious about the life
behind the scrubs.
We're thrilled to have you joinus.

So essentially, this is going to be
our first podcast and we haveto have introductions to who we
are.
You obviously know our names,but I guess let's just kind of
start out with the whole.
How long have you been innursing question?

Yeah, we'll start off with the basics.
Do you want me to go first?

Yeah, I guess you can go first.

Okay, I'll go first.
So I have been a nurse for justover 10 years now, which is
wild thinking about how fastthat's gone by.
But I graduated in 2014,.
And, yeah, that's been doing itat the bed, at the bedside too.

Yeah, that's insane.

Which is very rare these days.
It's like the rarest of therare to be at the bedside for 10
years.
Um, but that's the kind ofcrazy I am.
And then do you want to?
10 years 10 years yeah.

So this is 2024.
You started in 2014.

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, we're closer to five
years now, or sorry, 11 years.
We're closer to 11 years now,or sorry, 11 years now Five
years.
We're closer to 11 years nowBecause it would have been May.

(02:39):
So, like we're like six monthsaway from May,

Can you believe that?

Yeah, that's wild ,
that's crazy.
Yeah, I have not been nursingthat long and I haven't been at
bedside that long either.
I have been a nurse since 2019,so that would be five years and
it would not be six years.
Soon it will be in October thatI will be going to six years,
so I just got my fifth year overwith and I've only been in

(03:05):
bedside for four of those years.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, because the lastyear you were changing it up a
little bit.

I did.
I did change it up.
I am now an assistant nursemanager.
Unless you consider my sidehustle bedside no, I think
that's different.

I think that's a fun, another fun part, really
yeah.

I don't think that's bedside at all no,
I mean.

I still have some type of clinical or, excuse me,
you do, but not criticalthinking not in the traditional
sense of being in the hospitalsetting okay so I think it's
like yes, you're still doinglike one-to-one patient care,
that counts definitely, but Ithink it's so yes, you're still
doing like one-to-one patientcare, that counts definitely,
but I think it's so different.
So why don't we talk about thedifferent um things we've done
within our like in our nursingcareers?

(03:53):
So, like you have, you weretalking about your side hustle,
so tell them about that yeah,yeah.

So my side hustle is IV therapy.
Um, I mix ivy vitamins and Iguess it's like a wellness spa.
We're slowly adding other stuff.
Sermorelin do um andSemaglutide for, like, weight
loss and weight management.

Um yeah, you guys have really grown a lot, I
think, since since it firststarted opening, at least and
like you do the the iv drip.
You do the iv drips.
You even like go to people'shouses and do it too, which is
cool.
You have like a mobile call.
Yeah, yeah, you said theSemaglutide like vitamins, and

(04:43):
I've learned a lot too throughyou doing that, like when last
year, there's a couple of usthat all work in the hospital go
on hikes together and I gavemyself a concussion when I
walked into a branch and I had aterrible headache and
Christopher actually was likecome in and get a magnesium
infusion, It'll help.
And it did.

(05:03):
It was awesome.

Well, you know, and I don't think a lot
of people know the benefits ofjust having vitamins in general.
But, like it is cool becauseyou get to experience, in terms
of nursing this, like totallydifferent approach to like
healing and like wellness, justtotally different

yeah, I think it's really cool.
I think when you're in nursingschool you hear like oh, what a
good career, like you can do somuch within that, like you know,
being a nurse, and I think it'sa good example of showing like
something you could do outsideof just working in the hospital.
That's still like patient care,patient forward care, but it's

(05:48):
different and changes it up.
It's a lot, I don't know.
To me from the outside it looksa lot more fun some days, okay,
but then, like in the hospital,what are you doing?

Yeah, transplant, so solid organ,
abdominal transplant, primarilykidney, pancreas and livers,
primarily adults.
We're branching out into pedsbeing.
I did do air quotes for thosethat are just listening, for
those that are 16 and older, butof adult weight, so that we

(06:26):
don't have to worry about anyemergency medicine having to
convert per weight and stufflike that.
And, like I said, I'm no longerat bedside.
I did dabble a little bit invascular surgery when I first
started a little bit in vascularsurgery when I first started.

(06:50):
It was actually the reason whyI came to the health system that
we're currently working at.
But after that, covid hit,because 2020 was a thing and we
lost the whole vascular thingand was in cardiac for a little
bit.

Yeah, and that's how we met.
So I primarily have beenworking in cardiology my whole
career, with a few little bonusthings, offshoots of my career.
But Christopher and I met onthe cardiology floor when we
were, for a short time, workingtogether.
So, yeah, cardiology, most ofmy career at the bedside, um, if

(07:28):
not all of my career, dependingon how you want to look at it,
but um, but different, differentum experiences.
So I, um, yeah, so mostlycardiology.
Um, I got a.
So I, yeah, so mostlycardiology, I got a.

(07:49):
My first job out of college wasa was on a acute cards floor.
I worked there for a couple ofyears and did my own style of
travel nursing, not purposefully, but decide I'm not from where
we currently live and I movedback home after two years of
living where we are and it'sabout I'm from like about 12
hours away from here.
So I moved home, worked in likesurgical cardiology,

(08:14):
post-cardiothoracic surgeries ina step-down unit from the
surgical ICU and then onlystayed there for about a year
and came back to where we live,but a different health system.
So I've pretty much been theresince 2017.
I did a small stint where Ileft and did some travel nursing
during COVID.
So I got to experience a lot ofdifferent things during those

(08:40):
three years.
Primarily, the first two yearswas just working covid contracts
and then my third year I wasdoing float pool.
Um, so I did pretty mucheverything when I was in the
float.
Uh, we were in the ed, we didtrauma, we did women's health.
I did get to do some morecardiology things, which was
great

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, time out
, did you just say you did, ed?

yeah, you didn't know that

no

yeah, I mean I was
more.
I mean I wasn't.
It wasn't like the sense oflike I was an ed nurse.
I was mostly there's likefloating helping hands oh, they
kind of like, kind of likegetting stuck in borders yeah,
yeah.
So I mean I would.
Yeah, we had like one sectionwhere it was borders.
I'd be there sometimes.
Sometimes I'd just be floatingaround passing meds for people.

(09:26):
Sometimes I'd be transferringpatients to their units if they
got beds in inpatient units.
I was kind of like a jack of alltrades situation when I was in
the ED.
But yeah, that kind of stufftoo, which I actually really
enjoyed ED nursing, and before,when I made my decision to come
back to the bed side, Iconsidered actually applying um

(09:49):
to the ed.
But ultimately cardiology hasmy heart in a twisted way and I
have come back again.
So when I came back to thecurrent health system that we
work at, I took on a chargenurse role which a lot of
hospitals.
I've been charge nurse atmultiple hospitals, and it while
as a traveler while staff atother hospitals.

(10:12):
The way ours does it is alittle bit different and we're
kind of like a unit based leaderand we have a little more
responsibility and leadershipthan your traditional charge
nurse when you think about it.
So it's a little bit different,a little bit more involved.
But that's about what I doright now.

So you know, with those specialties
that you've kind of got todabble a little bit into, like
is there, and we'll talk moreabout this next week, but is
there one you said ED?
Is there one that you're like?
Nah?

oh, yeah, oh definitely there's probably two,
but we'll save that for nextweek.
There's two there's two, solook forward to that.

I'm I'm interested, because I don't have
, I mean I've been in twospecialties yeah yeah, so I
guess here's a weird questionthat I just came up with.
Do you think that makes you abetter nurse, that you've kind

(11:18):
of seen different specialties?
Are you, like a jack of alltrades, master of none, or is
nursing more of master of one?
You know.

Yeah, I don't, I definitely don't.
I think the only thing that I'mreally comfortable in is
obviously cardiology after 10years, but I do think I gain.
I don't think it made me aworse nurse to have experience
in other specialties.
I definitely think like, whilewe are specialized, it doesn't
mean that you're not going tohave experience in other
specialties.
I definitely think like whilewe are specialized, it doesn't

(11:50):
mean that you're not going tohave a cardiac patient that ends
up with a colostomy, like thathappens.
So it does kind of give you anadvantage and makes you more
like knowledgeable.
You can help other coworkerswith things like oh here, I've
actually done this before, letme show you this, or whatever.
So I definitely think, yeah,it's definitely beneficial.
It makes you a little morewell-rounded.

Did you ever like do more than just?
I know, for a matter of fact,that the unit you work on now it
has a very high acuity.
So calling in an acute levelfloor is kind of interesting,
because you do have prostacyclindrips, you do have LVADs and I

(12:33):
mean you take care of those andyou you downsize the, the
assignment to to kind of reflectmore of like an intermediate
level of care.
Did you just just when you weretraveling around, did you just
do acute or did you?
Did you venture into ICU at all?

Excuse me, not ICU, but I did primarily PCU and
IMU floors, so intermediatecare, yeah, and then, of course,
acute care.
I mean, it was pretty rarethough, because they the
hospital that I did the flowpool at was very cognizant of my
PCU IMU skills, because Iworked there during COVID and
you had to.
If you're working on the COVIDunit, they required you to have

(13:13):
the um, IMU and PCU, experience.
Um, and I worked there for somany contracts that I became um
like known, I guess is not theword I'm looking for, but they
had a good understanding of mycapabilities and um, I actually
was put into like charge nurseroles in that hospital as well,

(13:34):
um, just because they knew who Iwas, what I was capable of
doing and all that.
So, um, rarely was I like on asurg floor.
It was.
I think I probably only workedmed-surg a handful of times
while I was there, actually,yeah, Huh.

So okay, you were able to do all of this
PCU kind of progressive care,IMU type intermediate level
workings.
Have you thought about ICU?
I mean there's, there's CCU,there's TCV, um, for those that

(14:12):
may not know those acronyms,cardiac, uh, coronary care
excuse me and uh thoraciccardiovascular.

Yeah, okay, yeah, and sometimes they're called,
uh, CVICUs, the the thoraciccardiovascular ICUs, um in other
hospitals or other institutions.
Um, of course I thought aboutit, of course I did, um, but at
the same time I think, well,there's a couple factors that
went into why I haven't.
But I think, um, I really loveto teach, and I think I've

(14:44):
gotten so comfortable in mycurrent workplace setting that
it allows me to spend a lot oftime teaching, like our new grad
nurses and other stafftravelers.
I think it's something I enjoyso much that if I was moving
into an ICU setting like I wouldbe back in the learning seat,

(15:05):
which is fine, there's nothingwrong with that.
Learning is fun and I mean, I'mstill constantly learning every
day, but it's not off the tablefor me.
I actually was just talkingabout it yesterday, like
considering maybe moving intothe ICU at some point.
I don't know, I just reallylike where I'm at.
To be honest, I'm comfortablewhere I'm at and it's nursing is

(15:26):
uncomfortable enough that like.
Sometimes you are like uh, I'mgood here, I'm fine, I'm fine, a
sense of like, um, well, again,like it goes back to me being
like you're back in the learning, learning seat for a little bit
, and I think there's also likea sense of seniority, when
you've been somewhere longenough and like, um, people look

(15:48):
up to you, especially in thecharge nurse role.
I mean, you're kind of like thecoordinator of the floor, all
you know your whole shift andit's it's for someone with a
classic nursing type Apersonality.
Um, it's hard to take the backright like take, you know, take
the back seat and let go of thereins, at least for me.
I like where I'm seated, thankyou.

I am perfectly fine.

I'm perfectly fine here

it would be interesting.
I guess you would probably gomore CCU,

yeah, and so I'll explain the difference a little
bit.
the coronary care unit, at leastwhere we work, is more of like
the medicine side of ICUcardiology, and the TCV or CVICU
at other hospitals is more likethe surgical side, and then
some hospitals, depending ontheir size, might have them
combined.

(16:40):
I think they'd be calledsomething else.
But in reference to what we'retalking about, the CCU is more
like like the medicine side,which is like kind of the big
sister of the unit that I workon now in the um, CVICU or is
the surgical side.
So like right after surgerysomeone got a valve fixed or an
LVAD place.
They would go to the other ICU.

(17:00):
We kind of manage people in themedicine side who already have
these things and whether that behaving an LVAD, and they just

(17:20):
come in really sick and theyneed cardiac meds or whatever to
kind of boost them back up ortune them up, as we like to say,
versus like getting something.
But we do small proceduresprocedures too on our medicine
side.
Anything that's liketranscutaneous or like
non-invasive or minimallyinvasive, I should say like a
pacemaker, they'll come to usLike transcutaneous valves
they'll come to us Anythingthat's like a little poke and
they go through an artery,they'll come to us.

A little poke.

Just a little poke, just a little stick.

That's kind of an important organ to
little poke.

Just a little.
That's how I like to explain itto the patients.
Just a little poke.

Give them this weird.
You know we say that forputting in an IV.
Oh, you just want to feel alittle poke.

And we're laughing like that in our head
too.
No, just kidding, Mwahaha.

Mwahaha, so you know you were talking
about you enjoy teaching.
Have you thought about likeactually doing like a clinical,
like being a clinical instructoror something like that?

Yeah, no for sure , I think it's.
It's so tricky in the umteaching space.
I would like to.
But the thing is, is I um withmy current degree?
It like it's been 10 yearssince I graduated and a lot of
those credits have expired anda lot of schools require you to

(18:44):
have a master's to do clinicalengineering, clinical teaching.
Wow, we're going intoengineering here I think some of
the community colleges near us.
There's less restrictions but alot require master's.
I haven't looked that deeplyinto it.
To be honest, it is somethingthat's crossed my mind.

Well, I mean, I think, in terms of at
least what I've always been toldand what my manager has told me
, is that you can always teachthe degree under you.
So if you have a bachelor's,you can, you can teach an
associate's.
If you have an associate's, youcan actually teach LPNs.
I think, oh wow.

(19:24):
I didn't know that, but youknow.
Yes, you would have to do themaster's, in terms of at least
for the bachelor's degree.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think, Are you trying to say you
don't want to teach ADN nurses?

No, no, not at all.

Putting a big rumor out there right now.
No, not at all, that is nottrue.
This is fake news.
Um, I totally would.
I just haven't gotten past thelike, the surface level of
research to do it you know.
I think the other thing is I'msuper involved in multiple
subcommittees at the healthsystem that we work at, which
ties me up.

(19:58):
Like I am, I have like threestanding meetings a week on top
of my three shifts, and they'renot always, um, they're not
always on days that I'm working.
So it's like, oh, I have tocome into the hospital for an
hour.
Or if it's like a WebEx, like avirtual meeting, I love those
days.
But I am like I'm pretty tiedup in a couple of projects right

(20:19):
now and sometimes I just get alittle overwhelmed with what's
on my plate.
But it is on the differential,like I would love to see in the
next like two years, uh, likegetting getting a clinical
teaching, like a clinicalteaching job.
Yeah, what about you?
About which?
What do you?

you don't want to teach, you don't?
I mean, you have talked abouthaving too much on my plate.

Yeah.

I really can't even say that's like a joke when
I say it in front ofChristopher, because Christopher
has the fullest plate I've everseen.
I'm actually constantly tellinghim he needs to like cool his
jets, Cool my jets.

Well, today I did absolutely nothing,
just FYI, I'm very proud of you.

I mean you deserve it.

So, but no, for real, like I have
appreciated the fact that peopledo.
My manager teaches clinicals onthe unit and I do enjoy it and
I occasionally she'll have to bein a meeting and she's she,
she's done it once.
I say occasionally, she's onlydone it once.
Yeah, watch my kids, yeah, makesure they don't do anything

(21:22):
crazy.
And it was fun it was.
And I mean I do teach right now.
I teach a phlebotomy class.
Yeah, and that's fun.
And it's all kinds of people,it's nurses, it's techs.

Yeah, you get people from all over the
hospital.

Yeah, yeah, and you know, like, like
it's a joint effort, so there'sa phlebotomist that teaches the
like, the process, and then I'mkind of the regulations and
rules and boring stuff so boring, stuff side yeah, and.
But I do get to be the onethat's like, hey, now you can

(22:04):
stick an arm.

He gives the okay , you got it.

So that is fun.
There are just various methodsof teaching, and in order to
reach a broad audience you haveto teach in different ways, even
in the same.
You know in the same class,like yeah you have to say an

(22:38):
example that's red and then youhave to turn it to orange and
turn it back to yellow, likelike you know, like it's just
because people's lenses are sodifferent.

Yeah, it's like a foreign language.

It is.

To some people and then to others.
They, you know they'll learnone way.
Yeah, you just have to learnhow to be flexible with teaching
for sure.
Yeah.
I see that a lot Like we.
Um, we had, I think, 11, um,clin1s is what we call it at our
health system, but they're justnew grad nurses that started
this summer and, um, that's Imean we.
Everybody learns different,everybody learns at a different

(23:14):
pace.
Everybody absorbs informationdifferently.
Um, so, yeah, it was a.
It was a interesting summer toteach that many at once, but it
was fun and they're all offorientation and doing really
well right now.
Actually, hey, that's the bestpart yeah, they're killing it
honestly.

That's the best part.
As ANM, I've learned so muchabout how they're like.
Yes, orientation is great, butit's when you get off of
orientation Like.
It's so important to make surethey feel supported, make sure
that they are not like and Imean because you make mistakes,

(23:56):
right, but as a new grad nurse,you have to be okay to be like.
I made a mistake.
What do I do now?

Yeah, okay, to be like I made a mistake.
What do I do now?
Like yeah, and then, as, like apreceptor, you have to, you
know, carry that um like beingopen and approachable and like
take on, like, okay, let's,let's examine what you did,
let's figure it out together.
Let's, you know, look at it andsee what we could have done
better, how we could improvethat.
You know, like you have to besupportive and, um, protective

(24:26):
of them, because I mean, I don'tknow if you remember, but when
I was a new grad, I was just, Iwas constantly second guessing
myself.
I was like, hey, this is right.
Right, even if I knew it wasright, I'd go up to my preceptor
and be like, so I'm gonna dothis and this and this, and
they're like yeah, and they'relike okay, so that's good, and
they're like yeah go somewhereyeah go, you're like, okay, I'm

(24:46):
going.
You're like, okay, I knew I wasright.

You just need a lot of like confidence
boost building and boosting allthat well, and I mean because it
it's people's lives, yeah, yeahlike yes, majority of the times
any medication that you cangive, at least orally, unless
you royally screw up.

Well, there's always room for making mistakes.
We don't want that to happen,but you gotta.
That's why you're, that's whyyou get precepted.
You don't just graduate, takeyour boards and get put on the
floor

there's a normal like cadence to a
podcast and most podcasts havesome type of middle part or a
little segment breaker.
So we have a segment breaker.
I joked and said that it's kindof like the lunch break or in
between classes.
You get to kind of take amoment and think about something

(25:45):
other than the topics that weare discussing as our main
points.
But we're going to go into whatis called nursing wins and woes
, where we share the highs andlows of life in scrubs.
Every shift brings its own setof victories and challenges.
So this is where we get realabout the moments that make us

(26:06):
love our job and the ones thattest our patience, whether it's
a big win, a small triumph or arelatable woe.
From the floor, we're here tocelebrate and commiserate
together.
And oh, yeah, yeah.
So I guess I will start.
You know, as much as peopletruly like see me as this

(26:28):
perfectionist.
Unfortunately, there are timeswhere I have kind of like messed
up with some stuff.
You know I do.

You wouldn't know it,

I'm not perfect,

unless you saw it with your own eyes.

Yeah, I'll act like I'm perfect all
the time.
But you know, there's somesmall ones, like, for example,
we do a nurse-driven protocolfor heparin and every six hours
we're supposed to check thelevel if it's not therapeutic.

(27:06):
And I had like forgotten toactually put in the order and
remembered like eight hoursafter and I was like ugh.
But you know, luckily theperson was therapeutic.
But that was like kind of onelittle thing.
But I think the major one whereI'm like oh yeah, this is, this

(27:30):
is really bad and really couldhave been very, very bad if done
, if things weren't caught.
I left a Dilaudid PCA in apatient's room or in in the bed,
in the bed, in the bed with thepatient in the bed patient.
Luckily the patient was a nurseand was like this isn't
supposed to be here.
Excuse me, but you know Ididn't even.

(27:53):
I didn't put a.
We call it be safe.

Oh, what'd I say?
Opportunity for improvement.
Yes, yes, yes yes, yeah, everyI was saying this earlier every
hospital um has some kind ofversion of this, where it's like
, if something uh adversehappens, you want to like
analyze the problem, come upwith suggestions to fix it and,
like a greater group also willlook at the situation, but you

(28:20):
just like submit it.
It's just a safety check,basically, so that it prevents
problems from happening again.

Yeah, and I mean I didn't do it, but it
was just a simple thing.
I had worked night shift.
You know, working a night shiftIn the morning, you're just
ready to go to bed.

You're lucky you made it.
That's on working night shift.

You're lucky you made it through that's
on working night shift.
You're lucky, you made itthrough that's all that really
mattered at the moment you andthe patient, yeah right um, and
so I was, I was trying to be,and I was trying to be a nice
nurse.
I was, I was new and I was offof orientation.
I just, I just thought aboutthis.
I was trying to make sure thatday shift was set up to be nice,

(29:05):
and you know.

They have a new stock of syringes

Right right, and so I was like we'll
just switch to PCA and do thewaste at the same time and in
the midst of us, and I will behonest, I had forgotten how to
do the PCA, so we had totroubleshoot for a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, it's tricky yeah,and then I had put the PCA

(29:29):
syringe into the actual bed andwalked off and that's on night
shift right yeah, that's onnight shift.
Yeah, yeah it is, and I didn't Imean, they didn't tell me until
I came back the next shift

like whoops, I was like left that in the bed

I'm like why, well, y'all could have
called me

I mean that's that's not that that's bad, but
I mean it's only bad because itcould have gotten worse

it could have gotten real worse

but the first time I heard the story I said,
oh well, I mean it's not all onyour shoulders.
like you were with another nurse, like Like you both signed off
the new syringe, like sheprobably went right back in
after you left and grabbed itand was like oh crap, and had to
waste it with the charge nurseor something.
But yeah, yeah, definitely wasa woe.

It was.
And I definitely remember, likethe nurse, that I handed off to
the room the patient.

It's burned into your memory.

It is engraved.

Oh goodness.

What about you?

All right, so my woe.
We have an influx of imaging.

I'm telling you these SAT words.

Okay.
So our doctors have beenordering so many cardiac MRIs
and the wait times on these MRIsare absolutely obscene.
Like patients are just sittingin their rooms waiting for an
MRI.
At minimum cardiac MRI threedays days minimum three days.
It's insane.
Get this.

(31:05):
This is crazy Cause Christopherdidn't know this.
We have two and a half MRIsallocated for inpatient services
.

That's crazy.

Two and a half.
The other half of that one halfis for research.

So so.
So three and a half days, yeah,three and a half days.
A other half of that, one half,is for research.
So three and a half days.

Yeah, three and a half days a week from that one
machine.
That's what accumulates to ouruse of it.
Yeah, averages out.
Out of seven days.
That's not enough.
I mean we work at a level onetrauma center.
You can imagine the amount ofpatients that get admitted every
single day 600 plus beds.
600 plus beds 600 plus beds andgrowing.

(31:39):
We are, we're building out oneof our, our tower.
We have like three more floors28, 29 beds each.
Yeah, so that's even morepatients and they're coming to
us.
We're a huge facility andthey're waiting.
They're having to wait forprocedures and major surgeries
until these MRIs get done.

(32:01):
And I mean there's beeninstances where we're sending
people home without gettingthese stuff done and like we'll
just have to schedule yououtpatient.

Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed and I just heard, actually this
week, that the outpatients arelike three months.
They're scheduling them threemonths out.

Three months.
That's insane,

yeah.
So then the ones that we'rekeeping, it's like well, you
might as well stay here anotherday.
Yeah, the ones that are stayingthree days minimum.
Let me remind you, Three daysminimum.
I had someone wait like a fullfive-day workday because they
also only do it Monday throughFriday.

That's expensive.

Not like a full five five day work day, because
they also only do it mondaythrough friday, that's expensive
, not on the weekends, that'sridiculous and that's not.
That's not mri imaging, that'sthe cardiac mri, because you
need a specific type of cardiaclike radiologist that comes in
and like looks at it while it'sgoing on and decides whether or
not they need more imaging in acertain area.
Um, but yeah, our, our healthsystem is not a 24-7 health
system.
We work Monday.

(32:59):
As funny as that sounds forbeing a hospital, right, but
it's not 24-7 staffed in thatway.
Right.
Yeah, we kind of work Mondaythrough Friday, so not us but as
far as like studies, procedures, specialized imaging, that kind
of stuff is only Monday throughFriday.
So yeah, I've had a patientwait an entire like business

(33:25):
week before and they delayedtheir procedure.
Like, I mean, these imaging, Imean the imaging level that
they're getting.
I mean they can look at um,viability, um it's like
basically like a viability study, cardiac stress test, they can
look at the inner workings ofyour valve, um, yeah, so it
takes a long time.
I mean, I, I I feel bad forthese people.
You know, some of our patientsdon't have insurance.
No, so they're, and thathappened with my win so let me

(33:50):
tell you about my win.
So I'm gonna tell you about thewin before Christopher tells you
his win, because mine kind ofgoes with my.
My woe, um, I had this patient.
She didn't have insurance andshe had been waiting for her MRI
and they were like, okay, we'regoing to keep her here until 7:
30 tonight and we'll justdischarge her late um to see if
we can get this MRI done, and ifnot, like we'll just schedule

(34:10):
it without patient.
That's unfortunate, but like wereally want to try so, but she
doesn't have insurance.
We don't want to try so, butshe doesn't have insurance.
We don't want to like rack upher day.
So she'd already been here forthree days, um, and first of all
I was saying this earlier theagain the cardiac radiologist
specialist, whatever they are,they don't stay until 7: 30, so
like, basically, if this doesn'tget done by like five the

(34:32):
latest, it's not getting donethat day.
Um, so we're all like sweatingor like we're like geez, is this
going to happen or not?
Right, and a miracle happenedthat day.

Um, they call us at like 3 (34:42):
30 and they're like all right, we
can get her down here.
So I'm like, yes, this isawesome, I send the nurse in
cause, I'm in charge and I sendthe nurse in and she comes back
to me.
She's a grad nurse and she'slike Colby, I have a problem.
Um, she has all these piercingsand she has this one that she
can't get out.
Um, I'm like what, and it it'sthe tragus.

(35:05):
I think this like little partof your ear for our camera.
So, um, they call us, it's like3 30 in the afternoon my um
nurse goes in there and shecomes out and she's like, hey,
so we got this problem.
The patient has all thesepiercings and she got all of all
the jewelry out, but she hasthis one in what we think is the
tragus.
I don't know what part of theear this is and she can't get it

(35:28):
out.
She said the last time she gotit out it took her brother and
her sister in law and like a boxof like work work tools, like
pliers from the toolbox to getit out and it's been like seven
plus years and I was like, oh mygod, we have such a small
window to get this lady downthere.
This is bad.
So I'm like determined, I'mbound and determined.

(35:50):
I like go into our clean supply,I go and get some kelly clamps,
alligator clamps, whatever youwant to call them and I'm like,
come on, let's go.
So like me and the in the newgrad nurse, we go in and like
I'm hooking her up in the front,hook it up in the back, I'm
twisting and I all of a suddenjust got it.
It came out and I've never feltlike such like pride and relief

(36:11):
, and I was like she's gonna getthe mri.
We were so excited, I was soproud of myself.
I was like, oh my god, that'scrazy.
Yeah, yeah, nuts that, it takesthat long.

And two Kelly clamps.

And two.
Kelly clamps One on each sidebecause it was just like
spinning in her ear.
I had to like get good grip onboth sides.

Did you use like gauze?

no, I was nervous .
I was gonna pinch her like skinshe was like you're fine,
you're fine, just get it out Iwas like it's okay if I like
break it yeah, like what if itbroke?
I was afraid the earring wasgonna break.
That was gonna break and shewas like, no, I've been meaning
to change it out for a long timenow.
I'm like, yes, I'm gonna haveyears, yeah, I was like oh my
god, maybe you shouldn't put itback in like I have to, like

(36:58):
it's like mine.
I have like a thick, like athick tragus I feel like but I
don't know pretty gross.
What classifies that?
I don't know.
I feel like the tissue justfeels, thick.
I don't know what the thin onefeels like either.

I was going to say mine feels pretty
thick too, but I don't know whatI don't know what.

Uh, I don't know what.
Yeah, I don't know where thescale is, but yeah, that was,
that was my win

okay, I mean, you know it's very hard to
come back after that yeah likewhy did I let you go first?
I guess my win would definitelybe just IV skills.
Yeah, yeah, and it's just.
It's one of those things thatis immediate gratification, Like

(37:45):
just like you and you know,being able to pull that.
Yeah, you get so much high whenyou see that flash of blood in
a chamber that it's just likeoof.

You're like yes, I did it again.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, I was saying earlier, the last time we
told this story, thatChristopher is the fairy
godfather of IVs, like, if youcan't get it, his staff is like,
well, just find Christopher, hecan put it in.
He knows what he's doing, he'sreally good, and he is because
he actually is really good

and it's just a fun skill and it was one
that I was like in nursingschool.
I'm like I'm gonna get this,

yeah, yeah and funny enough.
I mean most of our listenersare probably working at work in
health care in some form orfashion.
But then you know they don'tteach us IV skills in nursing
school.
Why don't they do that?
Too much liability.
That goes back to giving youall the puzzle pieces and you
build the puzzle in that firstyear because you don't have any

(38:47):
IV skills or phlebotomy skills.
And I said this earlier.
I think we're very fortunateenough to work for a healthcare
system that really values theancillary staff teams and we
have phlebotomy team.
We have an IV team.
A lot of hospitals don't havethat anymore.
The first hospital I everworked at didn't have it and

(39:08):
nursing staff and the techs andthe aides they were phlebotomy
and IV and I had great IV skillsat one point the first three
years out of nursing school.
I could put an IV in anybodyLike I.
Mean I, I work in cardiac.
We have a lot of heart failurepatients that are just so fluid,
filled, edematous that it'sreally hard to get an IV in a
lot of them.

(39:28):
I could do that today.
I could not.
I will.
I will own that because I workfor a facility that has an IV
team and I am a princess.
Unfortunately, and fortunately.

I fully take advantage.

Yeah, I do.
I exercise that right.

Yeah, that's funny.
Yeah, I mean, but you say youcan't, you've done it.

I can if I need to.

Yeah.

I've put IVs in you.

Yeah, exactly.

I can put an IV in a very healthy individual,
and I'm gonna wear that Stickeron my chest.
But if you're very edematous.
I probably won't be able to hityou, maybe in your foot, if you
don't have.
Oh god.

Some people's feet are yeah Again if
you have't have.

Oh god, well, I feel like some, well, no, some
people's feet are.
Yeah, I just again.
If you have edematous feet, I'mnot gonna, obviously,

oh, wait, wait, wait yeah, hold on um,
you know, this is something thatwe want to continue to do, and
we want to also include you inon this, because you're nurses
too, and or going to be nurses,and you can have wins and woes
in nursing school.

Yeah, so you guys can share your wins and woes
with us, so don't hesitate toreach out, right, maybe we'll?
We'll feature it on an upcomingepisode.

Possibly.
Yeah, it's very possible.
You can email us atnursinglyfe101@ gmail.
com.
And that's life with a Y, notan I.

I love that.
Or you can tweet us Same thing@Nurse lyfe.
Life with a Y, not an I 101.
And we're not saying like ourwhole name is not life with a Y,
not an I, it's nurse life andanother thing you hear in
nursing school you learn more inyour first year than you did

(41:25):
probably in however long it tookyou to get through school.
100 yeah, you learned it on thejob 100 yeah yeah, I yeah 100.
Isn't that scary?
Just letting you know.

So schools are unimportant and just
throw that away.

Yeah, you don't need to go to school.
Be like those people fromFlorida during COVID who just
bought?
Their degree and passed theNCLEX somehow.
It's basically what we'resaying.
It's totally fine.
No.

It shows that it is.

Yeah, just kidding.
We're're joking, it's not, butthere is something to say for
the hands-on experience and thelike.
Pure information download intoyour brain that first year.
Like to put all the piecestogether, I would say nursing
school gives you all the piecesto the puzzle.
Your first year, two years outof school, you're putting the
puzzle together truthfullyinteresting yeah I like that

(42:20):
yeahI have not heard it that way,
but I mean yeah you'recollecting pieces for however
long you're in school and thenyou walk out with a box full of
puzzle pieces and you're likeokay, let's put this together,
let's put it all together.
You thought that you.
You thought that that's whatthe NCLEX was like you.
You're like I put it alltogether, I pass my boards.
No, just kidding.

(42:40):
No, when you're putting it inaction with real life, real
lives in your hands, that'sputting the puzzle together.

Oh gosh, yeah.
So I mean we've talked aboutlike education.
I guess we probably shouldmention like our educational
backgrounds.

Yeah, what?
What routes we can?
We took because there are somany different paths into
nursing and which is so cool,because I think it makes it um,
it makes it available to a widerrange of people who wouldn't
necessarily have the opportunityto go to nursing school if
there weren't so many differentways to do it.
So my course of action intonursing school was more

(43:28):
traditional, if that's what youwant to call it.
Oh, yeah, okay.
I went to a four-year schoolliberal arts school, got my BSN
off the bat but, as we were justsaying, there's a lot of
different ways to go about.

Yeah, I mean, I guess really and truly
that showed that you reallywanted to go into nursing school
and there are so many differentways that you can do this and I
never really even thought aboutit.
But you know, I started out asI graduated with a biology
degree, so I went to school forfour years and then decided I

(44:05):
didn't want to actually pursuemedical school and got my
associate's degree, which I meanit took me six years, but it's
completely different Wait wait,actually I have a question.

It's interesting that you went and got your ADN
and yeah did you think aboutgoing like a master's program?
Yeah, so nursing.

yeah, yeah, I guess it kind of goes
back to um what you were sayingin terms of instructing other
people later on.
I just didn't do my research.
So if honestly, and as someonewho has been in the shoes of I,

(44:49):
had that opportunity to do that,I would always tell someone to
be like just go get yourmaster's degree.

Yeah.

Because then I had to go back and get my
bachelor's right.

Yeah, you kind of are doing it in like a little
bit roundabout way.

Right.

But again, there's so many different paths
to nursing it's really hard to.
It's like if you didn't havethat information, like you said,
like you wouldn't know.
Yeah, and you're like oh,here's this way, though, this is
what works for me, and itworked for you.

It did, but the thing was like I could
have used the same amount ofyears.
Well, I could have used twoless years because I would have
already had a master's degreeand not had to go back and get a
bachelor's degree.

Yeah, that's true .
So, like what we're talkingabout, there's a it's called
something different at everyschool probably, but like a
MEPIN or a master's straightinto nursing.
But you can have a bachelor'sdegree in like anything else and
then if you decide you want topursue nursing, there's programs
where you go to nursing schoolit's like an accelerated nursing

(45:51):
school situation and you getyour master's.
So you can do it in like twoand a half or three years.

I don't think I would have, honestly,
like I've seen those that havedone it now I don't think I
would have liked it.
I don't think I.
I think I think there's animportance in terms of being an
ADN, like I.
Actually I would like to kindof hear your take on this An

(46:21):
associate's degree nurse havingtwo years of experience before
that bachelor's degree nursecomes out.
I really think it's important.

Yeah, if used appropriately.
Yeah, if used appropriately, Ithink it gives those individuals
like an advantage.
Like, you already have a lot ofskills.
An ADN nurse will graduatetheir ADN program before a BSN
nurse and you are getting thoseskills that I was talking about

(46:50):
earlier.
With the puzzle pieces.
You're putting the puzzlepieces together way earlier.

Right.

Yeah, I think there is something to say to
that.

Yeah, and I do think it's important and
I've hired those that have had abachelor's degree before and
come in and have a master'sdegree after their bachelor's
and something else, and you knowthey've been great nurses.
I have no problems with them asa nurse, but there is something

(47:22):
to say about the clinicalskills and the critical thinking
that is necessary.
When I also just think in termsof coming out of school, I I
had so much more clinicalexperience than most bachelor's
degree nurses do.

Oh yeah, no, I totally agree with that.
I think, um, I think they, Itotally agree with that for
anybody that just like works ontheir degree and for as far as
bachelor's degree and then goesinto nursing, I think the
difference that you see a lot islike people who are working on
their bachelor's degree.
If they were working as liketechs or like in some sort of

(48:04):
way in the medical field,whether like it could be like
phlebotomy or or whatever,whatever, whatever, even being a
secretary in the hospital givesyou a little bit more um,
knowledge about how the systemworks.
Right, if you were doinganything in the hospital system
while you were also working onyour bachelor's or you have any
kind of like history working inhospital while you're working on
your like accelerate master'sprogram, you have a little

(48:27):
you'll, you'll, you'll probablyexcel a little bit faster.
Maybe not as fast as not asfast as an ADN nurse who, who
really gets their hands wetsuper early, but, um, sorry,
feet wet, whatever the saying is.

But um, what is it's feet wet?

It's feet, yeah, I think it is feet.
Um, but I do think that's likethe one like caveat to it is
that like if you are more of ago getter, um, while you're
working on the degree, versuslike you?
I mean, you can just tell likeyou.
Sometimes you get someonethat's just you know, know,
freshly graduated and they'relike deer in the headlights, and
then you're like, you get toknow them a little bit.
You find out like, oh, theyjust did school like they were.

(49:05):
You know their degree or theirbachelor's degree before their
master's was like in science,and they're so smart, they're so
intellectual.
But then there's like thathands-on piece in nursing where
it's oh, I don't know why thisjust came to me, but it's almost
like there's like that hands-onpiece in nursing where it's I
don't know why this just came tome, but it's almost like
there's like a blue collaraspect to nursing.
Is that weird to say?

Oh, interesting.

Where it's like.
It's not all like facts andfigures.

Okay yeah .

As one would be if they were just doing the
schooling part, yeah, wherethere's like a more personal
level.
I don't know if that's theright analogy, but in my brain
it kind of just flipped for somereason to like blue collar
versus white collar.
But there's something to saythat to that.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, I get it because itis, it's very hands on.
Yeah, yeah, it's very hands on,it really is.
And so, with that hands-on likeand we hope to talk about this
in later episodes but like, whatdo you think in terms of
experience while in school otherthan like an MA or a CNA?

(50:12):
Because I was a CNA, Igraduated in high school in 2011
, and I with CN A, and so Iworked in a nursing home for
majority of my time and then didhome health stuff, so I was
never actually in the hospitalhospital but I'm saying all that

(50:34):
to say like it did help interms of like just being a
little bit more personable.
Like you being in a book doesnot help you relate to people

yeah, and I think that's such a huge part of our
job is being able to relate tosomebody in, in that setting,
like they're the patient, likeeverything is so foreign to them
while they're sitting in thatbed or they're sitting on that
exam table or in that chair, andit's a huge part of our job as
nurses, to make them it's, likeI would argue to say, one of the

(51:07):
main parts of our job to makethe patient comfortable and
connect with them on thatpersonal level so that you can
do all the things that need tobe done to get them healthy and
get them back to their regular,scheduled lives 100%.
Yeah, and I think, and again,and having that experience in
any form or capacity, I meanI'll even go as far as to say
like I worked as a housekeeperat a nursing home through

(51:30):
college, Like I started from thebottom.
Now I'm here and I think justthat interaction every day.
I mean I did a lot of things.
Like my mom worked as like adirector of an adult daycare,
like she always at a nursinghome, she was social worker at
nursing home, so like I had alot of experience being exposed

(51:51):
to that environment yeah like.
I think that makes a bigdifference, coming out of
whatever degree program youchoose.

That's fair.
So do you think there's onespecific non-CNA, non-MA role?

Like outside of what you would immediately think
.
That would be helpful.

Yeah, that would be helpful.

Yeah, I can think of something that's not even
healthcare related that I thinkwould help somebody excel as a
nurse.
I don't even think you canguess what it is, but this is
actually.
This is something a doctor saidto my aunt, who's a nurse.
So when she graduated and wasinterviewing, he asked her.

Colby and Christopher (52:38):
The doctor, asked you the doctor
asked her in her interview.

Okay, because she was working for a private
practice okay, yeah, yeah yeah,so that's a little bit different
than like in a hospital.
Yeah, no, no, my aunt was anurse and she was working at a
private practice for women'shealth.
So the the doctor thatinterviewed her and this is also
, like goodness, like 25 yearsago.
Obviously, now I don'tnecessarily think that a doctor

(53:01):
is going to be participating ininterviews, it's probably his
nursing staff but he asked her.
He said have you ever been awaitress?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And that at first it might seem like that might
be a sexist question, but to thepoint that he was getting at
was like a waitress has tojuggle many things at once.
Yeah.
They need to be personable.
Like, if you want to tip at theend of the service, you've got
to be personable.
You've got to connect, you'vegot to perform, you've got to

(53:35):
have everything up here in yourhead.
You've got to be able tomultitask quick.
Yeah.
Like time management.
Right.
Like all the things.
All those things are going togive you a leg up in healthcare.

Yeah, I didn't think about that, but
actually one of our very goodnurses used to be a waitress,
yeah, and her time management isA1.

Yeah, yeah, right .
So that actually, like that waslike the very beginning for me,
which we'll we'll talk about ina little bit, but I think if
we're taught, yeah, there's,what about you?
Do you have a something in mindof like what could give you an
advantage?
Um, depending on what?
Like what depend, not evendepending, but like whatever

(54:24):
degree path you choose, do youthink that there's a job outside
of what you'd like?
Immediately think, like the CNAthing?

um, it depends on what they're really
wanting to do with their nursingdegree.
In my opinion, I think likethere is something to say about
those being a teacher as well,because, though nursing is very
like hands-on and you do stuff,patients need education, and if

(54:53):
you're able to like relate topeople and talk, talk to people
and educate people in a way thatyou would educate students or
children Sometimes medicine ishard, right, it's not the normal
.
It's not the normal Stuff.

(55:16):
We have words that are Letters,just huge words.

It looks like someone just wrote out the
alphabet and you're like waitwhat?

right like medicines yeah, like, yeah,
mycophenolate, like, like whatthe patient looks like.
You like cross-eyed right and so, like you have all of that and
if you're able to, there there'sa nurse.
He was teaching medication andwe give anti-rejection

(55:49):
medications and two specificones are mycophenolate and
tacrolimus and so their brandnames are cellcept and prograf
respectively, and so he wasteaching and I was just.
I was just in the room on theother side talking to my other

(56:13):
patient and he said he wasteaching the the patient and was
like and he was teaching thepatient and was like Cellcept
helps your cells accept your Ilike this cheat code Right yeah,
right.
And so, like it just was like oh, that makes sense.
And then he was like ProGraf,pro is good, you know, they're

(56:38):
the best, they're pro or it's.
And so -graf is or graft iswhat we do to connect everything
together.
Yeah, so it's for, or good for,your graft.
And so, like he, you know, itjust was like wow, that that
makes sense yeah and so yeah,ultimately, I think, other than

(56:59):
waiter and waitressing, which Idid not think of until you said
um, I think I would say being ateacher or in some type of
educational role yeah, I thinkit would be beneficial yeah,
yeah, no, for sure, especiallyif you can like break it down
like that yeah that's so smartman.

I'm so impressed with that it wasn't me yeah.
So like on that note abouteducation, like what brought us,
what brought us here intonursing in the first place?
A little bit of that.
So I was thinking the entiretime.
You're saying that is when Iwas younger.
Nursing wasn't the first thingI ever wanted to be.
When I was little, I wanted tobe a teacher.

(57:40):
Like, did you't the first thingI ever wanted to be when I was
little?

I wanted to be a teacher.

Did you really?
Yeah, I did.
I really wanted to be a teacherand I don't know when that
switched.
For me it makes sense.
I did say I like to educate.

You do yeah.

I don't know when that switched for me, but at
some point in high school, Ithink I just realized.
Oh, I just realized like, oh, Ithink I want to be a nurse, but
also I like to joke.
So the flip side of what Inormally say is when people ask
me like oh, how did you get intonursing, is that?
it's the family business Becausemy aunt is a nurse, my uncle is

(58:11):
a nurse and a firefighterparamedic.
My mom worked at the nursinghomes.
Like I said before, she was asocial worker in the nursing
homes, and then I have anotheraunt that, like is into biology
and science.
So I think of like health careas the family business, which is
so corny to say.

(58:31):
But I'm like well the shortstory is I mean, yeah, it was
just like the biggest likeexample in my life of like what
you could and be successful andand have so much variety within
one job.
And I was like, well, I guessI'll try this.
Like, let me, let me throw iton the wall and see if it sticks
like, and it did for 10 yearsand it did and it has for 10

(58:53):
years.
Yeah, so you know.
Okay, this is a sidebar, butlike my, my actual, like journey
, like in nursing school, did Iever you?
I had to have told you thisbefore, but you say that, but I
mean there are things that wehave not talked about for the
audience.
I think I'll be so surprised ifI haven't told you this before.
But, like in nursing school, Ithought I was gonna have to

(59:13):
change my major at one pointbecause I was passing out all
the time oh, yes, you did okay,okay, yeah so I in high school
well, this starts back like inhigh school, but like I did a
lot of volunteering at thehospital and I was like in the
CNA program to like so you cangraduate with that certificate,
and so we were in the hospitalall the time.
I had like a uh.
For a while I thought I wantedto be in women's health, so I

(59:34):
used to volunteer um on theweekends on the maternity ward
like labor and delivery, and Iwas watching.
This is the first time I everpassed out.
I was watching an epidural andI just like fell through the
curtain into the hallway,knocked out and after that it
like created this crazy.
It is funny, it is really funny.
The poor lady is like trying togive birth and then I like fall

(59:54):
through the curtain.
They take care of you.
Yeah, and this is a smallcommunity house, so like they
end up putting me in the bed inthe room next to her and they
just, I like woke up and they'relike here's some toast honey.
Like I was, like I'm in a bed.
They're like you're all right,what the?
heck, but that was the firsttime.
But that experience createdthis like crazy anxiety in me

(01:00:16):
that every time I walked intothe hospital the smell of the
hospital I would pass out, like,like, all you would have to say
is we're walking into thehospital and I could walk there.
I could walk through thosedoors.
But as soon as I got throughthe doors I'd pass out.
But I was resilient, let metell you.
I was like I'm going to nursingschool, blah, blah, blah.
And you know your first twoyears.

(01:00:37):
Well, you may not know, butyour first two years.
If you're taking a traditional,like four-year program for
working on your BSN, it's mostlyjust getting all your prereqs
out of the way.
So, it's like science, english,maths, whatever.
So at the end of sophomore yearis when we start doing like
spring semesters, when you startdoing clinical stuff.
I'm like all right, well, I'min the sim lab, I'm doing fine

(01:00:57):
stuff.
I'm like, all right, well, I'min the sim lab, I'm doing fine.
I'm like the sim lab no anxietywhatsoever.
Doesn't smell like hospital,yeah, it doesn't.
So my first experience in thehospital, oh well, even before
then they were like you guys aregoing to go to a nursing home
and do patient care there, justto get the experience of it.
I almost lost my mind.
Really I was having so muchanxiety.
I called the clinicalinstructor and I was like I

(01:01:18):
can't come and she said she wasso straight with me.
She said, honey, get in yourcar and get here.
You're gonna be fine.
But it was the tough love Ineeded.
So I did fine there.
I did that day.
I was so nervous I thought Iwas gonna pee my pants.
I was like please don't passout, please don't pass out.
She taught me so many funnytricks that an old nurse would
do like she was to out.
No, not even I'm just talkingabout my experience that day in

(01:01:41):
general.
She was putting mouthwash inmen's hair because they refused
to take a bath and she was like,if they smell and they refuse
to take a shower, you just putthis mouthwash in their hair,
honey.
And I was like, okay, she'slike it's alcohol, it's
antiseptic.
and I was just like I will neverdo that, but okay.

(01:02:01):
But like she was telling me,

Christopher Henderson (01:02:02):
I'm never taking a shower ever again,

Colby Daniels (01:02:02):
you want someone to put mouthwash in your hair,
um, but I just remember beinglike okay, like this is wild and
crazy, but like I'm fine.
So then I was like okay, sowhen I go to the hospital, like
I'll be fine.
And we had like a few shadowingexperiences, spring semester,
sophomore year, so my first onepass out.
So bad, pass out pass out I'mlike, um, so I get there and I'm

(01:02:23):
getting report with the nurseand I'm starting to get woozy as
I'm hearing the rundown of eachof these patients and I'm like
I'm really not feeling well.
And she's like okay, I was likeI might have to leave.
So she was like sits me in thisseat, this chair that's like
counter height kind of stoolthat's a terrible chair yeah,
and she's like I'm just gonna gocall your nursing instructor
for you and I was like, okay,and I guess as soon as she went

(01:02:44):
around the corner, I passed out,slammed my head off this like
marble countertop, land on theground, off this counter height
stool, and I come to they hadpulled the code button.
Oh my god, they pulled the codeswitch.
There's like 50 people aroundme.
They're getting me on astretcher no way like in a neck
brace fully no first, I had somany ct scans during nursing

(01:03:07):
school from passing out andhitting my head.
I probably have like damagefrom the radiology 100 like from
high school, because of courseit happened when I was in high
school too, so I was passing outand still going and the like
they were like you should.
So at the end of my sophomoreyear they're like you should
consider changing your major.
Yeah, like I don't think youcould do this and I was bound
and determined and it was alljust an anxiety thing.

(01:03:28):
So I went to.
I went and got some mentalhealth care because that's
important because that'simportant.
And we worked through it and Iwas fine.
Now look at me 10 years later,but my journey was not easy oh
yeah, so what wait, wait, wait,wait.

Okay, just just just a snippet.
Uh-huh.
Is there any like anxiety trickthat you could just be like
immediate like for for thelisteners in the back?

Okay, there's two things that I think really
helped helped me then and reallyhelped me now.
Guided meditation.

Okay.

Okay, and then that's something like you can do
on your way to work, like ifyou're just having an anxiety
around work, like you're in yourcar.
There's so many things onYouTube, there's so many apps
play a guided meditation, right,because there there have been
times, even in my career now,that like I'm driving into work
and my anxiety is building and Ijust like, especially during

(01:04:30):
COVID, like I was having so muchanxiety about going into work,
so I would do a guidedmeditation before I went in.
It just resets your nervoussystem, but something you can do
in the moment is like that foursquare breathing thing oh, yeah
, yeah so you like?
inhale for four hold for four,blow out for four, hold for four
, yeah yeah, yeah that also islike re.

(01:04:50):
It's like it's pushing therestart button on your, on your,
on your interestingparasympathetic, sympathetic
nervous system.
It's regulating yourself.
So that like seems silly in themoment.
But if you start to feel thatanxiety building, go sneak off
to the bathroom, go do some foursquare breathing, yeah yeah,
interesting.

I I mean that's.
I am very grateful that I donot.
I am not plagued with anxiety I.
I do.
There are things that make meanxious and I like worry about,
but um, overall in terms ofanxiety, like that's not

(01:05:31):
something I have to deal with.
Um so I think it's good to havethe opportunity for others to
kind of hear cause I can't, Icannot help you.

He cannot relate, but I can.
Let me tell you.
I get it honest.
It's a long family line ofanxiety.

But it also makes you a very good nurse
too, because that's one thingthat I appreciate.
Like, you are anxious about alot of things,

about getting stuff done, so I get it done,
right, I'm like, I gotta get itdone on my timeline right,

right, otherwise I'm just like oh, you
know

but that's like again,
but that's like such a falsereality.
Because like you are aperfectionist, like you just you
don't get anxious, you just arechill about it.
But like you get it, you alsojust get it done.
It's just like god.
We are like polar opposites.
I'll be honest, I have a greatmask now that I don't pass out

(01:06:29):
at work.
Nobody knows when I'm anxiousyeah, no, yeah people think like
and and truly like during likea code situation.
I outwardly get so zen.
I like slow down, which is soweird.
It feels like I slow down, butobviously I'm moving fast I'm
not like I'm not actually likemoving in slow motion when I'm
coding someone, but I feel likeI I don't know I flip a switch.

(01:06:54):
It's very.
It's actually kind of freakylike I flip a switch

so, yeah, my, I guess really and truly
what brought me to medicine ingeneral, it's just I've always
thought it was fascinating.
I think the human body is justfascinating in itself.
Um, when I was younger, I had acouple you know there's a lot
of people that are like, oh yeah, the nurses that were taking
care of me when I broke you know, you know, like there wasn't

(01:07:21):
there, there weren't any thatextremely stood out to me.
I will say that my neighbor inmy, in my hometown, was the one
that delivered me, and so, but Imean, I don't remember that you
know like and I I'm not inlabor and delivery at all.

(01:07:43):
Um, but I, I, I mean I don'tthink I really have a huge like
revelation to being in nursing.
Um, I just I mean it was just Ididn't want to go into medicine
because of the red tape, itjust wasn't appealing after

(01:08:09):
busting your butt for yourbachelor's degree.

Not that nursing degree is easier, but it
actually is in a different way.
In terms of years of schooling.
Years of schooling yes you knowlike yeah like before.

And the bedside yes you, there are
doctors that have great bedsidemanner but what the care that
you wanted to give isn'ttraditional for a doc.
What the?

doctor does.
I think that's funny and Ithink a lot of people learn that
at a weird, at a weird point.
Like people think, and I thinklargely it's based off like what
we perceive or what the mediaperceives um health care jobs,
to be like you watch a tv showand like the doctor is walking
their patient right-op day zeroHa ha, ha ha.

(01:08:59):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I've been a nurse for 10 years,which is not that long in
comparison to a lot of peopleout there.
But I've never once seen thedoctor get the patient up the
night of their surgery.
No, no, that's nursing staff,hunny.

There is a physician assistant that will
on our unit.

That's so nice.

Yeah, and it's great.

Yeah, but even that's rare.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah, like this is controversial, but sometimes
and physician assistant'sdifferent.
But I'm thinking more in likePA.
So, they practice at the samelevel, but there's something
about the nurse practitionersthat forget about where they
came from.
That gets under my skin.
Controversial, oh my.

(01:09:44):
God.
I mean I love most of, if notall.
Yeah, I think I love all theNPs that I work with directly.
They're great, but there's someout there that maybe I don't
work directly with.
That.
I've been like oh God.
And I could be anywhere.

I'm gonna plead the fifth.

I've worked in a lot of places.
No, yeah, I know.

But people know us.

I'm okay with being controversial.
No, that's fair.

But there are, that is true, though there
are some that do.

There are some mid-level providers that forget
where they came from yeah and alot of PAs.
I get it, you're busy, but ifyou're not, don't try to do
something and then go eat lunchin your office, get food on your
thumbs, yeah yeah, go YouTubevideos in your office.
I saw someone do that once andI was like oh yeah, no.

I saw someone do that once and I was
like oh no.

This is rude, I'm actually surprised you didn't
say something.
It was before I was a grown up,okay.

It was before I was a grown up.
I was like because that wouldnot fly on normal.

Excuse me.

You need to come back.

Come help me.

But we will at one point, have a
physician assistant come andspeak with us.
Yeah, I've been working withthat already.
Sweet, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I mean this person I havetalked with quite a bit and I
know pretty well, so I feel likehe will be willing to.

Give his perspective.

Yeah.

Or yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.
Yeah.

So it could be interesting and I think
I think it would becontroversial, like you said,
and it's going to be fun, like Ithink it will be we can do it
in good heart.
Yeah, good heartedness, he'llride us and we'll ride him and
then you know yeah.

Yeah, it's all right, it's all fun.
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's it.

That's it .

We can wrap it up .

Wrap it up.

All right, class dismissed.

Sure is.

All right, that's a wrap for today's session of
Nursing Lyfe 101.
We hope you found some usefultakeaways to bring back to the
floor.
Remember, nursing is a lifelongjourney, learning journey, and
we're here with you.

If you want to connect, find us on X,
formerly known as Twitter, atNurseLife101, life with a Y, not
a I, or on Facebook atNursingLyfe101.

Sweet.
Don't forget to subscribe andshare with fellow nurses until
next time.
Take care of yourselves andkeep making a difference out
there.

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