Nursing Life Unveiled: Season One Reflections

From bloopers to backfires (literally!), Christopher and Colby celebrate the conclusion of Nursing Life 101's inaugural season with a heartfelt reflection on their podcasting journey. Diving into listener favorites like "Battling Burnout: Self-Care Strategies for Nurses" and the politically charged episode on nursing with integrity, they unpack what made these conversations resonate so deeply with their audience.

The duo tackles a fascinating array of listener questions that reveal both the challenges and rewards of nursing life. They share candid insights about transitioning between specialties without burning bridges, the development of "nursing intuition" that helps them anticipate patient deterioration before vital signs change, and the surprising reality that the nursing world is remarkably small—where reputations follow you everywhere. Their discussion of how nurses emotionally disconnect after difficult shifts offers valuable wisdom for anyone in a high-stress profession.

Throughout the episode, Christopher and Colby's authentic friendship shines through their easy banter and occasional disagreements, demonstrating the mutual respect that has made their podcast so engaging. They offer a glimpse into potential season two topics, including nursing management styles and analysis of medical TV shows, while expressing sincere gratitude for their listeners' support. Whether you're a healthcare professional or simply curious about the human side of nursing, this reflective conversation invites you into the world behind the scrubs.

What topics would you like to hear Christopher and Colby explore in season two? Connect with us on social media and let us know!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Nursing Life 101, the most important
nursing class you never got totake 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 hopeyou are taking good notes
because class to Nursing Life101.

(00:46):
It's Christopher and Colby here.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hey guys.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
We can't believe we're wrapping up our first
season.
We'll go through highlights andanswer some listener questions
and share some of our favoritemoments.
Let's dive in.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Favorite episode.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Favorite episode.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
You want me to go first?

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yes, please.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, you're like go.
Um, I think we had so much funrecording this season of
podcasts together and it reallykind of I think it like deepened
and strengthened our friendshipas well.
Um, my favorite episode that werecorded is kind of like a joke
between us becauseChristopher's mic wasn't like

(01:28):
properly working that well andso my voice is predominantly
like throughout the podcast andit's also something that is like
near and dear to my heart.
But when we were recording theepisode about stress management
and at work and in the workplaceand all the things that I've
done in my past and in my careerand shared like what could help

(01:53):
and what has helped me, thatepisode was my favorite to
record, just because I felt veryconfident going into it and I
knew what I wanted to share andI knew what I was going to say.
And I feel like a lot of timeswhen we record, I kind of just
wing it.
I'm like, okay, I have a greatoutline provided by Christopher.
Like you know, obviously it'swhat I've been doing my whole
career and so I don't often likestress too much about preparing

(02:17):
when we record, and I thinkwe've done a really good job of
like playing off of each otherand don't normally have that
kind of I don't know with thepodcast.
I don't often have anxiety whenrecording, which is great
because I have anxiety all thetime, which makes me such a good

(02:37):
expert to have shared all thethings that we talked about.
Shared all the things that wetalked about.
But that episode really did makeme proud of myself and also
just like really proud of thepodcast, because I got a lot of
positive feedback from peoplethat we work with, whether
they're like close friends, um,close friends that we work with,
colleagues.

(02:58):
You know, professionalcolleagues that we work with
that I might not be super closewith but um have worked with for
a long time and shared that wehad the podcast and it was
really neat hearing their takeand how like proud of both of us
that they, that they were andlike how like wow, you guys
sound so good, like soprofessional, like the advice
that you gave was amazing, likeI shared it with this person and

(03:21):
, yeah, that episodespecifically, I got a lot of
positive feedback.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, that episode was definitely.
It's I actually it's funny.
I was leading a charge nursemeeting the other day and they
were talking about resilienceand making sure the staff was
was doing well and and which isvery good.
And I said to the point, blake,I was like I'm not the one to
talk about ourselves and I'm not.

(03:50):
I'm just a robot, I have noemotions and I just keep moving.
But it was funny because therewas this entire episode.
I was saying things, I promiseyou episode.
I was saying things, I promiseyou.
I was saying things and youcould hear it faintly very

(04:11):
faintly and you could tell, likecolby responds a little bit to
those things that I had said,and it was.
It was like oh, yeah, probablysaid something, but I don't know
what happened where I I thinkit was in the process of me
doing some like small editing inthe yeah, and the name of that

(04:33):
episode was ah yes, episode 12was Battling.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Burnout Self-Care.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Strategies for Nurses .

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yes, and actually other than the very first
episode and the interviewepisode, that is, the third,

(05:06):
most downloaded one nice, yeah,yeah, yeah, which is really cool
and honestly, if I was to picklike a second favorite episode,
it would probably be theinterview one.
So that's cool to know thatthat was like a second popular,
most downloaded one, because Ifeel like the interview one
specifically and I've said thisbefore was just like very
translatable like across theboard.
You don't have to be a nurse oranything in healthcare.

(05:28):
It was just really good advicefor anybody that was wanting to
prepare, have like an insidescoop on what interviewing for
your first job is like.
I think we did a really goodjob with that episode as well.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, no, it was fun and I'm hoping that this episode
, that episode specifically wasI mean it really honestly.
I feel like you now, colby,because you've actually been
able to sit in on an interviewas an interviewer, as yeah, yeah
, the opposite, instead of aninterviewee like.

(06:03):
Those are words, but, but oneof them is but like what?
Is there anything that youthink you can add to what you
know now?

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, I think it was definitely like eye opening to
sit on the other side of thequote unquote table even though
there was no table in theseinterviews that I was
participating in.
But having now been on bothsides of the interview process,
I think I still stand by, likeme saying as the interviewee, as
the person being interviewed,that you really have a lot of

(06:36):
power in the room.
But it was fun getting to askthe questions.
With our healthcare systemthere's like a standardized,
kind of like question set thatwe need to read from.
But yeah, it was.
It was interesting to be on theother side and kind of like ad
lib questions to kind of fit forthe interview and you know like

(06:56):
what you're looking for.
So you can kind of word it acertain way.
You know you can kind of coachthem into it.
If they, you know, if they'redoing a good job with the
interview, they kind of justfeel like and as we said in that
podcast, like it flows into avery natural conversation.
But yeah, I enjoyed it.
I think, with years ofexperience, it kind of is like a
natural thing to be like a goodperson, a good interviewer.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, you know the role in various ways because
you've been in the role a lot.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, but I appreciated the offer that my
management seeked me out and waslike, hey, would you be
interested?
And I was like, yeah,definitely.
And so it was cool getting tokind of like peek behind the
curtain in that aspect and getto participate in that.
That was actually a lot of funfor me.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think it'sinteresting to kind of look at
it in a different light.
I just had a couple ofinterviews this past week and
one went absolutely horrible andI was like, oh my goodness, it
wasn't.
I'm sorry, let me rephrase thatit didn't go absolutely

(08:05):
horrible.
They didn't say anything bad,you know.
They didn't curse like a sailor, uh-huh.
They weren't drinking beer Like.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
I've seen you know, yeah, you have had really bad.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, I've had some bad ones, but it just I was like
trying to pull personality outand it was just a dry interview
and I'm like I almost was likeforget the interview.
Just tell me, you know, whatdid you do today?

Speaker 2 (08:36):
I just need to know.
We need to get you comfortable.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, something's not connecting and it was a
struggle connecting and it was astruggle.
But then I it was followed bylike, within the within two
hours after that one, a verylike charismatic not like not
too charismatic, but like theywere very much engaged and I was
like, oh, my goodness, this isthe way that an interview should

(09:01):
have gone, yeah and um, I endedup in offering that person, but
um, I haven't heard from themyet, so I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Oh, I know well, I was just gonna say, one of the
two that I sat in on actuallystarted last week oh yeah, uh,
she came up to me and was askingabout who she was orienting
with and hadn't met them yet,and I was like I was like oh
yeah, hold on a second.
I was looking and I was lookingat her and I was like looking,
I'm like, wait a minute, I justrealized why you look so
familiar to me.
I was like I was in yourinterview and she like giggled.

(09:32):
She was like yeah, I was likeI'm so sorry, welcome well,
that's good, yeah, I mean, Ithink.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, one thing that I have realized while even doing
this podcast is that nursing isvery small, really, like it's a
big profession and yes, youhave, like there's a number.
I don't know what that numberof nurses is, but you have that

(10:06):
number of nurses out there, butit's almost as if it's like a
small town.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
No, it's so true, and like to even piggyback off that
, like I was when I was travelnursing I travel nurse not too
far from where we live now.
I kind of just stayed in thesame state but went to a
different metropolitan area andbounced around for like three
years and one of the nurses thatI worked with at another health
care system we were bothtravelers she ended up coming to

(10:35):
our health system when I wentback staff and didn't like we we
weren't like friends on socialmedia or anything but I did
adore her when we workedtogether and she was great.
And I saw her name pop up as atraveler a couple of years ago
on for our unit and I was like Iwonder if this is the same name
you know.
And she showed up and I waslike oh my God, no way.

(10:56):
And then then she took apermanent job with us after
traveling for a while and shejust left left to pursue other
things.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
But like when we say it's a small world, like it's a
small world, yeah, it's wild andit's and you're like how does
that even make sense?
But we have, we've hadtravelers that, like you said,
have traveled and they justhappen to go around and then
they end up traveling togetheron accident, and it is it.
I mean, it happens it does allthe time, and you'll notice that

(11:30):
when you're in nursing you'rejust you'll know somebody and
then next thing you know there'stwo feet away and you're like
wait a minute didn't I go toschool with you 10 years ago,
yeah, which is really cool, butit also is like make sure your
work is worth your worth.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Your work is worth your worth, yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Okay, Essentially do good work.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Because your good work is going to speak for
itself.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Because you're going to run into all these people.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Right, you want the good reputation, not the bad
reputation.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
If you're not going to do the work, then that's also
going to follow you.
And managers talk yes, they dothey talk and things go around
and it just happens.
So make sure you're doing theright work.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, so if your name's going to be circulated
around, you want it to be forpositive things, obviously.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Okay, what was your favorite episode that we
recorded this season?

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Honestly, and we didn't actually record this one.
I love the bloopers episode.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
The bloopers episode.
It's just hilarious, oh my God.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
It's so fun it's really funny.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
I actually haven't talked to a lot of our like the
people that we know that listento it about it, but I think I
think it's hilarious because Imean, it's all the things that
you guys don't see that's goingon when we record, like that
make us giggle and like that wehave to cut out because we have,
like you know, we're posting aserious product, but I'm glad
that we got to open up, likeopen up your eyes to like how

(13:10):
goofy we are, for sure, and Imean we definitely are goofy and
I mean we have well, oh, oh, Ithink we need to tell I don't
know if everybody got to fullyhear the like reaction that we
had with that backfire oh my godwait, and I hope that you can.
Maybe you can insert like thatclip again right here.

(13:32):
I'm gonna have to yeah foranybody that doesn't know
exactly what we're referencing Ididn't look it's very
interesting and I wonder like,maybe, if they've decided
whether or not that we were.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Oh, holy crap.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Holy shit, I've been shot, I'm dead.
This is how I go.
Oh my God, that was intense.
You know, that happened to meone time when I was Hold on.
That happened to me one time.
But we were recording and it'sin the bloopers episode but it
was cut off a little too soon.
But we're like mid-sentencetalking about something.

(14:10):
I don't remember what episodethe original clip is from, but
there's somebody in ourneighborhood that has a car that
is like souped up and itbackfires but it sounds like the
world just ended, like it's thebiggest explosion sound and the
first time I ever heard it Iwas walking my dog, trout, and I

(14:32):
thought a car hit like ourapartment complex building, like
it shook the ground, it shookmy chest.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
I almost dropped down , like my dog dropped down.
I almost dropped down.
I was like that's it, the worldis ending.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
so in the clip I don't know what it goes off yeah
, we, we were talking and I meanit does it just like passes the
?
The passes are because there'sa our building.
You don't live in this building.
It passed my building.
There's a road in between mybuilding and another apartment

(15:06):
building and it passes theapartment building and goes down
that road and next thing, youknow it, just like pow and
you're like I think I said ohshit, yeah, and I'm, I'm dead,
you're like I've been shot.

(15:27):
I'm dead.
And it was so terrifyingbecause it just was so random.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
It caught us completely off guard, 100%,
absolutely it shook.
I remember it shook the window.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
It was so loud.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
It's still loud and you know what?
I haven't heard that, car Ihaven't heard it in a while, so
I wonder if they still livearound here or if they got their
car fixed or their car died orsomething.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
I hope it died.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
I hope the car died as well.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
It killed a couple people, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Definitely.
Some of those old people I wasgoing to say there's some
elderly that live in ourapartment complex Like if they
didn't have a heart attack.
It's a miracle because we wereborderline.
We were borderline For real.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah, and I mean the bloopers episode also had like
just fun little like statementsthat we were just going through
and it just like we just saidstuff and I was like, well,
can't say that.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
The bloopers episode was also like a highlight reel
of how sick I was this winter.
There's, like so many like me,coughing, sneezing, losing my
voice Christopher, being likeare you OK?

Speaker 1 (16:32):
I'm like, I'm fine, it's all right.
I was like, do you need me tostop talking so that you, like I
, can take over?

Speaker 2 (16:43):
You're really worrying me you like I can take
over.
You're really worrying me.
Yeah, it was.
It was definitely.
It was, like I said, ahighlight reel of how sick I was
this winter attributed.
Also, I would like to say I andthis might have been on the
bloopers reel too about me,think, like talking out loud
about how I was, what I thoughtwas making me sick, and I had
Invisalign at the time and Iwasn't like super hyper vigilant

(17:04):
about um hand hygiene and Iwould just pop those suckers out
.
And I had Invisalign at thetime and I wasn't like super
hypervigilant about hand hygieneand I would just pop those
suckers out, and I think that'swhy I was getting sick, because
I was putting my dirty hands inmy mouth.
I would also just like to say Iwould like to put the update
out.
There is that I've been donewith my Invisalign since April
and I haven't been sick since, Idon't know, january or February
.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
So yeah, that's impressive.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Snaps to me.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Well, february, so yeah, that's impressive snaps to
me.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, I mean, I think it's just more like you, just
don't have your Invisalign.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, I know, I don't think it's your diligence in
hygiene.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
You're like you're not diligent in your hygiene.
Still, you're disgusting.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
I could smell you from here well, you know what I
just worked 12 hours.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
I came straight from the hospital to record she did,
which is which she did.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
So but, like I also realized there was a time where
I completely forgot my list ofthings.
Remember we were going overlike the list of things.
I think that was for likeinterviewing, I think it was
that one.
And I was like Christopher'slist of things and I like

(18:02):
completely lost it I couldn'tremember any of them.
Yeah you, you know you, youemphasize the whole like not
trying not to get me sick.
I am actually really surprised,considering I only had two
white blood cells that youdidn't get sick that I did not
get sick yeah, those two guys.

(18:24):
They're working overtime theywere doing something also.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
I just looked down at our notes and one of for
episode eight you wrote ourtangents can be really long.
Yeah, and that's true on everyepisode.
Like every single week, we'dsit down to record and we'd be
like, all right, well, it won'tbe more than an hour, we can do
this real quick.
And it's like three hours laterI'm like, all right, I've got
to get out of here.
We have to wrap it up because Ihave to do something, or like I

(18:51):
have to work tomorrow orwhatever.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Like we, once we get started, we do not stop yeah, we
, we tend to build off of eachother very well which is very
helpful in this situation of apodcast and there was a point
where we were recording a videofor the podcast and we were on a

(19:14):
tangent for so long that mymemory for storage ran out.
Yeah, because we were talkingso long and then Colby was like
was like, yep, okay, we need towrap it up.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's a sign.
That's a sign we've gone toofar yes wait, okay, wait.
While we're talking about theblooper episode, there's also a
note that here that says,depending on when you listen,
there was a brief accidentaleaster egg on the blooper
episode, a bunch of mv space atthe end.
What was that about?

Speaker 1 (19:44):
yeah, so what is that actual phrase in radio when
there's like silence, the radiosilence yeah, but they call it
um, they call it something, butit's like blank space.
There's there's some, someactual phrase, and I can't think
of it at the moment, but it'swhen there's no.

(20:04):
There's no talking.
So at the end of the holidayepisode you hear this like it's
like 25 minutes of just dead air.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
dead space, dead space, okay.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
And so I was like we did that.
But then I did the blooperepisode and remember you either
you, somebody texted me and waslike did you know that?
There's like.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
I did realize that but I didn't want to tell chris,
for I didn't want to stress himout about the dead space at the

(20:49):
end of the episode.
So I was like, but I did sitthere and listen to it for the
full and I think it was morethan 10 minutes like.
It was like probably 20 minutesof dead space and I was like
maybe there's something at theend, and there wasn't.
It was just like that's the'sthe end.
Yeah, no, that was it.
So sorry guys.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
And luckily I was able to fix it.
It wasn't very many people thatgot to listen to it, yeah, so
luckily only you, and I think itwas like you, mackenzie and
maybe two other people, and so Iwas like dang, but I was like
man, I should have left it inbecause maybe it was like that
accidental Easter egg from theholiday episode, but I didn't.

(21:28):
I decided to take it out.
Just an FYI we edit thesepodcasts and we use GarageBand
and if you don't pay attentionwhen you're selecting a tract
that you want to actuallyfinally, like, finally put in or
finalize that's the word I wantyou can accidentally do the

(21:52):
original, the original time ofthe original recording, and but
it can be silenced.
You know you, you mute that asyou're editing through the, the
different tracks yeah and soit'll go the length of the
original recording but, not haveany.

(22:13):
That's what happened.
Yeah, that's what happened.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
That makes sense now, so I didn't really feel I was
like, oh, I don't really, Idon't do the editing, I just
show up and I record um.
Christopher does most of theheavy lifting of the podcast.
So if you need, if you um seehim in person and you enjoy the
podcast, please give him all thepraise, because he is, it's his
baby and I'm along for the rideand I'm I enjoy it and I love
it and it's been so much fun.
But he, he really is thepowerhouse behind all of this.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Okay, it's definitely a team effort, because I could
not sit and talk like thiswithout someone to banter off of
.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
I'm just the entertainment.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
I mean it's a reason why your episode, where they
hear you the most, is the thirdmost downloaded.
I think it's because they don'tlike my voice as much that's
but you know, I who knows also.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
I just want to point out you saying nurse life oh
yeah, nursing life, oh yeah, Imess it up all the time, all,
all the time.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
It's so unnatural for me.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Which I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
I don't, I just feel like in my head.
Maybe when we first talkedabout it we said one, I think we
said nurse life and so, like inmy or that's what I heard,
probably, and then I just rolledwith it.
I think that's what you heardit was like probably maybe like
the third recording.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
I was like, wait, it's not Nurse Life, it's
Nursing.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Life, it is I-N-G.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
There is an.
I-n-g in that.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, so I say it wrong all the time.
People ask me all the time likeoh, what's your podcast?
I'm like it's Nurse Life 101.
And then I go and it's nursinglife 101.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
They're like is this your podcast or is it somebody
else?
I'm like, it's me, that's me.
Doesn't the character look likeher?
Yeah, come on my little um.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
What are those called avatar?

Speaker 1 (24:06):
yeah, the avatars they look, just like us emoji.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
They look just like us.
Thank you chat for the aicartoon versions of us yeah,
that was that was.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
That was a lot.
That was actually two hours ofworking to get that to like to
get it to look more like us.
There was so much I wish Icould recall that like work with
strategy people to actuallylike show you what that looked
like, but it was it.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
I had so many different things yeah, you, you
were workshopping for a whilebecause you had sent me a bunch
of them and they were all cool,but I like the one that we
settled on yeah, I think it wasthe best.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Now I will say I'm always for supporting a local
artist, so if anybody wanted to,yeah you know how fun that out
there.
And so if you're wanting tohelp us out, because right now

(25:25):
we owe nursing pay, we're notgetting anything from this, yeah
.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
I just had some blood , sweat and tears being poured
into it.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, if you want to volunteer your services and get
your name out there maybe.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, we can definitely, yeah, we can
definitely, yeah, we can shoutyou out put you in all the you
know obviously use the artwork,but put all of your information
in the bios.
That would be so fun.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
So if you're interested, send us some
mock-ups yeah, I would love tosee some that would be.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
It would be cool it would be you had, you had talked
about mckenzie, yes, so yeah,okay, so we were we had I just
mentioned mckenzie and we wehave a number you had talked
about Mackenzie each episode ofand ask questions and look for

(26:18):
clarification and just reallyenjoyed the podcast and we
appreciate that so much.
That reached out to her andasked if she was interested in
submitting like her kind ofreview of the season and what
her favorite parts were, and shewas so kind to send in a really
nice little blurb and so I wantto read it.

(26:38):
Ok, so hopefully this is thisis not popcorn reading.
I will read the whole thing.
Please don't make fun of me ifI stumble over my words.
Okay, so this is what Mackenziesaid.
This is what Mackenzie said.
While I may not be a nurse,listening to the podcast has
been so fun, eye-opening,informative and helpful.
You guys know when to keep itlight and fun and when to be

(27:00):
serious and how to talk aboutdifficult and sensitive subjects
with understanding andcompassion.
This all is only a part of thereason why you're both amazing
nurses.
One of my favorite things aboutnursing life guys I got it
right that time Nursing Life 101has got to be the friendship
you both share.
It's very entertaininglistening to each of your

(27:22):
viewpoints and how similar ordifferent each can be depending
on the topic.
Listeners can feel the passionyou both have for nursing, while
also keeping it real andshedding light onto the grittier
realities and struggles of thejob.
You guys are always sharingreal-life experiences and
knowledge of the silver liningsor tips and tricks on how to
survive and even prosper whilein the field.
And, what's even better, a lotof what you talk about with

(27:45):
stress and burnout, the need forcollaboration and boundaries
are so transferable to anycareer.
I honestly cannot pick just onefavorite episode.
I think I love all of them fordifferent reasons, but here are
a couple that stood out episodeI think I love all of them for
different reasons, but here area couple that stood out.
The episode I took most fromSurviving your First Year
Finding Balance and AvoidingBurnout and Battling Burnout

(28:08):
Self-Care Strategies for Nurses.
I think it's self-explanatorywhy I like this episode, but I
will say that the practicaladvice that you guys shared is
so helpful from both of theseepisodes in regards to making
sure you're taking care ofyourself both inside and outside
of work.
Most impactful slash, meaningfulepisode Nursing with integrity.
Admits political pressureTogether.
There was so much compassionand thought and raw honesty in

(28:29):
this episode that I am gettingemotional just thinking about it
now.
Beautifully done.
Period.
The episode that was mosteye-opening slash.
I said, oh my god, or WTF.
To the most urinals, flyboundaries, apply real talk and
handling difficult patients Wow,it's one of those things where
you know people can be supershitty.
But seeing it to that degreeand it's something that you guys

(28:51):
can experience daily sometimesand it was just very eye-opening
and crazy to hear some of thoseexperiences.
I'm looking forward to seasontwo and I can't wait to hear
what you guys tackle next.
So thanks, mackenzie, forsending in such a thoughtful
message to us.
I think it really made my heartgrow like the Grinch.
I was like, oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
You know people think I'm the Grinch.
I have the small heart thatgrows.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, we both do.
But I just appreciate herfeedback so much every week and,
like I said before, she's beenlike a sounding board and it's
been such a delight to kind ofget her perspective.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
It's really been nice and it's one of those things I
even start to ask.
I'm like, oh, when is Mackenziegoing to listen and what has
she done?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Because I need to know.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
We're like on the edge of our seat, like she's on
the edge of her seat waiting forthe podcast, because we've
posted later on our days in thepast and she would message me
and be like where's the podcast?
It's late.
And then so like she's waitingfor us to post and we're waiting
for her response and likereview.
So it's been, it's fun and I'mglad that we got to share this

(30:04):
little like review from her yeah, it's really cool and also I
would like to comment, I thinkum, the most impactful,
meaningful episode she she wastalking about um, nursing with
integrity, with politicalpressure.
That was our episode that wespoke about ice and that was a
big episode for us because itwasn't one that we had planned

(30:26):
going into making this podcast,but it was just such a topic of
the times, which it still is,obviously but we really kind of
did it in a short timeline andwith a lot of pressure on both
of us where we, during a timewhere there wasn't a lot of
information being put out and itjust seemed like very scary and
we wanted people to haveinformation so they feel
informed and like knowledge ispower.

(30:47):
So we individually and togetherresearched the topic and and
urgently recorded and put andedited and put the episode out.
So to get that feedback wasreally good to see and I know, I
know she did, and I know otherpeople did use the links and
stuff that we had put in thepodcast for their own

(31:08):
educational purposes and thenapplied it, applied it to their
own jobs.
So that one made me really feelgood that we took the time to
to put that together and get itout there yeah, and that was
actually.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
That was a very heavy episode yeah like I I still
feel so like heavy from thatepisode and I got a lot of
different responses from thatepisode.
It was very interesting hearingfrom all types of different
people about what they feltabout that episode and I think

(31:41):
that a lot of what we do asnurses does have a lot of weight
, but it's like really importantto remember your goal is to
always take care of the patientsthat are that are in your care.

(32:02):
Like that.
That's really what's important.
Yeah, but that was that was aheavy episode.
It was even thinking about thatepisode.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I'm like, oh man, I'm getting heavy yeah, we walked
away from recording that andwe're like I'll watch some
cartoons after, yeah it neededto be very lighthearted
afterwards.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
For sure.
So I guess we'll do a listenerpulse really quickly Well,
really quickly.
I have 10 questions.
They're 10 different questionsfrom listeners that are actually
very interesting.
I've looked at these and I waslike, oh okay, these could be

(32:43):
fun.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
So what I'll do is I will read all of them, I guess,
and then I'll just Then we cananswer them together.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
So the first one is by at nurse J-R-N and J is
spelled J-A-E-R-N.
Hey, Colby and Christopher, I'ma new nurse on a med-surg unit
and I've been thinking aboutswitching to a specialty.
How do you know when it's theright time to make a move and

(33:16):
how do you even go about doingit without burning bridges?
Oh, good question.
Okay, you want me to answerthat?

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Oh, okay, are we going to answer one.
Oh, okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Are we going to answer at the same time?

Speaker 2 (33:29):
No, no, I thought you were going to read all of the
questions.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Oh no, but no, that seems silly.
I cannot remember all of that,I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, no, you go ahead and share your suggestion.
First, from a managerstandpoint of view, oh, ok.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Well, I was just thinking from just me, moving
from one specialty to another.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Well, I mean really and truly.
I think the cool thing aboutnursing is that you can have the
freedom to do whateverspecialty you have.
So whatever you do in terms ofmanagement and thinking of if a
person comes from a differentunit usually going back to what

(34:10):
I said earlier is that managersdo talk.
And so make sure that you'regoing also back to just doing
good work and it's following you, and also just be up and honest
with your current manager.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
I was just going to say transparency is always the
best policy.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
It is.
If it's something that you knowyou're like I don't feel
comfortable with my managementhere.
Or if you're truly.
What it looks like from thisparticular question is that
you're just looking tospecialize in a different
specialty.
So it doesn't seem like youhave any problems with a

(34:58):
management team or the team ingeneral.
You just wanted to seesomething different.
So, if that's true, just tellyour manager like I just want to
see a different specialty, Iwant to specialize and see
something different and learnand grow in something different,
and that's totally okay.
That's the cool thing aboutnursing, yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
If you have a good manager, they're going to
respect that.
They're going to respect thatyou want to pursue moving on and
exploring different specialtiesand they're going to, if
anything, they'll help you.
Because if there's one thingI've taken away from being in
any form of leadership is that,like, if you have a team member
that doesn't want to be there,like why would you want to keep
that?

(35:40):
right kind of thing like youwant and if it's a positive
thing like you want to help themget to where they want to be, I
mean, that's just, that's justcommon decency, I feel like, and
it would only hinder you tokind of trap someone there
anyways, and that's toxicmanagement.
But, um, yeah, I wouldn't stresstoo much about that and I think

(36:01):
in this day and age I wouldn'tbe scared either to like want to
pursue changing a completelydifferent specialty, because I
think you know, 10, 15 years agoit was maybe a little more
difficult to kind of specialtyhop.
But at this current point inhealth care and the current
climate and nursing, if you wantto try something new, the

(36:23):
opportunity is there for youbecause we're desperately in
need of staff across the boardin any specialty and any like
form or fashion of nursing.
So it's honestly, you have alot of power in that situation
and it's you're very lucky inthis day and age because when we
started 15 years ago it was 10,15 years ago.

(36:43):
In that timeframe it was a lotdifferent in nursing.
So I think take the opportunity.
I had this conversation with asenior nursing student recently
who said she was interested ingoing straight to PACU after she
graduated and I said you'reprobably going to hear a couple
of different schools of thought.
People are, I think, still kindof push new grad nurses to do

(37:03):
at least a year in med surge,but I don't think that that's
necessary anymore.
And I said it's not that itwouldn't be beneficial to you,
because I think gettingexperience in that field and
that specialty it would provideyou with a ton of knowledge base
and it would definitely benefityou, but it's not necessary.
So I think you know you, comingfrom a med-surg floor to

(37:26):
wherever you want to go, itsounds like you have the right
base knowledge and you're avaluable asset.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
So take the chance, yeah, and just know that, moving
from med surge to a specialty,you're gonna learn different
things and you don't have tofocus on different things and,
depending on your age, thatcould be very easy, that could
be very hard.
Depending on your, yourlearning style, that could be

(37:58):
very easy, that could be veryhard.
So it doesn't really matter,just give yourself the grace or
the space and the grace to learnand grow.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
And so that you can actually take the time to learn
that specialty Mm-hmm.
Question number two by Lauren M, a BSN student.
Hi, love the podcast.
What's one thing you wish youknew during your first year as a
nurse.
That would have made your lifea little easier.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Ooh, it's important to go to staff meetings.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah, I'll say, and I said this actually in an
interview, I think it was likewhat is something?
It was probably a very similarquestion in an interview and I
was like in my years of nursingand in my growth of my you know
career, I realized how importantit was to actually go to staff
meetings.
People hate going to staffmeetings.
Nobody wants to actually go tostaff meetings.
People hate going to staffmeetings.
Nobody wants to go to a staffmeeting.

(39:01):
Who wants to come to thehospital outside of the time
that you already have to bethere?
Well, one you're getting paid.
So like, get that extra hour,get that extra hour, honey,
except for listening.
Yeah, except for listening.
But they're so important, likeyou're getting so much
information, like policy changes, like practice changes, like

(39:21):
just the most importantinformation.
That's why we have them.
We have them, you know,quarterly or however often.
Some people do them every 30days.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
How often do y'all do them?

Speaker 2 (39:32):
We used to do them every 30 days with prior
management.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Now we're doing them like quarterly it seems like
that's funny Maybe like four tosix times a year now, depending
on what's going on.
So it's a lot less now, whichmakes it a little bit easier to
make them.
But I think from my new gradyears I was always I would blow
them off and be like I don'tcare, like as a new grad I think
it's actually even moreimportant time to go yeah,

(39:58):
because you don't know, youdon't know, you don't know.
You're learning how to be anurse at this point.
You should go to all of thosemeetings.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
That's true.
One thing that actually I'mlearning from our staff meeting,
and something that I didn'tthink about when I was a first
year nurse, it was how importantit is to engage and huddle.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Like we on transplant are really trying our best to
revamp a lot of different thingsand just being intentional in
what we do and we don't wantanything to be just done, just
to do it and huddle.
Very much so at the presentmoment, and I can probably say

(40:43):
with a decent amount ofcertainty say with a decent
amount of certainty, majority-of units do huddle just because
they have to check off the boxand I think, engaging in huddle
in a different way and makingsure that you insert your
important areas of concern, youcan say that you had a patient

(41:05):
that you're concerned about inhuddle.
It's okay to speak up.
I don't think that charge nurseshould be the one majority of
the time speaking and it isimportant for you to give that
input because it gives awarenessto the unit and what's going on
in the unit with because chargenurse, as great as they are,

(41:28):
they don't know everything.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
You can't know everything.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
No so.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah, no, I think that's a.
That's also a good piece ofadvice.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
I didn't think about that until literally after a
staff meeting.
So Okay, this is from at scrublife with Sam.
Okay, be honest, have y'allever gotten into a disagreement
while recording an episode and,if so, how do you handle it and
keep things flowing?
I'm going to be honest.

(41:58):
I don't know, have we?
I'm sure I'm like borderline inthe argument about the two dogs
here today.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
I know they're being jer, jerks, they're being jerks.
Um, yeah, and I on.
Sometimes I don't bring droughtbecause I know that they're
gonna be nuts together, buttoday I had to.
Yeah, but no, I, honestly, weand that has nothing to do with
the podcast, no, I think likewhen we don't have the same
opinion on something, we haverespect for each other to listen
to what the other person has tosay, and and that's it.

(42:36):
Like we listen to what theother person to say, we don't
have to agree with it, andthat's.
And that's on qualityfriendship.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah, that's, that's our friendship and it's in its
core.
Is that that we know we wereraised differently, we came up
differently?
Yeah, we still have a lot ofcore values that are the same,
but there are some that aredifferent, and it just happens
to be that we might not.
There are definitely thingsthat both of us disagree on.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah, there are definitely things that both of

(43:27):
us disagree on and you can hearthat in our recordings, like
that's obvious.
But we've never like gotteninto like a serious disagreement
where we're like we can'trecord this episode, like again.
I think it's just, it's mutualrespect and quality friendship,
where you listen to the opinionsof others and you can agree to
disagree or you just keeprolling Like it is what it is
and we've been friends for manyyears now and if we argued like

(43:51):
that, I don't think we would befriends.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
We definitely wouldn't be recording a podcast
definitely not recording apodcast yeah oh, interestingly
enough, I don't know my onelistener had asked us and this
was actually a listener close tome how many times we get asked

(44:14):
if we're together.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Oh, that's a funny question.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yeah, and I mean, nobody's asked that.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, no, I think people know in our real life
that we are just really closefriends and we may have talked
about this on the podcast, butthere's also another running
joke that I'm like the executiveassistant for christopher and
so I kind of run, I schedule hislife, I kind of keep him in
check I think she was not doinga good job.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
The past I was on vacation.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
I was on vacation, literally and figuratively, um,
and so things kind of fell apart, but we're putting it back
together.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Slowly.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah.
So it is kind of funny and Ithink like well, yeah, and when
we showed up to like a Pilatesevent and some of the people
there were like so are you guystogether?
And we're like no, no, we'rejust best friends.
Like so it does.
I guess it does happen and Icould see why.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Like we have great chemistry but that's why we're
best friends, like that's funny,though I don't know.
Sometimes I wonder, because I'mlike do I need to drop?

Speaker 2 (45:15):
colby, I'm blocking.
I'm blocking any potentials, Iknow, yikes meanwhile, I know I
may have to step down from myrole of executive assistant for
you and I may need to, yeah,make some changes in my own life
anyways um, markets d a nurse,uh, somewhere, they didn't say

(45:44):
where, so I'm just gonna goingto say Marcus D a nurse.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
How do you balance being a nurse and still having
energy for your friends, familyand you know life?
Because after three shifts I'min full ghost mode.
That's hilarious, becauseyesterday I was in that.
But I went to an exhibit.
I went to two art exhibits intwo different places.
I went to a vegan bakery, avegan restaurant.

(46:13):
That's the word.
And then I went to a bookstoreand then came home and built
something and then ended upreading some books, or reading
some of the book that I bought,and that was full ghost.
Like I did not want.
Colby even asked me twice tocome hang out at two different

(46:36):
times and I was like I can't, Icannot, I can't do it, I needed
to not be around people.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Yeah, sometimes, sometimes ghost mode is like
what you need and so, likeChristopher yesterday did a
bunch of things that was justfor him.
And like, and when we talkedabout it, I checked in with him
today and I was like how are youfeeling?
Like did you fill your cup upyesterday and like sometimes
doing things for your completelyyourself and you don't have to
have like any thought aboutsomeone else's feelings about a

(47:04):
situation or if they're enjoyingthemselves, like even if it's
something fun with someone thatyou love or you know you love
spending time with their friendthere, you know someone you're
in a relationship with like thatcan still empty your cup, and
so I was so happy thatChristopher did that yesterday
and I did invite him out twicebecause I didn't.
I really did want to hang out,but I also totally respect

(47:25):
needing to fill the cup upbecause I am gearing up for one
of those days tomorrow like liketomorrow is is a me day, like
you will.
I'm going to Pilates and thenI'm gonna go home and I might
just stay in my apartment, likeI might not even leave.
Like you did a bunch of things.
That was great.
I'm like so in ghost mode afterthis.
Like this was like my, my lastcommitment, with the exception

(47:46):
of my pilates class tomorrow,but that's a cup filler for me.
This was my last like to-dolist to crop thing to cross off
and I'm just gonna be a hermitfor 24 hours and I can't wait.
I might not even like showertomorrow, just sit on the couch.
Yeah, it's hard, but you knowwhat you need to.
And this goes back to that myfavorite episode, episode

(48:08):
episode 12.
It's like you need to find thebalance and you need to recharge
your batteries, fill your cupup.
You can't.
You can't take care of others.
You can't take care of yourselfwhen you're on E throughout
your day, when you're working,as well as making sure you're
taking time to take care ofyourself when you're not and how

(48:29):
, whatever that means, and youmight.
Maybe you need to speak with atherapist to find that balance.
Maybe you need your 24 hours ofghost mode, maybe not, but yeah
, I think it's.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
It's a seesaw situation where you the balance
is like you kind of teeter backand forth yeah, the cool thing
is, you can have a day of ghostmode and still have four other
or, excuse me, I can't countthree other days.
You can do whatever you wantright like you work three shifts

(49:01):
for a reason because it is alot of work and hard work.
If you weren't nurses and thisis from at night shift tiff what
would you be doing right now?
Like, what's your secret dreamjob?
I think we've briefly touchedon this you.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
We kind of talked about like our trajectories and
I think it kind of aligned withthat question.
But and I've been asked thisquestion like multiple times in
the last three weeks- really Iyeah, very strange leaving no,
no, no, there's just like casualconversation and my answer has
been a little bit differentevery time, but I think most
commonly I'm like I would beforeI decided to become a nurse.

(49:39):
Like seriously was think when Iwas thinking about like what I
was going to go to college forin high school it was like
teaching, which is kind of likethe same thing, different font,
like when teaching and nursing.
it's the same kind of burnoutLike we're all like suffering
the same kind of things likechronically understaffed, not
having enough resources.
So that makes sense, thatthat's probably.
My alternative is just like inanother like plane of life.

(50:01):
I was a teacher, but if I canjust like pick something fun and
I think I would be like anatural talent at, would be like
an influencer.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
I would love to be an influencer.
I know chris just rolled hiseyes for everybody that can't
see.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
But like, tell me, I'm wrong, everybody can't see
because it's just me it's justme and we're not recording on
video, but I would just like tosay like I think it's a if I'm
talking dream job, something forfun I'm still rolling my eyes
actually think I would be agreat influencer.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
I mean, I don't think that's wrong, I don't, but you
know you can, it's a dream, okay, you can gladly take over the
the um social media portion ofthe nursing life photo.
You want to be an influencer?

Speaker 2 (50:42):
I'll let you.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
You can do it whatever your little heart
desires here are the passwordsand the user names so I mean,
yeah, I I think you coulddefinitely do that thank you
yeah and yeah, next year or nextseason, it'll be read by colby.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Okay.
So, Get ready, get ready, it'llbe completely unhinged.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Me.
On the other hand, it would besomething in the vegan world.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Like I just most recently have started getting
into vegan ice cream, makingvegan ice cream.
Oh, that's so good.
Yeah, so that's been fun.
And, um, I went to this bakerythe other yesterday and they had
cinnamon toast crunchmilkshakes and it was absolutely

(51:37):
amazing.
So I'm trying to, and oh, isthat gonna be your next?
ice cream flavor.
Well, maybe not cinnamon toastcrunch, but like cinnamon ice
cream.
Apparently that's a thing Okay,and my pickleball partner has
said that's his favorite type ofice cream.
Cinnamon yeah, just cinnamonice cream, which I'm like I had
never heard of.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
And.
But now that I've had theCinnamon Toast Crunch, I mean,
it's the taste you can see.
It's the taste you can see.
I've got to figure out how tomake this.
I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Does he like cinnamon , like Big Red Gum cinnamon ice
cream, or is it like cereal milkcinnamon?

Speaker 1 (52:15):
That's what he.
He had said something about theBig Red Gum.
Apparently it's not that it'slike.
I don't know what it's like, soI'm curious to make it and have
him try it to see if that's theone.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah, see if that's what he was talking about.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yeah, yeah, but I have literally I've thought
about doing some type of eitherat home meal prep thing, at home
vegan meal planner.
I've thought about a veganrestaurant.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
I've thought about all kinds of things.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Yeah, I know we talked about like food truck
cookbook, yeah, all kinds ofthings so, um, then we're gonna
switch over to the not nursingpeople all right so I'm not a
nurse.
Alexis r says I'm not a nurse,but I've always wondered.
I'm not a nurse, but I'vealways wondered how do you stay
calm when someone's life isliterally in your hands?
That seems like such an intensepressure.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
We've said we're calm .

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Yeah, I know, I love that.
Your interpretation is thatwe're calm.
Externally I'm giving calm, I'mgiving calm, but internally I'm
giving calm, I'm giving calm,but internally I'm giving, like
that little emoji or no, not thegift of, like the dog sitting
at the table and everything'sburning around him and he says
I'm fine, this is fine, it's allfine.

(53:37):
Like that's what's going on inmy head, like everything is
burning down around me but we'vetalked a little bit about this
too.
Like in a code situation, likeme personally, I go into like
autopilot and I just start doingthe things that I know, like
there's algorithms and tasks andthings that need to happen and

(53:59):
that's what you train for.
That's why we do mock codes,that's why we stay certified in
ACLS and BLS and all of thosethings and, for those that don't
know, that's advanced cardiaclife support and basic life
support.
But that's why we train forthese things.
And so in a situation we kindof click into our lizard brain
and we just do what we'retrained to do.

(54:19):
And so, while externally welook calm it's because we are.
We are trained to do steps weturn into little robots and we
start doing the things.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, it's just like the way that you brush your
teeth in the morning.
You always probably brush itthe same way.
We, as nurses, we're taught howto do things and we do them the
same way.
And that's definitely whatkeeps us safe.
But it's also one of thosethings where I agree in a code

(54:51):
situation we do kind of clickinto this normal algorithm of
ACLS and BLS, but nurses reallydo.
We see minute changes that arelike oh yeah, that's not right.
You know and I think that, alongwith the helpful hand of your,

(55:12):
your CNA, like MPCT, that it'sjust you.
You're working with teamworkand experience.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Yeah, a lot of times we were talking about a patient
that was decompensating buthemodynamically stable still, so
their vital signs were perfect.
And a lot of times with doctorsthey listen to your concerns,
right, but then they need somelike hardcore, tangible data to
kind of support it.
And sometimes the patienthasn't gotten to the point where

(55:41):
their vital signs are affectedyet and it's not really
triggering any worry in thedoctor because they're stable,
numbers wise.
But a lot of times when youhave enough experience and
you're working with a certainpopulation that you have a lot
of experience with, it's justsomething we call like nursing
intuition.
You're like I'm like, nope, itdoesn't feel right.

(56:01):
Yeah, it doesn't feel right,something is happening here.
These are the beginning signsthat something is about to go
very wrong and like that kind ofit's very triggering for us.
And then that's when we'rebeing kind of like disregarded,
um, and then usually what endsup happening is the happening is

(56:32):
the patient crumps or, you know, continues to decondition to
the point where now their vitalsigns are not good or we're
coding them.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
So yeah, it's kind of yeah, we know what's going on,
we have nursing intuition.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
We're talking about this patient really needs to go
to the unit and I was like yeah,I know they're not doing hot
right now.
And they're like, well, whatcan we do to get them to take a
series.
I said tell them nursingintuition.
I'm like I don't have anythingtangible yet, but I know this is
going to go south soon.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
And it's weird.
I mean it happens more oftenthan not.
Yeah, Just here for the teapot.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Is that their handle, their user handle?

Speaker 1 (57:13):
Yeah, it's pretty clever.
What's the biggestmisconception people have about
nurses?
Like something you're tired ofhearing or correcting all the
time.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Okay, so immediately my thought went to the dating
episode.
The time Okay, so immediatelymy thought went to the dating
episode.
So, while we said like not todate the four P's or five P's or
however many it was, there'salso like the reverse stigmatism
that nurses are just like men,like men.
Women eithers, like you know,like I'm like the male nurses
will like serial date, thoughyou know.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Well, no know, well, no, I think the biggest thing is
it's not Grey's Anatomy, it'snot House, it's not.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
ER.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Yeah, it's not the TV shows, you know it's not the TV
shows, no, we don't barely dochest compressions and get
people.
Like we crack ribs.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
And it is gruesome and those things like yeah, I
think I think that's the biggestmisconception that you're.
You're living in a TV show.
No, maybe once in a while youmight hear us, but it's not like
the TV shows.
No.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
I would say, another misconception of nursing is that
one thing I hate is when, likewe're like well, you only work
three days a week.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
I'm like, yeah, I work three days a week and in
that time I work as many hoursas you work in five, right, if
not more?

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Depending on how crazy the end of the shift was.
For sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
It is almost comparative to and I hate that,
I'm about to use this as acomparison that football is a
very strenuous sport compared toother sports because they only
play once a week.
I hate that because I'm abaseball stand and I think
baseball is just as strenuous.

(59:12):
But I mean, it's just thatcomparison, like there's a
reason why we work only threedays a week, because it's
mentally, emotionally,physically exhausting, and those
40 hours you're working, we'redoing it in those three days
yeah, everyone that works uh, 40regular nine to five, 40 hours.

(59:33):
We could never do what we doyou right um danny, nursing
school, hopeful, okay.
Do you ever get used to seeingblood, needles or really tough
situations, or does it still hityou sometimes?

Speaker 2 (59:51):
oh, blood and needles nothing but really hard, tough
situation tough situations isvery like situational depends on
like what the tough situationis.
You know, like there's stuffthat we see all the time like
codes that I mean it's veryweird.
We had a recent experiencewhere we, christopher, came with
me, we took my job, my dog tothe emergency vet and we were

(01:00:13):
there and it was a verytraumatic night, not even like
for me with my dog, but justlike everything that we saw come
through and, um, we were justsitting there, shell-shocked,
like what the frick is happeningright now and when we were
leaving, like they— it was likethe ghetto hospital.
It was like we were in a levelone trauma ED like in inner city

(01:00:35):
Baltimore.
Like it was legitimate gunshotwounds, dog hit by cars, like
people were—.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Legitimately.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
This is not an exaggeration.
This is like two actual casesthat happened.
There were three families thatwere like scream, crying,
throwing up because their dogswere dying or dead.
And it was just like andobviously if that was me in
their shoes I'd be doing thesame thing but like to sit there
in the waiting room and justwatch like case after case come
through.
It was like a horror movie.

(01:01:03):
And we were like literallyshell shocked sitting there,
like what just happened to us.
And when we were leaving, likeat this point they knew that
like the two of us worked inhealth care and we were, we were
having like a goodbye.
I was checking out pay andconversation and I was like, are
you guys OK?

(01:01:23):
Like this has been a crazynight.
And they were like oh, yeah,we're fine, like whatever.
And then we kind of likechuckled a little bit because we
were like that's what we say topeople when they ask us if
we're OK.
We're like, yeah, we're fine,whatever.
Like we keep it rolling, not abig deal.
And they were like no, no, no,no.
Like we feel like that's crazy,which most of the world
probably does, but like thingsthat us, like letting it roll

(01:01:45):
off our backs is crazy.
But it was just kind of like afunny, like dynamic, like
paradoxical kind of situationthat we were in, like yeah, we,
we see crazy stuff all the timeand you do kind of get a thick
skin and become numb to stuff.
But sometimes something mighthit you.
That's just personal, that'sdifferent, and a lot of times

(01:02:07):
it'll just sneak up on you andsurprise you, I think when you
do have those things.
But as far as, like I mean, Iguess even some people might be
more sensitive than others Bloodand needles and scalpels and
that kind of stuff doesn'tbother me at all.
When it comes to patients, likeeven myself, like doing
something to a patient.
Personally, though, like Idon't like to get stuck by

(01:02:29):
needles, I don't like to get, Ido it and I'm not a big baby, I
don't cry about it, I just don'twatch it happen.
But yeah, personally, like Ijust don't look at it when it's
being done and I'm totally fine.
But I can't even donate bloodwithout passing out because I
just I feel the blood leaving mybody.
So it's situational.
Everybody's going to bedifferent.
You're just going to figure outwhat your tolerance is, what

(01:02:50):
you can and can't handle.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
It's fun.
It's fun to kind of hear andsee that and I'm like, I mean
going back to the emergency roomvet, I just felt like I was and
I think both of us are verystrong on the empath side, so I
think both of us also were justdrained because of that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
I felt like I was siphoning all of these emotions
like straight directly into mybody.
It was like a main line.
I was like, oh my gosh, whatthe hell.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
We will never.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
I will never take my dogs to the christopher will
never volunteer to go back withme.
Also, we were there from 10 30at night to like 3 30 in the
morning it was terrible, and noteven because of trout, like
trout had gotten im pain medsand it was chilling.
He was chilling he was fine.
There were multiple times whereI looked at christopher and I
was like he seems fine.

(01:03:45):
Should I just pay for the painmeds and we can leave?
And they were like no, no,let's wait.
And then, like the next tragedyrolled in.
It was terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
It was awful.
This might be random, butwhat's something people wouldn't
expect nurses to do on aregular basis, like any behind
the scenes stuff that surprisedeven you when you started, and
that's Michael C podcastlistener.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Oh, something that surprised me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
To be honest, this is what surprised me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Okay, sure.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
When it comes to nurses and not being on unit,
nothing holds them back what doyou mean?

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
in what context?

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
they, they doing some drinks, they they smoking.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Oh how nurses can get down outside of work down
outside of work well, those arecalled coping mechanisms, but I
do think there's like a.
There we're all cut from thesame cloth.
So there's a common thread inus.
Like anytime I've ever gone outwith nurses, it's a throwdown.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
It's a throwdown.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
It's a throwdown.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
It's like a silent competition of who can get
crazier.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
And they will ramp it up.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Yeah, they will.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
So I think that's the biggest thing for me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
For sure that is fair .
That's a fair statement.
I think that is so funny.
That is such a.
That's a fair statement.
I think that is so funny, thatis such a and I will even say
like, even in nursing schoolthere was definitely like a
group of girls in my nursingclass that were like crazy in
college Okay.
And like I totally see it, butlike you're also with a group of
people in college that I feellike in nursing school, you

(01:05:27):
might agree it's like socutthroat, Like everybody's,
like I gotta get, gotta get an a, I gotta I'm not gonna share
any of the of my study.
You know whatever my study cardsand flash cards and that kind
of stuff.
So then, like, if you graduate,and then you're all, you pass
your boards, and then you'rewith a bunch of people that made
it through, and then you'relike wait, we're like actually
all crazy together.

(01:05:48):
Oh this makes sense I was yeah,I that and that's across the
board.
Like in every state, every agegroup.
Like everybody's got a littlenutso in them if they're a nurse
and they really throw downoutside of work.
That's so funny.
Please say one.
That's not true, not even onthe same page as that.

(01:06:13):
But like as far as like just atwork is like, probably what
surprised me the most is just alot of the bullshit stuff that
we have to do.
That's just like compliancewith um jco standards oh okay,
interesting, yeah like likelabeling stuff making sure
things are within date like

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
you know like and all that makes sense but it's like
rest the Uncrustables are gonebecause they didn't have a gate.
A gate, a gate.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
They didn't have a gate, so they took away our
Uncrustables, and that is atragedy.
They took away our Uncrustablesat our hospital because
nutrition staff would not putdates on them for some until
when they were quote-unquoteexpired.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Because everything can only be in the refrigerator
for three days.
Well, let me tell you somethingthose Uncrustables would go so
quickly that they'd be lucky ifthey were even in there for
three hours.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
Right, not because of the patients.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
Sometimes for the patients, but mostly for the
staff, mostly the staff, but youknow what that's.
On not getting a real lunchbreak.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Agreed, I would also take part.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Yes, like an uncrustable just hits, it does.
I'm going to mourn that for therest of my career.
They got these nasty Like dry,oh my gosh, they look awful.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
That is another thing .
The nutrition room is for thepatients, but Quote unquote.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Yeah, that's all.
That's all I'll say there.
We know who it's really for Allright.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Last question I'm not in health care, but I love
hearing your stories.
How do you emotionally let goof a tough day so it doesn't
follow you home?
And that is from at books andbandages books and bandages.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Thank you for thank you for your question.
I think, like we, when wetouched a lot on that listen to
episode 12.
But I think, like immediatelyleaving work, I like to like
completely disengage.
Like as I'm walking off theunit I'll put my headphones in
and listen to a song.
Like listening to music,listening to a book, book, an
audio book, listen to a podcast,like I'm immediately trying to

(01:08:16):
like disassociate from thehospital.
As soon as I like give my signout, I'm like, all right, I'm
disassociating, because if youdon't, it's so easy to take that
step home, especially if you'rekind of like a typical type A
nurse that's a little highstrung and a little bit of a
perfectionist and a little bitanxiety.

(01:08:38):
Yeah, if you're a little bitlike me, you have to learn how
to maintain those boundaries andyou need to find something that
works for you and for me.
It's like I immediately I'mlike, all right, we're plugging
in the headphones, we're, we'reout of here.
And I do that so well at thispoint that like someone will ask
me like oh well, what aboutpatient 66B?
I'm like who, what?
Like, oh well, what aboutpatient 66b?
I'm like who?
What?
Male or female?
I couldn't tell you.
I've had patients, familynumbers, see me in the real

(01:08:58):
world and they're like, oh mygod, I just want to tell you
like dad's doing so well and I'mlike I don't know who you're
and you act like oh yeah, it'sthe best put the show on
performance ever yeah, oh my god, I'm so happy to hear that.
He was the sweetest patient.
He was so nice.
It's so nice to see you guys.
I'm like I don't know who thatis at all.

(01:09:18):
Yeah, I don't know who theirfamily member was.
Couldn't tell you from Adam.

Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
Never know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
Yeah, so you just have to get good at
disassociating, I guess, yeah,find, find out what works for
you.
Try different things.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
I don't disassociate.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
You don't have the same luxury because you are
basically always on call.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
That is true?
Yeah, all right, so let's wrapthis up.
It's been an interesting night,for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Yes, I think we had fun reviewing everything from
this season and it got meexcited about next season.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Is there something you want to talk about next
season that you're, likechomping at the bit, ready to
talk about?

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
I think we've read some books about like nursing,
management and styles that Ithought maybe we would talk a
little bit about.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
Yeah, I really need to hand that back to you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Yeah, so I can finish reading it.
No, that's all good, but I yeah, I think you know it's while
there are endless options withinnursing, there's endless
options to talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
Yeah, so I think we're lucky in that.
Yeah, so I think we're lucky inthat.
But I would also like love ifanybody has anything that they
want us to talk about, if youwanted to submit anything in via
our Twitter page or Facebook orInstagram, and.
Gmail or Gmail.
Let us know if there'ssomething specific that you guys
want to know more about or hearus babble on about.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Yeah, and I mean I'm sure at some point there's going
to be some type of law put out,or you know we'll.
We'll hop in the politics too.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
Yeah, we'll definitely do that and we've
even tossed around the idea ofdoing like a live not live
podcast, but like watching amedical TV show and kind of
breaking it down while we'rewatching it record a podcast in
that kind of sense.
So I don't know if we'll dolike a separate podcast or like
a fun like episode drop withinnext season for that, but it's
an idea that we've tossed around.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
Yep, and we've also thought about thinking, thought
about thinking, we thought aboutthinking once.
You know it's a veryinteresting concept.
Thought about bringing someother people in and trying to
get some other voices Get someguests.
You can hear some other peoplein and trying to get some other
voices, get some guests.
You can hear some other.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Points of view.
Points of view Perspectives.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
Yeah, yeah.
But you know I would be remissto say you know class dismissed.
Remiss to say class dismissed.

(01:12:08):
I am truly grateful that youhave stuck in to listen to us,
despite all of our ramblings andcraziness that we have put out.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
Yeah, I think I hope that this episode specifically
is like a love letter to youguys and I really want you guys
to know how appreciative we are.
And it's been, like I saidearlier, really fun, kind of
reflecting on the last couple ofmonths of us recording and I
think we've done, it's gonebetter than what I expected from

(01:12:41):
the beginning and I feel like Iam enjoying it.
I have enjoyed this so muchmore than I thought I would and
it's just, yeah, we wouldn'thave been able to do this
without any of you guys andevery time we see like our
engagement, like the numbers goup, it's super exciting and it
kind of keeps us wanting torecord more.
So thank you for that immensely.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Yeah for sure.
All right class dismissed.
That's a wrap on season one ofNursing Life 101, and it's
Nursing Life 101.
Thank you all for being part ofthis journey with us.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
Keep connecting with us on social media and let us
know what you want to hear inseason two.
Until next time, take care ofyourselves and keep making a
difference out there you.