March 26, 2025 • 56 mins
📢 Description:
In this follow-up to Episode 8, Christopher and Colby continue the conversation on what it’s really like to be a new nurse. They discuss the pressures of picking up extra shifts, why it’s essential to have a life outside of the hospital, and how to avoid early career burnout.
💡 Key Topics:
✔️ Why you should limit overtime in your first year
✔️ The importance of finding hobbies outside of work
✔️ Financial tips for new nurses – insurance, 401(k), and more
✔️ The impact of having a great preceptor
✔️ Nursing Wins & Woes – real first-year struggles and victories
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christopher (00:00):
Welcome to Nursing Lyfe 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 is now in session.
Colby (00:48):
Hello and welcome to Nurse Lyfe 101.
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 Colby and I couldn't behappier to introduce my co-host.
Christopher (01:00):
Hey guys, my name's Christopher.
Together, we'll be bringing youreal stories, practical tips
and discussions about all thingsnursing, whether you're a
fellow nurse or just curiousabout the life behind the scrubs
, we're thrilled to have youjoin us.
Just remember that we did talkabout the Clin 1s earlier, about
two weeks ago.
I just wanted to bring a littlebit of extra information,
(01:22):
because we definitely started totalk about this longer than we
anticipated.
Colby (01:27):
We had so much to share.
Christopher (01:29):
We did, and so we wanted you to kind of hear a
little bit more and hopefullyyou will be able to enjoy it.
Colby (01:35):
Yeah,
Christopher (01:36):
so with Clin 1s, sometimes for you, for you,
Colby, for myself.
I also went to a wholedifferent place.
Colby (01:46):
Yeah.
Christopher (01:48):
I had never been here.
You have never been here.
Colby (01:53):
Yeah, very.
I mean like one other timebefore I moved here.
So like, not only are youstarting a new job, you're fresh
out of school, you're learninghow to do your job.
The potential that you've movedto a new location where you
don't know anyone, potentially,or know much about the area, is
a whole other like challenge totackle.
Christopher (02:17):
Yeah, and to add to my difficulty, I started my
career in fall of 19, endedorientation early winter of or,
excuse me, late, late winter of2020.
Colby (02:39):
And then COVID happened.
Christopher (02:40):
Many of you know about that and so everything
shut down.
Yeah, so I like, how can I evenlike go?
Meet people which I wouldn'twant to, because I'm an
introvert and I'm like I'd muchrather just stay in the house.
Colby (02:51):
COVID was actually good for you.
Christopher (02:52):
Yes, please.
Colby (02:54):
But no, it's a good point to make, like that was an extra
challenge on top of an alreadychallenging thing to tackle.
Like I said, I think when youstart a new job okay, wait, I
think a great piece of advicethat I actually from my current
manager she said whenever shemeets with the new graduate
(03:16):
nurses frequently throughouttheir first year, just to like
get a pulse check and see howthey're doing and how they're
acclimating, and you know tohave, you know, a two-way street
with communication that theycan share and she can give
feedback and vice versa.
But a piece of advice that shealways gives them is to like,
try and maintain a life outsidethe hospital.
(03:37):
It's so easy in your first yearof nursing to just get consumed
with nursing, like it's yourfirst job which we were going to
touch on in a minute, but thiskind of goes with it it's your
first like adult job potentially, and it's the first time you're
making adult money.
And one thing I think that getsreally tantalizing is picking
(03:58):
up extra shifts and then youyour work, you're working your
life away and you lose your lifeoutside of the hospital, right?
So when you're coming in andyou're starting in a new place
and a new location.
Like Christopher and I did,like I, we both moved to it.
Well, he was living here for alittle bit, but we both moved to
.
Like he moved to a new area, Imoved to a new state, like I
(04:20):
knew very minimum amount ofpeople.
And I was like, oh, I'm justgoing to work all the time and
make a crap ton of money?
Christopher (04:27):
Yeah, because you don't know anybody.
Colby (04:28):
Yeah, because you don't know anybody.
It's so easy to just getconsumed with work.
So her advice of like trying tomaintain, like find a hobby, is
really what she said.
Like find a hobby outside ofnursing.
Like find something that youlike to do because it's a great
(04:50):
outlet for you, to like let goof the stress of work and just
get your mind off of it.
It's different.
I just think that's when shetold me that and I was like oh
my God, it's so simple.
But I was like I wish someonetold me that, because I did
exactly what I just gave as anexample.
I worked my tail off and I gotburnt out so early in my career
because of the amount of hoursthat I worked.
Christopher (05:08):
Yeah, my manager likes to say your work funds
your life, right, so it doesn'tmean that your life's your work.
It means you are working to dothe fun things that you want to
do outside of your life, outsideof work.
And she says that.
And, unfortunately, you know, Isay to many of the people that
(05:30):
I precept I'm like your firstsix to 12 months after you
finish orientation, don't darepick up a shift.
Now and I say that one a littlebit selfish, I like to pick up
the shelf.
Colby (05:45):
Like, leave them open for me.
Christopher (05:46):
Just, you know, it's a shellfish, it's a
shellfish.
It's a selfish reason, butthere is a genuine, caring
reason behind it.
You see the money and you chaseit.
Everybody sees money.
I mean, we are in a world ofmoney and that's what, that's
(06:06):
what we do.
And so when you see, when youpick up one shift, you're like,
oh my goodness.
Colby (06:11):
You're like, oh, that's nice yeah, especially like you
have a lot of student loans.
You're like, oh, I'm gonna paythis off.
Or like you had, you had tolike buy a car after graduation.
Like, oh, I need to make my carpayment, this will pay that.
Like, just keep, if you do pickup extra, just keep it in mind.
Keep yourself in check, becauseI I really truly, deeply in my
(06:33):
heart, wish somebody had saidthat to me and instead they were
just like, oh, yeah, Colby'spicking up again, like we're not
gonna be short-staffed, but itwas.
It really killed me in the longrun where I just like fell so
out of love with my career for agood long time and I was like I
need a break, like I can't dothis anymore.
It was bad.
(06:53):
So just keep that in mind.
And I think what Christophersaid like six to 12 months after
orientation, if you don't need,if you really truly don't need
to be working that hard, don'tLike acclimate to your area.
If you're new to the area,explore it, check it out.
Go to the webpage of the citythat you're living in.
(07:15):
See what they have going on.
It's a lot of fun to explore anew area.
You can treat it like a littlemini vacation, like be a pretend
tourist for a day, do thatcheesy stuff that you see people
do.
It's just like a fun way to getto know your community.
Look on Facebook I love FacebookMarketplace.
I love Facebook groups.
(07:36):
I'm in so many different groupson Facebook, like hiking groups
, sourdough making groups butyou make like I got into
sourdough last year.
This is kind of a tangential,but I figured out how to do it
through a facebook starter groupand I bought my starter on
facebook marketplace fromsomebody locally in the
community and that's just like aneat way to use social media
(08:00):
right.
I think.
Also a lot of cult systems tryto set you up.
This is kind of work related,but you could take it out of out
of work realm but with like amentor, yeah, like you can meet
with a mentor and try to getconnected with other people
outside of work.
Again, I mean, I lean backtowards like Facebook groups,
(08:20):
but like there's, you can meetup with people to do different
things that you actually, youknow, have common interest in.
Christopher (08:28):
Yeah, so I, as an ANM, I every week or excuse me,
every other week I send an emailcalled the Christopher's Corner
.
Yes, and at the end ofChristopher's Corner I always
send a little snippet of thingsif you get bored.
That's what I name it.
This is like things if you getbored and it's always a list of
(08:51):
stuff that essentially is thingsto do in the city, and you know
what I use.
Colby said it, it's the city'sweb page.
They always have events onthere, so just go to the events
and kind of find it.
And one thing that I realizedthat in back to me being a
foodie, there are many cities dorestaurant week and so if
(09:15):
you're a foodie like I am, Ihave a list now of restaurants
that I want to go to that arehere near the city.
That I did I got from justpretty much restaurant weekend.
Then I started kind of askingand exploring myself.
But you know, that kind ofallows you to go do stuff
outside of just sitting andeating at McDonald's.
Colby (09:38):
I know I I agree with you , though it's like I think
another thing, another piece ofadvice, like to go off of that
like google your interests, likewith with your city, like yeah,
so Christopher did that and hasa list of restaurants that he
wants to go to and I heavilyperuse for live music shows and
(09:58):
I actually just organized a fewdifferent things with our friend
group about going to a fewconcerts I just and I I google,
like city live music and justsee what comes up.
If that's your fancy, like,let's say, you like pottery city
, pottery, see where the potterystudios are, I don't know.
(10:19):
Just something like that.
Like just explore your city ortown, wherever you are, and
spend your time away from thehospital, away from the hospital
.
Christopher (10:31):
Yeah, yeah, and that's interesting because I
think both of us did not do that.
Colby (10:36):
No, not, not in our first year.
Christopher (10:38):
Right.
Colby (10:39):
Our first few years, so take that, take it to heart.
We're speaking from experience.
Where we did, we did not.
I didn't have anybody to tellme to do differently, though.
Christopher (10:49):
I did, and I just ignored it.
Colby (10:51):
So you're for two different experiences.
So don't ignore us.
We really mean it.
So Christopher was told andignored it, and he regrets it.
And I was never told, did itand I regret it.
So both aspects just know thatif you work too much, you will
regret it.
Christopher (11:08):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I still love my job and I have
not gotten to the point where Iwas like, oh man, I.
Colby (11:13):
You had a little more balance but you can admit that
you were working a lot.
Christopher (11:16):
Oh, no, yeah.
Colby (11:17):
Yeah.
Christopher (11:18):
I 100%.
I still work a lot.
What are you talking about?
Colby (11:20):
Yes, that's true.
Christopher (11:21):
Yeah, okay, I just wanted to establish that.
Colby (11:24):
I'm just trying to rag on you.
Christopher (11:29):
So you know we talked about it and mentioned it
multiple times this is y'all'sfirst big person job.
That means a lot and that youcan be under your parents'
insurance for a long time, and Ithink it depends on the state,
so I'm not going to say what itis specifically to this state,
(11:49):
but you are allowed to just behere and learn and kind of grow
in what it means to have a bigperson job, which means there's
big person bills, there's bigperson ideas, there's big person
problems, there's um big personinsurance.
You know all this happens.
What would you say to someoneis like this is a big person job
(12:13):
in terms of like the big personthings that you would have to
kind of focus on it is.
If you don't know, I insuranceis is the one that I'm always
kind of.
Colby (12:25):
I know well, like insurance and like your 401k,
like yeah, I don't know they'recalled, but whatever your
retirement plan is, yeah,there's so many different
options, but it's this, I meanthose, those two are.
I mean, obviously you want to ifyou're on, if you're young
enough and you have the abilityto be on your parents' insurance
(12:46):
, like, ride that out so youdon't have to pay that.
That's my suggestion to you.
I was not able to do that.
I had to because I lived in adifferent state.
I was, you know, I was fully inbig girl mode.
But yeah, if you can ride thatout and save that cost, but yeah
, make sure, I would say forinsurance at this young age,
(13:08):
unless you have any medicalissues that you know of.
Like, we're pretty healthy.
And I think I got scared when Iwas signing up and I had the
first year, like the mostexpensive one, but I didn't even
go to a regular like PCP, so Iwas paying like an insane amount
of money out of my paycheckevery month for the top
(13:29):
insurance package when I didn'tneed it.
And so just don't get scared,like I was.
And maybe this is bad advice, Idon't know, but then it was
like, then I went to the middletier for a little while and
realized again that I, like amhealthy.
I don't ever go to the doctor.
Not to say that, like, notgoing to the doctor is the right
move.
You should, but like basic.
Christopher (13:48):
I'm about to go on a tangent with that.
Colby (13:50):
So okay, but base, I believe, in my opinion, is, if
you're a healthy young adult,basic insurance with the HSA
option is perfectly fine.
It's going to cover your visits, your yearly visits to your
doctor's appointments, and it'snot necessary.
You can get the highest one ifyou feel like you want to.
(14:13):
But for me personally, it wasnever necessary for me to be
paying such a high premium forthe insurance and it was a
little silly.
So I will just take it intoconsideration.
If you have questions aboutinsurance I don't even know who
to point you to, but I'm goingto say HR and maybe they can
explain it to you a little bit.
But I'm going to guess thatthere's probably someone at the
(14:34):
desk in the same age group asyou that had the same question.
So if you have parents that aresavvy or just older friends
that are savvy I'm still notsavvy, but I'll tell you I have
the basic insurance and I haveHSA and that's just fine.
But then, secondly, you shouldstart, even if it's a small
(14:56):
amount, contributing to aretirement plan, especially if
your hospital or wherever youwork matches.
Try to like if you can affordto max, if you can't afford to
max it out, but even if youcan't afford to max it out.
Put something in because you'llnever you're not going to
regret that later when you'relike 60.
So the one thing about nursingis that it's kind of hard to
(15:18):
retire young unless you werereally thinking about your
future at a younger age and howmuch you want to contribute to
your retirement Right, becauseit's not like very lucrative in
the sense where, like I, havefriends that started out making
more money than me in otherfields and they're still making
more money Like every year.
(15:39):
They just make exponentiallymore money than me and it's like
, oh my God, we have like thesame level of degree.
What the heck Like.
It's just the unfortunate truththat in nursing, like we aren't
paid our worth and so you justhave to be conscious of the
amount that you're saving andit's only going to pay off in
the long run.
So making sure that you setthat up is.
(16:00):
Those are my top two.
I can't think of a third onefor that.
Christopher (16:02):
No, I mean, I was just thinking of one.
Colby (16:05):
Yeah okay.
Christopher (16:06):
But I'm cool with that.
But
Colby (16:08):
What were you going to say about insurance?
Christopher (16:09):
Yeah well, no, it's not necessarily about insurance
.
If you find a differentlocation or you're in a
different spot and you're nolonger under your normal primary
physician, please, please,please, please, find a PCP.
Colby (16:30):
Yeah, that's super important.
Christopher (16:31):
Don't, don't go.
Yes, I'm glad you feel great,you know that's.
That's wonderful.
That you feel great, that'swonderful that you are doing
things right.
Your brain is clear, your eyesare great, like all those things
.
That's great.
Those things, that's great.
(16:58):
But having a, a PCP as yourfounder, like you're- paying for
insurance you have to.
Colby (17:00):
Yeah, you might as well get your yearly visit.
It's and I say that as somebodythat didn't have a PCP for years
and I and it's it's not good tobe to go that long.
It's not good.
And I'll give you examples formyself.
I passed out at a restaurantand then I needed to get.
I didn't have a PCP.
(17:20):
I had to find one.
I had to get, and that tooktime.
I passed out at a restaurant.
I went to the emergency room.
They were like follow up withyour PCP in a week and I was
like I don't got one of those.
So then I had to call one.
I had to get appointments setup.
I had to figure out all of thatstuff.
But if I had a PCP in advance Icould have gotten in a lot
sooner and gotten things figuredout.
Christopher (17:42):
And how do you follow up with a PCP if you
don't have one to begin with?
There's no following up really.
Because they're not going to belike oh, this is this new
problem that has now beenattached to your insurance as a
new problem, when it could havebeen something that could have
happened years ago.
Colby (17:59):
Yeah, so it's just something that's it's important
to establish.
I totally agree, and you knowwhat?
It's great if you don't have togo see them, but they also
could like if you have a PCP, itcould save you from like having
to go to urgent care Like it'ssaving money honestly, Like a
(18:20):
PCP, like copay is going to becheaper than a urgent care visit
copay.
So keep that in mind too.
Like you're going to saveyourself money if you.
It's like simple things like oh, I need a flu swab.
Like if you call your PCP'soffice a lot of times that they
just they're like yep, okay,we'll meet you outside, swab you
in your car, and that's like a15 minute appointment where you
could wait hours at an urgentcare for the same thing.
Christopher (18:41):
It's insane.
Yeah, it really just depends onyou know your location of the
of the United States and ifyou're in a rural or more
metropolitan area like all theseplaces could be different, but
like also be picky with your PCP.
Colby (18:57):
Yeah.
Christopher (18:58):
Don't you dare settle for someone who's not
gonna listen to you.
Colby (19:02):
That's true, I think.
Yeah, I agree with that.
It's just hard sometimes wewe're lucky because we have
great, a great one, but I thinksometimes people have limited
options.
Yeah, our PCP is great and wejust refer everybody to her.
Christopher referred me to them.
And then every person I'm like,oh, you don't have one, let me
give you this person's name.
Like even like my manager, Iwas she.
Christopher (19:25):
Oh, did you really?
Colby (19:26):
Yeah, I did.
And then she mentionedsomething recently and I was
like, did you call the office?
And she's like I didn't set itup.
And I was like here's her nameagain.
But yeah, being a terriblepatient when you work in
(19:53):
healthcare but, when it's easy,like when you like the person
that you're gonna go see, it'slike it makes it all a lot nicer
.
So if you can find one that youlike I think sometimes people
are have limited optionsdepending on where they are and
what their insurance covers andthat kind of thing.
But hopefully if you're workingat a hospital or a doctor's
office in that setting for ahealth care system, you have
(20:15):
good enough insurance to findsomeone that cares about you and
not so much as like the timeconstraint and actually listens
to what you're saying likeChristopher said.
Christopher (20:26):
Right and it's.
it's okay to be like.
You went to that pcp the firsttime and you're like I, nah,
don't like them.
Colby (20:34):
Yeah, go find a new one.
Christopher (20:36):
If that's the case, keep on walking.
And if you you know they'relike do you want to set up a new
appointment?
It's okay, be like nah, I don'tfeel like it.
I did that.
I did that Like, no, I'm good.
And I just kept going.
I didn't tell him why.
Colby (20:53):
You don't have to.
Christopher (20:54):
And you don't have, yeah, you don't have to.
Colby (20:55):
Oh, that's something else .
Okay, this is off the currenttopic, but also would like to
just share with a new graduate.
Graduate nurse If you'recalling out of work, you don't
have to give a reason.
Oh yeah, I feel like somepeople might feel guilty,
especially myself, when I callout of work because I'm, because
(21:16):
I'll work when I'm sick, eventhough I shouldn't, and that's
not good advice.
If you're sick, you should stayhome.
Christopher (21:23):
I mean, she did a dang podcast trying to get me
sick.
Colby (21:26):
I had like RSV or the flu or something, but I was COVID
negative.
Christopher (21:29):
So I'm fine, by the way.
Colby (21:31):
Yeah, Immune system of steel, but not me, and I blame
that on the Invisalign, butthat's tangential.
Anywho, if you are sick andeven if you're not sick and you
need a mental health day oryou're calling out for whatever
reason, you don't have to give areason.
You just say, I am Colby, Iwork on this unit, I'm calling
(21:55):
out for my shift 12, 12 hours onthis day, and they just say
okay.
They should just say okay.
They might say, oh, I hope youfeel better.
Whatever but one.
They don't have a right to knowwhy you're calling out.
So if they ask you why, you cancan say I'm calling out, that's
it.
That's all you need to say.
(22:17):
So just don't feel like youneed to give like some long
excuse or story or whateverexplanation about why you're
calling out when you call out.
That's it.
(22:38):
That's like a sidebar.
Christopher (22:38):
So you know.
Last kind of part before wecontinue to our little segment
break what was your experienceas a clin 1.
Colby (22:42):
I had a really great preceptor, yeah, who I became
friends with,
Christopher (22:46):
Okay.
Colby (22:47):
and we were really close the first two years, when I
moved out of the state where wecurrently live back home for a
year and we stayed in touch.
And then I moved back to wherewe are and we stayed in touch
for a little while but she was acouple of years older than me
and started having kids.
We kind of grew apart.
But she's a wonderful personand I think about her often and
(23:08):
we follow each other on socialmedia and I love to see that
she's doing well.
Without her I feel like myexperience could have been so
shitty.
Like she was my lifeline.
That first year like she taughtme so much, took me under her
wing like we should.
(23:30):
We hung out outside of work.
We had like we were both fromNew England.
We had like some common ground.
I was very, I feel.
I feel I was very lucky to havelike an instant connection with
my preceptor.
Christopher (23:40):
That's really neat.
Colby (23:41):
Yeah, that was like so, like she was such a good, she
was such a good educator, waspatient, kind.
I had like that classicsituation with like a mean
doctor who like kind of snappedat me and I was like like shook
and tearful and she was like, no, you're not going to speak to
my, my new grad, like that andlike she just went to bat for me
(24:03):
.
She was, she was awesome.
So I was very lucky to havesuch a good first year and felt
very like safe, like mypreceptor made me feel safe and
welcome and it was.
It was a really good learningenvironment yeah, that's good,
that's really neat.
Christopher (24:20):
I would say my first clin 1 experience was also
good.
Like I, I enjoyed it.
It was.
It was definitely differentbecause COVID, but um, yeah, you
know I did.
I really learned and got tounderstand nursing in a
different perspective, in a lotof different ways.
(24:43):
But I had multiple preceptors.
I had pretty much two for daysand two for nights and all of
them I, if I run into them inthe hospital, like it's really
cool to see them and I kind offollow along that one of them
(25:04):
just had well, had a baby, likerecently after she was moving
from the unit and you know it'sgoing to be like oh, you know
how's your baby.
And another one is still on theunit that you work for and I
stay in touch with him.
And then one actually moved tothe unit I work for and so I see
(25:27):
her very often, often, yeah, um, yeah it it all.
Also, you know, we we hit theNRP part, the nurse residency
program, that's.
That's actually a very.
Colby (25:41):
I forgot to even mention that.
Christopher (25:42):
Yeah, for my own personal, oh yeah because you
had a very different one and Iwas very when we talked about
this in the car one day, youknow you were saying your
residency program was liketransition to practice, like it
was a transition to practice.
Colby (25:59):
Yea, it was, it was more unit based by our nurse educator
.
But it was specialty focus oncardiology and we had very and
it was intense.
I mean we had like multipleclasses on just learning
telemetry.
It was like going.
Yeah, it was like a veryinteractive, very intense.
(26:21):
We did lots of mock codes wedid it was yeah, it was.
I feel again, I didn't do ourcurrent health systems nurse
residency program, so I don'tknow exactly how it's set up
because I didn't go through it,but it seems very different in
comparison to what I've donethrough mine.
Christopher (26:42):
Right, yeah, and I mean, ours is, our current
health system is good.
I did appreciate it and they dotake the time to bring in
subject experts of certainthings like respiratory
therapists, your emergencyresponse team, where we call MET
, your managers.
(27:03):
My manager actually goes andspeaks to be like, hey, you know
, this is how you deal withmanagers, this is how you talk
with them.
We are actually here for youtype situations, and you then
come together and I think thisis what kind of made it so good
for me was that I now have somany friends in so many
(27:26):
different um.
Oh, like around the, around thehospital, different specialties
.
Right, because
Colby (27:32):
that's nice
Christopher (27:32):
They had us come together as a group and it was
asking the questions like hey,we just, you just all had a
patient that died today.
How are you feeling?
You know, how do you, how areyou coping, how are you, what
are you using as copingmechanisms?
You using as coping mechanisms,and you got to really like
(27:56):
express how you're feeling orhow you would have reacted, and
you kind of commiseratedtogether and try to figure out
what to do, which was reallynice.
Colby (28:02):
Yeah, yeah, and it's like another opportunity for you to
like have peers that are goingto the same thing as you and
kind of being able to have thoselike deload conversations when
you're you know, when you'regoing through that first year.
Christopher (28:17):
Right, because once again you will struggle.
Colby (28:22):
Commiserate is a great word that I've used.
Like it really is.
Christopher (28:25):
You will struggle, and these, these are people that
will hopefully be there to putan arm under you and keep you up
.
So, you know, make sure thatyou are, if you're not.
You know, not all healthsystems do this.
This seems to be more of ateaching hospital-esque thing
(28:50):
that has magnet behind them andyou know, there are good things
and bad things about magnet andmaybe that's something that
we'll talk about in later topics, but it's definitely something
that you, as a new Clin 1,should start to think about and
kind of process.
(29:10):
You know, do I want to go intoa hospital that has an NRP and
if I don't, how am I going to beable to be supported?
Colby (29:18):
Yeah, all right.
Is it time for our segmentbreak?
Christopher (29:21):
It is.
Colby (29:22):
All right, it's time for Nursing Wins and Woes, where we
share the highs and lows of lifeand scrubs.
Every shift brings its own setof victories and challenges.
So this is where we get realabout the moments that make us
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
(29:44):
together.
All right, so a Clin 1 wins andwoes.
Well, you kind of shared theClin 1 wins and and Woes on our
first Wins and Woes segmentbreak.
Christopher (29:55):
Yeah, I did,
Colby (29:56):
yeah,
Christopher (29:57):
yeah, but I definitely have more.
Colby (30:02):
There's probably a laundry list of them from my
first year.
Okay, well actually okay Wellactually okay.
So I touched on it a little bitwhen I was talking about, like
(30:25):
my nurse preceptor, like the oneI had, like a mean doctor yell
at me.
Um okay, so yeah,
Christopher (30:30):
I just want to make sure we clarify what wins and
what you yourself areexperiencing.
Colby (30:36):
Yes, this is me.
This is my story.
It's not my patient.
No, it's not.
No, this is me potentiallymessing something up.
Christopher (30:44):
Okay, okay, I'm just making sure.
Just making sure.
Colby (30:46):
Just listen to the story.
Christopher (30:47):
I will, I will.
Colby (30:49):
All right.
So cardiac floor Patient wasadmitted for a Tikosyn load.
This is my first time withTikosyn.
Christopher (30:58):
Oh okay.
Colby (30:59):
Okay, so I'm learning.
What is Tikosyn, also known asDofetilide?
What does this medication do?
How does it affect the heart?
Why are we giving it?
Doing all of my questions?
asking all my questions to mypreceptor reading about the
medication Right.
Tikosyn or Dofetilide is anantiarrhythmic drug.
Patients have to come into thehospital when they're starting
this medication and we monitorfor the minimum of six doses.
(31:22):
There's a high risk of patientgoing into a lethal rhythm
called torsades when startingthis medication because one of
the properties elongates yourQTC, which is a measurement in
your cardiac rhythm.
Two hours after each dose isgiven, you're required to get an
(31:44):
EKG.
My preceptor goes overeverything with me.
I'm like okay, I got it.
We gave the dose at like 845.
So I'm like 1045, got to get anEKG there it is.
I'm like all right, I'm ready.
She stepped off the floor.
She had a meeting.
She's like all right, I got ameeting, I'll be back in 30
minutes.
Christopher (32:03):
She believed in you .
Colby (32:04):
She believed me.
She said Colby the EKG 1045, Igot it, liz.
So Liz leaves, she's mypreceptor, liz leaves and I go
at 1045, I get the patient allhooked up to the EKG.
I get the EKG, I put it in thechart and I'm like wash my hands
(32:29):
of it.
I did it, I'm all done.
And this particular hospital hada mix of paper charting still
like this is like old school andelectronic medical record.
We were using something calledmeditech.
It was before they transferredover to epic.
So, okay, I like walk it overto the physical chart.
And the electrophysiologistcomes up to the floor a few
minutes later and he was asmaller man in stature and so
(32:54):
classic yeah, in classic smallerman stature nature.
He had a bad attitude.
Christopher (33:02):
Oh n o.
Colby (33:02):
To everybody.
Christopher (33:03):
Oh no.
Colby (33:04):
And it was my turn that day, oh no.
He looked at the ekg and Ithink he misread the time that
it was gotten at because I gotit at the right time, yeah.
But he found me in the nurse'sstation and ripped me a new
asshole because he thought thatI got it.
I can't remember if he thoughtI got it an hour later or an
hour too early.
(33:24):
I think it was an hour tooearly because it was at 1045,
but that's because I gave themed at 845.
(33:29):
So it wasn't early at all.
Colby (33:30):
It was on time.
But I think he saw in his eyethe 10 and didn't know that the
dose was given at 8.45.
So he thought it was done.
Yeah, I think he thought I gotit early.
And even if it was given at 9and I got it at 10.45, like
that's only 15 minutes early,but you would have thought that
(33:50):
I committed a cardinal sin.
And I thought I committed acardinal sin.
I was like, oh my God, did Iget it too early?
I was like so apologetic, I waslike having I was beet red
tearing up.
I was.
I was like I was like, oh myGod.
I was like, excuse my language.
But I was like this patient'sgoing to die, like my first time
(34:11):
with a medication that's superhigh risk giving it.
And my preceptor left me, andshe because she believed in me
and I understood what I had todo and I did it right.
But I didn't know this at thetime.
So I was just melting down.
I was full on, like nuclearplant meltdown.
I did not cry but I wasteary-eyed and I went into the
(34:34):
bathroom and then I cried, but Idid not cry in front of that
doctor, who is such an asshole.
And my preceptor came back andshe's like why is he acting so
crazy?
This is insane.
She was like we gave the doseSame thing that I just said gave
the dose at 845.
We got the EKG.
You got the EKG at 1045.
Nothing went wrong here.
What is going on?
(34:55):
So she like walked into thephysician workroom and was like
I don't understand why you're soupset.
This EKG was given two hoursexactly after the dose was given
.
There's no problem here.
You don't need to speak to mynew grad nurse in that manner.
You need to re-look at the time.
Like she went off off and sothat part was my win, because
she like validated that I didn'tdo anything wrong.
She was so nice, she like satdown and we went over everything
(35:17):
again.
She's like you know exactlywhat you did.
Like you did it exactly correct.
There was no wrong part here,right?
Like you're good and I'm gonnatell him about himself and I was
like, oh, my god, and she did,and I was after that day, my God
, and she did, and I was afterthat day.
That doctor never said a wordto me ever again.
He would just like put notes inand, yeah, he would like write
(35:40):
in the chart like the note.
Christopher (35:42):
Little person, is he?
Colby (35:45):
I'll show you a picture of him.
Okay, I think he still works.
But yeah, that was my, one ofmy.
My was a clin 1, though, butlike that first time I mean
again, unfortunately, there'salways going to be a mean person
that you work with, whetherit's like direct, like it's a
colleague, like I'm not acolleague but a peer, like a
(36:05):
nurse, or or maybe they're atech attack.
But when it's like a doctor,that's devastating for a new
person in a role and in a joband everything devastating.
But I survived it.
I'll never and I will.
In knowing me now, it's wild tothink that I would let anybody
(36:26):
speak to me like that and Iwould stand up for my clin 1 too
if someone went off like that.
But I also like the physiciansthat we work with are not mean
like that, like they would never.
They also would never.
The ones that I work with neverspeak to my staff like that.
Christopher (36:40):
Right, yeah, and surgeons are a little different,
yeah.
Colby (36:44):
Surgeons are different.
Christopher (36:47):
Yeah, but that's interesting.
You still didn't do anythingwrong.
just to let you know but, um,
Colby (36:54):
but I thought I did it was horrible
Christopher (36:58):
but to to Colby's point.
If you didn't do anything wrong,it's okay to stand up for
yourself, and it's a you can.
Colby (37:08):
I'm showing Christopher a picture of him.
You can tell he's a small man.
Christopher (37:11):
I can tell oh boy, I'm judging hardcore.
Colby (37:17):
He was, honestly he might have legally been considered a
little person.
I think.
What is that for men under 4'11?
Sorry, this is unprofessionalof me.
He was an evil man, okay.
Christopher (37:43):
I gotta recoup.
But yeah, you have to make sureto stand up for yourself
because you are right.
If you did it right, you did itright.
Colby (37:59):
Yeah, I did not have the confidence during that time to
know that I did it right.
He had me convinced I messedsomething up and that, like the
patient, could die because of mymess up.
Over an EKG.
That was done exactly on time.
Yeah, that's a wild behaviorwild behavior
Christopher (38:20):
And to be able to get it on time as a nurse.
Colby (38:24):
Yeah, that's, that's, that's a triumph that's a gold
star, that's a five star day.
Three michelin star restaurantquality
Christopher (38:34):
wow yeah, I love, I love some restaurants.
That's like the analogy, um,but I would say my wins and woes
.
So I'm really struggling tothink of the, the medication
right now in my head.
I'm I really don't want to ask,because I'm trying to think of
(38:55):
it and I know I should know itand it's so sad that I cannot
think of the actual medication.
Colby (39:00):
Oh, what does it do?
Christopher (39:02):
It's uh, it helps, uh.
The thing is, if I tell youwhat I really wouldn't, is it?
Colby (39:11):
Sildenafil.
Christopher (39:13):
Huh?
Colby (39:13):
Sildenafil?
Christopher (39:14):
Oh no, no, no no,
Colby (39:14):
oh, I do.
You know why I asked them.
It sounds like you were likeit's an what it really does, but
what it could also do.
It's like erectile dysfunction,pulmonary hypertension
Christopher (39:27):
I can see where you're coming from with that.
Um man, I really people.
So it's, it's the primary drugfor um heart attacks.
It's the first thing.
Colby (39:41):
Nitro?
Christopher (39:42):
Oh my god, thank you.
Oh, I legitimately cannot thinkof it okay that.
That is terrible.
Colby (39:50):
Wow that means, your brain needs sleep.
Christopher (39:52):
Well, something, it something.
Today was a day I dropped a vialof glutathione and broke it.
I have never, broken a vial ofglutathione.
Colby (40:01):
I smashed a bottle of Bumex recently.
Christopher (40:02):
Did you really?
Colby (40:04):
Oh, I smashed it.
It looked like I spiked it.
It was by accident.
It just fell out of my hand andhit the right angle and just
glass everywhere, shatteredBumex.
Bumex, Bumex smells gross, bythe way.
Christopher (40:18):
Yeah, no, I know, but I literally was opening the
door because it needs to berefrigerated and the door hit my
elbow and I dropped it and Iwas like, and my, my day
continued to go down from there.
Colby (40:31):
You had my day from yesterday.
Christopher (40:32):
So I was like, hopefully it wouldn't translate
to this podcast, but I can'tremember nitro, so so nitro
paste uh also helps with a, youknow, vasodilating the veins to
allow for more veins for theheart and hopefully subsiding
(40:53):
the feelings of a heart attackright.
And we were given this when Iwas on a Clin 1 because I worked
on a vascular intermediatefloor.
So we did a bunch of differentthings in terms of like.
We did the heart stuff but wedid like tmas, bkas, akas, uh,
(41:16):
tele or transmetatarcelamputation, below knee
amputation and above kneeamputation and other things like
that.
But I had a patient that washaving a bunch of chest pain and
they were like they put in anorder for nitro paste.
I went and got the nitro pasteand automatically put the nitro
(41:40):
paste on the patient.
Going to Colby's point onknowing side effects of
medication, one side effect ofmedication of nitro or nitro
paste is that it lowers bloodpressure, and I do not check the
blood pressure.
Colby (42:00):
So what happened?
Christopher (42:03):
Luckily it wasn't terrible.
We just gave some more fluidand it brought it up.
But you know, I it was, it wasit was close, i t was like 80
over 40.
It was bad.
You know, this was right when Ihad gotten off of orientation
(42:23):
and I had done a thing and mycharge nurse was there and
actually this charge nurse itwas on night shift.
This charge nurse wasabsolutely amazing and really
great and really sweet and verymotherly and like not my
preceptor at that time, but wasvery and very motherly and like
not my preceptor that time, butwas very, very motherly, very
sweet, and she saw me do it andshe went and did it a little
(42:46):
like quick blood pressure, likeimmediately after me, and you
know, I'm just, I'm worriedbecause this person's having
chest pain you're focused onpain.
You're focused on the chest painand I'm so you know and this is
something that you as a Clin 1probably will encounter being so
task forward and task minded,that you forget that we as
(43:07):
nurses have to critically think.
And so she did it, and shedidn't say anything to me during
the time.
You know we fixed the issue,but I came back out afterwards.
She was like Christopher, youknow you did great, you did the
things, but remember whatmedications do?
She was like I grabbed theblood pressure and luckily we
(43:29):
were able to fix things, butlike that could have gone bad.
And you know, and she was very,very motherly in her statement,
and I was very encouraged tohear her say that.
So that was my woe, my win.
We had lysis.
We had lysis patients having aline being put in their femoral
(43:59):
artery and pumped TPA in it sothat the the clots in their legs
will kind of undo right.
So we, we were, because we wereIMU we had to do I'm pretty
sure it was hourly at the time.
it's been a while pedal pulsechecks pedal and posterior
tibial and we also, a lot of thetimes because of this, their
(44:21):
pulses weren't good anyway.
So we had to use a Dopplerright, and so when you got a
Doppler, you used it and youtraced it and you found it and
you hear that whoosh, whoosh,whoosh, and it was always cool,
like you know.
It was always cool, like youknow it's really neat.
But if sometimes you wouldn'thear it because it was clogged
(44:41):
right and that's that just yeah,that's why they're there
getting that treatment right.
but if you, if you start tolearn a little bit about the,
the physiology of things, youbreak a clot and it goes away.
You bring all this blood,nutrition and all this stuff
(45:04):
back to that part of the, theleg, you have a higher risk of
um, I had it in my head
Colby (45:12):
Is it compartment?
Christopher (45:14):
Compartment syndrome.
Thank you.
You have a higher risk ofcompartment syndrome, and I was
being a diligent nurse and Ifound it, and then you had to.
Like you had to.
That's what we had.
You had to monitor the leg size.
(45:35):
So we had tape and you wouldmonitor the leg size and I
realized it was starting to gethard and firm and it was getting
bigger, and so that person hadto go down to emergent OR for
fasciotomy to get thecompartment syndrome released,
and so that was my win.
I was like, oh yay.
You're like I caught that, Icaught that, and actually that
(45:55):
was when I was on, as, oh yeah,you're like, I caught that, I
caught that, so and actuallythat was when I was on as a
preceptee at the time and mypreceptor was like yay, you know
, good job, I can't believe this, I can't believe this.
So it was really cool to kind ofreally see that.
Colby (46:08):
Yeah, it's like one of those things that can happen.
It's something that that's whywe do all the monitoring, but
you don't see it like that often.
So like when it does happen,you're like, oh shit, this is
happening.
This is what I've been trainingfor.
We can do this.
Yeah, we did, I did.
I had like a similar um when,win I was a it wasn't a new grad
, it was at my um second jobwhere I worked in post it was
(46:34):
like step down from CVICU socardiovascular ICU, surgical
side, and I had someone with achest tube and they started to
get crepitus and like itobviously always a risk when you
have a chest tube, but like youdon't see it that often.
And crepitus is like when airgets under the skin tissue and
(46:56):
it feels like we called it likesnap, crackle, pop, like you can
press on the skin and you canfeel like the air bubbles, um.
So yeah, I've also had a similarlike oh, there's crepitus here.
I know what this is.
Christopher (47:09):
That's cool, yeah um, I will say another woe.
That's actually really fun andjust a fun thing to remember I
wear.
When I wore scrubs I don't havea butt, so I wore a belt to
keep my scrubs on, because I hadto keep my scrubs off.
(47:31):
I don't have a butt to keepthem up and I had a lot of stuff
in my pockets.
Thank you very much.
I had my clipboard, my brain, myflushes, my stethoscope was
hanging on the edge, like youknow, because I didn't hang it
around my neck, I had it in alittle like holster thing, um.
So I had a lot of stuffweighing it down, but my butt
(47:53):
didn't help.
Um, but yeah, so the the belthad it's an, it's an under armor
, like sports-esque or likegolf-esque um belt, and so you
kind of like strapped it in andthen you know, closed it down,
but the buckle was metal and Ihad a patient that needed to go
(48:14):
down for a MR I.
Colby (48:16):
Oh, we should have taken it off.
Christopher (48:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I had to get all the stuffoff and was like, let me get
this all off, blah, blah, blah.
And that was a.
I went down for the MRI, tookall of the stuff off, took all
the things out, you know, didall the things, did your, did
all the things when your pantsfall no, no, no that's what we
(48:37):
were getting to when and um mypatient actually had dentures in
it because I worked in homehealth and um nursing homes, I
reached my finger and popped,that did.
I was like.
I was like okay, good, andbasically know, I feel this
thing like vibrating near mylike nether regions and I'm like
Colby (49:01):
what's going on here?
Christopher (49:02):
what's going on?
And I realized I'm like it's mybelt.
My belt buckle was trying toget pulled away from my body,
and so the MRI machine is alwayson.
Make sure you take all themetal off.
Colby (49:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's an important one.
I've been down at MRI and I'vetaken everything off, but I had
like a bobby pin in my hair oh,forgot about it and I was like,
oh, oh, I need to get out ofhere.
Like it's just like a weirdtingly feeling.
Like when you feel it start topull like your belt is vibrating
.
I feeling like when you feel itstart to pull like your belt is
(49:38):
vibrating.
I also feel like I've been downthere when I've absolutely had
nothing, like I've takeneverything off, and I still feel
like that magnet is so powerful, makes you feel weird.
Christopher (49:44):
Yeah, yeah all right, let's.
Let's get to um, the last partof the the segment.
If you have any wins and woesin your first year of nursing,
please let us know.
We would love to hear them,we'd love to laugh, we'd love to
cry with you.
Um, it is kind of fun and uh,interesting to hear, but like we
(50:04):
don't.
Interestingly enough, we talk alot during the the podcast, but
we don't get to.
Really, we try to stay awayfrom work if we yeah, outside we
try to on topics.
Colby (50:17):
Let's be friends outside of work, right?
Christopher (50:21):
so we talked about newbies being specifically clin
1s, but that can also transitionto those being clin 2s, clin 3s
and clin 4s.
You know I well Colby had wentto multiple different units and
within different hospitals.
I have just transitioned from,you know, a different unit and
(50:43):
then a different role, but youstill are new and those still
causes problems and everything.
I think one major thing that Ikind of wanted to hit on because
I'm not we're not done talkingthis long thing that I kind of
wanted to hit on because I'm not, we're not done talking this
long, we'll probably talk at amore length later um is the
whole.
You've got to let your pride goyeah you've got to.
(51:04):
It's okay to not know yeah,you've.
Colby (51:06):
I'm just gonna say, just have to.
I think we said it a bunch inthe beginning, but you just have
to like be willing to askquestions, right, there is no
stupid question, except for theones that are not asked.
I love that.
I'm gonna keep saying it.
Christopher (51:21):
Well, there you go for that um and yeah and it.
You know, just because a nursethat is experience wise, younger
than you in terms of generalnursing practice, is teaching
you something that is specificto a specialized practice
(51:42):
Doesn't mean that you're stupid.
Doesn't mean that you're beingbelittled.
Doesn't mean that you need toprove yourself.
Colby (51:52):
like humble yourself, like if you're coming in with
experience and there's someonethat's younger as your preceptor
like just humble yourself alittle bit, be more open minded.
And that's something Iexperienced frequently because
and we touched on this a fewpodcasts ago but the longevity
in bedside nursing is dwindling,side nursing is dwindling, and
(52:19):
there's often, I would say, likefive years or less is probably
the average and we shouldprobably look up the numbers
because I'm actually curious,but from my perspective, it
feels like most nurses is fiveyears or less these days
recently, and so you'll findthat a lot of times, a preceptor
, if you have a lot ofexperience, if you're coming in
as a traveler specifically, youmight find that your preceptor
is younger.
Have a lot of experience.
If you're coming in as atraveler specifically, you might
find that your preceptor isyounger than you and you just
(52:40):
have to go in with it with anopen mind, a curious mind.
You know, because you haveexperience and you've done it
for a long time.
You need to be open-minded tohow they're doing it at that
institution.
You've got to learn their wayand just know that that is going
to happen over and over againyeah, which is yeah, you just
(53:04):
you've got to, you got to bewilling to do it yeah, you can't
be rigid.
you've got to be flexible.
Don't be the person that sayswhy do you do it this way,
because this way is better, likeNobody wants to hear that.
And if they're showing yousomething like there's a policy,
we're going to do it to whatthe policy says.
There's just nothing worse.
(53:24):
And it's really hard to not bethat person because I do it a
lot in my head.
When I went to new places, I'dbe like why are they doing it
this way?
This is not the most efficientway, but you just don't be
saying it out loud over and overagain.
They don't give a crap andthey're doing it the way that
their hospital wants them to doit.
So that's how you have to do itif you're working there.
Christopher (53:46):
And it may be the only way they've known too.
Colby (53:48):
Yeah, yeah and again ask questions.
I mean, don't ask why you do itthis way, but you can say oh,
have you ever seen it done thisway?
And they can give you feedbackon that it's just all in how
your tone is, how open-mindedyou are.
It's a lot of just being nice,like if you're a new person at a
(54:15):
new hospital, like Christophersaid, like you have to get rid
of that pridefulness.
You, if you want to be wellreceived and you want to have a
positive experience, it alwayshelps to like start with
kindness yeah yourself and hopethat you get that in return, for
sure yeah, I'd also like to saylike being the new person, if
(54:40):
you are a good way to likeestablish that you're a good
worker and a hard worker and youcare, if you have the
availability to help others whenyou're when they need help the
same way you would I I hope inanything else that you offer
that help.
I feel like I've worked withpeople and I think the
(55:02):
difference between not thatbeing liked is the most
important thing, but thedifference between being
well-liked and working well as ateam and not is your
willingness to be outgoing andfriendly and help others.
I've seen people like just cometo work and do care for their
(55:23):
four patients and then whenthey're like having downtime,
they don't like help anybodyelse.
They just sit in a corner andthey like have headphones in or
something or they're just likedoing their own thing.
Like that's, you're not going toend up having a positive
experience in those situations.
You're probably not going to bewelcomed into the fold as
(55:45):
easily.
It's just like being kind ofstandoffish and cold is never
going to get you anywhere right.
So if you want to fit in easieror have an easier time in the
setting like, it helps to justbe more helpful.
It's a good way to make afriend for when you're in the
weeds.
Christopher (56:06):
There, it is All right.
Class dismissed.
Colby (56:08):
Let's wrap it up.
Christopher (56:13):
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 lifelonglearning journey and we're here
with you.
Colby (56:23):
If you want to connect, find us on Twitter at
NurseLyfe101, or on Facebook atNursingLyfe101.
And don't forget to subscribeand share with fellow nurses.
Until next time, take care ofyourselves and keep making a
difference out there.
Welcome to Nursing Lyfe 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 is now in session.
Colby (00:48):
Hello and welcome to Nurse Lyfe 101.
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 Colby and I couldn't behappier to introduce my co-host.
Christopher (01:00):
Hey guys, my name's Christopher.
Together, we'll be bringing youreal stories, practical tips
and discussions about all thingsnursing, whether you're a
fellow nurse or just curiousabout the life behind the scrubs
, we're thrilled to have youjoin us.
Just remember that we did talkabout the Clin 1s earlier, about
two weeks ago.
I just wanted to bring a littlebit of extra information,
(01:22):
because we definitely started totalk about this longer than we
anticipated.
Colby (01:27):
We had so much to share.
Christopher (01:29):
We did, and so we wanted you to kind of hear a
little bit more and hopefullyyou will be able to enjoy it.
Colby (01:35):
Yeah,
Christopher (01:36):
so with Clin 1s, sometimes for you, for you,
Colby, for myself.
I also went to a wholedifferent place.
Colby (01:46):
Yeah.
Christopher (01:48):
I had never been here.
You have never been here.
Colby (01:53):
Yeah, very.
I mean like one other timebefore I moved here.
So like, not only are youstarting a new job, you're fresh
out of school, you're learninghow to do your job.
The potential that you've movedto a new location where you
don't know anyone, potentially,or know much about the area, is
a whole other like challenge totackle.
Christopher (02:17):
Yeah, and to add to my difficulty, I started my
career in fall of 19, endedorientation early winter of or,
excuse me, late, late winter of2020.
Colby (02:39):
And then COVID happened.
Christopher (02:40):
Many of you know about that and so everything
shut down.
Yeah, so I like, how can I evenlike go?
Meet people which I wouldn'twant to, because I'm an
introvert and I'm like I'd muchrather just stay in the house.
Colby (02:51):
COVID was actually good for you.
Christopher (02:52):
Yes, please.
Colby (02:54):
But no, it's a good point to make, like that was an extra
challenge on top of an alreadychallenging thing to tackle.
Like I said, I think when youstart a new job okay, wait, I
think a great piece of advicethat I actually from my current
manager she said whenever shemeets with the new graduate
(03:16):
nurses frequently throughouttheir first year, just to like
get a pulse check and see howthey're doing and how they're
acclimating, and you know tohave, you know, a two-way street
with communication that theycan share and she can give
feedback and vice versa.
But a piece of advice that shealways gives them is to like,
try and maintain a life outsidethe hospital.
(03:37):
It's so easy in your first yearof nursing to just get consumed
with nursing, like it's yourfirst job which we were going to
touch on in a minute, but thiskind of goes with it it's your
first like adult job potentially, and it's the first time you're
making adult money.
And one thing I think that getsreally tantalizing is picking
(03:58):
up extra shifts and then youyour work, you're working your
life away and you lose your lifeoutside of the hospital, right?
So when you're coming in andyou're starting in a new place
and a new location.
Like Christopher and I did,like I, we both moved to it.
Well, he was living here for alittle bit, but we both moved to
.
Like he moved to a new area, Imoved to a new state, like I
(04:20):
knew very minimum amount ofpeople.
And I was like, oh, I'm justgoing to work all the time and
make a crap ton of money?
Christopher (04:27):
Yeah, because you don't know anybody.
Colby (04:28):
Yeah, because you don't know anybody.
It's so easy to just getconsumed with work.
So her advice of like trying tomaintain, like find a hobby, is
really what she said.
Like find a hobby outside ofnursing.
Like find something that youlike to do because it's a great
(04:50):
outlet for you, to like let goof the stress of work and just
get your mind off of it.
It's different.
I just think that's when shetold me that and I was like oh
my God, it's so simple.
But I was like I wish someonetold me that, because I did
exactly what I just gave as anexample.
I worked my tail off and I gotburnt out so early in my career
because of the amount of hoursthat I worked.
Christopher (05:08):
Yeah, my manager likes to say your work funds
your life, right, so it doesn'tmean that your life's your work.
It means you are working to dothe fun things that you want to
do outside of your life, outsideof work.
And she says that.
And, unfortunately, you know, Isay to many of the people that
(05:30):
I precept I'm like your firstsix to 12 months after you
finish orientation, don't darepick up a shift.
Now and I say that one a littlebit selfish, I like to pick up
the shelf.
Colby (05:45):
Like, leave them open for me.
Christopher (05:46):
Just, you know, it's a shellfish, it's a
shellfish.
It's a selfish reason, butthere is a genuine, caring
reason behind it.
You see the money and you chaseit.
Everybody sees money.
I mean, we are in a world ofmoney and that's what, that's
(06:06):
what we do.
And so when you see, when youpick up one shift, you're like,
oh my goodness.
Colby (06:11):
You're like, oh, that's nice yeah, especially like you
have a lot of student loans.
You're like, oh, I'm gonna paythis off.
Or like you had, you had tolike buy a car after graduation.
Like, oh, I need to make my carpayment, this will pay that.
Like, just keep, if you do pickup extra, just keep it in mind.
Keep yourself in check, becauseI I really truly, deeply in my
(06:33):
heart, wish somebody had saidthat to me and instead they were
just like, oh, yeah, Colby'spicking up again, like we're not
gonna be short-staffed, but itwas.
It really killed me in the longrun where I just like fell so
out of love with my career for agood long time and I was like I
need a break, like I can't dothis anymore.
It was bad.
(06:53):
So just keep that in mind.
And I think what Christophersaid like six to 12 months after
orientation, if you don't need,if you really truly don't need
to be working that hard, don'tLike acclimate to your area.
If you're new to the area,explore it, check it out.
Go to the webpage of the citythat you're living in.
(07:15):
See what they have going on.
It's a lot of fun to explore anew area.
You can treat it like a littlemini vacation, like be a pretend
tourist for a day, do thatcheesy stuff that you see people
do.
It's just like a fun way to getto know your community.
Look on Facebook I love FacebookMarketplace.
I love Facebook groups.
(07:36):
I'm in so many different groupson Facebook, like hiking groups
, sourdough making groups butyou make like I got into
sourdough last year.
This is kind of a tangential,but I figured out how to do it
through a facebook starter groupand I bought my starter on
facebook marketplace fromsomebody locally in the
community and that's just like aneat way to use social media
(08:00):
right.
I think.
Also a lot of cult systems tryto set you up.
This is kind of work related,but you could take it out of out
of work realm but with like amentor, yeah, like you can meet
with a mentor and try to getconnected with other people
outside of work.
Again, I mean, I lean backtowards like Facebook groups,
(08:20):
but like there's, you can meetup with people to do different
things that you actually, youknow, have common interest in.
Christopher (08:28):
Yeah, so I, as an ANM, I every week or excuse me,
every other week I send an emailcalled the Christopher's Corner
.
Yes, and at the end ofChristopher's Corner I always
send a little snippet of thingsif you get bored.
That's what I name it.
This is like things if you getbored and it's always a list of
(08:51):
stuff that essentially is thingsto do in the city, and you know
what I use.
Colby said it, it's the city'sweb page.
They always have events onthere, so just go to the events
and kind of find it.
And one thing that I realizedthat in back to me being a
foodie, there are many cities dorestaurant week and so if
(09:15):
you're a foodie like I am, Ihave a list now of restaurants
that I want to go to that arehere near the city.
That I did I got from justpretty much restaurant weekend.
Then I started kind of askingand exploring myself.
But you know, that kind ofallows you to go do stuff
outside of just sitting andeating at McDonald's.
Colby (09:38):
I know I I agree with you , though it's like I think
another thing, another piece ofadvice, like to go off of that
like google your interests, likewith with your city, like yeah,
so Christopher did that and hasa list of restaurants that he
wants to go to and I heavilyperuse for live music shows and
(09:58):
I actually just organized a fewdifferent things with our friend
group about going to a fewconcerts I just and I I google,
like city live music and justsee what comes up.
If that's your fancy, like,let's say, you like pottery city
, pottery, see where the potterystudios are, I don't know.
(10:19):
Just something like that.
Like just explore your city ortown, wherever you are, and
spend your time away from thehospital, away from the hospital
.
Christopher (10:31):
Yeah, yeah, and that's interesting because I
think both of us did not do that.
Colby (10:36):
No, not, not in our first year.
Christopher (10:38):
Right.
Colby (10:39):
Our first few years, so take that, take it to heart.
We're speaking from experience.
Where we did, we did not.
I didn't have anybody to tellme to do differently, though.
Christopher (10:49):
I did, and I just ignored it.
Colby (10:51):
So you're for two different experiences.
So don't ignore us.
We really mean it.
So Christopher was told andignored it, and he regrets it.
And I was never told, did itand I regret it.
So both aspects just know thatif you work too much, you will
regret it.
Christopher (11:08):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I still love my job and I have
not gotten to the point where Iwas like, oh man, I.
Colby (11:13):
You had a little more balance but you can admit that
you were working a lot.
Christopher (11:16):
Oh, no, yeah.
Colby (11:17):
Yeah.
Christopher (11:18):
I 100%.
I still work a lot.
What are you talking about?
Colby (11:20):
Yes, that's true.
Christopher (11:21):
Yeah, okay, I just wanted to establish that.
Colby (11:24):
I'm just trying to rag on you.
Christopher (11:29):
So you know we talked about it and mentioned it
multiple times this is y'all'sfirst big person job.
That means a lot and that youcan be under your parents'
insurance for a long time, and Ithink it depends on the state,
so I'm not going to say what itis specifically to this state,
(11:49):
but you are allowed to just behere and learn and kind of grow
in what it means to have a bigperson job, which means there's
big person bills, there's bigperson ideas, there's big person
problems, there's um big personinsurance.
You know all this happens.
What would you say to someoneis like this is a big person job
(12:13):
in terms of like the big personthings that you would have to
kind of focus on it is.
If you don't know, I insuranceis is the one that I'm always
kind of.
Colby (12:25):
I know well, like insurance and like your 401k,
like yeah, I don't know they'recalled, but whatever your
retirement plan is, yeah,there's so many different
options, but it's this, I meanthose, those two are.
I mean, obviously you want to ifyou're on, if you're young
enough and you have the abilityto be on your parents' insurance
(12:46):
, like, ride that out so youdon't have to pay that.
That's my suggestion to you.
I was not able to do that.
I had to because I lived in adifferent state.
I was, you know, I was fully inbig girl mode.
But yeah, if you can ride thatout and save that cost, but yeah
, make sure, I would say forinsurance at this young age,
(13:08):
unless you have any medicalissues that you know of.
Like, we're pretty healthy.
And I think I got scared when Iwas signing up and I had the
first year, like the mostexpensive one, but I didn't even
go to a regular like PCP, so Iwas paying like an insane amount
of money out of my paycheckevery month for the top
(13:29):
insurance package when I didn'tneed it.
And so just don't get scared,like I was.
And maybe this is bad advice, Idon't know, but then it was
like, then I went to the middletier for a little while and
realized again that I, like amhealthy.
I don't ever go to the doctor.
Not to say that, like, notgoing to the doctor is the right
move.
You should, but like basic.
Christopher (13:48):
I'm about to go on a tangent with that.
Colby (13:50):
So okay, but base, I believe, in my opinion, is, if
you're a healthy young adult,basic insurance with the HSA
option is perfectly fine.
It's going to cover your visits, your yearly visits to your
doctor's appointments, and it'snot necessary.
You can get the highest one ifyou feel like you want to.
(14:13):
But for me personally, it wasnever necessary for me to be
paying such a high premium forthe insurance and it was a
little silly.
So I will just take it intoconsideration.
If you have questions aboutinsurance I don't even know who
to point you to, but I'm goingto say HR and maybe they can
explain it to you a little bit.
But I'm going to guess thatthere's probably someone at the
(14:34):
desk in the same age group asyou that had the same question.
So if you have parents that aresavvy or just older friends
that are savvy I'm still notsavvy, but I'll tell you I have
the basic insurance and I haveHSA and that's just fine.
But then, secondly, you shouldstart, even if it's a small
(14:56):
amount, contributing to aretirement plan, especially if
your hospital or wherever youwork matches.
Try to like if you can affordto max, if you can't afford to
max it out, but even if youcan't afford to max it out.
Put something in because you'llnever you're not going to
regret that later when you'relike 60.
So the one thing about nursingis that it's kind of hard to
(15:18):
retire young unless you werereally thinking about your
future at a younger age and howmuch you want to contribute to
your retirement Right, becauseit's not like very lucrative in
the sense where, like I, havefriends that started out making
more money than me in otherfields and they're still making
more money Like every year.
(15:39):
They just make exponentiallymore money than me and it's like
, oh my God, we have like thesame level of degree.
What the heck Like.
It's just the unfortunate truththat in nursing, like we aren't
paid our worth and so you justhave to be conscious of the
amount that you're saving andit's only going to pay off in
the long run.
So making sure that you setthat up is.
(16:00):
Those are my top two.
I can't think of a third onefor that.
Christopher (16:02):
No, I mean, I was just thinking of one.
Colby (16:05):
Yeah okay.
Christopher (16:06):
But I'm cool with that.
But
Colby (16:08):
What were you going to say about insurance?
Christopher (16:09):
Yeah well, no, it's not necessarily about insurance
.
If you find a differentlocation or you're in a
different spot and you're nolonger under your normal primary
physician, please, please,please, please, find a PCP.
Colby (16:30):
Yeah, that's super important.
Christopher (16:31):
Don't, don't go.
Yes, I'm glad you feel great,you know that's.
That's wonderful.
That you feel great, that'swonderful that you are doing
things right.
Your brain is clear, your eyesare great, like all those things
.
That's great.
Those things, that's great.
(16:58):
But having a, a PCP as yourfounder, like you're- paying for
insurance you have to.
Colby (17:00):
Yeah, you might as well get your yearly visit.
It's and I say that as somebodythat didn't have a PCP for years
and I and it's it's not good tobe to go that long.
It's not good.
And I'll give you examples formyself.
I passed out at a restaurantand then I needed to get.
I didn't have a PCP.
(17:20):
I had to find one.
I had to get, and that tooktime.
I passed out at a restaurant.
I went to the emergency room.
They were like follow up withyour PCP in a week and I was
like I don't got one of those.
So then I had to call one.
I had to get appointments setup.
I had to figure out all of thatstuff.
But if I had a PCP in advance Icould have gotten in a lot
sooner and gotten things figuredout.
Christopher (17:42):
And how do you follow up with a PCP if you
don't have one to begin with?
There's no following up really.
Because they're not going to belike oh, this is this new
problem that has now beenattached to your insurance as a
new problem, when it could havebeen something that could have
happened years ago.
Colby (17:59):
Yeah, so it's just something that's it's important
to establish.
I totally agree, and you knowwhat?
It's great if you don't have togo see them, but they also
could like if you have a PCP, itcould save you from like having
to go to urgent care Like it'ssaving money honestly, Like a
(18:20):
PCP, like copay is going to becheaper than a urgent care visit
copay.
So keep that in mind too.
Like you're going to saveyourself money if you.
It's like simple things like oh, I need a flu swab.
Like if you call your PCP'soffice a lot of times that they
just they're like yep, okay,we'll meet you outside, swab you
in your car, and that's like a15 minute appointment where you
could wait hours at an urgentcare for the same thing.
Christopher (18:41):
It's insane.
Yeah, it really just depends onyou know your location of the
of the United States and ifyou're in a rural or more
metropolitan area like all theseplaces could be different, but
like also be picky with your PCP.
Colby (18:57):
Yeah.
Christopher (18:58):
Don't you dare settle for someone who's not
gonna listen to you.
Colby (19:02):
That's true, I think.
Yeah, I agree with that.
It's just hard sometimes wewe're lucky because we have
great, a great one, but I thinksometimes people have limited
options.
Yeah, our PCP is great and wejust refer everybody to her.
Christopher referred me to them.
And then every person I'm like,oh, you don't have one, let me
give you this person's name.
Like even like my manager, Iwas she.
Christopher (19:25):
Oh, did you really?
Colby (19:26):
Yeah, I did.
And then she mentionedsomething recently and I was
like, did you call the office?
And she's like I didn't set itup.
And I was like here's her nameagain.
But yeah, being a terriblepatient when you work in
(19:53):
healthcare but, when it's easy,like when you like the person
that you're gonna go see, it'slike it makes it all a lot nicer
.
So if you can find one that youlike I think sometimes people
are have limited optionsdepending on where they are and
what their insurance covers andthat kind of thing.
But hopefully if you're workingat a hospital or a doctor's
office in that setting for ahealth care system, you have
(20:15):
good enough insurance to findsomeone that cares about you and
not so much as like the timeconstraint and actually listens
to what you're saying likeChristopher said.
Christopher (20:26):
Right and it's.
it's okay to be like.
You went to that pcp the firsttime and you're like I, nah,
don't like them.
Colby (20:34):
Yeah, go find a new one.
Christopher (20:36):
If that's the case, keep on walking.
And if you you know they'relike do you want to set up a new
appointment?
It's okay, be like nah, I don'tfeel like it.
I did that.
I did that Like, no, I'm good.
And I just kept going.
I didn't tell him why.
Colby (20:53):
You don't have to.
Christopher (20:54):
And you don't have, yeah, you don't have to.
Colby (20:55):
Oh, that's something else .
Okay, this is off the currenttopic, but also would like to
just share with a new graduate.
Graduate nurse If you'recalling out of work, you don't
have to give a reason.
Oh yeah, I feel like somepeople might feel guilty,
especially myself, when I callout of work because I'm, because
(21:16):
I'll work when I'm sick, eventhough I shouldn't, and that's
not good advice.
If you're sick, you should stayhome.
Christopher (21:23):
I mean, she did a dang podcast trying to get me
sick.
Colby (21:26):
I had like RSV or the flu or something, but I was COVID
negative.
Christopher (21:29):
So I'm fine, by the way.
Colby (21:31):
Yeah, Immune system of steel, but not me, and I blame
that on the Invisalign, butthat's tangential.
Anywho, if you are sick andeven if you're not sick and you
need a mental health day oryou're calling out for whatever
reason, you don't have to give areason.
You just say, I am Colby, Iwork on this unit, I'm calling
(21:55):
out for my shift 12, 12 hours onthis day, and they just say
okay.
They should just say okay.
They might say, oh, I hope youfeel better.
Whatever but one.
They don't have a right to knowwhy you're calling out.
So if they ask you why, you cancan say I'm calling out, that's
it.
That's all you need to say.
(22:17):
So just don't feel like youneed to give like some long
excuse or story or whateverexplanation about why you're
calling out when you call out.
That's it.
(22:38):
That's like a sidebar.
Christopher (22:38):
So you know.
Last kind of part before wecontinue to our little segment
break what was your experienceas a clin 1.
Colby (22:42):
I had a really great preceptor, yeah, who I became
friends with,
Christopher (22:46):
Okay.
Colby (22:47):
and we were really close the first two years, when I
moved out of the state where wecurrently live back home for a
year and we stayed in touch.
And then I moved back to wherewe are and we stayed in touch
for a little while but she was acouple of years older than me
and started having kids.
We kind of grew apart.
But she's a wonderful personand I think about her often and
(23:08):
we follow each other on socialmedia and I love to see that
she's doing well.
Without her I feel like myexperience could have been so
shitty.
Like she was my lifeline.
That first year like she taughtme so much, took me under her
wing like we should.
(23:30):
We hung out outside of work.
We had like we were both fromNew England.
We had like some common ground.
I was very, I feel.
I feel I was very lucky to havelike an instant connection with
my preceptor.
Christopher (23:40):
That's really neat.
Colby (23:41):
Yeah, that was like so, like she was such a good, she
was such a good educator, waspatient, kind.
I had like that classicsituation with like a mean
doctor who like kind of snappedat me and I was like like shook
and tearful and she was like, no, you're not going to speak to
my, my new grad, like that andlike she just went to bat for me
(24:03):
.
She was, she was awesome.
So I was very lucky to havesuch a good first year and felt
very like safe, like mypreceptor made me feel safe and
welcome and it was.
It was a really good learningenvironment yeah, that's good,
that's really neat.
Christopher (24:20):
I would say my first clin 1 experience was also
good.
Like I, I enjoyed it.
It was.
It was definitely differentbecause COVID, but um, yeah, you
know I did.
I really learned and got tounderstand nursing in a
different perspective, in a lotof different ways.
(24:43):
But I had multiple preceptors.
I had pretty much two for daysand two for nights and all of
them I, if I run into them inthe hospital, like it's really
cool to see them and I kind offollow along that one of them
(25:04):
just had well, had a baby, likerecently after she was moving
from the unit and you know it'sgoing to be like oh, you know
how's your baby.
And another one is still on theunit that you work for and I
stay in touch with him.
And then one actually moved tothe unit I work for and so I see
(25:27):
her very often, often, yeah, um, yeah it it all.
Also, you know, we we hit theNRP part, the nurse residency
program, that's.
That's actually a very.
Colby (25:41):
I forgot to even mention that.
Christopher (25:42):
Yeah, for my own personal, oh yeah because you
had a very different one and Iwas very when we talked about
this in the car one day, youknow you were saying your
residency program was liketransition to practice, like it
was a transition to practice.
Colby (25:59):
Yea, it was, it was more unit based by our nurse educator
.
But it was specialty focus oncardiology and we had very and
it was intense.
I mean we had like multipleclasses on just learning
telemetry.
It was like going.
Yeah, it was like a veryinteractive, very intense.
(26:21):
We did lots of mock codes wedid it was yeah, it was.
I feel again, I didn't do ourcurrent health systems nurse
residency program, so I don'tknow exactly how it's set up
because I didn't go through it,but it seems very different in
comparison to what I've donethrough mine.
Christopher (26:42):
Right, yeah, and I mean, ours is, our current
health system is good.
I did appreciate it and they dotake the time to bring in
subject experts of certainthings like respiratory
therapists, your emergencyresponse team, where we call MET
, your managers.
(27:03):
My manager actually goes andspeaks to be like, hey, you know
, this is how you deal withmanagers, this is how you talk
with them.
We are actually here for youtype situations, and you then
come together and I think thisis what kind of made it so good
for me was that I now have somany friends in so many
(27:26):
different um.
Oh, like around the, around thehospital, different specialties
.
Right, because
Colby (27:32):
that's nice
Christopher (27:32):
They had us come together as a group and it was
asking the questions like hey,we just, you just all had a
patient that died today.
How are you feeling?
You know, how do you, how areyou coping, how are you, what
are you using as copingmechanisms?
You using as coping mechanisms,and you got to really like
(27:56):
express how you're feeling orhow you would have reacted, and
you kind of commiseratedtogether and try to figure out
what to do, which was reallynice.
Colby (28:02):
Yeah, yeah, and it's like another opportunity for you to
like have peers that are goingto the same thing as you and
kind of being able to have thoselike deload conversations when
you're you know, when you'regoing through that first year.
Christopher (28:17):
Right, because once again you will struggle.
Colby (28:22):
Commiserate is a great word that I've used.
Like it really is.
Christopher (28:25):
You will struggle, and these, these are people that
will hopefully be there to putan arm under you and keep you up
.
So, you know, make sure thatyou are, if you're not.
You know, not all healthsystems do this.
This seems to be more of ateaching hospital-esque thing
(28:50):
that has magnet behind them andyou know, there are good things
and bad things about magnet andmaybe that's something that
we'll talk about in later topics, but it's definitely something
that you, as a new Clin 1,should start to think about and
kind of process.
(29:10):
You know, do I want to go intoa hospital that has an NRP and
if I don't, how am I going to beable to be supported?
Colby (29:18):
Yeah, all right.
Is it time for our segmentbreak?
Christopher (29:21):
It is.
Colby (29:22):
All right, it's time for Nursing Wins and Woes, where we
share the highs and lows of lifeand scrubs.
Every shift brings its own setof victories and challenges.
So this is where we get realabout the moments that make us
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
(29:44):
together.
All right, so a Clin 1 wins andwoes.
Well, you kind of shared theClin 1 wins and and Woes on our
first Wins and Woes segmentbreak.
Christopher (29:55):
Yeah, I did,
Colby (29:56):
yeah,
Christopher (29:57):
yeah, but I definitely have more.
Colby (30:02):
There's probably a laundry list of them from my
first year.
Okay, well actually okay Wellactually okay.
So I touched on it a little bitwhen I was talking about, like
(30:25):
my nurse preceptor, like the oneI had, like a mean doctor yell
at me.
Um okay, so yeah,
Christopher (30:30):
I just want to make sure we clarify what wins and
what you yourself areexperiencing.
Colby (30:36):
Yes, this is me.
This is my story.
It's not my patient.
No, it's not.
No, this is me potentiallymessing something up.
Christopher (30:44):
Okay, okay, I'm just making sure.
Just making sure.
Colby (30:46):
Just listen to the story.
Christopher (30:47):
I will, I will.
Colby (30:49):
All right.
So cardiac floor Patient wasadmitted for a Tikosyn load.
This is my first time withTikosyn.
Christopher (30:58):
Oh okay.
Colby (30:59):
Okay, so I'm learning.
What is Tikosyn, also known asDofetilide?
What does this medication do?
How does it affect the heart?
Why are we giving it?
Doing all of my questions?
asking all my questions to mypreceptor reading about the
medication Right.
Tikosyn or Dofetilide is anantiarrhythmic drug.
Patients have to come into thehospital when they're starting
this medication and we monitorfor the minimum of six doses.
(31:22):
There's a high risk of patientgoing into a lethal rhythm
called torsades when startingthis medication because one of
the properties elongates yourQTC, which is a measurement in
your cardiac rhythm.
Two hours after each dose isgiven, you're required to get an
(31:44):
EKG.
My preceptor goes overeverything with me.
I'm like okay, I got it.
We gave the dose at like 845.
So I'm like 1045, got to get anEKG there it is.
I'm like all right, I'm ready.
She stepped off the floor.
She had a meeting.
She's like all right, I got ameeting, I'll be back in 30
minutes.
Christopher (32:03):
She believed in you .
Colby (32:04):
She believed me.
She said Colby the EKG 1045, Igot it, liz.
So Liz leaves, she's mypreceptor, liz leaves and I go
at 1045, I get the patient allhooked up to the EKG.
I get the EKG, I put it in thechart and I'm like wash my hands
(32:29):
of it.
I did it, I'm all done.
And this particular hospital hada mix of paper charting still
like this is like old school andelectronic medical record.
We were using something calledmeditech.
It was before they transferredover to epic.
So, okay, I like walk it overto the physical chart.
And the electrophysiologistcomes up to the floor a few
minutes later and he was asmaller man in stature and so
(32:54):
classic yeah, in classic smallerman stature nature.
He had a bad attitude.
Christopher (33:02):
Oh n o.
Colby (33:02):
To everybody.
Christopher (33:03):
Oh no.
Colby (33:04):
And it was my turn that day, oh no.
He looked at the ekg and Ithink he misread the time that
it was gotten at because I gotit at the right time, yeah.
But he found me in the nurse'sstation and ripped me a new
asshole because he thought thatI got it.
I can't remember if he thoughtI got it an hour later or an
hour too early.
(33:24):
I think it was an hour tooearly because it was at 1045,
but that's because I gave themed at 845.
(33:29):
So it wasn't early at all.
Colby (33:30):
It was on time.
But I think he saw in his eyethe 10 and didn't know that the
dose was given at 8.45.
So he thought it was done.
Yeah, I think he thought I gotit early.
And even if it was given at 9and I got it at 10.45, like
that's only 15 minutes early,but you would have thought that
(33:50):
I committed a cardinal sin.
And I thought I committed acardinal sin.
I was like, oh my God, did Iget it too early?
I was like so apologetic, I waslike having I was beet red
tearing up.
I was.
I was like I was like, oh myGod.
I was like, excuse my language.
But I was like this patient'sgoing to die, like my first time
(34:11):
with a medication that's superhigh risk giving it.
And my preceptor left me, andshe because she believed in me
and I understood what I had todo and I did it right.
But I didn't know this at thetime.
So I was just melting down.
I was full on, like nuclearplant meltdown.
I did not cry but I wasteary-eyed and I went into the
(34:34):
bathroom and then I cried, but Idid not cry in front of that
doctor, who is such an asshole.
And my preceptor came back andshe's like why is he acting so
crazy?
This is insane.
She was like we gave the doseSame thing that I just said gave
the dose at 845.
We got the EKG.
You got the EKG at 1045.
Nothing went wrong here.
What is going on?
(34:55):
So she like walked into thephysician workroom and was like
I don't understand why you're soupset.
This EKG was given two hoursexactly after the dose was given
.
There's no problem here.
You don't need to speak to mynew grad nurse in that manner.
You need to re-look at the time.
Like she went off off and sothat part was my win, because
she like validated that I didn'tdo anything wrong.
She was so nice, she like satdown and we went over everything
(35:17):
again.
She's like you know exactlywhat you did.
Like you did it exactly correct.
There was no wrong part here,right?
Like you're good and I'm gonnatell him about himself and I was
like, oh, my god, and she did,and I was after that day, my God
, and she did, and I was afterthat day.
That doctor never said a wordto me ever again.
He would just like put notes inand, yeah, he would like write
(35:40):
in the chart like the note.
Christopher (35:42):
Little person, is he?
Colby (35:45):
I'll show you a picture of him.
Okay, I think he still works.
But yeah, that was my, one ofmy.
My was a clin 1, though, butlike that first time I mean
again, unfortunately, there'salways going to be a mean person
that you work with, whetherit's like direct, like it's a
colleague, like I'm not acolleague but a peer, like a
(36:05):
nurse, or or maybe they're atech attack.
But when it's like a doctor,that's devastating for a new
person in a role and in a joband everything devastating.
But I survived it.
I'll never and I will.
In knowing me now, it's wild tothink that I would let anybody
(36:26):
speak to me like that and Iwould stand up for my clin 1 too
if someone went off like that.
But I also like the physiciansthat we work with are not mean
like that, like they would never.
They also would never.
The ones that I work with neverspeak to my staff like that.
Christopher (36:40):
Right, yeah, and surgeons are a little different,
yeah.
Colby (36:44):
Surgeons are different.
Christopher (36:47):
Yeah, but that's interesting.
You still didn't do anythingwrong.
just to let you know but, um,
Colby (36:54):
but I thought I did it was horrible
Christopher (36:58):
but to to Colby's point.
If you didn't do anything wrong,it's okay to stand up for
yourself, and it's a you can.
Colby (37:08):
I'm showing Christopher a picture of him.
You can tell he's a small man.
Christopher (37:11):
I can tell oh boy, I'm judging hardcore.
Colby (37:17):
He was, honestly he might have legally been considered a
little person.
I think.
What is that for men under 4'11?
Sorry, this is unprofessionalof me.
He was an evil man, okay.
Christopher (37:43):
I gotta recoup.
But yeah, you have to make sureto stand up for yourself
because you are right.
If you did it right, you did itright.
Colby (37:59):
Yeah, I did not have the confidence during that time to
know that I did it right.
He had me convinced I messedsomething up and that, like the
patient, could die because of mymess up.
Over an EKG.
That was done exactly on time.
Yeah, that's a wild behaviorwild behavior
Christopher (38:20):
And to be able to get it on time as a nurse.
Colby (38:24):
Yeah, that's, that's, that's a triumph that's a gold
star, that's a five star day.
Three michelin star restaurantquality
Christopher (38:34):
wow yeah, I love, I love some restaurants.
That's like the analogy, um,but I would say my wins and woes
.
So I'm really struggling tothink of the, the medication
right now in my head.
I'm I really don't want to ask,because I'm trying to think of
(38:55):
it and I know I should know itand it's so sad that I cannot
think of the actual medication.
Colby (39:00):
Oh, what does it do?
Christopher (39:02):
It's uh, it helps, uh.
The thing is, if I tell youwhat I really wouldn't, is it?
Colby (39:11):
Sildenafil.
Christopher (39:13):
Huh?
Colby (39:13):
Sildenafil?
Christopher (39:14):
Oh no, no, no no,
Colby (39:14):
oh, I do.
You know why I asked them.
It sounds like you were likeit's an what it really does, but
what it could also do.
It's like erectile dysfunction,pulmonary hypertension
Christopher (39:27):
I can see where you're coming from with that.
Um man, I really people.
So it's, it's the primary drugfor um heart attacks.
It's the first thing.
Colby (39:41):
Nitro?
Christopher (39:42):
Oh my god, thank you.
Oh, I legitimately cannot thinkof it okay that.
That is terrible.
Colby (39:50):
Wow that means, your brain needs sleep.
Christopher (39:52):
Well, something, it something.
Today was a day I dropped a vialof glutathione and broke it.
I have never, broken a vial ofglutathione.
Colby (40:01):
I smashed a bottle of Bumex recently.
Christopher (40:02):
Did you really?
Colby (40:04):
Oh, I smashed it.
It looked like I spiked it.
It was by accident.
It just fell out of my hand andhit the right angle and just
glass everywhere, shatteredBumex.
Bumex, Bumex smells gross, bythe way.
Christopher (40:18):
Yeah, no, I know, but I literally was opening the
door because it needs to berefrigerated and the door hit my
elbow and I dropped it and Iwas like, and my, my day
continued to go down from there.
Colby (40:31):
You had my day from yesterday.
Christopher (40:32):
So I was like, hopefully it wouldn't translate
to this podcast, but I can'tremember nitro, so so nitro
paste uh also helps with a, youknow, vasodilating the veins to
allow for more veins for theheart and hopefully subsiding
(40:53):
the feelings of a heart attackright.
And we were given this when Iwas on a Clin 1 because I worked
on a vascular intermediatefloor.
So we did a bunch of differentthings in terms of like.
We did the heart stuff but wedid like tmas, bkas, akas, uh,
(41:16):
tele or transmetatarcelamputation, below knee
amputation and above kneeamputation and other things like
that.
But I had a patient that washaving a bunch of chest pain and
they were like they put in anorder for nitro paste.
I went and got the nitro pasteand automatically put the nitro
(41:40):
paste on the patient.
Going to Colby's point onknowing side effects of
medication, one side effect ofmedication of nitro or nitro
paste is that it lowers bloodpressure, and I do not check the
blood pressure.
Colby (42:00):
So what happened?
Christopher (42:03):
Luckily it wasn't terrible.
We just gave some more fluidand it brought it up.
But you know, I it was, it wasit was close, i t was like 80
over 40.
It was bad.
You know, this was right when Ihad gotten off of orientation
(42:23):
and I had done a thing and mycharge nurse was there and
actually this charge nurse itwas on night shift.
This charge nurse wasabsolutely amazing and really
great and really sweet and verymotherly and like not my
preceptor at that time, but wasvery and very motherly and like
not my preceptor that time, butwas very, very motherly, very
sweet, and she saw me do it andshe went and did it a little
(42:46):
like quick blood pressure, likeimmediately after me, and you
know, I'm just, I'm worriedbecause this person's having
chest pain you're focused onpain.
You're focused on the chest painand I'm so you know and this is
something that you as a Clin 1probably will encounter being so
task forward and task minded,that you forget that we as
(43:07):
nurses have to critically think.
And so she did it, and shedidn't say anything to me during
the time.
You know we fixed the issue,but I came back out afterwards.
She was like Christopher, youknow you did great, you did the
things, but remember whatmedications do?
She was like I grabbed theblood pressure and luckily we
(43:29):
were able to fix things, butlike that could have gone bad.
And you know, and she was very,very motherly in her statement,
and I was very encouraged tohear her say that.
So that was my woe, my win.
We had lysis.
We had lysis patients having aline being put in their femoral
(43:59):
artery and pumped TPA in it sothat the the clots in their legs
will kind of undo right.
So we, we were, because we wereIMU we had to do I'm pretty
sure it was hourly at the time.
it's been a while pedal pulsechecks pedal and posterior
tibial and we also, a lot of thetimes because of this, their
(44:21):
pulses weren't good anyway.
So we had to use a Dopplerright, and so when you got a
Doppler, you used it and youtraced it and you found it and
you hear that whoosh, whoosh,whoosh, and it was always cool,
like you know.
It was always cool, like youknow it's really neat.
But if sometimes you wouldn'thear it because it was clogged
(44:41):
right and that's that just yeah,that's why they're there
getting that treatment right.
but if you, if you start tolearn a little bit about the,
the physiology of things, youbreak a clot and it goes away.
You bring all this blood,nutrition and all this stuff
(45:04):
back to that part of the, theleg, you have a higher risk of
um, I had it in my head
Colby (45:12):
Is it compartment?
Christopher (45:14):
Compartment syndrome.
Thank you.
You have a higher risk ofcompartment syndrome, and I was
being a diligent nurse and Ifound it, and then you had to.
Like you had to.
That's what we had.
You had to monitor the leg size.
(45:35):
So we had tape and you wouldmonitor the leg size and I
realized it was starting to gethard and firm and it was getting
bigger, and so that person hadto go down to emergent OR for
fasciotomy to get thecompartment syndrome released,
and so that was my win.
I was like, oh yay.
You're like I caught that, Icaught that, and actually that
(45:55):
was when I was on, as, oh yeah,you're like, I caught that, I
caught that, so and actuallythat was when I was on as a
preceptee at the time and mypreceptor was like yay, you know
, good job, I can't believe this, I can't believe this.
So it was really cool to kind ofreally see that.
Colby (46:08):
Yeah, it's like one of those things that can happen.
It's something that that's whywe do all the monitoring, but
you don't see it like that often.
So like when it does happen,you're like, oh shit, this is
happening.
This is what I've been trainingfor.
We can do this.
Yeah, we did, I did.
I had like a similar um when,win I was a it wasn't a new grad
, it was at my um second jobwhere I worked in post it was
(46:34):
like step down from CVICU socardiovascular ICU, surgical
side, and I had someone with achest tube and they started to
get crepitus and like itobviously always a risk when you
have a chest tube, but like youdon't see it that often.
And crepitus is like when airgets under the skin tissue and
(46:56):
it feels like we called it likesnap, crackle, pop, like you can
press on the skin and you canfeel like the air bubbles, um.
So yeah, I've also had a similarlike oh, there's crepitus here.
I know what this is.
Christopher (47:09):
That's cool, yeah um, I will say another woe.
That's actually really fun andjust a fun thing to remember I
wear.
When I wore scrubs I don't havea butt, so I wore a belt to
keep my scrubs on, because I hadto keep my scrubs off.
(47:31):
I don't have a butt to keepthem up and I had a lot of stuff
in my pockets.
Thank you very much.
I had my clipboard, my brain, myflushes, my stethoscope was
hanging on the edge, like youknow, because I didn't hang it
around my neck, I had it in alittle like holster thing, um.
So I had a lot of stuffweighing it down, but my butt
(47:53):
didn't help.
Um, but yeah, so the the belthad it's an, it's an under armor
, like sports-esque or likegolf-esque um belt, and so you
kind of like strapped it in andthen you know, closed it down,
but the buckle was metal and Ihad a patient that needed to go
(48:14):
down for a MR I.
Colby (48:16):
Oh, we should have taken it off.
Christopher (48:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I had to get all the stuffoff and was like, let me get
this all off, blah, blah, blah.
And that was a.
I went down for the MRI, tookall of the stuff off, took all
the things out, you know, didall the things, did your, did
all the things when your pantsfall no, no, no that's what we
(48:37):
were getting to when and um mypatient actually had dentures in
it because I worked in homehealth and um nursing homes, I
reached my finger and popped,that did.
I was like.
I was like okay, good, andbasically know, I feel this
thing like vibrating near mylike nether regions and I'm like
Colby (49:01):
what's going on here?
Christopher (49:02):
what's going on?
And I realized I'm like it's mybelt.
My belt buckle was trying toget pulled away from my body,
and so the MRI machine is alwayson.
Make sure you take all themetal off.
Colby (49:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's an important one.
I've been down at MRI and I'vetaken everything off, but I had
like a bobby pin in my hair oh,forgot about it and I was like,
oh, oh, I need to get out ofhere.
Like it's just like a weirdtingly feeling.
Like when you feel it start topull like your belt is vibrating
.
I feeling like when you feel itstart to pull like your belt is
(49:38):
vibrating.
I also feel like I've been downthere when I've absolutely had
nothing, like I've takeneverything off, and I still feel
like that magnet is so powerful, makes you feel weird.
Christopher (49:44):
Yeah, yeah all right, let's.
Let's get to um, the last partof the the segment.
If you have any wins and woesin your first year of nursing,
please let us know.
We would love to hear them,we'd love to laugh, we'd love to
cry with you.
Um, it is kind of fun and uh,interesting to hear, but like we
(50:04):
don't.
Interestingly enough, we talk alot during the the podcast, but
we don't get to.
Really, we try to stay awayfrom work if we yeah, outside we
try to on topics.
Colby (50:17):
Let's be friends outside of work, right?
Christopher (50:21):
so we talked about newbies being specifically clin
1s, but that can also transitionto those being clin 2s, clin 3s
and clin 4s.
You know I well Colby had wentto multiple different units and
within different hospitals.
I have just transitioned from,you know, a different unit and
(50:43):
then a different role, but youstill are new and those still
causes problems and everything.
I think one major thing that Ikind of wanted to hit on because
I'm not we're not done talkingthis long thing that I kind of
wanted to hit on because I'm not, we're not done talking this
long, we'll probably talk at amore length later um is the
whole.
You've got to let your pride goyeah you've got to.
(51:04):
It's okay to not know yeah,you've.
Colby (51:06):
I'm just gonna say, just have to.
I think we said it a bunch inthe beginning, but you just have
to like be willing to askquestions, right, there is no
stupid question, except for theones that are not asked.
I love that.
I'm gonna keep saying it.
Christopher (51:21):
Well, there you go for that um and yeah and it.
You know, just because a nursethat is experience wise, younger
than you in terms of generalnursing practice, is teaching
you something that is specificto a specialized practice
(51:42):
Doesn't mean that you're stupid.
Doesn't mean that you're beingbelittled.
Doesn't mean that you need toprove yourself.
Colby (51:52):
like humble yourself, like if you're coming in with
experience and there's someonethat's younger as your preceptor
like just humble yourself alittle bit, be more open minded.
And that's something Iexperienced frequently because
and we touched on this a fewpodcasts ago but the longevity
in bedside nursing is dwindling,side nursing is dwindling, and
(52:19):
there's often, I would say, likefive years or less is probably
the average and we shouldprobably look up the numbers
because I'm actually curious,but from my perspective, it
feels like most nurses is fiveyears or less these days
recently, and so you'll findthat a lot of times, a preceptor
, if you have a lot ofexperience, if you're coming in
as a traveler specifically, youmight find that your preceptor
is younger.
Have a lot of experience.
If you're coming in as atraveler specifically, you might
find that your preceptor isyounger than you and you just
(52:40):
have to go in with it with anopen mind, a curious mind.
You know, because you haveexperience and you've done it
for a long time.
You need to be open-minded tohow they're doing it at that
institution.
You've got to learn their wayand just know that that is going
to happen over and over againyeah, which is yeah, you just
(53:04):
you've got to, you got to bewilling to do it yeah, you can't
be rigid.
you've got to be flexible.
Don't be the person that sayswhy do you do it this way,
because this way is better, likeNobody wants to hear that.
And if they're showing yousomething like there's a policy,
we're going to do it to whatthe policy says.
There's just nothing worse.
(53:24):
And it's really hard to not bethat person because I do it a
lot in my head.
When I went to new places, I'dbe like why are they doing it
this way?
This is not the most efficientway, but you just don't be
saying it out loud over and overagain.
They don't give a crap andthey're doing it the way that
their hospital wants them to doit.
So that's how you have to do itif you're working there.
Christopher (53:46):
And it may be the only way they've known too.
Colby (53:48):
Yeah, yeah and again ask questions.
I mean, don't ask why you do itthis way, but you can say oh,
have you ever seen it done thisway?
And they can give you feedbackon that it's just all in how
your tone is, how open-mindedyou are.
It's a lot of just being nice,like if you're a new person at a
(54:15):
new hospital, like Christophersaid, like you have to get rid
of that pridefulness.
You, if you want to be wellreceived and you want to have a
positive experience, it alwayshelps to like start with
kindness yeah yourself and hopethat you get that in return, for
sure yeah, I'd also like to saylike being the new person, if
(54:40):
you are a good way to likeestablish that you're a good
worker and a hard worker and youcare, if you have the
availability to help others whenyou're when they need help the
same way you would I I hope inanything else that you offer
that help.
I feel like I've worked withpeople and I think the
(55:02):
difference between not thatbeing liked is the most
important thing, but thedifference between being
well-liked and working well as ateam and not is your
willingness to be outgoing andfriendly and help others.
I've seen people like just cometo work and do care for their
(55:23):
four patients and then whenthey're like having downtime,
they don't like help anybodyelse.
They just sit in a corner andthey like have headphones in or
something or they're just likedoing their own thing.
Like that's, you're not going toend up having a positive
experience in those situations.
You're probably not going to bewelcomed into the fold as
(55:45):
easily.
It's just like being kind ofstandoffish and cold is never
going to get you anywhere right.
So if you want to fit in easieror have an easier time in the
setting like, it helps to justbe more helpful.
It's a good way to make afriend for when you're in the
weeds.
Christopher (56:06):
There, it is All right.
Class dismissed.
Colby (56:08):
Let's wrap it up.
Christopher (56:13):
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 lifelonglearning journey and we're here
with you.
Colby (56:23):
If you want to connect, find us on Twitter at
NurseLyfe101, or on Facebook atNursingLyfe101.
And don't forget to subscribeand share with fellow nurses.
Until next time, take care ofyourselves and keep making a
difference out there.
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