7. Transforming Rapid Response Calls Into a Nursing Podcast with Sarah Lorenzini

In this episode of The Bossy Nurse Podcast, Marsha speaks with rapid response nurse and educator Sarah Lorenzini, MSN-ED, RN, CCRN, CEN, about how a surge in emergencies (and not enough time to teach at the bedside) sparked what became the Rapid Response RN Podcast and her education platform for nurses.   

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Episode Transcript

Sarah (00:03):
I'm ready for it.
Like, what a gift that I havethis thing ready to go.
No one has to call 911.
I don't have to worry aboutbeing by myself.
I don't have to worry aboutdriving down the road and I, you
know, figure off the side ofthe road because I'm
unresponsive for no, like withinsix seconds, I will be
defibrillated.

Marsha (00:20):
Welcome to the Bossy Nurse Podcast, a show about
nurse creators, innovators, risktakers, and the ideas that
shape their success.
I'm Marcia Badti, and on theshow today, how Sarah Lorenzini
turned a COVID-era surge inhospital rapid responses and too
little time for bedsideteaching into a podcast and

(00:41):
education platform helpingnurses worldwide respond
confidently in emergencies.
More intubated patients, sickerfloors, and veteran staff
leaving while new grads steppedin.

(01:02):
At her hospital, there wasn'tyet a dedicated rapid response
team, with ICU charge nursesgetting pulled off their unit to
provide support.
What generally was a few callsa day ballooned to upwards of
500 rapid responses in a month.
During those surges, Sarahmoved from rapid to rapid,

(01:24):
coaching newer nurses and givingquick tips between calls.
A personal history with suddencardiac risks sharpened her
focus on step-by-step thinkingunder pressure.
That's when she set out to turnreal-world rapid response
know-how into something everynurse could use.
But let's rewind tonine-year-old Sarah on an

(01:46):
ordinary day that turnedanything but a single moment
became the thread she's followedever since toward calm and
step-by-step action wheneverything else is chaos.

Sarah (01:59):
My mom actually passed whenever I was nine.
She died suddenly of anarrhythmia.
Now we know what thatarrhythmia is because I have the
same genetic condition.
But at the time we didn't knowwhy a 32-year-old died suddenly.
So I was the oldest sister, andmy dad obviously was grieving.
I mean, like he he found hiswife unresponsive and attempted
CPR, and the medics couldn't gether back.

(02:20):
I mean, he is going through alot of trauma processing himself
after losing his young wife.
And my mom, they kind of had avery traditional marriage.
So my mom did all the things.
She made the meal, she got usto school, she helped us with
homework.
I mean, she did everything.
My dad was in the military.
And so now he's suddenly beingthrust into having to parent
these two girls solo.
So there was definitely adifficult transition.

(02:42):
I've always been naturally anurturer or naturally a helmer.
And so whenever my mom passedand there was a gap in our home
of who's going to care for allthe things, I just without even
thinking, figured it out.
I just stepped up and was like,well, my sister needs help with
this and my dad needs help withthis.
And no one ever told me youhave to do these things now.

(03:02):
I just assume must be my jobnow because I'm the oldest and
the like the oldest kid, theoldest female, the oldest
nurturer.
And so here I am, I'm gonna dothe things.
And I have very clear memoriesthat I look back on now and it's
like precious and also a littlebit sad, but not that I'm
crying, but I rememberrealizing, oh my gosh, I gotta
wash my clothes.
And so I had never washedclothes before.

(03:24):
And I'm trying to think of howI'm gonna figure out how to wash
the clothes.
And so I took the backstorelaundry out to the garage where
our washing machine was, and Iopened it up and there were
instructions for how to wash thelaundry inside the lid.
I was like, yes.
Yeah.
And we're reading theinstructions and going step by
step, like measuring out thedetergent and the softener and
putting the clothes in the wash.
And then after I'd washed them,there were socks stuck at the

(03:46):
bottom of the washing machineand I couldn't reach them.
I was too little.
I was a very tinynine-year-old.

Marsha (03:51):
Yeah, trying to reach over.

Sarah (03:53):
Having to go get a stool from inside, bring it to the
garage, and stand up on that sothat I could reach the bottom of
the wash machine to even pullthe rest of the socks out to put
it in the dryer.
So, yes, I figured it out.
I did the best to care for mysister.
I learned how to cook.
I found ways that we could getwhat we needed.
A lot of the other um teachersin the community that were
friends with my mom reallystepped up to help wrap their

(04:14):
arms around us and support meand my sister, and really
support my dad as he was raisingme and my sister.
So it's not like I was like onthe streets, you know,
struggling to get food.
It wasn't like that.
Um, it was a challenging seasonas a little kid with no mom.
And to be honest, I don't knowthat I fully grieved my mom's
death until I was older, becauseas soon as she died, I was

(04:35):
like, okay, it's go time.
I got a sister to have a dadwho's having a hard time.
I gotta make sure everyone'staken care of and fed and clean.
And I have so much to do.
And so I just I didn't reallylike face the fact that my mom
had passed for probably until myteenage years, to be very
honest with you.
Even at her funeral, I didn'tcry.
I I was like, nope, I had to bestrong for my sister and my
dad, which is you know,irrational as a little kid to be

(04:59):
thinking like that.
But I just I just went in thatmode right away.
And you can definitely see thatin how I am as a nurse now.
Like I can, I can power throughand get through the hard time,
but I've learned strategies forhow to actually face the hard
emotions and process them sothat I could show up full the
next day for the next patient.
But, you know, I'm 41 now.
I was only nine at the time.

(05:19):
So there's been a lot of lifeskills that I've learned along
the way that I didn't have atnine years old.

Marsha (05:23):
Yeah, but you learned so early.
I mean, I can I can onlyimagine myself, like I didn't
have to wash clothes at nineyears old.
Um, I I don't know what thatexperience is like trying to
read the instructions on awasher, you know, and you're
probably the first person inhistory to have ever read those
instructions.
A resource hammer, right?

(05:44):
Ever read those instructionsand probably saw the little
symbols that no one to this dayknows what they mean.
So that is being resourcefuland learning how to cook at that
age.
It's the skills you learnedthat then that help you be the
nurturer you are today.
But you said you were a naturalnurturer and how lucky to have

(06:05):
a bigger sister to help in thatrespect.
And, you know, to have adaughter who knew how to take
charge.
And I and I hear you when yousay, you know, you you didn't
cry at your mom's funeral, youdidn't, it wasn't because you
weren't grieving or missing her.
It was because you wereprobably in okay, survival mode.
I have to be strong, like yousaid, for my sister.

(06:26):
And I appreciate you sharingthat story.
Um, the diagnosis that you youshare, um, that you have a
cardiomyopathy, correct?
Um, and and your mom had it andyou found out later in life
that you had the same thing.
Would you mind sharing whatthat cardiomyopathy is?
And I know you share on yourpodcast the pathophysiology, but

(06:49):
just to give nurses who may nothave known about this
cardiomyopathy, because Ihaven't heard of it until you
mentioned it on your podcast.
Um, what what exactly is it?

Sarah (06:59):
Sure.
Uh to Boss, I hadn't heard ofit either.
I mean, I know whatcardiomypathy is, but not this
particular strain.

Marsha (07:05):
Yeah.

Sarah (07:05):
So there's multiple types of cardiomyopathy.
We're most familiar with likedilated cardiomyopathy, a big
stretched out backy heart,right?
But there's also arrhythmogeniccardiomypathy where the muscle
cells themselves have somethingwrong with them that where they
are prone to arrhythmia.
So my mom died at 32.
She was completely healthy,like zero diagnoses.

(07:26):
She was very physically fit.
She was a runner.
Um, that she didn't drinkalcohol, she didn't smoke, like
she was like the ideal fit32-year-old, right?
Um, and she died suddenlywithout warning, no symptoms.
She never had any symptoms.
And she just went into cardiacarrest and arrhythmia.
And I know, I know it's aventricle arrhythmia because I
can see her medical report whereshe was defibrillated multiple
times by the paramedics and theycould never get ROSP.

(07:47):
But in 1994, we didn't know whya 32-year-old died of an
arrhythmia.
Like we really had no idea.
I remember them telling us itit might have been long QT
syndrome.
And I was like, the alphabet?
It wouldn't have been thealphabet killed my mom.
I remember like looking up longQT syndrome in a dictionary,
trying to figure out what thatactually was.
Sorry, encyclopedia.
I don't know what that actuallywas.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah.

Speaker (08:06):
But you know, I've I've had my heart checked.
They didn't find anything on myheart as a little kid.
But um, as I've gotten older,I'm now 40, my sister's 39.
Sorry, I'm 41, my sister's 39.
Um, we have a cousin who had acardiac arrest at a very young
age.
But now it's 2025, and we havegenetic testing.
And so her doctor was like, Youare 50 years old and you had a

(08:28):
cardiac arrest, and that'sweird.
I'm sending you for genetictesting.
So she had a whole panel done.
Comes out she's positive withthis thing called FLNC, which is
a genetic variant where you'remissing a protein in your
cardiac myelic, in yourstructure.
So she immediately calls me mysister and she's like, You guys
had to get tested.
This might be what your momdied of.
And sure enough, both me and mysister are positive.
Since then, two other cousinshave come back positive with

(08:50):
this thing.
So it runs in our family.
Um, and basically the firstsymptom of FLNC cardiomyopathy
is usually cardiac arrest.
It's not like there's anywarning that this is coming.
And so the treatment,fortunately, um, is a
defibrillator.
So I actually have one now.
It's in my chest as we speak.
I have a defibrillator, so doesmy sister, so do my cousins.

(09:10):
My cousins have already beenshocked a couple times by her
defibrillator and it saved herlife.
And not that I want to beshocked, but if I have to be
shocked, I'm ready for it.
Like, what a gift that I havethis thing ready to go.
No one has to call 911.
I don't have to worry aboutbeing by myself.
I don't have to worry aboutdriving down the road and I, you
know, veer off the side of theroad because I'm unresponsive

(09:30):
from no, like within sixseconds, I will be
defibrillated.
And so when people havearrhythmias with ICDs, they
usually don't even loseconsciousness.
Like they might feellightheaded, but it shocks you
so quick, there's no time foryou to lose perfusion to your
brain to lack the ability to beaware.
So I'm gonna know when ithappens and I'm gonna be
grateful for it.
So that's been my journey thisyear is discovering that oh my

(09:51):
god, you have the condition thatkilled your mom.
And you need an efibrillator.
But um, you know, I think it myoverwhelming feeling is more
gratitude than yeah, oh, this isterrible.
I can't just happen to me.
I'm just like, it it is what itis, you know.
I'm grateful for the genes Igot from my mom.
She was an amazing person.
I see a lot of her in me, partof which is my genetics, which

(10:14):
means I have this condition.
And so I'm just gonna keepliving my life grateful that I
have an ICD, grateful for modernmedicine, grateful for the
technology to even do genettesting.
I mean, if my if we had hadthis back in the 90s, my mom
might still be alive.
And so I'm just grateful that Ihave it and that my kids will
have to grow up without a mom.
So I'm I'm doing well overall.

Marsha (10:32):
Yeah, great.
Yeah, it it's amazing.
Like you said, modern medicine,it's not something to be sad
about that you have a conditionlike this, but that you actually
are here in a time where wehave the modern medicine to help
heal you.
And because cardiomyopathy canresult in sudden death, and you
know, that's the first time somepeople know that they have a

(10:55):
cardiomyopathy is when they whentheir heart stops.
So, and if you haven't listenedto Sarah's podcast, please do.
Even if you're not an ER nurseor a critical care nurse, you
will at some point in yourcareer see a patient, even if
you are on a med surge for or amother-baby unit.
You will see a patient in sometype of distress and needing

(11:18):
some critical care.
And over on Sarah's podcast, arapid response RN podcast.
She shares all of theemergencies that you can ever
imagine because she's gonethrough it.
She's seen it as a criticalcare nurse, as a cardiac ICU
nurse, as an ER nurse.
She's seen it all and taught itall too as an RN educator.
So I encourage everyone to golisten to her podcast just to

(11:41):
get the knowledge of how to takecare of a patient in an
emergent situation.
So thank you for sharing yourstory on that and allowing that
quick little detour that Iwanted to go on.
But I do want to take a littlebit step back, being the
nurturer at home and you know,taking care of your sister or
taking care of the home, takingcare of your helping taking care

(12:01):
of your dad.
Was it then that you thoughtabout nursing, or when did that
kind of spark hit you?

Speaker (12:08):
So I think that media betrayed me because I thought I
wanted to be a doctor.
Because on all the medical TVshows, the doctors did all the
cool stuff.
And so I've been saying mywhole life, when I grow up, I'm
gonna be a doctor.
And so that was my plan becauseI know doctors help sick
people, and I love caring forpeople.
Like it to me, it's veryrewarding.

Marsha (12:27):
Yeah.

Speaker (12:28):
Um and so in high school, I volunteered at the
hospital, hoping to like seesome doctors in action, you
know, and like learn.
And and uh maybe two weeks in,I'd been working on this unit
for two weeks, and I hadn't seenthe doctors, and I went with
the church nurse and I was like,hey, so when did the doctors
come and like take care of thesick people and like you know,

(12:48):
give them their medicine andlike teach them about their
diagnosis, bandage their wounds?
And the nurse was so sweet, butshe was like, sweetheart, the
doctors already came and wentbefore you got here.
The nurses do all the things,the doctors rounded, and the
nurses get the opportunity togive the medicine to teach the
patients about their diagnosis.
So I went from doing likeclerical type work at the desk

(13:09):
to now I'm like, okay, well,nurses do the stuff, I'm gonna
follow the nurses.
And I went with the nurses intoall these patients' rooms and
watched them teach about themedications, watched them teach
about the diagnosis, watchedthem do these very skilled
interventions.
And I realized, oh my gosh,nurses are the ones that do the
things I want to do.

Marsha (13:26):
It's not like Grace Anatomy, it's not like ER.

Speaker (13:29):
Grace Anatomy.
I was like, and also I alwayskind of, and this sounds bad,
kind of prided myself in myintelligence.
I've always been a straight Astudent.
And so I was like, doctors aresmart, you know?
And I never saw nurses as likesmart.
Nurses were just like nice, butin my nine-year-old mind and in
my teenage mind.
Now I know.
Um, and so it was a actually ahard transition to go from
telling everyone of their mom,I'm gonna be a doctor when I

(13:51):
grow up.
And I was like, Oh, you'll be agreat doctor, Sarah.
You're so smart, you're socompassionate, to be like,
absolutely I've changed my mind.

Marsha (14:01):
And everybody gives you that look, right?

Speaker (14:03):
Like, like, oh, but you're too smart.
You couldn't.
I was like, yeah, I could, butnow that I see what the doctors
do, and it is important work, Iso appreciate my physician
colleagues.
That's so important, suchimportant work.
But I don't just want tointerpret the CAT scan, I want
to give the intervention that'sgoing to fix the problem we see
on the CAT scan.
Um, and and we need to workhand in hand, right?

(14:25):
And so just knowing the waythat God wired me, I feel like
nursing, bedside nursingspecifically, is much better fit
for how I am.
I would be very frustrated if Ihad 30 patients and I couldn't
take the time to hold all theirhands and explain the things to
them.
Or if I had to just see whatwas wrong and write for someone
else to do the fun thing to makethem feel better.

Marsha (14:47):
Yeah, and you don't, and they don't get to see the
things happen in real time.
Like when you're giving a med,um, even like things I'm sure
you've done in the ER, like adenocine, where you see it in,
well, doctors are there, but ona unit where you're giving, you
know, LASIKs or you're givingDilt or something in the moment,
you actually see in the momentwhat's happening with the

(15:07):
patient.
And and I think that'ssomething that we have that
residents and physicians don'treally get to see all that
often, is we actually get to seethe change in real time.
And it's so interesting to see.
Yeah.

Speaker (15:18):
So I ended up like towards the end of high school,
middle of high school, changingmy mind and going with the
nursing track.
Yeah.
And once I knew I was gonna bea nurse, I just like dove head
first.
And I did dual enrollment inhigh school.
I finished all my pre-wex.
I started nursing school umbasically the month I turned 18.
And so I graduated nursingschool when I was 19 because I

(15:40):
did an associate studentprogram.
So I was a I had passed, I wasa registered nurse at the ripe
old age of 19 years old.

Marsha (15:48):
Wow.
Yeah.

Speaker (15:48):
Now I see 19 year olds.
I was like, what was Ithinking?
I was trying to such a baby.
Um, but I did.
So I I became a nurse, and thenI thought that I wanted to be
like a midwife or like pediatricnurse.
I always love babies, and I'malways like, I just it's easier
to envision yourself as acaregiver for someone younger
than you.

(16:09):
And I hadn't really got toexperience what it's like to be
a caregiver of older people.
I mean, obviously, I love theelderly.
My mom used to take us tonursing homes to sing Christmas
carols, and after church, we gosing like hymns and stuff.
Like I've grown up around theelderly and I have such an
appreciation for them.
Um, but I always thought Iwould be like a Pete's nurse, a
midwife, something along thoselines.
So in nursing school, I appliedon the labor delivery floor to

(16:31):
be like a nurse tech CNA on thelabor delivery floor, and they
would not interview me, wouldn'thire me, probably because I was
so freaking young.
But I never I couldn't even getan interview.
Yeah.
So I was like, you know what?
Where else has pediatrics?
The ER.
I don't think they want to bean ER nurse, but I at least
there's peeves there.
And so because no one wouldcall me back, no one would give
me an interview, I just marchedmy little self down to the ER,

(16:53):
went to the nursing station, andwas like, hi, um, who is the
manager for this floor?
Like her name's Pam.
I was like, oh, awesome, Pam.
And where's Pam's office?
And like, oh, around thecorner.
So I just like walked intoPam's office and said, Hi, Pam,
you're the manager.
I'm Sarah, I'm a nursingstudent.
I also have my CNA.
And I would love to be a nursetech in your ER.
And she's like, Have youapplied?
I was like, I did apply for acouple different floors.

(17:16):
No one's called me back.
And so I'm thinking I'm sureyou get a job.
And she's like, Well, sit down,sweetheart.
So we talked for a little bit.
She hired me on the spot.

Marsha (17:25):
It's your take charge, it's your take charge attitude.
She already saw it.
Yeah.

Speaker (17:30):
So I started as a nurse tech in nursing school.
That was the best thing becauseI fell in love with taking care
of patients and their familiesin crisis.
I always thought I would bedoing a different role, but I I
really enjoyed showing up forpeople who are having really bad
days.
Um, I did really well in thoseenvironments.
I didn't freak out.
I could keep my cool.
I was like, that's kind of whatER nurses do.

(17:52):
Maybe you're wired to be an ERnurse.
Um, and so huge surprise to mywhole family, sweet little Sarah
became an emergency room nurse.
And so here I am, 19 years old.
I never had friends that wereworking at like Chick-fil-A, the
mall, you know, and the I'mworking Friday night shift in
the emergency room ER.

Marsha (18:12):
Oh my, I can't even imagine.
I don't even know what I wasdoing at 19, but it was
certainly not somethingimportant enough to take care of
patients.

Speaker (18:19):
Oh, but I loved it.
And I and I quickly learned.
I learned about the evil that'sthe world.
I mean, I saw you see the worstof humanity in the ER, but you
also see the best of humanity.
I mean, there's so manybeautiful moments as families
come together and rally aroundtheir loved one who's suffering
or ill, or I mean, it it reallyis a great place to work.
Very stressful.
But like, I've had some toughthings to face.

(18:40):
I can do stress.
Um, as long as I'm like takingcare of myself, I can keep
showing up for these otherpeople that are going through
crisis.
So fell in love with the ER.
Love, love, love the ER.
By 20, they asked me to be thecharge nurse, which again, I
lack now.
But who offers the charge nurseposition to a 20-year-old?
And it was like the joke of theEDA like, oh yeah, charge nurse

(19:02):
can't even drink alcohollegally.
Yeah.
But you know, I've always I cankeep my cool, I'm fair, I'm
organized.
And so I guess, ma'am, the ladywho hired me as a nurse tech
saw that in me and asked me tobe charged.
It started out like, will youjust be charged this weekend?
And I was like, oh, it's just ashow at and then it just became
like you're gonna use afull-time charge nurse.

(19:23):
Um but I I enjoyed being thecharge nurse because even if I
wasn't doing as much um hands-oncare with the patients, I was
helping to oversee the care ofthe whole department, making
things flow smoothly, doingwhat's best for everybody,
helping my colleagues.
And I love helping nurses, beawesome nurses, as much as I

(19:44):
love helping the patients.
I really enjoy both aspects.
And so I was charge nurse formany years.
I was a preceptor, lovedteaching.

Marsha (19:52):
Um I'm curious about how how many, how was it for you as
a new nurse, knowing that youhad the a little bit of
experience in?
Tech work and seeing seeingwhat you saw in the emergency
room.
Curious at how being an actualnurse, once you got the job, how
was that for you as a newnurse, even though you had a
little bit of experience ofknowing what the ER was about?

Speaker (20:14):
Yeah, I think that being a tech in the department
that you work in can be reallygreat and could have a couple
downsides, but yeah, if you'reaware of that, you can you can
handle it.
So the great part is I knew thesupply room, I knew the
doctors, I knew the layout, Iknew the flow.
I was that and I didn't have tolearn.
I already knew that as a nursetech.
The downside is everyoneassumes you already know things

(20:36):
because you've been workingthere.
But there's a lot of things Idid not know of the nurse's
role, like how to document, youknow, or like there's so many
things that you just thinksomeone knows about because you
work side by side with them, butit's just different whenever
it's your patient, yourresponsibility.
The other thing is it's harderto delegate to what was once
your peer nurse techs.

(20:57):
So where before I was like,yeah, I'll help get your patient
in the bathroom.
Yeah, I'll, you know, banishtheir wounds, I'll do all the
all the nurse tech things,right?
And now I have to ask someoneelse to do it for me because I
have a new EMS coming in downthe hall.
It was so I did not delegatewell, is what it comes down to
because I felt bad delegatingtasks to someone else, a task
that I would have done lastmonth, you know, if I was a

(21:18):
nurse tech.
It was hard to delegate becauseI felt like I don't know, I
felt like I shouldn't be doingthat.

Marsha (21:24):
Yeah, it felt awkward, I'm sure, too.

Speaker (21:26):
Plus, I drowned my first year because I didn't want
to ask anyone's help foranything.
I wanted to do it all myself.
But I finally learned I coulddeliver better patient care.
You know, this new EMS, I don'tknow how sick they are.
I should not be tied up, um,I'm trying to give you an
example, doing an EKG on thisother patient who is stable.
When I could, I can delegatethat to a nurse tech and I can

(21:47):
go assess and evaluate thispatient I know nothing about to
make sure the sickest patientgets my care.
So it was very, it's a verydifficult transition, but I
finally figured out how todelegate.
There were so many perks ofhaving already worked there.
Yeah.
All these nurses, theybasically raised me.
I started there at 18 and nowthey've got to watch them grow
up.
So they're rooting for me, youknow?
Yeah.

(22:07):
And even like whenever I becamecharge nurse, it's kind of hard
to be 20 years old and tellinga 45-year-old experienced
veteran nurse you're getting anew patient.
But because they'd they had allkind of like washed me grow up
and really cared for me, they'relike, okay, Sarah, all right,
so we are.
Like, I don't know.
I felt like I was taken care ofbecause they had known me for

(22:29):
so long and and had got to watchand see me transition from the
nurse tech role to the RN role.
I remember times where doctorswould ask, but delegate tasks to
me, hey, can you help me withthis public exam?
And my fellow RN colleagueswould be like, Sarah has her own
four patients.
Thank you.
You'll have to find someoneelse.
And so I really felt looked outfor, honestly.

(22:49):
But I was lucky that I hadgreat nurses.
I was sort of, there are acouple bullies, we can talk
about that later.
Duffy's the bullies, but forthe most part, I was very well
cared for by the nurses that hadkind of raised me in this
crazy.

Marsha (23:00):
Yeah.
The pros and cons of both.

Speaker (23:02):
Yes, yeah.
So yes, we have pros and consgoing into it.
I was, I was not expecting howdifficult it was to delegate
until I got there and realized,oh my gosh, I don't want to
delegate this to someone else.

Marsha (23:11):
Yeah.
So uh with that, I know nursingeducation and teaching other
nurses is your passion andsomething that you love to do.
You do it on your podcast everytime it comes out Fridays, I
guess, uh, you do it on yourpodcast.
With that, when was it that youmade that transition into nurse
education and saying, hey, I'mreally good at this.
I really like teaching, Ireally like precepting.

(23:32):
Like you mentioned before, thisis something that I want to do
on a regular basis.
Or, or did you go straight fromER into teaching, or was there
a detour into cardiac ICU?
I think.

Speaker (23:45):
Yes, there was quite a detour.
Okay, so I love teaching.
I've always like tutored andhelped other people with you
know their studies.
Our study group, a nurse inschool.
Basically, we would sit aroundand I would pull out Janelle's
notes, my study buddy, becausehers were better handwriting,
and I would reteach what theinstructors had just taught to
us from her notes because that'show I learn.

(24:06):
And everyone else is like, oh,you explained it so much better,
the professor, blah, blah,blah.
Oh, thanks so much, Sarah, forclarifying that or breaking that
down.
And so I've always beenteaching.
I just liked, I like explaininghard things.
I like the challenge of likedistilling down a lot of
information that actually canclick, you know?
Um, and I had like ER storiesof like, yeah, this one time I
had this patient and they hadheart failure, and I knew it

(24:26):
because of the legs.
And I remember just likeapplying all the knowledge we
were learning abstractly intoreal patient scenarios, even as
a nursing student.
So I always love teaching.
They made me a preceptor, like,I don't know, six months out of
nursing school.
I still remember preceptingDusty and being like, Dusty, I'm
sorry you don't sound to me.
I am the newest nurse in thisdepartment, but I will do my
best to teach you all thethings.
And now he's a nursepractitioner and he's doing

(24:48):
really well.
But I remember having a preceptand like I'm I'm still learning
things.
I love teaching.
Um about maybe three or fouryears into my nursing career, I
noticed that all the new gradswe were hiring were leaving.
Like they would stay for sixmonths and then they would
leave.
And I asked them, I heardyou're leaving.
Like, why are you leaving?
Like, oh, this is too much,this is too much.
And someone said, This is toomuch, this is too much, this is

(25:09):
too much.
Like, what's too much?
Like, it's too much to know,it's too much to learn.
Like, I don't feel like I cando a good job.
This place is too much.
And so this was well before wehad like new grad orientation.
Orientation, yeah.
I mean, I had zero specialtyclasses when I was hired.
They were like, welcome to theER, there's your preceptor.
You got a couple of weeks andyou're on your own.

(25:30):
There was no special training,simulation, nothing like that.
Yeah.
Back in 2004.
And so I went to my manager,say Lady Pam, who hired me as a
nurse tech, say, Pam, would youpay me to bring the next batch
of new grads into the classroomto do some more like hands-on
stuff, maybe like somescenarios, some more like deeper
dives to the path of fizz.

(25:51):
Everyone's overwhelmed.
Everyone's leading, they don'tunderstand what we're doing.
They're just task-oriented.
We have to teach them like thethe why behind all the tasks.

Marsha (25:58):
And she's like, you know, you're having an
entrepreneurial mindset beforeyou start.

Speaker (26:03):
I like the thing about an entrepreneurial endeavor.
It's more just like, I want tokeep the verses we're hiring,
right?
So if you'll pay me and not,I'm not volunteering for free to
like come and I'm like, I'llsay, pay me my hourly rate.
I'll love to teach you.
So she said, yes, I madebinders for all of them.
I brought them on the nextcohort that we hired was like 11
new grads.
We hired all of them.
I had them for two weeks beforethey were sent to the bedside.

(26:25):
And all of them stayed foryears, ended up becoming charge
nurses, doing very well.
All of them.
And so my boss is like, thiswas great.
You're doing this again nextyear.
Because we used to only hirenew grads like in the summer
after like the spring semesterfinished.
Um, you're next year, right?
I was like, Yeah, I'm doingnext year.
So I did that for a couple ofyears, and I just I looked
forward to it so much.
I loved that two weeks where Igot to teach.

(26:45):
And everyone's like, You shouldbe a professor.
You shouldn't be a professor.
I was like, you know what?
I got a couple kids, that wouldbe nice to have like professor
life.

unknown (26:53):
Yeah.

Speaker (26:54):
So I went back to school, started working my
master's degree to be a nursingprofessor.
Um, and then maybe halfwaythrough, one of my professors
said to me, Sarah, if you reallywant to be a professor, you
need to branch out and seesomething more than the ER.
I was like, Well, what else isthere?
I love the ER.
This is like my baby.
I'm grown up in the ER.
It's all that I know.
She's like, I know something,but you should work somewhere

(27:16):
else besides just ER.
Otherwise, you're giving a verynarrow perspective to your
nursing students.
And I was like, So I'd alwaysbeen fascinated by the heart.
The heart's my favorite bodysystem to learn about, to teach
about.
So I went and got a job in thecardiac ICU.
And at this point, I've been anurse for eight years.
So lots of nursing experience.

Marsha (27:34):
Yeah.

Speaker (27:34):
But man, was that a learning curve to go from ER to
C V I C U.
They have tubes and orificeseverywhere, measuring pressures
from everywhere.
There's so many more numbers tokeep track of.
Like it was a it was a learningcurve, but I loved it.
The nerd loved it.
And so I did CVICU for like twoand a half years.
I learned so much.

(27:54):
I did all the things, you know,ECMO, Impella, Balone Pup, all
the cool gadgets you see in C VICU.
I loved it.
And then I got asked to be onthe rapid response team at that
hospital that I was working atthe time.
Um, and I was like, well, thatsounds it's like a mix of ICU
and ARC.
That sounds awesome.
But what I quickly learned onceI started, it was just as much

(28:18):
education as well.
The the position was justwrought with opportunity to
educate, you know.
The nurse calls a rapidresponse team because they're
about a patient, and then I getto teach about why I'm all so
concerned and what we're gonnado about it, and what's the best
like I was just teaching allday long.
I was like, oh my gosh, I lovethis rapid response role.
So I was a rapid response nursefor almost three years.

(28:39):
My times are getting mixed up.
Um, I finally finished thatdown master's degree.
It took me forever because Iwas going pun time.
I was still working in thehospital, I had a bunch of kids,
so I wasn't going very quicklythrough, but I finally finished
it.
Got a job as a nursingprofessor.
So it was much easier to be amom as a nursing professor than
I was as a three to 12-hourshift nurse.
Just because, you know, there'slike who gets into school in

(29:01):
the morning on the days thatyou're working, who's gonna hook
dinner at night.
Like those kind of challengesare difficult.
Yeah.
Um, but I got to take my kidsto school every day and I got to
pick them up every afternoonwhen I was a nursing professor.
So I love that.
Um I love nursing professorlife.
I still was not quite ready toleave the bedside, I don't
think.
I was still working PRN as arep response, so I got my fix.

(29:21):
But um, I am, I don't know ifyou can tell, I am a mover.
Like, even if now I'm I can't Idon't sleep well.
And so, like office hours andfaculty meetings, and like, oh
my gosh, it was so difficult for30-year-old Sarah to do that.
And so the nurse that was mycharge nurse when I was a new
grad, Jack, he called me.

(29:42):
He's like, hey Sarah, so I'mthe director of the ER now, and
I I'm hiring an ER educator, theone we had is retired.
Would you be interested?
I was like, I just became anarts professor like less than a
year ago.
He's like, You'd be great atit.
You're the only one I want tointerview.
Like, please come be come checkit out.
And so the rest is history.
He ended up hiring me as the EReducator.

(30:02):
I did that for five years.
I loved being an ER educatorbecause I was at the bedside.
I was at the bedside helpingthose nurses, elbow to elbow.
And I got to do the nerdy stuffof like creating curriculum and
you know, making sims and doingmock co's.
And like I loved onboarding allthe new grads.
It was all my favorite thingsinto one job.

Marsha (30:20):
I'm curious, would you mind talking a little about a
little bit about the ER educatorrole?
When you say you're at thebedside really, you know, a lot
with the nurses, how often isthat?
Because some nurses may becurious about this role as an
educator.

Speaker (30:36):
I think it depends on the facility you work for.
Yeah.
Because I know lots ofeducators that are forced to do
like audits and lots ofmeetings, and and that's that's
important.
That's important.
I'm not announcing that.
Um I did, I did do somemeetings.
Audits, no, don't, I hateaudits.
But meetings I can do becausemeetings move the needle in the
right direction, right?

(30:56):
So if it's gonna help apatient, I'll go to the meeting.
But um, you know, my heart isto teach.
And so for me, I was very luckythat the person I worked for
gave me full liberty to make myown schedule, to figure out the
educational needs of thedepartment.
I would they knew that I wastrust, I could be trusted to get
the stuff done.
So they're like, whatever youwant to teach, whatever hours

(31:17):
you want to work to make ithappen, whatever's just do it.
And so, because I'm a hardworker, that was fine.
I think for some people, theyhave to have much more
structured, like you have to behere on these days and teach
these classes these days.
I made my own schedule.
And so I had Sunday classes, Ihad evening classes, I had
skills fairs at 4 a.m.
and I had skills fairs at 9p.m.
Like I did what I felt likeworked best for the department,

(31:37):
and I could just because I madethe schedule, I can make it
around my kids' lives and makesure I had childcare covered.
So it worked for me.
Um, but I know a lot of nurseeducators who feel very um
constrained.
Constrained by the restricted.

Marsha (31:54):
I was in my role at a little bit.
Yeah.

Speaker (31:57):
I had some things that I know I had to do.
Like, like my staff have tohave yearly TNK training.
I know I have to do that.
I can't be like, I feel liketeaching about something random.
I know there's things I have todo annually because joint
commission says though, okay,well, we'll knock that out.
But we're gonna include inthere some fun stuff, some
scenarios.
We'll make it as interesting aspossible so that you can
actually apply this to thebedside.

(32:17):
So I did so much more than wasmy minimum requirement as the
educator.
Um, I could go on and on aboutall the fun events that we did
and the ways that I tried tolike keep everyone's minds
engaged.
And um, but yeah, I love beingthe educator.
What a what a great job.
Um but then COVID hit.
What is that, like March-ish of2020?
I was still the educator.

(32:38):
And um, I I did my best, man.
I researched as much as I couldabout COVID.
We did so much donning anddoffing of PPE and like
everything, I every new updatethat came out.
I was educating.
I had bored all over the I didmy best to educate about COVID.
But by the end of summer, I waslike COVID educated out, and I
wanted just to be at thebedside.

(33:00):
And because of COVID, we'rehaving more rapid responses at
our hospital.
There's more intimatedpatients.
Everyone in the whole hospitalis sicker and experienced nurses
are leaving to go travel.
So it's newer grads that arelike filling all these roles.
And I just saw this need in myhospital.
The hospital I currently workat five years ago did not have a

(33:21):
dedicated rapid response team.
If a rapid response was called,the ICU charge would leave the
ICU, go to the best of thepatient crashing, manage the
emergency, and go back to theICU.
Which, you know, when you havelike two or three rapids a day,
that's not a big deal.
But when you're having eight toten rapids, the ICU charge is
gone the entire day.
That's not good.
And I was hearing these fromthe ICU charge.

(33:42):
The ER charge was having toleave a lot too because the ICU
charge is busy at another rapid.
So I'm seeing this issue, andmy heart, and I feel like it was
almost like God speaking, likeSarah, you need to start a rapid
response team.
Yeah.
And so I went to nursingleadership and I was like, hey,
I see this need.
Um, I would be willing to startit if you'll give me the FTE.
We we need a dedicated teamright now.

(34:03):
It was just a pilot us to getthrough COVID, but we need
something right now.
And the CNO was like, okay,let's do it.
How are you and you only?
And if you can justify the FTEfor another one, if you can give
me the data that you've made adifference, I'll give you more
FTEs.
So that was five time?
I now have 10 staff that Ilead.
Wow.
So we have built up our team,but I left the official educator

(34:26):
job and became a bedside rapidresponse nurser, starting this
new program at our hospital thathad never been done before.
So no longer did uh the rapidresponse have to leave an
assignment or leave their unitto go handle the emergency.
I was on assignment.
I was there to support thebedside nurse, and the educator
of me is like, all right, whocan I help?
How can I teach?
I'm just roaming, like I wouldpush the crash card around and

(34:48):
do education.
Like I was trying to like levelup our skills and respond to
emergencies, not just respond.
I wanted to like prevent theemergency or like make the
response be even better.
And so it was again perfect fitfor Sarah.
I got to do real nursing stuffand teach nurses how to do
nursing stuff well.
Anyways, I loved it.
It was such a great job.
Um, maybe four or five monthsinto that, I was talking to my

(35:13):
husband.

Marsha (35:13):
Yeah.
Were you coming up with yourown protocols and policies?
And did you take thatexperience from okay, why?

Speaker (35:20):
And I had done rep response before, but I was a
leader in it.
I was just a rep responsefirst.
I'd never had to write anypolicies, protocols,
spreadsheets, like nothing likethat.
I just did the job.
So now I'm building it from theground up, having to almost
like promote it to the wholehospital.
Here's this thing, pleaseutilize it.
I'm here, here's my number.
Um I enjoy that.

(35:42):
I'm an extrovert.
Yeah, that's like easy peasyfor me.
Anyway, so I'm doing the rapidresponse role.
I'd hired Marissa, um, who waslike the two-time hospital nurse
of the year.
Like, she's amazing.
So it's just me and Marissa,the sole, like the lone rapid
responsors in the hospital, butwe're we are making an impact.
We are seeing the data, it'sgetting better.
Like it is, it was really coolto see.
Um, so I'm like slowly buildingup the team as there's adding

(36:05):
more FTEs to my department.

Marsha (36:08):
And how many rapid responses were you having at
that time period when you werejust first starting with
Marissa?

Speaker (36:14):
I mean, there were multiple waves of COVID, and so
it really did fluctuate a lot.
I mean, okay.
There was one month that we hadlike 500 a month, but then most
months it was more like 250.
So it just kind of depended onthe month.
But we we were busy.
If we weren't responding toemergencies, we were out there
preventing them.
We were not sitting on our buttwaiting for emergencies to come
to us.
We were busy the entire time.

(36:35):
And we, if that I we felt sopretty much the hospital gave us
this funding, so we were gonnado as well.
Like we were gonna let peopleknow that this is not an
apartment you want to get ridof.
This is making a difference.
So we really worked hard forit.
Anyways, so a couple months in,I was telling my husband, I was
like, I love being rapidresponse.
I'm not saying I want to goback, but I do miss being the ER

(36:57):
educator.
You know, the challenge in thisrole is I try to teach someone
something and I get called awayto the next emergency.
I don't get to spend the timeto like break down the pathophys
and like come alongside thisnurse and nurture them and
teach.
I mean, there's so much I wantto teach, and there's no time in
my current role.
And he was like, why don't youlike make a podcast or
something?
And you can just like you know,talk about the cases of the
day, obviously HIPAAappropriate, and you can go into

(37:18):
the deep dives that you love todo with your nerdy self, and
then you can share it withnurses.
Like, hey, remember that casewe had yesterday?
I made a podcast about it.
If you want to check it out, Iwas like, oh my gosh, that's a
crazy idea because I'm so nottech savvy, but uh that's how
I'll be doing it.
I'll do it.
And so I did not have a podcastrecording studio.
I had a whole night closet withlike literally coats in it.

(37:39):
And I so I wrote out like thedraft for three episodes or
three cases I had responded to.
And I went to the closet withcoats all around me and a
microphone that I bought for $15off Amazon and my laptop, and I
recorded the episodes and Ipublished them.
And evidently the whole worldfound them.
I it never occurred to me thatpeople across the globe could

(38:00):
find a podcast.
I genuinely naively thought I'mmaking this podcast for the
nurses I work with so I couldtell them, remember that great
case when John caught thatpatient in septic shock.
I made an episode about it.
If you guys want to check itout and learn more, that's what
I thought I was doing.

Marsha (38:16):
And with a $15 microphone and an idea just to
go at, go at it and have it inyour in your closet or wherever
you were at the time.
Yeah, just that you could makethat type of impact across the
globe.

Speaker (38:28):
Yeah.
So I made the first threeepisodes.
I released them like every weekfor three weeks.

Marsha (38:33):
Yeah.

Speaker (38:33):
And with um, what did I use at the time?
Whatever the podcast platformthat I was using, you could see
how many downloads and where thedownloads came from.
And I was like, a nurse fromQatar listened to my episode?
There's 150 nurses in Australialistening to my podcast.
Like, I would have just beenlike, I'm getting to like
podcast the globe.

(38:53):
And then I was getting emailsbecause at the end of the
episode, I was like, if you haveany questions, you can email
me.
Yeah, whatever.
This is Urban.
I I don't recommend emailing menow.
Just go on my Instagram, it'sway easier.
But um, so people were emailingme, Sarah, episode number four.
I had that same patient.
It was literally the day afterthis episode, and I knew exactly
what to do.
Sarah, episode number 28, I wasprepared to save a life and I

(39:16):
knew exactly what to do.
And I got so like so many ofthese emails.
I was like, this is so coolthat I get to support nurses and
ultimately they're patientsthat I would have never met.
Yeah, I may never meet, right?
But my stories, my experiences,my nerdy self is able to help
other people through thepodcast.
Oh, what a thought, SarahLorenzini, because I can really

(39:37):
use my iPhone, but I have apodcast.

Marsha (39:41):
Just curious, can you talk about like how you juggled
the HIPAA situation and how youcould talk about certain
patients without really givingtoo much details?
How did you know how tonavigate that and how did you
actually do it?

Speaker (39:52):
So I changed the name, obviously, and usually the age
and often even the gender of thePatient that I'm referencing.
So I totally mix it up.
You could not figure out whothe patient was.
There is one case where I waspretty specific about this
patient.
And I actually got to know thepatient very well after Bruce

(40:12):
has dated her.
And I was like, hey, I want todo a podcast episode.
She's like, please tell mystory.
Like, please tell all thedetails.
I want people to know my story.
So she told me, please tell mystory.
I never said her name, but Idid say, you know, a 28-year-old
female who was pregnant who hadCOVID.
So you like you Oh, so you gavea patient identifiers and I
would have never sharednormally.

(40:33):
But yeah, I always changedidentifiers.
And honestly, there's a lot ofcases that I would love to share
that I don't because I don'tknow how to share the case
without without giving too much.

Marsha (40:44):
Yeah.

Speaker (40:44):
Yeah.
So when I when I feel like Ican I can still talk about the
case and did the path of fizzwith changing the patient
identifiers, then I do.
But if I don't feel like I can,then I I just unfortunately
don't share that episode on thepodcast platform.

Marsha (40:58):
I'm curious too, Sarah, about um navigating that with
your organization or theorganization that you're working
with.
If you can give some sort ofstrategies on how to navigate it
when your organization knowsthe work that you do outside of
regular nursing and your writingor your blogging or you're

(41:18):
podcasting about it, how do theynavigate telling those stories
and working with theirleadership team and figuring
that kind of thing out?
Just curious about that.

Speaker (41:30):
I think you need to read your policy for your
hospital social media policybefore you begin to know what
the expectation was.
So, for example, if I postanything on social media, you
will not see my badge, you willnot see anything for my
hospital's logo in thebackground.
Um, I'm very careful not toeven say where I work.
But I did tell my hospital, Iam starting this podcast, I want

(41:53):
you to know about it.
I will do it well, I will nevermention you, but this is what's
happening.
I wasn't getting permissionbecause this is what I'm doing
on my off hours.
Um they do know about it.
However, about a year intodoing the podcast, the hospital
actually gave me an award.
I forgot what it was called.
It was like the nursingmentorship of the year award, or

(42:17):
something along those lines.
And in the speech that the CNOgave, she was like, you know,
Sarah has been an advocate atthe bedside, she's also an
advocate through her podcast,she's making a difference in
nursing.
Like, so they they know that Ihave it and they actually
approve of it.
I think it's a good thing.
And so I've been very luckythat they've embraced it, but
they've also said, Don't don'tyou careful.
Right, careful.

(42:37):
Yeah.
But we recognize what you'redoing is good, keep doing it,
don't make us look bad.
That's kind of like the vibethat I'm getting.
Right, right.
Um, so I do.
I follow all the rules and I umkeep patient's privacy at the
forefront of my mind as I'mdoing episodes.

Marsha (42:56):
Um yeah, and if you're interested in doing this kind of
thing yourself, if you'rethinking about blogging,
podcasting, writing articles, Ihad a guest, which that podcast
will come out soon, of a writerwho actually writes about
patient stories.
If you do have those things inmind or you're already doing it,
it may be best to, of course,number one, look at your

(43:17):
organization's policy.
That's probably the first thingyou need to do.
And I'm not one to say that youneed to go tell your
organization the things thatyou're doing on your off hours,
but I do feel and I love the wayyou do it, Sarah.
I love the way you explainthat.
If you're talking about apatient with, you know, for
example, cardiomyopathy, youknow, you can change the patient
name, patient age, patient, youknow, gender.

(43:38):
I love how you do that.
And so those are some tips andstrategies that may be helpful
for the listeners who arelooking into writing and uh
sharing their nursing stories.
But I think the first andforemost, look at your
organization's policy um andconsider, and consider maybe
having a conversation withleadership about it if you think
it's something that you will bedoing for the long term.
So yeah, thank you for sharingthat.

Speaker (44:01):
The conversation is letting them know that you're
doing it.
You're doing it and get on thesame page for what the
expectation is, what you um,what the parameters are, but not
saying, can I do this?
Because they're not saying no.
Right, right.
Or they would say, sure, andwe'll help you with it.
And then they want to givetheir input as to what the
episodes are, they want to puttheir branding on it.
Um, so I I love that.

Marsha (44:21):
I love that.
Not getting permission.
Yeah, not getting permission.
If it's something that you havein your heart that you're going
to do anyway, yes, not gettingpermission.
I love that.
And just going, going with itand with the mindset of this is
something I'm doing, it's on myoff hours.
And yeah, I just wanted to letyou know that I'm gonna be
sharing stories.
So I've a really great way.

Speaker (44:40):
Like I've interviewed my boss on my podcast.
Like he's excellent.
Um and so like he he supportsit all the way.
And so I I've been very lucky,but I know not every facility
has such great leadership.
I've just have been to the onesthat I've been given.

Marsha (44:53):
Yeah, yeah.
And so really something toconsider.
So take those things to heart.
So, in terms of like sharingstories on the podcast and being
consistent with it, can youtalk a little bit about?
I I've heard or read, I can'tremember where, um, how you were
doing it on your, you know, thedays that you had time to do it

(45:15):
sometimes.
And then it got to a pointwhere you said, hey, I want to
sort of get consistent withthis.
I want to do it on a moreregular basis.
So people, you know, people areexpecting this from me.
So maybe I can put somethingout on a more regular,
consistent basis.
How did that shift happen foryou?
And how did it happen to wherenow I want to be consistent and
and and you know, something thatI'm doing outside of nursing,

(45:36):
sort of, and then make moneyfrom it?
How did that sort of changehappen?

Speaker (45:42):
Okay, so it was a slow over multiple years change.
I'm gonna start with that.
Because I never got into thiswith an entrepreneurial mind.
I was just like the educator inme wanted to keep giving back,
and I didn't have the time to doso in the way that I felt I
could at the bedside was likealmost like a passion project,
if you want to call it, orsomething I had a hobby, I
guess.
Me in my closet by myself withmy microphone is my hobby.

(46:05):
Um, that's how it started.
But then because people wantedmore episodes and I started
learning how to do them better,like I'm learning editing
techniques and realizing that mymicrophone sucks and that it's
so difficult to make it soundbetter through editing because
my microphone's like $15, right?
So I'm I'm realizing, oh, Icould do this much better if I

(46:26):
had the funding to do it, right?
I'm not gonna buy a $500microphone for something that
I'm doing like for free, thatserves I'm writing for free.
Um, also, I was spending waytoo many hours, way late at
night, editing episodes.
Yeah.
And that's just not a good useof my skill set, right?
I I feel like I do wellresearching the literature,

(46:46):
telling stories, you know,distilling it all down to make
sense.
That's what I'm good at.
Editing is not what I'm goodat.
I was slow, I didn't know whatI was doing.
It was clunky.
I didn't even do a good job, tobe honest with you.
And so someone was like, Sarah,you should pay someone to edit.
I was like, I don't have themoney to pay someone.
Like, I do this for free.

(47:08):
How am I gonna pay someone?
Like, maybe if you paid someoneto edit, you could produce more
episodes more consistentlyrather than like one a month or
one every other month if we havetime.
If someone's editing, maybe youcould actually do it with
consistency and then you couldfind ways to monetize your
podcast.
But I was like, well, I'll tryit.
I'll try it for six months.

(47:28):
I'll pay this person to edit mypodcast.
And if I can like pay for himthrough monetization, then I'll
keep doing it.
Yeah, that was three years ago.
So he's I still Max is amazing,by the way.
If you have a podcast, uhpodcast boutique is who I use.
He is so talented.
He takes some crazy file that Isend him and makes it sound so

(47:50):
much better.
So I do still have editing todo.
All right.
So when I record the podcast, Istill go in and like say, take
this out, take this out, movethis around.
I still do some editing.
Yeah.
But the little details of likethe audio file and like sniffing
the cuts with perfection, I I'mnot the person to be doing
that.
But Max is a great job.
So I started paying Max monthlyand it it was quite a financial

(48:12):
investment.
Yes.
But as the podcast got moreconsistent, it kind of took off
where people heard about thepodcast because now I don't
know, whatever the algorithm isfor podcasts, I don't understand
it.
People were finding it more.
And so now I have advertiserscoming to me wanting to do ads
on my podcast.
And so basically, to be honest,the ads that I do only pay for

(48:32):
Macs.
That is, I I I cut even, orwhat do you call it, break even
when it comes to what I bring infor the podcast and how I pay
to have to get to having apodcast?
Because it's not just payingthe editor, it's also paying for
the podcast platform, payingfor my $500 microphone, paying
for there's so much.
If you looked around my roomright now, there's so much
equipment that I have purchasedover the years to do this well.

Marsha (48:53):
And Sarah has a lovely podcast studio.
I was just talking about itbefore we hit record.
Yeah.
Yeah, you have to.

Speaker (49:00):
I had two um closets in my hallway.
There was like a lip closet andlike a coat closet almost next
to each other.
And we cut the wall downbetween the two and made this
space into a podcast recordingstudio.
I love it.
Yeah.
So um, I don't know what thatdoes to the resale value of my
home.
A very niche market for anotherpodcast you're looking for a
home in the future, but I dohave a podcast restore we're in
a studio in the very center ofmy house.

(49:21):
Um, anyways, so yeah, I havethis podcast.
I I do have ads in the podcast.
I'm not making to be honest,I'm not making any money off the
ads.
It really is just going rightback into paying max and to
paying for my equipment and topaying for all the subscriptions
I have to have now to even havea podcast.
But how much time does thatfree up?

Marsha (49:39):
I mean, for you now to be creative.
Yeah.

Speaker (49:42):
So the way that I make money, I'm gonna back up.
I was still working full-timeand having the podcast.
That was a lot.
And I, as I'm doing thepodcast, again, I'm an
extrovert, if you can't tell.
I love talking to people.
Inside of myself, like, as muchas I love teaching through the
microphone, I don't get thatinteraction with other people.

(50:02):
I really like, I really likehaving interaction with the
nurses.
Yeah.
So I had this idea.
What if I started this thingcalled Rapid Response Academy?
And it's it's what it soundslike.
It is an academy for nurses tolearn how to respond to
emergencies.
So it's not just for rapidresponse nurses, it is any
critical care nurse, med surgenurse, uh, ER nurse, any nurse

(50:23):
who might have to encounter anemergency.
I teach about which is everynurse.
Which is every nurse.

Marsha (50:28):
Every nurse at every level of their career, yes.
Right, yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker (50:32):
Um, and so I have this academy and it is a paid
membership, but nurses join thecohort.
I go live one or two times aweek.
I teach, but live.
So it's like the podcast, butlike me actually teaching, I
have like slide presentation.
There's download, like I justget to like wrap my arms around
these nurses and help them feelcomfortable and confident

(50:52):
responding to emergencies.
I love it so much.
So I started RepresentsAcademy.
And because I did that, that'sa lot of time in the week.
So not only am I making apodcast, I'm also making a
presentation for RepresentativeAcademy.
I'm responding to all of thecomments in there's like a like
a group chat basically with theall the nurses in the cohort.
So it's taking lots of time.
So last when was it?

(51:12):
Last fall, I actually wentpart-time at the hospital.

Marsha (51:15):
And what was part-time for you?
Yeah.

Speaker (51:17):
Two 12s.

Marsha (51:18):
Two twelves.
Okay.

Speaker (51:19):
Yeah.
So I've been doing uh full-timehours, like 40 hours a week.
Um, and then now I just do two12s a week.
So part-time in the hospital,but part of my income now comes
from Rapid Response Academy.
So the time that it takes me toprepare all those presentations
and do that teaching andsupport and mentor those nurses,
basically the the monthlymembership fee um is supporting

(51:42):
me staying home part.

Marsha (51:43):
Awesome.

Speaker (51:43):
So again, if you're looking to learn from me how to
get rich, look somewhere elsebecause I am not rich.
I have not made a ton of moneyoff of Rapids Watson Academy or
a podcast at all.
I I have the same income I hadwhen I was a full-time bedside
nurse, to be very honest withyou.

Marsha (51:59):
But you've created a formula that works for you in
terms of time, energy, creatingyour content, and making the
similar amount of money that youwere making when you were a
full-time nurse.
So that's that's still a wayfor nurses to free up some of
that headspace and that burnoutwith nursing by doing something

(52:19):
else you love, and you're makingthe same amount of money.
You're you're podcasting, youhave a great podcast, wonderful
podcast.
Um, you're now working withnurses from your home on video
teaching.
It's it's it's somethingthat's, you know, it may not be
like this big money story, butit is a big, a big burnout sort

(52:41):
of release story, I guess youcan say.

Speaker (52:44):
It allows me to spend my life the way that I want to
spend it.
Yeah.
I think a life well spent iswhen the way you spend your time
aligns with what your valuesare.
And for me, I do value being anurse.
I do love being at the best.
I love caring for the sick, butI also love being a mother and
I want to be present in theirlives.
And I love my husband.

(53:05):
I like to be around him, youknow, like there's something
that I want to do outside ofjust nursing.
And so the fact that I justwork two days at the hospital,
kind of like get my fix, youknow, because I do that.
Like that's how I'm gonna doit.
But also, like today, forexample, I woke up, got my kids
ready for school, got them offto school, came home, put on my
podcast shirt, doing aninterview with you.
I'm actually speaking at thenursing college in two hours.

(53:27):
So I get to go speak with othernurses.
Then I'll come home, I'll makedinner.
Like I get to be present in mylife as well as present in
patients' life.
So for me, this is like justthe perfect mix.
To be honest, I don't know thatI will ever leave the bedside
unless my cardiomyopathy gets towhere I can't physically do it
anymore.
Um, right now I don't havedilated cardiomyopathy, but that

(53:50):
is the projection for thisdiagnosis is at some point the
heart cells will kind of stretchout and dilate.
So if I get to that point, Ilove teaching.
I can still teach with astretched out dilated heart.
So I probably will retire fromacademia.
But for this season of life,you can still podcast.

Marsha (54:05):
Yeah.

Speaker (54:06):
For this season of life, though, I like being at
the bedside.
So it's not like I was tryingto get away from the bedside
whenever I started this venture.
I really just wanted to giveback in the way that I felt like
God has built me to do.
And the podcast has given methe avenue to do it.
And fortunately, people want toadvertise on my podcast, and so
I'll gladly take their moneyand support whatever it is that
they're doing so that I canlike, you know, pay for my kids'

(54:28):
races and their life for lifein general, you know, for gas
and your mortgage, all thethings.
So um, yes, I'm very gratefulfor this season that I'm in.
But it's not like I have thethe figured out how to make a
ton of money as being a nurseentrepreneur.
That's not what I'm doing.
Maybe, maybe there's a betterway.
Maybe I can hire more peopleand mass produce things and

(54:49):
write books, but I there's onlyso much time that I have.
And especially for this seasonwhen my kids are little and
teenage.

Marsha (54:55):
You want to enjoy it.
Yeah.

Speaker (54:56):
You want to enjoy it.
So in the future, maybe I'llwrite a bunch of books and I'll
travel across the world.
I got invited to speak at aconference in Dubai, a nursing
conference.
And I was like, oh, awesome.
Yeah.
Like, I'm not leaving my familyfor that long.
Not right now.
So thank you for the invite.
Um so, and I do get lots ofinvites to speak at conferences,
and I only I only do like ahandful a year just because
again, I want to be present withmy kids.

(55:17):
And so yeah, we'll see, we'llsee where all this takes me.
But for now, I'm very gratefulfor the season that I'm in.

Marsha (55:23):
I do have one final question about a patient story,
a nursing story, a memory thatyou can share with the audience
that sort of sticks with youafter you know all of your years
and all of your experience withnursing.

Speaker (55:39):
So at like the height of COVID, it was really hard to
do a rep response nurse becauseall I saw all day long was
patients crashing from COVID.
Like no one called me when thepatient was getting better.
I was only called when thepatient went from bad to worse.
Now it's time to intubate.
Now it's like they're getting,they're not doing well in the
interventions we're giving.
And um I learned early in mycareer to not say things like,

(56:03):
I'm not gonna let you die.
We're gonna save your life, noton my watch, like that kind of
stuff.
I remember saying that as a newgrad, like, no, I'm not gonna
let you die.
Because I really thought that Ihad this amazing skill set to
bring people back to life, andI'd seen people come back to
life.
But with especially with COVID,you don't say that because you
do not know what's gonna happenwith patients.
And I remember this one rapresponse very clearly because it

(56:26):
was so like dramatic andheart-wrenching.
So I got to the emergency.
There's a man in the bed onBiPAP, he'd been coughing,
there's like blood spray on hisBIPAP mask.
He's very sick, been like 50times a minute, sat and looked,
like it's time to intubate,right?
But that's where we are.
But he's still completely withit.
And so, again, in my full PPE,the mask and the goggles and the

(56:48):
shield and the gown, like allthe things.
I I approach him.
Hey sir, my name is Sarah.
I'm the rapid response nurse.
The nurse called me becauseshe's so worried about your
breathing, and you've beenworking so hard for so long.
But I think it's time for us tohelp you out because what you
need more support.
I think it's time to put you onthe ventilator.
And he just got so scared, thescared look in his eyes, you

(57:09):
know, and there's no familybecause it was that season,
there's no family at thebedside.
I was like, but we're gonnatake such good care of you, and
I'm trying to explain things.
And he rips the mask off and helooks at me and he says, You
can't let me die.
My daughter gets married thisweekend, and I have to walk her
down the aisle.
And then he like puts the maskback on.
And I was like, Oh my gosh,this guy is not gonna go to the

(57:31):
wedding this weekend.
Like, I just know that, youknow, I don't know how well he's
going to do, but I've just seenso many patients get sicker and
sicker and sicker andultimately pass.
I don't want that for this man.
But what do you say to someonewho says, Don't let me die?
And so I just said back to him,we are gonna take such good
care of you.
We are gonna fight to get youto your daughter's wedding.

(57:51):
We are gonna fight so hard as ateam to get you better and get
you home to your family.
But we have to help you rightnow because you're you're
struggling at the moment.
And he just kind of like noddedhis head, closed his eyes, and
laid back.
And I remember I just prayed sohard that he would make a
turnaround.
I watched him be so sick for somany weeks, go on ECMO.

(58:12):
I mean, he was very sick.
But he was discharged.
Um, they ended up delaying hisdaughter's wedding, and he did
get to walk her down the aislewith a walker.

Marsha (58:24):
That was Sarah Lorenzini, Rapid Response Nurse
and Educator, host of RapidResponse RN Podcast, and founder
of Rapid Response Academy.
Hey, thanks so much forlistening to the show this week.
Please make sure to rate andreview this episode in your
favorite podcast app.
Then don't forget to click thefollow button so you won't miss

(58:44):
an episode.
This episode was produced andedited by yours truly with
administrative and researchsupport from Liz Alexandri and
Renan Silva.
I'm Barsha Batti, and you'vebeen listening to the Bossy
Nurses Podcast.