May 20, 2022 • 30 mins
What's it like to be a nurse on the frontline of a pandemic? How about medical care in the pediatric world? Join us on this episode as we take you inside getting a nursing degree at RCBC. We'll hear from RCBC nursing student and nurse assistant for Weisman Children's, Brianna Watson, and RCBC Assistant Professor of Nursing, Elizabeth Brendle as they take us inside the classroom and out in the field.
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Unknown (00:04):
Hello and welcome to the program pod A production of
the rcbc Podcast Network wherewe take an rcbc program and do a
deep dive from differentperspectives within the program.
And thanks for joining theconversation with me, your host
Jay Varga and for today'sepisode, we're talking something
hitting a little home to theheart with health sciences
because both my mother and mywife are involved in the field
but had nothing to do with rcbcExcept for the fact that I'm
(00:26):
here. So instead of bringing onsome other guests here, we have
Brianna Watson on our CBCnursing student and nursing
assistant at Wiseman children'sRehabilitation Hospital and
Outpatient Rehabilitation Centerin Marlton, New Jersey, as well
as Elizabeth Brendel, AssistantProfessor of Nursing here at
rcbc, with a Master of Sciencein Nursing, an RN which stands
for registered nurse, and a CPNP, which I also had look up
(00:49):
because I'm still learning asyou listen are out there
certified pediatric nursepractitioner, is that correct?
That's correct. Oh, fantastic.Well, ladies, thanks for having
me for coming on the show here.You're welcome.
Thank you. Thanks for having us.You're
welcome. All right. So as rcbcembraces a student first
philosophy, and let's get rightto you Bri right. How do you
like to be called? So? What wasit about rcbc that brought you
(01:12):
here? And why specifically, didyou go into the nursing field?
Well, if I didn't have rcbc, Ididn't really have a backup
plan. It just fit so perfectlywith having the night classes
that you would need it. Andalso, our CPC has a program
called three plus one. Where areyou the registered nurse program
that we have just goes on toyour associates, but what the
(01:33):
three plus one program you canadd on to your bachelors program
through Rowan University. Sothat was kind of a great match
for me.
So how far along are you in theprogram?
I am what is considered ajunior. This is only my second
year though, in the program I amabout to start, or are we'll be
starting med surg in the fall.
Okay, so you're still part ofthe rcbc part. And then you said
(01:54):
in the fall, that's gonna be thesenior part or the rollin part.
So after you graduate from rcbc,yes, you will have your
associates in. As you can test,you can make the test for a
Registered Nurse, take the test.And then you take one year all
online to get your bachelor's,okay.
(02:15):
It's good stuff. You're gettinga lot of people doing this three
plus one program, which My bossloves to hear. And we do some
special promotions there. Sohave you had any class classes
with the professor across theway here? Professor Brando,
I was so lucky to have her as mypeds. Instructor.
Yeah. She seems like a coolteacher. I'm just from my
interactions I've had with youthere, Beth? Well, I
am the only pediatricsprofessor. So she didn't really
(02:38):
have a choice. But we sure didhave a good time.
My favorite so far. I can tellyou, though, probably about the
first 10 minutes into class, Iinterrupted her and said, I
really like you.
I remember that. How'd that makeyou feel? That made me feel
great. It's good when a studentkind of connects with you right
away, right? Yes.
And race class was the eveningclass for pediatrics last
(03:02):
semester. And we just had agreat dynamic in that class
right from the beginning. So Briwas a big part of that. I really
enjoyed that group of students.Every class has its own
personality.
Sure, sure. And it's I mean, Iknow for myself from being a
professor, and it's tough when Ican't get even the human
interaction and that connectionand stuff. So when you have
someone like Bree, that kind ofstands out real quick, I think
(03:23):
it makes your job as a professora little easier to sew with a
pediatric surgeon, I guess, isthat how you landed with
Wiseman?
Actually, it was another studentwho was in our class, who has
worked at Wiseman for probably adecade or so who after
fundamentals after takingfundamentals in nursing, was
(03:43):
able to get me on at Wisemanjust to help with get and
experience with children, whichwill hopefully lead me to being
labor and delivery later on inmy career. Okay, so
what exactly are you doing overthere,
I'm a nursing assistant, whichkind of involves doing a little
bit of everything. It has a lotof changing divers, and taking
temperatures. But it's reallysweet just to be able to
(04:05):
interact with the kids. So atWiseman, the ages range from a
newborn all the way until about21. And you just never know who
you're gonna get what problemthey have. So it's really nice
just to be in that little. It'svery small to it's like only
about 11 rooms. It's veryquaint. So you get to you get to
get to see a lot of things, butyou get to it's very close knit.
(04:29):
So are you applying a lot ofstuff you're learning maybe from
dance class,
and not quite as much because Iam a nursing student. And so,
but Wiseman does work with rcbcso all the nurses there and all
of the people who work there arewell aware of like the nursing
program here. And so they'rereally great about answering any
questions I have or just sayinghey, you're a student right?
(04:49):
Come see this come see why I dothis.
That's great. It's gonna begood. So my learning experience
right there actually might totap on both you because I
haven't really announced it yet.But the wife and I are going to
be expecting
Oh, congratulations. It's thebest news ever. Yeah, no matter
who it's coming from.
Well, unfortunately, we wentthrough, you know, a miscarriage
before that. So it's kind of itmakes it even more important,
you know now, so in our baby.Yeah. And thankfully, and Well,
(05:13):
regardless, it's we've foundit's going to be one because our
other friends had a rainbowtwins. So I was like, We got
lucky no, come back and havesome twin. So we had to learn
how to do this whole changingdiapers and everything else I
wasn't other friends go becausethey just have their newborn is
about four or five months arekind of like right along with
them. So right. So what's beenyour favorite part so far? Going
(05:34):
through all of this with theprogram? Yeah, the program or
even being at the hospital, or Ithink I maybe like step stood
out. So far,
the people that I have met withnursing program, the key to a
nursing program is finding yourstudy group, finding those
people and sticking to them,because they will get you
through it. They're the onlyones who know what you're going
through. So definitely thepeople that I've met through the
program, yeah. And then theopportunities is everyone
(05:56):
staying on board to where you'veseen some because like, last
episode, we talked about it,they're going through education.
And, you know, they go through astudent, student workers and
such are not student workers,like the class AIDS. And then
they said, as they get more indepth into the field, you start
seeing them drop off a littlebit, because they kind of it
gets it'll be a little intenseand stuff,
(06:16):
it does get really intense. Andespecially within being in the
evening class, there's not a lotof us to begin with. Yeah. So we
we, we drop off pretty fast. Buteven in the program, we always
encourage everyone to if youdon't make it through to
continue going, and so youeventually see them again
through other classes.
So what do you think, so far?What's been like maybe the
hardest part of the program? Ifthey really wanted
(06:39):
the sacrifices you have to makethey say that nursing school is
hard, and that it takes atremendous amount of studying.
And you're like, wow, yeah,every, every school you need to
study for every class. But thishas a lot. Yeah, it's a lot, a
lot of sacrifices you have tomake,
but it pays off in the end, too.Right? So changing all those
diapers, you know, having allthat stuff. So where do you so
(07:01):
where do you see yourself, youknow, maybe like five years from
now, like you have to begraduating and stuff you want to
continue to, you know, goschooling, or you want to work
your way up?
Yeah, I have big, big dreams. Iwant to eventually be in labor
and delivery. Definitely gonnacontinue the education. So like
I said, after rcbc I'll be goingto Rowan for my bachelor's. And
(07:22):
I plan to just to work in thefield for a little bit and do my
master's. But my long term goal,as of now, I guess, is to do
eventually be a midwife. So thatwould require just a certificate
and my master's degree. I don'tplan on doing a doctorate
degree, but we will see I don'tI wouldn't put it past
me. Okay. All right. Well, let'sshift the perspective here a
little bit over to the facultyside. Now that we bring in
(07:43):
Professor Ben Brendel, which Ilike to call it, Beth, and, as
always, you know, thanks forcoming on the show. And I know I
know I wanted to have you on theshow just from talking to you
all those events, some somestuff, I can't really talk about
still behind the scenes, somespecial things that you helped
out my department here and themarketing department but she's
an absolute team player. But youknow, your energy, your passion,
(08:03):
you kind of like light up theroom, I can see why students
like where you want to just youknow, they gravitate towards you
or interrupt you, you know, fiveminutes into the into your
teaching lesson. Like just juststop what you're doing right now
this because I just wanna letyou know you're awesome. That's
why I wanted to have you hear.So. Can you give us a little bit
about your, you know, yourcareer, your, your background
and your education, kind of howyou ended up here at rcbc to
(08:27):
teach and what you're teachingExactly?
Well, my first step was becominga nurse. My mom is a nurse. My
grandmother is a nurse. Severalof my Auntie's are nurses. But I
never considered that as acareer option for myself. Until
while I was young, I was 14 or15. And I had a friend, my age
with cystic fibrosis. And so Ispent some time with her in the
(08:49):
hospital, and she did notsurvive. And I remember one
particular evening, I was withher in the hospital, and she had
a headache. And the nurse whowas assigned for her that day
walked into the room, and thatthe atmosphere in the room just
changed. There was a palpablesense of relief that somebody
(09:11):
was here who could help. And thenurse didn't really do anything
except she took my friend in herarms and just held her. And I
remember thinking, I want peopleto feel like that when I come in
the room. I want to be able toalleviate suffering, even just a
(09:32):
little bit like that. And sothat started me on my journey
toward nursing. You know, I gotmy I went straight through the
traditional route and got mybachelor's degree. I was always
a pediatric nurse. I've neverdone anything other than
pediatrics. I had been apediatric hospital nurse for
four years when I went back toschool. I went to Ohio State
(09:57):
University.
I'm a Michigan guy.
Oh no. Good thing. We didn'tknow this. Yeah. All right.
Okay, so I went there for Yeah,I went there for my master's
degree and studied and did allthe things I had to do to be a
nurse practitioner. And in thecourse of doing that, I took a
job as a teaching assistant. SoI was assigned my own clinical
(10:21):
group of students, and I tookthem into the Children's
Hospital where I worked. And Ijust loved it. I loved being
with them in that clinicalenvironment. I loved watching
them learn helping them learntaking care of kids together, I
really felt like this wassomething worthwhile. And I, I
(10:46):
went that route. I did all theschooling and the training, I
still maintain my nursepractitioner license, but my
first love is teaching. And I'vedone that in some capacity ever
since then.
Awesome. I think we're reallylucky to have you here at rcbc.
And again, I kind of feel likeyou as well, because I'm
surrounded by a bunch of nurses.My whole mom's side, right. And
(11:08):
they're all military nurses forthe most part, too. And then my
wife becomes one. I think Ijust, you know, there was
grandmother was a militarynurse. She was a nurse in World
War Two, and she was stationedon the island of New Caledonia
in the South Pacific. And that'swhere she met my grandpa.
Oh, look at that. Yeah, see howlike kind of like
really interesting nursestories. But
(11:29):
yeah, they will say that, like,you know, how daughters kind of
marry their husbands almostremind them of their dad or it's
just kind of like I guess I didthe other way. You know, I'm an
only child so I went to my wifethat you know, she's on a nurse
I remind my mother alwayslooking out for me because I'm
the worst when it comes to youknow, taking care of myself and
how to put band aids on anddoing everything else and like
Airfix me I don't
nurses are wonderful nurturers,but they don't put up with a
(11:51):
whole lot either. No, yeah,definitely not.
My my wife's also a Thai and ontop of that, so. So she's just
like, you know, rub some dirt onit. So, as I always like to ask
the professors, you know, who'sa student that you know, think
would be great on the show? Andright away, you went with Bray?
What was that? What was abouther? Now we can flip the script
a little bit. She said she lovedyou and interrupt your class.
(12:13):
What was it about her that kindof, you know, said could be?
Well, first of all, I know thatBree works at Wiseman and I
thought she would have some goodinsight about working in a
healthcare environment whilebeing a student. I also really
enjoy Bree. She came in did ateddy bear clinic with me at a
(12:34):
preschool. That's one of thethings that we we do in my class
and what's about exactly, we, wetake some health care teaching
out into the community, andthroughout the semester students
and I go to various elementaryschools, and we have the kids
bring in a stuffed friend, ateddy bear, or some other
(12:54):
stuffed friend, and we have thekids be the nurses. And we
provide all kinds of medicalequipment for them to use and
supplies, pretend shots, youknow, all kinds of things. And
it's really a wonderfulexperience for everyone. The
students get to see, we, youknow, we study development, we
(13:18):
study how children developcognitively and physically and
emotionally. And this allowsthem to see kids in their, like
their natural environment. Andit also provides some really
nice experience for the kids.It's therapeutic for them. It's
a learning experience for them.The goal is for them to see
(13:38):
health care personnel inuniforms as their friends so
that if they are ever hurt orsick and have to go into that
environment, it won't be sofrightening for them.
How did you feel about it? Froma student perspective? So
precious? Yeah, so glad we gotto do that. And just seeing
Professor brindle with the kidsto was amazing. Her voice
doesn't change when she'sspeaking to a 50 year old
(14:00):
person, or a five year old. It'salways sweet and so welcoming
manner. Yes, it's, I love it.It's so comforting and exactly
what she wanted to be. So thatmakes sense. But that teddy bear
clinic was amazing. Sodefinitely recommend it for
anyone who has to go through theprogram because it is optional.
Okay. So it was on the volunteerside. So speaking of the program
(14:20):
itself, and I noticed againduring graduation that health
sciences conduct the meta majorand it falls under the umbrella
but there's quite a few variousprograms within the Health
Sciences. Can you elaborate onthat? Like
there are there are so manyoptions. You know, I My
specialty is nursing. So that'swhat I'm most familiar with what
you know, we're all over theretogether and lots of my friends
(14:41):
and colleagues, our faculty andstaff for other programs. So we
have a dental hygiene program.We have medical sonography
program where you learn how todo ultrasounds, we have a
radiology program, we have aparamedic program. You can also
become an EMT over over by Andthen we have some short term
certification programs, you canlearn how to be a telemetry
(15:04):
tech, you can learn how to be aphlebotomist, and collect blood
specimens. You can learn how tobe any eg Tech Tech. So there's
lots of different options. Andthen we have an entire
department devoted to healthcaretechnology. So this is health
information technology. And soif you have an interest in the
(15:26):
tech side of healthcare, thecomputers, the the billing the
medical records, then we havethat angle as well.
Now our CBC has a lot of stuffto, you know, pretty much up to
date and everything.
Yeah, yeah. And what we've doneis we've communicated with the
health care industry, in ourcounty, through workforce
development, and even justourselves, and we try and keep
(15:47):
our finger on what the industryneeds in our community are. And
we have actually developedprograms in response to the
employers in the area tellingus, we really need you to come
up with a phlebotomy program, wereally need you to come up with
a tele tech program, becausethat's what we're hiring, that's
what we need. So it's a reallygood relationship, especially
(16:08):
for employment prospects for ourgraduates.
Yeah, it's great for thosestudents that come right out,
like I said, with rewrite here,but you're, you know, off and
running, you know, so you get,you're graduating and you're
kind of ready to go. So, let'sflip it now to from when you
were first a student, you know,to now yourself teaching what is
kind of outside the pandemic, ofcourse, goes home, I'll get that
(16:31):
in a second. So what is readythings kind of changed the most
so much in the industry, call mefrom student to,
from teaching, I spent 20 yearsas as a hospital nurse. And it's
very hard to describe theintensity of that work. Even on
a day or in a moment, whenyou're not rushing around Busy,
busy busy, the potential isalways there for things to start
(16:53):
to circle the drain. And sothere's a sense of just constant
vigilance, there's so muchcritical thinking that you have
to do all the time, you can'tturn your brain off ever. So
it's a very, very intenseexperience to work, especially
as a nurse. So I did that for 20years. And I transitioned to
(17:17):
full time teaching, because Iwas ready to be a step removed
most of the time, and focus ontraining of the next generation.
So with his next generation,what's your favorite part about
being in that classroom?
I love to help other peoplelearn, whether it's a student,
(17:37):
or a friend, or one of my kids.That's what lights me up is
being part of helping somebodymake connections, maybe think in
a different way. I'd love tochallenge people's thinking and
say, Have you ever thought aboutit this way? One of my the most
(17:59):
important things for me tocommunicate to students as to
how to be an advocate. We talkabout that, during every class.
You know, this is how thisparticular disease or healthcare
problem is treated. Now let'stalk about who has access to
that treatment. Who doesn't haveaccess to that treatment? What
needs to change? So I love totalk about little details. And I
(18:23):
love to talk about big ideas.And I'd love to see the light
bulb go on for someone else,even if they're starting to
think in a different way.
Did you ever see the light bulbgo above Ray's head?
Oh, of course. Free was fun.Because Bree, we're at we have a
very, very interactiveclassroom. And you know, I asked
(18:45):
for volunteers to, to help meexpress an idea or do something
and Bree can be a little bitreserved. And it was fun, but
forced
to sit in the front row.
Volunteer Yes, yes. Right. Soshe was such a good sport about
it. But I could see that thatwas a stretch for her. And it
(19:07):
was fun to watch her becomecomfortable in that classroom
and be more and more willing to,to speak up. Let the rest of us
know what she was thinking thatwas fun.
So how to now now kind of likethe heavier part of the program,
but how did the pandemicespecially in the nursing world,
because obviously that was hithardest, I would say, you know,
I even get to my food drop storyin a second about taking trying
(19:29):
to take care of the nurses,because I know the stress and
the intensity that went through,obviously, you know, firsthand
basis being there in thehospitals and stuff. But
obviously it affects theclassroom to it because you're
trying to get students that are,you know, ready for all of this.
Right? You know, it wasinteresting, we had to strike a
balance because the firstinstinct of our clinical
affiliates was we can't havestudents here because it's too
dangerous for them. And there'sa lot lot of liability and
(19:53):
having students in anenvironment where there's an a
pandemic happening. From ourpoint of view, we presented the
idea that we will provide thePPE, we will fit test our
students for the respiratoryequipment that they need to be
safe in your environment, we'lltake care of that half. But
please allow us to be part ofthe solution. Please allow our
(20:16):
students to be part of treatingpatients. And that started
slowly, the first thing ourstudents got involved in was
being part of a call center forthe county. And so they had no
exposure to infected patients atthat time, they simply went to a
call center and answered phones.For people who didn't wanted to
know about testing, people who'dbeen diagnosed with COVID and
(20:39):
had questions. So that was ourfirst involvement with the
pandemic. And that was very,very well received. And our
students really enjoyed that.The next thing that we got
involved in was our students, westaffed some of the early
testing sites over at the thecounty patients would drive in
(21:00):
and the students were involvedin doing the testing sure them.
And then after that, thehospital started to let us
return to in person clinical.And at first, our students were
not allowed to take care ofanyone who might even remotely
have been exposed to or haveCOVID. But that quickly changed
because we learned that anybodycould have COVID, you could have
(21:25):
a patient who was in youremergency room or your hospital
unit with, you know, a strokesymptoms, when really what was
happening was that they hadCOVID. So over time, our
students were allowed to get alittle bit more involved.
Another thing that we wereinvolved in very, very early on
was the vaccine effort. Soalmost as soon as the vaccine
(21:45):
was developed, and in ourcommunity, we started having
mega sites for delivering those,our students were involved right
away. That was very exciting. Ivolunteered myself down at Rowan
Medical School's vaccine site,and we involved our students as
soon as we could. We made asmany connections as we could to
(22:07):
get them in there. So I feellike our students have been on
the frontlines from thebeginning, that the balance was
keeping them safe. Yeah, Ialways feel so responsible for
the students that are under mycare, I almost feel like it's a
sacred trust, that everysemester, a certain certain
number of students are given tome. And it's an honor to teach
(22:30):
them. And in the clinicalenvironment, I feel so
responsible for their their wellbeing their safety, their
learning. And so that tensionwas always there.
So from the student perspective,Bree, you were, I guess, if the
timeline finds out your firstyear of school, maybe one COVID
Another pandemic was breakingout,
I, I was actually takingmicrobiology here at rcbc, when,
(22:54):
in January of 2020, when COVIDhad just, you know, crossed with
us. So we thought and so thatwas amazing, just to see it. I
was in the class to learn aboutit. You know, we were learning
about basic cells, and all of asudden, now we're trying to
comprehend a pandemic. Andthat's when classes went
virtual. But my class, mynursing class was the first ones
that were able to return toclinical.
(23:16):
So how was it? Did you do any ofthese gone to the sites or
anything like that, or that
wasn't a part of my program yet?Although it does sound I would
have it sounds amazing to do allthose things. But yeah, we were
the first ones that were able toget back into the hospital. We
were
so thrilled when that happened.It's very, a lot of our clinical
experiences had to go virtual,which is hard to do. Yeah,
trying to teach a nurse how tobe a nurse. Right? Could
(23:37):
you imagine having a nursecoming to you and had never
touched a patient before?
Yeah, no. Yeah,
we had to get him back in there.
I mean, this is somethingtotally different. Where I had a
one time I had an adult at myface, right. And I could tell
the nurse, the nurse was intraining, never give stitches
before you know and but they'reable to do hands on stuff. So I
can only imagine trying to learnvirtual wasn't a great
(23:59):
experience, too, by the way,because he was he kept shooting
me in a nerve and it was hittingthe wrong nerve. And at one
point, I was like, just do ithockey style. Is it what does
hockey style me and I'm like, Idon't know, toughen me up. I
don't just just start stitchingme up, like right there on the
spot. You know, old were you. Iwas. I was actually just a
couple of years ago, actuallywas right before us was to get
married and my wife's firstthoughts were picked up. Yes.
(24:22):
Sure. Yes. So of course, I 15stitches, I had five on the
outside of my lip on the insideof my lip here, five on my cheek
or whatever. But the guy keptmissing a nerve. So at one
point, he would shoot me withthe nerve, and then he'd go to
stitch me up and I'm stillfeeling it. He's like, Oh, you
feel that? I'm like, yeah, andthen he tried to shoot me again.
And I'm like, so I feel thepinch pinch of the nerve, you
know, from the Novocaine. Andthen, on top of that, I'd still
(24:43):
feel and I told him stop, like,just start touching me up, and
I'll break my wife's hand justfrom squeezing. That sounds
harrowing. Yeah, it was not agood experience. So I can again,
I can kind of imagine here whereit's just like you, you need
that. Even when I was trying toteach I was teaching radio
production with these audioconsoles and stuff and I
couldn't do it virtually. So itwas definitely challenging. But,
but I think we all grow from itas a human civilization. And
we'll you know, be ready for thenext one. And hopefully we don't
(25:05):
monkey pox now is we're just logon to Twitter. And I'm like, I
just want to show this app downnow. You know, do some of the
stuff. But okay, so happythoughts. Because you know,
before we get out of here andstuff, I just, you know, like to
go into the night with the mindof a nurse, because again, you
were the frontlines, and I did awhole bunch of food donations,
trying to take care of nurses,because again, it hit home to
me. And I know, a lot of myfriends who are stressing out
(25:27):
because we don't have theinformation out from what COVID
was, and you're out there on thefrontlines, and all these sick
people are coming going, andthere's no vaccine vaccines at
the time, too. So the best Icould do on I knew was that I'm
getting goosebumps kind oftalking about it now was, I need
to feed you, because you're notgetting any times and it's hard
when dressed up and all that PPEand you only get like a little
bit of a break and the waves ofpeople are kind of coming in. So
(25:48):
that
was a wonderful thing to do. AndI can tell you, you know, having
been in that clinicalenvironment for so many years,
any acknowledgement of what wedo is so appreciated. And I
can't tell you how many 12 hourshifts that I spent even before
the pandemic where if someonehad dropped off pizza, and I
could have just eaten while Iwas running around like a
(26:10):
lunatic trying to get my my workdone. That That just means so
much. And I just want to saythat those nurses are still
there, and their pandemic isn'tover. They they, what they've
experienced is akin to fightingin a war really, and they're
(26:32):
tired. And so I feel acutelythat part of my job is to, you
know, help educate theirreinforcements, and educate them
well, so that they can join inthe world of health care, and be
ready.
Well, I think you're doing afantastic job so far. I Oh,
(26:53):
yeah. Last year, right here inthe moment, right? I
mean, what if all of ourstudents were like, Bree, we'd
be in great shape?
Well, actually, that brings meto a great point here because I
have two trivia questions. I'mgonna see how well maybe both
you know, your nursing educationput you on the spot a little
bit. Ready? Maybe? And anybodycan answer it anytime. There's
no buzzers or anything likethat. You just gotta you know if
(27:15):
you know the answer, and you canshout it out. If not, you can
look at each other. But this isaudio spots. pressures on.
Alright. So why did the nurseneed a red crayon?
You got me? Oh, come
on your pizza nurse. Well,
everybody needs a request. Gotta
have a silly answer.
To draw blood. All right. Allright. So the other one, why are
(27:42):
nurses afraid of the outdoors?
Because they don't like bears?Bad guess.
I'm just not quite clever enoughfor that's okay.
That's why I'd like to do thiskind of brain. This is my this
is my commercial broadcastingcoming out and just throwing
oddball questions out. But whyare nurses afraid of the
outdoors? Too much poison ivy.Be here all night, folks. Now,
(28:10):
so um, that I think, you know, agood point to kind of drop off
here is, you know, I want tothank both you again, because it
does take your time you're in aclassroom and they said you
doing the volunteer work andjust said the battle is still
not over and don't think it'sever going to be over,
especially with this new one.Let me know what monkeypox is.
But you know, again, thanks forcoming on the show and spending
some time with me to helppromote the program to for the
(28:30):
potential the next generation ofsome nursing students and
promoted stuff here at rcbc. Butthanks for having us. Yeah. Is
there anything else you wouldlike to say? Or maybe like a
student that's thinking aboutgetting into the field at all?
Do it, you can handle it. Youcan are smart enough, do it.
And nursing is hard. There's nogetting around the fact that
(28:52):
it's hard. Yeah. But I just wantto put the reminder out there
that most things that are reallyworth doing are hard. Just
because it's hard, doesn't meanyou can't do it. And I hope that
that you will.
Well, again, well, thanks forcoming on the show once you had
a mom or a pet or anything likethat to
call out to all all the littlebrowsers out there they are.
(29:13):
Yeah.
All right. Well, that's gonna doit for this episode here on the
program pod. And I hope youenjoyed today's show. So I want
to thank our guests again todayfor bringing a little more
insight into health scientistsand especially nursing programs
here at rcbc. Against onceagain, Rihanna Watson, the rcbc
nursing student and a nursingassistant at Wiseman children's
Rehabilitation Hospital andOutpatient Rehabilitation Center
in Marlton. And of course,Elizabeth Brendel, the assistant
(29:35):
professor, who I think you needto sign up for her class, get it
in there if you didn't, alreadythinking about it, you know,
well, if you're gonna be in thepeds then you're gonna be
getting her anyway. So, onceagain, I'm Jay Varga and if you
want to learn more about ourcvcs programs, visit rcbc.edu
and for other rcbc podcasts weare going on offering the newly
launched Baroness podcasthighlighting powerful women in
(29:55):
Burlington County you can visitrcbc.edu/podcasts And also be
sure to subscribe so The programpod on any platform where you
get your podcasts till next timethanks for listening
Hello and welcome to the program pod A production of
the rcbc Podcast Network wherewe take an rcbc program and do a
deep dive from differentperspectives within the program.
And thanks for joining theconversation with me, your host
Jay Varga and for today'sepisode, we're talking something
hitting a little home to theheart with health sciences
because both my mother and mywife are involved in the field
but had nothing to do with rcbcExcept for the fact that I'm
(00:26):
here. So instead of bringing onsome other guests here, we have
Brianna Watson on our CBCnursing student and nursing
assistant at Wiseman children'sRehabilitation Hospital and
Outpatient Rehabilitation Centerin Marlton, New Jersey, as well
as Elizabeth Brendel, AssistantProfessor of Nursing here at
rcbc, with a Master of Sciencein Nursing, an RN which stands
for registered nurse, and a CPNP, which I also had look up
(00:49):
because I'm still learning asyou listen are out there
certified pediatric nursepractitioner, is that correct?
That's correct. Oh, fantastic.Well, ladies, thanks for having
me for coming on the show here.You're welcome.
Thank you. Thanks for having us.You're
welcome. All right. So as rcbcembraces a student first
philosophy, and let's get rightto you Bri right. How do you
like to be called? So? What wasit about rcbc that brought you
(01:12):
here? And why specifically, didyou go into the nursing field?
Well, if I didn't have rcbc, Ididn't really have a backup
plan. It just fit so perfectlywith having the night classes
that you would need it. Andalso, our CPC has a program
called three plus one. Where areyou the registered nurse program
that we have just goes on toyour associates, but what the
(01:33):
three plus one program you canadd on to your bachelors program
through Rowan University. Sothat was kind of a great match
for me.
So how far along are you in theprogram?
I am what is considered ajunior. This is only my second
year though, in the program I amabout to start, or are we'll be
starting med surg in the fall.
Okay, so you're still part ofthe rcbc part. And then you said
(01:54):
in the fall, that's gonna be thesenior part or the rollin part.
So after you graduate from rcbc,yes, you will have your
associates in. As you can test,you can make the test for a
Registered Nurse, take the test.And then you take one year all
online to get your bachelor's,okay.
(02:15):
It's good stuff. You're gettinga lot of people doing this three
plus one program, which My bossloves to hear. And we do some
special promotions there. Sohave you had any class classes
with the professor across theway here? Professor Brando,
I was so lucky to have her as mypeds. Instructor.
Yeah. She seems like a coolteacher. I'm just from my
interactions I've had with youthere, Beth? Well, I
am the only pediatricsprofessor. So she didn't really
(02:38):
have a choice. But we sure didhave a good time.
My favorite so far. I can tellyou, though, probably about the
first 10 minutes into class, Iinterrupted her and said, I
really like you.
I remember that. How'd that makeyou feel? That made me feel
great. It's good when a studentkind of connects with you right
away, right? Yes.
And race class was the eveningclass for pediatrics last
(03:02):
semester. And we just had agreat dynamic in that class
right from the beginning. So Briwas a big part of that. I really
enjoyed that group of students.Every class has its own
personality.
Sure, sure. And it's I mean, Iknow for myself from being a
professor, and it's tough when Ican't get even the human
interaction and that connectionand stuff. So when you have
someone like Bree, that kind ofstands out real quick, I think
(03:23):
it makes your job as a professora little easier to sew with a
pediatric surgeon, I guess, isthat how you landed with
Wiseman?
Actually, it was another studentwho was in our class, who has
worked at Wiseman for probably adecade or so who after
fundamentals after takingfundamentals in nursing, was
(03:43):
able to get me on at Wisemanjust to help with get and
experience with children, whichwill hopefully lead me to being
labor and delivery later on inmy career. Okay, so
what exactly are you doing overthere,
I'm a nursing assistant, whichkind of involves doing a little
bit of everything. It has a lotof changing divers, and taking
temperatures. But it's reallysweet just to be able to
(04:05):
interact with the kids. So atWiseman, the ages range from a
newborn all the way until about21. And you just never know who
you're gonna get what problemthey have. So it's really nice
just to be in that little. It'svery small to it's like only
about 11 rooms. It's veryquaint. So you get to you get to
get to see a lot of things, butyou get to it's very close knit.
(04:29):
So are you applying a lot ofstuff you're learning maybe from
dance class,
and not quite as much because Iam a nursing student. And so,
but Wiseman does work with rcbcso all the nurses there and all
of the people who work there arewell aware of like the nursing
program here. And so they'rereally great about answering any
questions I have or just sayinghey, you're a student right?
(04:49):
Come see this come see why I dothis.
That's great. It's gonna begood. So my learning experience
right there actually might totap on both you because I
haven't really announced it yet.But the wife and I are going to
be expecting
Oh, congratulations. It's thebest news ever. Yeah, no matter
who it's coming from.
Well, unfortunately, we wentthrough, you know, a miscarriage
before that. So it's kind of itmakes it even more important,
you know now, so in our baby.Yeah. And thankfully, and Well,
(05:13):
regardless, it's we've foundit's going to be one because our
other friends had a rainbowtwins. So I was like, We got
lucky no, come back and havesome twin. So we had to learn
how to do this whole changingdiapers and everything else I
wasn't other friends go becausethey just have their newborn is
about four or five months arekind of like right along with
them. So right. So what's beenyour favorite part so far? Going
(05:34):
through all of this with theprogram? Yeah, the program or
even being at the hospital, or Ithink I maybe like step stood
out. So far,
the people that I have met withnursing program, the key to a
nursing program is finding yourstudy group, finding those
people and sticking to them,because they will get you
through it. They're the onlyones who know what you're going
through. So definitely thepeople that I've met through the
program, yeah. And then theopportunities is everyone
(05:56):
staying on board to where you'veseen some because like, last
episode, we talked about it,they're going through education.
And, you know, they go through astudent, student workers and
such are not student workers,like the class AIDS. And then
they said, as they get more indepth into the field, you start
seeing them drop off a littlebit, because they kind of it
gets it'll be a little intenseand stuff,
(06:16):
it does get really intense. Andespecially within being in the
evening class, there's not a lotof us to begin with. Yeah. So we
we, we drop off pretty fast. Buteven in the program, we always
encourage everyone to if youdon't make it through to
continue going, and so youeventually see them again
through other classes.
So what do you think, so far?What's been like maybe the
hardest part of the program? Ifthey really wanted
(06:39):
the sacrifices you have to makethey say that nursing school is
hard, and that it takes atremendous amount of studying.
And you're like, wow, yeah,every, every school you need to
study for every class. But thishas a lot. Yeah, it's a lot, a
lot of sacrifices you have tomake,
but it pays off in the end, too.Right? So changing all those
diapers, you know, having allthat stuff. So where do you so
(07:01):
where do you see yourself, youknow, maybe like five years from
now, like you have to begraduating and stuff you want to
continue to, you know, goschooling, or you want to work
your way up?
Yeah, I have big, big dreams. Iwant to eventually be in labor
and delivery. Definitely gonnacontinue the education. So like
I said, after rcbc I'll be goingto Rowan for my bachelor's. And
(07:22):
I plan to just to work in thefield for a little bit and do my
master's. But my long term goal,as of now, I guess, is to do
eventually be a midwife. So thatwould require just a certificate
and my master's degree. I don'tplan on doing a doctorate
degree, but we will see I don'tI wouldn't put it past
me. Okay. All right. Well, let'sshift the perspective here a
little bit over to the facultyside. Now that we bring in
(07:43):
Professor Ben Brendel, which Ilike to call it, Beth, and, as
always, you know, thanks forcoming on the show. And I know I
know I wanted to have you on theshow just from talking to you
all those events, some somestuff, I can't really talk about
still behind the scenes, somespecial things that you helped
out my department here and themarketing department but she's
an absolute team player. But youknow, your energy, your passion,
(08:03):
you kind of like light up theroom, I can see why students
like where you want to just youknow, they gravitate towards you
or interrupt you, you know, fiveminutes into the into your
teaching lesson. Like just juststop what you're doing right now
this because I just wanna letyou know you're awesome. That's
why I wanted to have you hear.So. Can you give us a little bit
about your, you know, yourcareer, your, your background
and your education, kind of howyou ended up here at rcbc to
(08:27):
teach and what you're teachingExactly?
Well, my first step was becominga nurse. My mom is a nurse. My
grandmother is a nurse. Severalof my Auntie's are nurses. But I
never considered that as acareer option for myself. Until
while I was young, I was 14 or15. And I had a friend, my age
with cystic fibrosis. And so Ispent some time with her in the
(08:49):
hospital, and she did notsurvive. And I remember one
particular evening, I was withher in the hospital, and she had
a headache. And the nurse whowas assigned for her that day
walked into the room, and thatthe atmosphere in the room just
changed. There was a palpablesense of relief that somebody
(09:11):
was here who could help. And thenurse didn't really do anything
except she took my friend in herarms and just held her. And I
remember thinking, I want peopleto feel like that when I come in
the room. I want to be able toalleviate suffering, even just a
(09:32):
little bit like that. And sothat started me on my journey
toward nursing. You know, I gotmy I went straight through the
traditional route and got mybachelor's degree. I was always
a pediatric nurse. I've neverdone anything other than
pediatrics. I had been apediatric hospital nurse for
four years when I went back toschool. I went to Ohio State
(09:57):
University.
I'm a Michigan guy.
Oh no. Good thing. We didn'tknow this. Yeah. All right.
Okay, so I went there for Yeah,I went there for my master's
degree and studied and did allthe things I had to do to be a
nurse practitioner. And in thecourse of doing that, I took a
job as a teaching assistant. SoI was assigned my own clinical
(10:21):
group of students, and I tookthem into the Children's
Hospital where I worked. And Ijust loved it. I loved being
with them in that clinicalenvironment. I loved watching
them learn helping them learntaking care of kids together, I
really felt like this wassomething worthwhile. And I, I
(10:46):
went that route. I did all theschooling and the training, I
still maintain my nursepractitioner license, but my
first love is teaching. And I'vedone that in some capacity ever
since then.
Awesome. I think we're reallylucky to have you here at rcbc.
And again, I kind of feel likeyou as well, because I'm
surrounded by a bunch of nurses.My whole mom's side, right. And
(11:08):
they're all military nurses forthe most part, too. And then my
wife becomes one. I think Ijust, you know, there was
grandmother was a militarynurse. She was a nurse in World
War Two, and she was stationedon the island of New Caledonia
in the South Pacific. And that'swhere she met my grandpa.
Oh, look at that. Yeah, see howlike kind of like
really interesting nursestories. But
(11:29):
yeah, they will say that, like,you know, how daughters kind of
marry their husbands almostremind them of their dad or it's
just kind of like I guess I didthe other way. You know, I'm an
only child so I went to my wifethat you know, she's on a nurse
I remind my mother alwayslooking out for me because I'm
the worst when it comes to youknow, taking care of myself and
how to put band aids on anddoing everything else and like
Airfix me I don't
nurses are wonderful nurturers,but they don't put up with a
(11:51):
whole lot either. No, yeah,definitely not.
My my wife's also a Thai and ontop of that, so. So she's just
like, you know, rub some dirt onit. So, as I always like to ask
the professors, you know, who'sa student that you know, think
would be great on the show? Andright away, you went with Bray?
What was that? What was abouther? Now we can flip the script
a little bit. She said she lovedyou and interrupt your class.
(12:13):
What was it about her that kindof, you know, said could be?
Well, first of all, I know thatBree works at Wiseman and I
thought she would have some goodinsight about working in a
healthcare environment whilebeing a student. I also really
enjoy Bree. She came in did ateddy bear clinic with me at a
(12:34):
preschool. That's one of thethings that we we do in my class
and what's about exactly, we, wetake some health care teaching
out into the community, andthroughout the semester students
and I go to various elementaryschools, and we have the kids
bring in a stuffed friend, ateddy bear, or some other
(12:54):
stuffed friend, and we have thekids be the nurses. And we
provide all kinds of medicalequipment for them to use and
supplies, pretend shots, youknow, all kinds of things. And
it's really a wonderfulexperience for everyone. The
students get to see, we, youknow, we study development, we
(13:18):
study how children developcognitively and physically and
emotionally. And this allowsthem to see kids in their, like
their natural environment. Andit also provides some really
nice experience for the kids.It's therapeutic for them. It's
a learning experience for them.The goal is for them to see
(13:38):
health care personnel inuniforms as their friends so
that if they are ever hurt orsick and have to go into that
environment, it won't be sofrightening for them.
How did you feel about it? Froma student perspective? So
precious? Yeah, so glad we gotto do that. And just seeing
Professor brindle with the kidsto was amazing. Her voice
doesn't change when she'sspeaking to a 50 year old
(14:00):
person, or a five year old. It'salways sweet and so welcoming
manner. Yes, it's, I love it.It's so comforting and exactly
what she wanted to be. So thatmakes sense. But that teddy bear
clinic was amazing. Sodefinitely recommend it for
anyone who has to go through theprogram because it is optional.
Okay. So it was on the volunteerside. So speaking of the program
(14:20):
itself, and I noticed againduring graduation that health
sciences conduct the meta majorand it falls under the umbrella
but there's quite a few variousprograms within the Health
Sciences. Can you elaborate onthat? Like
there are there are so manyoptions. You know, I My
specialty is nursing. So that'swhat I'm most familiar with what
you know, we're all over theretogether and lots of my friends
(14:41):
and colleagues, our faculty andstaff for other programs. So we
have a dental hygiene program.We have medical sonography
program where you learn how todo ultrasounds, we have a
radiology program, we have aparamedic program. You can also
become an EMT over over by Andthen we have some short term
certification programs, you canlearn how to be a telemetry
(15:04):
tech, you can learn how to be aphlebotomist, and collect blood
specimens. You can learn how tobe any eg Tech Tech. So there's
lots of different options. Andthen we have an entire
department devoted to healthcaretechnology. So this is health
information technology. And soif you have an interest in the
(15:26):
tech side of healthcare, thecomputers, the the billing the
medical records, then we havethat angle as well.
Now our CBC has a lot of stuffto, you know, pretty much up to
date and everything.
Yeah, yeah. And what we've doneis we've communicated with the
health care industry, in ourcounty, through workforce
development, and even justourselves, and we try and keep
(15:47):
our finger on what the industryneeds in our community are. And
we have actually developedprograms in response to the
employers in the area tellingus, we really need you to come
up with a phlebotomy program, wereally need you to come up with
a tele tech program, becausethat's what we're hiring, that's
what we need. So it's a reallygood relationship, especially
(16:08):
for employment prospects for ourgraduates.
Yeah, it's great for thosestudents that come right out,
like I said, with rewrite here,but you're, you know, off and
running, you know, so you get,you're graduating and you're
kind of ready to go. So, let'sflip it now to from when you
were first a student, you know,to now yourself teaching what is
kind of outside the pandemic, ofcourse, goes home, I'll get that
(16:31):
in a second. So what is readythings kind of changed the most
so much in the industry, call mefrom student to,
from teaching, I spent 20 yearsas as a hospital nurse. And it's
very hard to describe theintensity of that work. Even on
a day or in a moment, whenyou're not rushing around Busy,
busy busy, the potential isalways there for things to start
(16:53):
to circle the drain. And sothere's a sense of just constant
vigilance, there's so muchcritical thinking that you have
to do all the time, you can'tturn your brain off ever. So
it's a very, very intenseexperience to work, especially
as a nurse. So I did that for 20years. And I transitioned to
(17:17):
full time teaching, because Iwas ready to be a step removed
most of the time, and focus ontraining of the next generation.
So with his next generation,what's your favorite part about
being in that classroom?
I love to help other peoplelearn, whether it's a student,
(17:37):
or a friend, or one of my kids.That's what lights me up is
being part of helping somebodymake connections, maybe think in
a different way. I'd love tochallenge people's thinking and
say, Have you ever thought aboutit this way? One of my the most
(17:59):
important things for me tocommunicate to students as to
how to be an advocate. We talkabout that, during every class.
You know, this is how thisparticular disease or healthcare
problem is treated. Now let'stalk about who has access to
that treatment. Who doesn't haveaccess to that treatment? What
needs to change? So I love totalk about little details. And I
(18:23):
love to talk about big ideas.And I'd love to see the light
bulb go on for someone else,even if they're starting to
think in a different way.
Did you ever see the light bulbgo above Ray's head?
Oh, of course. Free was fun.Because Bree, we're at we have a
very, very interactiveclassroom. And you know, I asked
(18:45):
for volunteers to, to help meexpress an idea or do something
and Bree can be a little bitreserved. And it was fun, but
forced
to sit in the front row.
Volunteer Yes, yes. Right. Soshe was such a good sport about
it. But I could see that thatwas a stretch for her. And it
(19:07):
was fun to watch her becomecomfortable in that classroom
and be more and more willing to,to speak up. Let the rest of us
know what she was thinking thatwas fun.
So how to now now kind of likethe heavier part of the program,
but how did the pandemicespecially in the nursing world,
because obviously that was hithardest, I would say, you know,
I even get to my food drop storyin a second about taking trying
(19:29):
to take care of the nurses,because I know the stress and
the intensity that went through,obviously, you know, firsthand
basis being there in thehospitals and stuff. But
obviously it affects theclassroom to it because you're
trying to get students that are,you know, ready for all of this.
Right? You know, it wasinteresting, we had to strike a
balance because the firstinstinct of our clinical
affiliates was we can't havestudents here because it's too
dangerous for them. And there'sa lot lot of liability and
(19:53):
having students in anenvironment where there's an a
pandemic happening. From ourpoint of view, we presented the
idea that we will provide thePPE, we will fit test our
students for the respiratoryequipment that they need to be
safe in your environment, we'lltake care of that half. But
please allow us to be part ofthe solution. Please allow our
(20:16):
students to be part of treatingpatients. And that started
slowly, the first thing ourstudents got involved in was
being part of a call center forthe county. And so they had no
exposure to infected patients atthat time, they simply went to a
call center and answered phones.For people who didn't wanted to
know about testing, people who'dbeen diagnosed with COVID and
(20:39):
had questions. So that was ourfirst involvement with the
pandemic. And that was very,very well received. And our
students really enjoyed that.The next thing that we got
involved in was our students, westaffed some of the early
testing sites over at the thecounty patients would drive in
(21:00):
and the students were involvedin doing the testing sure them.
And then after that, thehospital started to let us
return to in person clinical.And at first, our students were
not allowed to take care ofanyone who might even remotely
have been exposed to or haveCOVID. But that quickly changed
because we learned that anybodycould have COVID, you could have
(21:25):
a patient who was in youremergency room or your hospital
unit with, you know, a strokesymptoms, when really what was
happening was that they hadCOVID. So over time, our
students were allowed to get alittle bit more involved.
Another thing that we wereinvolved in very, very early on
was the vaccine effort. Soalmost as soon as the vaccine
(21:45):
was developed, and in ourcommunity, we started having
mega sites for delivering those,our students were involved right
away. That was very exciting. Ivolunteered myself down at Rowan
Medical School's vaccine site,and we involved our students as
soon as we could. We made asmany connections as we could to
(22:07):
get them in there. So I feellike our students have been on
the frontlines from thebeginning, that the balance was
keeping them safe. Yeah, Ialways feel so responsible for
the students that are under mycare, I almost feel like it's a
sacred trust, that everysemester, a certain certain
number of students are given tome. And it's an honor to teach
(22:30):
them. And in the clinicalenvironment, I feel so
responsible for their their wellbeing their safety, their
learning. And so that tensionwas always there.
So from the student perspective,Bree, you were, I guess, if the
timeline finds out your firstyear of school, maybe one COVID
Another pandemic was breakingout,
I, I was actually takingmicrobiology here at rcbc, when,
(22:54):
in January of 2020, when COVIDhad just, you know, crossed with
us. So we thought and so thatwas amazing, just to see it. I
was in the class to learn aboutit. You know, we were learning
about basic cells, and all of asudden, now we're trying to
comprehend a pandemic. Andthat's when classes went
virtual. But my class, mynursing class was the first ones
that were able to return toclinical.
(23:16):
So how was it? Did you do any ofthese gone to the sites or
anything like that, or that
wasn't a part of my program yet?Although it does sound I would
have it sounds amazing to do allthose things. But yeah, we were
the first ones that were able toget back into the hospital. We
were
so thrilled when that happened.It's very, a lot of our clinical
experiences had to go virtual,which is hard to do. Yeah,
trying to teach a nurse how tobe a nurse. Right? Could
(23:37):
you imagine having a nursecoming to you and had never
touched a patient before?
Yeah, no. Yeah,
we had to get him back in there.
I mean, this is somethingtotally different. Where I had a
one time I had an adult at myface, right. And I could tell
the nurse, the nurse was intraining, never give stitches
before you know and but they'reable to do hands on stuff. So I
can only imagine trying to learnvirtual wasn't a great
(23:59):
experience, too, by the way,because he was he kept shooting
me in a nerve and it was hittingthe wrong nerve. And at one
point, I was like, just do ithockey style. Is it what does
hockey style me and I'm like, Idon't know, toughen me up. I
don't just just start stitchingme up, like right there on the
spot. You know, old were you. Iwas. I was actually just a
couple of years ago, actuallywas right before us was to get
married and my wife's firstthoughts were picked up. Yes.
(24:22):
Sure. Yes. So of course, I 15stitches, I had five on the
outside of my lip on the insideof my lip here, five on my cheek
or whatever. But the guy keptmissing a nerve. So at one
point, he would shoot me withthe nerve, and then he'd go to
stitch me up and I'm stillfeeling it. He's like, Oh, you
feel that? I'm like, yeah, andthen he tried to shoot me again.
And I'm like, so I feel thepinch pinch of the nerve, you
know, from the Novocaine. Andthen, on top of that, I'd still
(24:43):
feel and I told him stop, like,just start touching me up, and
I'll break my wife's hand justfrom squeezing. That sounds
harrowing. Yeah, it was not agood experience. So I can again,
I can kind of imagine here whereit's just like you, you need
that. Even when I was trying toteach I was teaching radio
production with these audioconsoles and stuff and I
couldn't do it virtually. So itwas definitely challenging. But,
but I think we all grow from itas a human civilization. And
we'll you know, be ready for thenext one. And hopefully we don't
(25:05):
monkey pox now is we're just logon to Twitter. And I'm like, I
just want to show this app downnow. You know, do some of the
stuff. But okay, so happythoughts. Because you know,
before we get out of here andstuff, I just, you know, like to
go into the night with the mindof a nurse, because again, you
were the frontlines, and I did awhole bunch of food donations,
trying to take care of nurses,because again, it hit home to
me. And I know, a lot of myfriends who are stressing out
(25:27):
because we don't have theinformation out from what COVID
was, and you're out there on thefrontlines, and all these sick
people are coming going, andthere's no vaccine vaccines at
the time, too. So the best Icould do on I knew was that I'm
getting goosebumps kind oftalking about it now was, I need
to feed you, because you're notgetting any times and it's hard
when dressed up and all that PPEand you only get like a little
bit of a break and the waves ofpeople are kind of coming in. So
(25:48):
that
was a wonderful thing to do. AndI can tell you, you know, having
been in that clinicalenvironment for so many years,
any acknowledgement of what wedo is so appreciated. And I
can't tell you how many 12 hourshifts that I spent even before
the pandemic where if someonehad dropped off pizza, and I
could have just eaten while Iwas running around like a
(26:10):
lunatic trying to get my my workdone. That That just means so
much. And I just want to saythat those nurses are still
there, and their pandemic isn'tover. They they, what they've
experienced is akin to fightingin a war really, and they're
(26:32):
tired. And so I feel acutelythat part of my job is to, you
know, help educate theirreinforcements, and educate them
well, so that they can join inthe world of health care, and be
ready.
Well, I think you're doing afantastic job so far. I Oh,
(26:53):
yeah. Last year, right here inthe moment, right? I
mean, what if all of ourstudents were like, Bree, we'd
be in great shape?
Well, actually, that brings meto a great point here because I
have two trivia questions. I'mgonna see how well maybe both
you know, your nursing educationput you on the spot a little
bit. Ready? Maybe? And anybodycan answer it anytime. There's
no buzzers or anything likethat. You just gotta you know if
(27:15):
you know the answer, and you canshout it out. If not, you can
look at each other. But this isaudio spots. pressures on.
Alright. So why did the nurseneed a red crayon?
You got me? Oh, come
on your pizza nurse. Well,
everybody needs a request. Gotta
have a silly answer.
To draw blood. All right. Allright. So the other one, why are
(27:42):
nurses afraid of the outdoors?
Because they don't like bears?Bad guess.
I'm just not quite clever enoughfor that's okay.
That's why I'd like to do thiskind of brain. This is my this
is my commercial broadcastingcoming out and just throwing
oddball questions out. But whyare nurses afraid of the
outdoors? Too much poison ivy.Be here all night, folks. Now,
(28:10):
so um, that I think, you know, agood point to kind of drop off
here is, you know, I want tothank both you again, because it
does take your time you're in aclassroom and they said you
doing the volunteer work andjust said the battle is still
not over and don't think it'sever going to be over,
especially with this new one.Let me know what monkeypox is.
But you know, again, thanks forcoming on the show and spending
some time with me to helppromote the program to for the
(28:30):
potential the next generation ofsome nursing students and
promoted stuff here at rcbc. Butthanks for having us. Yeah. Is
there anything else you wouldlike to say? Or maybe like a
student that's thinking aboutgetting into the field at all?
Do it, you can handle it. Youcan are smart enough, do it.
And nursing is hard. There's nogetting around the fact that
(28:52):
it's hard. Yeah. But I just wantto put the reminder out there
that most things that are reallyworth doing are hard. Just
because it's hard, doesn't meanyou can't do it. And I hope that
that you will.
Well, again, well, thanks forcoming on the show once you had
a mom or a pet or anything likethat to
call out to all all the littlebrowsers out there they are.
(29:13):
Yeah.
All right. Well, that's gonna doit for this episode here on the
program pod. And I hope youenjoyed today's show. So I want
to thank our guests again todayfor bringing a little more
insight into health scientistsand especially nursing programs
here at rcbc. Against onceagain, Rihanna Watson, the rcbc
nursing student and a nursingassistant at Wiseman children's
Rehabilitation Hospital andOutpatient Rehabilitation Center
in Marlton. And of course,Elizabeth Brendel, the assistant
(29:35):
professor, who I think you needto sign up for her class, get it
in there if you didn't, alreadythinking about it, you know,
well, if you're gonna be in thepeds then you're gonna be
getting her anyway. So, onceagain, I'm Jay Varga and if you
want to learn more about ourcvcs programs, visit rcbc.edu
and for other rcbc podcasts weare going on offering the newly
launched Baroness podcasthighlighting powerful women in
(29:55):
Burlington County you can visitrcbc.edu/podcasts And also be
sure to subscribe so The programpod on any platform where you
get your podcasts till next timethanks for listening
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