Nursing Lyfe 101
Welcome to Nursing Lyfe 101! 🩺✨
Join Colby and Christopher, two seasoned nurses navigating the highs and lows of healthcare, as they share personal stories, practical advice, and insights on nursing, wellness, and career growth. Whether you're a student, a new grad, or an experienced RN, Nursing Lyfe 101 is your go-to for real talk on life in scrubs, mental health, and tips to thrive inside and outside the hospital.
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Nursing Lyfe 101
Meet Colby & Christopher: Behind the Scrubs
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Welcome to Nursing Lyfe 101! 🎉 In this very first episode, your hosts, Colby and Christopher, take you on a journey through their nursing careers—sharing the pivotal moments, challenges, and joys that brought them to where they are today.
You’ll get a glimpse into:
🩺 Why Colby and Christopher chose nursing as their career path
💡 The experiences that shaped their perspectives as nurses
🎙️ What inspired them to create Nursing Lyfe 101
Whether you’re a seasoned nurse, a student in scrubs, or someone curious about the realities of nursing, this episode offers a mix of inspiration, humor, and a whole lot of real talk.
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Nursing Career Stories and Experiences
Christopher HendersonWelcome to Nursing Lyfe 101 , the most important nursing class you never got to take in nursing school . We will be traversing different objectives , like interviewing what to do in nursing school , boundaries , burnout and so much more , if this interests you . I hope you are taking good notes because class is now in session . Hello and welcome to Nursing Lyfe 101 . We're so excited to have you here with us as we dive into the world of nursing , sharing our experiences , insights and a little bit of fun along the way . I'm Christopher and I couldn't be happier to introduce my co-host .
Colby DanielsColby . Hello guys , my name is Colby . Together we're going to be bringing you guys real stories , practical tips and discussions about all things nursing , whether you're a fellow nurse or just curious about the life behind the scrubs . We're thrilled to have you join us .
Christopher HendersonSo essentially , this is going to be our first podcast and we have to have introductions to who we are . You obviously know our names , but I guess let's just kind of start out with the whole . How long have you been in nursing question ?
Colby DanielsYeah , we'll start off with the basics . Do you want me to go first ?
Christopher HendersonYeah , I guess you can go first .
Colby DanielsOkay , I'll go first . So I have been a nurse for just over 10 years now , which is wild thinking about how fast that's gone by . But I graduated in 2014, . And , yeah , that's been doing it at the bed , at the bedside too .
Christopher HendersonYeah , that's insane .
Colby DanielsWhich is very rare these days . It's like the rarest of the rare to be at the bedside for 10 years . Um , but that's the kind of crazy I am . And then do you want to ? 10 years 10 years yeah .
Christopher HendersonSo this is 2024 .
Christopher HendersonYou started in 2014 .
Colby DanielsYeah , yeah , well , I mean , we're closer to five years now , or sorry , 11 years . We're closer to 11 years now , or sorry , 11 years now Five years . We're closer to 11 years now Because it would have been May .
Colby DanielsSo , like we're like six months away from May ,
Christopher HendersonCan you believe that ?
Colby DanielsYeah , that's wild ,
Colby Danielsthat's crazy . Yeah , I have not been nursing that long and I haven't been at bedside that long either . I have been a nurse since 2019 , so that would be five years and it would not be six years . Soon it will be in October that I will be going to six years , so I just got my fifth year over with and I've only been in bedside for four of those years . Mm-hmm .
Colby DanielsYeah , yeah , because the last year you were changing it up a little bit .
Christopher HendersonI did . I did change it up . I am now an assistant nurse manager . Unless you consider my side hustle bedside no , I think that's different .
Colby DanielsI think that's a fun , another fun part , really yeah .
Christopher HendersonI don't think that's bedside at all no , I mean .
Colby DanielsI still have some type of clinical or , excuse me , you do , but not critical thinking not in the traditional sense of being in the hospital setting okay so I think it's like yes , you're still doing like one-to-one patient care , that counts definitely , but I think it's so yes , you're still doing like one-to-one patient care , that counts definitely , but I think it's so different . So why don't we talk about the different um things we've done within our like in our nursing careers ? So , like you have , you were talking about your side hustle , so tell them about that yeah , yeah .
Christopher HendersonSo my side hustle is IV therapy . Um , I mix ivy vitamins and I guess it's like a wellness spa . We're slowly adding other stuff . Sermorelin do um and Semaglutide for , like , weight loss and weight management .
Colby DanielsUm yeah , you guys have really grown a lot , I think , since since it first started opening , at least and like you do the the iv drip . You do the iv drips . You even like go to people's houses and do it too , which is cool . You have like a mobile call . Yeah , yeah , you said the Semaglutide like vitamins , and I've learned a lot too through you doing that , like when last year , there's a couple of us that all work in the hospital go on hikes together and I gave myself a concussion when I walked into a branch and I had a terrible headache and Christopher actually was like come in and get a magnesium infusion , It'll help .
Colby DanielsAnd it did . It was awesome .
Christopher HendersonWell , you know , and I don't think a lot of people know the benefits of just having vitamins in general . But , like it is cool because you get to experience , in terms of nursing this , like totally different approach to like healing and like wellness , just totally different
Colby Danielsyeah , I think it's really cool .
Colby DanielsI think when you're in nursing school you hear like oh , what a good career , like you can do so much within that , like you know , being a nurse , and I think it's a good example of showing like something you could do outside of just working in the hospital . That's still like patient care , patient forward care , but it's different and changes it up . It's a lot , I don't know . To me from the outside it looks a lot more fun some days , okay , but then , like in the hospital , what are you doing ?
Christopher HendersonYeah , transplant , so solid organ , abdominal transplant , primarily kidney , pancreas and livers , primarily adults . We're branching out into peds being . I did do air quotes for those that are just listening , for those that are 16 and older , but of adult weight , so that we don't have to worry about any emergency medicine having to convert per weight and stuff like that . And , like I said , I'm no longer at bedside . I did dabble a little bit in vascular surgery when I first started a little bit in vascular surgery when I first started . It was actually the reason why I came to the health system that we're currently working at . But after that , covid hit , because 2020 was a thing and we lost the whole vascular thing and was in cardiac for a little bit .
Colby DanielsYeah , and that's how we met . So I primarily have been working in cardiology my whole career , with a few little bonus things , offshoots of my career . But Christopher and I met on the cardiology floor when we were , for a short time , working together . So , yeah , cardiology , most of my career at the bedside , um , if not all of my career , depending on how you want to look at it , but um , but different , different um experiences . So I , um , yeah , so mostly cardiology . Um , I got a . So I , yeah , so mostly cardiology , I got a .
Colby DanielsMy first job out of college was a was on a acute cards floor . I worked there for a couple of years and did my own style of travel nursing , not purposefully , but decide I'm not from where we currently live and I moved back home after two years of living where we are and it's about I'm from like about 12 hours away from here . So I moved home , worked in like surgical cardiology , post-cardiothoracic surgeries in a step-down unit from the surgical ICU and then only stayed there for about a year and came back to where we live , but a different health system . So I've pretty much been there since 2017 . I did a small stint where I left and did some travel nursing during COVID . So I got to experience a lot of different things during those three years . Primarily , the first two years was just working covid contracts and then my third year I was doing float pool . Um , so I did pretty much everything when I was in the float . Uh , we were in the ed , we did trauma , we did women's health .
Colby DanielsI did get to do some more cardiology things , which was great
Christopher Hendersonwait , wait , wait , wait , wait , time out , did you just say you did , ed ?
Colby Danielsyeah , you didn't know that
Christopher Hendersonno
Colby Danielsyeah , I mean I was
Colby Danielsmore .
Colby DanielsI mean I wasn't . It wasn't like the sense of like I was an ed nurse .
Colby DanielsI was mostly there's like floating helping hands oh , they kind of like , kind of like getting stuck in borders yeah , yeah .
Colby DanielsSo I mean I would . Yeah , we had like one section where it was borders . I'd be there sometimes . Sometimes I'd just be floating around passing meds for people . Sometimes I'd be transferring patients to their units if they got beds in inpatient units .
Colby DanielsI was kind of like a jack of all trades situation when I was in the ED . But yeah , that kind of stuff too , which I actually really enjoyed ED nursing , and before , when I made my decision to come back to the bed side , I considered actually applying um to the ed . But ultimately cardiology has my heart in a twisted way and I have come back again . So when I came back to the current health system that we work at , I took on a charge nurse role which a lot of hospitals . I've been charge nurse at multiple hospitals , and it while as a traveler while staff at other hospitals . The way ours does it is a little bit different and we're kind of like a unit based leader and we have a little more responsibility and leadership than your traditional charge nurse when you think about it . So it's a little bit different , a little bit more involved . But that's about what I do right now .
Christopher HendersonSo you know , with those specialties that you've kind of got to dabble a little bit into , like is there , and we'll talk more about this next week , but is there one you said ED ? Is there one that you're like ? Nah ?
Colby Danielsoh , yeah , oh definitely there's probably two , but we'll save that for next week . There's two there's two , so look forward to that .
Christopher HendersonI'm I'm interested , because I don't have , I mean I've been in two specialties yeah yeah , so I guess here's a weird question that I just came up with . Do you think that makes you a better nurse , that you've kind of seen different specialties ? Are you , like a jack of all trades , master of none , or is nursing more of master of one ? You know .
Colby DanielsYeah , I don't , I definitely don't . I think the only thing that I'm really comfortable in is obviously cardiology after 10 years , but I do think I gain . I don't think it made me a worse nurse to have experience in other specialties . I definitely think like , while we are specialized , it doesn't mean that you're not going to have experience in other specialties . I definitely think like while we are specialized , it doesn't mean that you're not going to have a cardiac patient that ends up with a colostomy , like that happens . So it does kind of give you an advantage and makes you more like knowledgeable . You can help other coworkers with things like oh here , I've actually done this before , let me show you this , or whatever . So I definitely think , yeah , it's definitely beneficial . It makes you a little more well-rounded .
Exploring Nursing Career Opportunities
Christopher HendersonDid you ever like do more than just ? I know , for a matter of fact , that the unit you work on now it has a very high acuity . So calling in an acute level floor is kind of interesting , because you do have prostacyclin drips , you do have LVADs and I mean you take care of those and you you downsize the , the assignment to to kind of reflect more of like an intermediate level of care . Did you just just when you were traveling around , did you just do acute or did you ? Did you venture into ICU at all ?
Colby DanielsExcuse me , not ICU , but I did primarily PCU and IMU floors , so intermediate care , yeah , and then , of course , acute care . I mean , it was pretty rare though , because they the hospital that I did the flow pool at was very cognizant of my PCU IMU skills , because I worked there during COVID and you had to . If you're working on the COVID unit , they required you to have the um , IMU and PCU , experience . Um , and I worked there for so many contracts that I became um like known , I guess is not the word I'm looking for , but they had a good understanding of my capabilities and um , I actually was put into like charge nurse roles in that hospital as well , um , just because they knew who I was , what I was capable of doing and all that . So , um , rarely was I like on a surg floor . It was . I think I probably only worked med-surg a handful of times while I was there , actually , yeah , Huh .
Christopher HendersonSo okay , you were able to do all of this PCU kind of progressive care , IMU type intermediate level workings . Have you thought about ICU ? I mean there's , there's CCU , there's TCV , um , for those that may not know those acronyms , cardiac , uh , coronary care excuse me and uh thoracic cardiovascular .
Colby DanielsYeah , okay , yeah , and sometimes they're called , uh , CVICUs , the the thoracic cardiovascular ICUs , um in other hospitals or other institutions . Um , of course I thought about it , of course I did , um , but at the same time I think , well , there's a couple factors that went into why I haven't . But I think , um , I really love to teach , and I think I've gotten so comfortable in my current workplace setting that it allows me to spend a lot of time teaching , like our new grad nurses and other staff travelers . I think it's something I enjoy so much that if I was moving into an ICU setting like I would be back in the learning seat , which is fine , there's nothing wrong with that . Learning is fun and I mean , I'm still constantly learning every day , but it's not off the table for me . I actually was just talking about it yesterday , like considering maybe moving into the ICU at some point . I don't know , I just really like where I'm at . To be honest , I'm comfortable where I'm at and it's nursing is uncomfortable enough that like .
Colby DanielsSometimes you are like uh , I'm good here , I'm fine , I'm fine , a sense of like , um , well , again , like it goes back to me being like you're back in the learning , learning seat for a little bit , and I think there's also like a sense of seniority , when you've been somewhere long enough and like , um , people look up to you , especially in the charge nurse role . I mean , you're kind of like the coordinator of the floor , all you know your whole shift and it's it's for someone with a classic nursing type A personality . Um , it's hard to take the back right like take , you know , take the back seat and let go of the reins , at least for me . I like where I'm seated , thank you .
Christopher HendersonI am perfectly fine .
Colby DanielsI'm perfectly fine here
Christopher Hendersonit would be interesting .
Christopher HendersonI guess you would probably go more CCU ,
Colby Danielsyeah , and so I'll explain the difference a little bit .
Colby Danielsthe coronary care unit , at least where we work , is more of like the medicine side of ICU cardiology , and the TCV or CVICU at other hospitals is more like the surgical side , and then some hospitals , depending on their size , might have them combined . I think they'd be called something else . But in reference to what we're talking about , the CCU is more like like the medicine side , which is like kind of the big sister of the unit that I work on now in the um , CVICU or is the surgical side . So like right after surgery someone got a valve fixed or an LVAD place . They would go to the other ICU .
Colby DanielsWe kind of manage people in the medicine side who already have these things and whether that be having an LVAD , and they just come in really sick and they need cardiac meds or whatever to kind of boost them back up or tune them up , as we like to say , versus like getting something . But we do small procedures procedures too on our medicine side . Anything that's like transcutaneous or like non-invasive or minimally invasive , I should say like a pacemaker , they'll come to us Like transcutaneous valves they'll come to us Anything that's like a little poke and they go through an artery , they'll come to us .
Christopher HendersonA little poke .
Colby DanielsJust a little poke , just a little stick .
Christopher HendersonThat's kind of an important organ to little poke .
Colby DanielsJust a little . That's how I like to explain it to the patients .
Colby DanielsJust a little poke .
Christopher HendersonGive them this weird . You know we say that for putting in an IV . Oh , you just want to feel a little poke .
Colby DanielsAnd we're laughing like that in our head too . No , just kidding , Mwahaha .
Christopher HendersonMwahaha , so you know you were talking about you enjoy teaching . Have you thought about like actually doing like a clinical , like being a clinical instructor or something like that ?
Colby DanielsYeah , no for sure , I think it's . It's so tricky in the um teaching space . I would like to . But the thing is , is I um with my current degree ? It like it's been 10 years since I graduated and a lot of those credits have expired and a lot of schools require you to have a master's to do clinical engineering , clinical teaching .
Colby DanielsWow , we're going into engineering here I think some of the community colleges near us . There's less restrictions but a lot require master's . I haven't looked that deeply into it . To be honest , it is something that's crossed my mind .
Christopher HendersonWell , I mean , I think , in terms of at least what I've always been told and what my manager has told me , is that you can always teach the degree under you . So if you have a bachelor's , you can , you can teach an associate's . If you have an associate's , you can actually teach LPNs . I think , oh wow . I didn't know that , but you know . Yes , you would have to do the master's , in terms of at least for the bachelor's degree .
Colby DanielsYeah , yeah .
Christopher HendersonSo I think , Are you trying to say you don't want to teach ADN nurses ?
Colby DanielsNo , no , not at all .
Christopher HendersonPutting a big rumor out there right now .
Colby DanielsNo , not at all , that is not true . This is fake news . Um , I totally would . I just haven't gotten past the like , the surface level of research to do it you know .
Colby DanielsI think the other thing is I'm super involved in multiple subcommittees at the health system that we work at , which ties me up . Like I am , I have like three standing meetings a week on top of my three shifts , and they're not always , um , they're not always on days that I'm working . So it's like , oh , I have to come into the hospital for an hour . Or if it's like a WebEx , like a virtual meeting , I love those days . But I am like I'm pretty tied up in a couple of projects right now and sometimes I just get a little overwhelmed with what's on my plate . But it is on the differential , like I would love to see in the next like two years , uh , like getting getting a clinical teaching , like a clinical teaching job . Yeah , what about you ?
Christopher HendersonAbout which ? What do you ?
Colby Danielsyou don't want to teach , you don't ? I mean , you have talked about having too much on my plate .
Christopher HendersonYeah .
Colby DanielsI really can't even say that's like a joke when I say it in front of Christopher , because Christopher has the fullest plate I've ever seen . I'm actually constantly telling him he needs to like cool his jets , Cool my jets .
Christopher HendersonWell , today I did absolutely nothing , just FYI , I'm very proud of you .
Colby DanielsI mean you deserve it .
Christopher HendersonSo , but no , for real , like I have appreciated the fact that people do .
Teaching and Learning in Nursing
Christopher HendersonMy manager teaches clinicals on the unit and I do enjoy it and I occasionally she'll have to be in a meeting and she's she , she's done it once .
Christopher HendersonI say occasionally , she's only done it once .
Christopher HendersonYeah , watch my kids , yeah , make sure they don't do anything crazy . And it was fun it was . And I mean I do teach right now . I teach a phlebotomy class . Yeah , and that's fun . And it's all kinds of people , it's nurses , it's techs .
Colby DanielsYeah , you get people from all over the hospital .
Christopher HendersonYeah , yeah , and you know , like , like it's a joint effort , so there's a phlebotomist that teaches the like , the process , and then I'm kind of the regulations and rules and boring stuff so boring , stuff side yeah , and . But I do get to be the one that's like , hey , now you can stick an arm .
Colby DanielsHe gives the okay , you got it .
Christopher HendersonSo that is fun . There are just various methods of teaching , and in order to reach a broad audience you have to teach in different ways , even in the same . You know in the same class , like yeah you have to say an example that's red and then you have to turn it to orange and turn it back to yellow , like like you know , like it's just because people's lenses are so different .
Colby DanielsYeah , it's like a foreign language .
Christopher HendersonIt is .
Colby DanielsTo some people and then to others . They , you know they'll learn one way . Yeah , you just have to learn how to be flexible with teaching for sure . Yeah .
Colby DanielsI see that a lot Like we . Um , we had , I think , 11 , um , clin1s is what we call it at our health system , but they're just new grad nurses that started this summer and , um , that's I mean we . Everybody learns different , everybody learns at a different pace . Everybody absorbs information differently . Um , so , yeah , it was a . It was a interesting summer to teach that many at once , but it was fun and they're all off orientation and doing really well right now . Actually , hey , that's the best part yeah , they're killing it honestly .
Christopher HendersonThat's the best part . As ANM , I've learned so much about how they're like . Yes , orientation is great , but it's when you get off of orientation Like . It's so important to make sure they feel supported , make sure that they are not like and I mean because you make mistakes , right , but as a new grad nurse , you have to be okay to be like . I made a mistake . What do I do now ?
Colby DanielsYeah , okay , to be like I made a mistake . What do I do now ? Like yeah , and then , as , like a preceptor , you have to , you know , carry that um like being open and approachable and like take on , like , okay , let's , let's examine what you did , let's figure it out together . Let's , you know , look at it and see what we could have done better , how we could improve that . You know , like you have to be supportive and , um , protective of them , because I mean , I don't know if you remember , but when I was a new grad , I was just , I was constantly second guessing myself . I was like , hey , this is right . Right , even if I knew it was right , I'd go up to my preceptor and be like , so I'm gonna do this and this and this , and they're like yeah , and they're like okay , so that's good , and they're like yeah go somewhere yeah go , you're like , okay , I'm going .
Colby DanielsYou're like , okay , I knew I was right .
Christopher HendersonYou just need a lot of like confidence boost building and boosting all that well , and I mean because it it's people's lives , yeah , yeah like yes , majority of the times any medication that you can give , at least orally , unless you royally screw up .
Colby DanielsWell , there's always room for making mistakes . We don't want that to happen , but you gotta . That's why you're , that's why you get precepted .
Colby DanielsYou don't just graduate , take your boards and get put on the floor
Christopher Hendersonthere's a normal like cadence to a podcast and most podcasts have some type of middle part or a little segment breaker . So we have a segment breaker . I joked and said that it's kind of like the lunch break or in between classes . You get to kind of take a moment and think about something other than the topics that we are discussing as our main points . But we're going to go into what is called nursing wins and woes , where we share the highs and lows of life in scrubs .
Christopher HendersonEvery shift brings its own set of victories and challenges . So this is where we get real about the moments that make us love our job and the ones that test our patience , whether it's a big win , a small triumph or a relatable woe . From the floor , we're here to celebrate and commiserate together . And oh , yeah , yeah . So I guess I will start . You know , as much as people truly like see me as this perfectionist . Unfortunately , there are times where I have kind of like messed up with some stuff . You know I do .
Colby DanielsYou wouldn't know it ,
Christopher HendersonI'm not perfect ,
Colby Danielsunless you saw it with your own eyes .
Christopher HendersonYeah , I'll act like I'm perfect all the time . But you know , there's some small ones , like , for example , we do a nurse-driven protocol for heparin and every six hours we're supposed to check the level if it's not therapeutic . And I had like forgotten to actually put in the order and remembered like eight hours after and I was like ugh . But you know , luckily the person was therapeutic . But that was like kind of one little thing . But I think the major one where I'm like oh yeah , this is , this is really bad and really could have been very , very bad if done , if things weren't caught . I left a Dilaudid PCA in a patient's room or in in the bed , in the bed , in the bed with the patient in the bed patient . Luckily the patient was a nurse and was like this isn't supposed to be here . Excuse me , but you know I didn't even . I didn't put a . We call it be safe .
Colby DanielsOh , what'd I say ? Opportunity for improvement . Yes , yes , yes yes , yeah , every I was saying this earlier every hospital um has some kind of version of this , where it's like , if something uh adverse happens , you want to like analyze the problem , come up with suggestions to fix it and , like a greater group also will look at the situation , but you just like submit it . It's just a safety check , basically , so that it prevents problems from happening again .
Christopher HendersonYeah , and I mean I didn't do it , but it was just a simple thing . I had worked night shift . You know , working a night shift In the morning , you're just ready to go to bed .
Colby DanielsYou're lucky you made it . That's on working night shift .
Christopher HendersonYou're lucky you made it through that's on working night shift . You're lucky , you made it through that's all that really mattered at the moment you and the patient , yeah right um , and so I was , I was trying to be , and I was trying to be a nice nurse . I was , I was new and I was off of orientation . I just , I just thought about this . I was trying to make sure that day shift was set up to be nice , and you know .
Colby DanielsThey have a new stock of syringes
Christopher HendersonRight right , and so I was like we'll just switch to PCA and do the waste at the same time and in the midst of us , and I will be honest , I had forgotten how to do the PCA , so we had to troubleshoot for a little bit . Yeah , yeah , it's tricky yeah , and then I had put the PCA syringe into the actual bed and walked off and that's on night shift right yeah , that's on night shift .
Christopher HendersonYeah , yeah it is , and I didn't I mean , they didn't tell me until I came back the next shift
Colby Danielslike whoops ,
Colby DanielsI was like left that in the bed
Christopher HendersonI'm like why , well , y'all could have called me
Colby DanielsI mean that's that's not that that's bad , but I mean it's only bad because it could have gotten worse
Christopher Hendersonit could have gotten real worse
Colby Danielsbut the first time I heard the story I said , oh well , I mean it's not all on your shoulders .
Colby Danielslike you were with another nurse , like Like you both signed off the new syringe , like she probably went right back in after you left and grabbed it and was like oh crap , and had to waste it with the charge nurse or something . But yeah , yeah , definitely was a woe .
Christopher HendersonIt was . And I definitely remember , like the nurse , that I handed off to the room the patient .
Colby DanielsIt's burned into your memory .
Christopher HendersonIt is engraved .
Colby DanielsOh goodness .
Christopher HendersonWhat about you ?
Colby DanielsAll right , so my woe .
Challenges in Accessing Cardiac MRIs
Colby DanielsWe have an influx of imaging .
Christopher HendersonI'm telling you these SAT words .
Colby DanielsOkay . So our doctors have been ordering so many cardiac MRIs and the wait times on these MRIs are absolutely obscene . Like patients are just sitting in their rooms waiting for an MRI . At minimum cardiac MRI three days days minimum three days . It's insane . Get this . This is crazy Cause Christopher didn't know this . We have two and a half MRIs allocated for inpatient services .
Christopher HendersonThat's crazy .
Colby DanielsTwo and a half .
Colby DanielsThe other half of that one half is for research .
Christopher HendersonSo so . So three and a half days , yeah , three and a half days . A other half of that , one half , is for research . So three and a half days .
Colby DanielsYeah , three and a half days a week from that one machine . That's what accumulates to our use of it . Yeah , averages out . Out of seven days . That's not enough . I mean we work at a level one trauma center . You can imagine the amount of patients that get admitted every single day 600 plus beds . 600 plus beds 600 plus beds and growing . We are , we're building out one of our , our tower . We have like three more floors 28 , 29 beds each .
Colby DanielsYeah , so that's even more patients and they're coming to us . We're a huge facility and they're waiting . They're having to wait for procedures and major surgeries until these MRIs get done . And I mean there's been instances where we're sending people home without getting these stuff done and like we'll just have to schedule you outpatient .
Christopher HendersonFingers crossed .
Colby DanielsFingers crossed and I just heard , actually this week , that the outpatients are like three months . They're scheduling them three months out .
Christopher HendersonThree months . That's insane ,
Colby Danielsyeah . So then the ones that we're keeping , it's like well , you might as well stay here another day . Yeah , the ones that are staying three days minimum . Let me remind you , Three days minimum . I had someone wait like a full five-day workday because they also only do it Monday through Friday .
Christopher HendersonThat's expensive .
Colby DanielsNot like a full five five day work day , because they also only do it monday through friday , that's expensive , not on the weekends , that's ridiculous and that's not . That's not mri imaging , that's the cardiac mri , because you need a specific type of cardiac like radiologist that comes in and like looks at it while it's going on and decides whether or not they need more imaging in a certain area . Um , but yeah , our , our health system is not a 24-7 health system . We work Monday .
Colby DanielsAs funny as that sounds for being a hospital , right , but it's not 24-7 staffed in that way . Right .
Colby DanielsYeah , we kind of work Monday through Friday , so not us but as far as like studies , procedures , specialized imaging , that kind of stuff is only Monday through Friday . So yeah , I've had a patient wait an entire like business week before and they delayed their procedure . Like , I mean , these imaging , I mean the imaging level that they're getting . I mean they can look at um , viability , um it's like basically like a viability study , cardiac stress test , they can look at the inner workings of your valve , um , yeah , so it takes a long time . I mean , I , I I feel bad for these people . You know , some of our patients don't have insurance . No , so they're , and that happened with my win so let me tell you about my win .
Colby DanielsSo I'm gonna tell you about the win before Christopher tells you his win , because mine kind of goes with my . My woe , um , I had this patient . She didn't have insurance and she had been waiting for her MRI and they were like , okay , we're going to keep her here until 7: 30 tonight and we'll just discharge her late um to see if we can get this MRI done , and if not , like we'll just schedule it without patient . That's unfortunate , but like we really want to try so , but she doesn't have insurance . We don't want to try so , but she doesn't have insurance . We don't want to like rack up her day . So she'd already been here for three days , um , and first of all I was saying this earlier the again the cardiac radiologist specialist , whatever they are , they don't stay until 7: 30 , so like , basically , if this doesn't get done by like five the latest , it's not getting done that day . Um , so we're all like sweating or like we're like geez , is this going to happen or not ? Right , and a miracle happened that day . Um , they call us at like 3: 30 and they're like all right , we can get her down here .
Colby DanielsSo I'm like , yes , this is awesome , I send the nurse in cause , I'm in charge and I send the nurse in and she comes back to me . She's a grad nurse and she's like Colby , I have a problem . Um , she has all these piercings and she has this one that she can't get out . Um , I'm like what , and it it's the tragus . I think this like little part of your ear for our camera . So , um , they call us , it's like 3 30 in the afternoon my um nurse goes in there and she comes out and she's like , hey , so we got this problem .
Colby DanielsThe patient has all these piercings and she got all of all the jewelry out , but she has this one in what we think is the tragus . I don't know what part of the ear this is and she can't get it out . She said the last time she got it out it took her brother and her sister in law and like a box of like work work tools , like pliers from the toolbox to get it out and it's been like seven plus years and I was like , oh my god , we have such a small window to get this lady down there . This is bad . So I'm like determined , I'm bound and determined .
Colby DanielsI like go into our clean supply , I go and get some kelly clamps , alligator clamps , whatever you want to call them and I'm like , come on , let's go . So like me and the in the new grad nurse , we go in and like I'm hooking her up in the front , hook it up in the back , I'm twisting and I all of a sudden just got it . It came out and I've never felt like such like pride and relief , and I was like she's gonna get the mri . We were so excited , I was so proud of myself . I was like , oh my god , that's crazy .
Colby DanielsYeah , yeah , nuts that , it takes that long .
Christopher HendersonAnd two Kelly clamps .
Colby DanielsAnd two . Kelly clamps One on each side because it was just like spinning in her ear . I had to like get good grip on both sides .
Christopher HendersonDid you use like gauze ?
Colby Danielsno , I was nervous . I was gonna pinch her like skin she was like you're fine , you're fine , just get it out I was like it's okay if I like break it yeah , like what if it broke ? I was afraid the earring was gonna break . That was gonna break and she was like , no , I've been meaning to change it out for a long time now .
Colby DanielsI'm like , yes , I'm gonna have years , yeah , I was like oh my god , maybe you shouldn't put it back in like I have to , like it's like mine . I have like a thick , like a thick tragus I feel like but I don't know pretty gross . What classifies that ? I don't know . I feel like the tissue just feels , thick . I don't know what the thin one feels like either .
Christopher HendersonI was going to say mine feels pretty thick too , but I don't know what I don't know what .
Colby DanielsUh , I don't know what . Yeah , I don't know where the scale is , but yeah , that was , that was my win
Christopher Hendersonokay , I mean , you know it's very hard to come back after that yeah like why did I let you go first ?
Christopher HendersonI guess my win would definitely be just IV skills . Yeah , yeah , and it's just . It's one of those things that is immediate gratification , Like just like you and you know , being able to pull that . Yeah , you get so much high when you see that flash of blood in a chamber that it's just like oof .
Colby DanielsYou're like yes , I did it again .
Christopher HendersonYeah , yeah , yeah .
Colby DanielsYeah , no , I was saying earlier , the last time we told this story , that Christopher is the fairy godfather of IVs , like , if you can't get it , his staff is like , well , just find Christopher , he can put it in .
Colby DanielsHe knows what he's doing , he's really good , and he is because he actually is really good
Christopher Hendersonand it's just a fun skill and it was one that I was like in nursing school . I'm like I'm gonna get this ,
Colby Danielsyeah , yeah and funny enough . I mean most of our listeners are probably working at work in health care in some form or fashion . But then you know they don't teach us IV skills in nursing school . Why don't they do that ? Too much liability . That goes back to giving you all the puzzle pieces and you build the puzzle in that first year because you don't have any IV skills or phlebotomy skills . And I said this earlier .
Colby DanielsI think we're very fortunate enough to work for a healthcare system that really values the ancillary staff teams and we have phlebotomy team . We have an IV team . A lot of hospitals don't have that anymore . The first hospital I ever worked at didn't have it and nursing staff and the techs and the aides they were phlebotomy and IV and I had great IV skills at one point the first three years out of nursing school . I could put an IV in anybody Like I . Mean I , I work in cardiac . We have a lot of heart failure patients that are just so fluid , filled , edematous that it's really hard to get an IV in a lot of them . I could do that today . I could not . I will . I will own that because I work for a facility that has an IV team and I am a princess . Unfortunately , and fortunately .
Christopher HendersonI fully take advantage .
Colby DanielsYeah , I do . I exercise that right .
Christopher HendersonYeah , that's funny . Yeah , I mean , but you say you can't , you've done it .
Colby DanielsI can if I need to .
Christopher HendersonYeah .
Colby DanielsI've put IVs in you .
Christopher HendersonYeah , exactly .
Colby DanielsI can put an IV in a very healthy individual , and I'm gonna wear that Sticker on my chest . But if you're very edematous . I probably won't be able to hit you , maybe in your foot , if you don't have . Oh god .
Christopher HendersonSome people's feet are yeah Again if you have't have .
Colby DanielsOh god , well , I feel like some , well , no , some people's feet are . Yeah , I just again . If you have edematous feet , I'm not gonna , obviously ,
Christopher Hendersonoh , wait , wait , wait yeah , hold on um , you know , this is something that we want to continue to do , and we want to also include you in on this , because you're nurses too , and or going to be nurses , and you can have wins and woes in nursing school .
Colby DanielsYeah , so you guys can share your wins and woes with us , so don't hesitate to reach out , right , maybe we'll ? We'll feature it on an upcoming episode .
Christopher HendersonPossibly . Yeah , it's very possible . You can email us at nursinglyfe101@ gmail . com . And that's life with a Y , not an I .
Colby DanielsI love that . Or you can tweet us Same thing @Nurse lyfe . Life with a Y , not an I 101 . And we're not saying like our whole name is not life with a Y , not an I , it's nurse life and another thing you hear in nursing school you learn more in your first year than you did probably in however long it took you to get through school . 100 yeah , you learned it on the job 100 yeah yeah , I yeah 100 . Isn't that scary ? Just letting you know .
Christopher HendersonSo schools are unimportant and just throw that away .
Colby DanielsYeah , you don't need to go to school . Be like those people from Florida during COVID who just bought ? Their degree and passed the NCLEX somehow . It's basically what we're saying . It's totally fine . No .
Christopher HendersonIt shows that it is .
Colby DanielsYeah , just kidding . We're're joking , it's not , but there is something to say for the hands-on experience and the like . Pure information download into your brain that first year . Like to put all the pieces together , I would say nursing school gives you all the pieces to the puzzle . Your first year , two years out of school , you're putting the puzzle together truthfully interesting yeah I like that yeah
Colby DanielsI have not heard it that way , but I mean yeah you're collecting pieces for however long you're in school and then you walk out with a box full of puzzle pieces and you're like okay , let's put this together , let's put it all together . You thought that you . You thought that that's what the NCLEX was like you . You're like I put it all together , I pass my boards . No , just kidding . No , when you're putting it in action with real life , real lives in your hands , that's putting the puzzle together .
Christopher HendersonOh gosh , yeah . So I mean we've talked about like education . I guess we probably should mention like our educational backgrounds .
Colby DanielsYeah , what ? What routes we can ? We took because there are so many different paths into nursing and which is so cool , because I think it makes it um , it makes it available to a wider range of people who wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to go to nursing school if there weren't so many different ways to do it .
Different Paths to Nursing School
Colby DanielsSo my course of action into nursing school was more traditional , if that's what you want to call it . Oh , yeah , okay .
Colby DanielsI went to a four-year school liberal arts school , got my BSN off the bat but , as we were just saying , there's a lot of different ways to go about .
Christopher HendersonYeah , I mean , I guess really and truly that showed that you really wanted to go into nursing school and there are so many different ways that you can do this and I never really even thought about it . But you know , I started out as I graduated with a biology degree , so I went to school for four years and then decided I didn't want to actually pursue medical school and got my associate's degree , which I mean it took me six years , but it's completely different Wait wait , actually I have a question .
Colby DanielsIt's interesting that you went and got your ADN and yeah did you think about going like a master's program ? Yeah , so nursing .
Christopher Hendersonyeah , yeah , I guess it kind of goes back to um what you were saying in terms of instructing other people later on . I just didn't do my research . So if honestly , and as someone who has been in the shoes of I , had that opportunity to do that , I would always tell someone to be like just go get your master's degree .
Colby DanielsYeah .
Christopher HendersonBecause then I had to go back and get my bachelor's right .
Colby DanielsYeah , you kind of are doing it in like a little bit roundabout way .
Christopher HendersonRight .
Colby DanielsBut again , there's so many different paths to nursing it's really hard to . It's like if you didn't have that information , like you said , like you wouldn't know . Yeah , and you're like oh , here's this way , though , this is what works for me , and it worked for you .
Christopher HendersonIt did , but the thing was like I could have used the same amount of years . Well , I could have used two less years because I would have already had a master's degree and not had to go back and get a bachelor's degree .
Colby DanielsYeah , that's true . So , like what we're talking about , there's a it's called something different at every school probably , but like a MEPIN or a master's straight into nursing . But you can have a bachelor's degree in like anything else and then if you decide you want to pursue nursing , there's programs where you go to nursing school it's like an accelerated nursing school situation and you get your master's . So you can do it in like two and a half or three years .
Christopher HendersonI don't think I would have , honestly , like I've seen those that have done it now I don't think I would have liked it . I don't think I . I think I think there's an importance in terms of being an ADN , like I . Actually I would like to kind of hear your take on this An associate's degree nurse having two years of experience before that bachelor's degree nurse comes out . I really think it's important .
Colby DanielsYeah , if used appropriately . Yeah , if used appropriately , I think it gives those individuals like an advantage . Like , you already have a lot of skills . An ADN nurse will graduate their ADN program before a BSN nurse and you are getting those skills that I was talking about earlier . With the puzzle pieces . You're putting the puzzle pieces together way earlier .
Christopher HendersonRight .
Colby DanielsYeah , I think there is something to say to that .
Christopher HendersonYeah , and I do think it's important and I've hired those that have had a bachelor's degree before and come in and have a master's degree after their bachelor's and something else , and you know they've been great nurses . I have no problems with them as a nurse , but there is something to say about the clinical skills and the critical thinking that is necessary . When I also just think in terms of coming out of school , I I had so much more clinical experience than most bachelor's degree nurses do .
Colby DanielsOh yeah , no , I totally agree with that . I think , um , I think they , I totally agree with that for anybody that just like works on their degree and for as far as bachelor's degree and then goes into nursing , I think the difference that you see a lot is like people who are working on their bachelor's degree . If they were working as like techs or like in some sort of way in the medical field , whether like it could be like phlebotomy or or whatever , whatever , whatever , even being a secretary in the hospital gives you a little bit more um , knowledge about how the system works . Right , if you were doing anything in the hospital system while you were also working on your bachelor's or you have any kind of like history working in hospital while you're working on your like accelerate master's program , you have a little you'll , you'll , you'll probably excel a little bit faster . Maybe not as fast as not as fast as an ADN nurse who , who really gets their hands wet super early , but , um , sorry , feet wet , whatever the saying is .
Christopher HendersonBut um , what is it's feet wet ?
Colby DanielsIt's feet , yeah , I think it is feet .
Colby DanielsUm , but I do think that's like the one like caveat to it is that like if you are more of a go getter , um , while you're working on the degree , versus like you ? I mean , you can just tell like you . Sometimes you get someone that's just you know , know , freshly graduated and they're like deer in the headlights , and then you're like , you get to know them a little bit . You find out like , oh , they just did school like they were . You know their degree or their bachelor's degree before their master's was like in science , and they're so smart , they're so intellectual . But then there's like that hands-on piece in nursing where it's oh , I don't know why this just came to me , but it's almost like there's like that hands-on piece in nursing where it's I don't know why this just came to me , but it's almost like there's like a blue collar aspect to nursing . Is that weird to say ?
Christopher HendersonOh , interesting .
Colby DanielsWhere it's like . It's not all like facts and figures .
Christopher HendersonOkay yeah .
Colby DanielsAs one would be if they were just doing the schooling part , yeah , where there's like a more personal level . I don't know if that's the right analogy , but in my brain it kind of just flipped for some reason to like blue collar versus white collar . But there's something to say that to that .
Christopher HendersonYeah , you know what I'm saying .
Christopher HendersonYeah , yeah , I get it because it is , it's very hands on . Yeah , yeah , it's very hands on , it really is . And so , with that hands-on like and we hope to talk about this in later episodes but like , what do you think in terms of experience while in school other than like an MA or a CNA ? Because I was a CNA , I graduated in high school in 2011 , and I with CN A, and so I worked in a nursing home for majority of my time and then did home health stuff , so I was never actually in the hospital hospital but I'm saying all that to say like it did help in terms of like just being a little bit more personable . Like you being in a book does not help you relate to people
Colby Danielsyeah , and I think that's such a huge part of our job is being able to relate to somebody in , in that setting , like they're the patient , like everything is so foreign to them while they're sitting in that bed or they're sitting on that exam table or in that chair , and it's a huge part of our job as nurses , to make them it's , like I would argue to say , one of the main parts of our job to make the patient comfortable and connect with them on that personal level so that you can do all the things that need to be done to get them healthy and get them back to their regular , scheduled lives 100% .
Colby DanielsYeah , and I think , and again , and having that experience in any form or capacity , I mean I'll even go as far as to say like I worked as a housekeeper at a nursing home through college , Like I started from the bottom . Now I'm here and I think just that interaction every day . I mean I did a lot of things . Like my mom worked as like a director of an adult daycare , like she always at a nursing home , she was social worker at nursing home , so like I had a lot of experience being exposed to that environment yeah like .
Colby DanielsI think that makes a big difference , coming out of whatever degree program you choose .
Christopher HendersonThat's fair . So do you think there's one specific non-CNA , non-MA role ?
Colby DanielsLike outside of what you would immediately think . That would be helpful .
Christopher HendersonYeah , that would be helpful .
Colby DanielsYeah , I can think of something that's not even healthcare related that I think would help somebody excel as a nurse . I don't even think you can guess what it is , but this is actually . This is something a doctor said to my aunt , who's a nurse . So when she graduated and was interviewing , he asked her .
Colby and ChristopherThe doctor , asked you the doctor asked her in her interview .
Colby DanielsOkay , because she was working for a private practice okay , yeah , yeah yeah , so that's a little bit different than like in a hospital . Yeah , no , no , my aunt was a nurse and she was working at a private practice for women's health . So the the doctor that interviewed her and this is also , like goodness , like 25 years ago . Obviously , now I don't necessarily think that a doctor is going to be participating in interviews , it's probably his nursing staff but he asked her . He said have you ever been a waitress ?
Christopher HendersonOh , yeah , yeah .
Colby DanielsAnd that at first it might seem like that might be a sexist question , but to the point that he was getting at was like a waitress has to juggle many things at once . Yeah . They need to be personable . Like , if you want to tip at the end of the service , you've got to be personable . You've got to connect , you've got to perform , you've got to have everything up here in your head . You've got to be able to multitask quick . Yeah . Like time management . Right .
Colby DanielsLike all the things . All those things are going to give you a leg up in healthcare .
Christopher HendersonYeah , I didn't think about that , but actually one of our very good nurses used to be a waitress , yeah , and her time management is A1 .
Colby DanielsYeah , yeah , right . So that actually , like that was like the very beginning for me , which we'll we'll talk about in a little bit , but I think if we're taught , yeah , there's , what about you ? Do you have a something in mind of like what could give you an advantage ? Um , depending on what ? Like what depend , not even depending , but like whatever degree path you choose , do you think that there's a job outside of what you'd like ? Immediately think , like the CNA thing ?
Christopher Hendersonum , it depends on what they're really wanting to do with their nursing degree . In my opinion , I think like there is something to say about those being a teacher as well , because , though nursing is very like hands-on and you do stuff , patients need education , and if you're able to like relate to people and talk , talk to people and educate people in a way that you would educate students or children Sometimes medicine is hard , right , it's not the normal . It's not the normal Stuff . We have words that are Letters , just huge words .
Colby DanielsIt looks like someone just wrote out the alphabet and you're like wait what ?
Christopher Hendersonright like medicines yeah , like , yeah , mycophenolate , like , like what the patient looks like .
Christopher HendersonYou like cross-eyed right and so , like you have all of that and if you're able to , there there's a nurse . He was teaching medication and we give anti-rejection medications and two specific ones are mycophenolate and tacrolimus and so their brand names are cellcept and prograf respectively , and so he was teaching and I was just . I was just in the room on the other side talking to my other patient and he said he was teaching the the patient and was like and he was teaching the patient and was like Cellcept helps your cells accept your I like this cheat code Right yeah , right .
Christopher HendersonAnd so , like it just was like oh , that makes sense . And then he was like ProGraf , pro is good , you know , they're the best , they're pro or it's . And so -graf is or graft is what we do to connect everything together . Yeah , so it's for , or good for , your graft .
Christopher HendersonAnd so , like he , you know , it just was like wow , that that makes sense yeah and so yeah , ultimately , I think , other than waiter and waitressing , which I did not think of until you said um , I think I would say being a teacher or in some type of educational role yeah , I think it would be beneficial yeah , yeah , no , for sure , especially if you can like break it down like that yeah that's so smart man .
Colby DanielsI'm so impressed with that it wasn't me
Nursing Career Journey and Anxiety
Colby Danielsyeah . So like on that note about education , like what brought us , what brought us here into nursing in the first place ? A little bit of that . So I was thinking the entire time . You're saying that is when I was younger . Nursing wasn't the first thing I ever wanted to be . When I was little , I wanted to be a teacher . Like , did you't the first thing I ever wanted to be when I was little ?
Christopher HendersonI wanted to be a teacher .
Colby DanielsDid you really ? Yeah , I did . I really wanted to be a teacher and I don't know when that switched . For me it makes sense . I did say I like to educate .
Christopher HendersonYou do yeah .
Colby DanielsI don't know when that switched for me , but at some point in high school , I think I just realized . Oh , I just realized like , oh , I think I want to be a nurse , but also I like to joke . So the flip side of what I normally say is when people ask me like oh , how did you get into nursing , is that ?
Colby Danielsit's the family business Because my aunt is a nurse , my uncle is a nurse and a firefighter paramedic . My mom worked at the nursing homes . Like I said before , she was a social worker in the nursing homes , and then I have another aunt that , like is into biology and science . So I think of like health care as the family business , which is so corny to say .
Colby DanielsBut I'm like well the short story is I mean , yeah , it was just like the biggest like example in my life of like what you could and be successful and and have so much variety within one job . And I was like , well , I guess I'll try this . Like , let me , let me throw it on the wall and see if it sticks like , and it did for 10 years and it did and it has for 10 years .
Colby DanielsYeah , so you know . Okay , this is a sidebar , but like my , my actual , like journey , like in nursing school , did I ever you ? I had to have told you this before , but you say that , but I mean there are things that we have not talked about for the audience . I think I'll be so surprised if I haven't told you this before .
Colby DanielsBut , like in nursing school , I thought I was gonna have to change my major at one point because I was passing out all the time oh , yes , you did okay , okay , yeah so I in high school well , this starts back like in high school , but like I did a lot of volunteering at the hospital and I was like in the CNA program to like so you can graduate with that certificate , and so we were in the hospital all the time . I had like a uh . For a while I thought I wanted to be in women's health , so I used to volunteer um on the weekends on the maternity ward like labor and delivery , and I was watching . This is the first time I ever passed out . I was watching an epidural and I just like fell through the curtain into the hallway , knocked out and after that it like created this crazy . It is funny , it is really funny . The poor lady is like trying to give birth and then I like fall through the curtain .
Colby DanielsThey take care of you . Yeah , and this is a small community house , so like they end up putting me in the bed in the room next to her and they just , I like woke up and they're like here's some toast honey . Like I was , like I'm in a bed . They're like you're all right , what the ?
Colby Danielsheck , but that was the first time . But that experience created this like crazy anxiety in me that every time I walked into the hospital the smell of the hospital I would pass out , like , like , all you would have to say is we're walking into the hospital and I could walk there . I could walk through those doors . But as soon as I got through the doors I'd pass out . But I was resilient , let me tell you . I was like I'm going to nursing school , blah , blah , blah . And you know your first two years . Well , you may not know , but your first two years . If you're taking a traditional , like four-year program for working on your BSN , it's mostly just getting all your prereqs out of the way .
Colby DanielsSo , it's like science , english , maths , whatever . So at the end of sophomore year is when we start doing like spring semesters , when you start doing clinical stuff . I'm like all right , well , I'm in the sim lab , I'm doing fine stuff . I'm like , all right , well , I'm in the sim lab , I'm doing fine .
Colby DanielsI'm like the sim lab no anxiety whatsoever . Doesn't smell like hospital , yeah , it doesn't . So my first experience in the hospital , oh well , even before then they were like you guys are going to go to a nursing home and do patient care there , just to get the experience of it . I almost lost my mind .
Colby DanielsReally I was having so much anxiety . I called the clinical instructor and I was like I can't come and she said she was so straight with me . She said , honey , get in your car and get here . You're gonna be fine . But it was the tough love I needed . So I did fine there . I did that day . I was so nervous I thought I was gonna pee my pants . I was like please don't pass out , please don't pass out . She taught me so many funny tricks that an old nurse would do like she was to out .
Colby DanielsNo , not even I'm just talking about my experience that day in general . She was putting mouthwash in men's hair because they refused to take a bath and she was like , if they smell and they refuse to take a shower , you just put this mouthwash in their hair , honey . And I was like , okay , she's like it's alcohol , it's antiseptic .
Colby Danielsand I was just like I will never do that , but okay .
Colby DanielsBut like she was telling me ,
Christopher HendersonI'm never taking a shower ever again ,
Colby Danielsyou want someone to put mouthwash in your hair , um , but I just remember being like okay , like this is wild and crazy , but like I'm fine . So then I was like okay , so when I go to the hospital , like I'll be fine . And we had like a few shadowing experiences , spring semester , sophomore year , so my first one pass out .
Colby DanielsSo bad , pass out pass out I'm like , um , so I get there and I'm getting report with the nurse and I'm starting to get woozy as I'm hearing the rundown of each of these patients and I'm like I'm really not feeling well . And she's like okay , I was like I might have to leave .
Colby DanielsSo she was like sits me in this seat , this chair that's like counter height kind of stool that's a terrible chair yeah , and she's like I'm just gonna go call your nursing instructor for you and I was like , okay , and I guess as soon as she went around the corner , I passed out , slammed my head off this like marble countertop , land on the ground , off this counter height stool , and I come to they had pulled the code button . Oh my god , they pulled the code switch . There's like 50 people around me .
Colby DanielsThey're getting me on a stretcher no way like in a neck brace fully no first , I had so many ct scans during nursing school from passing out and hitting my head . I probably have like damage from the radiology 100 like from high school , because of course it happened when I was in high school too , so I was passing out and still going and the like they were like you should . So at the end of my sophomore year they're like you should consider changing your major . Yeah , like I don't think you could do this and I was bound and determined and it was all just an anxiety thing . So I went to . I went and got some mental health care because that's important because that's important .
Colby DanielsAnd we worked through it and I was fine . Now look at me 10 years later , but my journey was not easy oh yeah , so what wait , wait , wait , wait .
Christopher HendersonOkay , just just just a snippet . Uh-huh . Is there any like anxiety trick that you could just be like immediate like for for the listeners in the back ?
Colby DanielsOkay , there's two things that I think really helped helped me then and really helped me now . Guided meditation .
Christopher HendersonOkay .
Colby DanielsOkay , and then that's something like you can do on your way to work , like if you're just having an anxiety around work , like you're in your car . There's so many things on YouTube , there's so many apps play a guided meditation , right , because there there have been times , even in my career now , that like I'm driving into work and my anxiety is building and I just like , especially during COVID , like I was having so much anxiety about going into work , so I would do a guided meditation before I went in . It just resets your nervous system , but something you can do in the moment is like that four square breathing thing oh , yeah , yeah so you like ?
Colby Danielsinhale for four hold for four , blow out for four , hold for four , yeah yeah , yeah that also is like re . It's like it's pushing the restart button on your , on your , on your interesting parasympathetic , sympathetic nervous system . It's regulating yourself . So that like seems silly in the moment . But if you start to feel that anxiety building , go sneak off to the bathroom , go do some four square breathing , yeah yeah , interesting .
Christopher HendersonI I mean that's . I am very grateful that I do not . I am not plagued with anxiety I . I do . There are things that make me anxious and I like worry about , but um , overall in terms of anxiety , like that's not something I have to deal with . Um so I think it's good to have the opportunity for others to kind of hear cause I can't , I cannot help you .
Colby DanielsHe cannot relate , but I can . Let me tell you . I get it honest . It's a long family line of anxiety .
Christopher HendersonBut it also makes you a very good nurse too , because that's one thing that I appreciate . Like , you are anxious about a lot of things ,
Colby Danielsabout getting stuff done , so I get it done , right , I'm like , I gotta get it done on my timeline right ,
Christopher Hendersonright , otherwise I'm just like oh , you know
Colby Danielsbut that's like again ,
Colby Danielsbut that's like such a false reality .
Colby DanielsBecause like you are a perfectionist , like you just you don't get anxious , you just are chill about it . But like you get it , you also just get it done . It's just like god . We are like polar opposites . I'll be honest , I have a great mask now that I don't pass
Reflections on Nursing and Healthcare Dynamics
Colby Danielsout at work .
Colby DanielsNobody knows when I'm anxious yeah , no , yeah people think like and and truly like during like a code situation . I outwardly get so zen . I like slow down , which is so weird . It feels like I slow down , but obviously I'm moving fast I'm not like I'm not actually like moving in slow motion when I'm coding someone , but I feel like I I don't know I flip a switch . It's very . It's actually kind of freaky like I flip a switch
Christopher Hendersonso , yeah , my , I guess really and truly what brought me to medicine in general , it's just I've always thought it was fascinating . I think the human body is just fascinating in itself . Um , when I was younger , I had a couple you know there's a lot of people that are like , oh yeah , the nurses that were taking care of me when I broke you know , you know , like there wasn't there , there weren't any that extremely stood out to me .
Christopher HendersonI will say that my neighbor in my , in my hometown , was the one that delivered me , and so , but I mean , I don't remember that you know like and I I'm not in labor and delivery at all . Um , but I , I , I mean I don't think I really have a huge like revelation to being in nursing . Um , I just I mean it was just I didn't want to go into medicine because of the red tape , it just wasn't appealing after busting your butt for your bachelor's degree .
Colby DanielsNot that nursing degree is easier , but it actually is in a different way . In terms of years of schooling . Years of schooling yes you know like yeah like before .
Christopher HendersonAnd the bedside yes you , there are doctors that have great bedside manner but what the care that you wanted to give isn't traditional for a doc . What the ?
Colby Danielsdoctor does . I think that's funny and I think a lot of people learn that at a weird , at a weird point . Like people think , and I think largely it's based off like what we perceive or what the media perceives um health care jobs , to be like you watch a tv show and like the doctor is walking their patient right-op day zero Ha ha , ha ha . Yeah , I'm sorry .
Colby DanielsI've been a nurse for 10 years , which is not that long in comparison to a lot of people out there . But I've never once seen the doctor get the patient up the night of their surgery . No , no , that's nursing staff , hunny .
Christopher HendersonThere is a physician assistant that will on our unit .
Colby DanielsThat's so nice .
Christopher HendersonYeah , and it's great .
Colby DanielsYeah , but even that's rare .
Christopher HendersonYeah , it is .
Colby DanielsYeah , like this is controversial , but sometimes and physician assistant's different . But I'm thinking more in like PA . So , they practice at the same level , but there's something about the nurse practitioners that forget about where they came from . That gets under my skin . Controversial , oh my . God . I mean I love most of , if not all . Yeah , I think I love all the NPs that I work with directly . They're great , but there's some out there that maybe I don't work directly with . That . I've been like oh God . And I could be anywhere .
Christopher HendersonI'm gonna plead the fifth .
Colby DanielsI've worked in a lot of places . No , yeah , I know .
Christopher HendersonBut people know us .
Colby DanielsI'm okay with being controversial . No , that's fair .
Christopher HendersonBut there are , that is true , though there are some that do .
Colby DanielsThere are some mid-level providers that forget where they came from yeah and a lot of PAs . I get it , you're busy , but if you're not , don't try to do something and then go eat lunch in your office , get food on your thumbs , yeah yeah , go YouTube videos in your office . I saw someone do that once and I was like oh yeah , no .
Christopher HendersonI saw someone do that once and I was like oh no .
Colby DanielsThis is rude , I'm actually surprised you didn't say something . It was before I was a grown up , okay .
Christopher HendersonIt was before I was a grown up . I was like because that would not fly on normal .
Colby DanielsExcuse me .
Christopher HendersonYou need to come back .
Colby DanielsCome help me .
Christopher HendersonBut we will at one point , have a physician assistant come and speak with us . Yeah , I've been working with that already . Sweet , yeah , yeah , yeah . And I mean this person I have talked with quite a bit and I know pretty well , so I feel like he will be willing to .
Colby DanielsGive his perspective .
Christopher HendersonYeah .
Colby DanielsOr yeah .
Christopher HendersonYeah .
Colby DanielsYeah . Yeah .
Nursing Classroom Wrap-Up
Christopher HendersonSo it could be interesting and I think I think it would be controversial , like you said , and it's going to be fun , like I think it will be we can do it in good heart . Yeah , good heartedness , he'll ride us and we'll ride him and then you know yeah .
Colby DanielsYeah , it's all right , it's all fun . Yeah , yeah , that's , that's it .
Christopher HendersonThat's it .
Colby DanielsWe can wrap it up .
Christopher HendersonWrap it up .
Colby DanielsAll right , class dismissed .
Christopher HendersonSure is .
Colby DanielsAll right , that's a wrap for today's session of Nursing Lyfe 101 . We hope you found some useful takeaways to bring back to the floor . Remember , nursing is a lifelong journey , learning journey , and we're here with you .
Christopher HendersonIf you want to connect , find us on X , formerly known as Twitter , at NurseLife101 , life with a Y , not a I , or on Facebook at NursingLyfe101 .
Colby DanielsSweet . Don't forget to subscribe and share with fellow nurses until next time . Take care of yourselves and keep making a difference out there .
