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.
Tune in, connect, and find your strength with us – because nursing is more than a job; it's a journey. 🎙💙
Nursing Lyfe 101
Nursing Life Unveiled: Season One Reflections
From bloopers to backfires (literally!), Christopher and Colby celebrate the conclusion of Nursing Life 101's inaugural season with a heartfelt reflection on their podcasting journey. Diving into listener favorites like "Battling Burnout: Self-Care Strategies for Nurses" and the politically charged episode on nursing with integrity, they unpack what made these conversations resonate so deeply with their audience.
The duo tackles a fascinating array of listener questions that reveal both the challenges and rewards of nursing life. They share candid insights about transitioning between specialties without burning bridges, the development of "nursing intuition" that helps them anticipate patient deterioration before vital signs change, and the surprising reality that the nursing world is remarkably small—where reputations follow you everywhere. Their discussion of how nurses emotionally disconnect after difficult shifts offers valuable wisdom for anyone in a high-stress profession.
Throughout the episode, Christopher and Colby's authentic friendship shines through their easy banter and occasional disagreements, demonstrating the mutual respect that has made their podcast so engaging. They offer a glimpse into potential season two topics, including nursing management styles and analysis of medical TV shows, while expressing sincere gratitude for their listeners' support. Whether you're a healthcare professional or simply curious about the human side of nursing, this reflective conversation invites you into the world behind the scrubs.
What topics would you like to hear Christopher and Colby explore in season two? Connect with us on social media and let us know!
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Welcome to Nursing Life 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 to Nursing Life 101. It's Christopher and Colby here.
Speaker 2:Hey guys.
Speaker 1:We can't believe we're wrapping up our first season. We'll go through highlights and answer some listener questions and share some of our favorite moments. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2:Favorite episode.
Speaker 1:Favorite episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:You want me to go first?
Speaker 1:Yes, please.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're like go. Um, I think we had so much fun recording this season of podcasts together and it really kind of I think it like deepened and strengthened our friendship as well. Um, my favorite episode that we recorded is kind of like a joke between us because Christopher's mic wasn't like properly working that well and so my voice is predominantly like throughout the podcast and it's also something that is like near and dear to my heart. But when we were recording the episode about stress management and at work and in the workplace and all the things that I've done in my past and in my career and shared like what could help and what has helped me, that episode was my favorite to record, just because I felt very confident going into it and I knew what I wanted to share and I knew what I was going to say.
Speaker 2:And I feel like a lot of times when we record, I kind of just wing it. I'm like, okay, I have a great outline provided by Christopher. Like you know, obviously it's what I've been doing my whole career and so I don't often like stress too much about preparing when we record, and I think we've done a really good job of like playing off of each other and don't normally have that kind of I don't know with the podcast. I don't often have anxiety when recording, which is great because I have anxiety all the time, which makes me such a good expert to have shared all the things that we talked about. Shared all the things that we talked about.
Speaker 2:But that episode really did make me proud of myself and also just like really proud of the podcast, because I got a lot of positive feedback from people that we work with, whether they're like close friends, um, close friends that we work with, colleagues. You know, professional colleagues that we work with that I might not be super close with but um have worked with for a long time and shared that we had the podcast and it was really neat hearing their take and how like proud of both of us that they, that they were and like how like wow, you guys sound so good, like so professional, like the advice that you gave was amazing, like I shared it with this person and, yeah, that episode specifically, I got a lot of positive feedback.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that episode was definitely. It's I actually it's funny. I was leading a charge nurse meeting the other day and they were talking about resilience and making sure the staff was was doing well and and which is very good. And I said to the point, blake, I was like I'm not the one to talk about ourselves and I'm not. I'm just a robot, I have no emotions and I just keep moving. But it was funny because there was this entire episode. I was saying things, I promise you episode. I was saying things, I promise you.
Speaker 1:I was saying things and you could hear it faintly very faintly and you could tell, like colby responds a little bit to those things that I had said, and it was. It was like oh, yeah, probably said something, but I don't know what happened where I I think it was in the process of me doing some like small editing in the yeah, and the name of that episode was ah yes, episode 12 was Battling.
Speaker 2:Burnout Self-Care.
Speaker 1:Strategies for Nurses.
Speaker 2:Yes, and actually other than the very first episode and the interview episode, that is, the third, most downloaded one nice, yeah, yeah, yeah, which is really cool and honestly, if I was to pick like a second favorite episode, it would probably be the interview one. So that's cool to know that that was like a second popular, most downloaded one, because I feel like the interview one specifically and I've said this before was just like very translatable like across the board. You don't have to be a nurse or anything in healthcare. It was just really good advice for anybody that was wanting to prepare, have like an inside scoop on what interviewing for your first job is like. I think we did a really good job with that episode as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it was fun and I'm hoping that this episode, that episode specifically was I mean it really honestly. I feel like you now, colby, because you've actually been able to sit in on an interview as an interviewer, as yeah, yeah, the opposite, instead of an interviewee like. Those are words, but, but one of them is but like what? Is there anything that you think you can add to what you know now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was definitely like eye opening to sit on the other side of the quote unquote table even though there was no table in these interviews that I was participating in.
Speaker 2:But having now been on both sides of the interview process, I think I still stand by, like me saying as the interviewee, as the person being interviewed, that you really have a lot of power in the room. But it was fun getting to ask the questions. With our healthcare system there's like a standardized, kind of like question set that we need to read from. But yeah, it was. It was interesting to be on the other side and kind of like ad lib questions to kind of fit for the interview and you know like what you're looking for. So you can kind of word it a certain way. You know you can kind of coach them into it. If they, you know, if they're doing a good job with the interview, they kind of just feel like and as we said in that podcast, like it flows into a very natural conversation. But yeah, I enjoyed it. I think, with years of experience, it kind of is like a natural thing to be like a good person, a good interviewer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know the role in various ways because you've been in the role a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but I appreciated the offer that my management seeked me out and was like, hey, would you be interested? And I was like, yeah, definitely. And so it was cool getting to kind of like peek behind the curtain in that aspect and get to participate in that. That was actually a lot of fun for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's interesting to kind of look at it in a different light. I just had a couple of interviews this past week and one went absolutely horrible and I was like, oh my goodness, it wasn't. I'm sorry, let me rephrase that it didn't go absolutely horrible. They didn't say anything bad, you know. They didn't curse like a sailor, uh-huh. They weren't drinking beer Like.
Speaker 2:I've seen you know, yeah, you have had really bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've had some bad ones, but it just I was like trying to pull personality out and it was just a dry interview and I'm like I almost was like forget the interview. Just tell me, you know, what did you do today?
Speaker 2:I just need to know. We need to get you comfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something's not connecting and it was a struggle connecting and it was a struggle. But then I it was followed by like, within the within two hours after that one, a very like charismatic not like not too charismatic, but like they were very much engaged and I was like, oh, my goodness, this is the way that an interview should have gone, yeah and um, I ended up in offering that person, but um, I haven't heard from them yet, so I don't know.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know well, I was just gonna say, one of the two that I sat in on actually started last week oh yeah, uh, she came up to me and was asking about who she was orienting with and hadn't met them yet, and I was like I was like oh yeah, hold on a second. I was looking and I was looking at her and I was like looking, I'm like, wait a minute, I just realized why you look so familiar to me. I was like I was in your interview and she like giggled. She was like yeah, I was like I'm so sorry, welcome well, that's good, yeah, I mean, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, one thing that I have realized while even doing this podcast is that nursing is very small, really, like it's a big profession and yes, you have, like there's a number. I don't know what that number of nurses is, but you have that number of nurses out there, but it's almost as if it's like a small town.
Speaker 2:No, it's so true, and like to even piggyback off that, like I was when I was travel nursing I travel nurse not too far from where we live now. I kind of just stayed in the same state but went to a different metropolitan area and bounced around for like three years and one of the nurses that I worked with at another health care system we were both travelers she ended up coming to our health system when I went back staff and didn't like we we weren't like friends on social media or anything but I did adore her when we worked together and she was great. And I saw her name pop up as a traveler a couple of years ago on for our unit and I was like I wonder if this is the same name you know. And she showed up and I was like oh my God, no way. And then then she took a permanent job with us after traveling for a while and she just left left to pursue other things.
Speaker 1:But like when we say it's a small world, like it's a small world, yeah, it's wild and it's and you're like how does that even make sense? But we have, we've had travelers that, like you said, have traveled and they just happen to go around and then they end up traveling together on accident, and it is it. I mean, it happens it does all the time, and you'll notice that when you're in nursing you're just you'll know somebody and then next thing you know there's two feet away and you're like wait a minute didn't I go to school with you 10 years ago, yeah, which is really cool, but it also is like make sure your work is worth your worth.
Speaker 2:Your work is worth your worth, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, Essentially do good work.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because your good work is going to speak for itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you're going to run into all these people.
Speaker 2:Right, you want the good reputation, not the bad reputation.
Speaker 1:If you're not going to do the work, then that's also going to follow you. And managers talk yes, they do they talk and things go around and it just happens. So make sure you're doing the right work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if your name's going to be circulated around, you want it to be for positive things, obviously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, what was your favorite episode that we recorded this season?
Speaker 1:Honestly, and we didn't actually record this one. I love the bloopers episode.
Speaker 2:The bloopers episode. It's just hilarious, oh my God.
Speaker 1:It's so fun it's really funny.
Speaker 2:I actually haven't talked to a lot of our like the people that we know that listen to it about it, but I think I think it's hilarious because I mean, it's all the things that you guys don't see that's going on when we record, like that make us giggle and like that we have to cut out because we have, like you know, we're posting a serious product, but I'm glad that we got to open up, like open up your eyes to like how goofy we are, for sure, and I mean we definitely are goofy and I mean we have well, oh, oh, I think we need to tell I don't know if everybody got to fully hear the like reaction that we had with that backfire oh my god wait, and I hope that you can.
Speaker 2:Maybe you can insert like that clip again right here. I'm gonna have to yeah for anybody that doesn't know exactly what we're referencing I didn't look it's very interesting and I wonder like, maybe, if they've decided whether or not that we were.
Speaker 1:Oh, holy crap.
Speaker 2:Holy shit, I've been shot, I'm dead. This is how I go. Oh my God, that was intense. You know, that happened to me one time when I was Hold on. That happened to me one time. But we were recording and it's in the bloopers episode but it was cut off a little too soon. But we're like mid-sentence talking about something. I don't remember what episode the original clip is from, but there's somebody in our neighborhood that has a car that is like souped up and it backfires but it sounds like the world just ended, like it's the biggest explosion sound and the first time I ever heard it I was walking my dog, trout, and I thought a car hit like our apartment complex building, like it shook the ground, it shook my chest.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I almost dropped down, like my dog dropped down. I almost dropped down. I was like that's it, the world is ending.
Speaker 1:so in the clip I don't know what it goes off yeah, we, we were talking and I mean it does it just like passes the? The passes are because there's a our building. You don't live in this building. It passed my building. There's a road in between my building and another apartment building and it passes the apartment building and goes down that road and next thing, you know it, just like pow and you're like I think I said oh shit, yeah, and I'm, I'm dead, you're like I've been shot.
Speaker 1:I'm dead. And it was so terrifying because it just was so random.
Speaker 2:It caught us completely off guard, 100%, absolutely it shook. I remember it shook the window.
Speaker 1:It was so loud.
Speaker 2:It's still loud and you know what? I haven't heard that, car I haven't heard it in a while, so I wonder if they still live around here or if they got their car fixed or their car died or something.
Speaker 1:I hope it died.
Speaker 2:I hope the car died as well.
Speaker 1:It killed a couple people, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Some of those old people I was going to say there's some elderly that live in our apartment complex Like if they didn't have a heart attack. It's a miracle because we were borderline. We were borderline For real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean the bloopers episode also had like just fun little like statements that we were just going through and it just like we just said stuff and I was like, well, can't say that.
Speaker 2:The bloopers episode was also like a highlight reel of how sick I was this winter. There's, like so many like me, coughing, sneezing, losing my voice Christopher, being like are you OK?
Speaker 1:I'm like, I'm fine, it's all right. I was like, do you need me to stop talking so that you, like I, can take over?
Speaker 2:You're really worrying me you like I can take over. You're really worrying me. Yeah, it was. It was definitely. It was, like I said, a highlight reel of how sick I was this winter attributed. Also, I would like to say I and this might have been on the bloopers reel too about me, think, like talking out loud about how I was, what I thought was making me sick, and I had Invisalign at the time and I wasn't like super hyper vigilant about um hand hygiene and I would just pop those suckers out. And I had Invisalign at the time and I wasn't like super hypervigilant about hand hygiene and I would just pop those suckers out, and I think that's why I was getting sick, because I was putting my dirty hands in my mouth. I would also just like to say I would like to put the update out. There is that I've been done with my Invisalign since April and I haven't been sick since, I don't know, january or February.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's impressive.
Speaker 2:Snaps to me.
Speaker 1:Well, february, so yeah, that's impressive snaps to me.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I think it's just more like you, just don't have your Invisalign.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I don't think it's your diligence in hygiene.
Speaker 2:You're like you're not diligent in your hygiene. Still, you're disgusting.
Speaker 1:I could smell you from here well, you know what I just worked 12 hours.
Speaker 2:I came straight from the hospital to record she did, which is which she did.
Speaker 1:So but, like I also realized there was a time where I completely forgot my list of things. Remember we were going over like the list of things. I think that was for like interviewing, I think it was that one. And I was like Christopher's list of things and I like completely lost it I couldn't remember any of them. Yeah you, you know you, you emphasize the whole like not trying not to get me sick. I am actually really surprised, considering I only had two white blood cells that you didn't get sick that I did not get sick yeah, those two guys.
Speaker 1:They're working overtime they were doing something also.
Speaker 2:I just looked down at our notes and one of for episode eight you wrote our tangents can be really long. Yeah, and that's true on every episode. Like every single week, we'd sit down to record and we'd be like, all right, well, it won't be more than an hour, we can do this real quick. And it's like three hours later I'm like, all right, I've got to get out of here. We have to wrap it up because I have to do something, or like I have to work tomorrow or whatever.
Speaker 1:Like we, once we get started, we do not stop yeah, we, we tend to build off of each other very well which is very helpful in this situation of a podcast and there was a point where we were recording a video for the podcast and we were on a tangent for so long that my memory for storage ran out. Yeah, because we were talking so long and then Colby was like was like, yep, okay, we need to wrap it up.
Speaker 2:That's a sign. That's a sign we've gone too far yes wait, okay, wait. While we're talking about the blooper episode, there's also a note that here that says, depending on when you listen, there was a brief accidental easter egg on the blooper episode, a bunch of mv space at the end. What was that about?
Speaker 1:yeah, so what is that actual phrase in radio when there's like silence, the radio silence yeah, but they call it um, they call it something, but it's like blank space. There's there's some, some actual phrase, and I can't think of it at the moment, but it's when there's no. There's no talking. So at the end of the holiday episode you hear this like it's like 25 minutes of just dead air.
Speaker 2:dead space, dead space, okay.
Speaker 1:And so I was like we did that. But then I did the blooper episode and remember you either you, somebody texted me and was like did you know that? There's like.
Speaker 2:I did realize that but I didn't want to tell chris, for I didn't want to stress him out about the dead space at the end of the episode. So I was like, but I did sit there and listen to it for the full and I think it was more than 10 minutes like. It was like probably 20 minutes of dead space and I was like maybe there's something at the end, and there wasn't. It was just like that's the's the end. Yeah, no, that was it. So sorry guys.
Speaker 1:And luckily I was able to fix it. It wasn't very many people that got to listen to it, yeah, so luckily only you, and I think it was like you, mackenzie and maybe two other people, and so I was like dang, but I was like man, I should have left it in because maybe it was like that accidental Easter egg from the holiday episode, but I didn't. I decided to take it out. Just an FYI we edit these podcasts and we use GarageBand and if you don't pay attention when you're selecting a tract that you want to actually finally, like, finally put in or finalize that's the word I want you can accidentally do the original, the original time of the original recording, and but it can be silenced. You know you, you mute that as you're editing through the, the different tracks yeah and so it'll go the length of the original recording but, not have any.
Speaker 1:That's what happened. Yeah, that's what happened.
Speaker 2:That makes sense now, so I didn't really feel I was like, oh, I don't really, I don't do the editing, I just show up and I record um. Christopher does most of the heavy lifting of the podcast. So if you need, if you um see him in person and you enjoy the podcast, please give him all the praise, because he is, it's his baby and I'm along for the ride and I'm I enjoy it and I love it and it's been so much fun. But he, he really is the powerhouse behind all of this.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's definitely a team effort, because I could not sit and talk like this without someone to banter off of.
Speaker 2:I'm just the entertainment.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a reason why your episode, where they hear you the most, is the third most downloaded. I think it's because they don't like my voice as much that's but you know, I who knows also.
Speaker 2:I just want to point out you saying nurse life oh yeah, nursing life, oh yeah, I mess it up all the time, all, all the time.
Speaker 1:All the time.
Speaker 2:It's so unnatural for me.
Speaker 1:Which I don't know why.
Speaker 2:I don't, I just feel like in my head. Maybe when we first talked about it we said one, I think we said nurse life and so, like in my or that's what I heard, probably, and then I just rolled with it. I think that's what you heard it was like probably maybe like the third recording.
Speaker 1:I was like, wait, it's not Nurse Life, it's Nursing.
Speaker 2:Life, it is I-N-G.
Speaker 1:There is an. I-n-g in that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I say it wrong all the time. People ask me all the time like oh, what's your podcast? I'm like it's Nurse Life 101. And then I go and it's nursing life 101.
Speaker 1:They're like is this your podcast or is it somebody else? I'm like, it's me, that's me. Doesn't the character look like her? Yeah, come on my little um.
Speaker 2:What are those called avatar?
Speaker 1:yeah, the avatars they look, just like us emoji.
Speaker 2:They look just like us. Thank you chat for the ai cartoon versions of us yeah, that was that was.
Speaker 1:That was a lot. That was actually two hours of working to get that to like to get it to look more like us. There was so much I wish I could recall that like work with strategy people to actually like show you what that looked like, but it was it.
Speaker 2:I had so many different things yeah, you, you were workshopping for a while because you had sent me a bunch of them and they were all cool, but I like the one that we settled on yeah, I think it was the best.
Speaker 1:Now I will say I'm always for supporting a local artist, so if anybody wanted to, yeah you know how fun that out there. And so if you're wanting to help us out, because right now we owe nursing pay, we're not getting anything from this, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just had some blood, sweat and tears being poured into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you want to volunteer your services and get your name out there maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can definitely, yeah, we can definitely, yeah, we can shout you out put you in all the you know obviously use the artwork, but put all of your information in the bios. That would be so fun.
Speaker 1:So if you're interested, send us some mock-ups yeah, I would love to see some that would be.
Speaker 2:It would be cool it would be you had, you had talked about mckenzie, yes, so yeah, okay, so we were we had I just mentioned mckenzie and we we have a number you had talked about Mackenzie each episode of and ask questions and look for clarification and just really enjoyed the podcast and we appreciate that so much. That reached out to her and asked if she was interested in submitting like her kind of review of the season and what her favorite parts were, and she was so kind to send in a really nice little blurb and so I want to read it. Ok, so hopefully this is this is not popcorn reading. I will read the whole thing. Please don't make fun of me if I stumble over my words. Okay, so this is what Mackenzie said. This is what Mackenzie said.
Speaker 2:While I may not be a nurse, listening to the podcast has been so fun, eye-opening, informative and helpful. You guys know when to keep it light and fun and when to be serious and how to talk about difficult and sensitive subjects with understanding and compassion. This all is only a part of the reason why you're both amazing nurses. One of my favorite things about nursing life guys I got it right that time Nursing Life 101 has got to be the friendship you both share. It's very entertaining listening to each of your viewpoints and how similar or different each can be depending on the topic. Listeners can feel the passion you both have for nursing, while also keeping it real and shedding light onto the grittier realities and struggles of the job. You guys are always sharing real-life experiences and knowledge of the silver linings or tips and tricks on how to survive and even prosper while in the field. And, what's even better, a lot of what you talk about with stress and burnout, the need for collaboration and boundaries are so transferable to any career.
Speaker 2:I honestly cannot pick just one favorite episode. I think I love all of them for different reasons, but here are a couple that stood out episode I think I love all of them for different reasons, but here are a couple that stood out. The episode I took most from Surviving your First Year Finding Balance and Avoiding Burnout and Battling Burnout Self-Care Strategies for Nurses. I think it's self-explanatory why I like this episode, but I will say that the practical advice that you guys shared is so helpful from both of these episodes in regards to making sure you're taking care of yourself both inside and outside of work.
Speaker 2:Most impactful slash, meaningful episode Nursing with integrity. Admits political pressure Together. There was so much compassion and thought and raw honesty in this episode that I am getting emotional just thinking about it now. Beautifully done. Period. The episode that was most eye-opening slash. I said, oh my god, or WTF. To the most urinals, fly boundaries, apply real talk and handling difficult patients Wow, it's one of those things where you know people can be super shitty. But seeing it to that degree and it's something that you guys can experience daily sometimes and it was just very eye-opening and crazy to hear some of those experiences. I'm looking forward to season two and I can't wait to hear what you guys tackle next. So thanks, mackenzie, for sending in such a thoughtful message to us. I think it really made my heart grow like the Grinch. I was like, oh, thank you.
Speaker 1:You know people think I'm the Grinch. I have the small heart that grows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we both do. But I just appreciate her feedback so much every week and, like I said before, she's been like a sounding board and it's been such a delight to kind of get her perspective.
Speaker 1:It's really been nice and it's one of those things I even start to ask. I'm like, oh, when is Mackenzie going to listen and what has she done?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I need to know.
Speaker 2:We're like on the edge of our seat, like she's on the edge of her seat waiting for the podcast, because we've posted later on our days in the past and she would message me and be like where's the podcast? It's late. And then so like she's waiting for us to post and we're waiting for her response and like review.
Speaker 2:So it's been, it's fun and I'm glad that we got to share this little like review from her yeah, it's really cool and also I would like to comment, I think um, the most impactful, meaningful episode she she was talking about um, nursing with integrity, with political pressure.
Speaker 2:That was our episode that we spoke about ice and that was a big episode for us because it wasn't one that we had planned going into making this podcast, but it was just such a topic of the times, which it still is, obviously but we really kind of did it in a short timeline and with a lot of pressure on both of us where we, during a time where there wasn't a lot of information being put out and it just seemed like very scary and we wanted people to have information so they feel informed and like knowledge is power.
Speaker 2:So we individually and together researched the topic and and urgently recorded and put and edited and put the episode out. So to get that feedback was really good to see and I know, I know she did, and I know other people did use the links and stuff that we had put in the podcast for their own educational purposes and then applied it, applied it to their own jobs. So that one made me really feel good that we took the time to to put that together and get it out there yeah, and that was actually.
Speaker 1:That was a very heavy episode yeah like I I still feel so like heavy from that episode and I got a lot of different responses from that episode. It was very interesting hearing from all types of different people about what they felt about that episode and I think that a lot of what we do as nurses does have a lot of weight, but it's like really important to remember your goal is to always take care of the patients that are that are in your care. Like that. That's really what's important. Yeah, but that was that was a heavy episode. It was even thinking about that episode.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh man, I'm getting heavy yeah, we walked away from recording that and we're like I'll watch some cartoons after, yeah it needed to be very lighthearted afterwards.
Speaker 1:For sure. So I guess we'll do a listener pulse really quickly Well, really quickly. I have 10 questions. They're 10 different questions from listeners that are actually very interesting. I've looked at these and I was like, oh okay, these could be fun.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So what I'll do is I will read all of them, I guess, and then I'll just Then we can answer them together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So the first one is by at nurse J-R-N and J is spelled J-A-E-R-N. Hey, Colby and Christopher, I'm a new nurse on a med-surg unit and I've been thinking about switching to a specialty. How do you know when it's the right time to make a move and how do you even go about doing it without burning bridges? Oh, good question. Okay, you want me to answer that?
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, are we going to answer one. Oh, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Are we going to answer at the same time?
Speaker 2:No, no, I thought you were going to read all of the questions.
Speaker 1:Oh no, but no, that seems silly. I cannot remember all of that, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, you go ahead and share your suggestion. First, from a manager standpoint of view, oh, ok.
Speaker 1:Well, I was just thinking from just me, moving from one specialty to another.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean really and truly. I think the cool thing about nursing is that you can have the freedom to do whatever specialty you have. So whatever you do in terms of management and thinking of if a person comes from a different unit usually going back to what I said earlier is that managers do talk. And so make sure that you're going also back to just doing good work and it's following you, and also just be up and honest with your current manager.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say transparency is always the best policy.
Speaker 1:It is. If it's something that you know you're like I don't feel comfortable with my management here. Or if you're truly. What it looks like from this particular question is that you're just looking to specialize in a different specialty. So it doesn't seem like you have any problems with a management team or the team in general. You just wanted to see something different. So, if that's true, just tell your manager like I just want to see a different specialty, I want to specialize and see something different and learn and grow in something different, and that's totally okay. That's the cool thing about nursing, yeah.
Speaker 2:If you have a good manager, they're going to respect that. They're going to respect that you want to pursue moving on and exploring different specialties and they're going to, if anything, they'll help you. Because if there's one thing I've taken away from being in any form of leadership is that, like, if you have a team member that doesn't want to be there, like why would you want to keep that?
Speaker 2:right kind of thing like you want and if it's a positive thing like you want to help them get to where they want to be, I mean, that's just, that's just common decency, I feel like, and it would only hinder you to kind of trap someone there anyways, and that's toxic management.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, I wouldn't stress too much about that and I think in this day and age I wouldn't be scared either to like want to pursue changing a completely different specialty, because I think you know, 10, 15 years ago it was maybe a little more difficult to kind of specialty hop. But at this current point in health care and the current climate and nursing, if you want to try something new, the opportunity is there for you because we're desperately in need of staff across the board in any specialty and any like form or fashion of nursing. So it's honestly, you have a lot of power in that situation and it's you're very lucky in this day and age because when we started 15 years ago it was 10, 15 years ago. In that timeframe it was a lot different in nursing.
Speaker 2:So I think take the opportunity. I had this conversation with a senior nursing student recently who said she was interested in going straight to PACU after she graduated and I said you're probably going to hear a couple of different schools of thought. People are, I think, still kind of push new grad nurses to do at least a year in med surge, but I don't think that that's necessary anymore. And I said it's not that it wouldn't be beneficial to you, because I think getting experience in that field and that specialty it would provide you with a ton of knowledge base and it would definitely benefit you, but it's not necessary. So I think you know you, coming from a med-surg floor to wherever you want to go, it sounds like you have the right base knowledge and you're a valuable asset.
Speaker 1:So take the chance, yeah, and just know that, moving from med surge to a specialty, you're gonna learn different things and you don't have to focus on different things and, depending on your age, that could be very easy, that could be very hard. Depending on your, your learning style, that could be very easy, that could be very hard. So it doesn't really matter, just give yourself the grace or the space and the grace to learn and grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so that you can actually take the time to learn that specialty Mm-hmm. Question number two by Lauren M, a BSN student. Hi, love the podcast. What's one thing you wish you knew during your first year as a nurse. That would have made your life a little easier.
Speaker 2:Ooh, it's important to go to staff meetings.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll say, and I said this actually in an interview, I think it was like what is something? It was probably a very similar question in an interview and I was like in my years of nursing and in my growth of my you know career, I realized how important it was to actually go to staff meetings. People hate going to staff meetings. Nobody wants to actually go to staff meetings. People hate going to staff meetings. Nobody wants to go to a staff meeting. Who wants to come to the hospital outside of the time that you already have to be there? Well, one you're getting paid. So like, get that extra hour, get that extra hour, honey, except for listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, except for listening. But they're so important, like you're getting so much information, like policy changes, like practice changes, like just the most important information. That's why we have them. We have them, you know, quarterly or however often. Some people do them every 30 days.
Speaker 1:How often do y'all do them?
Speaker 2:We used to do them every 30 days with prior management.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Now we're doing them like quarterly it seems like that's funny Maybe like four to six times a year now, depending on what's going on. So it's a lot less now, which makes it a little bit easier to make them. But I think from my new grad years I was always I would blow them off and be like I don't care, like as a new grad I think it's actually even more important time to go yeah, because you don't know, you don't know, you don't know.
Speaker 2:You're learning how to be a nurse at this point. You should go to all of those meetings.
Speaker 1:That's true. One thing that actually I'm learning from our staff meeting, and something that I didn't think about when I was a first year nurse, it was how important it is to engage and huddle.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Like we on transplant are really trying our best to revamp a lot of different things and just being intentional in what we do and we don't want anything to be just done, just to do it and huddle.
Speaker 1:Very much so at the present moment, and I can probably say with a decent amount of certainty say with a decent amount of certainty, majority- of units do huddle just because they have to check off the box and I think, engaging in huddle in a different way and making sure that you insert your important areas of concern, you can say that you had a patient that you're concerned about in huddle. It's okay to speak up. I don't think that charge nurse should be the one majority of the time speaking and it is important for you to give that input because it gives awareness to the unit and what's going on in the unit with because charge nurse, as great as they are, they don't know everything.
Speaker 2:You can't know everything.
Speaker 1:No so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think that's a. That's also a good piece of advice. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I didn't think about that until literally after a staff meeting. So Okay, this is from at scrub life with Sam. Okay, be honest, have y'all ever gotten into a disagreement while recording an episode and, if so, how do you handle it and keep things flowing? I'm going to be honest. I don't know, have we? I'm sure I'm like borderline in the argument about the two dogs here today.
Speaker 2:I know they're being jer, jerks, they're being jerks. Um, yeah, and I on. Sometimes I don't bring drought because I know that they're gonna be nuts together, but today I had to. Yeah, but no, I, honestly, we and that has nothing to do with the podcast, no, I think like when we don't have the same opinion on something, we have respect for each other to listen to what the other person has to say, and and that's it. Like we listen to what the other person to say, we don't have to agree with it, and that's. And that's on quality friendship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's our friendship and it's in its core. Is that that we know we were raised differently, we came up differently? Yeah, we still have a lot of core values that are the same, but there are some that are different, and it just happens to be that we might not. There are definitely things that both of us disagree on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are definitely things that both of us disagree on and you can hear that in our recordings, like that's obvious. But we've never like gotten into like a serious disagreement where we're like we can't record this episode, like again. I think it's just, it's mutual respect and quality friendship, where you listen to the opinions of others and you can agree to disagree or you just keep rolling Like it is what it is and we've been friends for many years now and if we argued like that, I don't think we would be friends.
Speaker 1:We definitely wouldn't be recording a podcast definitely not recording a podcast yeah oh, interestingly enough, I don't know my one listener had asked us and this was actually a listener close to me how many times we get asked if we're together.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a funny question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean, nobody's asked that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think people know in our real life that we are just really close friends and we may have talked about this on the podcast, but there's also another running joke that I'm like the executive assistant for christopher and so I kind of run, I schedule his life, I kind of keep him in check I think she was not doing a good job.
Speaker 1:The past I was on vacation.
Speaker 2:I was on vacation, literally and figuratively, um, and so things kind of fell apart, but we're putting it back together.
Speaker 1:Slowly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it is kind of funny and I think like well, yeah, and when we showed up to like a Pilates event and some of the people there were like so are you guys together? And we're like no, no, we're just best friends. Like so it does. I guess it does happen and I could see why.
Speaker 1:Like we have great chemistry but that's why we're best friends, like that's funny, though I don't know. Sometimes I wonder, because I'm like do I need to drop?
Speaker 2:colby, I'm blocking. I'm blocking any potentials, I know, yikes meanwhile, I know I may have to step down from my role of executive assistant for you and I may need to, yeah, make some changes in my own life anyways um, markets d a nurse, uh, somewhere, they didn't say where, so I'm just gonna going to say Marcus D a nurse.
Speaker 1:How do you balance being a nurse and still having energy for your friends, family and you know life? Because after three shifts I'm in full ghost mode. That's hilarious, because yesterday I was in that. But I went to an exhibit. I went to two art exhibits in two different places. I went to a vegan bakery, a vegan restaurant.
Speaker 1:That's the word. And then I went to a bookstore and then came home and built something and then ended up reading some books, or reading some of the book that I bought, and that was full ghost. Like I did not want. Colby even asked me twice to come hang out at two different times and I was like I can't, I cannot, I can't do it, I needed to not be around people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes, sometimes ghost mode is like what you need and so, like Christopher yesterday did a bunch of things that was just for him.
Speaker 2:And like, and when we talked about it, I checked in with him today and I was like how are you feeling? Like did you fill your cup up yesterday and like sometimes doing things for your completely yourself and you don't have to have like any thought about someone else's feelings about a situation or if they're enjoying themselves, like even if it's something fun with someone that you love or you know you love spending time with their friend there, you know someone you're in a relationship with like that can still empty your cup, and so I was so happy that Christopher did that yesterday and I did invite him out twice because I didn't. I really did want to hang out, but I also totally respect needing to fill the cup up because I am gearing up for one of those days tomorrow like like tomorrow is is a me day, like you will.
Speaker 2:I'm going to Pilates and then I'm gonna go home and I might just stay in my apartment, like I might not even leave. Like you did a bunch of things. That was great. I'm like so in ghost mode after this. Like this was like my, my last commitment, with the exception of my pilates class tomorrow, but that's a cup filler for me. This was my last like to-do list to crop thing to cross off and I'm just gonna be a hermit for 24 hours and I can't wait. I might not even like shower tomorrow, just sit on the couch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard, but you know what you need to. And this goes back to that my favorite episode, episode episode 12. It's like you need to find the balance and you need to recharge your batteries, fill your cup up. You can't. You can't take care of others. You can't take care of yourself when you're on E throughout your day, when you're working, as well as making sure you're taking time to take care of yourself when you're not and how, whatever that means, and you might. Maybe you need to speak with a therapist to find that balance. Maybe you need your 24 hours of ghost mode, maybe not, but yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1:It's a seesaw situation where you the balance is like you kind of teeter back and forth yeah, the cool thing is, you can have a day of ghost mode and still have four other or, excuse me, I can't count three other days.
Speaker 1:You can do whatever you want right like you work three shifts for a reason because it is a lot of work and hard work. If you weren't nurses and this is from at night shift tiff what would you be doing right now? Like, what's your secret dream job? I think we've briefly touched on this you.
Speaker 2:We kind of talked about like our trajectories and I think it kind of aligned with that question. But and I've been asked this question like multiple times in the last three weeks- really I yeah, very strange leaving no, no, no, there's just like casual conversation and my answer has been a little bit different every time, but I think most commonly I'm like I would before I decided to become a nurse. Like seriously was think when I was thinking about like what I was going to go to college for in high school it was like teaching, which is kind of like the same thing, different font, like when teaching and nursing.
Speaker 2:it's the same kind of burnout Like we're all like suffering the same kind of things like chronically understaffed, not having enough resources. So that makes sense, that that's probably. My alternative is just like in another like plane of life. I was a teacher, but if I can just like pick something fun and I think I would be like a natural talent at, would be like an influencer.
Speaker 1:I would love to be an influencer. I know chris just rolled his eyes for everybody that can't see.
Speaker 2:But like, tell me, I'm wrong, everybody can't see because it's just me it's just me and we're not recording on video, but I would just like to say like I think it's a if I'm talking dream job, something for fun I'm still rolling my eyes actually think I would be a great influencer.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't think that's wrong, I don't, but you know you can, it's a dream, okay, you can gladly take over the the um social media portion of the nursing life photo. You want to be an influencer?
Speaker 2:I'll let you.
Speaker 1:You can do it whatever your little heart desires here are the passwords and the user names so I mean, yeah, I I think you could definitely do that thank you yeah and yeah, next year or next season, it'll be read by colby.
Speaker 2:Okay. So, Get ready, get ready, it'll be completely unhinged.
Speaker 1:Me. On the other hand, it would be something in the vegan world.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Like I just most recently have started getting into vegan ice cream, making vegan ice cream. Oh, that's so good. Yeah, so that's been fun. And, um, I went to this bakery the other yesterday and they had cinnamon toast crunch milkshakes and it was absolutely amazing. So I'm trying to, and oh, is that gonna be your next?
Speaker 1:ice cream flavor. Well, maybe not cinnamon toast crunch, but like cinnamon ice cream. Apparently that's a thing Okay, and my pickleball partner has said that's his favorite type of ice cream. Cinnamon yeah, just cinnamon ice cream, which I'm like I had never heard of.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And. But now that I've had the Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I mean, it's the taste you can see. It's the taste you can see. I've got to figure out how to make this. I didn't know.
Speaker 2:Does he like cinnamon, like Big Red Gum cinnamon ice cream, or is it like cereal milk cinnamon?
Speaker 1:That's what he. He had said something about the Big Red Gum. Apparently it's not that it's like. I don't know what it's like, so I'm curious to make it and have him try it to see if that's the one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see if that's what he was talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but I have literally I've thought about doing some type of either at home meal prep thing, at home vegan meal planner. I've thought about a vegan restaurant.
Speaker 2:I've thought about all kinds of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know we talked about like food truck cookbook, yeah, all kinds of things so, um, then we're gonna switch over to the not nursing people all right so I'm not a nurse. Alexis r says I'm not a nurse, but I've always wondered. I'm not a nurse, but I've always wondered how do you stay calm when someone's life is literally in your hands? That seems like such an intense pressure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We've said we're calm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I love that. Your interpretation is that we're calm. Externally I'm giving calm, I'm giving calm, but internally I'm giving calm, I'm giving calm, but internally I'm giving, like that little emoji or no, not the gift of, like the dog sitting at the table and everything's burning around him and he says I'm fine, this is fine, it's all fine.
Speaker 2:Like that's what's going on in my head, like everything is burning down around me but we've talked a little bit about this too. Like in a code situation, like me personally, I go into like autopilot and I just start doing the things that I know, like there's algorithms and tasks and things that need to happen and that's what you train for.
Speaker 2:That's why we do mock codes, that's why we stay certified in ACLS and BLS and all of those things and, for those that don't know, that's advanced cardiac life support and basic life support. But that's why we train for these things. And so in a situation we kind of click into our lizard brain and we just do what we're trained to do. And so, while externally we look calm it's because we are. We are trained to do steps we turn into little robots and we start doing the things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just like the way that you brush your teeth in the morning. You always probably brush it the same way. We, as nurses, we're taught how to do things and we do them the same way. And that's definitely what keeps us safe. But it's also one of those things where I agree in a code situation we do kind of click into this normal algorithm of ACLS and BLS, but nurses really do. We see minute changes that are like oh yeah, that's not right.
Speaker 1:You know and I think that, along with the helpful hand of your, your CNA, like MPCT, that it's just you. You're working with teamwork and experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of times we were talking about a patient that was decompensating but hemodynamically stable still, so their vital signs were perfect. And a lot of times with doctors they listen to your concerns, right, but then they need some like hardcore, tangible data to kind of support it. And sometimes the patient hasn't gotten to the point where their vital signs are affected yet and it's not really triggering any worry in the doctor because they're stable, numbers wise. But a lot of times when you have enough experience and you're working with a certain population that you have a lot of experience with, it's just something we call like nursing intuition.
Speaker 2:You're like I'm like, nope, it doesn't feel right. Yeah, it doesn't feel right, something is happening here. These are the beginning signs that something is about to go very wrong and like that kind of it's very triggering for us. And then that's when we're being kind of like disregarded, um, and then usually what ends up happening is the happening is the patient crumps or, you know, continues to decondition to the point where now their vital signs are not good or we're coding them.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's kind of yeah, we know what's going on, we have nursing intuition.
Speaker 2:We're talking about this patient really needs to go to the unit and I was like yeah, I know they're not doing hot right now. And they're like, well, what can we do to get them to take a series. I said tell them nursing intuition. I'm like I don't have anything tangible yet, but I know this is going to go south soon.
Speaker 1:And it's weird. I mean it happens more often than not. Yeah, Just here for the teapot.
Speaker 2:Is that their handle, their user handle?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty clever. What's the biggest misconception people have about nurses? Like something you're tired of hearing or correcting all the time.
Speaker 2:Okay, so immediately my thought went to the dating episode. The time Okay, so immediately my thought went to the dating episode. So, while we said like not to date the four P's or five P's or however many it was, there's also like the reverse stigmatism that nurses are just like men, like men. Women eithers, like you know, like I'm like the male nurses will like serial date, though you know.
Speaker 1:Well, no know, well, no, I think the biggest thing is it's not Grey's Anatomy, it's not House, it's not.
Speaker 2:ER.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not the TV shows, you know it's not the TV shows, no, we don't barely do chest compressions and get people. Like we crack ribs.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it is gruesome and those things like yeah, I think I think that's the biggest misconception that you're. You're living in a TV show. No, maybe once in a while you might hear us, but it's not like the TV shows. No.
Speaker 2:I would say, another misconception of nursing is that one thing I hate is when, like we're like well, you only work three days a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like, yeah, I work three days a week and in that time I work as many hours as you work in five, right, if not more?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Depending on how crazy the end of the shift was. For sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:It is almost comparative to and I hate that, I'm about to use this as a comparison that football is a very strenuous sport compared to other sports because they only play once a week. I hate that because I'm a baseball stand and I think baseball is just as strenuous.
Speaker 1:But I mean, it's just that comparison, like there's a reason why we work only three days a week, because it's mentally, emotionally, physically exhausting, and those 40 hours you're working, we're doing it in those three days yeah, everyone that works uh, 40 regular nine to five, 40 hours. We could never do what we do you right um danny, nursing school, hopeful, okay. Do you ever get used to seeing blood, needles or really tough situations, or does it still hit you sometimes?
Speaker 2:oh, blood and needles nothing but really hard, tough situation tough situations is very like situational depends on like what the tough situation is. You know, like there's stuff that we see all the time like codes that I mean it's very weird. We had a recent experience where we, christopher, came with me, we took my job, my dog to the emergency vet and we were there and it was a very traumatic night, not even like for me with my dog, but just like everything that we saw come through and, um, we were just sitting there, shell-shocked, like what the frick is happening right now and when we were leaving, like they— it was like the ghetto hospital.
Speaker 2:It was like we were in a level one trauma ED like in inner city Baltimore. Like it was legitimate gunshot wounds, dog hit by cars, like people were—.
Speaker 1:Legitimately.
Speaker 2:This is not an exaggeration. This is like two actual cases that happened. There were three families that were like scream, crying, throwing up because their dogs were dying or dead.
Speaker 2:And it was just like and obviously if that was me in their shoes I'd be doing the same thing but like to sit there in the waiting room and just watch like case after case come through. It was like a horror movie. And we were like literally shell shocked sitting there, like what just happened to us. And when we were leaving, like at this point they knew that like the two of us worked in health care and we were, we were having like a goodbye. I was checking out pay and conversation and I was like, are you guys OK? Like this has been a crazy night. And they were like oh, yeah, we're fine, like whatever. And then we kind of like chuckled a little bit because we were like that's what we say to people when they ask us if we're OK. We're like, yeah, we're fine, whatever. Like we keep it rolling, not a big deal. And they were like no, no, no, no. Like we feel like that's crazy, which most of the world probably does, but like things that us, like letting it roll off our backs is crazy.
Speaker 2:But it was just kind of like a funny, like dynamic, like paradoxical kind of situation that we were in, like yeah, we, we see crazy stuff all the time and you do kind of get a thick skin and become numb to stuff. But sometimes something might hit you. That's just personal, that's different, and a lot of times it'll just sneak up on you and surprise you, I think when you do have those things. But as far as, like I mean, I guess even some people might be more sensitive than others Blood and needles and scalpels and that kind of stuff doesn't bother me at all.
Speaker 2:When it comes to patients, like even myself, like doing something to a patient. Personally, though, like I don't like to get stuck by needles, I don't like to get, I do it and I'm not a big baby, I don't cry about it, I just don't watch it happen. But yeah, personally, like I just don't look at it when it's being done and I'm totally fine. But I can't even donate blood without passing out because I just I feel the blood leaving my body. So it's situational. Everybody's going to be different. You're just going to figure out what your tolerance is, what you can and can't handle.
Speaker 1:It's fun. It's fun to kind of hear and see that and I'm like, I mean going back to the emergency room vet, I just felt like I was and I think both of us are very strong on the empath side, so I think both of us also were just drained because of that.
Speaker 2:I felt like I was siphoning all of these emotions like straight directly into my body. It was like a main line. I was like, oh my gosh, what the hell.
Speaker 1:We will never.
Speaker 2:I will never take my dogs to the christopher will never volunteer to go back with me. Also, we were there from 10 30 at night to like 3 30 in the morning it was terrible, and not even because of trout, like trout had gotten im pain meds and it was chilling. He was chilling he was fine.
Speaker 2:There were multiple times where I looked at christopher and I was like he seems fine. Should I just pay for the pain meds and we can leave? And they were like no, no, let's wait. And then, like the next tragedy rolled in. It was terrible.
Speaker 1:It was awful. This might be random, but what's something people wouldn't expect nurses to do on a regular basis, like any behind the scenes stuff that surprised even you when you started, and that's Michael C podcast listener.
Speaker 2:Oh, something that surprised me.
Speaker 1:To be honest, this is what surprised me.
Speaker 2:Okay, sure.
Speaker 1:When it comes to nurses and not being on unit, nothing holds them back what do you mean?
Speaker 2:in what context?
Speaker 1:they, they doing some drinks, they they smoking.
Speaker 2:Oh how nurses can get down outside of work down outside of work well, those are called coping mechanisms, but I do think there's like a. There we're all cut from the same cloth. So there's a common thread in us. Like anytime I've ever gone out with nurses, it's a throwdown.
Speaker 1:It's a throwdown.
Speaker 2:It's a throwdown.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's like a silent competition of who can get crazier.
Speaker 1:And they will ramp it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they will.
Speaker 1:So I think that's the biggest thing for me.
Speaker 2:For sure that is fair. That's a fair statement. I think that is so funny. That is such a. That's a fair statement. I think that is so funny, that is such a and I will even say like, even in nursing school there was definitely like a group of girls in my nursing class that were like crazy in college Okay.
Speaker 2:And like I totally see it, but like you're also with a group of people in college that I feel like in nursing school, you might agree it's like so cutthroat, Like everybody's, like I gotta get, gotta get an a, I gotta I'm not gonna share any of the of my study.
Speaker 2:You know whatever my study cards and flash cards and that kind of stuff. So then, like, if you graduate, and then you're all, you pass your boards, and then you're with a bunch of people that made it through, and then you're like wait, we're like actually all crazy together.
Speaker 2:Oh this makes sense I was yeah, I that and that's across the board. Like in every state, every age group. Like everybody's got a little nutso in them if they're a nurse and they really throw down outside of work. That's so funny. Please say one. That's not true, not even on the same page as that. But like as far as like just at work is like, probably what surprised me the most is just a lot of the bullshit stuff that we have to do. That's just like compliance with um jco standards oh okay, interesting, yeah like like labeling stuff making sure things are within date like
Speaker 1:you know like and all that makes sense but it's like rest the Uncrustables are gone because they didn't have a gate. A gate, a gate.
Speaker 2:They didn't have a gate, so they took away our Uncrustables, and that is a tragedy. They took away our Uncrustables at our hospital because nutrition staff would not put dates on them for some until when they were quote-unquote expired.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because everything can only be in the refrigerator for three days. Well, let me tell you something those Uncrustables would go so quickly that they'd be lucky if they were even in there for three hours.
Speaker 1:Right, not because of the patients.
Speaker 2:Sometimes for the patients, but mostly for the staff, mostly the staff, but you know what that's. On not getting a real lunch break.
Speaker 1:Agreed, I would also take part.
Speaker 2:Yes, like an uncrustable just hits, it does. I'm going to mourn that for the rest of my career. They got these nasty Like dry, oh my gosh, they look awful. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That is another thing. The nutrition room is for the patients, but Quote unquote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's all. That's all I'll say there. We know who it's really for All right.
Speaker 1:Last question I'm not in health care, but I love hearing your stories. How do you emotionally let go of a tough day so it doesn't follow you home? And that is from at books and bandages books and bandages.
Speaker 2:Thank you for thank you for your question. I think, like we, when we touched a lot on that listen to episode 12. But I think, like immediately leaving work, I like to like completely disengage. Like as I'm walking off the unit I'll put my headphones in and listen to a song. Like listening to music, listening to a book, book, an audio book, listen to a podcast, like I'm immediately trying to like disassociate from the hospital.
Speaker 2:As soon as I like give my sign out, I'm like, all right, I'm disassociating, because if you don't, it's so easy to take that step home, especially if you're kind of like a typical type A nurse that's a little high strung and a little bit of a perfectionist and a little bit anxiety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're a little bit like me, you have to learn how to maintain those boundaries and you need to find something that works for you and for me. It's like I immediately I'm like, all right, we're plugging in the headphones, we're, we're out of here. And I do that so well at this point that like someone will ask me like oh well, what about patient 66B? I'm like who, what? Like, oh well, what about patient 66b? I'm like who? What? Male or female? I couldn't tell you. I've had patients, family numbers, see me in the real world and they're like, oh my god, I just want to tell you like dad's doing so well and I'm like I don't know who you're and you act like oh yeah, it's the best put the show on performance ever yeah, oh my god, I'm so happy to hear that.
Speaker 2:He was the sweetest patient. He was so nice. It's so nice to see you guys. I'm like I don't know who that is at all. Yeah, I don't know who their family member was. Couldn't tell you from Adam.
Speaker 1:Never know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you just have to get good at disassociating, I guess, yeah, find, find out what works for you. Try different things.
Speaker 1:I don't disassociate.
Speaker 2:You don't have the same luxury because you are basically always on call.
Speaker 1:That is true? Yeah, all right, so let's wrap this up. It's been an interesting night, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think we had fun reviewing everything from this season and it got me excited about next season.
Speaker 1:Is there something you want to talk about next season that you're, like chomping at the bit, ready to talk about?
Speaker 2:I think we've read some books about like nursing, management and styles that I thought maybe we would talk a little bit about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really need to hand that back to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I can finish reading it. No, that's all good, but I yeah, I think you know it's while there are endless options within nursing, there's endless options to talk about.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think we're lucky in that. Yeah, so I think we're lucky in that. But I would also like love if anybody has anything that they want us to talk about, if you wanted to submit anything in via our Twitter page or Facebook or Instagram, and. Gmail or Gmail. Let us know if there's something specific that you guys want to know more about or hear us babble on about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I'm sure at some point there's going to be some type of law put out, or you know we'll. We'll hop in the politics too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll definitely do that and we've even tossed around the idea of doing like a live not live podcast, but like watching a medical TV show and kind of breaking it down while we're watching it record a podcast in that kind of sense. So I don't know if we'll do like a separate podcast or like a fun like episode drop within next season for that, but it's an idea that we've tossed around.
Speaker 1:Yep, and we've also thought about thinking, thought about thinking, we thought about thinking once. You know it's a very interesting concept. Thought about bringing some other people in and trying to get some other voices Get some guests. You can hear some other people in and trying to get some other voices, get some guests. You can hear some other.
Speaker 2:Points of view. Points of view Perspectives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. But you know I would be remiss to say you know class dismissed. Remiss to say class dismissed. I am truly grateful that you have stuck in to listen to us, despite all of our ramblings and craziness that we have put out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I hope that this episode specifically is like a love letter to you guys and I really want you guys to know how appreciative we are. And it's been, like I said earlier, really fun, kind of reflecting on the last couple of months of us recording and I think we've done, it's gone better than what I expected from the beginning and I feel like I am enjoying it. I have enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would and it's just, yeah, we wouldn't have been able to do this without any of you guys and every time we see like our engagement, like the numbers go up, it's super exciting and it kind of keeps us wanting to record more. So thank you for that immensely.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. All right class dismissed. That's a wrap on season one of Nursing Life 101, and it's Nursing Life 101. Thank you all for being part of this journey with us.
Speaker 2:Keep connecting with us on social media and let us know what you want to hear in season two. Until next time, take care of yourselves and keep making a difference out there you.
