(upbeat music) - Welcome to "You Didn't Ask" podcast. I'm Megan. - And I'm Chloe, and we're here to answer all the questions that you didn't ask. (upbeat music) - How old are you? - I'm 20. - Oh! (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the "You Didn't Ask" podcast. - Yay! - Today we have another guest with us, and I would like you to introduce yourself. (laughing) - Hey everyone, my name is Rose. I am, I've been Chloe's friend, since like eighth grade. Although we danced together in Rome, Georgia for a really long time since we were like maybe three and four. So we've known to it for a long time, but it's been, that's been like very fun to keep up with her all these years. And then Megan, I've known only for a little while through Chloe, which is super cool. - Yay! - I'm going to, they went to Mississippi together, so that was really cool. But yeah, I just graduated from Berry College, and I am an ER nurse. I just started about like four weeks ago. (laughing) So very fresh to the game, but it's very fun, and it's been really like different and new, and lots of change to like graduate college. And now I probably won't go back to school for a while, so just moving into like full on job, and new living arrangements, and lots of change like that. But also making money, which is really cool. (laughing) - Yeah, so okay, the first question I have for you, I know nothing about nursing. All I know is like through you, and like stories that you've told me, but I know nothing truly about it. So my first question is, what sort of education, like what does college look like if you're trying to become a nurse? Like how do you do that? Do you have to go to a certain type of school? I know a lot of people from Mississippi State go to Mississippi State for two years, and then go to a nursing school. How does that work? What did you do? - Okay, so Berry College, specifically, has a program where you do a four-year degree, which is called a BSN, so Bachelor of Science in Nursing. A lot of schools do this, and then a lot of schools also only offer the two years of nursing school. Usually it's two years, but you can do four years to get a bachelor's degree and get all those prereqs. So like, for instance, my mom just did an accelerated program, but she had already had an associate's degree from like way back when, so she didn't need all of those undergraduate classes, like, you know, stuff that you take like math or reading, you know, English 101, so she got to do a program. It sped it up, it sped up the two nursing years into one year, but it was a similar concept of like, you have actual nursing school for two years, and then what the program that I did was two regular undergrad years too, so I'm just trying to get those prereqs in. But yeah, the two nursing years looks like throughout the whole year, you orient through the hospital and you get to go and kind of work in all the units to check off throughout the year on different skills, and you can't check off on some things because you don't have a license, and I wasn't allowed to perform some skill sets. - Okay, so we just went through the schooling for being a nurse and like, what that looks like, what made you decide to become a nurse? Like, what made you be like, yes, this is the career for me, what was that path? How did you get there? - Okay, so I feel like the first time I ever really thought about like, what do I want to do in the future besides like eighth grade when I wanted to be a dolphin trainer, like every other eighth grade girl, I felt like, like, I don't remember that. I was like, okay, maybe I should actually start thinking about like, what I wanted to do in my life. And that was around senior year of high school, and then that year kind of changed abruptly because my parents approached me and they were like, hey, we have been really prayerful about this, and they had just gone to Kenya. My dad would take trips almost every year with the organization that he was working with doing therapy, and they would go and do counseling for missionaries in other countries. And so they had just come back from Kenya and unbeknownst to me, they had gotten a job offer to go, to move over there and be there for a four-year term, just helping the couples, the missionary couples who just like their marriage struggle sometimes, just being overseas and in a lot of hearts things. So anyway, they were like, we're gonna be doing that. Like, that's for sure gonna happen. We're gonna do that after you graduate. So you can either continue to apply to colleges and go to college, or you can come to Kenya. And I was like, okay, well, I... - That's not really a hard question for me because I am a home body and I'm very homesick. I always have, and so I was like, well, I'm not starting college without my people here. So I was like, I'm going to Kenya, I guess. So then I am thankful that my belligerent heart was changed by the Lord because I really was not happy about it, I was really upset. And I was just like, ugh, this is the worst. No one else does this. Everyone's going to college. I'm the only one taking a gap year. What even is that? What am I gonna be doing? 'Cause I wasn't gonna be in school. My brothers were gonna be in school and so I was like, I'm not gonna have any friends. All the worst case scenarios. So anyway, I forgot about my future. I forgot about what I, you know, school and future prospects have jobs. So I was just like, ugh, so anyway. When we landed in Kenya, I did. My mom helped me with this, but I did have to like, I had to find stuff to do and it was great. I had to like kind of open up a little bit and step outside of my comfort zone and jump into things that I had never done before. Like volunteer at hospitals and there were some really, it like needful orphanages that were in high demand of like helpers so I helped there. And then I got to also help teach a class at the school that my brothers went to. It's called Roslyn Academy. It was awesome, really cool international school. But anyway, so then I got to thinking. I was like, okay, well, what do I love to do? Like, I do need to start thinking about what I want to do with my life because I was planning on going to college, off planning on taking a gap year and then coming back to the US and starting college the following year. So I started really thinking then. I was like, okay, what is interesting to me? What am I good at? What has kind of the Lord gift me with? And what am I passionate about? And so I was trying to think about subjects in school that I enjoyed and I really did enjoy science. I really enjoyed anatomy. Even though we had a funny anatomy teacher, she was kind of interesting. But the Lord used that for good 'cause I really did love, I walked away loving the human body and like wanting to learn more about how it functions and just really feeling interested in that. And so I was like, all right. So that's like something that's good to know. So I kind of took that and ran with it and I was like, what can I do where I'm working with people and having to help them with their, you know, or learn about the body or do something, you know? And so a couple of things came up. Obviously a doctor and a nurse and a couple other things. My mom had been a dental hygienist for like 30 years. So I was like, I can clean people's teeth, you know. But I was like, I don't really want to do that. So I finally just started thinking about nursing because it was less school than doctor. I've never been a huge fan of school. I like to learn, I really do, but I hate taking tests. I hate being tested on what I learned, which is good. I know it's good, but I just, it's just stressful. And I always felt like I struggled with anxiety, test anxiety. But anyway, so I narrowed it down just through getting to work at this hospital called Gertrude's Children's Hospital in Kenya and I was like, man, I just want to do this. I want to walk alongside people and help them get better. And I assumed that that was what nursing would be like. So I also had only applied to one college. That's something like, if I get into this college, I'm going and if I don't, I guess I'm not. So that was Barry, that was Barry College. And that was really cool because that they have a great nursing program that's kind of a little bit new, like within the last 10 years. And so I was like, well, that worked perfectly. Like if I get in, I'll do nursing. And that'll just be a sign from the Lord. So that was a huge answer to prayer. And that was really cool that that all worked out. And I was able to, Barry is really expensive. It's a private school and we did not pay out of pocket. I've got a couple student loan payments I'm going to have to be making, but we did, we were able to cut it down a lot. And it was able to happen for me, which was really great because I did get a really great nursing education. And I'm really grateful for that. But yeah, like out of all your rotations, you went to multiple units. How did you end up at the ER? Yeah, okay. So this is funny. I don't know how this is at other universities and nursing schools and programs. But everyone in my cohort almost was, they asked us, you know, I was like an icebreaker. They were like, what kind of nurse you want to be? And I, I for one had no previous experience. Like I had never worked in a hospital, been in a hospital unless I was sick. So all these people are like, oh, I want to be this company owner. And I was like, the only thing I know is nurse. Like, I don't know what, I thought it was just nurse. (laughing) They were like, I would like to be a labor and delivery specialist with a side of, and I was like, what in the world is it going on here? And so I literally had, I just said something. Like I said, I said what the girl in front of me said, which was labor and delivery. And I did not want to be a labor and delivery nurse, which was kind of hilarious that I said that. Definitely they didn't hold it to us, but like hold us to that. But yeah, so we did rotations and that some, sometimes you got to stay a lot longer in one area than others, just depending on like how many nurses we're willing to take on students. And just depending on like what kind of skills you needed to learn. So for instance, MedSurg, you get to practice a ton of different skills. You get to see a ton of different types of patients because it's, that stands for a medical surgical unit. And that is, that's what they call the floor. I would hear all these terms and I was like, what are you talking about? And they'd be like, oh, I work on the floor. And I'm like, everywhere has a floor, what are you doing? And so. - The floor. - It means like, it just means like all these generalized patients who are usually staying in the hospital for more than a day or two. And so it can be really serious, like patients, or it can just be like, oh, I just had like a little, a small surgery, but I just needed to stay overnight. You know, something like that. So anyway, that is where they started, that's where they started us out. I think that's where they start a lot of new student nurses out at. Because you just get to practice all these skills that you're learning. You're having to learn how to put in a Foley catheter. And you're having to learn how to like do IVs and you're having to learn how to just do a full head to toe body assessment. Like all these just generalized things. And so it's a great place to practice. So that was where my entire first semester was of nursing school, all in MedSurg. Which was kind of hard 'cause I did not really like MedSurg. I just, I felt like it was a little bit boring. But it was really cool and I did get to really like practice really, really important skills that are just foundational. And then the following semester was all mother baby and like family and a little bit of mental health too. So those rotations were much shorter though. So instead of being at one location, the whole semester, like I had one day in the NICU and then I had one day in labor and delivery. And then there's a whole other section called mother baby where the mom and the baby, you know, they have their little day or two in the hospital where they bond and they make sure the mom can breastfeed. And that was actually a really sweet unit. But depending on the hospital and depending on the unit, I was interested in it based on like what the nurses were like. So I was always watching how the nurses were interacting 'cause I was like, if I ever work here in this hospital or if I ever work in this unit, like what is it going to be like for me? And so I was immediately not interested in labor and delivery just because the hospital that I was at, the nurses were very clicky and they were not very good teachers. And so I was like, I'm not interested in this. Like I need somebody who's gonna teach me, otherwise I'm gonna kill somebody, you know, when I get in. So which would not be good obviously. So yeah, I was like, well, that does not interest me. Like I want people who are willing to take me in and you gotta start somewhere. So I did have a lot of sweet nurses who did that. But anyway, I just also was not interested in labor and delivery. It just didn't feel drawn to that. I liked the NICU, I liked the intensive care. So as I was deciding on where to like go, I really liked places that challenged my critical thinking. I didn't wanna ever be doing the same thing over and over again too. So in some places, you just kind of see the same patients and give the same medications or do the same assessments. Labor and delivery is a little bit that way because everyone is coming to have a baby. You know, that's why you're there. Otherwise, you're well me and liver and delivery. So I liked ICU and ER for that reason. So for a long time, I thought I was gonna do ICU, but I decided not to, I had one day in the ER, but it was enough to change my mind because it was so unique compared to the rest of the hospital because you see so many patients in one day in one 12-hour shift. And they are coming from all over, they're of all different ages, ethnicities. And I just really enjoyed like the fast pace in this. It moves so quickly and you have to be so on your feet all day. And I love that. You walk around, sometimes you run around and they have trauma units too. So you get to see like a really critical things and you get to be the first person to meet that patient. And I just think that's a really cool one. It's unique how you talk to the doctors too because you're right there with the doctors and in other places, you kind of have to call the doctor or like message him on the computer and be like, "Hey, can you do this?" And so this in the ER, you just walk right up to him and you say, "Hey, can you do this?" Or like, "Can you put it in order for this?" Or, "What do you think about this?" "You know, you can give your own recommendations." And so I thought that was really cool. Like the difference in how you interact with the doctors and then in the rest of the hospital. So that's kind of what solidified like, "Okay, I think I wanted you ER." - Yeah. - So, yeah. - Cool. - Cool. Something about like that, I was one of her favorite things was to give people shots and I was like, "Okay." - That's funny. - It is fun, it's, I like doing any skills. So like, I love starting an IV. I just, I like doing well too. So like, obviously I hate when I miss because nobody likes being stuck and I also, it always makes me feel like, "Oh, I'm the worst," you know? So I love doing a skill correctly and like giving a medication correctly and going through all the checks. So like whenever you give a medication, you have to go through all of these rights to make sure it's the right patient at the right time and the right medication and the right amount of medication and the right route of medication. So like, there was this one time as a student that I was going to give a medication and it was supposed to be IM, which means in your, like, either in your shoulder in the outside of your leg or like in your upper hip butt area. It's a muscular injection. It's usually some kind of, it's like a flu shot or like a tetanus shot, you know, something like that. So that'd be like, that's like a type of injection that you would give and I thought it was supposed to be pushed through an IV, which is super different and it could be very dangerous, you know, if something that's supposed to go in your muscle goes straight into your bloodstream. And so thankfully my nurse was like, "Um, that's wrong." (laughs) So that was a good learning point as a student. 'Cause yeah, you just, you know, you have to learn all these things of like, "Oh my gosh, you can't give this medication through the wrong route." And like, is it time? 'Cause some medications you can't give, and that's why, you know, a lot of, almost all medication bottles say, don't take more than blank in this amount of hours because that's the harm is like, if you take something and it's still in your body, you could overdose, you know? And so it was just cool to like learn about all those things. But yeah, it is so fun to like be able to do that now and receive or like look at the patient and then make my own inferences of like, "Okay, I think this is what they're probably gonna need." And then, you know, talk to the doctor and then that's what they need. And I get to do it. It's like, "Wow, that was so cool." So, and then, you know, I also just love seeing people walk away feeling better. It stinks when they have to be admitted. Like I don't like admitting patients. I want them to like walk back out, you know? But, you know, obviously you have to admit people who are serious or had a really big trauma, but I actually work in a hospital where they, it's a hospital that is in, it's like the only one in a 69 mile radius, but it's not a, at a level, I think it's like a level three and a level one is the highest, meaning like a cutie level. So, if a hospital can take on level ones, they can pretty much do any kind of trauma. They can take on anything that happens, really, really serious patients. So, my hospital, the ER can take those patients, but then we always have to ship them to another hospital that can do long-term care. So, that's pretty cool. 'Cause even though the, like the hospital itself can't take serious patients, like we can accept them because we're the closest hospital, but then we usually either ship them through a, via helicopter or like ambulance to another hospital. Usually it's Erlang or in Chattanooga, but I thought that was really interesting that, like we do the first like 10 minutes of intervention and then immediately we send that, you know. So, that's really, I thought that was really interesting, but yeah, that's been fun to learn that part. - That's so interesting, like just listening, like how high the stakes are. Like, I'm just like, I would be a horrible nurse. Just, like, thinking about like, going through the check points and like. - She does not read that moment. - Yeah, no. I literally take like five ibuprofen at one time. - Oh my god. - I'm so sorry. My mom just texted me and said, "Are you furnished with your podcast?" Girl. - Yes. - No, I'm not furnished. Anyway. Okay, so, I want to know, this might be like a hippo violation, so you can tell me, you can say no. Do you have, can you tell any like stories or like anything that, any of them only works there for like a couple of weeks, but just like, or even like in your time being a student, just like some stories from your time being a nurse or like when you kind of like realized you really loved the job or like a moment where you were kind of scared, but you were realized, "Oh wait, no, I can actually do it." Like a little story or anecdote. Obviously not naming names or anything. - Yeah, yeah. So, that was something that was hard too, is to figure out like, okay, what is hippo? What does that mean? What does it mean to break hippo? Like how serious is it is? And so, yeah, it's like giving any patient identifiers, anything in the hospital or out of the hospital that could identify a patient or their diagnosis 'cause that's private and that's a breach of security. So, which I didn't, you know, you don't know that until you work in the hospital. So, that was interesting to learn, but yeah, I can totally tell you about just like all the time, the hospital see codes and there's, so the hospital I work at, this is probably universal, but we have specific colors for our codes. So, Code Blue is the one that I'm talking about and it's where someone's is dying. Usually they've lost an airway or their heart has stopped. And so, you press that code button and a cart comes run in with a few nurses, usually ER or ICU nurses. Although all nurses have to be certified in CPR. So, the patient's heart has stopped and they bring this, it's called a crash car and it has a EKG that's gonna start measuring the heart rhythm and then it has the defibrillator, which shocks the patient. It has all these medications like epinephrine, which you give epinephrine for anaphylactic shock, but you also give it if someone's heart has stopped depending on what their rhythm is. So, you do the EKG and you see the rhythms and so if it's acesterly, you don't give any medications for acesterly, that's when the heart, that's like how you see in the movies when it's flat line, it's just like no beat at all. And you just have to do CPR. You just do chest compressions and if there's respiratory around or if you have a bag like to bag breathe or they put the mask over the patient's face, you do that. And it's 30 to two, so you do 30 chest compressions to the beat of less, you know, 100 to 120, no faster than that, otherwise the heart can't fail with blood and it's pointless, you're just pumping for no reason. - Once I was afraid, I was petrified. - Yeah, that's from the office and that is the wrong song. - Stayin' alive y'all, stayin' alive. - That is the funniest, that is like one of the funniest episodes in the universe. So, I think about that all the time and I'm like, I hope I pick the right song if I choose a song, 'cause otherwise, you know, you're going way too slow. - I love that episode, oh my god. - There's actually a couple songs, I saw this TikTok, I don't even have TikTok, my friend showed it to me, but it was really funny and it was like, songs that you can sing while you're doing chest compressions that are with the right beat. And obviously, stayin' alive, stayin' alive. That one's to the beat. Also, Sabrina Carpenter's, please, please, please, that one is to the right beat, which is, I thought was hilarious. And there's another one that I forget, but there were just all these songs and I was like, you've gotta be kidding me, that is hilarious, 'cause it's helpful, it really is helpful, especially when you're, you get kind of tired and you have to pump at certain depths. It's about two inches of depth and, you know, the right speed and then you, once you, so you put the defibrillator on and it tells you like, okay, you need, if it's a defibrillator, it'll talk to you. If it's a crash cart and the nurses and the doctors will determine, usually the doctor will be like, okay, can you shock the patient? And then, you know, you hear like the classic, you know, clear, everybody clear, and then they shock the patient and hopefully what that does when you shock a heart is it restarts it, it's like a restart. So, hopefully that either shocks their heart back to life if it has completely stopped, or sometimes you can have rhythms where their pulse is just lost. So there's a rhythm called V-TAC and a rhythm called V-FIM. And both, V-FIM is always without a pulse. The TAC is sometimes without a pulse. So, whenever a patient is without a pulse, you always do chest compressions. And so, you just do that until the doctor either calls it. So, if the patient is just not responsive, you eventually the doctor will call like, okay, this will be the time of death. Like the patient has been unresponsive. We've given these medications and we've done this over and over and nothing has changed. But oftentimes it does change if you shock them early enough, which is super miraculous. I think that's so cool that even though a heart can like go crazy, it's all this electrical activity. Like that's what's keeping the heart going. And it's so crazy that we do that without thinking. Like thankfully we don't have to think about like, okay, heart, you know, do your thing. So, 'cause that'd be pretty much impossible. So, yeah, usually if you shock the heart early enough, it'll revert back to a normal rhythm with alongside chest compressions. And so, the chest compressions are to keep the blood flowing. The defibrillator is to start the heart back to its correct rhythm. So, you need both usually. But yeah, anyway, all that to say, I had a patient that went through that process and we got them back. And that was super awesome because it is really sad and just like, just kind of traumatic just to, you know, do all that work and try so hard to like, keep a patient alive and then they just don't make it. So, that was really cool that this patient ended up making it because it is kind of rare 'cause it's damaging to the body. Like compressions are really rough and you usually break ribs if you're doing it quickly, especially if it's like an elderly patient. And so, there's just a lot of like damage that happens through that. So, it is a little bit rare when someone comes back, but that was probably what was like, oh man, I want to help do this. Like I wanna help bring people away from dying, you know? They haven't died yet, but like, I don't want them to die. You know, I just wanna, I want to save lives. So, that was like really where it was like, we saved somebody's life, you know? Every act of nursing is so important. You're either bringing life into the world or you're helping life leave, you know, respectfully, or you are keeping someone alive, like whatever it looks like, it's all important, but it is really cool to be part of that team. Like I love being part of the code team 'cause everybody was really calm. You always think it's like, oh, you know, shock 'em. You know, everyone back up, but it was super chill. Like everybody was like, okay, we're gonna shock is everybody ready? And then like, you have to switch out CPR 'cause you get really tired pumping so hard. And so, that was really cool. People were like, it's a need to break. Like they were like, roast, you wanna break? And I was like, I think I'm okay. I just keep going for a little bit. And that was really cool. But yeah, and if all the people know CPR, so like all the nurses were doing it, some of the doctors would do it. And then even like nurse texts and CNA's, which are like, they're sort of finding a couple things. But they're like helpers in the hospital. They do a lot of like bed baths and they take vital signs of patients. And they even do it too. So that was just really cool to just see all the teamwork and like everybody was trying really hard. So it was, anyway, that's definitely something that was like changing for my love for nursing. I really grew in love with nursing more through that experience. - Yeah, that's awesome. That's really cool that like your job, like you actually get to like say people's lives, which is really cool. Okay, my next question is, what would you advise a young upcoming nurse listening to someone that wants to be a nurse, someone that is currently in nursing school, someone that's debating, throwing the idea around being a nurse, what would your advice be to them? What would you say like is important if you're gonna go to nursing school and become a nurse? - I would say this, so this is something, I like, I laugh about this sometimes with some of my nursing school friends because there were, this was mostly my first semester of nursing school, but I literally was looking at ways to switch to become a teacher because it's so hard. There were just parts of it that were really hard. And you always hear that about lots of different things, actually, there's lots of majors that are very difficult. And you're just like, oh, it's really hard, but you can do it, you know? And I'm like, I, you know, you always wanna walk in with like, I can do it, I can do it. And then I just reached a point where I was like, I don't know if I can do this anymore because there's just so much shoved into such short amount of time, like you're just learning so many things and there's just this huge pressure I feel like to succeed, like, you know, to be the best and to be able to do it. Like, can you do it? Are you able to pass this test? Are you gonna be a good nurse? Are you gonna be able to do it? And then eventually, are you gonna be able to pass boards? You know, that final test where can you get your license? And so I just personally struggle with a good bit of anxiety around just like those kinds of situations where you just don't know, it's just a lot of unknown and I know that the Lord is faithful but I don't know if it, you know, I didn't know truly if the nursing was what he had for me. I, because there's always a chance like he might redirect my path and that would be the plan but it would have been, I would have, you know, it would have been like, oh, okay, this is kind of embarrassing, you know? So, yeah, I had some friends who dropped out for a couple of reasons. One person dropped out because there is a, I don't know about other schools, I think this is generally the normalcy thing but there is a line that you have to pass grade-wise. So we could not make below a 75 average in the class otherwise we fail it out of nursing school. And if you fail it out of one course, you couldn't move on to the next one. So like, you couldn't go back and take it to the next semester, you either had to move on or wait in the entire year to redo. So I had a classmate ahead of me do that. So she didn't pass one of the courses and she couldn't move on to the next semester. So she waited the rest of the year. She worked in a hospice home or a nursing home actually and she like booked up her skills and then she graduated with me this year and she is awesome, I love her. And she's a great nurse, she's a wonderful nurse, she passed her board's fine. And it was just maybe the season of life she was in was just like she couldn't do school or she just needed a little bit more time. And so that is like, that is what I am trying to say with all this is like, if you start it, if you feel like it's something that you're interested in, I would say definitely go for it. It's a very wonderful occupation to be a part of. And I mean, there are so many different types of nurses and I would encourage people who are interested in the field to look at that to me. I mean, maybe shadow, like I kind of wish I would have shadowed because I really knew nothing about it going in and I think it would have helped me pit sooner like what I wanted to do exactly in nursing if I would have gotten some experience, you know, shattering somebody. So definitely like ask questions and figure out what kind of options there are because you can do so much as a nurse, like so much with so many different populations too. So I would encourage people to think about like, what kind of people do you want to interact with? Do you want to interact with people? Can you care for people? Are you, do you have any kind of compassion? You know, you have to have some of these underlying things. You just have to. But then also like, you know, you may not be a super people person, but you can still be a nurse in like a mental health hospital where you don't interact with patients that much, but you still have a ton of responsibility and like you still have a ton of knowledge as a nurse. So it's just really cool to see like, one of my friends is in the mental health hospital as a nurse and she loves it. She's so gifted with that population and it's just really cool to see like, yeah, just like all the different types of things you can do. So anyway, that's where I would start. It's like, definitely if you're interested, look into it. And then if you start it and you get through and you're starting to feel like, oh my gosh, I can't do this or I don't know I'm going to make it through this. I might feel loud or don't make the right disorders. Oh my gosh, I would say try and stick with it. Try and stick it out and just do your best. And if you don't do it, if you can't do it the first try, there's always a second one and a third. Really there is. And so you can always go back to school later. Like I had a friend do that. She was like, I just can't swing it right now. Money wise, she was about to get married and she was like, I just can't do it. And so she's going to go back to school later. And then I also had a friend who was like, I don't want to be a nurse, I want to be a doctor. So he went through in the entire nursing school. And then graduated and I was like, okay, I actually want to be a doctor. And so now he's like studying for the MCAT and everything. So anyway, there's just so many things like that you're never sealed. You don't, you never have to seal the deal in the sense of like, oh, if I start, I have to finish or if I start and I don't finish on my failure, you know, it's just not for everybody. And sometimes you just have to kind of jump in and try it before you know how it's going to go. And that's kind of like a leap of faith. And it kind of is very scary, but it is really fun on the other side personally. Just I am so deeply bonded with my classmates because we went through the wringer together. And it's hilarious to like talk about funny stories that happen and just like, it's really cool to see the different types of nurses that we all are now and very encouraging too to see like that we all have passed our boards. Like we have a hundred percent pass rate right now, which is like very, very awesome. Yeah, it's really cool. And I'm just very proud of everyone and yeah. Anyway, so that is just like definitely all good reasons why you should definitely try and pursue nursing if you have any kind of interest because there's no harm in trying. There really isn't. And I also will say like, I'm sure even in this video, I've probably misspoke in a couple of facts because I'm still learning. I mean, I just started. So I am not some kind of like, you know, super genius over here. But and I'm very humbled by that. I'm like very excited to continue learning so that I do like build up more confidence. And I want to be very competent. I want to be a very safe practicing nurse. And so yeah, all that to say too, like even when you finish, it's not like, okay, now I can do anything, you know, there's still so much to learn. And it's a really cool occupation for that reason because you really never stop learning. You don't. Even if you learn everything, there is to learn science is always changing, which is like super crazy, but also really cool. And so we do this thing called evidence-based practice. So every year they look at things that nurses are doing and we see how to improve. And sometimes they'll completely change a practice. If they see that like outcomes at one hospital is way higher, like for the betterment of patients, then they'll change this practice. Even if they've been doing it, you know, I think about like nurses, you know, you think about a little pain-stripe nurses from like the 70s and 80s. And, or maybe a little earlier, maybe like 60s and 70s. And yeah, 'cause 80s is not long ago. But anyway, you think about them and they practice, like they were charting on paper. You know, they would chart everything on paper and like keeping these huge books. And now everything is online and we chart everything online and we put in like such different documentation. It's really crazy to think about. But so it's stuff like that where it just is always changing and you're always like learning new things. And I, I just think that's really cool. So anyway, that was kind of a long answer. But I definitely think that those are some things to think about as you think about what to pursue as a career and if that might be nursing. So thank you. And I think that is like kind of what this whole like thing we're doing with this podcast is kind of a battle. It's just like, you're right. Like if you try it and you don't like it, you don't have to stick with it. Like, or there's no harm in trying. None of us know what we're doing. Like it's okay to just like, yeah. It's okay to just try it and figure it out. And if you realize you hate it, that's one thing you can check off the list that you know you don't want to do. - Yeah. - But yeah, so I think that is a great answer and a good advice to get people. - I had a random question for, are you? Okay, 'cause I know there's like an art, like a registered nurse, a nurse practitioner, like a CR in it. Like are you, what is, are you just nurse? - Oh yeah, that's actually a great question. So this is something too that's pretty interesting. So I guess the lowest thing that you can start out with working in the hospital is like some kind of transporter or I say lowest. I don't mean that in like they are low, but it's like the least amount of like school and like skills requirement. You know, you don't have to go to school to be a transporter. You just have to, like that's just a job that you can just get at any time and then you can like learn how to drive the beds around and you learn the layout of the hospital and you take patients to places. And then I'd say the next step up is like a CNA or a UAP, I think is what it stands for. And it pretty much, it's an unlicensed assistive person. And so they assist the patient, but they're unlicensed. So they can't give any medications. They can't do any like first assessments that can't do anything like that. That's directly involved with like patient care besides giving like baths or helping a patient walk or taking vital signs. And so up from that is when you get into the schooling part and like licensing. So there's a LPN, which is a licensed practicing nurse and or practical nurse. And they have about two years of schooling and they are, I mean, just as much as a nurse as any other I feel like, but legally they can't do certain things. Like they can't give blood, they can't start a line of antibiotics that runs through an IV. I don't, I'm not sure why even. I think it's 'cause they learn different things than RNs do. So RN is registered nurse LPN licensed practicing nurse. So there's differences there and they are legal. So like you, I actually, this is funny, my preceptor right now. So I'm orienting with another nurse right now learning out, learning the layout in the hospital and kind of how their ER functions. And she used to be an LPN and she was laughing the other day 'cause she was like, I could set up everything in the room except for I just couldn't press start on the line. Like illegally I couldn't press start but I could set everything up for it to go but I had to get a registered nurse to come in and press start for like the legal thing. And I thought that was so funny 'cause I didn't really know LPNs and their roles. So that's the difference there. And so RNs, I would prefer RN because you don't, you don't have any restrictions except for doctors. So like I can't do sutures and I can't deliver babies. And I can't intubate which is like putting a tube down to preserve an airway, done someone's throat. There's, so there's like a couple things that you can't, obviously that you can't do as a nurse that doctors, like I can't do surgery, you know, unless I'm a surgical nurse, then I could help. So that's where you get kind of into specialties too. So like the NICU is a specialized unit, the ICU and the ER, they're all kind of specialized units where you learn special skills that are different than other areas of the hospital, which is really cool. But so that kind of differentiates, even though you're an RN, it doesn't necessarily mean you can work in any unit. You sometimes have to have a little bit of extra like licensing or like check offs that say like, I am okay to do this. I have shown this that I can do this skill or take care of this type of patient. So yeah, and then after RN, there's CRNA. So a CRNA, I can't remember what that stands for, but it's a nurse that is a nurse anesthetist. It's a nurse anesthetist. I think it might be a certified nurse anesthetist. And what that means is they pretty much give all the anesthesia for surgery. So there's an anesthesiologist that is a doctor that has to like oversee them. They can't just practice willy-nilly. It's kind of like a PA. You will practice alongside a doctor. So they are surgical nurses who will give the anesthesia and stuff for surgery. So the sedative, the anesthesia, all that. And so that's really cool. CRNA's are really cool. And then that's about three more years of school to be a CRNA. And then there's an NP, a nurse practitioner. And that's about two more years of school after nursing school. And that is almost a doctor. There's a couple differentiating things. They also have to work alongside a doctor. They have to have a doctor overseeing them. But like nurse practitioners can prescribe medication. Nurse practitioners can do sutures. And they do a lot of roles that is pretty much identical to what a doctor does. But there are some legal differences and things like that. So I've considered NP school 'cause I really, for one of the reasons, I just like really want to do stitches. Like I just have always been like oh, stitches and, or sutures, you know. And so I would, I think I could see myself doing that later. But I am kind of burnt out right now with school though. So I'm glad to be taking a break from that. But I think down the road, it would be cool to like get a little bit further of a degree in that way. But yeah, that's a good question Megan, just to know like there's so many different labels of practicing healthcare professionals in the hospital. And so to kind of get a grip on like, okay, this is kind of what that means. And this is how this is where you're like line of practices. So yeah, that's kind of a little bit about that. - I was just thinking about earlier when you were talking about like, obviously you had the good experience of bringing somebody back after CPR. But for times that you've had bad experiences or witnessed, like bad experiences, even in school or anything, what would you say about basically like, how to leave that at work and not take it home with you? - That's a great question. I'm still kind of learning how to do that. Especially when I have a patient who is doing really bad health-wise and I don't know if they'll be there, the ER is also different because I probably won't see them again, even if they are completely fine. But just thinking like, oh, I hope they're going to be okay, you know, I hope that they're going to make it or if they don't make it like as a believer, like what's going to happen to them, you know? I don't know where they stand with the Lord. That's probably the most gut-wrenching thing for me is like I am less in it to be like very, very, very sad if I feel like sometimes the patients will openly talk to me about their faith, but technically as a nurse, I'm not allowed to put my stuff on another patient, which makes sense. I wouldn't want a healthcare professional to be like, you should believe this, but there is this desire in my heart to be like, oh, I hope that truth, like you're not doing well and if you died right now, is this my only, have you ever heard about Jesus? - Right. - I guess my God, I'm like, oh! But thankfully that's not on me in that sense, like the Lord has got this human being and he sees them and if it's their time, it's their time. And so I can sit in a little bit of peace about that, but I am still praying about like what that looks like for me to, you know, work within my bounds of what I'm allowed to like say to my patients, technically while also just like following the commands of the Lord of like speaking truth to people who are lost, especially before it's too late and, you know, and so anyway, that's probably been one of the hardest things, but yeah, the way I cope, I love talking to my mom about things just about like how I felt at work and just like sharing like, oh man, this was really hard for me and I just did the dumbest thing today and I felt really stupid or like I was really scared like that was really scary 'cause she has been practicing for almost two years now in the ICU. So she's seen a lot of the worst of the worst. So she's a great one to talk to and she like, just she understands. She's like, yeah, and either that happened to me too or I know exactly what that feels like. And so I did that in school as well with my classmates. Just having someone, you gotta have somebody that you can be like, oh, this was really the worst. Or celebrate you like, oh my gosh, she's just like, I finally did this right. You know, like I finally, I caught this thing and like nobody else saw it and it's, you know, you gotta have people who are like cheering you on and supporting you like, and that's, this is like funny. That's something that we teach for education for our patients is like, do you have support in your life because especially for patients who, this is called a 10, 13, it means they are at risk for killing themselves and so we check on them of like, if we let you, if we release you, or if like your doctor says it's okay for us to let you go home, are you gonna be okay? Like do you have people who are going to take care of you and support you? And so anyway, that's for any person, I mean, that goes for anybody. That's why mental health is such a big part of healthcare too 'cause you gotta have someone who is gonna, you know, be there for you, but yeah, and for us as believers, of course, that is like ultimately where we find our rest in the Lord too, which is like such a blessing that there's a peace that I can walk away with of like, oh man, I did my best. You know, I did everything I could. So it's in God's hands, which is a big relief for me as an overthinker and just as like a warrior of like, oh, I hope I did that right. Or like, oh man, I hope that like, I did everything that I was supposed to do. And so, yeah, when those are, I'm not usually a crier, I've always thought about that. I've had a lot, like Chloe, I feel like, has always been a crier. (laughing) Like we did, like watch movies, Chloe would always be the one to be like, oh, that was so sad, you know? And I've always been like, man, is there something wrong with me? Like, I am not tearing up about this. So I haven't had too many times where I have like cried in the hospital, but mental health, that was, when we went to the mental health unit, that was one of the hardest units for me. I just felt very dark and hopeless. - Yeah. - And patients that we saw were just pitiful. And it was just like, oh my gosh, like, honestly, for the most part, your body is completely healthy, but there is just so much going on in your mind that is just, it's messing with your whole life. Like your whole life is so different and like tragic because something is going on in your brain and it's just really sad. And so, yeah, that was when I cried. I went home crying one of those days 'cause it was just pitiful. And that was when I really was like, I have no idea how to help you. Like, if you broke your leg and you were in a lot of pain, put a cast on it and give me some pain medication, you know? If you're, even if your liver is failing or something like that, there's options like hopefully we can put you on a transplant list and we can like, you know, give you some medication and we can change your lifestyle and whatever. But like, for these patients with mental illnesses, it's like, I don't know how to help you. Like, a lot of these medications that we give cause other problems, like other mental health issues. It's like, what, the world, you know? And so, I really feel it for the nurses in those units and for the doctors in those units too, having to like prescribe these patients and try and think about like what they eat. And so anyway, that's probably where I was most like, oh man, this feels really, really, really hard, but. - Well, especially like you were saying like it's a believer, I feel like with the mental health stuff, like a lot of that, not all of it. Like I don't want to act like it's not whatever, but like some of that you feel like you want to just be like, like if you'd only like, you know, like, you know, take advantage of like the Lord and like what he offers and his comfort and his peace and like all that kind of stuff. But like in your position, like where you can't necessarily push that conversation or at least like maybe not in the way that you want to, I feel like that is kind of like, I could see that being hard, like something that you have to like wrestle with if you did work in that unit every day. - Thank you for coming on here and sharing with us and giving advice to people and just like shedding light on what it looks like to be a nurse. Another person in their 20s just doing their job. - Put Navi's in and sticking people. - Yeah, Megan, you want to close this out? - Sure, do you have anything else? - Yeah, thanks Rose, you're the best. You're the realest for this. Sorry about our technical difficulties earlier, but it has been so fun and encouraging to hear you in your story and we will just, I guess, for the people out there. Thanks for listening to Follow Rose on her socials. No, I'm kidding, I don't know. (laughing) Keep in contact. Anyways, yeah, thank y'all for listening and we hope that you enjoy just the rest of this season and just get some peace and what's the word? Understanding, I guess, through it all and just like realizing how different we all are and that's okay. But thank you all so much for listening and watching. Make sure you follow the gram and all the things, share with your friends, you know the drill. So we will see y'all next time. Bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
