Navigating Health Equity and Burnout

In this episode of Living Chronic, Brandy Schantz speaks with Glennae Davis, a registered nurse and health equity advocate, about the critical issues surrounding health equity, chronic pain, and burnout in the healthcare system. Glenay shares her personal journey through chronic pain and the challenges she faced navigating the medical system, emphasizing the importance of understanding workplace rights and advocating for oneself. The conversation highlights the complexities of chronic diseases, the impact of medication, and the necessity of rest and recovery. Glenay calls for a shift in the healthcare system to prioritize health equity and the well-being of healthcare providers, particularly nurses, who are essential to patient care. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to educate themselves about their rights and advocate for better healthcare practices.

Transcript

Brandy Schantz (00:01.337)
Hi, you're listening to Living Chronic. This is Brandy Shantz, and I'm here today with Glenay Davis, registered nurse, author, and equity advocate. So welcome, Glenay.

Glennae Davis (00:12.504)
Thank you so much, Brandy, for having me.

Brandy Schantz (00:16.677)
So thank you so much for being on the podcast. I really love the conversations we've had and I love what you're doing. You're a registered nurse, 20 years as a nurse, you've been in health equity for 10 years, and you've done a lot of work regarding not just health equity, which is a really important topic and very timely, but also burnout, which I can't think of a more timely topic in healthcare.

So tell me a little bit about your story and how did you start talking about this before we ever really understood how important it was.

Glennae Davis (00:49.166)
Correct. Well, thank you for asking and thank you for having me here on the Living Chronic podcast. It is an honor to be sitting here talking to you and giving this information to your audience about living chronic, whether it's in chronic pain or chronic disease management for women. I'm a registered nurse and so I'll be speaking from a registered nurse, black woman perspective in the healthcare field and having an injury.

something as simple as tendonitis that just took forever to heal, which most musculoskeletal diseases do. And I just could not move forward in my life or at work. is just the pain overtook me. And as a registered nurse, I was going into the workers' comp industry. Then I was, you know, sent over into sports medicine and nobody really

wanted to give me the least invasive treatment first. It was like, take this pill. This is your diagnosis. And some of the pills were highly addictive, like opioids. And the doctor blankly said to me, well, if you don't want to take the opioid, you must not be in pain. Pardon me, sir. Pardon me. How do I or anyone else who gets addicted to pain opioids return to work? So

Brandy Schantz (02:01.411)
Wow.

Brandy Schantz (02:13.369)
Right.

Glennae Davis (02:15.434)
Over the four years of going through this hectic system called the medical system and the profit before people, I realized that this must be the gap in healthcare where so many people fall victim to America's public health crises. And I said, God, if I get through this, I promise I am going to be a praxis in the middle of this. I promise that I'm going to close this gap. So

I would like to talk about the three main employment health issues that make working with chronic diseases like tendonitis or fibromyalgia or whatever may be unique to you and provide a solution for people who may be facing workplace discrimination or fearful about that, or are leery of taking medication, wondering whether or not this medication works for this situation. Because as you know, Brandy,

Brandy Schantz (03:05.989)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (03:11.854)
Chronic diseases are very complex and we as patients don't always have the vocabulary to even articulate what it is that we're experiencing. And then you go in with this just symptoms that you're experiencing, but you don't really appreciate where the symptoms are coming from. And so,

Brandy Schantz (03:14.542)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (03:26.511)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (03:37.024)
helping women get accommodated to continue working and gainful employment, preventing poverty in nurses and black career women who may be facing these issues in the workplace.

Brandy Schantz (03:49.061)
You know, in your experience is so common. And I think that, you know, there's this, this, could write an entire book just on the things you learn as a chronically ill person versus a healthy person that just probably doesn't know, you know, how these things transpire. I've gone through the same thing. So if so many other people who've come on the show, who are listening, you go into the doctor, you're having so many issues. And what you're really looking for is a way to live life. That's, that's your goal. I want to live my life again.

What does that look like? Do I need accommodations to live that life? Do I need to change something to live that life? What is it that it takes to live my life? And so many of us are first just offered this cocktail of drugs that will stop you from living your life. Yeah, sure, it will mute the pain. We do achieve that, but now I'm in bed all the time, sleeping or unable to move or fatigued or...

You know, one of the things I'm always very concerned about as I'm looking at all these different medications is I can't really live because I can't even tell the difference between my body saying to me something's wrong, which is what pain is, or the side effects of the medications. And often we just don't want to push back and say, well, if that's what it takes, I guess this means that that's it for me. And let me start trying to fill out my application for disability.

Whereas there really are other options and we need to really open up those conversations around, hey, these 15 different medications, and that's not an exaggeration, I know so many people on 15 different medications, are going to stop your pain, but they're gonna put you in bed. Or they're addictive and you won't be able to get to work. And we've gotta find that middle ground and that's what you've really been putting a good focus on.

Glennae Davis (05:40.574)
Yes, yes. So what do we need to get back to live in our life after having these issues that kind of taken us and derailed us off of our normal everyday living? And so the first thing I like to tell women is that you have to speak up and speaking up in the workplace can bring a retaliation to you because let's look at your company and industries as a whole.

Brandy Schantz (05:53.253)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (06:09.85)
Once you fall out of the standard population, no matter who you are, you can be black, white, red, or yellow. You are now targeted. Your company knows how to handle the 99 % who's keeping up with production. Everything is going along the, the, ideal way of moving the company forward and bringing in revenue. But you, here you are in pain and needing something like who are you?

Brandy Schantz (06:37.306)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (06:37.966)
And why am I supposed to stop my company and my production for little old you because little old you is important. Okay. You are important. The least, the one is valuable and important. And then you start needing things like access to workers place rights and workers compensation and FMLA and those things cost the company money. So we want to help women.

Brandy Schantz (06:46.809)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (07:06.6)
learn how to speak up and be okay with, how can I put it? Be okay with them not understanding what it is that you need and what you want from them. And all that you want is access to your workplace rights. have state federal workplace rights, right? Because when we don't speak up, then you put yourself in a situation

Brandy Schantz (07:21.134)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (07:27.503)
Yeah. Yeah.

Glennae Davis (07:34.646)
where your behavior start to come out as performance standards because you're keeping these things bottled up inside and then you are getting written up and then absenteeism, is taking off work and calling in because you just can't make your way to work this day. And then also this thing called presenteeism where you go and you show up, but you just are probably, let's take nurses for example.

Brandy Schantz (07:53.829)
Great.

Glennae Davis (08:03.062)
are in so much pain, you're not turning the patients every two hours as you're supposed to, or you're skipping medications and just trying that you did it because you just can't prime that IV pump. So now life, not just your life, but other people's life who is in treated trust to you are at risk. And you spoke about taking the cortisone and everything, our cortisol when they are spiked,

Brandy Schantz (08:06.981)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (08:24.611)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (08:33.166)
For stress issues, it's for us to make one or two decisions, and that is to take flight or to run. Most of us freeze because we do not know how to handle this type of controversy and conflict within the workplace. And so it puts us in this negative cycle. And sometimes for some people, medication may be your option. You don't want to do anything, but you don't want to feel the pain either.

Brandy Schantz (08:47.417)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (08:58.126)
Right?

Glennae Davis (09:02.424)
but there are some people, and like you said, pain is an indicator. It is not just what big pharma taught us many years ago, is that pain is whatever the patient says it is. That was a marketing ploy for them to sell more opioids. Pain is an indicator for you to stop and look where you are and where you want to go. What's next for Brandy? What's next for you? know, Glenay, where am I? What did my body trying to tell me? So.

Brandy Schantz (09:06.085)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (09:17.241)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (09:28.153)
Mm-hmm.

Right. It is really important and it's interesting you talk about women, black women, you we all come from someplace and I think, you know, we try to talk about it. I don't think we think really about how our backgrounds, cultures, know, personalities really feed into how

Glennae Davis (09:32.91)
Correct.

Brandy Schantz (09:54.777)
we respond to life in general and work especially. And it's always interesting to me that when we learn these statistics, 80 % of all autoimmune disease patients are women. These chronic illnesses are largely affecting women. We're disproportionately represented in so many various disabilities and illnesses. also women, not as much these days. I feel like we're learning better. And of course, different personality types.

I always say I'm kind of a pushy broad sometimes, not everybody's me and thank goodness. But we never wanna really make too many, we don't wanna be a burden on anybody. Don't let me be, I'm just not the person I used to be, I'm not able to turn the patience like I'm supposed to, I don't wanna bother anybody, let me just quit my job. And so many of us, that's exactly what we do. Well, let me just quit my job. When what we should be doing is staying there and saying,

Glennae Davis (10:27.317)
Right.

Glennae Davis (10:32.032)
Right, we don't like to make waves. Yeah.

Glennae Davis (10:37.698)
Yeah. Yeah.

Glennae Davis (10:50.498)
Yes.

Brandy Schantz (10:51.557)
I need accommodations. I need help. Disability is not a lack of ability. What it is, is it just means you need something else to enable you, allow you to perform the way everybody else does. With visible illnesses, visible disabilities, that's easy, right? Oh, you're in a wheelchair. We need to make sure there's a ramp so you can get to work. We get that.

Glennae Davis (10:53.144)
Yes, yes, yes.

Glennae Davis (11:07.657)
Exactly.

Glennae Davis (11:12.992)
It's easy, right, right, right, right. But with hidden disabilities, it's a little bit different. It's a big time different. And it's Right.

Brandy Schantz (11:21.167)
very different. It's trickier and nobody thinks obvious like, gosh, you know, I have Crohn's disease now and I'm sick usually early in the morning. How the heck do I accommodate that? Well, we can, we absolutely can accommodate your Crohn's disease. It's about those, it's about standing up and saying, no, I'm still a very capable person. I just need an accommodation. We just need to bridge that gap.

Glennae Davis (11:28.429)
Right.

Right. Right. Right.

Glennae Davis (11:42.562)
Right, right. We do need to bridge that gap. And it's funny you talk about the autoimmunity. I can remember when I was probably nine or 10 years old and I first heard the word autoimmunity for the first time. And it scared me to my core. And I was like, why would your body turn against you? It's just like, what kind of mess is this?

Brandy Schantz (12:04.278)
Right.

Glennae Davis (12:08.92)
So when I was experiencing the issues I was going through at my workplace, had I told one physician about my markers, positive ANA, excruciating muscle pain, depression symptoms, like the list went on and on, I would have definitely been diagnosed with systemic lupus and auto-immunity. But my problem was fear.

Brandy Schantz (12:31.982)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (12:36.835)
right?

Glennae Davis (12:37.95)
overwhelming fear. Now why would your body not turn against you if you're not going to put it first?

Brandy Schantz (12:45.924)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (12:47.18)
Why wouldn't it? And we go, you know, talking about medication as like the second employment health concern for women who are with chronic diseases and auto-immunity diseases and just trying to go to work. I quit taking just even Tylenol and ibuprofen to get through my day at work. Why? Because it's not benign. Even like I know a patient who took two Tylenols.

Brandy Schantz (12:48.644)
Right?

Brandy Schantz (13:11.237)
All

Glennae Davis (13:14.166)
An extra strength, Tylenol, a thousand milligrams sent her into an accidental overdose. This young lady had a headache and this young lady had menstrual cramps and she wanted to continue on with her day. And now she does nothing, absolutely nothing because it damaged her to the point of no return. Take an ibuprofen for this chronic pain. They tell you all the time, you know, it's for the muscle pain and everything. It tears your stomach lining up.

Brandy Schantz (13:43.853)
terrible. I've, I mean, we love to joke. I was in the army. Let me tell you, we all love to joke about the ibuprofen because they'll prescribe you ibuprofen and water for anything. And they'll just, just up the middle of the grade, just give her a thousand. just, you know, 1600. And you're just taking ibuprofen for everything in the army. And once I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and I was told I had to stop ibuprofen, I said, what, wait, hold on. I've been taking, you know, that's

Glennae Davis (13:44.503)
Yeah.

Glennae Davis (13:56.172)
Yes. Yes. Right. Right.

Glennae Davis (14:07.672)
Like, did it cause it? Like, did it cause it?

Brandy Schantz (14:09.407)
I'm like, what did the ibuprofen do to me? Of course it did not cause my Crohn's disease, but you have to wonder how much it did to just make everything that's already so bad in my life worse. And we just don't have those kinds of conversations. And I feel like we always, we're Americans, we love to do this. We head for the sides, or it's all the way over here or all the way over here on the other side. we speak in absolutes and extremes and...

Glennae Davis (14:12.663)
Right.

Glennae Davis (14:20.833)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (14:37.669)
You know, that's not always true. You know, for many people you can take two Tylenol when you're having some menstrual cramps or a headache and it's fine. But what we never talk about are the side effects, the details, you know, how much should you be taking? When should you stop taking this and start talking to a doctor? We don't talk about side effects, you know.

Glennae Davis (14:43.81)
You're right. Right.

Glennae Davis (14:51.98)
Right, right, right, right, right, right. And understanding the side effects is not just a side effects, they are organ damage. Like that's what it is and how often are you gonna take it into your body, reactivates or damages? Like when is the stop point? When's the end point for this?

Brandy Schantz (15:02.987)
Right.

Glennae Davis (15:21.998)
Because at the end of the day, when the rubber hits the mat, I and my family are the only ones that are going to have to deal with this injury for medication. No, nobody's going to have you. Yeah.

Brandy Schantz (15:32.165)
Because nobody's going to help you. I know that for darn sure after going through it. Everybody's, know, what's the chances? you'll be fine. you just take the drugs the doctor tells you to. Well, now I have, you know, I went through drug-induced lupus. I have a nervous system disease. I went through hell and there was nobody to help me. And what's so unfortunate is I always look back at it and say, well, thank goodness I had a lot of money in the bank. You know, I didn't have to worry for that.

Glennae Davis (15:50.838)
right nobody

Glennae Davis (15:59.794)
Right, right, right, right.

Brandy Schantz (16:01.741)
My husband makes plenty of money, so he was able to take care of the bills and you know, but nobody, nobody should have to go through that. And we have to stop pretending that people who don't trust Big Pharma or the healthcare system or any of the politicians, the CDC are just too stupid and you know, make fun of them because no, they've been wronged and nobody was there to catch them.

Glennae Davis (16:09.379)
Right.

Glennae Davis (16:20.056)
Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Right.

Right.

Right.

Brandy Schantz (16:29.765)
And if you're me, you have time to be mad and start a podcast. If you can't pay rent or buy groceries, well, you know, what are you doing? You're just mistrusting the entire system and you don't want to deal with anybody now because you don't have time to do fancy podcasts or research the FDA and submit FOIA requests. You're trying to eat. You're trying to find a place to live.

Glennae Davis (16:33.326)
Yes.

Glennae Davis (16:40.91)
Right. Right.

Glennae Davis (16:48.814)
Right, right, right. So Brandi, I want to interject you right there because me, widowed mom, two children, a homeowner. And this situation happened to me at a major US hospital here in Los Angeles. I was 40 years old and this was 2015. I was making $67 an hour with a $20,000 stipend. So I'm making almost 150,000 a year as a young black woman working as a transplant coordinator.

Brandy Schantz (17:14.981)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (17:18.504)
and a homeowner driving luxury vehicles, I did have put money up, you know, 10 % of my 403 B and had pension. However, I still had to walk away not knowing how I was going to sustain my life. And my company, the organization I worked for played corporate games, delaying paperwork, having me lose my pension and having me lose these other things because

Brandy Schantz (17:26.479)
Right?

Brandy Schantz (17:43.343)
Right.

Glennae Davis (17:47.36)
It became more of a ego trip for this person and targeted racism, disabling me and my children. However, I lived, my children and I lived six months. I'm sorry, six months unemployment, a cashed out 403B and I went two years and never missed a mortgage payment or a flight out of town when I needed to. No, I did not.

Brandy Schantz (17:55.578)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (18:11.417)
Good for you. Yeah.

Glennae Davis (18:14.862)
go and get my toes done and, you know, live the same way that I did. Yeah, all those other things, but we continued to eat. I wrote my first book, well done. And, you know, and then after two years, I was recruited by another hospital without ever having to pay, without ever having to go out and look for a job. So I literally stayed home and just rested and healed.

Brandy Schantz (18:18.041)
You all the nice stuff, yeah.

Brandy Schantz (18:26.723)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (18:43.89)
and wrote. So I believe that regardless of what things you have in place in your life to catch you, that when you put yourself first,

nature will take care of you. You will be rewarded for doing the right thing. And that has been my experience. And I think that's the hardest thing to try to conceptualize for other people that the people who are suffering homelessness and unemployability, it's because they chose the system ways instead of saying, you know what, I'm not going to quit.

because you want me to quit. I'm gonna continue and push through this systematic issue without any resistance because my rights are on the other end of this. And then I'm see what happened. But what happens is, is that you are, I was protected from impoverishment and becoming homeless and I healed. And I would like to continue to help other people.

replicate these results by trusting and using GoodSafe in the workplace.

Brandy Schantz (20:04.269)
Yeah, you know, knowing your rights, that that's the best start. Just standing up for yourself, knowing what you are entitled to. I just did an episode with a an employment attorney and he gave great advice. Don't leave. Just to stay. Don't you get off those books. Just stay on them. OK, fine. You don't have to pay me. I'll just, you know, unpaid leave while we fix this. Let me go home and heal. But don't get off those books.

Glennae Davis (20:08.984)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (20:18.84)
Mm-hmm. Don't leave. Don't quit. Right. No. Yep.

Glennae Davis (20:29.954)
Yeah. Right.

Brandy Schantz (20:33.861)
Don't do it, just don't quit. And that's what most of us immediately, that's what I did. I was like, crap, I can't get to work. What should I do? I should probably just quit. And that's the wrong answer.

Glennae Davis (20:41.134)
Right, right. It's the wrong move. You never quit. You never close your own door. Now, lately I've been hearing nurses, judges giving nurses this stay at work order, know. Situations like that, I probably would quit because that's not, that has nothing to do with my rights.

Brandy Schantz (21:01.366)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (21:07.15)
You're trying to force me to do something when I'm trying to exercise my rights. But if something is your right, something is your workplace, state, federal, and healthcare right, those are things that you should be pursuing because that's where your health equity comes from. You know, no one is going to mandate me to go to work. Who paid my, who paid my student loan? I'm sorry. Did I sign up as a nurse in the military branch? Like, I'm sorry. What's going on here?

Brandy Schantz (21:07.364)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (21:12.27)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (21:24.365)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (21:36.704)
I am an employee of these United States of America and I have rights.

Brandy Schantz (21:36.878)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (21:43.373)
Yes, and you know, of course, you know, we need an entirely new show to focus on this, you know, we got to a new episode, you know, but employment rights and treating employees fairly and justly, that goes a long way. I started my career in the army and everybody talks about how they love hiring former military, especially military officers because of our leadership experience and how

Glennae Davis (22:11.788)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (22:13.401)
We know how to go in and lead a group of people and get that kind of buy-in for the overall mission. Yeah, but you know what? I can tell you for certain after being an army leader and a leader in the civilian community, those are two very different things. And so much of what we do is focused on taking care of the troops, taking care of the people that you have been appointed charge of. That's your...

Glennae Davis (22:29.646)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (22:41.849)
job, you make sure to take care of them. And it's just not the same. And when you look at a field like nursing that's so under shortage, you know, and we're losing nurses and doctors. You know, this is a real problem. This is a crisis. This is a crisis. We should have declared a state of emergency in healthcare a long time ago. It's overdue time. Overdue time.

Glennae Davis (22:42.605)
right.

Glennae Davis (22:50.446)
It's on life support. It's a crisis. It is.

Glennae Davis (23:01.006)
get waiting for COVID. Brandi, thank you for your service in the army. And it's for nurses dealing with this leadership. I had this novel idea about the leadership in healthcare, moving it away from nurse managers because they're in a precarious situation where they have to do what's best for the stakeholders. And then they have to

manage the employees. They do all this leadership training, but maybe your manager is not a person who is a born leader or have empathy that they can, you know, tap into. So I feel that nurses, that they should take some of them millions of dollars of consultancy training and put it towards providing the nurse with the tools that they need to.

Brandy Schantz (23:44.452)
Yes.

Glennae Davis (23:57.624)
do their job, practice safely, and become fearless in the face of potential retaliation, knowing that you are.

Brandy Schantz (24:00.152)
Yes.

Glennae Davis (24:08.916)
the foundation and the heart and soul of healthcare. So what are you afraid of? Like, what are you afraid of?

Brandy Schantz (24:12.067)
Yes. We need to center our healthcare around nurses and health practitioners in general. Doctors are suffering as well. I think a lot of people, turn on the TV. One of my favorite shows is Botched. I watched that on Loop at all times. But they're not all plastic surgeons making millions and millions of dollars and building new $40 million homes on the Real Housewives. Most of these people are overworked, stressed, doing their best and just

Glennae Davis (24:19.788)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Glennae Davis (24:27.661)
Okay.

Right. Right.

Glennae Davis (24:36.155)
Right, right, right.

Brandy Schantz (24:42.497)
really collapsing under a system that's just not designed to focus on the health. And look, I have an MBA too, you know, I mean, know shareholder wealth, yada, yada, yada. But at some point we have to admit when things are failing and if we want to keep nurses, you know, we need to do something different if we want to, you know, retain doctors, same. And what's crazy is it all exists. Go talk to the army. Go talk to the army. Ask them what they're doing.

Glennae Davis (24:51.052)
Right, right, right, right.

Glennae Davis (25:03.138)
Right. I'm trying to wonder.

Glennae Davis (25:08.18)
Bye.

Brandy Schantz (25:10.339)
You know what? Talk to the Navy. When I'm sick, you know where I go? I live on the other side. I live in Old Town, Alexandria. That is right across the bridge from the other side of DC as Bethesda where the Walter Reed Hospital is. But every time, unless it's a severe emergency, I tell my husband, Steve, put me in the car and drive me to Walter Reed. Why? They have the Navy people there. I'm here to tell you.

Glennae Davis (25:12.012)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (25:38.829)
If I'm dead, if I'm dying, I should say, and if somebody says, you know, Hey, I'm a Navy medic. I'm a Navy corpsman. You better bring that person over to me because they know exactly what they're doing. Navy and healthcare call those guys. Ask them what they're doing in training. Call them. I guarantee you we're going to get somewhere. But anyways, yeah.

Glennae Davis (25:50.35)
All right.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, my colleagues are suffering. They're suffering within the walls of the healthcare industry, whether they're doctors, anesthesiologists, they are known for committing suicide. I don't know if it's a combination of, well, I do know sometimes it's a combination of these astronomical student loan. And then you get into healthcare and it's like, what is this?

Brandy Schantz (26:08.41)
Yes.

Brandy Schantz (26:17.911)
yeah.

Brandy Schantz (26:22.809)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (26:22.978)
Like this is not what I signed up for. It's totally different and it has almost no humanity. You bring the humanity into it yourself, but then, and they snuff it out of you very quickly because it's like, huh? You know, it's a lot.

Brandy Schantz (26:25.721)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (26:33.636)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (26:42.487)
It's, you know what, it's a lot, you know what? And I always say, I do not want my ER nurse or doctor to also be an expert in billing and coding. I don't stop. You know, we have to do something. And the fact that they're required to do so much, the fact that, you know, I still have anger towards my GI for not recognizing my reaction, which by the way is pretty fairly common.

Glennae Davis (26:52.334)
Right. Right.

Yeah.

Brandy Schantz (27:12.133)
But also where does he have time to read all the latest stuff coming out of NIH and the FDA when he's owned by, and this is true, the GI practice I went to, much like over half of all of them in the United States was owned by a large chain. And he has quotas he has to meet. There's quotas. Your doctor has a quota. He has to see so many patients each day. He has to do so many procedures. Where did he have time? Of course I had a terrible reaction.

Glennae Davis (27:29.866)
Right, right.

Patients are just a medical record number. They're just a number and they are part of a huge billing system. And it's disheartening to hear, but I think more patients need to hear it and get themselves educated before going into the healthcare industry and know what they want. like I offer health equity plans. Like you need to know

Brandy Schantz (27:41.796)
Yeah.

Brandy Schantz (27:57.338)
Yes.

Glennae Davis (28:08.867)
what you're going in for and not just be sold when you get there.

Brandy Schantz (28:13.999)
You're right. Yeah. No, you're right. We need to think about all of these things. It starts with improving our healthcare system and, you know, valuing our healthcare providers. And it also, we've, your work is amazing because we need people to understand what they need to do to stay employed, what they need to do to get those accommodations, understand their rights. We're doing better, but.

Glennae Davis (28:24.29)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Glennae Davis (28:34.2)
Mm-hmm. Right. Right.

Brandy Schantz (28:40.207)
There's still so much work that needs to be done. If I say FMLA to people, most people say, what's that?

Glennae Davis (28:42.38)
There it is.

I didn't realize that people just don't even know what it is. And I think that people who do know what it is is using it completely wrong. They use it to just kind of do a day off or here and there. And maybe if that works for them, that's fine. But if you're absolutely happy, yes, but if you're absolutely having an issue that you're trying to avoid, you need to use that time so that you can properly address that issue.

Brandy Schantz (28:47.437)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (28:54.648)
See you.

Brandy Schantz (28:58.595)
Well, which that might be what they need.

Brandy Schantz (29:12.185)
Yes. And taking care of yourself is super important. None of us do it right. None of us.

Glennae Davis (29:14.798)
Oh, definitely. None of us, none of us do it right. I lay in bed sometime and I'm like, what's wrong with me? And I'm like, girl, you are a burnout, career burnout, recovery, and rest. Like, that's what you do. Why are you mad about being in bed?

Brandy Schantz (29:26.573)
Yes. Sleep. Yeah, sleep. You know, nobody says that enough. You feel you're lazy. You're like, gosh, I gotta get out of bed. I've been going through a severe illness for three years now. the one thing I do hear from doctors relatively frequently is, why don't you just sleep? You really do need to recover. Your body needs to sleep. Just sleep. And I think, well.

Glennae Davis (29:33.983)
Exactly.

Yes!

Glennae Davis (29:50.008)
Because sometimes it's hard. You do. Right.

Brandy Schantz (29:56.429)
Is it really that normal? But I'm not normal right now. I can't be that person. It's fine. It's fine.

Glennae Davis (30:04.278)
Yeah. Well, that's exactly what it takes to recover is rest because, know, I just wrote a blog rest is resistance. And so you definitely need to learn how to rest because when you're given the time to, heal, we heal. If you quit doing implementations with this medication, this diagnosis, this, this, and this given the time stopping whatever it is that caused the repetitive injury.

Brandy Schantz (30:19.097)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (30:31.618)
that left you where you are in that position, we will heal. And this is why it's important to know what your job and your role functions are, to know your rights and to fearlessly pursue them without reservation. And to look for the help on the outside of your company, on the outside of pulling out your employer-sponsored health insurance card, because those are your employer's allies.

Brandy Schantz (30:43.619)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (30:56.686)
You need your own ally. You need someone who's going to be third party and biased for you and your health outcomes. Period. Yes. Yes.

Brandy Schantz (30:57.295)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (31:04.164)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (31:08.995)
You are, that is the truth. And you know, we just need to do better on all levels. that's, you know, I love the work you're doing. That's why I started doing a lot of advocacy work, especially in the workplace. There's so many options that we're just not being given. You know, it's either don't work or, you know, burnout or, you know, it seems like we're always heading towards one of those sides of the extremes, but you know, it's an RN.

Glennae Davis (31:25.848)
Yeah.

Brandy Schantz (31:38.147)
Now I absolutely need the RNs everywhere in my life. You and I had a good conversation before about how we need the kinds of RNs that are gonna stand up and say no, because that's what keeps us alive. That's what keeps medical errors from happening. You need somebody in the room to say, Doc, stop. Let's take a look at this. And that's really important. But there's also other roles that we could use RNs. You know, I'm very, you know, I live in DC, so everybody would think that I love having, you know, myself surrounded with 7,

Glennae Davis (31:47.362)
Yes, yes.

Yes. Right. Exactly.

Brandy Schantz (32:07.877)
5,000 attorneys at every single job that is seemingly completely unrelated to being an attorney but you know what I am just sick to death of going to various policy meetings or You know name the advocacy center or whatever it is and I'm surrounded by people with masters in public health or health care policy and a JD Where's the RN get me the RN?

Glennae Davis (32:31.479)
right.

Right, right. Well, I would love to insert myself into that. I would love to. Yes. Stop hiring lawyers. Yeah. Right. Right. Right.

Brandy Schantz (32:35.929)
who is having issues. Yes, well, we need you. Get, you know, these lawyers, stop hiring lawyers. HR, get it together. Where's the RN? Where's the doctor that's having burnout? Imagine if you could rotate your nurses who are just experiencing extreme burnout for good reason and put them in a position where they're just looking at policy. I need that.

Glennae Davis (32:55.745)
Right.

Glennae Davis (32:59.308)
Right. You know, you're absolutely right. Everybody wants to hire an employment attorney. I I've had an employment attorney. even had consulted with an employment attorney that I had many years ago for a harassment issue that I had in the workplace. But this case that I had at this hospital that I worked at was just a little bit different. It was just a little bit different. And I think because the exposure

was just a little bit different and it was just too big to try to deal with in mediation, right? It was more important, more valuable for other people than just me getting a compensation. And so people hire attorneys, our employees like, you know, they're so quick to wanna sue you, sue their employers or try to, good luck if you find an employment attorney, number one.

Brandy Schantz (33:30.693)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (33:55.236)
right?

Glennae Davis (33:56.122)
and number two wants to take your case or number two is that when you do good luck recovering from it, because you will be beat down to the pulp of who you are. If you will question your own breath that you take next, like, and you, people don't know this. And so part of my work is also doing this informed consent, not just for healthcare, but informed consent for legal because

Brandy Schantz (34:03.662)
Right.

Yes, you will.

Brandy Schantz (34:12.324)
Yeah.

Brandy Schantz (34:20.153)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (34:25.032)
While discrimination in the workplace is unlawful and illegal, it's still business at the end of the day for all of them. And no one is concerned about your health equity, but I am. I'm concerned about your health equity and I want people to make the best decision for them, the best informed decision, and not just look at the money, not just look at the compensation that you receive from it because it's

Brandy Schantz (34:33.325)
Yes. Yes.

Brandy Schantz (34:39.257)
Mm-hmm.

Brandy Schantz (34:48.249)
That's what's important.

Glennae Davis (34:54.638)
And these like sometimes the lawsuits are not worth the paper that is printed on. Come on like a lot. And so I think, and then you're in shambles because you're like, Oh my God, like they never even admit it to guilt. And here I am with this money, this dirty, dirty money. What am I going to do with it? And it just blows in the wind.

Brandy Schantz (34:56.356)
Right?

Brandy Schantz (35:03.897)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (35:20.867)
Yeah, nope, that's that's great advice. So and before we go, where can we buy your book?

Glennae Davis (35:27.806)
Okay, so, you know, my books, I just want to say that people who believe that their lives matter more than a corporation's bottom line, who desire freedom from fear, will get my books, they will do the work and they will pivot, they will profit and they will claim their health equity, their worth and the value of living the life they were promised. These books are available only at Glen A's RX4Life.

I wanted to make sure that I stay connected to all of my readers. These books are a movement forward, they're a method, they're a model, and they are literary insights and geniuses because I can write my butt off. So not only are they a good read, if you don't need my services, e-books are available, but our print books are only available for a bundle.

Brandy Schantz (36:12.856)
Mm-hmm.

Glennae Davis (36:22.814)
if you need my services because other good things come along with it.

So Glenay's RX for Life book bundle. And you can make a, you can sign up to get on my calendar to do a discovery call where we do an intake and examination and give you a nursing diagnosis and move forward with your prescription for life because, ciao. So many people need it.

Brandy Schantz (36:48.837)
You

Yes, we do. That is the truth. And I'll be sure to put that in the show notes as well for everybody so they could easily find it. But thank you so much for coming to talk. I mean, we could probably talk forever and ever about this. I think we could probably push out seven or eight different episodes around these topics because we need to do better. Burnout is so important. People are going through burnout, even if you're completely healthy.

Glennae Davis (36:53.984)
Yes.

Glennae Davis (36:58.752)
Thank you.

Glennae Davis (37:16.418)
Right.

Brandy Schantz (37:17.333)
So these things are very important to be talking about. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your perspective and your story.

Glennae Davis (37:24.418)
Thank you Brandy Shantz, it was good talking to you.

Brandy Schantz (37:27.863)
You too.