Mastering Nursing Exams and Careers: Tips from Archer Review's Morgan Taylor

In this episode of the "So You Want to Work in Healthcare" podcast, host Leigha welcomes Dr. Morgan Taylor, a pediatric nurse practitioner and the chief nursing officer at the Archer Review. Morgan shares her journey into healthcare, which began with her early exposure to the medical field due to family health issues. Initially set on becoming a ballerina, a significant injury redirected her path toward nursing. This episode dives into the world of nurse practitioners, discussing their roles and responsibilities, and the similarities they share with physician assistants. Join Leigha and Morgan for an insightful conversation about career transitions, healthcare education, and the dedication required to succeed in the medical field.

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Transcript

Leigha:
Welcome back to the So You Want to Work in Healthcare podcast. I'm Leigha your host. And today I'm excited to announce our next guest. She is a pediatric nurse practitioner. She is also the chief nursing officer at the Archer Review, which has helped over half a million students with exam prep. And she's a healthcare education visionary. So welcome, Morgan Taylor.

Morgan: Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait. This is going to be so fun.

Leigha: Of course, yeah. Thank you for doing the show. I'm excited because I think you are the first nurse practitioner. I've had a couple nurses on my show, but I believe you're the first NP. I'm trying to go back now, which is exciting.

Morgan: Yeah, very exciting stuff. Lots to talk about with the NP world.

Leigha: Yes, for sure. And I feel like our careers, I'm a PA, so our careers kind of coincide in a lot of ways. We tend to sometimes fill similar roles and things like that. So very cool to have you on the podcast. Thank you. The first question I usually start out with is simple. Why did you decide to get into health care?

Morgan: Yeah, I don't have an amazing, super cool story like some people do. That's okay. I definitely had interest early on. I had a family that had certain medical issues that exposed me to the healthcare system early on, so I knew that that was somewhat of a viable option. But, you know, until I was 16, 17, getting ready to graduate high school, I was dead set that I was going to be a ballerina. not like a girl dreaming of being a ballerina. I was very intensely studying ballet, going to school for that and then had a pretty significant injury that took me out of that world and I decided to go into nursing school.

Leigha: Interesting. This is a very similar story to a podiatrist who I had on my podcast. She was, she was one of my first guests and her name is Brianna Vesely. Same thing. She got in, she was a really competitive ballerina, got injured and now she's a podiatrist fixing people's feet.

Morgan: I love that. Yeah, a lot of feet things in ballet. I had so many toenails ripped off and like, ugh, icky feet stuff for sure.

Leigha: Right. Well, the one common fracture is called the dancer's fracture, so that makes sense. But yeah, you know, and I think there's a lot to be said about going through an injury yourself and then kind of experiencing the healthcare field and then wanting to go into it. So that's awesome. Not that you got injured, but that you decided to kind of Turn it into something positive and kind of make your career out of it.

Morgan: Absolutely. It's taken lots of twists and turns, and where I am now isn't ever something I planned or even dreamed of, but it's all turned out really how I know it was supposed to, and I'm loving it.

Leigha: That's awesome. So was there one specific thing that drew you into nursing in particular, like as opposed to going to med school or PA school? What drove you to nursing?

Morgan: You know, I don't have a super great answer to this either. It was an accessible option, it required less debt, it was something I could get my hands involved in a lot earlier. I've always been a very kinesthetic, hands-on person, so I loved the thought of being that bedside provider that was really doing the things. And I think that was probably what most drew me into it. But some of it was also just accessibility. It was what was there in front of me, and I went with it.

Leigha: Yeah, I like that answer because it's honest. When we're like interviewing for PA school, everyone's always saying, don't say it's because it's shorter than med school.

Morgan: Wrong answer.

Leigha: That's like the main reason I feel like a lot of us go and that's the main reason. But it's more I like the term accessible and less debt and things like that. So yeah, I like the honest answers here.

Morgan: There's just like real life components to that. Like we're kidding ourselves if the debt and the lower time commitment isn't a factor because we're all full people with other things going on in our life. So there's a lot to consider.

Leigha: Right, right. And I do think though everyone who enters healthcare and is successful in the field does have some sort of like want or passion to take care of other people. So it's that I don't want people to think we just took an easy road or something. Trust me, if you are just doing this for like accessibility and the money, you won't last.

Morgan: You have to care about people. You're in the wrong place. You're totally in the wrong room. I agree.

null: Exactly.

Leigha: Exactly. So let's run our listeners and viewers through kind of your journey to becoming a nurse and then nurse practitioner. So where did you end up doing nursing school?

Morgan: Absolutely. I went to the University of North Carolina Wilmington, so on the beach in North Carolina. It was a really fun place to go to undergrad. They were known for having a really good nursing school, and I picked it because it was smaller. They only took 50 students per cohort or group. and really prided themselves on knowing their students and building relationships with them. That was super important to me because even though this was an accessible option, I was under no illusion that it was going to be easy, and it definitely wasn't. I tell all my students now nothing worth it was ever easy, and nursing school is super worth it, but it is a hard thing to do, and I knew that I was going to need support. So finding a kind of smaller tight-knit program was important to me. That was why I ultimately went there for my BSN. I did dual bachelor degrees while I was there, so a BSN, a Bachelors of Science in Nursing, and then also a BA in Spanish Language while I was at UNC Wilmington.

Leigha: Cool. So one thing, I almost went to UNC Wilmington and I didn't. I decided not to.

Morgan: No way.

Leigha: You're kidding.

SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.

Leigha: Yeah. I wanted to play soccer there. Long story. But also, I also studied Spanish. So we have that in common. I love that.

Morgan: And you're in Spain right now.

Leigha: Now I'm in Spain putting it to use. We're trying. It's tough.

Morgan: We're trying. That's amazing. I love that.

Leigha: Yeah, but I think it's good to, maybe we can get into this a little later. I like to give people, students particularly, kind of little tips on how to kind of like separate yourself, make your resume better. And I do think having either a dual degree or a minor in something else, maybe a language, maybe, I don't know, something you're interested in, I do think that helps. Do you think that helped you in your career in any

Morgan: Anyway, hands down, for me, the big, big draw, I had been studying Spanish for a while, and I knew I wanted to continue pursuing it. But I don't think I realized how impactful that was going to be in shaping my career. Almost every single shift I have ever worked, I have ended up speaking to someone in Spanish, whether it is a patient themselves, a family member, a fellow co-worker. It has become so prevalent and really increased my ability to communicate effectively, and in some ways advanced my career. I was able to do a couple of internships, one in Costa Rica, one in Guatemala, where I got some really wonderful hands-on experience, learned about building nonprofits, and that really led me into some of what I'm doing today.

Leigha: Oh, that is awesome. I love that you've traveled for that too. And were those, those were internships for, through your nursing school or were they on your own volunteer work?

Morgan: Yeah, they were. So the first one was through my university. It was a study abroad. I worked and I learned medical Spanish so that I could really apply that in my nursing career. And then when I went to Guatemala, it was through my Spanish program. So I was doing a kind of capstone project.

Leigha: Awesome. That's great. Medical Spanish. Wish I had that. So you went to UNC Wilmington and you graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, is that correct? Yeah. And the Spanish degree. Exactly. Then I saw that you worked at Duke. Was that your first job as a nurse? It was.

Morgan: So the summer before my senior year, I did what's called a nurse externship program. So you spend the summer working as somewhat of a certified nursing assistant. That's what you're licensed as, but you're directly paired with a registered nurse working alongside them and really kind of learning more in depth what that role is like and getting some hands-on experience. So that was the first experience I had working at Duke and where I got exposed to the unit I would ultimately work at called the Children's Resource Unit, which is basically a float pool specifically dedicated to pediatrics. And that ended up being my first job as a new graduate nurse.

Leigha: Wow, pediatrics as your first job.

Morgan: Yeah, yeah. Nonetheless, I always wanted to do peds. Honestly, I couldn't super narrow in like, do I want to be in the ICU, the emergency department, I knew I liked high acuity, but there were so many different opportunities that I couldn't quite pick. So when I saw that Children's Resource Unit, I knew it was the right fit. I knew I would get exposure to so many different areas, and it really was a dream come true opportunity as a new grad.

Leigha: That's amazing and brave. What made you want to do pediatrics? Because I think a lot of us are scared of peds.

Morgan: I teach, it's always, the room is so divided. There's a group that's like, I love peds, I'm going to do peds forever. That's obviously the camp I fall in. And then there's the rest of the room that's like, just tell me how to pass this test so I never have to think of this ever again. For me, the draw to pediatrics is their resiliency. kids get really sick and they recover really well and much more quickly than adults do. There's also so much interesting medicine in congenital disorders and defects that I'm just fascinated by the anatomy on. And it's really interesting what we can do to still provide them very high quality lives. And then so rewarding when you see them grow up and you see pictures and they're in high school and it's like, I played a role in getting them there. It's so, so rewarding.

Leigha: Oh, I bet. That's such a great point. Never really thought about it that way. Like to me, it's just like, Oh my God, I am afraid to take care of a kid because what if I hurt them? But you're right, like they are so resilient and they do usually get better fast. So awesome. So then how long were you at in that job at Duke for in the flow?

Morgan: Yeah, I stayed in the Children's Resource Unit for just over three years. worked on climbing the clinical ladder. For non-nursing folk, that's kind of how you climb the reins in the nursing department. You are there for a certain period of time, achieve certain milestones. I became certified as a critical care nurse, so I went all the way up the ladder to the point that I could. Had really worked on all the different units, so The PICU or the intensive care unit and the emergency department were where I worked a lot, but I also got exposure to mother baby, to the intensive care nursery, the bone marrow transplant department. So I really felt like I had dipped my toes everywhere. I had found what I loved. I had worked my way up to the point that I kind of could. And it was right about the time that COVID started getting pretty dicey. I was in the emergency department for most of COVID, really getting stretched outside my comfort zone. And it was when I started to become increasingly involved and interested in an education role. Really because I felt like the level of preparedness of new nurses coming to join us in that time period started to go down. They weren't really getting a lot of hands-on clinical experience to no fault of their own or anyone's. It was just the world we were living in. And things were getting challenging. I felt really rewarded by the opportunity to teach at the bedside. And I knew I could do that on a bigger scale in an educational environment.

Leigha: Cool. So then at that point, were you like time for NP school?

Morgan: Yeah, that is right around the time I started NP school in 21. So that's right around the time I went back. I started at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville pursuing my doctorate in nursing practice. So a DNP.

Leigha: DNP. Awesome. So how long, and I kind of have an idea of this, but for somebody who maybe has no idea what an NP is or what is the difference between an NP and a PA, because we get those questions all the time. How long is, how long is your schooling and what kind of separates an NP from a PA from a nurse and all those things?

Morgan: Totally. And I'll be the first to say this is very confusing. Nursing, credentialing, and licensing, and degrees in my opinion is probably a little too convoluted. There's a lot of options out there and that can feel a bit overwhelming when you're the nurse trying to decide what to pursue and just confusing as a third party. So starting kind of at the basics, our nurse, our registered nurse or RN, has a four-year degree that Bachelors of Science in Nursing that I went and got from UNCW. And then they have passed an exam called the NCLEX, the National Council for Licensure Examination. and that is what certifies them as a registered nurse. So then once you're an RN, you're working at the bedside, hands-on, really intense, really fun, lots of highs and lows, but you're doing things like assessing your client, you are documenting how they are doing, all of their vital signs and your nursing assessment, etc. administering all of their medications, doing things like wound care, dressing changes, maintaining their lines, their drips, their ventilator, all those things that happen really just like minute in, minute out at the bedside. You're that first line right there. So then when you're thinking about going back to graduate school, there are a few different degrees that can be pursued. So I went back for a doctorate in nursing practice, a DNP, which is one of two terminal degrees, but it's focused on practice. It's focused on somebody who's still gonna be clinical, hands-on. And with that degree, you can pursue licensure as a number of different types of nurse practitioners. So I pursued licensure as a pediatric nurse practitioner. I have lots of friends who are family nurse practitioners. We also have geriatric nurse practitioners that care for our elderly population, neonatal nurse practitioners that suggest care for that neonate period, where I'm a little later in the pediatric period. So as you can tell, it's somewhat broken up by lifespan, where you are. It can also be broken up by specialty, like a psychiatric nurse practitioner or a women's health nurse practitioner. There's a lot of options out there, which is part of why it's so lovely to be a nurse first and really get your hands on patients and feel out all that experience to know where your true passion lies. because once you go back, you start pursuing that advanced degree and are licensed as a nurse practitioner, your role does shift to being the provider that assesses and diagnoses and then prescribes and really creates the overarching treatment plan instead of carrying it out like you were doing as the nurse.

Leigha: So are you taking a different exam as a pediatric NP than a family nurse practitioner or a psych nurse practitioner? Is it a separate exam?

Morgan: Yeah, great question. They are all different exams. They all have a certifying board that maintains the level, the standard for credentialing. So for me, I'm credentialed through the PNCB, the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, and they create the exam. I take that, I pass it, and then I get to put the fancy little letter behind my name that says I'm certified as a pediatric nurse practitioner.

Leigha: You know, I probably should have known this, but I did not realize you guys took different exams.

Morgan: Yeah, see, that's one of the interesting differences for me between NP and PA. That's one thing that stands out because there are so many similarities, but that is one difference because for PAs, you all have that standardized exam. It's a little more generalized.

Leigha: Oh yeah, totally generalized. And you can take a specific exam for your specialty, but it's kind of just to put on your resume. Gotcha. I don't know that many people actually take them. There's an orthopedic one that I could take, but I got the job that I wanted, so I never felt like I needed to take it.

Morgan: You're good. You're lucky.

Leigha: It didn't necessarily take you further. Could it probably have helped me? Yeah, for sure. But also at that time, you're like, I just took this huge exam. I just got through school. I just want to start working. And I did think about it a few years later. But that is interesting. And that you guys are kind of a little bit more specialized in a way, like you have to pick a path.

Morgan: You do have to pick a path, yes. And your path then gives you a little bit more niche or specialized experience. So all of my clinical hours were in pediatrics. I've got something like 1,200 clinical hours of diagnosing and prescribing in pediatrics. So you really should be the expert in that area.

Leigha: Very cool. So 1,200 hours is a lot.

Morgan: It's a lot of hours. Yeah, there is it's it's hefty. There's a lot of time commitment there.

Leigha: Yeah, well, I think it's amazing what you're doing with Archer Review, which we're going to get to in a minute. But before we get into that, I want to ask, since we're on the subject of NP school, I want to ask about nurse practitioner diploma mills, because this is definitely like trending on social media, at least in the space I am. I'm always on social media. So it's like, where I live basically. I'm not sure that's a good thing but you know I see a lot of the unfortunate conversations between doctors or med students and PAs and NPs and how you know some doctors don't fully support like our professions I think most do. I do think most do, but I think there's a small amount who don't. And in that conversation is often nurse practitioners are not, they don't have enough education. They're all getting their diplomas through online programs, through diploma mills. And I know that that's not true, but I have heard that these exist. So first, have you come across these programs? Do they exist?

Morgan: Yes, great question. They absolutely do. It is something that is very contested in kind of the NP education space because they're unfortunately doing a huge disservice to our profession and to our interdisciplinary collaboration. I am a huge believer that every single one of us has a place in making sure that we are creating the best care environment for our clients on an individual and community nationwide level. We all know there's simply not enough healthcare providers right now, especially in primary care. And we're never gonna solve that if we don't do it together, because there just aren't enough of us. With that being said, though, there is a level of responsibility that I believe should live with the institutions, the educational institutions of the standards that need to be upheld. And I believe that the programs we're calling diploma mills out there are the minority. but they're what's getting a lot of attention right now. And those are programs that are all online, that are maybe only one and a half to two years max, and that are really accepting nurses that aren't potentially ready for that next step in their education, that don't already have a background of clinical experience. The nurse practitioner role was created for nurses who had been in practice for a significant amount of time. I think we can all agree that we learn a lot in practice when we're working with our patients, when we're actually on the job, the learning curve is exponential. I mean, we gain so much. And that's what Nurse Practitioner School was created for. It's like, this nurse has been in practice five, 10 years, and they're ready to take that next step. So it's taking that knowledge and then doing just that. But if we're accepting students with no experience, we're only educating online, maybe not overseeing them as much as we should, then unfortunately we are going to churn out lower quality providers. And that's at a detriment to everyone else and to our patients, the most important thing at the end of the day.

Leigha: Right, definitely. You know, how would, let's just say, we have a nursing, not a nursing student, let's say we have a nurse and they feel they're ready for the next step. They've, they've put in a few years at the bedside and they want to go to NP school and they're looking at these programs, but I don't know the online program just fits into their life better. Like how could, is there something they can look out for to kind of find a program that's legitimate versus one of these I don't want to call them diploma mills, but you know, one of these. Yeah, lower reputable.

Morgan: Yeah, less reputable. How can I differentiate? So I would highly, highly encourage everyone to at least go for a program that has an on-site, like an in-person situation once a semester. I know it can be hard to fit in, but think about what you're learning. Advanced assessment, advanced physiology and pharmacology, prescribing, interacting with patients. how are you gonna really master those skills from a computer? A lot of things we can totally master, but especially when it comes to like the advanced assessment, the procedures, we've got to learn it in person. So that was what I did at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I was online most of the time. Now we did have like synchronous Zoom classes. They were very on top of us. There was no diplomas being churned out quickly at all. But they made us come in person. Mine was actually twice a semester. And even though it was hard, I was living super far away, by the way. I was living in Hawaii and going to school in Knoxville. So I flew very far for these onsites. And I was not super excited about it, but they were always so worth it. And I'm a way better nurse practitioner because of it. So that's the first thing I would say is like pony up at least make sure there's an on-site because if it's not a reputable program, they're not going to be putting the time and energy into that. And then the second thing I would look at is what is the pass rate of the students leaving that institution and are they getting jobs? Are they pursuing the types of careers and opportunities that you want to aspire to? Because if they're not, if you see people aren't passing their boards and aren't getting jobs, you should raise your eyebrows because that's not what you want.

Leigha: Good. I like these things. These are the answers that I was looking for. Not that I'm going to be doing this, but I need, you know, like with this podcast, I just want to, I want us to kind of guide students to do the right thing.

Morgan: And, you know, it should not be on us to have to do that vetting. It should be the institution held to that standard. I think there is a lot going on to raise that standard. I know for the PNCB, that certifying board that I sat for, they actually just raised the hours requirements, so the program is being extended a bit, and they're really making sure they push back against this narrative of NPs aren't qualified providers. And these aren't qualified providers if the institution doesn't educate them properly. And we've got to make sure those institutions are held accountable so that students aren't sucked into that. Because I get it, if it's all online, it's a year, it's only $10,000, that's super attractive. Not reasonable.

Leigha: Right. And you're right. It really should be the up to the program to set those standards because a lot of people just don't they go into it thinking it's a perfectly normal program.

SPEAKER_00: I'm sure. Yeah.

Leigha: Yeah. It's not really the person's fault. Real quick. I saw. Were you doing travel nursing at one point? Yes. As a nurse or nurse practitioner?

Morgan: as a nurse. I've not traveled as a nurse practitioner. I've not dove into like those locums or anything. But as a nurse, so when I left Duke in 21, I was starting to kind of side hustle in education at that point. but I decided it was time for me to step away from Duke and I went to travel. And mainly I traveled in the PICU. I did four or five assignments, if I'm remembering right. Seattle Children's, Rady's Children's down in California, Hanford, Boston Children's. So kind of pinged around, saw a few different ICUs. For me, the reason why traveling was important was I had only trained at Duke and I only knew the Duke way. If you ask anyone from Duke, that's the right way. But lo and behold, there are different ways to do things. It's amazing to me how different your experience and the protocols can be at different facilities. I knew I needed to stretch my horizons a little bit and that worked well for me during graduate school.

Leigha: And for those of you that just don't know, those are very reputable programs that you were able to travel through. Yes, yes.

Morgan: I knew what I was looking for from it. And there are a lot of people who will say like, oh, you want to travel for the money. It's so lucrative to get these big contracts. And it is more lucrative than a staff nurse job. But for me, the reason to go into it was the education I got. out of it. And really there are so many opportunities out there when it comes to that.

Leigha: And I'm sure kind of rotating through these different institutions helped you contribute to Archer Review, if I had to guess.

Morgan: Yeah, definitely. I mean, if I had just stayed at my original hospital, I would have had such a pigeonholed view of how things work and, you know, again, the right way of doing things. So seeing those and seeing where different nurses come from, what are their backgrounds and their educational experiences like, That all really informed the work I was doing to build this company. Like I said, it started a couple of years ago. It was a side hustle for quite a while while I was traveling. And you're right, all of those different perspectives and ways of doing things really helped round out what I was building.

Leigha: You did it right, I guess I want to say, you know, like you did the right thing to be in this position you're in now, which is chief nursing officer, right? So I know you kind of just went into it a little bit, but let's let's delve into Archer Review. And can you just explain to our listeners what what exactly is Archer Review?

Morgan: Yeah, Archer Review, plain and simple, is a healthcare education company. Our core mission is accessible and affordable education. Because of what we've been talking about this whole time, we need more healthcare providers. For me, that comes down to nursing. We know there's a huge nursing shortage, and I can tell you like 15 different reasons why that's happening. I can't fix them all, but I did start to pick up on ways that I felt I could make an impact through education. So the first bucket for me was we need to grow the pipeline of future healthcare professionals. More people should be interested in this and guided into these programs. So with that, what Archer Review does is provide exam prep for your entrance exams. You're trying to get into nursing school? We want to help you do that. We want to make it a little more accessible, a little easier, guide you through it. Then once you're in nursing school, nursing school is very hard. It is not necessarily a fun time. You're really putting in some elbow grease. And there is this saying that starts to come about at this time, which is nurses eat their young. It's been around for far too long. It's I know, right, just horrible. But you find that a lot of educators kind of have this mentality of We need to be tough to really see who's worth it, like who's going to tough it out to make it there. And as hard as I tried to seek out a BSN program that was smaller and more supportive, I'm not going to lie, I didn't feel super supported during nursing school. You're left to figure it out on your own a lot of times. That is tough. So the next thing we can do in nursing education at Archer Review is be your companion through that time. We deliver, for example, little mini lectures. So when you don't understand what your professor taught about heart failure, you can pull up a little seven-minute clip on your phone. And it's just me and you sitting at a table, and I'm just going to break it down and make it less scary, right? Yeah. The next thing we can do is try to really increase licensure rates. So let's get your board prep ready so you can really go and knock that exam out of the park. I really want to make it less of a stressful event. I don't know how boards with PAs go. For me, every board exam has been like the end of my existence. Absolutely so anxiety provoking and Yeah, I'm just over it. We don't need to do that to people anymore. Or like nobody's gonna ever go into these jobs. It's too much. So we really try to make things a little more fun. I want our current best nurses to really feed this next generation of nurses and get them loving the profession. There's so much to love about it. And it's got to start from day one with how we educate.

Leigha: Wow. I love that. And I love that there is number one, these, like you said, kind of short form videos that you can just pick up your phone and, and, and, you know, dial in real quick. I personally would love that. Like I would have loved that on like my clinical rotations, for example, once I was in PA school. or even as like a new PA?

Morgan: Oh, yeah, absolutely. The learning doesn't stop as soon as you pass your boards. Like we said, you get on the job and there's a steep learning curve. So if you can just have a little companion in your pocket, a little mentor, a little guide, that goes a long way. And I think it works a lot better for a lot of our learning styles and kind of just like fitting it into our daily life so that it's more feasible.

Leigha: Yeah, and I also love what you said about making exams seem less scary because they are like especially for so I am not a good test taker. I changed my I'm like the queen of changing my answers. That's me. So I'm not good with it. But but you know, I think there are ways to prepare better. And I, for instance, for my first board exam, I was so nervous, I don't think I studied right at all. And so because I had that bad experience, the time then I when I recertified, I kind of went about it a whole different way. Okay, I was so much less stressed. Number one, Number two I I kind of flew through the exam which I've never done in my life And I got a better score on the research exam than the first so like and it was because I went to a review course Yeah, and I would I basically learned how to test take and I think like that's such a big skill to have and you would think we would learn that through high school and college but like nobody yeah you would think right but like nobody ever sat down and said like here's how you actually answer like a multiple choice question here or here this trick and that trick and i'm like it changed the game for me

Morgan: I totally agree with you. There's knowing your content and there's knowing how to take your test. And that's something that is huge for us at Archer for every, you know, we've got dozens of different exams out there that we offer prep for. The biggest of which is that NCLEX for nurses who are going to pass their boards, but also nurse practitioners, et cetera. every single board has their little like nuances of like, they do it this way, they do it that way. And you've got to know that stuff. Like it's simple things to look at. And once you know them, you can actually break down like, how am I going to answer this question? So it's not such a big deal. It's less overwhelming. It's less scary. For me, a big thing too, I don't know if you had this in your review course at all for boards, practice questions. Like, the more I practice, the less I have anxiety. Because I'm like, okay, I've done this before. Like, I've made my mistakes. I've learned from my mistakes. This, when it's the real deal, it's nowhere near as bad.

Leigha: Oh, 100%. That is the thing that was different for me. The first time around, I kind of wanted to cram all the info into my brain. I thought I had to review everything. The second time around, I took practice tests, like timed practice tests. And the more you do it, the more comfortable you get with it. And then you can figure out what you're actually good at and what you need to work on just from based on your practice tests. So that's how I felt.

Morgan: It lets you study smarter and not harder. You can actually study less. So in Archer Review, when you, let's say you're sitting for a nurse practitioner board exam, you do a practice test and then you get a score report that breaks down by subject, lesson, and topic. Where did you score really well? Where did you score really poorly? So you're like, okay, adult health overall was fine. Cardiac was kind of weaker. I didn't get any questions about heart failure, right? So you're like, okay, obviously I need to go watch this heart failure video. I need to do my worksheets. I should do some flashcards. Like however you learn, you can then study the right things. I think something so interesting about humans overall, we love to study what we already know. Like, I'm a cardiac junkie. I love the cardiovascular system. So I'm always going to go to that first. But don't talk to me about neuro. Like I don't want to study that. So I'm never going to study it. And then those are the questions I'm going to get wrong. So it's obvious, but when you have a platform that's like guiding you through it, setting you up for success, letting you kind of optimize your study time, it really does make all the difference.

Leigha: Yeah, I agree. I can't recommend review courses enough. And, you know, I think it's great what you're doing with Archer Review. And you have review courses for the NCLEX, for NP exams. Is there any other exams that you offer review courses for?

Morgan: Yeah, so we have your whole nursing lifespan covered right now. So your entrance exam into nursing school when you're applying and trying to like get a nice score to be accepted. That's kind of your first step. Then we have exams for throughout your nursing program. So like when you're getting ready for your adult health final or your pediatrics midterm. Those are kind of like stepping stones. towards, of course, your NCLEX. That's the big one, the big licensure exam. And then lastly, your nurse practitioner exams. And that includes FNP, PNP, psych mental health, all the alphabet soup out there of all the different types of NPs.

Leigha: Awesome. Awesome. This seems like such a helpful tool.

Morgan: I hope so. It's, again, really about making it accessible, affordable, and bringing that education to people in ways that's going to be fun and less scary so that hopefully we're all going to stay nurses for a long time.

Leigha: Yes, yes, that is the goal because I know there was kind of a mass exodus during COVID.

Morgan: um but i do feel it's still going on for sure is it okay survey data is 50 of nurses are leaving within a year which is devastating because you're spending way longer than a year going to nursing school doing this hard thing and then within a year to be like this is so bad it's not for me There is a big problem there. So lots needs to be addressed like that's another 15 episodes we could do on all of that stuff. For me in the education world, I think there's a lot to be said for like making sure we start our students off with the expectation that we are a part of a team, that we collaborate, we work together, we lean on each other. And if we enter the workforce with that expectation and really work on feeding our young nurses, we will definitely see a big shift. It'll take some time, but it's where it has to start.

Leigha: Yeah, feeding the young instead of eating the young.

Morgan: Stop eating that.

Leigha: We need to feed that. That's amazing. So I guess, you know, one thing that I ask everybody is what do you love about your job? So in your case, we can talk about your job as a pediatric MP and or your job as the chief nurse nursing officer. And also what do you not love about your job?

Morgan: I love it. That's great. Just like everything, there's good, bad, and ugly for sure. What I love far outweighs what I don't. When I'm in clinic, when I have my practice as a PNP, I love the opportunity to see healthy kids grow up healthy. As we've talked about, all of my nursing experience was acute care and I decided to go into primary care as a PNP. So it was a whole new learning curve. And I was like, whoa, there's healthy kids out there. Like they're not all on ECMO invented. This is insane. Look how cool this is. And I still feel really excited by that. helping educate parents about their milestones and just supporting healthy kids so that they thrive. That is the bread and butter of what a pediatric NP should do and I love it through and through. As an educator, I love getting to share that passion and enthusiasm and see the light bulb in other students who are like, oh yeah, like this matters, I can do this. And I know that they're going to go on to make a bigger difference than I ever could, which is so invigorating. It's just a beautiful experience. Now, what I don't love, nobody's gonna like this from me. Hot take, I do not love the darn TikTok videos. You cannot learn something in 90 seconds, people. Stop asking me for another TikTok about whatever topic. I'm gonna do my best. I know the world's, I'm not personally on TikTok. We've got a larger nursing page. I just, I'm like, if you cannot expect to get this complex information in 90 seconds, we got to work harder people. Okay. It's not, it's not easy, but it's worth it.

Leigha: Listen, I am a TikToker, but I'm not teaching people things in 90 seconds.

Morgan: It's not a time and a place. It's for the doom scrolling at midnight. You know, the fun things.

Leigha: great. For me, it's for the funny things. It's for the health care humor that we all need at the end of the day, the health care humor.

Morgan: I love that you can't go to nursing school or PA school on TikTok. Yeah.

Leigha: I like that answer. Even though I love Well, again, I have a love hate relationship with social media, but I like to talk to my like, slice of like, comedy relief at the end of the day.

Morgan: That's what it's there for. Yeah, yeah.

Leigha: Um, all right. Well, I think we went over pretty much everything that I wanted to know from you Is there any actually let's end with one piece of advice that you could give a nursing student or a nurse practitioner? Student anything it could be anything whether it's to you know, getting into school or taking exams or just in general life advice. I

Morgan: Absolutely. I'm going to go with kind of general life advice, but it definitely applies to any healthcare student out there. So if you want to work in healthcare, what I would say to you is if there's information you want out there, it is up to you to find it. There's no excuse for not knowing something anymore. You can't say, oh, the textbook didn't explain it good, or, oh, I didn't understand that lecture, because there are infinite resources out there, whether it's YouTube, whether it's a research article you found on Google, whether it's a review course through Archer or one of the other 1,000 places out there. There is so much free and available content. So if you don't know something, you're choosing not to know it. And I know it's hard, but again, it will be worth it.

Leigha: Amazing. I agree. You're choosing not to know it. And it could be related to the fact that it's the subjects that we don't like, like we were saying before.

Morgan: Don't be a star like totally.

Leigha: Yeah, but you're right. There's so many resources nowadays. And I think that's a great, great piece of advice for our students listening. Well, this has been a really eye-opening episode for me. I learned some new things.

Morgan: Oh, I'm so glad. It was such a fun conversation. I flew by. I enjoyed it.

Leigha: Yeah, it really did. And I think, you know, our listeners and viewers are going to get a lot out of it, especially it sounds like if they check out Archer Review and if you're, you know, if you're listening to this podcast and you're thinking about going to nursing school or a nurse practitioner school, definitely check it out. What is the exact website for Archer Review?

Morgan: Yeah, if you need any nursing resources, archerreview.com is the place to go. You also can follow us on all the socials. We're at Archer Nursing. There will be funny TikToks. We're not teaching you everything. But we do do a lot of like live content on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. So we'll go live for like half an hour, do practice questions and things. So you can always connect with us for free on all of our socials at Archer Nursing.

Leigha: Well, Morgan, thank you so much again for doing this. And I hope you know, one day we can meet in person where and I'm gonna have to talk to you a little bit about Hawaii because you threw that in there. And we didn't talk about it.

Morgan: Sounds good. Well, thank you again for having me. I loved every minute of it.

Leigha: Thanks again for listening or watching. If you're watching on YouTube, please make sure to subscribe. And if you're listening on your podcast platform of choice, give us a five star review. Again, this is the so you want to work in healthcare podcast. I have new episodes every other week. And if you leave us a review, I'll shout you out on the next one. So thanks for watching and listening, and I'll see you soon. This is the So You Want to Work in Healthcare podcast with new episodes every month. Don't forget to subscribe to stay up to date on the latest releases.