76 - Amanda Shafer Pt 1: Just Roll With Life

Join nurse and Omak, Washington native Honored Guest Amanda Shafer as she chats about sourdough, being pregnant with twins during nursing school, her super-unique NCLEX prep, lessons learned from raising an autistic child, being the ultimate advocate, and more!

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Transcript

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Welcome to this episode of the Feeding Our Young podcast. This is actually kind of an interesting episode. So my apologies in advance to anyone out there. I'm gonna actually speak a little bit longer at the front end because there's some things I want to clear up. This is the first recording I've done in literally 20 days. The last honored guests that I was able to record, I had three of them in one day and it was on the anniversary of my son's accident. And it was a very special day, all the things. as I'm bringing this up, I don't like talking about myself on these episodes, but I'm going to bring it up because it's important. I have had some people like, man, how are you so positive all the time? Like, golly, you don't, you know, you don't swear. You don't this. You don't you don't seem to ever have a bad day. And truth of matter is, is that that night we had a family crisis occur that has really thrown our family into a nice little tailspin. And I say it respectfully, we're where we are today, it's one day at a time and moving up and all the things and incrementally getting better. But it literally was like the third worst moment, know, like this period has been the third worst period of my wife and I saw our family's life. And I tell you what, like my wife will be the first to tell you, I've got days that are not, I'm smiley guy at work typically and that sort of thing, but man, even a few days ago at work, I'm like, I just wasn't putting up with anything. I was like, you know what, we don't have time to mess around. Let's just get this done. So I'm throwing that out there, not as a what was me or anything like that. It's just a, you know what, we all have it. We're all navigating this thing that we call life. so all that to say, I am now sitting with someone who I just absolutely adore. Now I have to warn you, she's very mild -mannered, very soft -spoken. It's going to be a lot of work to get information out of her. So just bear with us. Also, if you have not clearly picked up by now, I speak fluent sarcasm. And so with that, I will not waste any more of your time and I'll introduce the amazing Amanda Schafer. Amanda, how are you this morning? I am doing awesome. I love it. I love it. love it. Today I happen to be wearing a Friday the 13th shirt. I actually don't really care for the Friday the 13th series. I was more of a Freddy Krueger guy myself growing up. But today in our studio as we are recording it is Friday, September 13th, 2024. Ran a lovely half marathon today. Surprise, surprise. Number 155. And I understand you have your own favorite shirt, Amanda. I and I'm still disappointed I didn't put it on today. But it says that my favorite essential oil is chloroform. So, I mean it's very peaceful. that's all you need to know about Amanda. Right here, you know what you're in store for for this episode. This is gonna be a highly entertaining episode. While we're on the theme of just rabbit trailing, there's also, you we do call ourselves the most unprofessional professional podcast. And I'm gonna call out right now, you may or may not hear it, it might end up getting deleted just from background noise reduction. But Amanda warned me, we've got a timer. We are under a timer. How much longer do we have? We had 11 minutes when we first started talking a while ago. probably just under five. Under five minutes. This timer's gonna go off. What in the heck is this timer about? that, are we, we're just gonna have a five minute episode? You don't wanna talk? What's going on? thought we would just try to do it short and sweet. so, what's your name? What do you do? Did you graduate? What are you loving or nursing about? Go! Just kidding, alright, anyway. Wait, I don't think I, I mean, I could talk fast, but I'm not sure about that fast. No, see, I started sourdough last night and this morning was its baking time. So I got a great sourdough starter from our Ms. Lindsey Gibson, one of our A &M's at work. Lindsey Gibson, that name sounds familiar. listeners, you will have by now, hopefully, likely already heard Lindsey Gibson's episode. And I was telling Amanda when she told me this, said, we've got a full on, this is like a full circle thing because Harlee Miller, my cousin, Harlee Miller, a previous honored guest, when she was recording, she was recording in Lindsey's house. And I did not know, my blonde brain didn't put two and two together. She just said, Lindsey, I thought, this is a roommate or something. I didn't realize it was Lindsey Gibson, co -worker of hers and less directly of mine. And so then we did Lindsey's episode. And while Harlee was recording though, she was pounding, there was pounding in the background. I'm like, what the heck is going on? And she explained that Lindsey was pounding sourdough. So now you fast forward, I don't know, a month and a half, two months later, and here's Amanda with a timer about to go off from a sourdough starter from all of this. It's just... I think we can make it a theme, Eric. We could get whoever you interview from work, we're gonna get them sourdough to go on during your episode. I love it. Okay, so anyone that agrees to do this, we're gonna be like, hey, so first of all, you need to talk to Amanda. You need to get the starter from Amanda or from Lindsey. I doubt Harlee's even baking sourdough. Not yet, she probably doesn't have time to focus that direction yet. She will. We'll get her down there. She is. Not enough time to dedicate to that. So I guess before your timer goes off, and I can't wait to hear what it sounds like, like it's something super exotic, now that we're done talking, after six minutes, almost six minutes of talking, would you like to introduce yourself to the loyal audience? Who are you? and what nursing schools did you attend and when did you graduate? So I'm Amanda Schaefer and the nursing school that I went to was Wenatchee Valley College in OMAC campus. So a very small community college, but it actually had one of the larger nursing programs for our area. And I did my associate's degree in nursing for that. I graduated that in 2005, which is pretty cool. And I actually did not take my state boards until 2006. Okay, hold on. Alright, no, no, no, no. You gotta unpack this. I saw that on your sheet and I'm like, we have to talk about this. A year? Why? And how? And how did you? Wow. that's the fun part. So my RN year of nursing school, I found out I was pregnant with twins. And there's the timer! There's the timer! Ladies and gentlemen, we must wait. Yes. right there. Let me grab this. Well, you know, actually, I've talked about cutting this out. Maybe I'll just fill the air with needless words. She's got AirPods in, you actually could tell your story while you're prepping this sourdough stuff. Pulling it out the end. There we go. Yeah, this is all, we're just gonna keep this in the episode. This'll be fun. So what size is your oven? Is this a natural gas oven? Is it an electric oven? Like what is going on? That's what I'm asking. It really is. It's a gas oven. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen, the Shafer family household has a gas oven. You know, in case the power goes out, I still have a way to light it and I can still cook. I forgot to shut off the timer though. this is just gonna be, you all know what you're in for now. This is it. There's no turning back. They're not gonna turn away. They wanna hear what's going on. We don't know what's gonna happen. All right, so a year, because we do, nursing students are like, should I, you know what I mean, should I schedule it right away? Should I get myself a few months? And everybody does it a little bit different. I've never heard anyone say one year, so unpack that for Yes, for my RN year I found out was pregnant with twins and I actually delivered them on my spring break and went back to school the following week. I did. Yes, I did. It was a very interesting year, we'll just say that for our school. I'm pretty sure it's like that maybe with most but... besides all your classes that you're attending, but you have all your clinicals and you have all your labs and everything else that you have to do. I thought, hey, let's entertain this twin pregnancy then too. And it's still during the time where they're like, you're gonna have all these appointments and you might have to go on bed rest. And I go, can bed rest be from my clinical labs and my clinical labs? I I'll still go to those. I'm in the right area. does that qualify? Okay, good, we're great. Absolutely. So yes, I did. delivered them on spring break and went back to school the following week because I only had three months left for graduation and finished my three months with newborn twins and graduated. And then I decided I needed to take some time off. Yeah, maybe do some raising of, you know, children. raising of little, double trouble. So I mean and at the risk of upsetting anybody out there, but You have got no excuse. I don't know. I can't we've had some honored guests on here We have one that was pregnant all the way through, know, same thing delivered twin twins. We have some my goodness. You can do it Yeah, and Never mind the no excuses this this just this is if anything, please let this be encouraging to you. Just go. Okay, guess what? I don't have twins. I'm not pregnant with twins. I'm not delivering twins on spring break. Ergo, whatever I'm facing, I can do this. Right? Like, holy cow. and at the same time I had a three -year -old at home. you know, was a busy life for nursing. think having a three -year -old at home though is like what drove me to, I'm gonna complete this, I'm gonna get this done, and then I'll take some time off. Then I'll take some time off. so what would, I mean, then just very briefly, because obviously this episode's not all about that, what, a year of raising three children, three and under, and then you go back to take the boards. What was that like and how did you prep? did I prep? I'm not gonna recommend how I prep to anybody. I went and got one of the kind of like NCLEX prep books that has all the questions in it and told myself you know I'm gonna review this. I scheduled my my test. I never opened that book. It still had the the wrapping on it. I ended up giving that to somebody else. I told them Okay, I'm really bad at procrastinating sometimes, but I told myself I would just, if I didn't know the information, well, I could take the test again, but maybe I just wasn't cut out for it. So that's what I told myself going into my arm boards. I mean, felt like a failure anyways when you walk out of there, you just don't know. But no, I really did not prep. I don't even, I, again, it's not often honored guests make me speechless and I don't, where do we go from here? Like that's, holy cow. like I said, I don't recommend that to anybody. Lots of people are study type, but I found the more I studied something like before testing, the more anxious I had felt. So that's why I just went with what worked for me. I just felt I just couldn't do that and feel more anxious going in. Yeah, fair, very fair. Wow, we're gonna, so the patented Amanda Schaeffer method of preparing for the NCLEX is, yes, no, it's step one, get pregnant with twins. Step two, have twins. Step three, take a year off raising twins and a three year old. Step four, buy a book. Step five, don't open the book. Step six, go take the test. And you're a nurse, congratulations. All right, okay, wow. This is the most of me. I'm just, I can't. Now I'm like, forget it, I'm not a host anymore. I'm just a listener. Okay, so Amanda, you take over. Tell us the rest of your life story. No, we don't have time for that. All right, so you said that community college was in OMAC, so I'm gonna go on a wild limb here and say that that's where you're from, and if so, what do you love about your hometown? gosh, yeah, so I'm from OMAC. It's actually two towns right next to each other. They basically combine like Spokane, Spokane Valley, just in much smaller version. So it's OMAC and Okanogan. And in Washington state, literally 50 miles south of the Canadian border, direct center of the state. So it's a nice little line there, but it's a smaller area. It is growing a little bit, but I think what we have. three or four stoplights now. I mean, it's, you know, we've moved up in the world. We still only have one, but it's peaceful. have, I live in a beautiful spot with plenty of acres to look outside and not have to run into a neighbor that's right next door or have an open window, worry about changing your clothes. You know, it's, it's very relaxing country life. That's amazing. on that note, before we delve into more of your story and your life, what are the three words that you have chosen for nursing school? We'll talk about them at the end, of course. But what three words have you chosen? So the three words I chose was that they're, I chose time consuming, manageable, and tiring. We want to take a nap just hearing those words. So all right, so we'll circle back around to those and then in true Eric Miller fashion going out of order feeding our young You let me back up for a second because you got your associate's degree. Is that what you still have? Did you go back for further education? I did go back. So when I started at Providence about almost 10 years ago, they required a BSN within a certain amount of time. So I did do that through Western Governors University, because it was the only thing that could fit into my schedule, do it on your own time sort of setting. And I figured, I had plans to move past to BSN at some point. I don't think that much schooling's in it for me right now. Never say never. It's always maybe there. Who knows? Yeah. that's awesome. Yeah, and for listeners who are like, there it is again and another WGU advertisement. I swear I didn't know Amanda got her bachelor's from WGU. And so it's, yeah. could do on my own time. That's all I could do. I was working full time. I have kids. I was gonna say, did you have another pair of twins before you went back for your bachelor's? no, no. Instead, I had a singleton. See, so, I mean, just go the Amanda route. Have kids and go back to school. Have kids, go to school. Yeah, roll with life. That's your t -shirt right there. There's the Amanda episode t -shirt. Roll with life. with life. At hands it's you, you go with it. Awesome, so one more question before we unpack the rest of, you know, your personal life. We'll get really downed in the nitty gritty, just kidding. What are your three favorite songs in life at this time? Okay, so a lot for songs, also for me is kind of like mood -wise, how you're feeling at that time. But three of my most favorite that I usually like to go back to are For You by Matteo Bocelli. I really, I really like it. It's kind of more on that love song side, but more, it's kind of really uplifting too. And I kind of like the classical sound that he has, similar to his dad's Andrea Bocelli. I also like to listen to Take Me Away by New Medicine. It's kind of like it's one of those where I go to when I just need that break and it kind of talks about those breaks of you need a break from your brain, you need a break from everything that's bothering you. those are my top ones. And then actually kind of my new favorite is the I'm Not Okay by Jelly Roll. It's just... you one of those mood songs, but at the same time, you just, that gives you so much feelings. Okay, that one, like, just, from the title, I'm like, this might be something we need to listen to sooner than later, Not a huge Jelly Roll fan, for those that are like, maybe I just jumped in, but yeah. But like, you don't have to be, that's the thing, that's what I love about music. once in a while you find a song that you're like, wow, I don't really care for this artist, but wow, this song's really powerful. It's really good. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to love the entire album. You can always find those gems. All right, so tell us more about you've just kind of opened this door about your family and this all your kids and that sort of thing. talk to us. You know, do you have a other? How many kids altogether do you have? How old are they? All the things, whatever you want to share about your family. All right, so I do have a significant other. He has been my partner for 14 years. Yeah, he's a retired family practice provider. We share our youngest together. That's our child together who just turned 11 today. 11, fun age, today. September 13th. the 13th and today is his 11th birthday on Friday the 13th. I love this stuff! The serendipity of it all. my gosh, that's amazing. his favorite holiday is Halloween. Perfect kid. he can have this shirt once this is washed. I'm legit. I'm serious because I don't know. I'm not like I said, I'm not a Friday the 13th fan. I'll just bring it to work. How does that sound? you should see the amount of sarcastic shirts he has for other things. He's definitely my child. I have three older children. My oldest is 24 years old. awesome kid. I also had all boys. My middle two twins that we talked about, they are 19, working. That's what my kids do. And, yeah. So only have one left in the house. and my partner, he has a daughter that's still in school. So she's here part time too. She's 17 and goes to school here locally and plays a lot of sports. kind of like our, my oldest obviously don't live here. They don't live in the house, they're all grown ups. They're above the age of 18. They're moving on to their lives. My, plus myself, but they have not moved on yet, and nor will they for a little bit, and that's okay. That's alright. we're... You know, the Mrs. is like, no, like, you guys can stay. Exactly! That's what my wife is saying. I was like, no, babe. As soon as they turn 18, you're out the door. I'm just... Yeah. like, why don't you answer me back? I didn't see your text, But no. Don't have to tell you where I am all the time, mom. I know, I have to make sure you're okay. So then as I understand it, there's some very amazing uniqueness that we share with some of our kids. What do you want to share about that? do. So I have two children that have autism and a lot of people think, it's your two twins. No, actually one of my twins, even though yes, they are identical, only one of them was diagnosed that way. And then my youngest, my one whose birthday is today, he has autism also. And amazingly, it's like two, there's some things that are similar, but autism is such a huge spectrum. that you can have what I like to call different levels, even though there's not really levels, there's different variants of it. And I probably wouldn't have recognized it as early with my second if I didn't already have a child who had autism. My first one is very well adjusted. He does have, know, some social, trying to think of the right word for that, So, Some things might seem a little socially awkward with him when he talks to people, but otherwise he's extremely smart. And his saving grace was actually right before COVID time where he switched from in school, school to online school. And we saw him go from barely paying attention to just soaring in his academics. Cause he could do it on his own, review the information and not feel like he was. pressured or like people had to answer people anytime they asked him a question. So he did really well that way. My youngest, actually for almost a year, we weren't even sure he would be able to have words. So we went through a big struggle that route and I continue to help him grow in different ways that I can, but a lot of people look at autism as it's not a good thing, but I didn't see it as a bad thing. Yeah. I found that it had opened my eyes to a whole new world and things that you used to take for granted. You don't, even those smallest little things like saying words, picking out colors, stacking things, just those small little things that kids do that most people are like, my child can do this, I could do that. Those were like big things in our world. Those were like so exciting. Yeah, yeah, and we have that discussion in our home, you know, and as you have raised autistic children who are getting older and becoming adults and all the things. And so, you know, is the moment where, you know, our son would sit off on a table at the cafeteria, you know, and eat on his own. And part of that was due to allergies, but most of it was due to the autism. He had one best friend and, you know, and it would break. My wife's heart, would break my heart to a certain extent too, but we also, I had to remind her, it's like, he is blissfully unaware. He doesn't care. It doesn't bother him. It bothers us. Yeah, it bothers us because we're used to those normals, as we call them, those social normals that this is what you do. a lot of these children, they actually feel more comfortable alone or they feel more comfortable in not big crowds. They feel better in those ways and that's how they prefer. So it may make us look sad or feel bad for them, but it all sees how actually, they feel better that way. you're gonna think I'm like, we're not even we're not even talking about nursing and we're both like, well, and you and we. its struggles. They do have their struggles. And that's exactly what I wanted to say. You made me think of the fact that like, you know, it's like what we kind of preach is, you know what? To each of our kids, we're like, life is challenging. Period. It's challenging for me, it's challenging for my wife, it's challenging for all of you. Life just, and some days absolutely suck and others are amazing and you know, all the things. Life is going to be challenging. So for our son, you know, I straight up tell him, I'm like, here's part of what makes life challenging for you on occasion. Because now, now that he's older and he's like, you know, well, I just... I'm gonna find a partner, I wish I could, you know what mean, but he's also, you know, so it's like, okay, so this is an extra layer of challenge, or it's just a different challenge than I had to face growing up, or that somebody else, so it's like, doesn't make it, going back to your original point, it doesn't make it worse, it's just different. And so, yeah, no, okay, we're, this entire. yes, nope. mean, we could do a whole thing just on that. this whole episode is gonna be about autism. But what were you gonna say? You're, you're, you're, go ahead. No, I'm just saying it was like, you know, that and as they get older, there's different challenges. So, you know, I have one that's an adult. Well, being an adult is a challenge on its own. Finding employment, that's a challenge on its own. You know, doing interviews with people to get employment, that is a challenge. So I encourage him not to really hide his diagnosis. I told him you should put that on your application. You need to say, hey, this is me. This is what I'm really good at, but it also might seem like I may not answer you right away or I may not answer something correctly because I'm understanding it a different way. But he's also really good about telling people he's teachable, he's very teachable. You show him how to do something, once he figures it out, he'll do it very well. And then I do it the youngest. fight with a school for five years to get appropriate services. Yeah, yeah, well I imagine especially attending school in a smaller community, yes? So less resources available, yeah. right, exactly. And kind of helping them understand that autism isn't just a behavior thing. Behavior can be a reaction, but it's more than that. So I did a lot fighting in school for him in order to get him services that he needs. I'm hoping that this is our best year yet. And it will be you know what I mean in some way in different regards is it in all regards? I don't know that's the part that I you know But there's always something like this is gonna be amazing for some reason and we're gonna find out why No, and I I appreciate you opening the door to that You know for listeners like obviously this is a podcast about you know encouraging you uplifting you and empowering nursing students and all the things So I guarantee right now. There's nursing students that are like either on the spectrum or they are related to someone on the spectrum, or they know someone on the spectrum. And so, like, if you don't, if you are one of those few that have not met anybody or are close with anybody that are on the spectrum, please, just listen to us. Because I guarantee, especially as time goes on, because there's more and more children with it, there's all the, you know, there's all the reasons why and this, that environment, there's nature versus nurture. And so you just heard here, nature... nature, twins. One's autistic, one's not. Fascinating, fascinating. So, you know what mean? And raised by the same parent, parents, whatever, you over the course of, we don't have answers. Yeah. social butterfly and the other one is like, you know. I talk to my friends online. Yup. Yes. Okay. Great, that works for you. That's fantastic. So yeah, so please listeners, take that away because you are. You're going to have patients that are on the spectrum and everything else. Just be ready. Be ready. I think the big takeaway from that too, yes, is that no matter whether you have a patient who's on the spectrum, whether you're on the spectrum, but no matter who you're interacting with, They've got their own struggles, whatever that may be. Maybe it's anxiety, crippling anxiety that they are masking or that is being taken care of because of medications. Maybe they're on the spectrum. Maybe they have other mental health issues. Maybe they have X, Y, Maybe somebody died, you know, that we don't, that's impacted them and continues. They're still walking through grief X number of hours, weeks, years later. Be ready and have that compassionate care, like you said. There, big lesson number one. absolutely. Amanda's got some, we've got some stuff to talk about. We already, I'm excited for what's coming up. So, I hate to get anything else you want to share about your family or about that particular subject at all before we move. That's just my close immediate family that I have. It's a blended and I love it and I enjoy it. any healthcare workers in your family besides the previously established retired provider that is your significant other. really just, mean, my brother does volunteer EMT stuff in his local little town, but otherwise there's really not much for healthcare workers in my family. I went outside that norm, know, I developed myself. Yeah, you and me both friend, because that was not, I mean, I grew up wanting to be a doctor, all the things, and so grateful I did not become one. No offense to all our lovely providers. That's not me. But long story short, nobody in my family, there's no, we don't, there's no nurses, no this, that, the other. My dad was a teacher, my sister followed in his footsteps, became a teacher. My mom did a number of jobs, she was amazing. Like, all the things. Like, my wife's grandmother is a nurse. but didn't know her growing up, so there was no influence there as far as that's concerned. So more about you before we dive into nursing school and nursing type subjects. Any hobbies, any traveling that you do, anything that you like when your life is not consumed by raising your family and working, which you do so well. Well, my hobbies, the things that I like probably the most are, being home. No, that's great. Amen, hallelujah, preach into the choir. have a lot to do at home, is that considered a hobby? So I like things like hiking, backpacking. I'm not a runner, I can't run. We can't all be perfect Amanda, it's okay. right, right, right. so yeah, mostly it really is. It's hiking, running or not running, sorry. hiking, traveling. I do like to travel. I do have a good hobby that is probably not your socially acceptable hobby, but, barrel tasting wine and ordering those wines. but learning about them and, and they're different flavors and what makes them. how they are those. I do have that. We do have a cellar. We have a few wine bridges. have things that we put those collections in, but those are mostly mine. was gonna say you have a lot of things to do at home. What does that mean? Okay, but the wine is after all the chores are done. the chores, all the chores. Well, what are the things you, because I'm leading the witness, of course, because I know she was going to mention this, but yes, why do you have a lot of things to do at home? well, so I live on about 48 acres. We have a couple of cows, some horses, three dogs, and then kids. So the upkeep of that property takes a lot. And luckily, I you know, I work full time, but my significant other, he has to do a lot of that outside work, outside fixing things just to keep the area going. I also hunt and I work in my garden. So my food comes from around me and most of time. Yeah, not mine. Mine comes from, you know, prepackaged, at the store. It's awful. There's some bad habits that I've shed from my youth and there are others that just I've just accepted they're gonna be with me till the day I die and having Rice Aroni and Hamburger Helper is gonna be one of them. Yeah, yeah, those those were childhood foods for me. Yeah, you shed that, so congratulations. We might need your seven step plan that doesn't include having twins on how to eat healthier. But awesome, no, I appreciate you sharing more about yourself. So no healthcare workers in your family. So then how did you become a nurse? So it was actually, I mean, I've always just from a young age kind of was really good about taking care of people. mean, I would help take care of my sister. would, you know, as I got older, I would babysit those sorts of things. I was always caring for somebody. But when I was an adult, I was pregnant with my first child and going to my OB appointments, my doctor's MA actually, just an I'll only say her first name here, Charlene. And she still works. But she, I just remember every time I went in for appointments or even when I wasn't in for appointments, when I brought my child in, that she was actually just really inspiring. Just the way she would listen to people, care about them. And she was just an office MA and that was wonderful. And it just kind of inspired me that maybe I should do nursing. I like to care for people. I like how... She shows that she cares for people and that she's there to listen to them. So I applied to nursing school and yeah, nursing school was a lot harder to get into then though, least in our area. You ever sat outside an armory at three o 'clock in the morning with your application and sleeping bags and a line of people and it was first come first qualified and when those doors opened at eight, they timestamped your application. Holy cow! Yeah. That line would start forming at three o 'clock in the morning of the day that they would accept applications. I mean and again there it is everybody there's your you don't even like everyone has such a unique story That's what I love about this job is that everyone has a unique story about how they got into the field Right, yeah. And it's since changed. I mean, you can just turn in an application now, but you didn't have to sit outside a door anymore. Yeah. Right. things. there's just, I feel like, I think the common theme is there's never enough schools slash slots slash educators slash, otherwise I feel like we, a nursing crisis would not be a thing. Yeah, and they wouldn't have to be like, well, I didn't get into nursing school this round. I have to put in my application again. And a lot of those nursing schools still do that, you know, first qualified, first, know, how much have you gotten done in order to get that application in there? And there are only so many slots. And there's the takeaway from that that just popped into my brain. I mean, we probably have mentioned it before, but for those of you nursing students that are listening, you've already come so far. You you didn't have to sit outside an armory, more than likely, but you had to come far to get where you are. And then you get into it you're like, wait, what did I get myself into? Maybe. But other than that, it's OK. The point is you've already made it so far. You're going to make it all the way. So don't forget about that. Awesome. helps you prepare for your actual nursing career. gonna make you tired. We're gonna help you learn. We're gonna see how much you can cram in in a certain amount of time. We're gonna teach you how to catheterize people so you can catheterize yourself so that you can just continue to do your job. my gosh. Awesome. any other heroes in your life? gosh, yes. My mom actually. So my mom was a single parent of myself and my brother and then my young little baby sister at that time going to school. And she was getting her teaching degree. And I did not know until actually that I was about in high school. that during that time when we were really young that my mom was very poor, very, very poor. Never seemed like that when we were kids at all. She made everything seem so fun growing up that we just never realized it. Like not at all. She did, my mom did remarry when I was in about grade school to I call him my dad, he's actually my stepdad and we became a blended family, but just how much she had to go through in order to further herself, care for her kids and make it seem like such a great experience for all of us was just, inspired me. She can still inspire me. She's awesome grandma, takes care of her baseball team size grandchildren at the moment. So. No, no shortage of yeah So so any of Amanda's children that happened to listen to this grown children, please don't we're not we're not ready yet Well, so, I mean we're I'm looking at the clock here and there's so much to talk about so much to unpack still Let me before we I We've kind of already prepped you on this. Amanda's gonna become a double episode thing here, but I love the challenge of being a host on this thing, because then I go, let's see, what do I add on this? In the first episode, the brain is always trying to turn five, six, seven steps ahead of where we are right now. And so it's just a peek behind the curtain for everybody. This is so much fun. And so... So do we call that ADHD or multitasking? Which one is it? I'm just checking. it's not, it's not or, it's and. don't know, like I said, you know, we got, I mean, my wife and I, we talk about that often, because you know, mental health, we made no bones about it. It's a thing in our family, expressed itself in different ways. And we got one that's on the ADHD, know, it has ADHD and all the things. And even my autistic son, you know, like, well, you had to get it from somewhere. I'm not diagnosed with anything, but you know what? when you start looking at it, like, wait a second. That might be from me. can I go into the like appointment with you? Is that okay? And we'll just I'll fill out a second. Can I have a copy of that questionnaire, please? No, so before we jump into a second episode because and you guys do not want to miss that second episode I mean, I hopefully obviously we've clearly established the character that Amanda is the mild -mannered mousy You know very very quiet a character that Amanda is but Also, you don't want to miss it because other things we're going to cover, of course, is her, not necessarily her full nursing school journey. We'll talk about nursing school. We'll talk about her nursing career. We'll talk about some subjects that we are both very passionate about. And so I'm very excited to jump into that. So there's the tease for that business. But before we do that. anything else about you just on a personal level, about Amanda the person, about what makes you who you are and why you tick the way you do. Didn't we just talk about that whole mental health thing? no. To me, because that's probably what makes me tick. So I'm definitely one those really sarcastic people, but it's also a fault too. Sometimes people don't know if I'm joking or not, because I can give you that pretty serious face when I'm doing it. But I think that's part of the thing. I love to keep that humor. I like to keep that humor at work. I love to have fun with the people that I work with and I love to care for my patients that I work with too. you know, knowing when to use humor to help them and, and when to make it pretty serious for them. So those are my biggest things. So besides my family and my work, that's what a lot makes me tick. And probably some of our diagnoses too. that makes me tick too. Right? Absolutely. I'm going to go in for that too. And very quickly, that's one of the things that I miss about you, because Amanda, unlike some of us who got a little weird and jumped a day shift even 17 years into their career, is still currently a night shift nurse. So I guess we'll close on that note. Any advice for nursing students? How long have you been on night shifts? What is your advice for nursing students and for nurses that have to or get to work nights? Well, let's see, I've been a nurse for, I think 18 years. I've been on nights only about since I've worked for Providence, which is about 10, just about 10 years. I like that team on nights. It's just, it's a really good flowing team. always there for each other. It feels like, and there's not a lot of excess going on around us at that time. my advice for people going to nursing schools, You really can do it. mean, you can get through it. You pace yourself. You give yourself your own timeouts and kind of just bite your way through, I guess is the best thing I could do. It's some things are going to be easy and some things are going to be difficult and don't shy away from those difficulties. Just push through. And I think that, I guess this wraps the episode up really well because we talked about that in the context of our children and being on the autism spectrum and that sort of thing. Life is going to be challenging and guess what? Your nursing career is going to be challenging. And so you have, fortunately, usually, the ability, at least later in your career, if not early on, the ability to decide what challenges you're willing to accept. And that's one of them. You know what I mean? Maybe, okay, so the trade off on night shift, yeah, physically, it is demanding. But on the flip side, you don't have all the bodies around. You don't have all the extra ancillary, I don't even like calling it ancillary, because there's so much cooperative care. of excess stuff around you going on. Yeah, and maybe, you know, whatever that looks like for you. And so I, you know, I make no bones about it. It's not like I jumped to days and now poo poo nights. Like that's not my thing. I will always be a nightshifter at heart. I thought it would be my career and turns out that I'm loving days. It's just, but then the downside is you get to know people after years and years and years of working nights and you're like, hi, good to see you. Have a good shift. I'm going to bed now. Whatever, you know what mean? That's so stupid. All right, so. We've already established it, don't miss the second episode. You don't want to miss the fun stuff we got to unpack for you. And Amanda, we'll catch you on the flip side. Awesome. Can't wait.