79 - Elizabeth Jenkins: Sometimes It's the Simple Answers

Join nurse educator and Alabama native Elizabeth Jenkins as she talks about never having planned on being a nurse, the importance of reading your textbook, teaching students how to take notes, having a lack of family support, having an overcoming mindset, and more!

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Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to today's episode of Feeding Our Young. So before I introduce our amazing honored guest, I'm gonna do what I just don't like doing, and that is talk about me. Most particularly about running, because it's those who have, if you're a long time listener, quote unquote long time, I don't know, like, it's not like we have that many episodes right now, but if you're a long time listener, you know that I'm a runner. And we're nearing the end of my running season. I literally have one week from today. before I hang up the shoes for the winter, because I'm a fair-weathered runner, and I, unlike our honored guest, live in Washington state. And in Washington state, things get ugly, especially on the east side of the state. We get snow, we get ice, we get all those things. And as much as I love to run, I don't love like breaking bones or springing muscles or straining muscles or anything like that. So when things start to get a little hairy, that's when I hang up the shoes for a few months. So that's my plan, but... Long story short, I have been on a record, like I just, it's just been stupid, as anyone who's been listening has followed. So this morning, I happened to wake up at three in the morning and could not get back to sleep. So at a time where I normally would be having lunch on night shift back in the day, I decided to go out and do yet another half marathon, which marks number 52 on the year. Why is that important? Because to me, that means I averaged one half marathon per week. for the year of 2024, and we still have nine weeks left as of the date of this recording. And so I bring that up. Is it bragging? I suppose it is a little bit, but only because it's the only time in my life I'm ever gonna have a chance to say anything like this, because I have no desire to repeat this again. I'm feeling it, I'm tired, and I can feel the drag on my body, much like when I worked night shift. No offense to night shifters out there in any way, shape, or form. So enough about me. I'm gonna introduce our non-running honored guest who is absolutely astounding in every other area of her life, the one and only Elizabeth Jenkins. Elizabeth, how the heck are you today? I'm doing great, Eric. How are you? I am doing okay, other than the aforementioned tiredness. But I am ready to just have a great discussion with you. I'm so excited. And it almost like I'm picking up a little bit of a hint of an accent. So I'm gonna let you introduce yourself and what degrees you carry when you graduate with them and more importantly, and finally, where are you from? Okay, so my name is Elizabeth Jenkins and I became a nurse in 2012 after obtaining my associate's degree in nursing. I worked for a few years and then I attended WGU to obtain my bachelor's in 2020 and most recently obtained my master's in 2023 from WGU as well. YES! So, you know, we're alumni, same school. So we'll get to that. I'm sure we have lots in common. The thing we do not have in common is I am not from Washington, like you said. I am from the South. I am in Alabama where it is nice and sunny and hot here. So very vast difference from your weather today. Alabama, and so first of all, for those that, because again, we're not a video podcast, nor do I desire to be anytime soon, but in the background, I see your lovely WGU gown, the WGU like zipper pull that's on there. just, ugh, I just love it. It brings back so many fond memories. But that being said, Alabama, you were telling me prior to recording, what was the temperature? Now, let me back up. Everyone, it is October 25th. and in alabama yesterday the high was Yesterday it was 88 degrees.

Today is currently 85 degrees at about 1: 3:59

30 in the afternoon. 85 degrees I was telling her I'm like it's 47 degrees Fahrenheit where I'm at right now and When I ran this morning at 3 in the morning. Yes, I'm stupid. Actually I started at 342 Let's not be dramatic. It was 32 degrees and it stayed 32 degrees for the entirety of the two hours It took me to run so I can't even I just I can't God bless you all down south I couldn't live down south probably for that reason at least until I'm older and don't like being cold anymore. I don't know But Alabama. So that brings up an interesting point. So anywhere specifically in Alabama, because I seem to recall a previous honored guest being from there. Perhaps you know her. Yes, so I am pretty close to the Mississippi State line. I'm about 15, 20 minutes away from Tuscaloosa. So I actually know Mary Bec Brown, who was also featured on your podcast. Her and I used to work together in Tuscaloosa. So she came to WGU because I kind of convinced her to. I love it and thank you for doing that. I'm sure she thanks you as well. How close are you to the Mississippi State Line? Well, I work in Mississippi currently, so I'm about 30 miles, I guess, from the state line, so. Yeah. The reason why I ask is because I'm like, I don't know, less than 10 miles away from the Idaho state line and 30 miles away from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the major metropolis area in northern Idaho. And so I get a feel for that. Someday I'm gonna have to go down there and maybe run a half over the state line and get a little bit in both. I don't know, we'll figure it out someday. minute. Well, all right, let's before we dive into your episode here. What are the three words that you chose to describe nursing school? My three words that I chose to describe nursing school are challenging, rewarding, and life-changing. I love it and we'll talk about those at the very end as we often do. And then the relatively newer question. I need to stop saying that because I don't think it's really new by this point. But the three songs that are your favorite songs in life right now. Okay, so my three favorite songs. I had to pick some that my kids listened to. Well yeah, we'll talk about your family, alright. I had some help Morgan Wallen Post Malone, know Post Malone's doing his whole country music thing right now. It's real big around here. Pink Skies, Zach Bryan even though he's a little controversial on social media right now. And then Megan Maroney, I really really like all of her new songs and my little girl really likes her too. So we listen to a lot of her lately. Interesting. I'll have to give that a listen, because I'm not familiar with Megan Maroney. she's got several new songs that are good. Awesome, awesome. I got someone trying to convert me into a Swiftie. As a mail postpartum nurse, they're like, no, no, you're gonna love her music. I'm like, yeah, isn't it like all about breakups and stuff though? I've been assured that it is not, so. I'm open. my little girl likes Taylor Swift. I don't really even know if she knows any songs by Taylor Swift. She's got the Swiftie shirts, you know, she's all into it. I liked Taylor Swift from when I was a teenager. Not so much a lot of Taylor Swift now, so. see. And isn't that interesting that artists can have such a long career that you're like, well, I like this era or this epi, you know, the kind of this, this, this general timeline of them, but then this line, like, no, thank you. So with that, I mean, let's just segue right into your family because you're talking about kids. So you obviously have kids. Just enlighten us on the entirety of your discussion about your family, whatever you want to share. Okay, so like Mary Bec, who I said I'm friends with, I am pretty family oriented. I know Mary Bec on her podcast talked a lot about her family and her parents and some of the struggles that they've had recently in life. But my family growing up was vastly different. My dad always worked out of town. and my mom was a drug addict. So my mentality and my roots as far as family goes were a lot different than a lot of the kids that I grew up around. So I am happy to say that my brother and I both, know, even though growing up in that lifestyle are great adults, we both have great jobs, great people, not to brag about myself, but I think I'm a pretty good person, know, all things aside. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the bragging episode of The Feeding Our Young. I will brag about my running and Elizabeth will brag about her character. Thank you, continue. 100 % like come on now. But the reason I do feel like that is important to share is I'm sure there are other students in nursing or just students in general that may find this podcast that have somewhat similar backgrounds who don't have the big family in their corner. And I think it's important for them to know that they can get themselves out of that situation and do something with their lives and be successful. I never planned to have a master's degree and here I am sitting here talking to you because I have a master's degree. you know, but my family now I am married and I've been married for 12 and a half years. We dated for several years before that, so he's kind of old news. Anyway, we have two kids. I have a little boy, his name is Tyler, he's nine. I have a little girl, her name is Peyton and she's seven. She's the Swiftie fan like we talked about. They keep me very busy. They're both pretty involved with sports. I try and make sure they have good grades, know, those kind of things. And so, you know, a lot of that foundation stuff kind of goes back to, I feel like some of the stuff that I experienced growing up, I want their life growing up to be completely different than some of the things I experienced. So I try and make them as well rounded as I possibly can. That is amazing. Of course, inquiring minds want to know the most important question of all, which is how do you spell your daughter's name with an A or an E? Yes, it is! And ladies and gentlemen, I did not, that was not a pre-prepared question. I did not know the answer to that, but we have a patent with an E as well. I think... hold on. Where'd you get the name? Where'd it come from? Okay, so not like we're NFL fans. enjoy football. It's not like anything that like rules our day or anything like that. So it's not like we're and we're Washington. So I was born in Seattle. I've been a Seahawks fan my entire life. I was raised and baptized by my mother as a Seattle Mariners baseball fan. But the Seahawks squeaked their way in there. So I grew up as a Seahawks fan, but Peyton Manning, at least until later things maybe have come out. Like we were, you I was like, well, he's a good guy and all the things and he was just very, very cerebral as far as quarterbacks go. So I just really liked him. And my wife and I, about the time that she was born, this is when the Colts were having a really good, you know, year. I don't remember. That might have been the year they went to the Super Bowl. I don't remember exactly where that was, but it was like, well, Peyton, huh. And we were both like, we like that name. for both a boy or a girl. So she was gonna be a Peyton either way. You asked, so the reason why, now I have to know, where did yours come from? All right, so when we had our first child, like I said, it was a boy, and Peyton was not in the running for a girl name. It took forever, I felt like, to name him. And we finally settled on Tyler. His girl name was Macy. If he would have been a girl, he would have been Macy. But my whole life, I always, even when me and my husband were dating, I was like, I'll have a girl named Peyton one day. Like, I just always knew that. Once we feel... Big fan of One Tree Hill, you've never watched it, you need to go back and watch it. Huge series when I was a teenager, showing my age a little bit there. obviously Peyton Sawyer was on One Tree Hill and so I just always knew I'd have a daughter named Peyton. Funny story, we couldn't decide on a name when I was pregnant with her. We could not come up with a name that we both agreed on and so I finally just looked at my husband one day and I was like, I mean, you know her name's gonna be Peyton, right? And so. As a repeat scheduled C-section at 39 weeks, I was laying on the OR table. Mary Bec can attest to this. She was my nurse. And they all came in and they were like, what's her name going to be? And her name was Peyton. So that's how she got taken. I love that story. Your story is better than mine, 100%. I love that. That's fantastic. I also love that you had like, boy and girl name for your first baby. Because that was always, I tell people that was like, that was one of the most fun things about having kids was my wife and I would make dates out of it. We'd go out to dinner. We'd have, you know, we'd make lists of, you know, well, if it's a boy, you know, here's the names if it's a girl. And we would go through and like, no, I don't like that one. You know, the whole veto thing. And we'd end up with stuff. And so, The stories, and I love that as a postpartum nurse asking family, it's like, that's an amazing name. I don't care if it's traditional, Henry, Hank, you know what I mean, Julie, whatever. Or totally, I mean, names I've never heard of in my life. I just love hearing the story of how people came up with that. So that's awesome. So okay, anything else about your family? I mean, do you have any healthcare workers in your family? Let's go there. actually do. two out of my three sisters-in-law are nurses. We all have very vast backgrounds. One of my sisters-in-law did some GI stuff. The other worked in TSICU and now works in recovery. My aunt is a nurse manager in Gainesville, Florida at Shands. She's been there for years. And then I have a younger cousin who is a doctor now. So she did geriatrics, I'm not really sure why, but she did. That's awesome. I mean, and if that floats her boat, that's amazing. We need amazing geriatric nurses too. No, I've had students that are like, I wanna work geriatrics. Like I want to take care of people who are, you know what mean? I had one student once that was like, you know what I mean? We treat our old people so poorly. I want to not do that. I wanna change that. I'm like, yes, go for that. Not my area of expertise. Thank you very much. I want to treat old people with respect because I am rapidly getting there myself. But that being said, no, you we need we need nurses in every area. So then in that case, did those health care workers in your family, did they inspire you to become a nurse? And if not, what, why did you? I know I do this. I do this more than on more than one occasion. But the two ways I phrase it, because there's kind of different answers for both. Why did you want to become a nurse and or who inspired you to become a nurse? So no one really inspired me to be a nurse. I honestly never planned on being a nurse. I started out as an education major in college. And I feel like we do this to young adults, even to this day. And I found myself asking my kids the same questions. What are you gonna do when you grow up? Well, why do we force people to know that when they don't have knowledge? And so here I was a college student. I on being an education major and just realized, hey, like, I don't know if that's really what I want to do. And I started looking at other careers. I actually looked at some ultrasound stuff. I applied to nursing school, just kind of a vast variety of kind of healthcare things. And I got into nursing school. One of my friends who I had taken some prereqs with was going to nursing school. And she's like, come with me, it'll be fun. I like, okay. So that's how I ended up in nursing school. It's not just a story about who changed my life, why I to nursing school. I work with students, I always ask them, why did you go to nursing school? They always think that they have to have this life-changing moment about what drives them to go to nursing school, what got them there. And the reality is, is it just works out sometimes. Like I never planned on being a nurse and now, 12 and a half years in, I really can't imagine another career. And so once I was in nursing school, you know, we'll talk a lot about nursing school throughout today's podcast, but I realized how hard it was. And I questioned a lot, was I supposed to be there? And then I got to OB clinicals and OB class. And I was like, you know, this is what I want to do. This is where I want to be. And so, like I said, you know, I just feel like it works out a lot of times. I spent about 12 years as an OB nurse and absolutely think that it is a super fulfilling career. And you know, I know that you do some women's too, so I'm sure you feel pretty much the same. But all of that has kind of turned around and led me into some education. So I feel like it's full circle. I started out with education, ended up in nursing, and now I'm doing nursing education. I you know you talk about it just you know working out sometimes and I this is where I interject my standard disclaimer like this is not the How do I better phrase this this is not the labor and delivery postpartum women's health podcast Although any longtime listener again anyone out there you're good. another LND nurse It just works out. She knows Mary Bec Mary Bec happened to work in LND I only knew her from WGU. The connections are tenuous at best. And yet, oddly enough, birds of a feather flock together and here we are. I'm like, I'll never discount anyone for being on the podcast. But in the back of my mind, I'm like, it would be nice every once in a while to get that geriatric nurse and that somebody else some other perspective. Because everybody's like, Eric, I'm sure you're lining this up. Not in any way, shape or form. So I do love how it works out. And so. I guess y'all just gotta deal until, hey, geriatric nurse or renal nurse or home nurse or whoever's out there listening, until you are on the podcast and fill that role. We're gonna be talking about OB nursing, so deal with it. No, I... theory about how like you know seven people and you know the whole world or something like that that you can link everybody together by seven people? You know, it might be true. The way I heard it growing up was, you know, in entertainment world, it was six degrees to Kevin Bacon, the actor Kevin Bacon. So the idea was you could start with any movie and you can go six movies deep, no more than six movies deep, and get to Kevin Bacon, meaning who he acted with and so on and so forth. And then that extends to real life, like six degrees to so and so. And it's like, it is, like you don't, it's just amazing. And that's why I tell my students, like, Always, always, always be the best version of you you can be. Always present your best self. I don't care if you can't stand the person you're working with or for or taking care of. I promise you, if you treat them with a complete lack of dignity or you go cut somebody off on the freeway, you're going to run into them again in life. It's just a guarantee it some way, or form. Like that six degrees is a very powerful thing for sure. Okay, so Elizabeth, you talked about nursing school. Let's just jump right into that then. And you can answer this question from the perspective as both a former student and or an educator, whatever you want to do with that. But what do you love most about nursing school? nursing school. I love that that's a nursing school. That's everybody's response to that, I think that the relationships that you make while in nursing school are lifelong. There were several people that I went to nursing school with and we've all kind gone our separate ways. But thankfully for social media, we get to keep in touch and I enjoy kind of hearing their stories and seeing where they're at and just keeping in touch with those people. Nursing school is hard and you go through so much with these people that you really do end up kind of being like a family by the end of it. I absolutely think the relationships that you make are one of the most impactful things that I remember from nursing school. From an educator side, I realize how important the educator's role is for the nursing students because I remember nursing school. I remember what I felt like looking up to those nurse educators and how I idolized them and how I wanted to... be like them as much as I could. So I think as a nurse educator, really getting to know the students as well is important because we are their first mentors. are potentially the difference between a positive outcome and a negative outcome for them in nursing school. sure. I think that's very wise and a very good perspective from both aspects of it, right? Like any nurse you talk to, they'll remember their nursing school experience. Tidbits here and there, maybe the whole thing, it just depends, you know, all the things. But man, you'll never forget. You'll never forget because it is, it's that much of a, for lack of a better term, it really is a crucible that you have to like get through and to survive and hopefully maybe on one day out of the entire experience feel like you thrive in, whether it's you getting to OB and seeing, my gosh, this is my area, or whatever the case may be, maybe it's just that one test that you dreaded and you knocked it out of the park. And by knocking it out of the park, it's the nursing school people. We're talking about 75 % or greater. So you're like, I passed it. I didn't have to take it twice. That's a win, yay. But those are the things that you just never forget. And so I love that. You as a nurse educator, I mean, are you still practicing bedside? Like tell us about your career, your career progression and how you got into educating in the first place. Okay, so as I mentioned, I've been a nurse for a little over 12 years. All of that on the same unit, which is an LDRP unit. So labor, delivery, recovery, postpartum, we do our own well, baby. We do a little bit of everything there. And so I guess seven years ago or so, my nurse manager at the time, encouraged me and another co-worker to attend a conference where we became certified to teach fetal monitoring classes on our unit. And so that's kind of where I got into education. I started with some unit-based education, know, precepting students teaching those classes and just really realized, hey, I do enjoy teaching. know, college me thought I didn't. So, are you right? So I ended up, we had nursing students from the school where I went that came to our unit still for OB clinicals. And one of the instructors had kind of mentioned to me that she thought that she would kind of be retiring from doing the OB clinicals within the next few years. And so I was like, hey, like I've never thought about that, but that would be a super fun job. And so I ended up getting my bachelor's so I could kind of hopefully slide into that position to do the OB clinicals. And so that's where I got my start in academia education with nursing school. I started with clinicals and then I started doing some skills lab, health assessment stuff at the schools with the nursing students. In my current role, I am what most would call an academic coach for the nursing students. So students that are having trouble with testing. that are having trouble studying, know, just transitioning to that nursing school setting. I work with them and try and kind of get them up to speed with all the other students. My role also covers other resources, you know, maybe they need some counseling. We have a free counseling center here on our campus. So I can refer them to that. We have a free health center. Same thing, I can refer them to that. Just kind of connect the dots to have a little bit more of a holistic approach for the nursing students and make sure that they're taken care of while they're in nursing school. Wow, that is amazing. Let's dig into that a little bit more. So in that role, obviously you've just described in a nutshell the things that you do. And I know we always close with your one piece of advice for nursing students, et cetera, et cetera. But that being said, there are nursing students that just heard you say that. They're like, my gosh, I'm struggling. I don't know of an equivalent role in my current university or college or fill in the blank. Mm-hmm. What advice would you have for those students that say, my gosh, Elizabeth, like, what do I do? I'm struggling. You know what mean? Obviously, there's specific answers for specific problems. But that being said, like, what would be some general advice you'd give to them? Number one, read your textbook. Mmm. Mmm! how many students come in and they're like, no, I haven't read that. So if you're not reading your textbook, please read your textbook. And if there is information that you just aren't understanding, that's what your instructors are there for. Reach out to them and let them know, hey, you know, I'm not sure why I don't understand this, but I don't. Is there any more information you can give me that you can guide me to? My role does not do any content review. I do not do any actual test reviews, any content. It is all the skills. And so another big advice that I give students is you have to be organized. You are so busy in nursing school. You have to be organized with all of your classes, all of your assignments. So if they don't have a planner, they absolutely need to get a planner. I don't care what kind they use, if it's on their phone, if they print out a free one online. If they carry an old school pencil and paper one, that's what I like, that's what I still use. get a planner. It can make a big difference for them. So those are my two probably big pieces of advice. Get a planner and read your textbook. But Elizabeth, those aren't like deep soul answers. Those are simply practical. How in the world do people like, that's what I love. Like everybody wants that deep meaning, right? Do you ever have students that come in looking for the deep meaning of life in nursing school and you're like, here it is. Read your textbook and get a planner, man. Like, let's go. Yeah, you know the students that we're seeing today, I'm sure you've seen this too. First of all, nursing school is so different from when we went to nursing school. Vastly different. The students are different. A lot of the students that we're seeing now are the COVID babies. You know they graduated high school online. I realized that one of my students halfway through the semester had no idea how to take notes. And so we kind of had to regroup and I had to teach her how to take notes. And so just little things like that make a huge difference in nursing school. But you know, she didn't know that she didn't know how to take notes. She did all of her classes online. So sometimes it's not always a deep, meaningful answer. Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference. that's interesting. And maybe that's a good like pointer to fellow educators out there because, you know, we're all used to certain things growing up and the way we did it and this, that and the other. And you forget about the fact that we've gone through this global pandemic. And yeah, I mean, it affected lives. It affected, you know what I mean? All the health side of that. But what we lose sight of is, you know, even looking at my own kids and you don't mean the years that they were in there and what that did for their education. And there's all sorts of discussions about what that's doing to the potential ability of these students to be able to study moving forward. Because there was that social shutdown that was that, you know, everything's online. Well, great, we have the technology, we could do that. Whereas, you know, if this happened 100 years ago, you know what mean? They just, they're not at school. And, you know, so at least they could continue that in that regards. But I don't know, are you seeing, and I... I'm not disparaging any of my personal students or anything like that. What I've gathered talking to other educators in this time is that a lot of the students coming up, and the younger ones in particular, the ones that graduated maybe high school through the COVID situation, that they're finding that a lot of the students, they've LOST also that social component of it because things were shut down. Are you seeing that down south as well, quote unquote? a little the south is really social so we probably weren't quarantining as much as we probably needed to quarantine during the the covid pandemic as evidence we were still busy on labor and delivery during covid so but yes i do think that we are seeing some effects of the students ability to interact with other people in a social setting and I worry about that so much in the clinical setting. You know if they don't know how to talk to each other to other people, how are they going to talk to patients? And so I was in charge of a learning strategies course this fall and I actually included a little bit of communication information for them just to kind of give them ideas. You know, just formal email writing when you contact your instructors. how to talk to physicians or other people in the clinical setting. Just little scripted things for them to kind of read through and just kind of have an idea of how to speak professionally as a nursing student in a clinical setting because they didn't graduate high school. I remember in high school, apparently we had a great counselor because I've talked to some other people in the education setting and they didn't get this, but. Our counselor like helped us with FASTAs. She helped us, you know, make resumes. She helped us do like all of those things and high school students don't get that anymore. And so I definitely think that that shows a little bit even when they're to the point that they're in nursing school. You know, you would think, well, hey, they've had two years of prereqs to figure that stuff out, but I don't think that they are catching up as much as we hoped that they were. And again, not disparaging the students of today in any way, shape or form. Everybody's gonna do what you've got with the opportunities that have presented themselves to you. And so I honestly, and I tell some of my students too, I'm like, you guys are one of the greatest generations, because you came through this. Young developing years, you're coming through this global pandemic, once in a century, global pandemic, and so that you've got a lot of qualities that I don't have. that you and I don't have, you know what I mean? Growing up the way we did. And so we just... I would have ever graduated high school online. dear God, I can't even, I, no, I don't even wanna, no, no. So, and I mean, I grew up a nerd, but that being said, the extrovert was always in me. And so in high school in particular, that's where that came out and blossomed. So if I was online, I would've shriveled on the vine. I don't know what would've happened there. So grateful for that. But those other areas, those are the things that we can help. shore you up in and you know what mean? you need that help writing that email, you need that help learning how to plan or how to take notes. Ask us and fellow educators don't forget that that might be a thing you got to teach, that might be a thing that you weren't anticipating needing a little extra bolstering and so do it without judgment, without you know what I mean, without disparaging students who might be made to feel less than because of that situation. Speaking of challenges that these nursing students are facing, you've kind of touched on it a little bit, but I really, don't want your episode to go away without getting into what you had shared with me at the very least about those challenges that you have mentioned that you've had in life. What would you like to share about that? You open as much or as little as you wish. yeah, so like you mentioned, I did touch a little bit on it, but I do think it's so important for students to hear, you know, like we were just talking about the students that are struggling, whether it's from a lack of family support, you know, whether it's, you know, they just weren't prepared in high school, whatever the challenge may be for them, they can overcome that. And there is someone out there that's in their corner, you know, I was a good kid, but I often felt like I never really fit in because there were so much of my personal life that I tried to keep kind of under the rug. I didn't want people to know that my mom was a drug addict as a teenager. That's just how teenagers are. You don't want people to know these things. So as a teenager, I felt like a lot of that was my fault. Like I had done something, like I was the one doing wrong. And I feel like a lot of students can probably relate to that, not necessarily the drug addict mom part, but just if something is not like everyone else, they kind of put the blame on themselves. They don't want to ask for help. They don't want to be a burden. you can be successful and you can overcome that. You know, I also think that when you overcome challenges like that in life, you kind of remember where you came from. You know, I very vividly remember a lot of that as a teenager, those feelings and some of the things that I've gone through. And it has absolutely shaped who I am as an adult. There's also times that it shaped who I am as a nurse. Some of those patients that I have taken care of that are addicted to drugs and are having babies, I've talked to them about some of the things that I went through and tried to say, get your head on straight. You have a baby now. Students, like I said, their challenge might not be the exact same, but they can overcome and they can be successful. I expound on that a little bit as far as like your, I mean how do you, and I've said this before and I'll say it again, know, overcoming is a difficult word to use in this context I've discovered because in some cases you're not overcoming, you're embracing, you're living with, you're doing whatever the case may be, yeah. But in acknowledging that under the definition of overcoming, how do you, like what are some of those qualities that helped you? overcome your challenging situation and that you then pass on to your students about overcoming the challenges they face. So I think obviously you do have to have people there to help you. You know, this is not necessarily something that I think that any challenge that you can just overcome or walk through on your own, you have to find those people that you want in your corner that are there to push you up when you fall. I do think a lot of that journey of whether you want to define it, like I said, overcoming, embracing, I love how you worded that. But that has to kind of come from within. You kind of have to tell yourself, This is not what I want. I want different from this. And you have to tell yourself that you can do it. I never planned on having a master's degree. You know, we kind of joked around a few minutes ago about going to school online. I never thought I'd have a bachelor's degree. Even when I graduated nursing school with an associate, I was like, I can go to work with this. And, you know, that was kind of my goal at the time. But as you mature, your goals change. The bottom line is you still have to tell yourself, I can do this. I can achieve this goal. Because as soon as you start telling yourself that you can't, you're not going to do it. And I actually just told a student that the other day. She was kind of feeling down on herself, didn't do great on her test. And I told her, hey, we don't have time for a pity party. I hate that you didn't do good, but you've got to those big girl panties on. And you've got to tell yourself, you know what? I'm going to knock this next one out of the water. And so just having that mindset that comes from within that I can do this, I can overcome this. because belief is very powerful, right? Both ways, both ways. I love how you point out, like if you automatically go, I can't do this, I can't do nursing school, I can't pass that test, I can't pass this class, can't whatever, guess what? Like you said, you're probably not gonna, because you're not going to find that well of resource either within or elsewhere that gets you over that hump, and instead you buy into it, and this isn't poo-pooing anyone who has dealt with negative self-talk. If there's no other thing that you've learned from listening to these episodes, it's that we all have it. Even those of us who have been in the job, if you're an educator, if you've been a nurse for, you know, decades, the voice is still there. And I guess that pulls back around to the very first episode, which brought my heart to the whole thing, because that voice is always there saying, you can't do, fill in the blank. And you just have to be able to, I, I've said it before and I'll say it again, especially now with its resurgence. I think it was just re-released on Netflix, but the television show LOST Did you ever watch the television show LOST? Okay, that's okay. I'll still respect you. But you now have homework. You and your husband now have homework in all your quote-unquote free time with your kids. You need to give it, give a good like three or four episodes, but it is one of the greatest pieces of television ever written. Ignore what they said about the ending and all that business. Start with the first season, and it was popular for a reason. It was one of the number one examples of character development that I've ever seen. Small screen, big screen, book, written, it doesn't matter. And one of the characters on there, his name is John Locke. And I'm not gonna give anything away, but his reveal, because this show deals with these survivors that crashed on an island. and they're going back and forth between some of these characters and they're, you know, they're like what happened a year ago or, you know, six months ago, they call them, you know, flashbacks. And his story, I just, I'll never, it was one of those impactful things that I can't relate to. And again, not giving away details. I can't relate to his personal story. It wasn't like that. It just was so impactful and it made such an impact. And one of his key lines is, You can't tell me, don't tell me what I can't do. I get choked up thinking about it. Because it's just, and the impact of the actual show, when you see what I'm talking about, his character and when he says that, he says it repeatedly and then when he says it and you see why he says it, and it's just like, ugh, you cannot. And so those voices, whether they come externally, from a family member, God forbid, or a good friend, or your associates, or a coworker, or they come internally, as they do with all of us, you can't do this, you can't do that, you tell them you can't tell me what I can't do. And you figure out a way to do that thing that you can't, quote unquote, do. I just, I love it, Elizabeth, thank you, thank you, thank you. what you said about getting other people, you know, input on stuff, know, family, friends, that kind of stuff. I actually tell my students to do that. Hey, you know, first of all, you've got to start telling yourself, I can do this, I will do this. Get your family and friends in on it. Let them leave you notes. Tell them to send you text messages the day of the test. You will pass this test. Whatever it takes to change that mindset of I can't to I will, you know, and. It does start internally, but it's not like you said, it's not always easy to go from a negative to a positive. And so sometimes we need to pull in our friends and our family to kind of help push us a little bit. I love that and you gotta check your ego at the door for those that are like, no, no, no, I need to do this. I need to do this on my own. I need to prove that I can, no, the part of you doing it is doing it with the support of those who are there and fighting for you, including us instructors and anyone else you have in your life that is like, no man, you got this. No, you can do this. like, ugh, just accept that help. Accept those words of encouragement. Well, that goes back to the relationship part of nursing school. Like I said, it's all about those relationships. UGH. Alright, well then let's just, you know, I could spend all day talking to you. I say that often, but it's true. Every single person I talk with. But I'm like, Elizabeth, ugh, I knew we were kindred spirits for a reason. You picked three rea- my gosh! No we didn't. Isn't that weird? Hey everybody, look at that. You got away without us talking about OB. Even though she's currently wearing a Boo Tiffle Babies t-shirt. That's amazing. It's got little babies and they're all in there, little swaddles that are all like Halloween themed. Amazing. So there you go. There's your OB plug for today. That being said, Elizabeth, let's pull this back around. You chose three words to describe nursing school. What were they and why did you choose them? So the first that I picked was challenging. We've kind of touched on it and you know if you're already in nursing school and you're a nursing student, you've already figured that out. Nursing school is different. It's not like any other program of study. It's just a different setup and it's just so challenging to go from learning how to memorize and recall information and learning how to apply it to scenarios. And then the scary part is that you're going out and actually taking care of people with that information. So it's just very, very challenging. I picked rewarding. I think nursing in general is a rewarding career, but nursing school can also be rewarding. Whether it's, you kind of mentioned, I went to OB clinic when I was like, this is it for me. You know whether it's in that clinical setting where you make a difference and you realize hey, this this makes sense to me Or once you begin practicing as a nurse and you get to see the rewards of your work You'll have patients that you know that you just make a difference for Thankfully, I do work in women's health and most of my patients are I would say 75 % are happy and healthy and very thankful for the job that we do That's not the case for all areas of nursing. And so when you have that patient that you know that you make a difference in your life, that is so, so rewarding. I had a patient who wrote a Daisy nomination for me. All I did was hold her for her spinal. She got sent in from the office for a repeat C-section with blood pressures. I hold her for her spinal. Very minimal task to me in my day at work. but she was so nervous about it. And in her Daisy nomination, she wrote how I talked to her and I distracted her. And something that I didn't even think twice about doing made a huge difference for her that day. And so that was very humbling to me to recognize, hey, the little things do make a difference. So all of that is just very rewarding. The last that I chose is life changing. You said it a minute ago, we could kind of talk all day long on nursing and kind of how it has shaped our lives. But it's absolutely life changing. And once you become a nurse, you will realize that it's not something that you just turn off. You are a nurse through and through. It's in every aspect of your life. And I think that's the same for nursing education. know, when I do go work at the bedside, I find myself teaching and, you know, all the other nurses are like, You just, always have to tell somebody, teach somebody something. So, you know, I think that nursing is definitely life-changing. very well said. And those are three of the most common words or word selections that come up on the podcast. And I've had honored guests before that are like, well, I don't want to, you know what I mean? I know this has probably been chosen. And I'm like, who cares? The point is that first of all, if it's repeated, it's that important. And two, it's your perspective on it. And so I love it. I absolutely love all those things. Every single nursing student, every single nurse is hearing that going, yep. Mm-hmm. Yep. yep. Nope. Absolutely can attest to that. man, I just love that. So with that being said, and you've given so much incredible advice, if you had just one piece of advice for students to take with them away from this episode, what would that be? You know, lately I've met with a lot of students that are down on themselves. You you kind of touched on this. You're only making that 75. You're barely getting by. But you're getting by. You're still passing. You know, I think having that mindset of knowing I can do this, it's okay to just be passing and just keep pushing yourself. You know, the nurse that only makes C's could be the best nurse in her career compared to the nurse that made all A's on all of her tests, but she's not compassionate and she doesn't know how to talk to people. So don't think that just because you are not at the top of your class anymore that you are not gonna be successful in nursing. So that would be my advice is to just keep pushing, keep telling yourself that you can. And we've said it before and I'll say it again. You can always make yourself feel worse by comparing up. You can always make yourself feel better by comparing down. And neither of those activities are beneficial. Obviously we're preaching you're not an island unto yourself. You're getting that help. getting your village that it takes to help you succeed. That's important. But when it comes to your performance, that's when it becomes best to be an island unto yourself. Ignore what other people are doing. Who cares? They got a better grade than you. Who cares? That's it. And if you're not passing, get the help. Get the help. It's OK. That's what it's there for. OK. So then one last, as I always like to ask my instructors, do you have one last piece of advice for fellow nursing instructors that may be listening? guess that we all just need to recognize that nursing school is different than what it was when we were there. And that students probably do need a little bit more help with some of those, what we would consider more minimal tasks, know, the study skills, kind of things. But in order to have the next generation of nurses be successful, we have to work with the students that we have. And so if they need help learning how to study, that's our job. That's it. That's it. 100%. Elizabeth, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for giving up of your time this lovely, apparently hot, Friday afternoon. I joke only because when we first started this endeavor, I didn't think about the fact that this whole idea came to me in May and blah blah blah. So over the course of the summers, when the bulk of my honored guest interviewers, interviewees, interview whatever, that all those took place. So I'm like sweltering in my room, trying to keep the fans off, trying to keep any minimal noise, all the things. And I'm like, man, I couldn't wait till fall and here I am in fall. I don't have to worry about it anymore. My house is a pleasant lukewarm temperature. Everybody's satisfied. And then I talk to you and I'm like, yeah, there's other places around the country and around the world that are still pretty dang hot. So thank you. Thank you for. fan back on in just a few minutes. I know you guys, asked her, said, don't want to make you uncomfortable, but if you can turn the two fans off, that would be great, and she did. So thank you all, let you get those back on, get you cooled back out, man, you were on fire with everything you had to say today, and that's really what matters, right? Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed talking with you today. Awesome, thanks Elizabeth. You have a great rest of your day. You too.