87 - Jordi De La Mora: Delusionally Optimistic

Join nursing student and Portland, Oregon native Honored Guest Jordi De La Mora as he follows the dice’s lead and talks about who inspired him to become a nurse, his family dynamics and parents’ sacrifices, contemplating different areas of nursing to practice in post graduation, what he loves most about nursing school, his thoughts on being a male nurse, being “delusionally optimistic,” the challenges and rewards of caring for a patient ideologically opposite of him, and more!

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Transcript

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Hello happy peoples! Welcome to this episode of the Feeding Our Young podcast. I know it's no surprise, but I ran again this morning and we're nearing the end of running season 2024 for me. But the whole reason why I bring that up is because during that run I had this really weird idea, which I'm going to implement today, with my poor guinea pig, student-honored guest who's an amazing man. And I cannot wait for you to hear from him. So I without further ado I'm not gonna keep you flapping my gums if we happen to hear any background noises, which I'll be surprised if we do But they he may or may not have a few roommates that may or may not be a little bit rambunctious on this afternoon We'll find out we're excited to neither of us know what's coming up. So this is this is just an adventure for everybody without further ado Good sir, would you mind introducing yourself? Tell everybody who you are, where you attend, and when you graduate. Yeah, so I'm Jordi De La Mora. I'm attending GU as a nursing program. I'm expected to graduate in 2025, like May as in walk with the class, but I'll be done with nursing school in December of 2025, I'm pretty sure. So yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. you're in one of those classes. We've had a few honored guests who are like, it's like, like, not knowing what that is like. I already asked you your first question. What do you feel like that's gonna feel like for you, knowing that you're going to walk with peers and Gonzaga all across Gonzaga and then have to come back to finish stuff? What do you, have you given that any thought? I have. It's something that I think is nice because I honestly would have been more upset if they were like, well, you're not going to walk at all. We'll just have you walk later with a whole class of people you don't know, which I thought what was going happen first. But it's nice because I get to, because I know a lot of the guys I room with, they'll be gone. Like this is their last year. So it's nice to kind of share that moment with them because I've known them since freshman year, ever since I got here. Let's finish with the intro questions. That is, where are you from, Well, I'm from Portland, Oregon. I've been there since... Well, I tell people that I was born in Long Beach, California, but I was raised in Portland. So I tend to leave the California part out. But I think we've been in Portland, Oregon since, I don't know, 2008 or something. But I was raised in Portland, Oregon, and that's where I will call home, even though I family. I don't even know I have family in California, but that's... Awesome. What do you like about Portland? Because Portland gets a bad rap these days. So what do you like about Portland? Yeah, Portland is well, one, it's a more developed city. you compare it to Spokane. It's not that like Spokane is not good. It's just that Spokane still needs a lot of time to grow and improve. Get other people over here. know, Portland's diversity is pretty crazy. Like I went to a high school where white people were the minority. You know what I mean? So when I went to And it's just interesting because like coming to Spokane where that's that's flipped, it was probably the biggest shock for me because I've been in a place that it's like a ton of cultural diversity. And it's not that Spokane doesn't welcome that. It's just that it hasn't been given the time to get that. that Portland has amazing food. Portland has amazing. They have some there's just a lot of activities to do. Like, you know, they have their Japanese gardens for those nature repeats. You're not very far from the coast. You're not very far from like central Oregon that has a ton of cool nature stuff to see. And like I said, I'm a foodie. So there's like a new restaurant or a coffee place or something popping up like every two weeks that I have something else to do. But then in there. donuts, right? We will eventually talk about nursing everybody. We just need to talk about Portland first. No moving along. Let's let's pull this right back around the two intro questions we ask everybody. The first of which being what are the three words you chose to describe nursing school? Alright, I chose a unique, humbling, and opportunistic, just opportunities in Two of those three words begin with a vowel. I think that's the first time I've had that on the episode. excited to see why you picked those at the end of the episode. And the other part of that, which has no relation to it, what are three of your favorite songs in life right now? I think it's one, there's a song called Hummingbird, it's by James Blake at Metro Boomin, it's from the Spider-Man animated movie series. a great soundtrack if you've listened to it, but that one is by far my favorite. Are you talking about like Beyond the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse, that animated set? Yes. man, those soundtracks are amazing. But anyway, sorry, continue. But yeah, there's also love to, I think it's love to keep me warm. It's by Leve is the artist's name. And then probably the last one I'll do. I'll do slow running by, Hazlett, that's what it is. Slow Running, I'm pretty sure the song is called by Hazlett Great, I think it's like folk music, but not like the normal, I don't know, I feel like when I say folk, people think of some medieval type of music. It's just very much very acoustic, very soothing. You play this when you're driving down the gorge in Oregon or something, it's a really good song. My higher. it. I have to try it because first of all, the name is just spot on because that's, I'm a runner, but I'm not a fast runner. So slow running is fine by me. So I'll have to give that a go. The next run I run out there. Thank you for those recommendations and thanks for playing that little game. Speaking of games, this was the weird, sometimes good ideas come to me, like the whole asking honored guests about their three favorite songs. And then other times, weird ideas come to me like this one. So, you know, as anyone who's been a long time listener, we have our little forum that we send out and some people fill it out, some people are like, well, ask me these questions. And other people are like, I just want to wing it. Jordi fit right in middle of that camp. Like, here's some questions. I'd like to answer these. Fantastic. I have no idea what he's going to say. So like I said, it's a venture for everybody. But. Adding to that, coincidentally enough, 12 of the... there were 12 questions. And so because there are 12 questions, for whatever reason, my wife, myself, our best friends, ardent gamers, love to play games, love to... whether it's cards, dice, things of that nature. So I just have, in my hot little hand, a pair of dice. And we're gonna... We're gonna answer these, because I feel like to break up the staleness of this thing, I tend to go into Jordi the person and then Jordi the nursing student and what are your plans beyond? Forget all that. Let's just ask these questions in random order. So if you're listening and you're type A, I'm so sorry for the absolute torture we're about to put you through. So let's start with the first one. I don't even know if that can be heard in the background or if it'll make the cut, but I am rolling dice. Jordi can attest to that. So that gives us a six. Jordi, who inspired you to become a nurse? good one. Well, I knew for a while, especially just throughout high school, that health care was kind of the, you know, area I wanted to fall on. was just what? So I was just jumping from subject to subject and trying to see what kind of fit me the best. But definitely my family, because my parents are the main drive to just wanting to pursue higher education, because they just didn't get the chance. So, you know, they want us to take advantage of what we can because that time for them has kind of passed for them. I also have an aunt, my only aunt who's in healthcare, who she managed to become a nurse after like having kids and was working another job at the time and also in nursing school at the same time. So she was able to come out on top and raise my cousin Christina while also working and in nursing school. So her and my parents, you know, always telling me that they always felt like I had a knack for like the health type stuff. And they were like, you should just continue it. Like whatever it is, just decide. So them combined definitely was like the main inspiration for it. But the nursing one definitely came from my aunt because there's not much healthcare in my family. I don't think at all, besides her. Like no one else has had that type of occupation. it's been, was, was a nice change if you will, cause no one else really talks about it in my family. That's awesome. Do you like, so, I mean, obviously you have her example, but, and for those that are listening that are not type A and are like, well, why didn't he roll the dice again? Because as this is, this is a casual conversation. So when he answers a question, if I think of other questions that relate to that question, we'll just go down that little rabbit trail and then we'll get back to the other topics. That being said, so your aunt obviously gives you an example, but did you ever give consideration to when you knew healthcare was the thing? Did you ever go back and go, man, I, know, nursing versus provider versus, you know what mean, medical records, I don't know, whatever. Did that ever cross your mind and how did you work through that process? Yeah, actually, I was actually the funny how you mentioned that now I was pretty set on anesthesiology for a really long time. But knowing myself at the time in high school, I was like, okay, what's what's going to take the least amount of time? Because I was looking at medical school for a while, like I was like, kind of I think I want to do this whole doctor gig, it seems like this that route for me. I looked into it like residency, like fellowships, depending on what you do, some don't need a fellowship, most just need residencies. And then like, done, but some need the extra one to two years to help all this stuff. And like when I even heard that you're not even guaranteed your placement when you're getting placed to like your facility for what you want to specify in. heard that anesthesiology is like probably besides dermatology, the most competitive because from what I, from my understanding hospitals don't fill up the place with anesthesiologists. They try to keep it as limited as possible because they are high paying, high risk salary. These medications can, you never know. what it can do to someone on the table. And the last thing you want them to do is wake up mid surgery. Or go the other direction. Yeah, but that's two extremes. We don't want like no. Thank you It was really interesting to me. I liked the process and the medications and I don't want to say chill, but it was something where it wasn't as hands-on as a surgeon, but you play that big, big part in that surgery. So you're equally as important compared to the other one. I guess the commitment, the time, the not guarantee kind of made me chicken out. Not gonna lie. was just really worried that at the time, like, I don't know if I'm gonna be good enough at the whole, you know, undergrad to get into med school, that whole path. So that's how I slowly diverted and looked other places and then nursing was honestly a really good like backup plan. So that being said, any chance we see Jordi the nurse anesthetist in the future? I don't know about anesthetist, but I've grown to learn that I actually really, really enjoy like the healthcare part of school, not undergrad, like not college. College is cool. It's fun. I don't care about philosophy and all these other things like these cores drive me insane, but the actual nursing school part itself, like the clinical rotations, every single class revolves around my occupation. It's been awesome. There hasn't been a class where I've genuinely was like dreading to go to class. I genuinely enjoy class now because of the stuff that I'm actually interested in and it applies to what I'm gonna be doing. So I've looked into nurse practitioner, PA routes already, because I would just love to continue school after nursing school. I don't want my education to stop now. I kinda wanna just continue. Got that passion for learning. You really enjoy it. That's awesome. All right, back to the, let's go back to "pair-of-dice." Yeah, I threw the cheesy thing out there. Number four, Jordi. Well, okay, other than what you've already shared, tell us about your family. yeah, so my parents, well my mom specifically, she's from Mexico. I am Mexican. Both my parents are from Mexico. Well, more specifically, my mom got to come to the US from Mexico. My dad was born here, but he frequents Mexico all the time. All the stories from his childhood made me think that he was born there, but he wasn't, because that's just how often they were making the trips back and forth. I have... Technically three siblings. I have a half sibling. Same dad, different moms. And then I have two siblings. Same mom, same dad. So I'm the oldest in the same mom, same dad category. different moms, he's older than me. I have an older brother. His name is Kevin. He goes to North Dakota University. I think that's what it's called, or University of North Dakota. I don't know how the name goes. Yes. Something like that. a thing and if that's where it's going. He's pursuing a degree in aviation or something. The guy wants to fly planes. So I don't know what degree path that is. I think he might've. He's either graduating soon or will be. I haven't really got much updates on him, but I have a younger brother. His name is Isaac. He is starting community college. Good for him. He wasn't much of a schoolie, but he still wants to obtain a better education for at least an advantage in the whole workplace stuff. And I have younger sister, Sophia. will be turning 14. She's starting, she will be starting high school, I think. Cool. Any pressure being the oldest of those three? well, yes and no. mean, I kind of hold myself to a certain degree. I want my parents to feel like they did a good job, you know, that they made the right choices, you know, not staying where they thought they would need to stay, like making sure that they provided enough for it. So I genuinely just want my parents to feel like they did a good job. That's kind of like my main drive. My siblings, they don't care. They might care more than you think they do, but assuming you reach that goal that you just said for yourself, they're gonna see that for sure. So, yeah. mom tells me all the time, she's like, trust me, your brother, his Isaac is pursuing, he wants to become an x-ray technician. And she thinks that's because of me, but I don't think so. But you know, that's what the parents want. And my sister, who knows what she wants. She's like, she's just starting high school. She doesn't need to be really thinking about that stuff right now. She just, you know, is probably the new financial burden on the family. I think she's taken that from me now, surprisingly. But, Yeah, it's, I just, it's, they do a good, my, my parents do a good job at not making me feel like, if you don't become successful, like you're, you're done. They're, really good at being happy with whatever I decided to pursue and they're happy with the healthcare thing. Like my, dad tells me all the time, he likes to brag about GU and that I'm going there. So. Nice. Especially when basketball season rolls around, Alright! Back to paradise. Ten! We're going all the way down to ten, Jordi. Jordi, what are the hobbies and interests you enjoy when every waking moment isn't consumed by nursing school? Yeah, I'm a big game guy as well. Right behind where the MacBook is. I'll just rotate as I can show you. There's a whole little PC setup and I have a PlayStation 5 down there. used the word little. Yeah, no. Uh-uh. That's a... Nice! Okay- what I've seen people have, this is little compared to what I've seen. So I'm big on I love I've been playing video games for I can't remember how long it's been that long. I genuinely still don't know what caused me to I think my family had a Nintendo 64 at one point and I just was you had to rip me off of it to get me off. It was to the point like I is a key memory of mine because of how bad it got. was that my parents just had the limit, just say no video games throughout the week, because I wasn't getting anything else done. And they told me that if all homework is done plus chores, then you might get lucky to do play video games throughout the week, days, or else, you know, forget about it. And you can play on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but then Monday through Thursday, you're not allowed. So that was middle school up to like high school. Well, high school obviously has stopped, but like as elementary, middle school, when I was at Digital, this stuff. they had to put that cap on me, but I think it was good because it helped me stay on top of school. And now I'm forever like wired, like I'm not gonna touch this thing until I finish my stuff, which. gonna ask, like was gonna be like, confession time, is it getting, you know what I mean? But I can't see that being a case for you. But I guess on the flip side though, on a serious note, do you find that it's a great diversion? Like it takes you out of your head space when you are just wound up over school. Yeah, it's I think PC especially since you're not when it comes to like the PlayStation. I don't know how much you know about this stuff, but like on on PlayStation, if you want to buy a game, it's only through the PlayStation store. But if on PC, there's like hundreds of different places to buy games from. So you can buy like the most the cheapest, chillest, slow indie developer game. And it can be like I have a game on here called like Dave the Diver. It's just about a guy who like catches his own fish and then makes his own sushi. it's something that's fun. It looks fun and it really just distracts me. And then obviously there's the normal first person shooter games that everyone knows about. I have a couple of those on here too. But it's just something that I can just, especially if I have time before bed, if it's not before an early clinical, I can play for an hour or two and I just have completely forgot that I was stressed about something and then I can go to bed. Nice. Nice. I think it's great. Well, and it legitimately gives you an endorphin release too. You know what mean? So I mean, for me, it's the running and video game playing. Let's go back to paradise. Let's go back to paradise again. I was wondering when the first repeat was going to come. We're just going to bump up a question to number nine. According to the dice, what area or areas of nursing do you hope to practice in? Nice. Well, this is what I've been talking about a lot during clinical because every nurse I'm paired with, I always ask me this and I've been giving them kind of the same. I love cardiac related things. The cardiac units and anatomy physiology were my favorites. I don't know why it clicked with me. I find the heart fascinating. I think it's really cool. think the drugs we've come up with, cardiac related, are insane, in my opinion. I don't know how we managed to mess with the sodium potassium pump, but. You know, just drugs like that that can restart, stop your heart in an instant. The stuff that we have nowadays is insane. And then I think it's really fascinating. That being said, from what I've heard from a telemetry unit, it's not exactly the most calm environment. You have very critically unstable patients. Like, yes, they're stable, but they can be unstable in a second. Like they'll be fine 10 minutes, 10 minutes before they're coding. That's something you need to be prepared about. I don't know if I'm fit for those environments yet. I know I have MedSearch coming up. I'm most likely will have an emergency department rotation, which I'm hoping to kind of feel for more of a slightly stressful environment to see kind of if I can still operate under that. hopefully I still want to give it a try. Like I want to go to like either telemetry or something that has continuous like cardiac EKG monitoring, because I just think it's something I want to, I want my knowledge to like go, I want to be able to read the lines. Like I want to be able to set up. those lines too and like, that's like my main hope. I mean, I've also looked into like OR and like post and pre-op stuff. It's kind of, I kind of like the, especially the recovery. Like I know there was, I think there was, isn't there something called like the progressive acute care unit or something? It's just like something that majority of nurses help with the recovery post-surgery to get you up, to get you moving. Education on why you need to be do certain things so that you can leave the hospital sooner I have I have like that that field too So though I think those are kind of the two main ones that I just haven't seen yet that I hopefully can get to the chance to like try Very cool. And if you get that ED experience or that, you know, whatever, through MedSurg, et cetera, you know, then maybe have you considered further exploring that option in practicum, let's say. I, I'd have to try it. I don't know. it, and I kind of like to think of my longevity of nursing and me personally, I've never really had that adrenaline junkie type stuff. Like I know I talked to a lot of people in the ED cause they're like, it's a new thing every single day. And I, I don't know if I want a new thing every day. Sometimes I kind of like the same with the occasional, whoa, that's crazy type that that's what I think I would like, but I'm still open to it. Like I'm not going to shoot it down yet. I'm not gonna say no to a practicum yet, because I wanna give it a shot. Because you never know, maybe I do, like, just don't know. That's awesome. Alright, let's see. Let's see where we go. Heading back to paradise. Going to question seven. Who's your hero and why? It circles back just my parents, know, like I, my mom came to Mexico at a very young age. She came to the U S at 18 or 17, I think. and she, I think she recently, just a little bit of also family history, my grandma, her mom, finally got a visa to come visit her here in the U S and for an example, she hasn't seen her since she's gotten here. So my mom has been separated from her mother for, I don't know, 18 to 45, 44. And that, to me, is insane. And she stayed, she had me and then my other siblings, and she still, you know, wanted to, she knew that having kids in Mexico at the time probably wasn't the safest. So she wanted to raise a family here. And my dad is like equally as much of a hero. mean, he, for a while was the, he still is. I mean, my mom is not working now because everything, you know, Sophia is getting older and she can kind of end up navigating that school on her own. But until then, she kind of had us in like three year increments, if you will. She always had her hands full of the kids. So my dad has been the only person providing for the family ever since the beginning. Like he, and he doesn't have upper education either. Like he didn't go to college. He has a high school degree. So he's just been at USPS. He's a mailman. He's been providing with that salary alone for three kids. And, you know, still supporting me when he can. Like I try my best to relieve the pressure for them here. Cause I have a part-time job while I'm at school so that I can pay for my rent here so he doesn't have to worry about it. And he can focus on Isaac and Sophia. but those two, I don't know. I don't know what I would do without them. They've set me up for such success with so little that they've been given. And it just makes me super excited to give back in ways that I never can give back. They sacrificed so much in their lives to just set me and my siblings up for success. So I just want to sprinkle things in wherever I can to thank them for something that's unpayable. Because what they did was awesome. They're my drive. Whenever I think that I may not be able to finish whatever exams feeling rough or clinicals feeling rough, they always do a great job at saying that you're there for a reason. Don't doubt that wherever you are is not where you're supposed to be. You're gonna be successful. And I feel like with their help, this decision for nursing school has probably been the best decision. I'm so set on this career. and I have lots of confidence that I'll be successful. All thanks to them. I just, such a heartwarming story. Like I'm like, well now I'm looking at my stupid dice going, all right, well, let's roll them again then. No, that's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. Like just the fact that they, you know what I mean? And I think anything that you do is going to your success, whatever that looks like, you know what I mean? Your ability to pursue that degree, that career, that whatever, fill in the blank. That's all the payback they're ever gonna want. You know what I mean? I mean, you obviously do so much more, but... Ugh. dad, says, I always tell him how I plan on getting a bunch of stuff after raising him. The main thing he said that he's like, all I really want is just a copy of your degree so I can put it on my wall. He likes it. He's really happy that I'm doing this because he, like I said, he thinks that he did a good job as a parent. And I'm telling him like, well, it's one more year and then you'll get the copy that you wanted to prove that you guys have been doing such a great job. So that's what I'm really excited to get him is a... I didn't think I wanted that super expensive wooden frame, but I might just add it just for him to have like a cool copy of one besides having one. that's so cool. I'm so excited. Like, you're gonna have come back and tell us all about that. That's how that's gonna, like, we're gonna be like, Jordi, did he get it? How is it? You know, a couple years down the line. All right, question, sorry, go ahead. Yes, you heard it here first, everybody. Question five, what do you love most about your hometown? Golly, we already answered that one. All right. well, mean, another thing is that like, there's just, there's just so much stuff to do, you know, and, and I, I got, I'm a big coffee guy. Like I don't, can't go a day without it. That's probably an issue now more than a passion, but it's, I don't know. I feel like, think, cause me, I have a buddy, one of my roommates, his girlfriend is also from Oregon. So me and her like to, he's from Hawaii. So we're trying to get him to live in Oregon. We don't want him to go back, unfortunately. And if David ever hears this, he knows that's. that's going into a plan. I think Oregon is a problem. come on, get it together. You're not going home. I think Oregon is like a top five coffee state or something. Like they actually have like a decent rep. You know, not to toot our own horn, but that's pretty cool down there. I mean, it's better than neighboring Idaho, it's known for potatoes, although potatoes are amazing as well, so I don't know. I love it, I love it. All right, let's see. Everybody's like, well, you're never gonna get to question one because, no, I have a plan, everybody. If one of the dice shows a one, we're gonna ask question number one, but I haven't got it yet. Number eight, what are your plans after graduation? I mean, you kinda touched on them, but expound, if you will, definitely bedside nursing for a handful of years. I want at least two years, mainly because I have a couple ideas in mind. Well, one, I definitely want to move back to Oregon. I don't plan on leaving Oregon anytime soon. I might leave Portland, but the state of Oregon itself, it has everything that I need at the moment. There's no other state that I'd want to be in. But besides that, I want to do bedside nursing for a couple of years. I want to give travel nursing a go as well because it's solid pay. But besides that, it's good experience. You learn, especially from what I know that certain travel nurses, the more that you're getting paid, the crappier the situation is. So if you're willing to go to a rural area that is promising a lot of pay, then that's where your skills are going to be the most desired. And you're going to be left with a really good experience. And I feel like that's something I really want to try. And it allows you to kind of explore at the same time while you're working. Hopefully after that, like bedside nursing, travel nursing, a couple years more down the line, like I said before, I want to continue education. It's got to be either NPPA. I mean, yes, I think about med school is that is still such a reach for me. I don't know. It's like also like a lot of money. That is true, that is true. paying already a decent amount to go here, so it's kind of hard to imagine to do that again. But definitely, I know there's certain programs and certain, not private practices, but just there's been a lot more of, we'll pay for your education if you work for us type deals recently. So I feel like I would hope to find something like that to kind of keep pursuing the education stuff. I mean, basically the takeaway of all of that is your options are limitless, right? Like you're really entering a realm of endless possibilities as far as that goes. That is awesome. All right, so here's the deal. I'm looking at the questions. which leaves us with three main questions. Four, actually. So now we're just gonna divide it by four. And there we are, we have a one. We have a one rolled, everyone. So what do you love most about nursing school, good sir? what, kind of what I said about earlier, it's that once you're here, like everything that you're doing in this is gonna benefit your career in some way. Like there's nothing that when I go to class that is, it's not going to benefit me. I love going into depth about like the medications that we're expected to learn how to give, the parameters, what to watch out for when, and I think it's really important that medication education because As nurses, you're the person, you're with the patient all the time, the doctor isn't, not saying that the doctor doesn't know what he's giving them, but you're the first line to catch anything that's wrong. And if you know their baseline, because you've been taking care of them for so long, and there's a medication in the orders that you're like, this doesn't seem right, and I'm assuming that the doc probably just didn't really take this into consideration, you kind of have the power to advocate and just be like, listen, this may not be the best bet from ABC or whatever, so. the hands-on clinical experience, the medication education, and just actually being able to be there. I feel like a lot of other programs for specific careers, they just don't let you get to be there, like in your workplace. And I think it's really important that people get to actually see where they're working because it's so much different from school. Like they tell us already, I think I like the transparency here at GU, they're saying, we're teaching you how to pass the NCLEX. Yeah. not teaching you how to be a nurse yet, but we're teaching you how to pass the NCLEX. And rightfully so, because that's kind of the point. So that clinical experience actually gives you a taste in like, is this career for me? Is it not? I've already seen it. I think in my class alone, I think a couple of people have just decided like, yeah, I had a couple of clinical experiences. I don't know if it's going to be for me. So then I still have a little bit of time to change. But the transparency of it, I think, is. one of my favorite things, because it just allows me to really get a good idea of what I'm going to be signing up for in a year. Good, good, good, good. I just noticed while you're saying that as well too, that you answered, kind of already touched on this one, anything you want to add about why you wanted to become a nurse. yeah, I, I think it comes down to the, like the, how you're just developing that relationship with the patient. Cause it's not like providers can't, but while they're gone, the nurses are there all the time. Like they're the people that are going to make you feel safe in the hospital. They're the ones that'll advocate for you the most. And nothing feels better than like, if you have your concerns, you have someone who is educated in the field that you may not know as well advocating for you. So you even feel more secure that you're going to get what you need because you have someone who's willing to advocate for you against like the big scary doctor. It was mainly that. I liked and I also liked that nurses are still really, really educated people. Like they know rare stuff about health care just because we're not the ones writing the orders. or the ones who went to those extra eight years of school doesn't mean that we don't know anything. our knowledge is still equally applicable, especially with time, to the providers you work with. And it's important. Like, even you said it yourself, like, even new attendees, like new residents on the floor, will still talk to the older nurses, because they know that those nurses have been here for long enough that their education is going to amount to theirs at the time. So that's why I like it. like... The whole nursing gig for me is like, I'm still going to be a really well educated person. can advocate for people who don't feel like they have anyone to advocate for them. And we're just like that frontline of care. I've always liked the whole sense of that. I'm taking care of you. I want you to leave. Usually I'd want you to stay, but no one wants to stay in hospital. Ergo, we're gonna work on getting you out the door. Yeah, exactly. We've got two main questions left before we have one story to share before wrapping up everything all together. So, one through six, you get the first question. Seven through twelve, you get the second. Going to paradise! It's a ten, everybody, which gives the second question. What are your thoughts on being a male nurse? I honestly think that being a male in nursing isn't as like a, know, crazy thing as other people. Like I've talked to other like male nurses where it's just like, yeah, like we're going to be desired more because there's not many males in the field and we have an advantage over the women. And I just feel like, well, I don't think we should be thinking of it as like an advantage over the girls. Like I just, I view it as like I am, you know, stepping into their domain with like all respect because nursing is a female. dominated career path, but for good reason because they're amazing at what they do. They're amazing at their jobs. And it's me giving the opportunity to work alongside them. I think it's great. And I also understand that, you know, with certain male nurses, you have different things to do. And with that being said, like, you'll be the one most likely chosen to lift the patient, move the patient, do all those things, kind of be the muscle behind it. But I think it's great. I think it just kind of shows that we... Even though it's where the minority of the whole thing, we still have our place to fit in there and I think it's great. And I think it's great that we still understand that, you know, be respectful of the fact that, you know, it's a mainly female dominant career path and we're just lucky to also help in that space. So I think that's mainly what it is. And like I said, I honestly kind of forget that it's just me and like 30 other. girls and I just kind of view it as like we're kind of all in this together and we're trying to provide the best care for our patients. Yeah, well stated, well stated. And I guess there's an element of leaning into each other's strengths, both literally as you're describing and figuratively, right? Yeah, that's awesome. So that leaves us with the one last question you had selected that you wanted to answer, and I love that this is kind of near the end. How do you personally overcome challenges, whether those are in nursing school, life challenges, et cetera? I like to say that I'm kind of, I'm like delusionally optimistic, I guess. A kindred spirit, yes. Yeah, so it's me personally if there are for some reason like I've had a couple slums where it's just like all this quiz went horrible and honestly if I think I've experienced more of those in the prereqs before even the actual like clinical things I just feel like our instructors have just done that better of a job at preparing us for certain content stuff to prepare for but whenever I am in kind of like a slum of like education if I'm just not getting it. I just like to remind myself that like, you know, I'm here for reason. I didn't make a mistake. This wasn't going to be like a perfect linear path of success all the way to the top. Like without me going, getting challenged like that wouldn't have helped me improve my knowledge in certain things and improve as a person. So I just like to remind myself that like, you can only go up even when you hit your lowest, the only way back up, you have to keep going up. and things are going to get better regardless. And that's kind of the thing I keep replaying in my head no matter how hard things go. And if I do get a bad exam score, I use it as motivation. Like if I mess up, it's like, well, now this is the score we need to beat. So we're going to do what we didn't do last time in order to beat that. So just constantly telling myself, like, this is fine. We're going to improve. Now that I knew I messed up, I now have fuel to keep going. And that one singular exam, one quiz, one whatever is not gonna completely define me as like a nurse in the future. This is just another rock in the road that I need to overcome and just keep going. That's awesome. That's awesome. I love that viewpoint. It sounds like you've got a fairly darn good head on your shoulders. You're gonna... Those parents have done well. You know, it's interesting that everybody goes straight to that, right? Like, your parents have done so well with you because you have such a nice... And I'm like, you know, and on the flip side of that, people will be like... your kids, they're just amazing. You guys have done a wonderful job. And I'm like, well, that's despite what we do. Like, you know what mean? Like, everybody's got their free will, especially as we get older. So it's not like your parents get all the credit, but also they get some of the credit, right? You've already established that clearly, so that's awesome. So before we get to our routine closing questions, of which there are two, you had one story that you wanted to share. here on the podcast and of course everyone here knows we're very good about being careful, HIPAA-wise and all the things. So we're not identifying anybody in particular, we're not even identifying where this story took place. But what would you like to share with the listening audience? sir. Do you want me to say exactly what you said? Or should I avoid the language that you used? There's the teaser. I was like, man, like you're asking me a question, I'm gonna have to delete this. And I'm like, no, we're gonna keep that right there. know, let's see, by the time your episode comes out, we will have had an explicit episode or two. So I'm gonna leave that up to you, good sir. Okay, just, just the initial part I think is the funniest. This guy said a ton of things, but yeah, not disclosing where, but it was during one of my clinical experiences, and like we said, we're not gonna mention where and who they were, but during this, was assigned an individual to continue my, like I had, at this clinical, we were assigned like packets to do with a certain patient, and we were given the same patient to do the same, know, packets on, because I think the reasoning was that like, if we build that relationship with that patient during the... duration of the clinical, they'd be more open to continue to doing it because going from room to room asking, hey, can I do this head to toe? I know you just got your wound changed, but I'm going to make you stand up now. It probably wouldn't be convenient. So we had the same person. I had an assigned patient that, and we've already established that I'm Mexican and this is important because it just applies to this situation. I walk in and he's in bed and he's wearing, you know, a huge, just a MAGA hat, you know, Make America Great Again. He was a Trump supporter, like down to his soul. He lived for that man, loved that guy. Nothing wrong with that. That was just his political standing, but it was made very evident that that's what we supported. And so then I go in and I introduce myself and this individual may have been, he was kind of hard of hearing, so I had to... There was a COVID outbreak at the time too, so I had to remove my mask and I had to speak very loudly to him because he said that he couldn't really hear me. And I was introducing myself, was telling him, like, yeah, I'm a Sooners, I'm gonna be with you for a handful of weeks. gonna get to know each other, we're gonna do a bunch of stuff. He was like, cool, that sounds good to me or whatever. And so I started doing my initial assessments on him and then one of the first things that he says to me is, well, what are ya? And I was like, What? Are you a cat? Are you a dog? Are an alien? I'm not sure. last time I checked I thought it was a person and I was like, I'm sorry. What do mean? He said, well, you're not white. So I just come down and know like, what are you? And I was like, well, if you're putting it that way, well, I'm Mexican. And then after that, he just screams like, so you're a Latino. And like I said, this guy is got hard of hearing. So he is yelling every time with her response. And he's just saying like, and then he starts going on tangent about, know, like, you know, legal immigrants and all these other things. And obviously that's not something I want to hear as having family from area that he's not very familiar with. So obviously I already got a bad feeling. I was like, this is going to be horrible. I don't think I can go through with this. And you know, We continue the assessment and he continues to try to get more stuff out of me. And I just, you know, I tell them like, listen, like I think at one point I asked, are your parents from here too? Or they just, they legal aliens too? And then I told them, born and raised in America, whatever, you know, and then that made them all happy again, but that is not true. So yeah, so after that, I went up to my instructor at the time I told her, listen, I have so and so, this is the situation. I don't know if I can do this. She, like how you have laughed, because she just could not believe how unlucky the situation was in that I, out of all people, was assigned to this person with this political standpoint, very strong political standpoint. And she was like, I'm so sorry, I had no idea. These were literally picked from like a little bucket of names. And you just happened to get this person. And she said, listen, I'm happy to swap this individual for someone else. But now it's like, gosh, here we go. Mm-hmm. said, I think this is a great opportunity for you because this is not the first time this is ever going to happen. You are going to run into people, other patients who have very strong political views, very strong opinions about certain ethnic groups. And this is, you are a part of an ethnic group he's not, you know, fond of, but he's not the one. And there are going to be people in this, in that need the care that I will probably be assigned to multiple times in my life. So then I... And I just thought about it for a second. was like, you know what, fine. Like, I'll see if this gets to a point where he just is denying everything, then at that point we have to switch. You know, time goes on, you know, we continue and He just kind of forgets. He just kind of forgot, like, over time that I was a Hispanic male. And not to mention there was a COVID outbreak at the time, so I had to wear a mask. I guess, eyes up, he couldn't really tell. But besides when that kind of went over, like, whole initial aspect, he was a pretty cool guy. Like, he was very open to all my assessments, asking me a lot of questions. asked me why I would do the things I was doing and then at one point he was telling me, you know what, hopefully you get to work here, you'll be a great nurse, blah blah blah, he was being nice. And it was very confusing at one point because I was literally just not too long ago this guy was upset with just kind of who I was in general. besides that, really funny initial part and... He was just a character and talking about the craziest stuff and giving me pointers on, you know, not PG-13 things. He was still a decent human. Like he was a decent guy. Like he loved his family. He'd always tell me about how he's looking forward to seeing his kids. Really, you know looking forward to seeing Everyone and it just you know, we mean Eric talked about this clinical when I first initially told you about this story is that like Regardless of like we wouldn't have been able to make the connection to work well with each other if I didn't give this guy another chance like I could have Completely changed my mind when my instructor gave me the option. I could have changed And it could have ended like that and it would have been a very sour, you know, in memory and outcome with this person. be someone that I'd be avoiding, you know, anytime I would go back. But, you know, I took the time to continue because it was definitely a great experience to deal with someone who may not be, you know, as welcoming, if you will. And when that fell over, it was fine. Like I got my work done. I got to learn a lot from him. He was super nice to me and I actually looked forward to seeing him every week. So I guess, you know, it comes down to the fact that give your, I guess my takeaway is that you just got to give your patients some time because he's probably not even in the greatest head space to begin with because they're wherever they are, their situation in life and all that stuff. And of course everyone's gonna have their own political opinions. But when it comes down to it, he needed care. I was there to give him the care. And eventually he kind of just, you know, kind of showed me who else he was outside of his political affiliations. And it turns out someone that I would be willing to continue to talk to. So I always like that story is just such a good one because, well, I mean, no other patient could top that interaction at this point. Well, and you guys are both basically the better for it, right? You guys are both the better for having had those moments in time together. Yeah, I love that. I absolutely love that. So thank you for sharing that, for being open and allowing that. There are other pieces of that story that, man, I wish could make air, because, it's hilarious. But what needed to come out came out. So I'd almost like to just end there, but... In our traditional ways, as much as we mix things up in the middle, you did give us three words that you used to describe nursing school. What were they and why did you pick them? Right. So for the first one, I wanted to go with it being unique because I chose unique because out of, there's a, there's a decent amount of other majors in my house. David, we've mentioned before, he's a mechanical engineer. I have someone else who is, I think like bi, biology, like environmental sciences. We have handful and then the rest are, I think, business majors. So, but they all have different concentrations, so they're focusing on different things. from what I've heard that they do, even in their senior year where things are starting to get very focused, like, certain have senior projects, they're creating things, they're making, you know, crazy presentations or whatever, they haven't had the same opportunities as I have, like for what I said earlier, going to the places that are possible places of employment. Like, this is a glimpse into what it would look like to work here. And they have had similar experiences, but I can say they haven't at all. But like they haven't had courses like literal classes dedicated to going to a facility or a hospital and working there. Unfortunately, unpaid but working there, working there and gaining that hands-on experience with someone who's been licensed and knows everything. And you know, they'll give you their spiel about the facility and if you should work there or not. And if you should just keep moving on. And I think that alone, the hands-on experience is what really differentiates. this type of schooling from everyone else's. I'm saying it's any better, but it's just that little aspect. It really kind of makes you feel like you're here. You made it. You're almost done. Awesome. word two, said humbling because nursing school hasn't gotten easier. If anything, each term presents a new challenge for me, which I love because I, when I think I know a lot, it reminds me I'm not there yet. Like as eager as I am to provide patient education or do certain things or think I'm, I'm ready to handle something on my own. It reminds me that I am not. So And it's a good reminder because I only want to be the best version of myself as a nurse. And I don't want to settle for any like less education or less experience. Like I want this to continue happening. So I learn and learn and learn. So by the time that I do have, I am licensed and ready to go by myself. I have a good, you know, baseline to work with. So that's always a great thing. And then the last word, opportunistic or opportunities in general, like I'm You know, the sims, the labs and the sims we are are amazing. They're great. They give me an insight of what I had to do. But like actually having a nurse turn to me and being like, Hey, I need you to do this. I need you to do that. I need you to give a shot on this one. We're going to give, you know, medications, like a shot to a baby, like an infant, like given on the real deal after being, you know, shown the simulation or shown the dummy in lab or doing all these things. When you think it's the easiest thing in the world, you get to do it. And you're like, this is nothing compared to what. initial thing is, but it's amazing because I now really, I can now truly say I understand how to give IM injections, vital signs, assessments on newborns, like things that I have been qualified to, signed off of, compared to actually I feel like I can do it. And I think that's the biggest thing about Anderson School is I'm given the opportunity to show my skills, thankfully to patients who are okay with students doing it. And It just makes me even more confident. given a task that I've been able to do in clinical, in the next clinical rotation they ask me to do it, I'm gonna say yes without hesitation, because it's just like second nature almost. So that's like the biggest part about that one. Outstanding. Great three words and great reasons why you chose them. So the very last question we have, no dice involved. Thanks for playing along with me there today, Jordi, in a very unique episode. I don't know, we'll see what it sounds like when I hear it a while from now and when I'm doing editing I'll be like, that was amazing, or okay, we're not gonna do that one again. But the last question for you that I ask everybody. If you had but one piece of advice to give fellow nursing students, what would that be? The main piece of advice, well, just understanding that you made the right decision and you are in the right place. There are gonna be times in nurse school, like I even said, that you're gonna feel like everything is kicking your butt and you don't think you understand anything, but just understand that you are capable and understand that you advocate for your own education and make sure that every clinical place you go to, try to get your best out of it, because you're not gonna be able to go back to it afterwards until... continue. So if you're in a rotation that you might be interested in, just try your best to be like, hey, like talk to your nurse and let your instructor know maybe if your nurse isn't as willing to be like, hey, I haven't got I haven't been able to give them the chance. I've seen you do it a couple of times. Can I do it next? Like, please, like just in most nurses are like, yeah, sure, because like they don't want to do it. Like, anytime they can go to their charting and you're doing something to them that's like a nature for the nurse. Most of them are like, yeah, go ahead, like call instructor, you guys go handle it. I'll be here. So just keep always looking forward. Never stop cutting yourself some slack because nursing school is hard. It is not easy. No matter how easy other people make it look, it is not an easy thing to do. Cut yourself some slack. Advocate for your own education. And just don't stop. Keep going. Excellent, excellent. Jordi, I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your kind of lax week in between a couple different clinical rotations and transitions there for you to just wax eloquent about the various things that you've experienced so far and sharing that with the listening audience because people are going to just absolutely benefit from the things that you had to say today. So thank you so much, man. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Awesome, thanks Eric for the opportunity.