89 - Jasmine Cultum: Mindset's Everything

Join nursing student and Spokane, Washington native Honored Guest Jasmine Cultum as she describes the role her dad played in choosing nursing, being a nurse tech, practicum, nursing being “a lot of little different things,” how to protect your nursing heart, being cheerleaders for our patients, and more!

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Transcript

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Howdy, howdy, ladies and gentlemen and everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Feeding Our Young podcast. Today I am with an extremely honored, honored guest. Someone who I have not had the privilege of meeting in person until just now. And yet, we may know similar people. Ergo, without saying much more, I will introduce the fantastic Jasmine Cultum. Jasmine, how are you this afternoon? doing so good. How are you? I am doing so good. I am doing even better now that I get to sit and talk with you. So let's just talk about the elephant in the room, shall we? Who do we know? Who's a friend of ours in common? My twin sister Jamie. Yes. Jamie, that sounds familiar. I feel like maybe she's been on the show before. No, I was giving Jasmine a bad time, and I said, you know what? We talked about Jasmine on Jamie's episode. And short of talking about Jamie briefly on Jasmine's episode, this is Jasmine's episode, not Jamie's. So Jamie, you've had your time. We love you. You're amazing. Now it's Jasmine's turn, right? Right. All right, so with that, Jasmine. Please feel free to introduce yourself. Where are you from? What school do you attend? When do you graduate? Yeah, so I grew up just kind of outside of Cheney between Spokane and Cheney, kind of out towards, more towards like Spangl area. And now I live in Spokane and I go to Washington State University's College of Nursing right now. And I graduate this coming May of 2025. May of 2025. That is, I mean, it feels like it's not right around the corner and yet you'll be there before you know it, right? Yeah, yeah, I was thinking about that just yesterday that it's only a couple months away. What does that feel like right now? So for listeners, we're recording right now in November of 24th. So we're talking six months away. What does that feel like right now? Yeah, we're kind of in like an interesting period of, know, really excited to be graduating soon and it just seems like we're just around the corner. So a lot of excitement towards that and also just a little bit of sadness, you know, finishing up college and being done with that. So yeah, a lot of like mixed feelings, but overall, I think I'm really excited and it seems like it's really happening now. That's so awesome. I'm so excited for you because man, it's a long journey, isn't it? Yeah, it really has been a long process. So let me ask you this, because I've brought this up a couple times on the podcast, and it's a saying that my wife had found somewhere. Tell me, can you attest to the following statement? It's almost cliche, and I've heard it more than one occasion. But the statement is this, the days are long, but the years are short. Would that be an apropos description of nursing school? Yes, I would fully agree with that. Now being X number of years, you you're six months away from being done. Does it feel like that time has flown by even though in the middle of it you've just suffered like unimaginable horrors? Yes, yeah, it's, I'm like one of the ambassador, mentor kind of people for our program and I tell people that all the time that it goes by so, so fast and even though like you'll have days in between where you feel like you didn't get anything done or you have got too much done and yeah, it seems like it's really far away when you first start and then it's like sneaks up on you for sure. where you know what, you're over the top of the hill, working your way down to the last to the finish line, and that's it. amazing. So with that, before we go much deeper, Jasmine, what are the three words you chose to describe nursing school? So the three words I chose to describe nursing school are rigorous, collaborative, and rewarding. And what are your three favorite songs in life right now? okay. So my, recently went to a Dylan Gossett concert last month and so I've been kind of on a... pick with that. So one of the songs I've been listening to, it's his new song. It's called Tree Birds by Dylan Gossett. My second song is called Pretty Slowly by Benson Boone. And then another song that I was recently playing on repeat last week when I was studying is Love Somebody by Morgan Wallen. Yeah. I don't think I have. this again, this is all a selfish thing. Yeah. Everyone, this is Music Recommendations by Jasmine. This whole episode, that's what we're going to talk about. No, I love it. And getting a running list of like music that people can try. Man, this is so much fun. All right. So with that, as everyone knows, there's forums that... our honored guests fill out to kind of give us an idea of what we're doing. And we don't necessarily go through that forum top to bottom. We kind of do different section, different section. And so I feel like where I want to start with you, Jasmine, kind of let us in on why did you want to become a nurse? Let's just go straight for the heart of what landed you in nursing school. yeah. So I feel like this is something that I've had to contemplate on. I feel like all of us nursing students have to contemplate on at some point. And I wish I had one clear answer, but I kind of have multiple things that I've kind of played into it. So one of the first things that I feel like really kind of shifted who I was and how that played into my choice was we went through, my sister and I obviously together went through the loss of our dad as an adolescent. He passed away really young and So that was super difficult. And during that grieving process and kind of moving into young adulthood from that, having people, we had a really great support system and having people that were supportive and lifted me up and consistently encouraged me was huge. And I feel like in nursing, I have such an amazing opportunity to be that for people who are sick and hurting and need somebody. So I feel like that's the biggest thing that kind of played into that and to kind of piggyback off of that. My dad, one of his biggest goals for me and biggest aspirations he had for me and my sister was to just get a good education and to have a career that was worthwhile and meaningful. So that's kind of just always been a goal of mine to achieve that with whatever career I decided to go into. And I feel like nursing is really great for that. Yeah. And kind of my final reason, which kind of sums all of that up together, is just that I wanted to do something that would consistently challenge me every single day and would require hard work and push me to do something. that was meaningful. and I have always been, and I feel like always will be a very like go, go, go person. I'm very busy. I never sit still. So, I think this career is great for that. Awesome, that's amazing. I love the different aspects that play into that. You have that heart, right? Like a real life experience that kind of puts you into this field. Is that, have you always had like a bent towards healthcare then at least? Or did the literally none of this, I mean as you said, it was an earlier age that your father died and I'm sorry for you guys for that. That my father's heart just goes out to you huge, huge, huge, huge. But Did you always have a bent towards that or was there other things that young Jasmine thought about? Yeah, I knew I wanted to do something. I always knew I wanted to do something, I don't want to say something big, but something that took a lot of school, it took a lot of dedication that I could put a lot of myself towards. So I kind of think, I definitely feel like nursing has been my most... I am fully confident that that's the career for me. But initially when I was kind of deciding between different ones, I wasn't entirely sure. I kind of thought about being a lawyer for a while. I decided that I didn't feel like that was a very great fit for me. I felt like my softer sides would maybe get hidden in that. So I always wanted to do something that would take a lot of schooling and effort, and that would make a difference and be very impactful. But overall, I chose to do nursing. Well, I mean, obviously as a biased nurse myself, I think you chose well. Well, and I mean, and we've had a former lawyer on the podcast who then went back and became a nurse. And so, I mean, I think he'd agree with you also. you know, nursing is just where it's at people. I'm sorry. That's just if you're here at this podcast listening to this going, I don't know about that. Well, guess what? We're going to try and convince you otherwise. That's for sure. So then with that, you say you're a go, go, go, go person and you want that career to kind of back that up. Does that go, go, go type personality apply to your hobbies, your interests and what you do outside of nursing school? Yes, yeah, I am constantly busy. If I'm not studying, I'm doing other things or hanging out with friends. Even on the weekends, it's pretty rare that I'm just sitting at home relaxing, not doing anything. I'm just always a very, very busy person. I've always been like that since like high school. That's awesome and that will serve you very well in nursing because nursing is a very busy, very busy career, right? Very busy profession. Well, so then I mean I feel like this kind of goes right along with it then. What areas of nursing are you hoping to practice in when you're done with school? Yeah, so I currently work as a nurse tech for Providence and throughout my kind of, I started that pretty much as early as you can start, my second semester of nursing school. And so... kind of throughout my rotations of, and you kind of get to pick preferences of where you want to go. And so throughout those rotations, I've really loved, learned that I love the ED. So I really hope that my career can include that unit in it. I've loved the variety in the ER. I love that. We have different patient populations, different dynamics, different stories. So yeah, that's what I'm hoping to do. that's awesome. So for those who haven't heard or understand what that is, what is that nurse tech program? So it's basically like a program where you are hired to help out on a unit and basically, like your first rotation that you start, you'll have a certain scope and basically whatever you've completed in nursing school, you can practice independently or mostly independently. and just kind of help out on the unit, help the nurses, interact with patients, practice your skills, things like that. Yeah. what would you think then are some of the advantages to entering a program like that for some that are going, ooh, that sounds kind of interesting? Yeah, well I, I recommend it to everybody. I recommend it to people I'm currently going to school with. I recommend it to people just coming into the program. It definitely gives you an inside scoop into the type of nursing that each unit is doing. It gives you a lot of practice with skills. I think a lot of skills I practiced one time in clinical and I've practiced 20 times as a nurse tech. So it definitely gives you a ton of experience with skills. It kind of helps you understand better what the nursing role is in each unit, helps you build connections. And yeah, it's been just so beneficial. It's also very, very flexible with your school schedule. So it's just been amazing. It's been such a blessing. I recommend it to everybody. outstanding. Do you do like days, nights, a mixture thereof, some evenings? What are you talking about schedule-wise? Yeah, my first, my second semester of school when I first started the program, I was just doing like one day in the middle of the week when I didn't have school and I just do like seven to seven thirty. And then over the summer. working in the ICU and so and I didn't have any other things going on so I would kind of alternate between days and nights so I do like a couple weeks of days maybe a week of nights here and there just to meet people get experience of what night chefs are like and then now I work in the ER at Holy Family. and I have been working 5 a.m. to 5 30 p.m. So it's really nice because you can switch, you can work whatever you want, whenever you want. So yeah, it works out really good. yeah, because then, I mean, whoever's working that shift gets the benefit of having you on shift to help out and that sort of thing. yeah, and they always are super appreciated to have nurse techs and right now, like when I'm working, I get to see the night shifters for two hours at beginning of my shift and then I get to help out day shifters when I'm there for the rest of my shift. So it's very flexible and gives you an opportunity to meet different people who work different shifts. So then piggybacking off of that then, do you feel like, like is this where you are practicing as a nurse tech right now, is that a place you'd want to be hired? Are you planning on sticking around in town? Are you moving? Like what does that look like for you? Yeah, so I do plan to stay in Spokane at least for the first couple years of my nursing career. I've loved every place that I've worked. My current rotation at Holy Family has been my favorite, I think. So, yeah, I definitely hope to stay around, hope to get a job somewhere. Awesome anyone that happens to be listening to this and is in hiring positions hire Jasmine. We're done. Okay, that's it This was the plug for Jasmine. That was the whole purpose of this podcast No, I mean with that being said I guess one final question about that then and I feel like obviously the answer seems pretty obvious but out of curiosity prior to entering the nurse tech program on a scale from 0 to 10 you're gonna rate both these because we were nurses we scale things right pain whatever the case may be so 0 to 10 your confidence level in whether it's just doing skills or just kind of nursing in general. What do you feel like the number was prior to entering that nurse tech program and the number now as you're standing here today? Before I entered the program, boy, it was also my second semester, so I'm still a little baby nurse. I would say like maybe a four out of 10 confidence. And then now being in the nurse tech role, I feel like much more confident, maybe like an eight out of 10. I'm not 100 % yet. I haven't done the whole nurse thing yet, but it's definitely improved it a ton. I mean, doubled it just by numerical standards, so... If that's not a... more prepared to go into the nursing world knowing what I'm getting myself into and knowing the role of a nurse. and I love that program for that. wish that had existed back when I was in school and that sort of thing, but you know what? It exists now and hopefully in many areas. Anyone who happens to be listening outside of some, you're there going, well, man, my school doesn't have this program, then tell them about it and see if they can't partner up with some of the hospitals and medical partners in the community to make that happen because I think the other side of it is like you said. it's benefiting you 100 % as a student and as a new nurse, which is really the key piece. And on the flip side, mean, right? Everybody in the ED that's working with you, they get to know Jasmine. And it's almost like, you know, it's a however long interview, super long interview, right? Like you're just showing up, doing your stuff. Yes, for both of you. Cause you're also gauging that facility and like, I don't, yeah. Awesome, awesome. Well, it- Not Holy Family, sorry, Holy Family, she loves you. That was already made clear. I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus. Jasmine's like, well, I was gonna get a job. Thanks a lot, Eric, that was great. All right, so what has been your pathway to where you're at in school right now? Yeah, so I started back in high school. I did started running start as early as I could, my junior of high school. And yeah, I started doing like just my general undergrad work there and finished my last two years of high school doing like maybe one class at high school and then doing full time running start. And during all of that COVID hit, so I was kind of... It was very different. was all pretty much all college online and my high school classes online. So I was working a lot during that time. And then I graduated high school and spent another year. I did running start at Eastern. I don't know if I mentioned that Eastern Washington University. I spent one more year there doing finishing up my prereqs and the things I needed for nursing. And then during I started applying to nursing programs to WSU and yeah, now I'm in my second year at WSU. So it's been a long few years. Yes, very busy. But also very profitive and lucrative, I should say, yeah? Yeah, yeah, come a long way. That's amazing. So now you're in nursing school, almost done with it. What is life like in nursing school right now? Yes. It's been really good. I've enjoyed being in nursing school. I enjoy school in general. I always have. It's pretty busy right now. I'm doing my OB and pediatric rotations. So we're finishing those up. Those have been very enlightening and very different from anything I've done in clinical or as a nurse tech before. So those have been fun. And it's kind of like we're in our last couple weeks of our third semester and then next semester we have our practicum. so it's kind of we're all eager to finish up. and eager to see where we're gonna have our practicum. And yeah, it kind of feels like we're over the hump of most of the nursing school stress, I hope. But yeah, also trying to soak up the last bit of being a college student and yeah, trying to just soak up the moment right now. Yeah, yeah, just grabbing on to every last little bit of it that you can, right? Yeah, mm. And I think you just answered this, but I was gonna ask, do you know where your practicum is yet? And if not, when do you find out? Like, how is that determined for you? I don't know where it is yet. And I'm not entirely sure on the exact process. It seems like it changes slightly every semester at WSU. But I believe that most of it is off of my ETI predictor test, which is a test that tells you you take it and it basically gives you a number of how likely you are to pass your NCLEX. And so based off of that test, I think that's determines most of it of where and then from that you kind of give your preferences of what kind of departments you want to have your practicum in. So I think I don't find out until mid semester my fourth semester so I'm pretty sure I won't hear until maybe March. So yeah yeah still a little bit they make you wait until the last minute. man, but that's okay, because in the meantime, you've got things to do. Awesome. Well, with the exposure that you've had in nursing school and as a nurse tech and in the world of nursing, what is it that you've found that you love most about nursing? I love that nursing is a lot of little different things. It's not one job that we're committed to for the rest of our lives. We get to do a little bit of ultrasound. We get to do a little bit of medications. We get to do a little bit of teaching. a whole lot of emotional encouragement to patients. So it's a lot of, I like that nursing is a really good mix of different aspects of taking care of people and being in healthcare. Yeah. And it is. It's one of the most rewarding professions, partially for those reasons that you just said. You know what mean? Just going through, helping people through times of their life. I mean, do you feel like, and you don't have to unpack the details of your history and your father's death and that unless you want to, but do feel like your history has informed like how you're going to it? But you said this has kind of helped you decide to go into nursing. So do you feel like it'll kind of inform your practice? And what does that look like for you? What do you think that specifically provides for you in the nursing field? Yeah, I definitely think that it played a big role in me going into nursing and I think that it will definitely provide a little bit of guidance on who I am as a person but also who I am as a nurse. And I think going into nursing, I have some goals of being very empathetic and... you know, going past the surface level of taking care of people. I just want to be able to be kind of what I've experienced is, you know, giving people the benefit of the doubt and seeing past their current circumstances and consistently being somebody's cheerleader. regardless of who they are or what they're going through. So, yeah, I think I want to just go a little deeper into nursing and lean into that. And I think another reason that I really am excited to be going into nursing is just that even when we do have hard days, which I know will come, I've already had hard days just in the process of going through the schooling to be nurse, I just want to be able to feel rewarded in what I'm doing. Even if my days are hard and they suck and I had a really bad day, at least I can walk away knowing that this isn't a job that just anybody could do and that I am making a difference even if your patients can't appreciate it in the moment or your boss yells at you or whatever's going on, it definitely gives me peace to know that it's making a difference. It's an impactful job and that I have a very honored place in my career. Well well said and we need your heart in nursing that's the exact kind of heart and especially in the ED I mean, you know and that makes me think too and and let me know if this is a question that might be a little too difficult to answer in your current phase of life right now but in the ER in the ED the emergency department, there's a lot of I Guess one of the perceptions from those that are outside the ED or who have minimal interaction with the ED is you have those what they call frequent flyer patients, right? Whether they're quote unquote seeking narcotics or whatever the case may be, or they just want a warm place to, you know what I mean, lay their head for a night. I've heard some jaded nurses without being, you know what I mean, I'm not trying to be condescending, but I've heard nurses that are like, they're just in for a sandwich and a nice warm something to drink and da da. I get that the emergency room isn't necessarily the place for that. It's for emergencies, but obviously in our healthcare system, the emergency room is kind of a catch-all for a lot of things. So with that being said, knowing that and having your experience as a nurse tech in the ER, how do you feel like you personally, given that heart that you have, do you have plans on how to protect that heart, how to... not get to that place years down the road where you're looking at these patients and just going, ugh, there's Joe again. You know what I mean? Can you speak toward that? yeah. I think my life and my experience in nursing has taught me that it's all about perspective. And I found that working in the ED, of course, we do get frequent flyers or patients that are maybe not in... immediate crisis and that's just part of, like you said, part of what our ED is right now in our healthcare system. And I feel like whenever I encounter those patients, the biggest way that I'm able to kind of cope with that is just treating all of my patients. They're all somebody going through something. And whether that's something that we would expect in the ED or something we maybe don't fully understand, we're all people. We're all going through something. We're all doing what we feel like is best in our current moment in our current life. So just I try to just encounter all of those patients like they're like they're just like everybody else, just maybe going through something challenging and just trying to get through life the best way they know how. Yeah, trying to be understanding of the fact that I might not understand it, but basically that... We're trying to care for them where they're at. Yeah. Awesome. And trying to combat, you know, some of those misconceptions of maybe, you know what mean, because we don't know their story. We don't know that person's story. know them yet and yeah, it is challenging. I think that's a skill that I'll continue to build throughout my nursing career, but I definitely do see some nurses who said those things and acted those ways that you mentioned and it is difficult for sure. And I do expect to go through that difficulty wherever I end up in nursing. But yeah, I hope that I can just continue to see patients as a, know. trying to cope through life and there's somebody in there just trying to do what they can. So, yeah. Then the first part of that question then too being how do you looking forward as a nurse in order to try and in your own self prevent burnout or getting jaded, things of that nature. You mentioned having a support system having gone through what you went through. I imagine you still have a very strong support system, but what are your plans to protect yourself when it comes to that? Yeah, I think nursing school is a great little preview into learning how to balance work and non work life. And so I feel like. One of the biggest things is not overworking myself, which for me, I'm a go-go-go person and that's really hard for me to do because I'm very, very good at overloading myself. So learning to set boundaries and that that's okay, I think makes it a little more worthwhile. It makes it feel a little less just going through the motions to get it done kind of thing. And same thing with nursing. nursing school, mean dedicating your study time and also dedicating time to not study and to enjoy life where you're at right now. So I feel like nursing school kind of teaches us that a little bit and yeah, trying to, I've also tried to make a really good habit right now in life of in nursing school or at my job making sure I'm taking all my breaks and taking what I need. I found that when I'm taking my breaks, I'm taking my lunches, and I'm eating my meals, I feel much better. I feel more physically prepared, more mentally prepared. So just trying to remind myself to not overload myself and to take the breaks that I need. Awesome. No better words said. And this is something that I mean, I don't care what perspective you are listening to Jasmine from, whether you're a current nursing student or a long time nurse or a brand new nurse, those are all super important things because again, that's what's going to allow that career to not only, not only will it increase your career's longevity, but it'll increase the quality of that career as well. Yes. I hope that that works very well for you and that, you know, I guess kind of another piece of that too is you just adapt as you go along, right? Like, you know, if you find that something's not working, then let's add something else that does. Yeah, yeah, awesome. Well, I, you know, we've kind of briefly touched about misconceptions in the ER with patients and stuff like that. What are some of the biggest misconceptions that you've heard, whether they be about nursing school or nursing, that turned out not to be true? Okay, one of the biggest misconceptions I heard about nursing school was that you'll be miserable and have no time for anything except class and clinical and studying and that will be your life for two years. And that is very much not true. Yeah, I have been able to get through nursing school thus far with studying and work and still time to do things that are not school and work. So yeah, before I walked into nursing school, I was picturing like, okay, I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna get ready to go to school and I'm gonna go to school and I'm gonna come home and I'm gonna study and then I'm gonna save an hour for me to like get ready for bed and then go to bed and wake up and do it the next day. And that is just not how, not true. it's already hard enough as it is. That would be really bad if that were the case, right? yeah, and that's what I expected and that is not not true. Thank goodness And the other thing I kind of, heard mixed things about before I was actually in nursing school is that being a nurse is just taking orders and doing busy work and you go home. And that is also just very much not true. There is so much to what a nurse does. I've learned throughout my training and getting ready to finish up. Nurses are responsible for so much. are seriously miracle workers. They're so smart and so good at what they do. And yeah, I'm really excited to be a part of that. I feel like nurses have just so, so much to their job. And people who I feel like aren't in healthcare or don't work with nurses maybe have a little bit of a skewed idea of what we do. But yeah, nurses are responsible for... assessing their patients and understanding what's going on with their patient. And if something goes wrong, we're responsible for knowing what's going wrong and why that's going wrong and what might be causing it. And yeah, just learning how to take care of patients and to position patients and feed patients and do procedures on patients. There's just so much to it. I feel like nurses are also like the little wingman between different interprofessional teams. Like we're the people coordinating, managing everybody. So yeah, it's just, and we're cheerleaders. We are cheerleaders for our patients. So there's just so, so, so much to it. And I think I was like, initially scared before I was in nursing school I was like man like some people like maybe more seasoned nurses that I talked to were like you're hate it all I do is just run around and do stuff for my doctor and so learning just exactly how much and how important nurses are has been huge. Yeah, I mean, and you describe, again, those jaded nurses that might, you know, have a little more cynical outlook. And I think that's true of every profession, right? Like, think there's altruistic people that go into things and, man, I want to do the best. Like, you would be the best attorney if you decided to go that route. You would be the best attorney you can be. But you're going nursing, right? And so and then there are others that get into whatever field and you just become jaded and... and callous towards maybe the why that you got into it in the first place. I don't know. And so I guess that's kind of part of the other part of our little mission here is just hopefully encouraging everybody where you're at. This isn't, you're a jaded nurse. need to write you off. or you know what I mean? It's, it's, hey, if that's you, if you feel like you fit that bill, do some self reflection. You know what I mean? Like how can you become better for your peers, for your patients, that whole business beyond just encouraging people to be nurses to begin with, you know what I mean? And I thank you for your part in that. A couple more questions here before we start to pull this around, but what is the best advice that you, have received in your life? Yeah, I think the best piece of advice that I have received is just to push myself and set high standards for yourself and don't rely on handouts. You know, you have to be... there for yourself and push yourself and you're the one who's building your life and your character and you know, choosing how your future pans out. So yeah, you're responsible for your own life and I think that's pushed me a long ways to get to this point. And everything you're saying is a testament to that. So kudos to you, Jasmine. That's amazing. So I, and you've kind of touched on this one a little bit, but in kind of hand in hand with that, as far as advice and that sort of thing, you know, life doesn't just give you handouts. It hands you some pretty crappy stuff sometimes. So, you know, when it does, how to have you personally overcome those challenges, whether they be, you know, personal challenges or professional challenges. Yeah, I kind of mentioned this already, but a support system is huge. I feel like a lot of the things I personally went through was just so helpful to have a really good support system. I have my husband who is like my biggest fan and Definitely encourages me and has pushed me to do anything that I want to do in life I have my sister who obviously is also a nurse now and she's so helpful to have somebody who knows what I'm going through And I have a really great church support system. They've all been just such a blessing so I feel like support system is huge and also mindset I that's one thing that I've kind of lived off of through of my life and through nursing school is just your outlook is everything. Your perspective is everything. And obviously nursing school is tough, life is tough, and looking for the lessons in things, looking for the silver lining, I feel like helps me get through challenges. Mindset's everything. very much so. I cannot agree with that more. I look back, you know, even in my career and I think of those shifts that, you know, we have some amazing shifts and you have some shifts that you're like, why did I do this again? I don't understand. My motto is you can do anything for 12 hours, right? But there are some, some shifts that have pushed that to the limit. And when you go back and you think about some of the bad shifts that when I think about some of the bad shifts that I've had, Sure, some of them are circumstantial. Some of them are, you know, someone's tanking that you didn't expect or you experienced a death or you received a patient who has just the most sad of stories and it just breaks your heart. But other times, the shift was bad because I went into it with a bad attitude. Maybe something was going on at home. Maybe I, you know what I mean? The family, the friction or, know, whatever the case may be, who knows? Maybe somebody cut me off on the way to work. I don't know. But the point is, if you've got kind of a sour attitude to begin with, then if the circumstances don't cause that shift to go bad, you very well might just derail your own shift. you know, depending on if you're... I've been there where you're in that attitude and you're like, well, that wasn't the best of shifts and I don't care. I just, I got through it and I'm done and I turned in another day's work. Okay, that's great. And that's great if you're an accountant or you push paper or you don't deal with people. But when you deal with people, then you have a tendency to go, you know what, maybe I wasn't my best self for them. And that's where I, that's what, if I get that, if I can get to that moment after a bad shift, then that can help change that mindset. Like you're saying, maybe for that next shift. Cause guess what? Then we come home, we go to bed, we wake up and you gotta get ready to do it all over again. And so, yeah, I think that's very sound advice, Jasmine. Thank you, thank you. All right, well, circling back. to the three words you used to describe nursing school, what were they, and why'd you pick them? Yeah, so the first word I picked was rigorous, which for anybody in nursing school or has been through nursing school, you know that it's extremely rigorous and you sometimes really don't feel like you get a break. And that is true. It is a lot of work. And... I don't want to play that off in any way because that's been a huge portion of how nursing school is. Also, I feel like what a nurse does, it's hard work and nurses are responsible for a lot and have a big, big role. So I would say nursing school is very rigorous and that's worth noting. And then the second thing is collaborative. And all of these, feel like apply to nursing in general, but also for nursing school. I've kind of had a similar group of friends since, you know, the beginning of nursing school, and those are the people that are encouraging you and cheering you on and reminding you of that assignment you missed or keeping you accountable for when you're having a hard time studying. We lift each other up, dust each other off. And I feel like that's huge in nursing school. It's just having your people, having your group of people that you trust and trust to support you and you have the opportunity to support them. And then my third word I said is rewarding. nursing school is rewarding. you have an opportunity to continue and to improve and learn and it doesn't wait for you. So it, I know that it's just an opportunity to just learn more and more about a career that is rewarding. And like I said, even on the hard days that sucked and you had a really hard time, you know that you're doing something that matters and is meaningful. Yeah, those are my three words. and very good ones at that. All right, well, Jasmine, nobody listened to anything. This is it. Somehow they've just landed right here and you have one chance to give them something to walk away from your episode with. What is that one piece of advice you'd have for today's nursing student? My biggest piece of advice is embrace all the victories and the challenges of nursing school and becoming a nurse and know that you have so much potential and so many possibilities. So just lean in, embrace the moment and know that you're going to make it out. I promise. Jasmine, thank you. So encouraging, so uplifting. And I can't thank you enough for taking your time to really just expose some wisdom and get some truth nuggets out there to people who will listen to this episode and go, my gosh, yeah, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. So thank you so much, Jasmine. I greatly appreciated it. Awesome, you have a wonderful rest of your day. thanks.