106 - Cade Riddle: Doing the Thing(s)

Join nursing student and Parrish, Alabama native Honored Guest Cade Riddle as he chats about being in a joint enrollment program, simultaneously obtaining his ADN and BSN, managing stress, why he chose nursing, and more!

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Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Feeding Our Young podcast. Today, I'm not gonna mince any words. I'm not gonna blather my gums on and on and on to start this thing because I'm sitting with someone who, man, just maximizes his time. Maximizes it in a way that I am just, it's super inspiring and I can't wait for you to hear about how that works. So I'm not gonna take advantage of his time. We're gonna honor the time we have together and get him talking right away. So, welcoming to studio Mr. Cade Riddle. Cade, how you doing today, sir? I'm doing good, how are you? I am doing great, thank you. The sun is actually out up here in Washington. And at this time of the year, that's a hit or miss thing. So it makes my wife happy, it makes many of my kids happy, Eric, it makes me happier. So let's not waste any time here. Where are you from? Go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell us where you're from. And yeah, let's just start with that. I'm from Parrish, Alabama, which is located in Walker County, Alabama. I've always been here. That's where I've always resided, that's where I've stayed. And now I'm on the Sumiton campus at Beville State Community College. Beville State Community College. I've heard that somewhere before. I feel like I've virtually met a couple people from there maybe. No, I appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to talk about. let's just jump right into this whole degree mess here because it's not a mess. You have it quite organized. Yeah, you're going to Beville State Community College. Amazing. So that must mean you're only getting your associates. Is that right? Yeah, at the Beville State Community College, I'm getting my associates, but I'm in the Joint Enrollment Program, which is a partnership with UAB, where at the same time, I'm taking the BSN courses. And when I graduate, I will have both degrees at the same time. at the same time. So that is like, it's a different form of acceleration. So I cannot wait to ask you all about that. So in the meantime, what are three words you would use to describe nursing school? Three words I would use to describe nursing would be different, fast, and challenging. Especially if you're associate's level classes and bachelor level classes at the same time. But we know it's challenging no matter what, right? And then two of our other now new normal opening intro questions. Do you have three favorite songs in life right now? Three songs right now that I seem to have on repeat right now would be Couldn't Make It Any Harder by Serena Carpenter Oscar-winning Tears by Ray and Die With a Smile with Lady Gaga and Brandmark I'm gonna check out all three of those. I like that. Especially though can't make it any harder. Like, come on now. That should be like an anthem for nursing school, right? All right, so with that then our unofficial feeding our young personality test. Cade, as I've warned you, I'm going to spring five questions on you. Five questions that you have not prepared for, is that correct? There's a little nervous chuckle there. That's okay, we're gonna treat you well. I'm gonna respect ya, but they're gonna come at you rapid fire. You can give just a straight answer. If you wanna give rationale, you can, but when we're done with these five questions, we'll know exactly what kind of person you are. Are you ready? Here he goes, he's ready for anything. All right, first of all, are you Team Pie or Team Cake? I am Team Pie. Yeah, all right, okay, ability to fly or breathe underwater. I'm probably flat. Would you rather instantly learn a new language or instrument? probably a new language. Okay. And fourth question. Is Wham's song, Last Christmas, actually a Christmas song? I consider it a Christmas song. Alright, okay, and number five, the last one, hardest of them all. You have been granted a time machine. Congratulations. Are you going back in time, or are gonna go see the future? I'll probably go see the future. Okay, I love it! So the results are in. You're amazing. So there it is, there it is. The unofficial feeding our young personality test. I don't know what we're gonna do with this. We'll probably change it down the road. I kind of figure so far anyone we've done this with, their episode has not aired as of today. And so I'm like, well, the day that the first person who did this, the day that airs, will probably be the day I'm up to at least change the questions or drop it entirely. I don't know. Well, thanks for playing. And that's it. That's Kate, everybody. Have a great day. Just kidding. All right, so let's jump right into it. Talk to us about this dual enrollment thing. I can't imagine there's a lot of people doing that. You know what mean? Give us all the details, man. Give us the skinny. So like we said there is three from this campus who are in this program and then there's Fayette campus only has two and that's the complete total for Beville State College is five students in the program from Beville. Wallace State is also does the joint enrollment along with Jeff State. They do it and they have about the same amount of students at each campus so not really a lot gets added to it each year. This is actually Beville's first year doing it, so we're kind of like the guinea pigs of the program. See how they change everything after we're done with it. yeah, we take our regular nursing classes here in person. We'll do like our clinicals, everything. And then online, we have our bachelor's classes. So we'll take them. So we have two nursing BSN classes online with UAV right now on top of our nursing class in person. But it's just, it's set to, so that, They can get more nursing students, I guess, out there in their careers since it's such a high demand right now. And they can go ahead and have their bachelor's degree in advance in such a short amount of time. Wow. So for those of us that are not from that amazing beautiful area that I can't wait to visit someday, UAB, what does that stand for? That's University of Alabama at Birmingham. It's located in Birmingham, Alabama, which isn't too far from here. But it's a big O college, big O university. So the, is the, and not trying to inflate your ego, good sir, but is this like a competitive process? How do students get selected to enter this? I know we have to we have to have all our prerequisites done before you can get in the program and it's got a lot more than the traditional nursing program does. We also you the ACT score is a little higher on it so you have to have a 20 on it instead of an 18. From how they choose students into it I really don't know how that process goes but I know you have to have all this stuff done to get into it. So then, by doing this dual enrollment, I can't imagine on the Bevill State side, do they lessen your load, or is this just extra on top of what everybody already has to do? We can I guess it's considered extra on what we have to do though you do we do everything they do here on top of having those two extra nursing classes on top of it And so this whole thing, it takes about two years to get, and then at the end of two years, you have both degrees in hand. Yeah, it's about five semesters and once we graduate we'll graduate with our associates at Liverpool and our bachelors at UAB. And do you, are they gonna, like do you get to walk in like two commencements? Like how does that work? Yeah, we'll have two graduations, two pinnings, one here and one at UAB. Double the celebration, that is incredible. Oh, Cade, I'm almost, I'm kind of envious. I'm already a nurse, already have my bachelors, but I'm like, I kinda wanna go back and do that. But actually, no I don't, I'm talking just crazy talk now. So then I'm really curious then to get your perspective on nursing school. because let's face it, first of all, you're a male nursing student. So let's talk about that just for a second. Obviously, coming from that background, being a male in the nursing world, there's more of us out there, but it's still, we're still the minority. How big is your class size and how many of you are gentlemen? Our class size has about close to 40 students in it right now and out of all of them including me there's like four or five males in the class. So about 10 % or so. Okay, so then, I mean, and you can speak towards your perspective as being one of the only male students in there, but also, more importantly, what is it like going through nursing school? I guess nursing school's, plural. What is that like for you? What does that look like on the daily? How do you manage that stress? Right now, well, it ain't too bad right now, but I mean, we like the way our schedule works, we are here in lab two days a week and lecture two days a week, but it ain't usually but like two to four hours per day. So we kind of have all that extra time to do all our studying and our work for UAB, any free time that we can get. So that kind of helps really the stress but. Man, yeah. I'm like, I'm hearing that sigh. I'm like, ooh, that's, it's, still got, and so let me back up. So you are in your first semester then? Okay, so it's just starting. Cause I'm like, I'm hearing you say, like, you know, you're like, you know, it's not too bad right now, but I know it's gonna get worse in a little while. Awesome. So do you, I mean, how do you, so let's say, it's not super stressful at the moment, but you know it's coming down the pike. How are you going to, do you have plans in place to try and weather those storms? What does that look like? I'm done. I'm good. think right now I'm just kind of going with the flow. We're just going to figure it out when we get there really. mean, it's not this. Yeah. Oh, I absolutely love it. So are you working alongside all of this? Are you able to focus completely on nursing school? I am not working during this because when we were doing the joint enrollment, they recommend that you don't work through it. They've had students go through it, but it don't really do well when they work because they don't have all that focus on it. Yeah. So do you know how long UAB's had this kind of, like you said, this is, you're the guinea pigs for Beville State, but how long has UAB had this program reached out to other area colleges? If I, they've had it for about two to four years already with the other colleges. So, I mean, this is all just, I mean, fresh, like post pandemic, mid pandemic, that sort of thing. Wow. That's just, it's so inspiring. And Kate, my hat's off to you, man. I mean, I don't care if you're only in your first semester, you're doing the thing, right? And again, the things, plural. This is the title of your episode, like plural, just plurality, S, whatever. I don't know. Okay, enough about that. Is there anything else you want to share about how you feel about nursing school or, you know, whether it's... your male perspective or just starting off? What does it feel like finally starting off and chasing after these degrees? It feels great starting off, know, glad I finally reached this point, you know, and I'm hoping it stays great during the rest of the time in it. But, you know, so far doing good. I'm liking it. well, and everyone I've had the privilege of meeting so far from Bevill State has just top-notch quality people. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just, you guys are all amazing. You're absolutely outstanding. So, and again, as evidenced by the fact that you are here today, you know, 12 now, 12.15-ish your time, in the afternoon, you said you just completed classes, the rest of your day is free, and you're like, well. I said, I'm gonna sign up and do this thing with Eric. Sounds great. So I can't thank you enough and anyone who's listening can't thank you enough. It's great getting your perspective. So let's back up a little bit then. You're finally there, you're finally doing the thing and you kind of use that word finally. Why nursing? How'd you end up in nursing? Like talk to us about that journey. Since I was young I've always wanted to get help people I've always wanted to and I've had like my cousins and stuff go through nursing and so it's just kind of like well maybe I'll do that and then in high school we have in Jasper Alabama the Walker County Center Center of Technology and it's like a it's for kids to go to to get the information and you know teachings they need and once they graduate they can easily get jobs in that field they go in. And health science is one of them so I went through it and it helped a lot with wanting to go to the nursing, helped prepare you for it and all that and it's just kind of how I got here. So are your cousins, you said your cousins, they're actively nurses or they're going to nursing school? They have already graduated. are actively working right now. And if that's something you're willing to share, or they're okay with you sharing, like do you know what areas are they practicing it? I'm not too sure. know one of them, just graduated not too, like about a year ago, not too long. So she's been still kind of getting through. Another one, he spit out for a little bit, but he kind of moves around a thing with it. So, right. So then that begs the natural question. You're just starting, but do you have any idea kind of what areas might pique your interest so far? So far I'm thinking ER or ICU. and why those areas in particular. I like a more fast paced area. I don't really want to work in some kind of slow paced or the same thing. I like it different, you know. Yeah, something new every day, not knowing necessarily what's gonna roll through the door. Oh man. Oh, well that's, we'll just be the yin, I'll be your yin, my, what am I trying to say? I'll be the yin to your yang, or the yin, you know what mean? Like, cause I'm the opposite, man. Like I am not no thank you, I knew straight away, I'm like, mm, ED nursing, that's not for me. So, but we need incredible. ED nurses, ICU nurses, and I'm excited for your career. And the fact that you're doing, you know, kind of the associates and bachelor level stuff all at the same time, man, that's kind of, that's, you're gonna, you know what I mean? I feel like that's gonna prepare you even more to be able to handle like all that stimulus all at the same time and being able to make those decisions and stuff. So, man, I can't wait to hear more about your journey as you go, you know what I mean? Down the road, you're gonna keep in touch, right? Like we're gonna know, yes, that's what I'm talking about. All right, well, Cade, I appreciate that. And I appreciate you talking to us about, you know, kind of your nursing journey and where you're at right now. Now I want to know a little bit more about Cade. So like some icebreaker questions, for example, like if you had to consider yourself, if you had to say, have a superpower, what would your superpower be? If I had a super power, mine would have to be... I asked the hard-hitting questions here on feeding our young. fits. I guess it would have to be like count the flash speed, you know, moving fast, getting through. Lining right up with that ER ICU bend you got there. That's amazing. Awesome. Would you like to talk about your family? Do you have family? Do you have pets? What is Cade's support system look like? Yes, my mom and dad, very supportive of my career endeavors. And I do have a twin who we are fraternal twins, completely opposite of each other though. Not that a lot. Okay, so we got we have almost 20 minutes into your episode before we find out the Cade's a twin. This is amazing. So complete opposite. So what is your you and you can name drop if you think they're okay with it, but What's the name your twin? We have where and you said fraternal. So he she I'm not sure and where where they go and what are they doing? His name is Gage and he is going into electrical right now. He's doing like an apprenticeship and working in another time. It ain't really like a college that he's going to, but it's some type of schooling program they offer where he works that he's going to get his degree through. That's incredible. Are you? So, okay. Then we gotta, we have to know who's first. Who's the oldest? He is the oldest by minutes Yeah, yeah all right, that's okay. We're talking with the younger brother, Mr. Cade. Grab it onto his ankle. Let me, I'm coming out. Take me with you. No, that's amazing, that's amazing. You mentioned you had cousins in the healthcare field. Did anybody else in your family that you know of or might've inspired you to become a nurse? Like anyone else in the healthcare field? Not really, it's just really, how about the two cousins that are really in the healthcare field? I'm just kind of about it in my family, really. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. So then, you know, using that word inspiring, I don't like to use it loosely. Who or what inspires you most? I think my inspiration comes from my need to want to help people. And this inspires me, like one day thinking, I'll be able to help somebody or fix something to it, you That's awesome. That's awesome. And that's all you need, right? Like just the idea that you're going through this hardship, next, know, whatever comes your way through dealing with two different programs at the same time. And yet on the other side of that, what this does is it gives you the ability to reach out and help people. Like that's your why. And we've said it on this podcast before and you likely already know, but that's the why that is sometimes going to be maybe the only thing that gets you through this test you dread or you know what mean? Like whatever the challenge is, a clinical situation that you're like, my gosh, have you been to clinicals yet? We have not yet. We're fixing to start within the next couple of weeks. it's coming. It's coming down the pipe. Okay, so this is awesome. Rarely do we get students on the podcast who have yet to get like step foot on day one in clinical. So then in that, what do you do first? Do know what's coming? Like what is your first experience clinical wise? Do you know? And I know we haven't really got our schedules just yet. We're fixing to I do know that we'll have like two days in a nursing home and two days in the hospital. Oh, okay, and you're doing that simultaneously. Yeah, they'll have it, they could have it like, we'll do it like a Monday and a Wednesday, or they do it like Wednesdays, Wednesdays. It can kind of range depending on where we go. Interesting. knowing that that's coming down the pike and knowing you haven't, I'm assuming you have, have you worked as like a nurse's assistant or anything like that at all prior to? Any experience? Okay. It's like I'm looking at a mirror, man. you know what mean? I worked in medical records, so there was at least that, but I did not, like a lot of my peers at the community college I started out at, you know, they all coming in and. man, they've been nurse's assistants for years or they did it for just that six months or something just to get fresh and to get a hands-on feel. And the rest of us are like, I don't know. I don't wanna speak for anybody else. That's how I felt. I felt like I was at a disadvantage coming out of that, which turns out not to be true. But the point is, how do you feel? Like What are your feelings about clinical coming up? Are you nervous? Are you excited? Is this something that you dread? this something, you know what mean? You're not there yet. You haven't experienced yet. What are you anticipating? What do you expect it to be like? I mean, right now, think I'm a little nervous to start. I mean, I'm not so excited, but I really don't know what to expect just yet. I mean, all kinds of stuff going on. Yeah, but like you said, you kind of have this model of taking it one day at a time and seeing what's coming down. You know what mean? You're like, I'm ready for it. Let's go. Oh, that's amazing. Well, I'm excited for your future patients, both as a nurse, a student nurse, and as a nurse in the field. So with that, Cade, is there, before we go back to our traditional ending questions and things like that, is there anything else on your heart that you want to share about nursing, about yourself, about your journey? that I can think of that we haven't really covered already. And if anyone's listening to you that is going, man, I'm thinking about nursing, but I'm not sure. I really want to do it, but I don't know if it's worth the time and the effort and anything like that. Like if anyone's kind of in that camp, what advice would you give to them? The advice I'd give them is do it, but also be confident in yourself to do it. You know, cause it really takes confidence to do it. If you don't believe in yourself, you ain't gonna do it. And if you do do it, you won't exceed in it. But I think you need to have a passion for it in order to get into it. It's not for everybody. You know, you gotta be prepared for all of it. I mean, it's whatever their heart is set on, but I mean, you really need to be sure if you're gonna do it. I wouldn't start if you're not gonna be sure. I love it. I love it. So with that, you chose three words to describe nursing school. What were they and why did you pick them? I chose the three words I chose at the beginning was different, fast, and challenging. I chose different because it's way different than like any other type of schooling you do or anything. Everything's completely different. way it's set up, test, everything, the work, everything's completely different. I chose the word fast because well, it's moving very fast already, very fast-paced. Getting through a lot already. The semester's already halfway almost done already. It's moving a lot faster than I thought it would. And then I put challenging, because it is challenging, especially with the Joint Aromatherapy program with two other nursing classes on top of it. It has your challenges with it. You get challenged with your skills and all that you have to do. Especially with your friends, if you compete with them, who does better than either? But it's all very challenging for sure. Awesome. Awesome. It is. two thoughts that pop into my brain while you're saying that is that first of all, you're not going to know any different as far as like you personally and the two other peers from Bevill State that's going in this dual enrollment program. You guys genuinely won't really know any different like how much more challenging that might be compared to if you didn't. You know what mean? Obviously, you know there's that you expect a certain level of increased challenge. But the beautiful part is it's challenging anyway. So. You're like, let's just knock it all out. Oh, that's awesome. and the second thing, the second thing, I mean, the other thing that kind of popped into my mind, you're talking about like, you know, it's so fast and you're already feeling like it's fast. know, clinicals are going to be here, you know, essentially tomorrow, even though it's a couple of weeks free, you're going to be like, oh, here I am. I'm in clinicals. And it's so true. Cause like, there's that old saying that the days are long, but the years are short. And so you're gonna have days in the nursing school where you're like, I've got so much to do, like there's not enough hours, I'm gonna, this is insane. And yet when you reach that end of it, and even the end of every semester, every quarter, whatever, you know what I mean? You're gonna look back and go, oh, that part's done. Oh, this whole thing's done. Wow, that's insane. And so I just love that you're super powered. You're talking about being speedy like the Flash. It just fits right into one of the three words you picked. You're like, I'm ready for the run. Let's make this happen. So with that, One last thing, Mr. Cade, if anybody who's listening to your episode, they're just, nothing sticks, nothing lands in that brain of theirs, I know how that works for me sometimes, and all they hear is this last thing that you wanna share that's on your heart. What is the one thing? you want nursing students to walk away from with your episode. The one thing is, don't worry or stress over anything through the nursing school process. It'll all go smoothly so far. mean, from what I've seen, like, just don't stress over it. I mean, you'll get through it. I mean, it may take time, but you can do it. I just, man, I love you. You're like, you've got that perfect mix of like, okay, I wanna go in the ER, I wanna go in the ICU, I'm dual enrolling and doing two different degree programs at the same time, which usually indicates someone who's like, you know what I mean? High strung, type A, let's go, let's go, let's go. And yet you're also like, don't worry about it, we're gonna take it one day at a time, I'm sure it's gonna be great, don't stress. Like, you know what mean? Be confident. You're that perfect mix of like, I'm gonna kick some and I'm not gonna worry too much while I do it. awesome. Well, Kate, I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your afternoon after getting done with classes to share some wisdom, share some insight and give us your inspiring story. So thank you. I hope you have an amazing rest of your day, sir. You too, and I was very excited to do this. It's very fun. And so, okay, before we close, close, close, I'm getting it on recording. You're open to doing like a repeat episode. Hopefully this thing's still running. And in two years down the road when you're about to graduate, you're willing to come back on and tell us what it was like and if everything you said today is still true. Yes, let's do it. That's what I'm talking about. All right, and then we can find out about your brother's progress as well. It'd be great. We'll get updates. Updates on the Riddle family. Okay, thank you so much, Kate. Have a good day, my man. You too.