143 - Haleigh Gibson: Sometimes it Stings at First, and It’s Okay

Join nurse and Curlew, Washington native Honored Guest Haleigh Gibson as she articulates the oddity of wearing masks, her initial foray into dental hygiene, following your heart and gut, how to develop that gut instinct, how to communicate a clinical picture to a provider, go-to-girls, the value of your first RN position,  kindness, being in charge of your own learning, being present, pursuing further education, and more!

Contact us:
thanks@feedingouryoung.org to send a note of appreciation to any of our honored guests - let them know how they touched you - I'll make sure they read your praises!
info@feedingouryoung.org all other inquiries, including having host Eric Miller speak to your nursing students or nurses!
+1 (509) 666-5636 text/voicemail line

Follow us:
@feedingouryoungllc Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube

Many thanks:
Jon Holland (Jomarkho - found on SoundCloud, Spotify, and the like) Music - intro/outro/sting composition
10com Web Development Logo and website design
Jeff Burton (88 Creative) Planting and watering the seeds to start this podcast

Transcript

0:02

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Feeding Our Young podcast. So as I often do when there's things going on behind the scenes, I'm going to throw out a disclaimer only because this summer is turning out to be just as fun as last summer. I won't get into details. I'll spare all y'all the boring details. But long story short, it's been a rough few days here in my household. And so if at all I'm not as upbeat or morose, morose, I'd probably be more morose. ah If I'm not as upbeat as I usually am, that's why. But that being said, I'm not canceling on our wonderful honored guest today because she's incredible and she is absolutely worth my time and worth your time as well. And so with that, without further ado, I'd like to introduce the one, the only, Haleigh Dibson. Haleigh, how are you this afternoon? I'm a wonderful, happy to be here. I love what you do with this podcast and with nursing students in general. So making my day. well thank you. And you are making mine. Like I said, this is a nice little oasis in the midst of a storm. And I'm just excited to talk all things nursing and all things Haleigh. So we'll start off with all things Haleigh. And I won't uh mince about it all. And we'll just get right to the point. So Haleigh, um are you a nursing student? Are you a nurse? I am a nurse. graduated from, I got a dual degree from Eastern and WSU for my BSN in December of 2019. 2019. Yes. So that makes me on my sixth year. Completed five. Yeah. As I've told people on this podcast, tell people and as I've mentioned on this podcast before, anyone who started their nursing career during the height of the pandemic gets extra credit, I feel like. Much like dog years, right? My first day as a nurse was either March 1st or March 2nd of 2020. So I do know one week pre-pandemic life. Wow. Wow. So, okay, well, yeah, I have to ask it here, otherwise I'll forget. Did it feel weird for you then, Haleigh, when masks were finally lifted? Yes, I So I started on orientation on Dayshift, right? That's usually where you get oriented and So Dayshift knew my face Nightshift never got to and So when I would take my mask off people or like see people at the store, they wouldn't recognize me I'd be like I lost my co-worker and I'd wave Be like, what are you doing? They'd seriously, because the bottom half of your face makes such a big difference. So anyway, that was interesting. And then, of course, in the beginning when it was the, you need to wear one, now you can't wear one, now you have to wear one, back and forth. So yeah, but yeah, it freeing, so freeing. It was amazing to me to see just how much wearing a mask all the time changed the look of people. Yeah, and you're like, oh, you look a little different than my brain was trying to process. Anyway. made your mouth way different than that. What yeah, why is that? What is the anyway? Okay? We're gonna spend the whole episode just pontificating about this very topic. All right, so Haleigh, where are from? I grew up, well I was born on the west side of Washington in Seattle area. I lived there until I was about four and me and my sister and my mom moved to Curlew, Washington, which is a little town about 10 miles south of the Canadian border on the east side. Very, very rural. And so that's where I call home. I lived there from the time I was four to the time I was eighteen. Went to school in one school pre-K through twelve. So that's home for sure. Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine. I mean, I didn't grow up in a big, big city, but it was big enough. Like, golly, we had three high schools, now they have four. It's like, it's insane. one, think the, it ebbs and flows of course with people moving in, moving to and out of Curlew area and the areas, like the geographical area is so big for like the school district. I would say like 200 to 230 kids total. my gosh. my gosh. Wow. That is, that is... with everybody, you have to be. Yeah, you just, you know everybody so well. You know their mom, their grandma, their... There's no escaping. That's so, yeah, I mean, so cool and also, it's a double-edged sword, right? Pros and cons to all of that. ah Well then, the other standard opening questions, my friend. uh What three words did you use to describe nursing school? Okay, I picked, I have these three words, and if I could have four, I would add one, but I'll do my top three. So my, okay. So number one is opportunity, and my second one is connections. My third one is resilience. Nice. And the fourth little impromptu one is kindness. okay, well, I'm gonna have you talk about all four at the end. Look at you sneaking in number four. You're the first honored guest to have four words to describe nursing school. And I'm sure there's... I get it, I get it. Because the following question I cheated on in our listening, in our Spotify playlist that we have here, I cheated on that and I have five songs on this playlist because I couldn't decide. But... Because I created it, I justified it. I'm like, if I can ever narrow it down, I'll delete the two that need to go away. But on that note, what are your three favorite songs in life right now? Okay, well, specifically in the summertime, I am a reggae girl. I love reggae music. em uh One of my favorite songs right now, think it's called, I'm gonna butcher the name, I should have done my homework. I think it's called Orange Sky by The Movement. And I love it because the premise of the song is to not just live for the weekend. I love it because especially in nursing, if you only lived for the weekend, for one you worked the weekend, so that would not work. But you just do something that fills your cup, even if it's a tiny thing. Like right now I'm sitting here having my coffee hour with you. And that's, you know, like doing something for me, because that's my favorite part of night shift, is having coffee hour. Can't have that on day shift. without getting up at four in the morning. So anyway, another song that I love and I'm gonna continue with my reggae theme is the Bob Marley song, it's One Love. And I love that one, it's just nostalgic to me. Reminds me of my grandpa and growing up, I grew up in Curlew like we talked about and I lived about a mile from him and so I spent a lot of time on his porch. and it was always Bob Marley playing, so. that's cool. And another one I'm gonna go off topic, not reggae. ah I love the Dixie Chicks. Totally not reggae. Yeah, that's a little far from the reggae vibe, for sure. totally far, but uh they have good stories in their songs and they're just so raw and real. Yeah, awesome. Any particular song that jumps out to you right now. Honestly, no. I wish there was. But I think I could sing any of them by heart. I'll spare you, but I could. guys, stay tuned. Maybe we can get her to do it by the end of the episode. Just kidding. Alright, Now, a few questions about you, then we're going to dive into our conversation about nursing. So first of all, one of the topics I know you wanted to talk about was your fur babies. Who are they? so I have Henry who I got myself as a Christmas present to myself right after I got my first nursing job. He's a little long-haired golden wiener dog and I love him so much. He's such a good boy. He... No, you know, I didn't even know that Hank was sure for Henry until somebody told me. I had no idea and somebody said, why don't you call him Hank? I said, why? His name's Henry. And then they explained, Hank is short for Henry. So no, I've never called him Hank, but he's probably 12 pounds and just a little. Rugged with a heartbeat, really. He would go anywhere with me. If I could carry him around in one of those little baby wraps, he'd be content. So I got very lucky that he's such a good, mellow dog because I got him right when I started working night shift and anybody who's ever done that knows how big of a transition it is for your life. And if I would have not, having a dog that would sleep with me all day and then I could leave and he would sleep all night was, if I didn't have that, probably wouldn't have been able to have a dog. Yeah, for sure. Aww. And then I have Rainier, who me and my boyfriend Tanner got in summer of 2023. And he's a black lab. And he's opposite of Henry. He's lots of energy and loves to swim. But he's also really good. He also sleeps with me at night or during the day sometimes. So he's also a better night shift dog than most. This all sounds very hot, having these animals all about you. ah So a couple questions more about you and your personality. uh what day in your lifetime would you like to relive? there was a day where almost my entire family went on a trip to Maui. And we were all just hanging out at the beach and having like a great day. We went for my grandpa's 70th, my mom's 50th, and my aunt's 40th. And I think we got like 25 of us to Maui, which is really wild. And it was, we had like gone on this amazing hike and then got to go to the beach and then had like a nice dinner after and. It was at a time in my life where I really needed some like good family relaxation time. I just remember being so grateful for that day. So I definitely, it sounds to me as though family's important to you and uh that's just incredible and I'm happy to have you talk about that again a little bit later. But kind of along the intro, I definitely am looking at the time and I wanna talk a little bit more about nursing. But before I do, I have to ask you, because you look vaguely familiar to me, do I, like, you look, I feel like I've seen you before or met you somewhere before or, I don't, there's just something familiar about you. Do I, like, oh I don't think I've met you, Eric. I think you must be having mistaken me for somebody else. I do have a face that's like that. People say that about me all the time. Like they feel like they've seen you somewhere before that you weren't there. Interesting. uh Well, okay, sorry about that. Maybe that won't even make the episode, because that's weird. I lean into my blondness. So, enough about that. More about Haleigh, and specifically nursing related. So why nursing? Why did you get into the nursing field? When I was in college, like I said, I have a sister and she were very close in age and she knew that she wanted to go into nursing. And so I was like, well, that's what I know I'm not gonna do. Here we are. So I've said. I knew I had the same interest. loved, I love people. I love science. love like anatomy and physiology and health. love health. I really like to take care of myself and clearly others as I'm a nurse. So, but I kind of like pushed that aside. I was like, well, what else can I do? That's kind of like this. That's not nursing. And I went, was going, doing my prereqs at Eastern at the time. Mm-hmm. a lot of the nursing prereqs and the dental hygiene prereqs lined up together. And so I was like, perfect. This is great. I'll just do this and it'll be the same. Wrong. I was really incorrect. So I did all my prereqs. I applied to this program. They have a very extensive interview process. I think they take 40 people a year. and their entry and so I went through this interview process. I got in, I paid my deposit and I was like, uh well I feel like I should be happier. This was an amazing accomplishment. They tell us in our interviews, phenomenal job, this is a very hard program to get into and I was like, why do I just not feel right? I just didn't have the gut. My gut didn't feel good about it. Yeah. uh So I forfeited my deposit and I said, well, what if I just tried to go to nursing school, but I did something completely different than my sister? um And so that was what I did. I went back to Eastern and took, I had to take two more classes. There was a lifespan development site class that didn't line up and a statistics class that didn't line up. So I went and did those and applied to WSU. Nursing school. And here we are. now you're a nurse. Well, let's not fast forward. So you get into nursing school after, and thank you for being open about that because I, you know, there's two sides to that coin. If you follow your heart, you follow your gut, you follow whatever, you know, yes, that is an incredible thing. On the flip side, it can be, you know, I've heard in some Christian circles are like, don't follow your heart. Your heart is like the least trustworthy of all. And yet what I've found is that those times in my life and really, especially recently, you know what I mean? This compulsion to go from nights to days and like this compulsion to teach, this compulsion, like these, it's that thing in you that you can't ignore that, and especially as it's like, if you feel like, man, I feel like now's the time, like I gotta do this. And to me, that isn't, that isn't a variant of following your heart and following your gut. Would that not be true? it was completely true. Yes, follow your gut. And I say follow your heart and your gut because they're very connected. So I connect the two. Follow your heart and follow your gut. It's your intuition. um It was like, it was a really, really hard and scary decision to make because I'm in college and you know, I'm craving a career. that does all those things I talked about. I wanted to make decent money, I wanted to be helpful to people, and I wanted to be in science. And so I had that right in front of me, an option. And to give it up and say no was a huge chance, because I'm like, well, I might not get into nursing school. It was a huge iron. I look back and hindsight is of course 2020 and I wouldn't change one thing I did. But I think back and I'm like, was a, like it was a huge leap of like faith on my gut feeling. And it was really, I remember being very scared at the time that I had made a mistake and I soon found out I did not. And that was, so that was a great, a great win for me. that's incredible. That's inspiring. Like, and do you ever, does that gut ever tell you anything on the job? But totally. If you have a gut feeling about your patient, even if everything clinically is lining up, investigate, investigate your gut feeling and you might then find something that turns that gut feeling off like, oh, okay, you know, I investigated and now I can see why X, Y, and Z happened. But definitely if you have a gut feeling, don't walk out of that room. Yeah. Did you ever did did because I get this question a lot too. Did that gut feeling that we talk about from a nursing perspective on the job. Did that take a while to develop. Yeah, it does. you're new, a new grad and you're learning, everything is a normal out of the normal. Everything deviates from normal because these people that you're taking care of, whether you're taking care of uh babies, adults, people with cancer and ER, everything, everybody's coming with a problem. So everything's not normal from step one. And so I was always kind of in that constant like feeling of everything's abnormal and investigating extra maybe than I needed to. um So yes, it takes a while to develop your nursing gut. I think I think it took me probably two years to feel confident acting on just a gut feeling. And that's two years working full time, not just two years. You know, like two years of working full time plus getting all the experience you can, even if it's not your patient, going into other rooms and learning, going to those, you know, your go-to people on the unit on shift, learning from them. learning how to trust your gut and how to communicate. I feel like it's even more important to learn how to communicate your gut feeling to somebody else that needs to know. Communicating your gut feeling to the doctor is in itself a challenge. What does that look like, practically speaking? Like if you have a, like if I had a gut feeling about, so I work in, right now I work at Holy Family in their maternity center. And if there's something that is, which they have a little level to NICU, which I work in very frequently. And so we don't have in-house providers at night. And so you're always having this weird feeling of, is this bad enough to call the doctor about? Which is, I won't even go into it. if that's appropriate or not, should always, if you have a question, feel confident speaking to a provider. We'll go, that could probably take up a whole episode. So, particularly at night, and as I've worked there for a couple of years, I'm one of the more senior NICU nurses there, and so people frequently will come to me and be like, hey, is this worth calling the doctor over? And it's just, that is one of those, things where if you feel like you need to, but why? Can you explain to me why? And just saying, like, that's, I just have a weird feeling is not necessarily the right answer. You have to be able to say, okay, here's the clinical picture. Here, you know, this is what's different from yesterday. I took care of this baby yesterday. They were eating all of their feeds and off oxygen today. I've had to gavage 75 % and start them on flow. something's different, let's figure it out. Maybe we need some labs, maybe there's something we need to investigate. Yeah. And I'm glad you... No, you totally did. You totally answered it. No, and I love that you answer it that way because... Drawing on the experience that my wife and I had from our very first night at home with our very first child, ah that is what I... I draw from that experience and I tell my current patients and families, you know, I say, obviously if there's something that's not right, you're worried about your child, you're worried about yourself, you know, there's something doesn't seem right. call your on-call provider, right? Like that is what we tell them to do.

And I tell them, I'm like, if your provider has an issue with calling them at 2: 22:32

30, 3 in the morning, you can always respectfully remind them they're the ones that made their life choices. you know, it's better to be safe than sorry. And obviously you don't wanna be the nurse that's calling the doctor every time for, you know what I mean? And I don't know, the boy who cries wolf, the girl who cries wolf, you know. there's definitely a balance and that's using, we call them go-to girls in our unit because we work in an extremely female dominated, which you do too. So you should, are your go-to person on the unit for somebody that's gonna work in a not female dominated. We call them our G2G, our go-to girls. Who are those people to you? And before you call the doctor, go to them. Yes. Don't a friend. There's never bad to talk it out. Yeah. And like you said, like coming at it with more than just something and by all means verbalize that I feel like something's wrong that that does that raises the radar antenna. But OK, now, now what's the evidence that maybe supports what your gut feeling is saying? Right. Like that whole thing. And maybe you can't find it. Maybe that's why you're going to your go to girl because you're like, hey, I really want to talk to someone about this. I want to call a provider, but I'm not I don't. I don't have any evidence to that fact. So, wow, we talked a lot more about our gut feelings in nursing than we anticipated. This is fantastic. I'm gonna use that topic to springboard off. I just have a gut feeling. feel like, you're sure I didn't meet you anywhere. I… this is my first time seeing you. I really… I really don't feel like I've ever met you. I'm sorry. I figured I'd give it another shot. That's all right. So we'll just continue with the conversation then. I'm going to dial it back just a little bit. I wanted you to talk about your nursing school experience pre-pandemic, right? So that's good. There's no clinicals during pandemic and all that. So for the context, you had a relatively quote unquote normal or typical uh nursing school experience. So what were some of the highlights? What were some of the lowlights of your time in nursing school? I loved going to Eastern, doing my prereqs there. I had a great time and I met lots of friends who were also applying to the program. So I loved doing my prereqs and learning. I had some really great science professors there. And then going to nursing school, it was very inspiring. to be around everybody that kind of had a similar goal. So I loved being surrounded by people who they all wanted, you we all wanted to be there. You don't go to nursing school if you don't want to, it's too hard. I sure hope not because I've never met a single person that can make it through if you don't. No, you have to really want it. And so that drive, being surrounded by people who have an equal drive and goal, I loved that. And not even just nursing school, the campus is right downtown in the health science campuses. So there's people, PT students, OT students, pharmacy, med school, all of these people have a drive to be better and to help others. And so being surrounded by that was very inspiring to me. That is awesome. what was your first job right out of nursing school? What was your first specialty? My first specialty out of nursing school was a high acuity level, I think it was level four NICU and I worked there for almost a year and I loved, I loved my job there. The learning was fantastic, taking care of babies and families ah is really an honor. And I felt very, very lucky and fortunate and like all of my stars aligned when I got that job. And that's coming straight out of nursing school. So the first question to that is, where along the ways of the nursing school process did that NICU bit come into play? Definitely from being a nurse tech. My, and I would say in clinicals too. I spent a couple of days in the NICU during my clinical rotations and I really loved it. Where I work now is they call it an LDRP, Labor, Delivery, Recovery, Postpartum, and we have a Level 2 NICU. And if you would have asked me if I wanted to work in labor and delivery or postpartum, when I was in nursing school, just based off of my clinical experience, I would have said no. No, thank you. I would have said, NICU, but even then, I feel like the majority of my experience of learning where I wanted to work came from being a nurse tech and working in those areas. Nursing school does a great job of exposing you. but that's all it is, is an exposure. You don't really get to see what that job is like until you're in it. And that's, and that for all of the nursing students listening to this, when you get your first nursing job, I say give it, give it a year, give it time to make sure, but if it's not what you thought it was, that's the beauty of nursing. You can find what you're looking for, I think. And without wasting your time, because I've heard that too, like, well, gosh, all this pressure to get the field that I wanted right out of nursing school. And yeah, again, like you said, maybe you think you want it. And then after however long, you're going, oh, gosh, I might have made a mistake. This isn't what I thought it would be. You still didn't waste the time, because during that time, you're learning how to. critically think. You're learning how to evaluate your patients. You're learning how to X, Y, all those things you need to build that foundation to be a successful nurse. You're doing. So yeah, sure. Maybe it wasn't, you know what mean? And maybe there's a shock factor there too of like, my gosh, I thought this was it and it's not. So now what do I do? You know, but the point is go into what you think you want to do, go into it wholehearted. And if it turns out to not be that thing, Like you said, Haleigh, there's so much lateral movement. You can go anywhere. Yes, yes, and like your time is never wasted. I love that you pointed that out because the connections that you make, the patience that you take care of, the managers are all valuable experiences and connections. So if you think you really want to be an ER nurse, for example, and so you go to the ER and you start working, and you're like, man, this actually wasn't what I thought it was. My perception was completely different than this reality. You don't know who you're going to meet. at work or whose manager is best friends with so and so on the ninth floor and that might be where you want to work. Don't like and that's what that's kind of where the be kind part the word. kindness. yes, my kindness word came in was, B, you get way further with lemonade than lemons. Be kind, and you never know what opportunity will come to you based on the fact that you, even if it wasn't your dream job, or it's a job you don't love anymore, you are kind to the right person, and they're like, hey, I do have something you might love. You just never know when that's gonna happen. Providing an open door that maybe wouldn't have existed before had you have not been as kind. or just even interested or helpful or you know all those things that you can be even if you're not in your dream job. So then doubling back to what I said the first question was of course where along the line did the Nick you fall into play for you now the second question being, of course, how is a new grad? Do you have any advice as far as uh adjusting, A, just to being a new nurse, let alone a new nurse in a level four NICU? yeah, so advice is... Communicate and be receptive. know, communicate with your preceptor if you're feeling like you need an experience. Like, you are in charge of your learning. You're in charge of your learning anywhere in life, specifically in nursing school, in your first preceptorship, in your first job. You say, hey, I don't understand this. I need practice with this. What do you think about me uh watching you do this first IV start on this baby and then I'll do the next one? Or do we have a sim lab we can go to? Really seek out opportunities to learn because it's your responsibility. Nobody is babysitting you making sure you're learning. 100 % school, They all were like, OK, here's your paper. It's due. Here's, you know, you have to meet with your advisor twice a month, you know, twice a semester. Like, they kind of do gracefully, like, transition you. But once you're out there on your own, you are, you are responsible for your career and your learning. And take advantage of all that time during your preceptorship that you have somebody who's actually responsible for the patients. They have a nurse, it's them. They're teaching you. And so make sure you vocalize what you need help with and what you don't understand. Or what you feel confident in. If you're like, man, I'm with a preceptor I haven't been with in a couple of weeks and so I've grown so much since the last time I worked with her. You say, okay, this is what I'm confident in. Watch me do this and let me know what advice you have. And Another piece of advice that I need to take more myself for sure is to have thicker skin. Like have thick skin. Most people are not trying to hurt your feelings, but they are trying to keep you safe and make sure you practice safe. And so don't take things personally if you're not doing them right or if you need guidance. or somebody tells you that you're totally doing it wrong. Take it and be receptive to it. And don't, you know, close that door from learning because it hurts your feelings. And that's the advice I need to take more too, for sure. I'm not denying that, but. I have to remember that sometimes. I think of all the learning experiences I've had over the last five years. and it's, they all, sometimes it stings at first and it's okay. Yeah, yeah, the stinging is never pleasant. But like you said, is and I want to touch on what you said that second bit when you first said both communicate and be receptive. I love that be receptive because there's there's a lot of us nowadays, especially right. We talk to talk. We talked to I want to I want to I want to tell you something, Haleigh. I want to I want to I need you to know this and I need you to understand this. And I may even have a question for you. but then I don't take the time to listen to your response, to listen to how that made you feel, to receive maybe the advice that I just asked for because maybe it offended me or maybe it hurt my feelings or etc etc. And I'm saying that as a male nurse too. This isn't just a female, it's... Everyone is this way. And so please be receptive. Yeah, be receptive and I like, I'm gonna touch on the listening part. Like, you know how much I've learned by listening to people talk at the nurse's station? I'm like, I've never done that before. Or how much I've taught people without knowing it by talking at the nurses station or by talking around like in the clinical area about something that is your patient's doing. Even if it's just like a little trick to make your day easier or an epic trick or a time management technique. I'm like, that's going to make me a better nurse. And I learned that just simply by being quiet and listening. Yes, and I'm going to piggyback right off of that because I'm a relatively new convert to days. We're going on a year and a half now. And in that role, I'm still also charge nurse. And I'm going to tell you right now, anyone that doesn't know, I'm sure you already will figure it out if you don't know. Being a charge nurse on day shift, especially in a busy postpartum unit where you have a lot of discharges and a lot of transfers, is vastly different than being charged on night shift. And I'm not saying it's, you're a better charge nurse if you're in days. That's not what I'm trying to communicate. What I'm trying to communicate is there is a lot more happening, a lot more moving pieces, a lot more uh specialties. You've got management, you've got everyone there with their hands in the pie. And in theory, you're the one who's supposed to not necessarily run the ship, but at least guide it through, you know, safely through the waters. And oh my gosh, Haleigh, I've been a charge nurse for, you know, over a decade, decade and a half. going into starting as a charge on day shift. the leap is just incredible and painful to say the least. But you learn, and what I love about what you said is I cannot tell you how many times I'm like, these more experienced women who have been charge on day shift for, in some cases, longer than I've been a nurse, but in more cases, longer than I've been on the unit, or even, you know what I mean, whatever. Okay. I hear one nurse asking another nurse a question, and because they see them as a leader and I see them as a leader, you bet my bottom dollar, I'm listening to her response to that question. And I'm evaluating through the lens of, is that the advice I would have given? Is this better advice? Can I add that to my, you know what mean? Always be willing to change. I add that to my pile of tricks? And I'm gonna piggyback off of your piggyback. Double piggyback everybody. Uh, that be present. When you're at work, be present. And I'm not saying you have to, oh, I'm going to give 110 % every day and never, you know, like that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying is if you are at work, be present in between, taking care of your patients and you're at the desk charting or, even like I'm, you know, I have time to to sit at the nurse's station and just visit with my coworkers and get to know them. It's an incredibly valuable time. You spend so much time with these people, you get to know them. You'll probably like them and be friends. And how much better is it to go to work when you have somebody you like to work with? But be present because if you turn, you're just like, oh, I'm just gonna put my AirPods in and watch some TikTok. You are doing yourself a disservice. Huge. So be present. Even when you're not being present for your patient during like a, in their room, like doing clinical stuff, you can still, that time at the nurse's station is very valuable. Mm, I love that. And when you, I'm gonna piggyback off your piggyback off my piggyback. But ah when, and when you're doing that, hold yes, you want to communicate. Yes, you want to be receptive. And then like you said, you want to be present. And that's so huge, especially in today's society, right? We're all turning into the cell phone zombies walking past each other. Everybody's looking down at a screen. Nobody's looking up at each other. All that business. And like you said, Haleigh, we're not talking about being 110 % of yourself every day. You can't be that. But as I tell my students, bring your best self that day, whatever that looks like. And sure, maybe there's a shift, especially night shift, if things are slow and you've got a moment to just unplug and unwind, like at lunch, right? There are lunches, I don't want to sit around and talk shop with people. So if they're talking about or railing against whatever they're upset about, the newest policy change or this, that or the other, and I've been guilty of it too, just, don't, is supposed to be a break. And so I don't want to necessarily engage in that conversation. But other than that, man, if you're having lunch and you get to sit down with people, what I loved about Peds Oncology, when I worked Peds Oncology, one of the things we did on nights was we all lunched together. We had lunch in the report room behind that you can't, know, it was a safe space where we could eat, talk, get to know each other. And then we just took turns answering call lights as they went off. And in some states, ours included, like you're supposed to have a legal uninterrupted break. But I tell you what, you though they were interrupted at times, were vastly more, vastly more um important to the cohesion of our unit, to the ability of us to work as a team. And you just knew that the person who came in to help you in your room had your back. Because even if you weren't friends, like you said, Haleigh, maybe you will make friends this way. And maybe these are people you can hang out with outside of, but there are other people you're like, All so exhausted and so wiped out because even if you're only able to give 80 % that day or if it is your 110 % day and you're just raring to go, you being present for a 12 hour shift, an eight hour shift, a 10 hour shift at almost all times, that can be so exhausting. exhausting and then you get home and you're like I don't want to be present I want to I need to zone out and just not have a thought for even just 10 minutes. I'm gonna have no thoughts. I'm gonna go, that's my favorite thing. When I get home from work, I take a really long shower. And I like, my brain, you think about one thing. And I love it. I look forward to it at the end of the day. And you have to have those things to look forward to. And it's okay to be the way we're talking about. I've had this happen on occasion, even last night, because of what we're going through. I finally, I had a brutal shift. It was a brutal social shift. Like a lot of our patients with a lot of social issues and my gosh, just, A, it pulls on your heart because you're sad for these families. But then B, the practicality of, my gosh, know what mean, trying to work through this with the social workers and all the things. And going through this, and then you have one or two of those families all the time. Man, we had north of five, I think, and our poor social worker, God bless her. But she's in and out of rooms and we're doing all the things. I was charged and it just, I get home and I have to deal with some home stuff. And we're talking, we're having a brief family meeting about stuff. And at the end of that, which was received well, I think, and all the things, there was good communication. At the end of that, I said, okay, here's the deal. I can't take another word from anyone. Not anything, I don't mean anything by it. I cannot be receptive to any other words because I've spent my entire day putting up fires, managing issues, helping people, and being present. And it was worth it, but I have reached my limit no more. Haleigh, thank you. Thank you, thank So Haleigh, man, this has been so inspirational. I love just like, you're just bringing the A game. I feel like this would be a perfect place to stop. But before we end in our traditional manner, I feel like there was like one other topic at least that you wanted to talk about. What was that? Well, I wanted to just kind of add on the fact that we kind of talked about it earlier in our episode. If you're not at the job or at the point where you're happy with what you're doing, that's the best part about nursing is you can change. And even to take that further, there are so many degrees you can get beyond your BSN or even if you have your ADN and then you get your BSN, like you can get your masters. You can go to get your doctorate. I think you can even get your PA from nursing school. Correct me if I'm wrong. You might have to take a couple classes, but I think you can, there's the opportunity to grow. And I've heard older nurses say this, um like, okay, you become a nurse and then you just work your whole life as a floor nurse. No. you can get an advanced degree or even just, you you can go into management, you can go into education. I was kind of feeling stuck and this is another follow your heart moment. I'm gonna be, I start next week at WSU in there as a clinical instructor. And so I recently got my master's and was able to, Follow my heart more. And it's definitely a passion project. even if I don't love it, guess what? It's okay to move on. It's the moral of the story change can be positive, especially if it's for your personal growth. And any job change, you're gonna grow, you're gonna learn, make new connections. I took a year contract over at UW this last year. And it was painful because I don't love change. So was really painful to go per DM at my job here in Spokane and travel over there for a year. And I, my practice grew for the better in so many ways. Mmm. So don't be afraid. Take change in a positive way. I could say this about anything interesting. It's always, it's an ever-changing field. And being positive, having a positive outlook on change will help you embrace it and grow instead of having a negative outlook on it. And then you're just kind of stuck. So very well said. And I'll add two points to that. One being, we're not implying that if you are quote unquote just a bedside nurse and you work where you work for a long period of time that you have not succeeded in any way, shape, or form. uh Recently released was uh a pair of episodes by one Stella Reed. Go back and look her up. But she's been a labor and delivery nurse for three decades in the same place. Okay. you know, go up the degree chain or, you know, that sort of thing. But what we're saying here, the thing we are saying is that, and I think you're going to agree with me on this, Haleigh, is that if you do decide to further your education formally in the form of advanced degrees, it opens doors for you that at the moment you want them open, wouldn't have been otherwise if you didn't go for that advanced degree, correct? said that much better than I did. That's exactly the message I want these listeners to receive. like, can get, you if you're feeling, if you have that feeling that you need to, or you have a desire to get an advanced degree, You can get it. You don't have to use it right away. It might open the door for you later though. And I love bedside nursing. I will probably work at the bedside. can never say never or predict what your life's gonna look like. But I have no desire to leave the bedside. I love bedside nursing and I wanted to teach. and I want to, you know, all these other things that you can do, you can do them both. Yes. I love it. I love it. Thank you, Haleigh. So uh in the interest of time, we're going to jump into our traditional closing questions. And you take as long as you want to talk about it, not trying to rush you. But uh I don't really ask what three words did you choose. So Haleigh, what four words did you choose to describe nursing school and why did you pick? Okay, I feel like this is kind of like the theme of my episode. These words, I feel like we talked about them. We talked about them quite a bit, so I will try to keep it brief. So opportunity, um and that one is kind of what I spoke on earlier. In nursing school, the opportunities are there for you. You have to take them if you want to. Like they're yours to take at your will. but nobody's just gonna hand you a job if you don't apply kind of a thing. The opportunities are there, you have to take them. Your desire and motivation for whatever this opportunity is, you have to take it. So you are surrounded by all these people that have the same goal and things. So get involved with all these opportunities. Join clubs, organizations, be present and clinical, and the opportunities will be endless. and then connections. Those of you in nursing school right now, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about here. And those of you who will be in nursing school, you'll learn. The people in nursing school that you make friends with, you spend so much time with them and the connections that you make are lifelong. My friends that I made in nursing school are wonderful and they were They are wonderful. I will have them my whole life. And I truly feel like I couldn't have gotten through all of those study periods and tests and clinical hours and long grueling activities that go on without making connections with those peers and friends. And I would say that, you know, even like your instructors, your clinical instructors, your professors um when I was doing my interview process to become a WSU clinical faculty. One of the people on my interview panel was my peds instructor. And had I not gone to her office hours and made a connection with her, she probably wouldn't have remembered who I was. But it was just like you said, Eric, face, apparently I have a memorable face. uh I know I've seen you somewhere before. She was like, my gosh, hi, I know you. And I was like, I do know you, you're right. And she's like, I had you in Pete's clinical. How are you doing? Like, where did you land? Like, she was excited to hear about my, you clinical journey. haven't seen her in five years. And so, but that was because of a connection that we made. So that's where connections, that's why connections is important. Also, you never know who's gonna be your boss someday. I'm gonna throw that out there. Preaching it, I thought that's, my gosh, I tell my students that all the time. I'm like, you're representing your university, but more than that, you're representing you. And you may think you're never gonna work here and I'm never gonna see this person again, I'm never gonna do, you will be surprised. community is small. Mm-hmm. So, remember that. And then resilience is a word I picked because you can do it. You as a nurse, have to be resilient. In nursing school, you learn how to be resilient. You're going to have times where you're feeling like, I made the wrong choice. I think that's inevitable. You're going to have times where you're like, this is torture. This is... You have times where you're just like, this does not feel good. And you work through it and then you get back at it and you're like, I can overcome this. I can overcome this next obstacle. And that's gonna happen throughout your career in nursing too. It's just times where you have to be resilient and you learn how to be resilient. And then you're better for it. And then the kindness, my fourth sneak inward. Be kind to those around you. You never know what somebody is going through. behind the scenes. Your patients, your coworkers, your instructors, your friends. you know, treat them with kindness because there's just no need to be mean. Don't be mean. I just don't do it. It will also get you flak it. It helps you build those connections and everything by being kind. And also be kind to yourself. Say kind things to yourself. If you wouldn't say it to your best friend, don't say it to yourself. Oh, I like that. that's amazing. And the kindness thing too, like what you're saying. It also affects your heart, not even just to yourself, but when you're being kind to others versus being mean to others. Like that has a lasting impression on your own heart. People are like, Eric, how are you so positive? I mean, which I usually am, but life is life and my full life. when I'm usually I'm, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to do it because again, I'd rather be kind to somebody. And that includes that's management, that's peers, that's that students, because a lot of people are, uh, you know, they're like, well, it's management. You know what I mean? Like it's the enemy. It's them versus us. no, we're all... you're... no, I, um... Maybe I've just been really fortunate. I've had wonderful, wonderful managers. um having a good relationship and being kind to them. They're nurses too. They usually have worked the floor, usually in the field of study or area of nursing that you're working in. And they possess leadership qualities that, you know, they followed their heart. That was the direction they wanted to go. Their job is to take care of you, take care of the people. Somebody told me this. can't remember who it was. Managers take care of the people who take care of the people. So managers take care of nurses. And if you think about it, like from that lens and a more positive note, they're not here to ruin your life or deny your PTO or make you work on Christmas. Those are all things that you signed up for as a nurse. Management's not doing that to you. Yeah. And they're there to take care of you and if you open that door and make a connection with them, and maybe I'm a little bit naive, but I don't think most people are out to get you. I'd say most yes, there's obviously you're always gonna have you're always gonna have somebody yeah, but No, it's in the course of life. You're gonna meet someone who's after you but otherwise for the most part It's people trying to do the best we can with what we've got in the moment that we have so Haleigh What is the one last if nobody somebody tuned out at the beginning? I don't know why they you have one thing you want to impress upon the listener. What is that? I'm gonna continue with my theme. ah Follow your gut and your heart. They're extremely connected and it's your intuition and it's really strong. And the more that you follow that feeling, you'll become confident in it. It will help you in all aspects of life, in and outside of your career. Yeah. And on that note, I have to try one last time before we close. I swear I know you. Why do you look so familiar? Well, I do have an identical twin, my sister I spoke about earlier, who worked in the birthplace at Labor and Delivery. Oh! Oh wait, is her name Lindsey by chance? Oh man, how did I not put that together? Golly! Sorry everybody, we had that set up from the get-go. It's just fun. No, I... You go way back to Lindsey's episode, which maybe you'll hear now, Haleigh, she didn't listen to... purpose, everybody, I'm gonna preface, well, preface the opposite of preface. I'm gonna end with it. I did not listen to her episode on purpose because although we are very alike and she works in the birthplace, I work in labor and delivery right now and actually just took a job in the birthplace with her as my ANM. So. So it's, and this is, know, follow your heart. Just because your sister does something and you feel like you have to be independent of that, if that's not where your heart takes you, it's not where your heart takes you. go. And you have a rewarding career and will continue to have a very rewarding career by not fighting that. And my last end face instead of preface was that we talked about that in the forefront. Whenever I interview spouses, siblings, separate, whatever, it's like my, don't, I'm not interviewing Lindsey's sister. I'm interviewing Haleigh and that's a totally different concept. So I know Lindsey, Lindsey and I, know, I've, I, Haleigh and I did meet once when during your time in the NICU. But other than that, we truly haven't, I have not had the pleasure of interacting with Haleigh and now I get to, so I'm so excited. So Haleigh, that's going to be amazing. We're so glad to have you on our team. And even more than that, I'm so glad you were willing to take some time before on night shift, everybody. to do this podcast. So thank you for dropping the wisdom, my friend. I'm glad you thought it was wisdom. Sometimes, sometimes, this is just maybe some imposter syndrome. I've not really been a nurse that long. And so I've listened to some of your episodes. I did listen to Stella's episode. And I'm like, man, she's been a nurse actually longer than I've been alive. Right? It's amazing. so I'm like, man, why? She has so much wisdom and knowledge to share. I know Stella personally, she's wonderful in and outside of work. uh nursing students, don't discredit yourself in your experience. That's where I'm going with that. we could spend a whole other episode talking about imposter syndrome. Go back, we've definitely talked about it on the podcast before. It's a thing, I just talked about it with my students, second quarter students at SCC this last weekend. Go look it up, it's a thing, and you'll be like, oh yeah, I do feel that. Guess what? It never really goes away, and that's even with those of us that have been doing it decades. So anyway, Haleigh, have a lovely rest of your afternoon, and thank you for giving us an hour of your time. Yes, thank you so much, Eric. was wonderful, wonderful experience. Okay, bye.