Nursing U's Podcast
Nursing U is a podcast co-hosted by Julie and Caleb. We embark on an educational journey to redefine nursing within the modern healthcare landscape.
Our mission is to foster an open and collaborative environment where learning knows no bounds, and every topic—no matter how taboo—is explored with depth and sincerity. We delve into the essence of nursing, examining the intimate and often complex relationships between nurses and their patients amidst suffering and death.
Through our discussions, we aim to highlight the psychological impacts of nursing and caregiving, not only on the caregivers themselves but also on the healthcare system at large.
Our goal is to spark conversations that pave the way for healing and innovation in healthcare, ensuring the well-being of future generations.
'Nursing U' serves as a platform for examining the state of modern civilization through the lens of nursing, tackling issues that range from violence, drugs, and sex to family, compassion and love. We will utilize philosophy, religion and science to provide context and deeper understanding to the topics we tackle.
By seamlessly weaving humor with seriousness, we create a unique tapestry of learning, drawing wisdom from the experiences of elders and the unique challenges faced in nursing today.
Join us at 'Nursing U,' where we cultivate a community eager to explore the transformative power of nursing, education, and conversation in shaping a more whole and healthier world."
Disclaimer:
The hosts of 'Nursing U', Julie Reif and Caleb Schraeder are registered nurses; however, the content provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing shared on this podcast should be considered medical advice nor should it be used to diagnose or treat any medical condition. Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health concerns. The views expressed on this podcast are personal opinions and do not represent the views of our employers or our professional licensing bodies.
Nursing U's Podcast
Ep #022 PT 1 - Empowering the Future: Mind-Body Healing and Autonomy in Nursing
Can the mind truly serve as a powerful healing tool in the future of nursing? Join us for an enlightening discussion on how the profession is poised for transformation, shaped by evolving laws, unionization, and the importance of personal growth. We promise a journey through history and innovation, exploring how past societies faced disease, and how modern advancements are forging new pathways in healthcare. By reflecting on historical shifts in life expectancy and health challenges, we underscore the pivotal contributions of the medical field in enhancing public health.
As we explore the growing importance of mind-body healing, the role of technology takes center stage. Imagine a world where blockchain empowers nurses as independent entities and the dynamics between physicians and nurses shift towards a more collaborative approach. Our conversation touches on the future integration of waveform technology and quantum physics, opening doors to unconventional treatments that complement traditional medicine. This is not just about technology but about a holistic view of healing, where personal accountability and autonomy become crucial in the nursing profession.
Looking ahead, we envision a future where nurses enjoy greater autonomy, flexibility, and specialization. Consider a model where nurses operate with the freedom akin to an Uber-like system, picking their schedules and work locations. Technological advances could redefine healthcare delivery, emphasizing personal agency and self-awareness as key components of success. We wrap up with a call to nurture both body and soul, encouraging healthcare professionals to embrace self-awareness and personal development as they navigate the evolving landscape of nursing and work towards a brighter future for all.
Hi, I'm Julie.
Speaker 2:And I'm Caleb. Welcome to Nursing U, the podcast where we redefine nursing in today's healthcare landscape. Join Julie and I as we step outside the box on an unconventional healing journey.
Speaker 1:Together, we're diving deep into the heart of nursing, exploring the intricate relationships between caregivers and patients with sincerity and depth.
Speaker 2:Our mission is to create an open and collaborative experience where learning is expansive and fun.
Speaker 1:From the psychological impacts of nursing to the larger implications on the healthcare system. We're sparking conversations that lead to healing and innovation.
Speaker 2:We have serious experience and we won't pull our punches. But we'll also weave in some humor along the way, because we all know laughter is often the best medicine.
Speaker 1:It is, and we won't shy away from any topic, taboo or not, from violence and drugs to family and love, we're tackling it all.
Speaker 2:Our nursing knowledge is our base, but we will be bringing insights from philosophy, religion, science and art to deepen our understanding of the human experience.
Speaker 1:So, whether you're a nurse, a healthcare professional or just someone curious about the world of caregiving, this podcast is for you.
Speaker 2:One last thing, a quick disclaimer before we dive in. While we're both registered nurses, nothing we discuss here should be taken as medical advice. Always consult with your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider for any medical concerns you may have. The views expressed here are our own and don't necessarily reflect those of our employers or licensing bodies.
Speaker 1:So let's get started on this journey together. Welcome to Nursing U, where every conversation leads to a healthier world. All right, we just did a breathing session, so we're both feeling wonderful, kind of like we could take a nap, yeah, and then we can smoke up. But that's how it leaves you that brain and that oxygen. The chance to surrender is the word I always feel.
Speaker 1:When you're just surrendering to the breath and the way that your body takes that breath, and it's a chemical reaction, it just is. So, if you haven't tried breathing or some kind of breathing method, well worth it. So this week and for the next couple of weeks, I think through January, we felt like maybe we wanted to talk about the future of nursing and what that brings, and we're not talking about what the next pizza party is going to be. Or, you know, last week we talked a little bit about AI and you know, I think, as we do organically, conversations just morph into a lot of our ideas about what we currently do and how we are changing. We internally, are changing for the future and sometimes looking at healthcare, at the industry, at what we do, at what we're a part of, feels ginormous and gross to me sometimes that I'm like even a part of that. But nurses will always be needed.
Speaker 1:And so what is our role? What is the future of what we are going to be a part of? We at the bedside, we the people who are taking care of the other people and you know I always go to like what are the laws? Are they going to change the laws for staffing. Are we going to get help from above? Are we going to get help from outside? Are we, you know, as a you know, are we all going to be unionized? Are we going to? Are there things that play out like that for us that I really have to just be grounded and come back to what can I do within me to perpetuate my future in the nursing field? That's kind of what I think about, you know, in light of this particular podcast and our conversations is more kind of what do we do and where do our minds take us for the future, you know, with the future of nursing and how it looks for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that brings up quite a lot for me, Kind of before we go forward. Actually, I'm going to, I'm going to pull this book, put on my book, the big book say the title again for people who aren't watching uh, the enlightenment, uh, the pursuit of happiness from 1680 to 1790 by richie robertson.
Speaker 2:Um, and I haven't read the whole thing yet, uh, it's like two it's there's just so much and it's so densely packed um that I just I have to go back. I don't, I don't understand anything, really hardly ever on the first pass, but the idea is, um, the freedom from fear. Uh, that's what this little subtitle or subsection is and what it's talking about is, I mean this, this time period where you know smallpox and and scurvy and dropsy and all these diseases that left us mangled and crippled and disfigured, you know, kind of cultivated a culture of fear. And it said one of the things I'm just going to read this little bit here For all, but especially for the poor, infancy was a particularly dangerous time.
Speaker 2:It is estimated that in England a third of children and in France half died before the age of five. Average life expectancy in 18th century England was 37. 37. In France before 1750, life expectancy among those who survived infancy was 40.25 years for men and 41.2 for women.
Speaker 2:Now I could go on and read, because there's so much other stuff in here, but just to kind of unpack the implications of just that little bit as we've talked about so many times, suffering and death is largely siloed on the nurses and doctors. We've eradicated so many diseases that previously were so prevalent that it couldn't escape the psyche. Everyone, everyone experienced the suffering and death. And we have. I mean, it's just remarkable. I mean this kind of goes.
Speaker 2:This kind of goes into the thing that I was saying recently about dentistry, that that's not a conspiracy, it's not conspiratorial. Like dentistry has saved more lives than any other form of medicine, I believe it, because of infections. Any other form of medicine, I believe, because of infections. So we exist in a time where there's almost I mean we haven't eradicated death, obviously, but we have risen above so many of the illnesses that kept us pressed or kept us.
Speaker 2:You know, everyone had trauma and loss in that time, everyone, no one. Like it was just part of the thing. And and so you know, part of the future, you know, as we've talked about with hospice and and that that is kind of a pressure release valve for the inpatient setting, that that in the future we we have to, we have to wrestle with like this, this idea that that so many people died so young, like they didn't necessarily. I mean, yes, this, the suffering and the death, it was terrible and it was painful, but it was everyone sharing in it. And now we have almost transcended that experience with the, with the medicines that we have, and well, we keep everyone alive.
Speaker 2:We keep everyone alive as long as everyone on medicines and eventually that, like, eventually those medicines are going to fail because there's a necessary expiration date on DNA, it's just what it is. And so we have this massive population that is propped up artificially on these medicines. And how we navigate, that is the prime thing that I think about when we talk about the future of medicine Just grappling with it, wrestling it societally. We really need education societally on that. But beyond that, here's another thing that I recently heard that if you're alive, this scientist I don't, I can't, I don't know who it was, but this, this scientist projected that if you're alive five years from today, that science and technology is advancing at such a rapid rate that if you're alive five years from today, you, you will likely be alive in 200 years. Wow, that is such a radical statement, huge. I wish, I wish that I had that, that quote. Who said that? I don't, but I, I definitely. That is definitely what I heard. I, I would guess that nanotechnology is probably a big part of that which is terrifying, uh, and also exciting, and and um, you know, I, I don't pretend to really have a great grasp on it, um, but uh, I would imagine that's part of it, um, the the other thing that I I I'll kind of go into a little bit of an educational mode in handing over the research that I've done on kind of what blockchain is and kind of how I see Web3 playing out in the hospital.
Speaker 2:The blockchain is the answer to the insecurity that exists on our current web platform. Blockchain is a long format sequence of code that takes you the first sequence, takes you, to this block, and then you have to have another long format code that encrypts to take you to the next block, and it's this massive, long block of encryption that is going from one location to the next location, so that if you were, if you were, a hacker, you would have to figure out the code for this block and then figure out the code for this block and then figure out the code for this block. So blockchain is a method of encryption that provides exponential layers of security to all of our current platforms. That's. The other thing is that, uh, the blockchain is being used to build out what they call web 3. I don't fully understand what web 3 is, but it's a whole nother world of internet and, um, it's being built on top of what we currently use now, and and that world, as I understand it, um, that world is going to have a lot of augmentation.
Speaker 2:Meaning, uh, the way that I see um like, for, for instance, one of the ways that I see a hospital hire, the hospital hiring process happening, is that they will come through, kind of like Google maps does, with their cars that drive around, they take pictures of every, every block and every house and every address. It'll be kind of like that They'll set up a camera in in a room. If, if you know, let's, let's just for for you and I, for our conversation that we're having. We'll use the ICU that we worked in, um, you can imagine all the work, all the coworkers that we had.
Speaker 2:We would all, um, record a, uh, we would all have to go through and record ourselves giving a tour of the unit. This is, these are the supplies, this is a supply room, this is where you'll get this, this is where you get that, and so the applicant that would be coming in would have a digital representation of themselves, where they're, like you know, wearing the goggles, uh, the virtual reality or augmented reality goggles, and they're literally walking through the unit and they get to walk up to whatever they get to, they can walk up to, to Julie and say hi, julie, my name's, you know whatever. And uh, I'd like you to give me a tour around the unit. She or he could pick whichever nurse We've all done the process to do this thing and there would be a virtual representation of our unit where any applicant could come in and literally interview us, which is a wild like. That's just, I mean.
Speaker 1:It's wild, but I think really necessary, because I don't think nurses do that often enough and therefore then find themselves inside a unit with people who that's not really what they would have chosen, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean now, this is, this is my dream world. This is just how I have made sense of the information that I took in uh, as I was researching what Web3 is and what blockchain is and what cryptocurrency is, because cryptocurrency is the thing that is being used to build out this new platform and that's why it has value. I mean, that's where its value is. So, a lot of like crypto coins. As I understand it and I'm not a big crypto guy, don't I? I, I, I want to understand things, so I research and but a lot of the crypto coins, some of them are just like I don't know. They call them meme coins. They have no value, they have nothing, they contribute nothing.
Speaker 2:Um, and I think people take advantage of other people by promoting it and then pumping it up. And thenie, juliecom, and it's on a blockchain and you've got all of these encrypted uh codes that you have to get and I think that each time you access it, those blocks change so that you couldn't just keep working at it until you get it. I think it changes. But the end destination, juliecom, one of the crypto coins that I looked at it provides the service of compressing that final block. That is Juliecom. So it has a value within the ecosystem of blockchain. So it has a value within the ecosystem of blockchain. So that is like that. You know it derives its value by some contribution that it provides enables. So the security that provides enables us to have um more confidence in technological developments. So one of the like, one of the things that I personally think is terrifying are medical devices that could be hacked. That's a terrifying thought to me.
Speaker 1:An insulin pump yeah anything, because they program all those from the outside anyways already.
Speaker 2:So that's a service or a medical technology that we have our minds wrapped around. When you get back to nanotechnology like these little robots that they're talking you know they're using to build out healing modalities. If someone could get in there and recode those little robots, yeah, Dead, Dead.
Speaker 1:Dead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's, what is that? That guy from that show? Oh my gosh, I'll try to find that clip. Maybe we'll post it. It's very funny.
Speaker 1:Quite simple in their care and you know the things that we do during the day, during our 12-hour shift, that you know, passing the meds, giving the, just the caretaking, the actual interaction between humans, to think of all of technology advancement, and it seems well kind of like what you first said, like it's scary, so it's fear a little bit, um, and even fear of not understanding. So you don't really even do any research about it and you don't really know. You know, because it seems too big, that how and why would you even need to understand that? Um, and I, for, for me, I it kind of leaves me feeling you know, not at the, I don't have a say at the table. What is this going to bring for us? What does this mean for you know the future of a bedside nursing, because there's so much that's unknown.
Speaker 2:That's kind of. One of the points that I'm driving towards is that, at the end of the day, personal accountability, like taking ownership of yourself, I mean, taking ownership of yourself is the you know. That's kind of where you started talking, or that's what I heard you say, as you were kind of bringing us into this conversation, kind of bringing us into this conversation, but to me, I mean to me, that's it. With with blockchain, I also think that we become, in some way, our own entities. That nurses, I do think that there's like that. We need like systemic change has to happen, and one of the ways is, I think, that autonomy can be achieved through this.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you know, when you talk about autonomy in nursing, it really is. I mean you have your orders, but you also have the people have the capability of putting in whatever they want. It is illegal, but you actually can and you actually can also choose whether you give your patients the right medications. I mean it really is. You have to have so much integrity and honesty and you have to feel the gravity of the autonomy that you have, caring for those humans who are 100% relying on you to do your very best and for you to have such high integrity that you would not do anything knowingly to jeopardize their care. And so anything technology that would allow nurses to feel more of that autonomy and I think I feel like it is progressing between physicians and nurses At least that's my experience, you know.
Speaker 1:But back in the day it was like nurses were stupid and the doctors only knew, and you know, the nurse is just stupid. Even when I was working in, you know, back, I don't know, even just say, early 2000s, the way the ER or the way the physician would speak to the nurses on the floor who had the six patients and maybe they didn't know all the dynamics of kidney function or the relationship between a low blood pressure and kidney function. You know that's not their. They don't need to know the insides and outs of that, like they know what they're doing in there. So, but because of that he would speak. They would speak differently to the med cert nurses, versus like an intensive care unit nurse who spoke more, more at their level of knowledge.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't. I don't truly experience that anymore, not to say that it doesn't go on, but I feel like nurses have been able to elevate their knowledge base and through technology, if you want to say, or just evolution of the nursing process and how things have to be done lot more autonomous and having an open mind and letting, letting new technologies and new ways of doing things is not a nurses, many nurses have a lot of trouble with that, with change and changing, charting and doing things different. I mean things. One thing you will always have, especially in an inpatient system, is change, so they're always changing it.
Speaker 2:Always, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And sometimes the change doesn't feel like the best thing to do. It doesn't feel like it would make a positive change in the way that we care for patients or even the outcomes of patients. But overall it's necessary and usually for the good or betterment of the care given or for the patient outcomes. And so I don't think about technology a lot and the way that it's may change the you know the way that I actually nurse.
Speaker 2:Oh see, I think it's. I think it's going to radically change how we nurse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's something I really have never thought about really.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's almost like imagination, it's you know um, you definitely have to be able to dream about it. Um, I mean, I, I I just think. I mean we've talked about waveforms in the past. You know, I think waveform technology is absolutely the future of medicine. I don't think there's any way around that. As far as we've gotten, the model of pharmaceuticals is outdated, it's archaic. I just know that. You know, many times our job is is to read biological waveforms with the heartbeat or respiratory rate. These are all. I mean. You could think of them as paradoxes breathing in, breathing out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Lub and dub. Yeah lub and dub yeah yeah, all of it, it's, it's, it's just the wave of life and and we're you know, sound waves, light waves, all of these different waveforms that inform it's almost like some creative forces speaking it into existence.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, if you, if you look at any kind of quantum physics and you you know very, you even just a simple view of it is weird. Everything is energy, everything is particles, either in motion, or you look at it and now it's just particles. So you either have the wave form and it's flow, or it's particles and it's solid, like everything, is that?
Speaker 1:And as people start to understand that with your thoughts and with your, the energy of those thoughts, you know, that's how we, we change, that's how our reality changes. We, we, with the energy that we're putting off, we attract things into our lives, and so that that's why that happens. So just the opposite can also happen. So if you're ill and you have a disease, a disease within your body, those also are just cells and particles, and I think there is going to be much, a lot more focus on using the mind as medicine. You can't, I don't believe in just take, like, no medicine, I don't believe in just going and living by yourself and just meditating 24 hours a day and then you will be better. Could that happen? Yes, I do believe that. But I do believe also that there is a role for medication. There's a role for cancer treatment, there's a role for hospitals, emergencies, surgeries, because things happen to our body. But I also believe that it's way underrated the power of our mind to also heal. And I think and I hope for some of that to be brought into the mainstream medicine. If I were going to think about, if I could, if I was going to imagine and and do that, it would be. It would be brought into the hospital, it would be brought into medical medicine.
Speaker 1:The piece of it that has to do with thoughts and motivation. I mean, how many times have you seen a patient and you just like, maybe before open heart. They're getting ready to have surgery and they have the greatest outlook, they are positive, they're not stressed really about it, they've kind of surrendered and let that fear go and they're really just going. They know whatever outcome is going to do is what it's for and their family, and they have this greatest mindset. And then you have another patient who is full of fear, full of stress. Their blood pressure is insane because they cannot.
Speaker 1:It's nothing's responding to the medication, because it's here. It's the energy of their thoughts and all the negativity that they're putting out just surrounding this one thing that they're going to have to do physically to their body. And they don't do well, they're wimpy, they. They have so much pain they can't get up and do the coughing. They don't want to. It hurts, they're scared, fearful they, they keep within like they. You know, you know, you know they're tight, they won't do anything. And then you get the people who don't have any of that and and they can.
Speaker 1:Just they're soothing themselves. They're soothing with their mind, their body, and yet do we still give them pain medicine? Yes, we get them up to the chair. They have the same chest tube output. They have their. They were on the ventilator the same amount of time, you know, maybe not they. They were on the ventilator the same amount of time, you know, maybe not. They might have come off the ventilator quicker because they're calmer and you know that is just like. Maybe you don't need as much pain medicine. You weren't on the ventilator. As long you don't have poor outcomes, you don't come back with pneumonia. As long you don't have poor outcomes, you don't come back with pneumonia. You don't leave the unit and then have to come back in the unit because you didn't cough, because you have so much pain and you're scared and you won't eat and you're nauseous.
Speaker 2:I don't believe that. Do the hospitals benefit from those poor outcomes?
Speaker 1:No, but the overall, those patients stay in the system. Yeah, yeah, they continue to need care. They have to go. Yeah, yeah, they continue to need care. They have to go back to the doctor. They have to stay longer, they have to.
Speaker 1:And it always seems like, yeah, you would think that those hospitals would want it. They get paid this, this and this from the insurance and you want them out and there is a press for that, to get them out on time so that they don't have to pay for anything over what the insurance is reimbursing. But if you actually cure those people and they never have to come back to the doctor like no one's making money there and it's the only way the system stays open, it's the only way that those hospitals make money is to bring patients in who are sick. So it's really a fine dance between keeping them in the system through the money payment systems, the payer systems, versus keeping them in too long that then now they are losing money on that patient. That's just something I always think about, but I mean for just patients in general, and I feel like introducing energetics or thought mindset. Work with patients should be way bigger than it is.
Speaker 2:And it should be that nursing school Totally on the front end. If you're having an open heart. I mean, that's one of the things I think about with my post-op patients that are listed with PTS or violent wake-ups. Like if I had, like if, if the PACU nurse had interaction with the patient preoperatively and they recognized your voice, like so much of the emergence from anesthetic is the unknown that panics them. And if, if that relationship was established. And this is what I'm going to do, this is how we're going to do it. I want you to do this with me now practice before we go in. Like that's a mindfulness thing. Like we're, we're, we're getting your mind ready for the other side of this thing you're going through, and, um, that would, I think that it would improve some of those outcomes. Like I'm going to be your nurse, like we're planning this and I'm going to be the one taking care of you, and, um, it's going to be good.
Speaker 2:You know we're going to. We're going to get through this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, prepping the mind. I mean, if you really look at the medical, just the it's just taking care of the meat sack that the soul resides in. That's it, it's, but yet the soul is in there.
Speaker 2:Yes, the book.
Speaker 2:It's materialism it is this reductionist, reductionist thinking, the process of reductionist thinking that became evidence-based practice, is the searching creation, searching the physical world for, and reducing it to its empirical form to understand the reality that we're experiencing. And it cultivates this siloed experience. Everything is siloed because in order to get down to the empirical form, you have to kind of bounce away everything else, that, that and when you, when you do that, when you, when you bat everything down around it, it's siloed and it's myopic and it takes the comprehensive being and disregards it. It's just focused on the physical. That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:Right, which, that's what you're.
Speaker 1:that's what I hear you saying, yeah exactly and it it just continues to perpetuate this separateness between our bodies and our soul or our mind, or who we actually are within this physical thing and you're not changing the machine that runs it. It'd be like, you know, just band-aiding a car, not really dicking around with the motor much, but like changing this and like painting it a different color and putting the other tires on, or wheels, or putting the front bar. You know, you're just like tending, you know, to the outs and maybe taking care of the rust. But if you're not really getting down to the very depths of how that car actually runs, then you're always going to have issues, always.
Speaker 2:Now, so take it back to the first thing that I read there about infant mortality and life expectancies. In the 1700s, those people were not wrestling with these things. I mean, there were obviously. There were people that were wrestling with the ideas that led to what we have today. Um, that's why it's the enlightenment period, um, but they were these ideas. These problems that we're having are created by the, I think, by the lack of ultimately accepting the necessary uh expiration date of dna. We're we're we're wrestling with these. So, these questions of suffering and death in this conversation, because we have tools and answers, they didn't have the tools and answers back then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just was.
Speaker 2:It just was. It was the experience. Everyone suffered and everyone died. Exactly, it just was the experience. And now we are in such a privileged state and we don't appreciate it. It's remarkable.
Speaker 1:But I think it can be a catalyst to the deeper thinking of like, hmm, okay, well, so we have all this technology and, yeah, you can keep your body looking very young.
Speaker 1:You can keep your body younger than stated age by lots of external technology. You know things, but yet our soul is constantly wanting and searching for growth and evolution. If you're only worried about the outside of the casing of you and the way that your skin looks and how tight it is around your face and and you know the, you just your heart and your kidneys and and and the skin on your legs and you know things like that, you're not, you're kind of stunted at your soul growth and I feel like you know, like back back when the children were dying, there wasn't that, it was just accepted. That's just the way. There was no choice. And it's like now we have a choice and it just feels like we should be worried. We continue to improve our body, improve the functions, improve the way that it looks, improve the way that it looks, but what does that even matter if you're not looking at your soul and the evolution, the future, of the futuristic things? You know that. You know that's where I have fallen.
Speaker 1:Nah, that's a weird word, but land where I have stepped in line since questioning everything you know, when we have our, our bottom pit moments and there may be multiple from that I have.
Speaker 1:That's kind of where I've stepped into, I've stepped out of the external thought process and stopped ignoring who this is, and I've I've been trying to like connect my inner with my outer and I don't you know with with using technology, the nanotechnology and some of those things. There are benefits to it, but they're only physical unless you have that connection between your soul and your outer body, because then it will, then it will matter, it almost like double matters. It really has meaning versus just you know, something that could be taken advantage of by someone who has the right code, and maybe that's my way of not being so scared of new things like that. And so if you, you know, kind of allow, if we could allow patients and kind of bring them into thinking about both. So this just popped into my mind how do you feel about the future of nursing, knowing that all of these new technologies are going to come in, and kind of where you fall in that line of or pendulum?
Speaker 2:really you know the swing of it I, I do think that there there will be massive changes. Um, I think that, uh, I think that there's a real possibility. Like, doctors are more and more specialized. I nurses I think that they're you know, we were, were, could be again are somewhat still very, very skilled, and the people, the nurses that are, you know, like nurse practitioners I think nurse practitioners are a good example of this that they're they're specializing, and I think that the specialization process will grow and that, more than likely, there will be automation brought into hospitals, so it will require less and less human workforce and I think that the home health model will return.
Speaker 2:I think that there's just no way around that, and that's kind of where I was going with the autonomy thing that the blockchain, nurses will be their own entity, that you'll be licensed and boarded in all the states and almost like Uber for nurses. Like nurses will be like Uber drivers, like they will have their own little business, that they contract through different agencies and they send them where they need them and, you know, you just get on an app and be like yeah, I work this many hours today, I want to go, I want to see this many patients and I don't want to do anything else with that, I think there is something.
Speaker 1:Remember that podcast you sent me with the gal she had. She had she was talking about nursing and staffing and she had something similar that she started that business. It was her and a guy. She was on his podcast but that's similar to what she had done. She had provided that autonomy and that nurses should be able to work when they can and where they want. I'll try to look that up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was that the girl that was?
Speaker 1:I think you might've even sent an email to her.
Speaker 2:Was she the one that was working in Congress or presenting to Congress that, oh, the nursing pay model has to be reformed, that we need reimbursements like physicians?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what that was. I don't know that she was talking about. I see what you're saying. Yes, that's definitely connected. No, no, no, that's connected. I think that if that changes, if we are able to be reimbursed for charges, means that we don't actually know what the, what the cost of nursing is, which means that a bedpan has more identifiable value than me. Yes, so if we change that model, if that model of reimbursement is you know that model, if that model of reimbursement is, you know, established, if we can figure out the nuances of you know how, like what, the, what is the cost of a nurse starting an IV? What is the skill of starting an IV worth Right? Or dropping an NG or a Dobhoff? Or you know running wedge pressures? You know what are, what are all these super high skill tasks that that we're doing actually worth? And then we get paid on that versus the hourly pay model. Then that sets up the kind of Uber scenario where you know we could actually make money doing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because really right now nurses are, you're tied to a system, you're almost I mean it. There really isn't anything, I mean, unless you are nurse coaching or you have bought your own business like an IV therapy business. You're always under someone, you're under the direction of someone, you're under the guidelines of someone, you're under the. You know policies and procedures and staffing and the model and and you know who they're going to tell you when to work and when, not what holiday you got to work and what holiday. You know it would be a dream for nurses to be able to work like a physician. Does you know? Physicians have their own thing.
Speaker 2:That's kind of that, their own thing, that's kind of that. So that that's kind of where, like the automation piece, like I don't know how the automation like is going to happen, I don't know how the um jetson type robot makes its way into the hospital, um, and I mean, to be perfectly honest, that creep me out. It creeps me out to see robots. They're weird. I mean it's, it's weird, but that you know. If that's the, you know where the future is going, whatever. Whatever, I have no agency over that. Yeah, we have no agency over that.
Speaker 1:How do we? How do we move through? How do we move through? We move through what we know is coming. We know change like that is coming. We know things and technologies and things are moving. And so how do you move through that and stay not scared?
Speaker 2:I mean, it is like you have to have a footing in a belief system. I think is one foundation. I think another is really developing the internal structures and systems to allow you to have agency in your own life. Like that's the personal accountability bit, that, okay, this person over here is saying you know, saying this and you have all these opinions, you know, when there's, when there's, multiple opinions that inform a decision, at some point, you have to collapse all of those systems and and just go within to find the answer forward. And that is. I think that is a skill or a muscle that is built. I don't think that that is just something that happens. I think that we are particularly gifted with with that skill because of our experience of managing critical situations that you know you can't listen to anyone else, like when you're, when you're running the, the show there is.
Speaker 1:You can't, you can't be open to suzy q's opinion over here, like, get on out, I'm, I'm, I'm doing this thing, yeah yeah, I mean different if you're asking a question and then receiving an answer, but when you're in there and you'veed, because you have to navigate- this path because you can see it.
Speaker 2:So that, I think, is pretty critical. I think that's a navigational tool. I would say we have to become our own navigators. And then the other side of all of this is that we have to have the freedom to be able to choose to take these things up. Not everybody is wrestling with the things that you and I are wrestling with, and to say that everyone should is not necessarily.
Speaker 1:So if you're like, because I I never did, I was just nursing, and you just go with the flow and I didn't think much, much outside of just what was going on, and it wasn't until I started feeling and suffering from the consequences of not thinking about that that you then decide to do something and so, yeah, it was a practice. It is a practice and you have to start practicing doing something different. It's almost like you, you get an awareness at some point, whatever that, however, that's brought to you, and then you're like what, what is this really all even? And then you're like what? Like what is this really all even? What, what is this even all? For what are we doing? You kind of get that like, oh, wow, okay, wait, and it's just a shift in perspective, is, is it you shift?
Speaker 2:well, it's. I mean, it's almost like listening to you talk. You know everyone is concerned about AI becoming self-aware. Like what I'm hearing you say is you're you became self-aware? Like, maybe worrying about? Maybe worrying about AI becoming self-aware is like not even the question. How about we? How do we, as a collective people, become self-aware?
Speaker 1:Right, and maybe AI is just a reflection of what is starting to happen with people, with humans. They're starting to take a different perspective. They're starting to become more aware of what could be going on underneath, what's going on within. Why, where that connection is, we're not taught that connection, we're not taught the connection between our soul and our body. They don't teach it. They don't teach that. And, if anything, if you grew up in church, you could have been taught the exact opposite.
Speaker 1:You know, don't touch your body, don't let anybody else touch your body. You're going to hell. It was with the body. You know it's sin. That was me. Oh yeah, but just another perpetuation of body disconnect, because when you come and you're connected with who you are in the body you're in here now things look so much different. Yeah, because now you're the agent. I am the agent of my who I am.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:No one's telling me what to do, who to be, because that's what it was I was told. You will do. You will be. You will be nice. You will be quiet. You don't talk to me like that. You will not be disrespectful. You will go to college, you will be. You will be nice, you will be quiet. You don't talk to me like that. You will not be disrespectful, you will. You will go to college. You will make money. You will clock in at a job. You will do that. It's all just that. But once you're able to take ownership, and sometimes it's yucky when you have to look at what, where you are.
Speaker 1:When I quit drinking, that was one of the first times that I really and that was seven years ago, and I am still learning how to be the agent of my body and my life, and I don't think that stops. I don't either. I don't either. It doesn't. So it's just one kind of progression situation after another, but one of the very first ones when I really had to be like, is to look at my drinking self and like what was, what was that about? Why, why, what were you doing? You know, and so you just. It's like unraveling so that you can make sense of it and not berating yourself, not judging yourself, not focusing on all the external things that made you that way, because none of that matters. It really is just where you are and if you can stop and see right where you are current now, that's where then you can change your future and where you're going. If you're constantly looking at the back of the bus, you're never going to know where you're going.
Speaker 2:You're right. We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode.
Speaker 1:Remember, the conversation doesn't end here.
Speaker 2:Keep the dialogue going by connecting with us on social media posted in the links below or by visiting our website.
Speaker 1:Together, let's continue to redefine nursing and shape a brighter future for those we care for. Until next time, take care, stay curious and keep nurturing those connections.
Speaker 2:And don't forget to be kind to yourself.