The Ritual Nurse

Crying, Laughing, and Probably Failing a Med Math Quiz

• Riva - The Ritual Nurse • Season 1 • Episode 15

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The past few weeks, we've had those clinical days — the kind where you laugh so hard with your students that you’re crying in the break room with mascara halfway down your face and someone might have a chux pad stuck to on a shoe.

But between the chaos, the giggles, and gagillion mg K+ home remedy (>>??)… something clicked.

This episode is for the nurses, the students, the exhausted preceptors, and everyone in between who forgot that resilience is born in the mess — not in the module.

We’re talking:

  • What nursing school never taught us — and how we learn anyway
  • Why laughter is a survival skill
  • The difference between failure and becoming
  • And yes… that one time I almost had to call a code because a med pass turned into a slip ‘n slide. 😬

But we’re also holding space for something serious — because it’s Black Maternal Health Week, and this platform is about advocacy, truth, and care that includes everyone.

🖤 Black birthing people are 3–4x more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes in the U.S.
 Not because of biology — but because of systemic bias and racism in healthcare.
 This is our lane. And it starts with awareness, with listening, and with doing better.

🎧 If you’re a nurse who wants to show up with both humor and heart — hit play.
 🌿 If you’re ready to mix medicine with magic — hit play.
 🩺 And if you’re tired of dry, boring nursing podcasts that make you feel like you’re in a conference you didn’t sign up for — you already know what to do.

✨Resources mentioned in this episode:

🎉 BONUS: Don’t forget — our free download “The List” is live!
Check the Birthday show for your special birthday bonus code (hint: it’s hidden in that episode 😉)

🖤 Ready to laugh, reflect, and maybe cry into your coffee?
Hit play. Then share this episode with your nursing bestie, your preceptor, your patient care tech, or that one classmate who keeps you sane. We’re building this community together.


Hey! Make sure you subscribe to stay connected. Love a nurse? Who doesn't! Share with all the nurses you know. The more we reach, the more we help. We feel like no one deserves center stage focus more than nurses and our mission is to reach the millions of superstars out there. We'd love to hear your stories, your adventures, your wins, and especially your needs and questions! Email us at hello@ritualnurse (dot) com. Also, you can send us fan mail! Use the link at the beginning of the show notes. Resources, classes, blogs, and podcast info can be found on our home site at TCTH.org. The Ritual Nurse Podcast is part of The Code Team educational platform.

Love your FAYCES!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Ritual Nurse where healing meets humor, science and a touch of magic. Hi, welcome back to the Ritual Nurse where we mix science, spirit and a shot of espresso-soaked sarcasm to help nurses finally put themselves first. I'm your host, reva nurse, wild woman, ritualista, advocate, educator. It's amazing how versatile we are in this profession, I think. Okay, so I need you to know that I literally cried from laughing so hard over the past few weeks. Know that I literally cried from laughing so hard over the past few weeks. My students, wild, beautiful chaos, I swear. Nursing education is 50% trying to keep a straight face while someone charts with one finger and 50% praying that they pick the right orifice for the tube in their hand. These times. These remind me of why I love teaching and also why this podcast exists, so let's get into it. So let me paint the scene of some of the tales in the last few weeks. Of course, some have been combined and others admitted to protect privacy.

Speaker 1:

I have students handling a bed crisis with the patient stuck up in the air like five feet high, one under the bed trying to find the plug to reset it so it will finally lower instead of just climbing. The student keeping the patient in the bed is giving helpful advice. Hey, unplug the gray one, the student under the bed. Okay, I got. And no, no, no, don't unplug that one. As the patient sinks slowly in the bed as the air mattress deflates, the students explained they were terrified that the patient was going to fall through the bed now, not realizing that the bed is a solid sheet of metal under the air mattress. While other students are dealing with the frenetic family member that we're all familiar with, one is therapeutically listening and encouragingly nodding and smiling, despite the person being practically unintelligible, until suddenly realizing that the conversation is actually a serious one, apparently, and requires the serious therapeutic face. So she deadpans and immediately drops into concerned and therapeutically nodding. The other two are trying to pull their best nurse face as they hear the miraculous out of the box thinking involving like five packs of liquid IV ingested at once, and while recounting this to me, the student, straight face, turns and says totally saved her, to which I almost spit out my coffee. Their earnest and legitimate desire to be supportive and helpful and good nurses in the midst of like the three ring five alarm fire circus sideshow that is the everyday Wednesday afternoon in nursing is endearing, incredibly brave and actually hysterical. Like all of us, the students and myself have been laughing at their adventures and the ingenious ways that they managed to solve every single one of them.

Speaker 1:

The chaos is familiar, the laughter is cathartic. Every single one of us walked through this before. In fact, we still do. Every time we take on a new specialty, a new degree, we go through the same motions of being that new grad all over again, of feeling like that student all over again, and I've been sitting here thinking this is the good stuff, not because it's perfect, not because it's polished, but because it's real. It's perfect not because it's polished, but because it's real. We laughed so hard at one point about a med pass moment gone sideways that I had actual tears running down my face, and that's when it hit me Like this is part of resilience. It's not a module you take. It's not a PowerPoint, not some dry ass CEU that you wade through. It's laughter in the mess. It's not a PowerPoint, not some dry ass CEU that you wade through. It's laughter in the mess. It's connection in the chaos.

Speaker 1:

I shared with them. You know some of my own nursing stories from being in school, some of which you probably heard on the podcast last week. One of my favorite ones on the podcast last week the entire penis on your gloves situation. Some more stories about being a new grad. I went right from nursing school into the ICU as a new grad. In sharing those stories and sharing to them, this is what it taught me. This is the preparation that I learned I needed to have while going through these learning lessons and both laugh, crying my way through them, because the insanity is a real thing. I know.

Speaker 1:

Last week we discussed the show the Pit on the podcast and the chaos is a real thing. So if you're listening to this and you're not a healthcare provider or a nurse, I love it, because everything that we go over is is wildly helpful for you as well. You don't have to be a nurse for this to help you, but this isn't an exaggeration. A lot of the things that we talk about and a lot of the things that we discuss, unless you're a nurse and you're experiencing them, might be things that sound exaggerated, sound like hyperbole, and both the funny and terrifying part is that they're not. They're actually just real. So here's the thing Nursing school gives you drug guides and patho charts and a million things to memorize, but it doesn't teach you how to live through the work. It doesn't tell you what to do when you feel like a failure because you forgot a blood pressure or mixed up a med. It doesn't teach you that sometimes you'll cry in the supply room and then laugh five minutes later because someone put a chucks pad on backwards and now you're slipping, sliding through the day like a literal messiah of body fluids. Or maybe you inadvertently might have snapped open a chucks as you're laying it down and managed to, you know, towel snap your CNA in the forehead. These things may or may not happen. All I have to say is that if that situation did indeed happen, that at least it was brand new and it was clean right.

Speaker 1:

But what I realized today is that our laughter is part of medicine. It's medicine for us. Our chaos is sacred, our gross. That's happening in real time, even when we feel like we're flailing and can't find purchase. This is a lifelong endeavor of learning. In fact, I'm a student. Right now. Still, I'm finishing my FNPDNP. I'm very close. I'm so close it's almost tangible. I was making my own professors laugh as I transition from acute medicine to family medicine and the absolute 360 that my brain is doing trying to accomplish this. I know for a fact that I'm making them laugh. Now they do the same thing that I do as an instructor and they may chuckle that they're keeping that nursing instructor face kind of intact, but because I'm an instructor I know that I am absolutely making them laugh, as are my fellow colleagues.

Speaker 1:

With our transition from acute to family it's a really different perspective as a practitioner and our go-to triage and thinking and you know the stuff we're comfortable with, the things that we think we know, uh, aren't the answer Like where are you going to get a troponin at in your family practice out there, what? What troponin is this that you're ordering for your patient that has come in with a classic heartburn symptoms? So just just things like that and changes in thought that are all part of that learning experience that we all continue to go through in stages. So it's not just our nursing students that, or us when we were nursing students, that struggled to get through this and nope, no, it still continues to happen as we learn and it's part of the growing process, part of what builds resilience in us in handling the chaos and learning to create space for that. That's the one missing piece in nursing school that none of us got. None of us got the piece about how do you intentionally create space to develop emotional intelligence, to develop your resilience, to debrief with yourself.

Speaker 1:

In the very early episodes of this podcast I have a lot of I don't want to say instructional podcasts, but going through some actual skill sets, breath work, debriefing, more along the lines of trauma-informed care. That's self-applied, if you will, and of course the podcast is largely based upon that. So there's going to be more of that, of course, coming in future content. But those are the pieces. That's the piece that we missed in nursing school. We got all the chaos. We even left with some moments and memories that we can laugh at, thankfully, in surviving the entire ordeal. But we missed the whole piece of how to thrive after the ordeal and through it. So these moments, the oh dark 30 moments, the crying and laughing at the same time moments, they're a release of trauma, they're a celebration of survival. It's a bond that we forge together.

Speaker 1:

Now, trauma bonding is not the most positive coping mechanism. Is it something that nurses do regularly? Yes, because we are trauma bonding, because we're surviving the exposure to secondary trauma, the actual trauma, ptsd, the anxiety, all of it. We're surviving all of that together at the same time, and there's many other disciplines that do as well. But the trauma bonding has to also contain a recognition of what it is that we're doing and why it is that that coping mechanism is being utilized, because there isn't any space created for a healthy one. So we have to do that, and that's a huge part and parcel of what I'm imparting to you guys in this podcast.

Speaker 1:

Podcast is how to create the space we were never taught to, how to give ourselves the skill sets and the tools to debrief, to recover, to recognize, to have the emotional intelligence to recognize in ourself when those things are needed in order to restore that equilibrium and that resilience. So that, while we're laughing at this chaos, that it's genuine laughter and humor and celebration of the things that we've made it through. And yes, yes, naturally a little bit of trauma bonding, but that that's what it is. And then it isn't a way for us to cover up our feelings and our needs by dismissing them, if you will, under the guise of trauma bonding and camaraderie and laughter. So, now that we've reached our midpoint, our famous musical interlude pause to either usher you back into your shift or signal that the hydration break is approaching and keep your spot waiting. Just hit pause during the music and you'll always know where to come back to. But, as always, we will be here for you after the shift and we're sending you all the smooth vibes and happy orders If you're sticking around and get to spend the whole episode with us right now, go get your water, your snack, get comfy and get ready for the rest of the podcast. Okay, we are back.

Speaker 1:

So, before we shift into crystals and coffee and divination our favorite segment I do want to take a moment and say something that matters deeply, because while we laugh, while we grow, while we become, we also witness. We witness the realities of healthcare that too often get brushed under the rug. Right now, it is Black Maternal Health Week, and I cannot let this week go by without naming something that every nurse and every human should care about Black birthing people in the United States are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications than white people. Not because of biology, but solely because of bias, because of systemic racism, because of how we fail to listen to and believe black voices in healthcare, and if you're a nurse, a nursing student, someone just finding their way through this profession. You need to know this isn't someone else's problem, this is ours. Every patient we see deserves to be believed, deserves to be safe, deserves care that is equitable, culturally humble and fiercely human.

Speaker 1:

I know, if you are a podcast listener, that you have heard me say that equality is nothing without equity. Equality means that we've made the doorway a little bit wider so, technically, everybody can walk through it. Equity means that walking through it means they're going to be treated the same and receive the same care, no matter who they are that walked through it. So I'm asking you, not just this week, but always to listen harder this week, but always to listen harder, to advocate louder, to reflect deeper. If you're not sure where to start, I'm going to link some resources in the show notes. And if you're a black nurse, a black parent, a black birth worker, black healthcare provider, I see you, I honor you and I see you, I honor you and I support you. I also want to say to my students and to you out there, that's listening, you are not behind. You're not a bad nursing student, you're not going to be a bad nurse, you're just becoming and yeah, it is messy as hell Spoiler alert, it doesn't ever stop being messy, but it's yours, it's ours, and I am so proud of you, I am so proud of the work that you're doing.

Speaker 1:

So now let's breathe. I want you to drop those shoulders, unclench that jaw, relax your forehead. Let's get into crystals, coffee and divination. So today's crystal prescription as always, we are going to use the crystal portal uh Oracle. Crystal portal, uh Oracle. And I am going to live draw, like I always do, and then see what we get.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I guess I have to flip over the card from last week so that I can shuffle it back in there. Um, again, one of my all-time favorite decks to use for this, just because the cards are absolutely stunning. And one came flying out oh, unbelievable. So lunar intuition Now, we've had this card before and lunar intuition is In that it's both insight and intuition with calmness. So when the lunar intuition card appears, it is a reminder to listen to your inner voice and trust your intuition. Just as the moon goes through phases, your life experiences will ebb and flow. Amethyst holds a deep connection with lunar energy, enhancing your mental and spiritual insight. Trust your instincts and allow your intuition to guide you on a path of profound spiritual growth and illumination.

Speaker 1:

Now, look, I know that we have listeners from all over and everywhere, but you know, tarot may not be your thing, oracle cards may not be your thing, heck crystals may not be your thing. I can't claim to understand that, as I have every pretty shiny rock that I can get my hands on but I want you to think about it this way you don't have to espouse those ways of thinking in order to benefit from the message, and the message is really this in order to benefit from the message, and the message is really this cycles are thing and are natural. They're part of life, they're part of biology, and so what you're going through right now is part of a cycle. And setting aside the space, you know, crafting it with intent, which is the definition of a ritual, is how you utilize that insight and develop that self-awareness to learn from the phase of the cycle that you're in to transition into the next one and be ready. So hopefully that gives you the much needed insight and some guidance for the week ahead. Also, the amethyst is phenomenal at the bedside in terms of clarity in sleep, really helping with that third eye in intuition sense, while you're sleeping, so you can keep it by your bedside as well. Uh, some people actually find that, uh, the lucid dreams that they have, depending on the size of the amethyst next to the bedside, can be a little bit much. So just having it maybe outside of the bedroom or in the space where you have your morning coffee, um, might also do the trick. If it is a little bit too, how do you say high vibration? Let's say, uh, right by your bedside.

Speaker 1:

So our drink pairing of the week, all right. So I fell down this insane rabbit hole of the Sonic drink fandom, somehow, of course dragging my husband along with me, and this group is nothing but Sonic drink recipes, which I have been mocking some of them up at home in various ways. I know I've talked to you guys about my pseudo coffee shop that I turned my downstairs into, and I have a water bar you know, flavor bar, whatever with a bunch of syrups and things that I love. So I've been mocking a few of them up in various ways. But also I absolutely had to stop and get a vanilla coconut small milkshake, which was stupid good. That is a door I should not have opened. You order a small vanilla milkshake, add white coconut syrup to it. It's literally a coconut cream pie in a cup without like the pieces. It's texturally smooth. It's amazing.

Speaker 1:

So I want you to try a few of these next ideas on for size, and you can use regular water, sparkling water, sprite Zero, whatever works If you have a nugget ice maker. A, first of all, the jealousy is so real. B, that's kind of the best way to have this, so you can even just get like a large cup of Sonic Ice and somehow escape the drive-thru without ordering one of these milkshakes. If you have that wherewithal, go ahead. But the first pairing is peach, vanilla and cream. The second and Chobani makes a sweet cream that has stevia instead of sugar. So this is the deal you can do any one of like water, sparkling water, sprite Zero, any of that kind of stuff and do sugar-free peach, sugar-free vanilla and the Chobani sweet cream like a splash of that creamer that has the stevia instead of sugar for an incredibly low calorie keto option. Really of a fun drink.

Speaker 1:

The second one is mango, cherry and lime, and also the same cream situation. You can omit the cream as well. The flavors work perfectly without it. Omit the cream as well. The flavors work perfectly without it. The blue coconut, twisted lime, extra cherries and cream is a summer sonic concoction that you're really going to wish that I didn't tell you, but you're also going to drink it like it's cool.

Speaker 1:

So enjoy, like, post some of these recipes in the comments on socials or, better yet, better yet, to use the text link at the top of the show notes and send me a drink order. I will publicly post me ordering and trying any that I get and my reaction. However, do not do your girl like dirty on this. Like, send me some good ones. Don't send me something gross. Send me some good drink orders to try and I will post them on TikTok, on our Instagram. Our Instagram is under the code team, by the way, so it's the code underscore or the underscore code underscore team. At TikTok it's just the ritual nurse, no spaces.

Speaker 1:

So now, next, we have our divination poll. So our divination poll is a sister deck to the crystal Oracle. It's made by the same designer. Absolutely. I've I've posted them numerous times, I've tagged them. I absolutely love their work. So we're going to pull our tarot card for our divination. And again, I am actually I may or may not actually be videoing part of this podcast recording, uh, so that you guys can actually see the live draws happening in real time instead of just maybe hearing them. Maybe not hearing them, I don't know how much. Sometimes my microphone picks up the shuffling of the cards, which is so relaxing to me, kind of like an ASMR thing, uh, without being creepy ASMR. Okay, so I apparently, too, had a message for you this week. Two of them the hierophant and the emperor. Oh, my goodness, those are some heavy hitters this week. So this deck is absolutely stunning and I'm actually holding it up to the recording so that you can see it on TikTok.

Speaker 1:

Lapis Lazuli is the Hierophant and the Emperor is Ruby. So let's see what these have to say, keeping in mind what our lunar insight, our crystal, was for the week. So the hierophant signifies tradition, wisdom and mastery. Lapis lazuli, combined with the hierophant, signals wisdom, clarity and intellect. Weird, the hierophant brings forth feelings of morality and being ethical, black maternal health week. Think of this card as the older, wiser teacher or counselor.

Speaker 1:

Also, what did we talk about in the podcast? Who will mentor you along the way? It can be related to traditions and convention, learning and education, or mastering a certain area of your life. That couldn't possibly be a more succinct summarization of the past 24 minutes and 25 seconds. So the next one is the emperor. The emperor is all about stability, structure and protectiveness. Ruby is vitality, knowledge and enthusiasm.

Speaker 1:

The emperor represents a lot of stability, hard work, leadership and discipline. You have the knowledge and wisdom to do anything that you set your mind to, so claim your authority as a leader Absolutely incredible. In order to do the things that the Hierophant is talking about and utilize your intuition and self-awareness, you really have to claim leadership over your experience and your engagement with that experience. And leading is how we define for the next generation, by example, how to do this. Listening to this podcast is not only beneficial for you guys because of the skill sets in it and the camaraderie and the community and things like that, but those of us in the field. By doing these things, by actually leading by example, is literally how we teach the next generation to thrive through their nursing profession and the choices that they're making, whether they're at the bedside or not at the bedside.

Speaker 1:

In ways that we didn't get, in ways that we didn't get I'm just going to put a period on the end of that sentence in ways that we didn't get. So that is our incredibly, totally irrelevant divination poll and our Oracle, our crystal prescription. If you are still with me, bestie, thank you. You could be anywhere, hiding in the med room, could be crying in your car after a shift, rethinking your entire life at 2am, or laughing uncontrollably with your best friends and teammates. You could also be peacefully relaxing in your protected space and you chose to be here and that matters. That really matters to me. If you laughed today or if you needed to, I want you to send me your funniest, weirdest and most chaotic nursing student story DM me. Or new grad story, too, dm me. Tag me or email me at hello at ritualnursecom. I want to feature your voice.

Speaker 1:

Next, and don't forget our free tool. The list is available on the website tcthorg completely free. Uh, two episodes ago I explained in the in the birthday special episode. I explained how to use it and the benefit, because it's actually a super simple, non overwhelming system and the list is the tool that goes with it there. The information on the system is in the podcast. It's not like a fake you out link of. I'm going to give you the information just to make you click on something that costs you money or any weird subscribing nonsense. It's literally the actual information on the system, why it works, how to use it and the tool itself that you can get for free. There's also the birthday episode bonus code and that is still going to remain active. I know that there was like a time limit on it, but that is active for the exclusive designs of the free tool which are going to be showcased on the new Shopify store that's coming this week. The WordPress setup on the website was a holy terror to get them displayed on, so the code is being extended so that you can use it freely on the Shopify store with ease.

Speaker 1:

Keep an eye on socials. Like I said, follow us on Instagram at the underscore code underscore team. So it's the code team. Just put the underscores in between the words and TikTok at the ritual nurse for when that goes live this week. So until next time, take care of you, because the nurse that you're becoming deserves a version of you that's well, whole and wildly loved. Love your faces.