Wakanda's Wrld
This channel is primarily informative within the weird and wonderful world of healthcare. I discuss how to improve the wide world of healthcare along with up to date information. I love to have different guest from different walks of life within healthcare. For podcast guest inquires reach me at shanklindj@yahoo.com
Wakanda's Wrld
What Happens When We Cut Essential Services? A Healthcare Reality Check
Healthcare is facing a crisis that few are talking about. The proposed reduction in federal funding for EMTs through Bill 1067 threatens to drastically decrease emergency medical services across America, particularly in rural areas. EMTs already earn shockingly low wages despite their life-saving responsibilities—in some regions making less than fast-food workers. Without proper funding, entire counties could lose emergency services, forcing patients to wait for help from neighboring areas when every second counts.
But funding is just one piece of a complex healthcare puzzle. The disconnect between medical specialties has created dangerous gaps in patient care. Some EMTs discourage nursing home transfers despite orders from physicians who know their patients' complex needs. Meanwhile, a disturbing case of a nurse reusing needleless syringes for 18 months has compromised patient safety and trust. These incidents highlight a critical need for better communication, respect, and adherence to safety protocols across all healthcare disciplines.
The healthcare conversation doesn't end there. For medical professionals spending long shifts on their feet, proper footwear is essential for preventing fatigue and injury. Brands like Clove, Asics, Nike, and Hoka top the list of recommended nursing shoes for 2025, based on criteria including comfort, support, and durability. These practical recommendations acknowledge the physical demands placed on healthcare workers who sacrifice their comfort to care for others.
Want to make a difference? Contact your local EMT station to learn how you can support emergency services through advocacy or donations. Follow Wakanda RN for more honest conversations about healthcare's most pressing challenges and practical solutions for both providers and patients.
https://linktr.ee/WakandaRN
I'm just keeping it real. You look like the sore loser in the equation. You look like the sore loser, so you need to be careful and spell it out. Here's what's going to happen. Ok, if we see a decrease in federal funding for EMTs, you're going to have to. You're going to have a reduction in services. It's just that. Welcome in, in, welcome in with your Wakanda RN. What's going on?
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, we're here with a special episode today. I am Solo Dolo. It's just me. For your wrestling fan, I would say it's just me. Oos, it's just me. You know, shout out to Jey Uso. So, ladies and gentlemen, it's just me, but we have a lot to talk about today. I'm very excited, very excited. We got a lot to talk about, so let's go ahead and get into it, man, let's go ahead and get into it.
Speaker 1:So my first topic today is EMTs, emts. So, for some of you who may not know if, if you pay attention to the news so there's a bill. I believe it's bill, let's see it's 1067, bill 1067. And it has a lot to do with funding man, a lot to do with funding with EMTs, a lot to do with funding EMTs. Okay, so what? Basically, what this bill is is basically reducing funding for EMTs.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, my EMT friends, or for those of you who may not be aware, emts do not get paid very well. They don't get paid very well at all. It's actually pretty sad, pretty pathetic, um, because you can work at Burger King McDonald's in certain places and get paid more as a worker no disrespect to my McDonald's workers or no disrespect to anybody who's in that career field. However, compared to what they have to do, it is quite sad. We need EMTs. I know I saw something recently about how, you know, there's some places that can't even send an EMT and a paramedic. They have to send two EMTs because there's a lack of paramedics in the field right now, which is which is scary. You know, paramedics are able to do more. They have more experience. You have more knowledge, more schooling, so they're able to do more. So you will want a paramedic to be there on a scene whenever you have a serious car accident or whatever emergency is out there. You want the people with the best knowledge and best experience out there experience out there.
Speaker 1:So, if I remember correctly, in 2020, they received a large increase in funding. Due to COVID and everything. They received a large increase in funding and so you had a larger increase in EMTs nationwide. But literally, a year later, those numbers are drastically decreased from 2020 to 2021. And even going from 2021 and where we are today, those numbers have not. We haven't seen drastically increase in those numbers and literally it's because what comes down to money? It comes down to money.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not going to sit and pretend like I know how every EMT, state by state, is funded, but I know down here in the south, it's a combination of reimbursement insurance reimbursement plus funding, federal funding. So here's what's going to happen. Let me go ahead and spell it out. Here's what's going to happen. Ok, if we see a decrease in federal funding for EMTs, you're going to have, you're going to have a reduction in services. It's just that simple. And that is the last thing we need right now. We need EMTs in the field. So we don't need less, we need. We need drastically we need a lot more right, but they need to be paid accordingly right.
Speaker 1:Who wants to be in a situation to where you cannot get the help that you desperately need because there's no longer funding? So you know, instead of one county, you know, maybe, maybe there's emergency medical services in one county, but let's say they get shut down, so you may have to go two counties over, right? And we know that, in terms of life or death, we're talking about seconds, minutes, right? So you're going to see people that are going to be suffering and getting delayed of care and lives potentially lost because of a decrease in funding and lives potentially lost because of a decrease in funding, and we can't have that. We have to have that funding for EMTs, okay.
Speaker 1:So if you want to help, you want to donate, you want to see what you can do, I mean, call your local EMT station and they can give you more directions and more help on what to do to help them out, because we absolutely need them. So I'm trying to just bring awareness because people may not know. I mean they can tell you all the logistics, they can give you the numbers of of why everything is what it is. They can talk about the insurance reimbursement. They can. They can tell you all that. They can tell you all that. Ok, there is a couple of things, though. My EMT friends, I mean I wanted to give y'all the positive, I wanted to give y'all the resources you know I wanted. I wanted to bring awareness right, but there is something else I did want to address. There is something else I wanted to address, and it's not all y'all, it's just the few of y'all, but I got to address it because I seen it recently, right. So on my quest to find more information on all of this stuff the funding with EMTs I happen to come across something right About individuals who call emergency medical services, who just use it as a joyride, right, and so there's individuals who don't know what an emergency is, don't know what constitute an actual ambulance ride is, which that's a whole nother subject.
Speaker 1:So, if you listen to this, do not call the ambulance unless it is an absolute emergency. Ok, you know, I'm saying if you feel like you're having a heart attack, call 9-1-1. Get EMS there. Stroke, like symptoms, like symptoms? Call lost a limb, call all right. There's certain things you can call for, but I kid you, not right? There's people who have called emergency medical services for menstrual cramps. There's people that have called emergency medical services literally because they're just having um knee pain. I've seen it, I'm not making this up, I've seen it. Don't call emergency medical services for just random knee pain, all right, go see your primary care provider Very important. Go see your primary care provider. That's just the tip of the iceberg, okay. So let's get that out the way. So I do agree with y'all that there's a lot of people who call emergency medical services for absurd things and they don't need to. So I completely agree with you there.
Speaker 1:But there was one gentleman I don't know if he was EMT paramedic, I don't know what his role was that he decided to attack nursing homes. Now somebody came from long-term care. I'm going to have to speak on this. I know guys listen to me, my EMT friends, my paramedic friends. I know it's not the sexiest thing, I know it's not the most appealing thing to go to a nursing home, but it is absolutely needed. And I understand some of y'all are disappointed because it's not the most exciting thing. It doesn't give you that adrenaline rush having to go to long-term care facilities. But we need y'all to go long-term care facilities and here's a big no-no. If you're listening to this EMT, please listen to me very carefully.
Speaker 1:Do not talk patients out of going to the hospital. Please do not do that. Please do not do that. People who are in long-term care are properly trained, educated, know the patient, just because you don't see signs and symptoms of whatever that you want to see doesn't mean that you need to have the right to talk these patients out of going to the hospital. No, I'm not making this up, I've seen it happen. I need you guys to literally take them to the hospital so they can get treatment and so they can come back.
Speaker 1:Ok, it's not a waste of services. It's not a waste of services for them to go to the emergency department, depending on what it is, because if you guys have never sat down and talked to people in long term care, then you don't understand. You don't understand. You know some of you will say, well, can't they wait till tomorrow? Or they can't do the luck, can I not just do the labs there, or whatever. You know, if somebody is having and let's say somebody drew labs earlier that day, right, but then they have a critical lab value and we call the provider and that provider wants them sent to the emergency department to have more further testing done, something that cannot wait. Well, we're just doing what we're told, right, and so they need to be sent to the hospital and they need to be evaluated. I don't know how many times that somebody tried to talk somebody out of going to the hospital and they are admitted for sepsis or whatever. Wherever the case may be, they are, they are admitted, ok.
Speaker 1:So, please, my EMT, paramedic friends, please stop doing that. Please stop doing that, because there's complexities when it comes to these geriatric patient patients and you guys do not have the proper expertise. You guys don't have it, and that's okay, just like people working long-term care don't have the expertise that you guys when it comes to emergency situations. Okay, that's fine. We all have different abilities, we all specialize in different areas. So, please, we respect what you guys do, but you guys need to give that proper respect back to us. Ok, I just had to get that off my chest. Ok, I want you guys to give us the proper respect for those who work in long term care. That's all I got to say about that, ok, I'm sure some of you guys may have something to say in the comments below.
Speaker 1:Now on to a few other topics. So back on the health care side here now you're going to see weird things like this. That's going to pop up occasionally, so I'm going to go ahead and read this to you guys here. So there was the quick version is somebody was using reusing uh needleless syringes at a hospital. Now why on earth would somebody use needleless syringes to try to save the hospital buck, or whatever the case may be? It's absurd. It is absolutely absurd. So we have a cheapskate regional um health care is contacting patients who may be exposed to blood borne pathogens After our now former nurse at Cheapskate Regional Medical Center Reuse needleless syringes to administer IV medications over a period of 18 months. That's way too long. The nurse worked in the post anesthesia care unit between July 24, 2023 and January 20, 2025. The hospital has since terminated the employee and launched a wide reaching effort to warn and support potentially effective patients.
Speaker 1:So pretty, pretty absurd, pretty absurd, right, pretty absurd, right, um, really and truly. Guys, I mean this is pretty lazy to me because you know I'm really sitting there trying to really think about it. I mean I've seen people really try to save the hospital buck. I have. I've seen people literally try to do everything in their power pardon to try to save money. But I've also seen nurses who are flat out lazy, you know, who won't follow infection control protocols and they want to reuse things. It's nasty, okay. So, of course, this headline may have been more alarming. If people say it was needles, right, because you think of things like HIV, aids. But potentially reusing needleless syringes, can you pass on pathogens that can affect you? It is possible. The risks are very low, but it still can happen. It's just weird.
Speaker 1:So here's the statement from the Chiefscape Regional Healthcare. They said we deeply regret this incident occurred and are taking every necessary step to support these affected and to prevent any reoccurrence. The hospital or, excuse me, the employee, acted in violation of training, hospital policy and regulatory standards and no longer works at our hospital. The patient who receives patients who receive care from their former nurse during the affected time frame have been contacted by the hospital and are eligible for free bloodborne pathogen chest testing. So I know the hospital is upset because they're losing money in this process. I know they're upset.
Speaker 1:It's not even so much about the patients at this point. For them, it's about all the testing that they're having to do to these patients. I mean, we're talking about from 2023 to 2025, right? So, um, yeah, so there's no telling how many patients that got exposed and they're having to do all this testing that they're losing thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars for. So I mean we could pretend like it's about the patients, but it's not about the patients, it's about the bottom, the bottom dollar. So let's just get that out the way.
Speaker 1:Absurd, it is absurd. So, if you're, you're in health care and I don't know if you do do this or not, but if you do, please, please, do not reuse needles. What are we doing? What are we doing? Please, do not reuse needles. All right, let's get that out the way. Protect yourself, protect your patients. I mean because, guys, you violate patient trust when you do this. Whenever we see articles like this, it's a violation of patient trust. You're going to have the public that becomes less and less trusting of nurses OK, and we need the trust of the general public. We do, we do. So. Let's just, let's get that out the way, let's let's not do that again, ok, ok. So, oh, my goodness, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 1:I know in 2025, you know, I've seen something about the man versus one man, or one gorilla versus a hundred men. You know, I think 2024, we had the bear versus man. I mean, mean, we're going to have topics about, you know, man versus women. You know, man versus women versus animals, seems like for a long time. But there is something I did want to see. I saw recently, so I'm gonna have to just talk about this, address this um, to some extent. So recently I saw where a female that this I guess she was in contact with a famous nursing content creator. Like they had back and forth. They were chatting, flirty, they were you know what I'm saying. They were on their way to becoming potentially romantically involved. Well, according to this young lady that this particular nursing content creator which he hasn't said anything, the content creator in question was Nurse Mikkel. Some of you listening may know who this is. Some of you probably have no idea. Big following on tiktok, for sure, big following on tiktok.
Speaker 1:I'm accused this gentleman of love bombing and accused the gentleman of just ghosting her right. So you know, you know. If you don't know what love bombing is, you know I'm saying you know you're beautiful, you're great, you're wonderful. You know I'm saying the I like you, I love you, I want to be with you, you're this or that, and then you know they pull away. So unfortunately, I hear this a lot, I hear this a lot with with guys.
Speaker 1:If this happened, her feelings were hurt and she wanted women to be aware of his behavior. Now I kept listening and looking for a potential crime. I was like, okay, is there slander, is there defamation, is there, you know, like what? I kept looking like, ok, what, what did he do? That was so wrong. And before any of you really kind of form an opinion, what I'm trying to get at is OK, what is the one thing that women need to be aware of to keep away from this gentleman? I didn't see anything other than the love bombing. The love bombing and pulling away. Is that nice to do to someone? No, no, it's not nice to love somebody and then pull away. But really him pulling away. Sis, if you're ever listening or watching this, it's probably the best thing for you If this occurred.
Speaker 1:I'm just speaking on words. I mean, he hasn't said anything. He may not. He may not say anything, I don't know. Everybody has their own opinion. But you may have saved you some heartache because, in terms of love bombing, you know a lot of manipulators, narcissists, they start out like that. I'm not saying that's what he is, but I'm just saying, and then you know they can use that to manipulate. So he may have saved you some troubles, maybe saved you some heartache with that. So that's first and foremost.
Speaker 1:Now, if nothing really occurred, I feel like this is kind of something that could have just been said nothing about. Like you know, you tried, or both of y'all tried and just didn't work out Happens all the time, happens all the time. But here's the thing too. I'm trying to look at it on both ends here, because if he did that and he pulled away, it's not a good look for him. But if but you're accusing him of love bombing and pulling away, that's not a good look for you either.
Speaker 1:You know, you keep saying I want people to be aware. When people be aware. All I'm aware is right now is okay, well, potentially maybe he's doing that. But at the same time I'm like okay, well, you're potentially going to turn people away from you because it looks as though on the surface that he gave you attention and you wanted more and he left, and now you're exposing him publicly because you didn't get the attention that you wanted. It's not a good look for either. Or unless he committed a legit type of crime. If he committed a crime, he committed some type of act that deserve that type of awareness, then that's another story.
Speaker 1:But right now I'm just keeping it real. You look like the sore loser in the equation. You look like the sore loser, so you need to be careful. Ladies, men, we need to be careful. Be careful because right now and maybe I bring somebody on to talk about this in a deeper subject but right now there's just such a disconnect between men and women that I don't know, I feel like we're going to have another, you know, woman in the bear. We feel like we're going to have some type of in the bear. We feel like we're gonna have some type of it's like this is gonna continue on because there's such a disconnect between men and women. But if y'all feel differently, you can let me know in the comments below. So all right, man, I know I've kind of talked about a few things that really I feel like need to be addressed, but let me give y'all some positive. Let me give y'all some positive.
Speaker 1:All my nurse friends out here and maybe, if you're not a nurse friend and maybe you're just somebody who's just you know, maybe you're new to health care, maybe not. I got something for you. I got something for you. So I I'm trying to get better, leaving you guys with something, especially on a positive note. So, according to um, look like angela walker the best shoes for nurses in 2025. Now, when I say nurses nurses they're on their you know, they're on their feet a lot, and so if you're somebody who's in a career field, you're on your feet a lot and you want more comfortable shoes. Well, according to this, maybe we can kind of give you some tips. Right, and here's what the criteria is based upon. Before I read the list, here's the criteria. The criteria is quality, cost, comfort, water resistant, sharps resistant, non-slip style slash, fashion, foot slash ankle support, action or excuse me, fashion, foot slash, ankle support, durability and the ability to clean. So that that's the criteria. Ok, so let's read this list.
Speaker 1:I came up with 12 shoes, 12 shoes, and I can already tell I have not worn all these shoes, so I can't give you, you know, an unbiased opinion, but I've worn a couple of these. So we got clothe. That's the number one shoe I'm, so I'm always gonna go from one to 12. Clove Stan plus shoes, formerly Gales. We have uni shoes. We have figs. We have Asics. I've worn Asics. I got a pair not bad, not a bad shoe at all, not a bad shoe at all brooks running shoes. Um, yeah, I'm gonna leave that there. Nike vapor max I haven't wore the vacumax vapor max but I've worn the. Of course I got nike's. Nike's definitely my, my number one brand, for sure. Hoka I have one pair of Hoka, but they're for running only. I don't have Hoka's for nursing, but just running. Let's see Algeria Women Okay, on Cloud Running Shoes, vessi and Dansko Nursing Clocks that's the one thing you would not find me in is clogs.
Speaker 1:So you ain't gotta worry about seeing Wakanda and clogs. That's not happening. But those are the quote unquote best nursing shoes. So if you're interested in any of those, you need some workplace shoe suggestions. There you go, there you go. So you got clothes stand and you need those top three. I mean, personally I'm biased towards Asics and Nike's, cause that's what I got, so I got those. So if you, if you kind of want those I mean there you go, there you go, all right.
Speaker 1:So if you guys like this type of content, let me know. Let me know. This is just. This is mano y mano wakanda. This is solo dolo wakanda. So if you like this solo dolo stuff, let me know. I'll do more of it because I I love to have guests, but every now and then you'll see me come out here and talk about a variety of subjects too. So thank you. So thank you for spending time with me, your friendly wakanda rn, and I love you guys. I hope you guys have a blessed rest of your day and until next time, so make sure you follow me, um, make sure you like the content, give me a follow, like, subscribe, donate if you, if you feel like it, and so anyway, love you, guys out.
