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
Healing Hands, Breaking Barriers: Kan's Trauma Nursing Path
Kan, a trauma nurse practitioner from Dallas, shares her journey from growing up in the Mississippi Delta surrounded by healthcare disparities to finding purpose in trauma nursing and advocacy for Black representation in healthcare.
• Moved from Mississippi to Dallas in 2019 after completing degrees in public health and nursing
• Motivated to enter healthcare after witnessing family members die from treatable conditions in an underserved community
• Found true fulfillment after transitioning from orthopedic nursing to trauma care
• Emphasizes the importance of spirituality in providing holistic nursing care
• Challenges the notion that all new nurses should start in med-surg units
• Creating a networking hub for Black nurses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to provide mentorship and support
• Advocates for increasing the 8% representation of Black nurse practitioners
• Combines nursing career with content creation, demonstrating how nurses can diversify their income streams
• Believes in breaking generational curses through education and mentorship
Follow Kan on social media @noteasilybrokekan across platforms to connect and learn more about nursing, content creation, and advocacy work.
https://linktr.ee/WakandaRN
Welcome in, welcome in. Come tell a friend, this is your Wakanda RN. Glad to have you today. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a special guest man, special guest man Khan. You're from Dallas. From Dallas, go ahead and introduce yourself. Let people know who you are and what you do.
Speaker 2:Okay, hey guys, I'm Khan and I am a trauma nurse practitioner and the content creator in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1:What's up. That's what's up. So let me, let me ask you so what? Why Dallas? Are you from Dallas? Like, how'd you end up in Dallas?
Speaker 2:So in 2019, I moved from Mississippi to Dallas.
Speaker 2:You might hear a little bit of my accent in this podcast interview, but I moved from Mississippi to Dallas. You might hear a little bit of my accent in this podcast interview, but I moved from Mississippi to Dallas. We won't talk about the specifics of that, but we're going to say that I moved to Dallas and I got a job. When I first started nursing, I was doing ortho trauma. And I moved to Texas and I got a job at a really good hospital Medina hospital, you know, level one trauma, everything, and it was orthopedics and I was just bored out of my mind. So then that's when I transitioned. I feel like moving to Dallas is what really, like, made me chase my passion for nursing instead of just staying complacent. So, yeah, sometimes you got to make big moves to get to where you really want to be. So I moved from Mississippi to Dallas for more opportunities.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. So did you have you embraced Dallas culture, texan culture, or is it kind of like, nah, I'm still Mississippi.
Speaker 2:So Mississippi.
Speaker 1:I can't even be mad at it. I can't, I can't even be mad at it, at it. So what? So? How does this journey come about, like, how did you become a nurse? How did you become a nurse practitioner? What made you choose your specialty?
Speaker 2:kind of walk us through a little bit gosh, I feel like I'm in an interview, okay. So what made me choose nursing? Honestly, it's like there's one pivotal moment that I remember from my childhood because we don't remember everything right, but just like bits and pieces and I remember seeing like this homeless person walking. Where I'm from is poverty stricken. We got health care disparities. The nurse practitioners are the doctors, we don't have doctors, but I see the homeless person like walking down the street and I told my mom I was was like you know what, mama, when I grow up, I want to have like this clinic, this health care clinic, where I just give people free health care, like all homeless people, they got somewhere to stay, I can give them free health care and and I can do all these things and I I had big dreams right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I go to college. I went to the University of Southern Mississippi for my first degree, which was public health, health administration, and we won't talk about why I didn't pursue nursing there, but I just feel like it wasn't my time. But as soon as I graduated with my health administration degrees where I got all of my information about policy and Medicare, medicaid, all of these disparities, they always brought up the Mississippi Delta. Whenever you talk about health care disparities, that's all they bring up and I'm sitting right there like I'm a product of that environment. That's where I'm from. So I went right to nursing school after that and I got accepted. I did the traditional route where I just I had all my prereqs, so I just got into a nursing program. But I just kept thinking about, like all of the family members that I had they're first generation college students. Nobody knows like what happened to those people my cousin, who died in her 40s from pneumonia. When I was young I was thinking what are you saying? Like, my cousin died from pneumonia, there's nothing to die from.
Speaker 1:You're good.
Speaker 2:Like there's nothing to die from. And I had an uncle, too, who was happy Pride Month. He was homosexual and he had AIDS and he died. And then I had my granddaddy who was suffering from lung cancer that metastasized to his brain and he wouldn't stop smoking weed and he was like, hey, I gotta die from something. And I'm like all these people that mean so much to me that I could not save. You know what I'm saying, and I was like you know. I can use that as motivation to fuel my desire to actually make a purpose in this world, to actually do something that's bigger than myself, and honestly, I feel like that's what me and my twin both have sought out to do is like change people's lives, to help people. The passion is bigger than the both of us. So it was, it was an easy decision. Honestly, would I do it again? Absolutely. I love nursing.
Speaker 1:Man, listen, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you Because I feel like your name is like an entendre, you know can. It's like you have this belief that you absolutely can make a difference, you can make a change, and I think that that's wonderful. Because I'll be honest with you. Listen, your story is passionate, it is noble, and I'm sitting here like what's my motivation?
Speaker 2:What was your motivation?
Speaker 1:Listen, listen. So you know, I wish I had like this nice, shiny dream to be like man. You know, I want to save my family, listen. I was like listen, I want a job, I want to get paid, but I also want to help people. It was just as simple as that. It wasn't much motivation, because originally I started off as a physical therapy major. That was my first major. Then, long story short, I live with my grandparents and they were both retired nurses. One was a retired LPN and the other is retired RN and so, living with them, they kept talking to me. They were like you should switch to nursing. I was like man, I don't know. And then eventually I made the change. But I like your story a whole lot better than mine. So shout out, shout out, shout out to you for sure. So you know you wanted to make a change.
Speaker 2:So shout out, shout out, shout out to you for sure. So you know you wanted to make a change, you want to make a difference. So do you feel like you know where you are in your journey? Right now? You feel like you've started making that difference or you feel like like what, what are some of? When I was doing just ortho, I was like I'm not really helping people. I feel like I'm just pushing pills. Honestly, we're getting the knee replacements, hip replacements, shoulders. I'm helping people but I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:It wasn't until I transitioned into critical care when I started working in a surgical ICU and surgical PCU and I saw the absolute miracles that happened and I was there as a witness and also as a vessel that God has used me to be, that healthcare provider in these people's lives to make an absolute difference, a change in their diagnosis and see them do a complete 180 from no brain activity to we drilling the evd, a hole for the evd drain.
Speaker 2:And now the next time I come to work, you're up walking around the unit, walking, talking to my excuse me, wow, it was like trauma, absolutely, because when it comes to like the things that of I have a soft spot in my heart for people that have AIDS, or for people that what's the other one I can't even remember. But I have soft spots. Cancer, cancer, aids, all those type of chronic diseases, those things have a soft spot in my heart, bottom of my heart. But I found that when I was just only working with people with chronic diseases that I was not getting the the effect, I was more so depressed I was like it's nothing to do. You know what I'm saying. But now when I get to trauma, I don't always just have like very sick patients. Sometimes I have healthy patients who just have happened to be in a traumatic experience and so watch them go from zero to a hundred. I'm like, I'm so happy to go to work every single day.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy to be doing these, like it's amazing actually. So, yeah, I think more people should choose trauma, if you want me to get on this soapbox.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay, you know, I've had just a little bit in my career. I have a little bit of emergency room experience. I think I worked at a trauma. I used to work at a trauma level three. It used to be a trauma level two. Then, you know, you lose resources and then it became a trauma level three, so, but it felt like the acuity was a two. You know what I'm saying was a two. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I feel like we got everything and treated everything we could before we shipped them out or transferred them to another high level of care. But I'll tell you what, though I mean my short stint in the emergency department I feel like I learned a lot. I learned a lot because my background before that was med-surg and then before that it was long-term care. So, you know, I did the opposite, because a lot of people they go from emergency room and then they go to long term care. You know they start off fast and then they go slower. Mine was the exact opposite, because I was like, when I got into, I was like, wait a minute, that's a long time ago Because of the sheer amount that you see, you learn like I don't know, kind of some new grads probably may listen to this.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you something Like if you like the hustle and bustle, I. Let me tell you something Like if you like the hustle and bustle, I didn't work at a trauma facility, like a trauma level one. I didn't work there. But let me tell you something you can learn a lot and get a lot of experience and you may find what you may call your calling. You may find it there too.
Speaker 1:So, you know I'm saying just just give it a shot. You never know, you never know. So for you it sounds like you have a faithful calling in what you're doing. It sounds like you have experienced blessings and miracles and everything that you do. And I feel like there's not enough nurses that experience that, because I think a lot of people neglect the spiritual aspect of nursing, because nursing itself is holistic, whether people want to acknowledge it or not is holistic, whether people want to acknowledge it or not. So do you kind of feel that way as well, that people kind of their eyes aren't open or they're just neglecting that spiritual aspect? God's calling. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 2:100% agree with their take and the reason why I say this. I feel like as Black people and I don't want to get on this sub box, but I'm just saying you can be spiritual and religious. Okay, I'll just put that out there. You can be spiritual and religious and also like when you think about how we're taking care of our patients. It's not just, oh, I'm doing plant care plans and I'm just giving medication. You're taking care of the whole person. When your patient asks you, oh, how, my head, can you pray with me? Or, um, you know, I've had patients who were of a different culture African, that is in there and they're calling the ancestors and all these things. All of those different things are so like powerful and all of those go hand in hand with how we're like to treat the patient holistically, like as a whole person. So I think that also, when you but when you dig deep within yourself and you figure out what your purpose is like in life and you use that to fuel, like, your passions with everything that you do, then it makes life more enjoyable.
Speaker 2:I guess I'll say that I don't see nursing as just a job. You know what I'm saying. Like, I see it as this is something that I was called to do, and people do say nursing is not a column, but that's just because you can't reach within yourself and pull out what you feel like you're being called to do. But I advise people to take some time, do some self-reflection and actually figure out what you think your purpose is on this earth and what you want to do with the rest of your time. Are you here Because we only got one life? I mean, if you believe in reincarnation, we have multiple.
Speaker 1:I feel you, I feel you, I feel you, I feel you. No, I really do appreciate that answer. I feel like nursing is missing that holistic care, because I feel like I'm not trying to go too deep into it as well. I'm a person that loves data, I love research because I feel like you know especially, I'm going to keep it centered here in America. You know, religion itself, spirituality itself, is on a decline and so.
Speaker 1:But I also feel like that affects all aspects, all areas of life too, because, as a human being, we are spiritual creatures. Whether you want to admit it, whether you want to admit it or not, we are spiritual creatures. So I feel like when you go into your career choice, your career field, and especially one that's supposed to be as tender, loving, caring, as nursing, if you neglect that spiritual aspect, I feel like you're neglecting nursing itself, because that's what's supposed to come with it. So I do appreciate you acknowledging that and talking about that. So, speaking of the ancestors, so you are part of the 8% of Black nurse practitioners 8%. So let me ask you, why do you think it's only 8%? Why is that? Why is that number so low?
Speaker 2:Why is that? Why is that number so low? We will be here all day. I'm just saying, like the systematic and oppression, the racism in health care, how they try to keep us out of these spaces, even with my. I'll say one one of the reasons why I didn't pursue nursing as my first degree is because my advisor, somebody that was supposed to be there to help me even though I was overly qualified for the nursing program, told me that I wouldn't be. She was like she just assumed that I didn't have the qualifications and I was like I won't do good here, I won't do well here because I don't have people around me that are having my best interest at heart. Number one like they keep us out of programs, they keep us out of these spaces. Number two I'm a first-generation college student Going to school and like going to college sometimes, especially where I'm from, it's an afterthought, like, no, we're not thinking, that's not nobody's thinking about when I graduate from high school.
Speaker 2:I'm going to college, not where I'm from high school I'm going to college Not where I'm from, you know what I'm saying. Like they get a job. Some of them don't even graduate from high school. They get a job and they make ends meet, like that's what I grew up on my family making ends meet, my mama making ends meet. You know what I'm saying. But also we surpass all that and we go to school, um, and you graduate, and then you think about all of the um, the things that first generation college students have to deal with, like financial issues. Oh, now I'm big money because I done graduated from college and everybody my cousin, my grandma, my mama, all of them can kind of ask me for money, money that I'm trying to put aside to go to grad school. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:And so, like it's so many factors against us that that kick people out. Like you know, left and right, left and right, the, the people around you don't have any idea what you're going through because they never went through it, so they can't support you. You don't have a support system, you don't have the money, you don't have the proper education to get into. Think about the schools and stuff. We get hand-me-down books, like you know what I'm saying. All this stuff from even slavery, is still impacting us today. Why are there not enough Black doctors and black nurses and all these other things? And, honestly, there's so many reasons why, and racism is the root cause of most of it and that's all I'm just going to say. Like that's just it. It's racism and oppression, but we made it so happy. Loaded question.
Speaker 1:It's definitely a loaded question. It's definitely a heavy loaded question. I do appreciate your perspective. I just like to see that number increase. You know what I'm saying and I know, I know there's a lot of oh my gosh, you talk about spending time on this all day. Like I know there's a lot of stumbling blocks If I was going to say that that's in the way of a lot of people of color, especially with us within the black community. And let me tell you something. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking like man, I don't know if I can you can.
Speaker 2:You can.
Speaker 1:All right, your journey may not be easy. You may go through a lot of trials and tribulations, but you can do it. All right, I'm telling you. I'm telling you like'm telling you, like to beat the odds, like you're more likely to be locked up, you're more likely to not be here on this earth than to be successful in this life or to get a college degree and to have a career. But let me tell you, you can break generational change. You can break generational curses. It can definitely be done. So, if you're listening to this and you have doubts, don't doubt. Have faith, all right, have that faith and you can do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, cause, as this, as time goes on, I want to see that number increase. You know what I'm saying. We got to start somewhere. I mean, we're up to 8%. I mean I'm trying to get it to at least 10. I want to see double figures. And then I want to see it go from 10 to 15. I want it to go from 10 to 20. Like, I want those numbers to slowly but surely increase because they're needed in our communities. They're needed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and people keep saying y'all need to stop going to school for nursing. We need nurses.
Speaker 1:Boy, boy, you're going to get me started. You're going to get me started over here.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm not going to pay a fee.
Speaker 1:You're going to get me started, because here's the thing too. Here's the thing too. I'm going to say this. I'm going to try to get out my soapbox, I'm going to try to just say it and be done. If you are within the Black community and I know right now, for some people, in some areas, nursing is a hot topic you know whether it's becoming a CNA, lpn, rn. You climb that ladder and there's some people that are like, well, everybody want to be a nurse. Now, everybody want to be a nurse who cares. All right, we need more of us in nursing. We need more of us in these spaces. All right, I'm telling y'all, I'm telling health outcomes. I'm telling you lower hospital stays. I'm telling y'all, the data is out there. When you see more of us within the respective areas that we need to be to, and especially specialty areas, it's more beneficial than not.
Speaker 2:Amen. I'm just saying, and the literature shows that Research, actual research, shows that Make sure they know that part.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes. So I'm trying to try not to harp on it too long, because I had this conversation not too long ago with a speech pathologist and occupational therapy and we had a good discussion about the lack of diversity within these particular fields. And I had somebody who was white is a speech pathologist and we had a good heart to heart about there's a lack of representation, there's a lack of diversity within your particular area and there's some gatekeeping going on. But if you haven't seen it, go check it out. I'm not going to sit here and repeat the whole thing for y'all. I'm just saying these conversations are happening and they need to be had.
Speaker 1:There's so many people out there saying, like why you got to bring up race, why you got to bring this up, why it's causing division? Listen, it needs to be brought up because it just needs to be brought up it up. It's just as simple as that. These areas are not talked about enough, all right, and we're trying to see more people come into these areas. We don't need less, we need more. Okay, so that's why these conversations have to be had. I already know somebody going to be salty or something negative to say about it, but these conversations are going to continue to happen and they're just going to be had. That's just as simple as that. They just have to. They just have to. So, speaking of oh, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say, like my best friend is a speech-language pathologist, her twin because I have a twin, she has a twin is a physical therapist. My twin is a therapist. So all of these areas where we're underpopulated and so we are excelling, we are expanding and it is possible for you to follow your dream and actually make a change and a difference.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yeah. So let me let me piggyback on that too. So some people think like, because I don't see me in my career, potential career field, I don't need to pursue it. That's not true. That's not true. You can pursue it. That's not true. That's not true. You can pursue it. And let me tell you something there is communities that are out there. You just got to go, you just have to find them. They're out there. There's people are willing to support you. People will give you advice, people are willing to to be there for you, for mentorship. There's people that are out there, but I understand, maybe you're, maybe in your local area. You may be like, I just don't see me in this field. Okay, you may feel that way, but trust me, trust me. There's people out there who are more than willing to help and speaking of which I know you created like you got to correct me but like the Dallas, fort Worth, like nurses, like what is that? Talk to me about that.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, yes, so I do have a Facebook group. I was talking about it on threads, and threads is like up and popping since I got off Twitter because there's too much going on over there. The nursing community is like very huge on there. And what I plan to do for the Black nurses in the DFW area, I'm trying to create like this networking hub where we have, you know, preceptors for how hard it was for me to find a preceptor when I was doing nurse practitioner school, mentors for newer nurses, so that we can live as we climb, you know and also to have like little networking events and things like that.
Speaker 2:I have a few members in there, but as my platform continues to grow, then I hope to get more members and to start doing like more events and to like start uh, I know I don't know if you guys know nurse row, but she does the atlanta nurse expo and we are already talking about. Oh, we need to get together like once I get this up and running in dallas and we have interconnected and we're just gonna. Oh, it's gonna be so good, it's gonna be so much fun, but also it's gonna be like valuable for those of us because, hey, white people stick together and we got to learn how to do that right, no matter what. We got to learn how to do that and that's my way of contributing to.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. So that's like that's going to be a good thing and a positive thing for our community, because I feel like there's not enough groups like that and I think there's more areas that have less representation in that than others. So I'm happy that you're doing that down here in the South. So I'm very happy that you're doing that. Let me let me bring up another topic real quick. So listen, man, I know in future, nursing yearbooks, we're going to see the name. Yeah, scott, we're just, it's just going to happen. This is going to be like a yearly thing. We're going to have like an anniversary. It's just going to be, in future, textbooks about the Med Pass and all that stuff, which I know everybody has their take on the Med Pass.
Speaker 1:But here's something I feel as though people aren't talking about is the fact that, yeah, she made a mistake. Yeah, that event happened, but some people didn't let it just move on. There's people who literally tried to capitalize off of somebody else's misfortune, doing multiple, multiple, multiple videos, just beating a dead horse, I feel like. And yet we see stereotypes. You know what I'm saying and you know long nails. You know we're going to talk about excessive makeup. We're going to talk about all that stuff. Why do people feel as though they can come into our space and still, and that people that you know they're supposedly of color Right, we're not even talking about people that are white friends or Caucasian friends. We're talking about people who are supposed to be you know of color and still mocking some black and somebody that's black. Like what is up with that? Like what's your, what's your thought on that? You don't have to run on it too long, but I just got to get. Like what's your thought on that?
Speaker 2:My thought on that is the very reason why I don't identify as a person of color. I identify as, why I don't identify as a person of color. I identify as black and don't call me anything else. And when you go back and you look at that video of Yaz we just got off this soapbox a few weeks ago with the young lady I don't know, she was ambiguous, I don't know her race, but she was talking about how nurse practitioners you got to stop coming to work, all ghetto looking.
Speaker 1:Man, yeah, that is true.
Speaker 2:And your nails all out like this and looking unprofessional. Since when has it ever been? First, let me just say this Since when has it ever been unprofessional to come to work looking like you care about yourself? Ok, so we just came off of that. And then we go to Gaz, who? I mean? She nice skin, hair pulled back, you know, very professional looking but you get on social media and you make a video with markers on your hand just doing all this like she was acting ghetto in your um. We all know who they were talking about when I was talking about ghetto. But you're acting ghetto. Smacking on gum, talking, chewing, doing all these things. Overlying lips, dramatic makeup yes, they have anything like that going on in her video.
Speaker 2:For you to make a parody video with all of those elements, it's giving that you're not trying to bring awareness to the situation. It's giving that you are racist. And just because you got a black friend or your mom is afro-latina or whatever you want to call it, does not mean that you cannot be racist. You are not black. It's called anti-black the scenario you're anti-black anytime. Anybody black does something, you're anti-it. So, like this young lady yeah, she, she did some crazy stuff that I wouldn't ever do. You know what I'm saying? One or two videos.
Speaker 2:Okay, you started making videos, now it's an issue, and now you're adding different elements and stuff into the video that didn't have nothing to do with the video at hand. You're just trying to make fun of black people now and I have a problem with it and I'm gonna say something about it every single time. My purpose and I even had another these were his, uh, I'm not sure if they were hispanic, I'm not really sure of their ethnicities, but somebody commented under there and they was like oh, oh, yeah, now this coming got flagged. Yeah, because I wouldn't do that, though, because they were asking me can you show like, why didn't you say anything about the white people? I said I haven't seen any white people.
Speaker 2:I haven't seen any white people that were acting you know, ghetto, acting like she had long nails, makeup and stuff. I don't see any white people doing it. They said I said, but you can tag me in those videos and I'll say something, because I don't care, I'm going to say something and they're like, oh, but I don't. I don't do that because I don't throw other minorities under the bus like you just did. Excuse me, you have a voice and I have. What's in my voice is reserved for black people and people that look like me. That's what my voice is reserved for. So when I see some injustice or somebody making racist remarks or anti-Black remarks, trust me, I'm going to say something.
Speaker 2:When it comes to Black nurses, I'm going to say something, and you have a right to say something about your ethnicity and your people. You have a right to do that. What you're not going to do is do that up under my video. That's what we're not going to do, because you have your own platform and go make a video about that on your own time. This ain't that, and it's called straw man's fallacy, when people are over here talking about something that ain't nobody talking about at all and then you come over here and talk about, but these white people we're talking about baby girl right here, what she just did.
Speaker 1:That's what we're talking about. You're speaking too much now.
Speaker 2:Straw man fallacy, these people don't even know what that is. They don't even know what that is. They got to go look it up.
Speaker 1:Shoot man. There's so many people that get on the internet. They just argue without a cause. They don't understand straw man, they don't understand ad hominem. They don't know any of this stuff. They don't know how to argue with logic, reason. They don't know. These people don't know. I used to take so many people seriously, can I'm going to be honest with you, and this is my fault. I don't know. This is my own personal fault. I used to think people were smarter than what they were. Can you believe me? Can you believe me for thinking that I used to think people were smarter than what they were? I used to think that people had a basic understanding of reading comprehension and listening comprehension. I have learned real quick that people lack reading and listening comprehension. They just argue to argue, or they troll or they just troll. I learned that real quick. So I'm like you know what? If somebody wants to have a civilized, honest discussion, we can have that. Otherwise, I'm not gonna waste my time.
Speaker 2:I'm just not gonna waste my time I'm just not going to waste my time.
Speaker 1:I don't waste my time. You know what I'm saying. So, yeah, you're the same. You're the same regarding that issue. So I get you. You talk about Scrawlman, we talk about Ad Hominem, we talk about all this other stuff. They don't know what that is. They have no clue. They don't know what that is. They got to go Google, they got to go chat GBT. They have no idea. They have no idea. So, but now I get what you get what. You're stepping in there.
Speaker 2:So so let me ask you something If you have one, what's an unpopular opinion that you have? So I do. I have a few, I have a few, and being that I was a student nurse before I was a nurse, people would think that I think opposite of what I'm about to say. I do not think that you should start off as a CNA before you become a nurse. I don't think that you can teach empathy and I do not think that just because somebody is a CNA before they become a nurse, that does not make them a better. That doesn't make a person. If they didn't like the job, then they're definitely not gonna like it now.
Speaker 2:Like doing more of what you don't like, it's not going to make it make you better at it like you know what I'm saying and baseline manner and empathy, those things like if it's in you then you got it, like it's just in you but like you can't teach it. So no, I don't think being a cna before you become a nurse is going to help you out or be beneficial in any type of way If you're not a good person and if you're not just in it for the right reasons. Another thing is I just started MedSurge. I don't think anybody should be starting MedSurge and I don't even think MedSurge is a good starting point for nurses because you have so many patients.
Speaker 1:That'll get people right there. Go ahead, Go ahead though.
Speaker 2:You have so many patients that you don't even know your right hand from your left hand. How can you sit down and actually learn about these disease processes and understand what's going on when every five minutes you got to go change a total care patient and you got to go get pain meds and you got your bed pulled out in different directions? You don't have time emotionally like. Your mind is so like all over the place. You don't even have time to actually sit down and figure out what is actually going on.
Speaker 2:I learned so much as a nurse when I transitioned from floor nursing to critical care and it was so much that I did not know. I think that if what I did have from my CNA experience and from my floor nursing experience was time management, but even still, the time management is a different time management. When you go to the ICUs and ED you know, like higher level of care areas it's different. You can take little bits and pieces from I don't work so many specialties. You take all of it with you and it builds into, like you know, the type of provider and the type of nurse that you become eventually. But yeah, I don't think. I don't think med surgery is a good starting point. I actually think it's just a waste of time and it's unnecessary. That's not something that you want to do.
Speaker 1:Well, I can't wait for people to respond to that. I can't wait, I can't wait. I remember-.
Speaker 2:I can't argue with it. I'm saying Listen.
Speaker 1:There's people that they are salivating to argue they are salivating. There's people, to this day, that think that all new grads should go to uh medsers even still to this day, which is crazy. I argued with uh. I had a post almost a year ago now where, um, oh my gosh, and it caught like I had so much back and forth in my comment section so I had stitched a content creators video and, uh, she had said something about new grads shouldn't go to aesthetics and so I said I said where are you supposed to go Med Surge? And then that caused like a big old controversy. Caused a big controversy.
Speaker 2:I saw that video about the aesthetics though.
Speaker 1:Oh, did you? Yeah, so that caused like a big, big controversy. And so and I was trying to get people to understand the point the point is and I was trying to get people to understand the point the point is and I understand people have various of opinion I say that people go wherever. Wherever you're wanted, wherever your specialty is, wherever you're going to be valued, if people are going to invest in you, go wherever you want to go. This is 2025.
Speaker 1:Like we're not talking about the early two thousands or even the 1900s anymore. What are we talking about? If you want to go somewhere, just go somewhere. Like, what's the big deal, unless somebody can prove me wrong or give me some evidence? Right, give me some good research, some good evidence that proves otherwise. What are we arguing about? You know what I'm saying, but that line of thinking is still here. It is still here, it is still prevalent, and I'm trying to get people to get out of this old mindset. It's old, it doesn't work. I've even had people try to go back and forth with me on my own lives, my own lives, about this very same topic, and I'm just like bro, we can't move forward unless we get out of this backwards way of thinking, but I digress, I digress. So I think the last thing I want to ask you is so you went to, you gotta give me more of the details. You went to like a content creators event in Dallas. Was it YouTube or was it Tik TOK sponsored? Who ran that event?
Speaker 2:I did both I did go to a Tik TOK shop event and I also went to the YouTube creator collective event, and I am a firm believer. I'll tell you, I am a constant creator. I'm a UGC creator and what that basically means is I make ads for brands nice y'all might have seen me in the Fabletics ads.
Speaker 2:I've done so many ads for Fabletics. It's crazy nice. When it comes to TikTok shop, my videos selling those cozy fit scrubs has over a million views. I make money off of that every single day and I have not posted a video about those scrubs in a year and some change whatever.
Speaker 2:When I was in grad school and I couldn't work as much, I picked up on content creation and I made money doing that. I still do make money doing that, but I made way more money then. I was making like $5,000 to $8,000 more a month just doing content creation. So when people say like you can be a nurse and a content creator, it really I mean because yes, you can, and you don't have to be a nurse and content creator. You know, but those two events the TikTok shop event was an event where we can network with other TikTok shop creators and you have to have a minimum GMV requirement, which means that you make TikTok some money. So they invited you out. We went to a mansion and they had a whole bunch of like tiktok shop samples that we could take home with us and actually make videos with in order for us to make more money. That was the tiktok shop event, the youtube creator collective event.
Speaker 2:I am transitioning from just being a ugc creator to being like an inspiring influencer. So when people see my videos, I have two pages. I have a nursing page and I have my own like personal page which is being taken over by TikTok shop, but whatever, we're trying to get that back. You know situated but like oh, I get PR. I got so much PR Because you make the content and you tag the brands. Anybody can be a content creator. I don't have thousands of followers, but guess what?
Speaker 2:I'll make some money from it back on yeah, so the youtube creator collective event was so fun. It was a networking event. Youtube invited us all out to um network with each other. They had some cupcake um making sessions. We had questions. We could ask the youtube people that were there, like about the back end of our videos, how to grow our channels. Um, they had so potatoes, like all types of stuff. Open bar, open bar. Okay, it was lit. That's all I'm gonna say. And if you don't watch this video, nobody knows this. Yeah, I was a little bit inebriated. I fell in front of nobody knows that, like I didn't even tell nobody, we ain't gonna tell nobody but like you don't have to, just if you're a I don't know nobody knows that, like I don't even tell nobody, we ain't gonna tell nobody.
Speaker 2:But like you don't have to. Just if you're a nurse, you don't have to, just like, be a nurse. If you want to be a consecrated, be a consecrated. If you want to be like an influencer, be an influencer. Like don't let nobody tell you what you can and you can't do. I'm out of the above, you know? Yeah, just branch out and do whatever you want to do. Like I said earlier, we don't get one life.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. I appreciate you saying all that. I appreciate you saying all that. All right, Con, so we're going to stop it right there. But where can people find you? If they were looking for you, where can they find you?
Speaker 2:I hope you put this up on the screen. If you don't, you guys can follow me at not easily broke can. Instead it's k-a-n. You'll find most of my pages. If you just hashtag not easily broke can, or you put it not easily broke can, then you'll see both of my tiktok pages instagram, pinterest, youtube threads, wherever. Just type in not easily broken and you'll find it all right.
Speaker 1:So, editor, if you, if you hear that you know you don't get on it, okay, so so all right, but hey, can? This has been been great. Uh, I look forward to maybe doing the next one with you yes, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it absolutely all right, later can bye.
