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
Why Being a CNA First Doesn't Make You a Better Nurse
Ready for some nursing hot takes that challenge everything you've been told about your career path? This episode dives into the controversies surrounding traditional nursing advice and offers a refreshing perspective on professional development in healthcare.
Our guest boldly challenges the common belief that working as a CNA before becoming a nurse creates better healthcare professionals. "Bedside manner and empathy—if it's in you, then you got it. You can't teach it," they explain, questioning whether starting in support roles truly benefits future nurses or simply perpetuates outdated traditions. Even more controversial is their stance on Medical-Surgical nursing as a foundation for new graduates. Rather than viewing it as essential experience, they describe it as potentially overwhelming and counterproductive for meaningful learning: "You have so many patients that you don't even know your right hand from your left hand...you're being pulled in different directions."
Beyond clinical pathway debates, this conversation explores how modern nurses are expanding their impact through content creation and social media. Our guest shares their journey balancing nursing with creator work, earning an additional $5,000-$8,000 monthly through brand partnerships, TikTok Shop, and digital content. They describe attending exclusive creator events with YouTube and TikTok, highlighting how healthcare professionals can leverage their expertise in entirely new ways. "You don't have to just be a nurse," they emphasize, encouraging listeners to explore diverse opportunities without limitation.
Whether you're a nursing student, new graduate, or experienced professional feeling constrained by traditional career expectations, this episode offers permission to forge your own path. Follow our guest at NotEasilyBrokeCan across social platforms to continue exploring innovative nursing career possibilities. How might your nursing journey look different if you stopped following the conventional playbook?
https://linktr.ee/WakandaRN
If you have one, what's an unpopular opinion that you have?
Speaker 2: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 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 person. If they didn't like the job, then they're definitely not going to like it now. Like doing more of what you don't like.
Speaker 2:It's not going to make it make you better at it, like you know what I'm saying and bedside 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.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead though 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 payments and you got got. You're being pulled out in different directions. You don't have time. You 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 that with you and it builds into, like you know, the type of provider, the type of nurse that you become eventually. But yeah, I don't think. I don't't think MedSurg 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:Oh, I can't wait for people to respond to that. I can't wait, I can't wait, I remember, uh, I can't argue with it.
Speaker 1:I'm saying Listen, there's people that they they are salivating to argue, they are salivating, argue, they're 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, I had so much back and forth in my comment section so I had stitched a content creators video and she had said something about new grads shouldn't go to aesthetics and so I said I said we're supposed to go med search and then that caused like a big old controversy.
Speaker 2:Caused a big controversy I saw that video about the aesthetics though oh, did you?
Speaker 1:yeah, so that caused like a big, big controversy and so and I was trying to get people understand the point the point is and I understand people have variants of opinion I say that people go whatever, 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, like we're not talking about the early 2000s 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? Give me some evidence, right, give me some good research, some good evidence, evidence that proves otherwise. What are we arguing about?
Speaker 1: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 yeah, I, I digress, I digress. So I think the last thing I want to ask you is so you went to uh, you gotta give me more details you went to like a content careers event in dallas. Was it youtube or was it t sponsored? Who ran that event?
Speaker 2:I did both I did go to a TikTok shop event, okay, and I also went to the YouTube creator collective event, and I am a firm believer and I'll tell you this. I am a constant creator. I'm a UGC creator, and what that basically means is I make ads for brands. Y'all might have seen me in the Fabletics ads. I've done so many ads for Fabletics. It's crazy. When it comes to TikTok shop, my video selling those Cozy Fit scrubs has over a million views.
Speaker 2:I make money off of that every single day and I have not posted a video about those scripts in uh a year and some change, whatever. But 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 dollars a month just doing content creation. So when people say, like you can be a nurse and a content creator, it really angers me 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 could network with other TikTok shop creators and you have to have a minimum GMB 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 an aspiring 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, oh, I get PR. I got so much PR, like you know what I'm saying Because you make the content and you tag the brands. Anybody can be a content creator. I don't have thousands and thousands of followers, but guess what? I'm going to make some money from it. The YouTube creator collective event was so fun. It was a networking event. Youtube invited us all out to network with each other. They had some cupcake 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 many like little tea stations. Uh, food, we had salmon, potatoes, like all types of open bar open bar okay nobody knows these, yeah, I was a little bit inebriated but like you
Speaker 2:don't have to just if you're, 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 what I'm saying. So yeah, just branch out and do whatever you want to do. Like I said earlier 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 it. You guys can follow me at NotEasilyBrokeCan, so instead it's K-A-N. You'll find most of my pages if you just hashtag NotEasilyBrokeCan or you put at NotEasilyBrokeCan, then you'll see both of my TikTok pages, instagram, pinterest, youtube threads, wherever. Just type in NotEasilyBro, easily broken and you'll find it.
Speaker 1:All right. So, editor, if you, if you hear that you know you don't get on it, okay so. So all right, but I can. This has been been great. I, uh, I look forward to maybe doing the next one with you.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you so much for having me.
