Off the Clock, Still On Call: When Everyone Asks You for Medical Questions

In this episode of Banter at the Bedside, we dive into what it really means to be the “town healer” — the nurse, doctor, or healthcare worker everyone turns to for medical advice outside the hospital.

From group chats and family texts to strangers at restaurants and TikTok DMs, we share real stories about the pressure of being “on” all the time, the awkward situations that come with it, and the fine line between helping and setting boundaries.

Joined by a hospitalist and rising TikTok creator, we also explore how social media is changing the way patients seek medical advice — and what that means for healthcare professionals navigating ethics, liability, and burnout.

But beneath the humor, this episode tackles a bigger question:
Are healthcare workers becoming the system’s workaround for limited access to care?

If you’ve ever been asked, “Hey, can I ask you a quick medical question?” — this one’s for you.

Disclaimer: This episode is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. We do not represent any organization. Conversations in this episode reflect informal experiences and general education only and do not represent diagnosis, treatment, or prescribing advice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah, we do some celestial discharges.

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Back myself in the corner here. I'm sorry. How broken our healthcare system is. And part of that discussion is a lot of people can't even get to see their PCP for like six to eight weeks. You need to come here now. I'm like, I'm hot myself.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I'm cramping up.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Like and what are you gonna do? You can't.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Banter at the Bedside. We are here today with some guests to talk about what it's like to be the quote unquote town healer or the person in medicine that everyone comes to in your outside life to ask questions. As always, this is for entertainment purposes only. This is not medical advice. Please actually seek the medical care of the medical professional and not just ask the medical professional in your life. Also, we don't represent any institution. All the thoughts and opinions are our own. Again, entertainment only. Today we're joined by our main co-ho, our other main co-host, Kaylee. Everybody, welcome back. We've got our current recurring co-host, Cody, back. And today we are joined with a very special guest, Dr. Tyler, who is a hospitalist that we also met through social media. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Tyler.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah. Um, I am a hospitalist train in internal medicine. I've been in practice. I finished med school in 2014, finished residency in 2017. Big fan of the Bengals. I currently still live on the East Coast. Um I got I got a wife, four kids, and I recently, like November, decided to create a TikTok account, and it was a very big change in my life.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Yeah. We we understand that a little bit. Yeah. We connected Dr. Tyler's another one that we connected with on social media because again, our kind of missions and values align. Do you want to kind of touch on it? I know you've made an intro video about it on TikTok, but since this is a different audience, I thought I'd let you kind of give your personal mission as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yeah, I I decided you're not going to believe this if you see a lot of my reels, but I actually thought that it would be good to kind of connect patients and providers and medical staff. Because there is such a such a big disconnect sometimes between some of my some of me and my patients. And you know, I mentioned you previously that I used to do a podcast back in the day. I mean, it never it never went anywhere. It was just me and a buddy of mine having some drinks and rambling. And it never like did it wasn't anything close to what you guys are doing here. Uh but but I the point of that podcast and the point of what I was trying to do with social media was try to like bridge the gap between, you know, why are my patients always mad at me and why don't they understand what's going on and and why why are where all these complaints come from? And then why are hospital staff always fighting with each other? Why are uh cardiology and nephrology always fighting? Why are doctors always fighting? Um and that was all honestly ultimately the point of why I decided to create a social media account. Um I'm abbreviating a little bit, but that's okay. So then I made that social media account. I learned that if you are sarcastic and funny, you get a lot more followers a lot quicker. So in in the in the name of nurturing and growing my social media presence, I did kind of detour through trying to be a sarcastic, funny guy for a little bit. And I, you know, I I'm not gonna say I'm super famous, but I got 5,000 followers, so I I that that did help. And but then once I hit the 5,000 follower mark, I thought, okay, let's go back to my original purpose here. Let's go back to me trying to be serious and try to connect the patients and the families and the the healthcare employees. Um and I I stumbled across you guys, if I remember correctly. I think Abby, I think I saw you doing a reel about uh RQI, right? Yeah, yeah. I think the one that made me reach out to you, and I was like, oh I hear it. I you know, here we are.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

Yeah, RQI. Oh, my crash out on RQI. Gaylee was there, and that was like two minutes of us of her just like a 20-minute saga.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

The provider RQI is ridiculous. I don't know who makes that, but y'all need to rework that.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I can't imagine why they think this is better than now we have to do this four times a year. That that can't be an improvement. That can't possibly be.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

No, no, but the nursing version is so much quicker than what Abby had to do, so we can at least like get it done.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

Yeah. They for some reason ours makes uh the providers do like two person and you swap. So you have to do it's like four straight minutes of going back and forth between compressions and breathing, and then they don't, it doesn't work, and I'm so short for the thing that I can't get on it, and it always takes me forever. I didn't even pass that day of the filming that we did. I had to go back and try a different day, but yeah. Uh I love your mission. I love it really aligns with what we want to do here and why we don't just talk about street education. We like to kind of pull back the curtains on what it's like to be a healthcare worker and how that how the different perspectives in healthcare also, as you talked touched on, the fighting, the fighting among staff, like having different perspectives and everyone sitting down at the table together is so important for us. So I'd been seeing your stuff for a while, and when you reached out, I was like, oh yeah, okay. I wanted to reach out, but I didn't want to be like a weird fan girl. Yeah. I had seen your stuff too.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

I I did I I heard you just use the word fan. It's strange to me that I have fans. That's very strange to me. I I'm not I don't know if I'm ready for that, but uh it's it's it's it's fun. It's fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah. Oh, I feel like your stuff resonates. Like, like, oh yeah, if people just could understand that.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

Like we did copy you. We I saw you do the jackass one.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

That's that's that's how I got the jack, the welcome to jackass trend. My wife was like, hey, there's this trend going around, welcome to Jackass. Do you think you should do something funny with that? And I was like, Oh, I got some ideas. And I made I made four of them. My work asked me to take one of them down, but there's three that are still up. And I got, I think I got like 3,500 followers from those Welcome to Jackass videos, which is crazy to me.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

Yeah. So we saw one and we copied it with and we had one of our attendees do it on our shared page. And I love that. Yeah, it was crazy. I was like, and uh it was like two minutes. I was like, say this, and he did it one take, and it lined up perfectly, and then all of a sudden, aw everyone in the comments was going crazy.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

One take.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Yeah. We uh we pride ourselves on a lot of one takes. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Most of my reveal that for uh five or six takes.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

My individual ones, I do. Kaylee's really good though. But well, I've been really wanting to talk about this topic mainly for semi-selfish reasons. I'm the oldest of six kids, and I'm the only medical professional, and I kind of wanted to take an opportunity to call out my family for how much they call me as their go-to. So I wanted to see if anyone else's experiences align with mine and what it feels like for everyone else to kind of be, as I call it, the town healer or the go-to person just because I'm in medicine. Ever since I got that nursing degree, I've always been getting text messages, getting put in group chats. Have you guys experienced that? All the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

100%.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

So my favorite story that I have of one of my sisters did this. She had just had knee surgery, and like the week before she had like been on a crazy long flight. And she texted me about like six, seven days after, and she's like, My foot's still really swollen and I'm having a lot of pain. What do you think? And I'm like, Well, send me a picture of your foot, and I'm sure you guys all know where this is going to. And she's like 21 at the time, and all of a sudden I get this picture, and if I can find it, I will add it into the video. But it was huge. I was like, Oh, well, you gotta go to the hospital right now. You got a blood clot. And she was like, nah, it's fine. And I was like, Well, why'd you why'd you ask me? And then the pain got so unbearable. She did eventually go to the hospital at like 10 p.m. at night. And then she had just a giant blood clot throughout the majority of her leg. And they're like, Yeah, you should have one come earlier, but thank God your sister told you. So I was like, Whoo, that one was a safe. How old was she? She was 21. Well, it was from the surgery, and she like she literally like got off a plane, like a 10-hour plane ride, and then the next day went and had surgery. And then was immobile, and they didn't do any like they didn't send her home on anything to eat.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I love that she waited so she asked you, and then she still was like, I'll just see how it goes.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

I'm gonna wait till it gets really bad, then I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

Yeah. That's that's what except for one of my sisters, one of my sisters, when she asks, she will do what I say, but the rest will ask and then not do what I recommend. And so I just need to know if anyone else experiences that when they are asked for medical advice.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

I my I'm I'm kind of like the pair of like one of my college roommates and one of my high school buddies, my dad and my brother. Um, and most of them are pretty compliant. And by that I mean I'm like, hey, just try this, or hey, it's rare that I'm like, you need to go to the ER to get checked out. I I think I've only told them maybe once or twice in all the years that you need to go to the ER. Uh the one I have my high school friend, he just ignores, and not only is he the most frequent flyer, uh, but he also ignores everything I tell him. I I've asked him several times, like, why do you even ask me for advice? You're asking me for advice all the time, and then you ignore my advice all the time. I think he just I think he just kind of uses an excuse to talk to me, which is great. I love that. I love talking to him. Like it, it's he it he like he'll he'll ask me for like he one time he didn't have a bowel movement for like five days. So he asked me what I what he could do about that. And I told him, he's like, Well, I don't want to do that. Okay, okay, you afraid you're gonna have a bowel movement? I don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Okay, he should maybe you should take some Miralax and some Pepsi.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

I like Muralax and what?

SPEAKER_04 11:03

It's what one of the doctors that had been on did um is like our second episode, and he thought he had a bowel obstruction, so he mixed his Muralax in Pepsi. Oh, yeah, that makes that makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Among like five other things.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

Okay. Among many other bad decisions.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Um you told him what to do, and he was like, no, I don't want to do that. I don't get it. Yeah, I but most of the time.

SPEAKER_04 11:30

I mean, I think the I think that's nice that he like uses it as an excuse to reach out, though.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Potentially. He's he's he's a little he's a little neurotic at baseline, but um, so I don't know. It's fun.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Do people try to get you to write them prescriptions? That's what I get asked for the most, and I would, but there was one time one of the nurses asked me to prescribe some and I had to call it in and I tried and I never called it in. I never had to call in because I work in an ICU. And the pharmacist was like, is this actually your patient? Like, are you actually a prescribe like prescribing provider? Because like they're like, What's what's your MPI number? I'm like, oh, let me go look that up. They're like, What's their date of birth? I'm like, what's your date of birth? Like, I was zero prepared to call it in at all. And I was like, I just I I will not ever do this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

I was like, I am a photo ID.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

I could see them really doubting that you were Abby, but yeah, they were like, Yeah, you're going to have to send this electronically.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

And I was like, Okay, I'll get right on that. I know, I think, but that's what most people I don't think people are here trying to get like pain meds or like crazy stuff. It's like, just I need the antibiotics. Like, that's all we want.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Antibiotics are very common.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

A lot of people don't know too, at least for APPs, I can't like I'll have out of state people, and as I've already made clear, I'm not I'm cannot call it in. I don't have that ability, but I can't actually prescribe outside of my state. Um I have to I can only prescribe within my state because I only have an active license in my state. So when my family from Wisconsin is like, can you do this? Uh no, I even if I could figure it out, I I actually cannot prescribe outside of the state. At least that's what our state license says, which is fine. It helps me easier avoid the embarrassment of trying to call a CVS pharmacist again.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

The the traumatizing experience of calling CBS.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

I was so I was so embarrassed. I was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

They definitely You rarely have to do it over the phone. Nobody does it over the phone. Like everything's electronically. Does anybody even write paper prescriptions anymore?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

I haven't seen a a paper prescription since I graduated residency. My residency is 14 to 17, and I think that's right when we were moving from paper to electronics.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

But I don't think I've ever actually seen sometimes I'll have to print a paper script for a discharge going to a nursing home. I know I don't count that. Like I've never seen like someone actually go with a paper script. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah. No one like I wonder if the younger people out there even know what we're talking about. Like physicians and whoever they used to carry around like a paper pad. I guess you've seen it maybe if you watch like an old medical show, and they would like write out the prescription and give it to you. You had to take it and you had to go in person and hand it to the pharmacist or the pharmacy tech. Like you could you imagine? No.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

My Adderall and Bivance was prescribed when I first got put on it. She gave me a few months of prescriptions and then I would go and get my prescription. My Bivance feel good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:45

Yeah. They used to give, like, as a provider, you'd like start hospital orientation or wherever, and they give you your your prescription pad, but not anymore.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:00

I just remember them harping on it in school how to prescribe with that.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I've got like at this point, I've it's like a like a push button in my memory. Like I I push the button, hey, this is my cell phone is da da da da da.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

You also do more outpatient discharges than I've ever done.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah. If you work in an ITU, then yeah, you're you're almost never help helping someone leave the hospital. I mean I mean I am. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I I chose that was a very poor word choice. I meant my goodness gracious, that was a terrible word. You're never discharging someone, you're never helping someone transition to out of the hospital, discharging them. Wow. I have my bad.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

DC to J C is what we could say. Yeah, we do some celestial discharge.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Back myself in a corner here. I'm sorry. You don't have to. You don't have it.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

No, it's fun. I don't, Cody. You told me a story when I told you about this. Are you going to share it?

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

About this topic.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah. So it's so different being like when you're in the like take in the hospital, your mindset taking care of patients is different than when like somebody in your family asks asks you something. I feel like I go blank on certain situations. And this was when my mom first got diagnosed with cancer. She kept calling me about her symptoms about coughing up blood, and I was like, you probably just have TB. Meanwhile, stage four lung cancer.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah, but it all it's just only TB. Like that's only yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Down the cancer. Only TB.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

If you're coughing up blood, something ain't right.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Something ain't right. But I just didn't take it down. You should go to the doctor. Well, I told her that.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

You did advise that.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

I did. I did.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

I think that's for me, situations like that when it's certain symptoms or like weird things that I'm like, I just ugh you you're just gonna have to go somewhere where they can fully work you up. And that's one of my other sisters, and she'll send me videos of her friends and their symptoms. And I'm like, yeah, you you guys like I got a video of like an open hand from a knife, and I was like, Yeah, I can't assess this from a iPhone video. You're going to have to just go to the doctor and see if it needs a stitch. They're like, Do I need stitches? I'm like, I'm not judging your hand cut from a knife from a video. You're just going to have to seek care.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yeah, you need to check it out. My brother has asked me to stitch him up three different times.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

And I'm like needed stitches three different times. Is he an MMA fighter?

SPEAKER_00 17:45

No. And I don't know if he ended up getting stitches or not, but he would send me like I don't like, I'm not a trauma nurse, and I don't really like to see big open wounds. It's not for me. And it'll be the same thing. It's like a picture of like, oh, my fingers have sliced off, or look at this. And I'm like, that's not my area. Okay. I don't even work in the emergency department. Like, you don't want me stitching you up. I can't sew. I've never done it. Like, you're gonna have to go get a professional. And you probably need to get that cleaned and you know, probably an antibiotic when he was younger. But I'm like, he and he keeps on answering, I'm like, I hold you the last few times. And I was like, no, man, I can't, I can't do that. Like, you just need to go stop getting cut up or whatever you're doing. I don't know. Fun time, fun late night stuff. But I think mostly like when my people in my family will ask me stuff, I'm telling them not to go to the doctor. It's like they're not hypochondriacs by any means, but it's like, well, this, this, and this. Like, I I think do I need to go? And I'm like, no, you don't need to go. That you're fine, don't go. And then they'll just go. I'm like, well, have fun. And then like it the it's because it's like a Saturday urgent care. I'm like, Well, you're gonna be there forever. I wouldn't have gone if I was you, but what do I know? Just for them to tell you it's a virus and not do anything, but I usually agree.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

One time I got burned, it was actually unfortunately my wife. Um, she she dropped um she dropped a trash can on her toe, and the toe really hurt. And she was like, I think it's broken. I think I need to get checked out. And I'm like, honey, you're not gonna break a toe just dropping a trash can on it. Like, like that's not how the human body worked. Like it's like unless the trash can was full of bricks or something. And it uh it there was a lot of trash in it, but I was like, honey, you did not break your toe by dropping a trash can on it. So for like three days she just walked around with pain in her foot. Finally, finally, against my advice, she went to urgent care checked out. And guess what? It was broken. And so I felt real small. And to this day, a joke in this house now is well, it's not like there's a ton of bricks in that trash can, and it's just a reminder of the bad medical advice I gave her. She had to wear a boot for I mean, it was it didn't change much. She just had to wear a boot for a little bit. It's not like she's gone lose a foot. That was no one time, Haley. I mostly agree with you. I I try not to send people to expensive ER visits and urgent care visits, and and 99% of the time I'm right. But that the one time I was wrong, my wife had a broken toe and I gave her back.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

That's the worst time to be wrong, though. I feel for you. That's that's ammo for life, right there.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

Yeah. I yeah, and then if she, I'm sure if she asks you a question again and you're like, no, you're fine, like my toe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

She will she remind me of the time that I said, There's no look, there's a ton of bricks and no trash can. And that that that clip that I said will haunt me for the rest of the rest of my life, allegedly.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Then I'd be like, you know what? I'm not taking the trash out anymore. She doesn't mind.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

She didn't usually anyway. So this this is just uh just one more one more another ammo.

SPEAKER_04 20:37

This is why I shouldn't be taking the trash out.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Precisely but also like I'm just a nurse, I'm not here to diagnose things. Like in my realm of work where I work, like, sure, but like if my somebody wants to ask me about their kids, I'm like, I I don't feel comfortable telling you anything about your kids. I only know what has been told to me about my kids when they were little, and that's not a lot. So I'm like, I really don't want to tell you the wrong thing. So with when it comes to like kids and stuff, I'm always like, just call the pediatrician.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

I don't touch kids, which is frustrating because after probably the most common requests I get is antibiotics for like either UTI or a respiratory infection. That's number one. Number two is someone wants me to talk about their kid or look at their kids' rash, and I can't touch like internal medicine, no, no, not even close. Like I have managed the kids since like clinical rotations back in 2013. I'm not qualified to talk about kids. And it's uh it's it's a little scary when they ask me that. Um, and I I have a very, very low threshold to study. Ignore me and take it to the pediatrician.

SPEAKER_04 21:38

Yeah, yes, yeah. I when people ask me about their kids, I'm like, I I've never taken care I don't even have kids. Like, I don't have my own kids, so and I've never taken care of kids. I've always done adults, so I haven't taken care of a child since nursing school, and that was two rotations, and I'm like I won't I just automatically set up that boundary of like, I don't I don't know. You're going to have to speak to someone else and it's not me. It is not me.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

But I think there was there was once or twice where like the kids sounded really, really sick and there were like some social financial financial barriers preventing them from seeing a pediatrician soon. And when that happened, I I called, I got a buddy of mine who is an ER doctor. Because I mean ER sees kids too, right? And I called ER Dr. Buddy, and he was able to then transgender that curbside to my friend. But I said, even then, like you can't, like, this can't be official, this can't be serious. Like you gotta you gotta connect with a pediatrician. You can't be asking an internist to talk about a pediatric problem.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

No. Do you I mean I think this kind of touches on something else thinking about it? Do you guys think that all these like curbsides or families or my family's my mom's friend asking me stuff? Um, do you think it kind of also speaks to just a larger issue of how hard it is to even get an appointment or how hard access is, even when people have insurance, just getting some of these appointments for some of these simple questions can be weeks, months. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

And that's why I try to be like easygoing about that stuff, because like I mean, I do think one of the biggest problems in our country is how broken our healthcare system is. And part of that discussion is a lot of people can't even get to see their PCP for like six to eight weeks. And and I mean that's terrible. And I can't be everyone's PCP, but I can when my friends or family ask me for help, you know, I'm I'm happy to help as long as long as I think it can reasonably manage my curbside, I can happy to help. You know, assuming, of course, they don't have any complicated medical history, assuming they're not lying to me about anything. Yeah, we can teach those things, and then I I I think a curb side can be appropriate. I know curbsides are a little controversial. There's a lot of people who don't believe in curbsides, and I respect the controversy, but I also feel like you know, we have we have virtual medicine for a reason. We have virtual visits for a reason, and we also have an eight-week backlog on getting people's scene. You know, I I personally am a fan of curbsides, yeah. But you know, but but I do respect the controversy, and I do know why a lot of people refuse to do that.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

And I think, yeah, if people want to refuse and set that boundary, I think that's fine. I think that there's, you know, a level to that too of like I'm not always on, right? I'm not just your sister that's an NP, or I'm not just your family friend that's an NP. Like I am I have other facets, and when it's the only thing that you're at you only talk to me about, sometimes it feels a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

I definitely there's there's one or two people that like when I see my phone, they're texting me like I know what they want. They're not taking a lead, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

It's like we we're even past the point of like the courtesy, like, hey, how are you doing? Like, I don't even get that.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

I just get I I've got I've got one time a couple years ago, it's probably like 2019 or something. I was I'd flown to San Diego for a wedding, and this was supposed to be like a relaxing weekend, San Diego. I've I've never been to California before, it was fun. And like as soon as the plane landed, I turned on my phone and I got one of those texts. Like, and okay, as I'm navigating the rental car and driving a hotel, I'm like, and that request like really ruined like the first hours of my trip to San Diego, and I was a little annoyed. Like, I was a little I was annoyed at I know that they um didn't realize I was on San Diego on vacation, so I try not to hold it against them. But um I don't know. If if that happened more often, then I would not do that. I would not be doing these functions, but that was kind of the exception. That's not something that happens, that's certainly not the norm. Most of the time, like I'm like just farting around watching TV anyway, and it's not a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Yeah. I think it's funny that these people like friends and family will ask us for advice or whatever, but like the people in the hospital won't listen to us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

It's like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Or like I'm I made a reel about um what I gotta go through to get a patient their prescriptions on discharge, and then I know that these patients are just gonna throw the pills away and they get home anyway. And it's a very deflating, frustrating feeling.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

It's like, but yeah, you actually need to do this, please.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 26:29

What about um I don't know, I'm sure Cody kind of probably experienced this, but has anyone else? I know Cody was, but has anyone else been asked to be people's health care power of attorney because they're in medicine? Because I think right now I'm like four people's healthcare power of attorney. I have four parents, to be fair.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

So I think I could get you to be my health care power of attorney, honestly. Um my mom had me do that, which I'm the oldest, but also I think it's more because of I'm a nurse.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

I think I think my brother asked me to do so. Um I think my mom I it's probably my mom's will and my brother's will that I am, although it's it's not it's not something we really talk about very often.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

Yeah. What about you, Cody? I know you were your mom's and Yeah, I made all the decisions, medical decisions, and like my dad is a DNR.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

That's he tells me that every all the time. That's just why he wants.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

So my mom tells me that all the time too. She's like, just cut the cord, pull the plug, and I'm like, just that's literally what he says.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

And then he does stuff like fall off falls off the roof or falls out of a tree cutting branches and doesn't go to the hospital. He's like, I'll be fine.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Does he ask you to come look at him when he does those things?

SPEAKER_02 27:53

No. I found out like hours later when my stepmom calls and is like, Your dad's on the way to the hospital.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

Oh my god. I I feel like that's also kind of like the unspoken thing for a lot of medical professionals that people will ask you to be their healthcare power of attorney or assume you're going to be, and then it's like, well, all of a sudden I'm healthcare power of attorney to so many people, and that's also a lot to bear.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah, I think it can be, yeah. I I I have a I I have my stepmom is also a PA, so I'm not the only medical person in the family. So she she's able to help absorb some of that from me. Like I'm sure she's my dad's power of attorney, for example.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

Mm-hmm.

unknown 28:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Probably there's probably like a whole side of the family that that knows her better than they know me. So she's probably the the power power of attorney for them. You don't have anyone else in the I heard you say you're the oldest of six, and no one else in your family is is medical?

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Not of the kids. I have a cousin who's a doctor, so he kind of we we he kind of absorbs it and his wife is about to finish her fellowship, so they kind of help. Um, but we always seem for the extended family, we always get tossed into the group chat together, except for the one time, which this is crazy. Every just to preface it, everyone was f safe. Um, in the end, everyone made it, but they were his parents, my parents, a couple of my sisters were on a trip in the Dominican, maybe, I don't know. That they were on a trip and they found my one sister passed out and they've felt like they couldn't feel a pulse, so they started CPR and went to the hospital. She was fine, she woke up. But they'd called my other sister, who's a wildlife ecologist first, to tell her and ask her what to do. And she's like, Why are you calling me and not Abby or Luke the doctor? Like, Abby's a cardiac ICUNP and Luke's an actual doctor. Why are you calling me and not them? And me and him found out like last, and we're like, What's what's going on? Like the one the one time we should be called first is the one time we're not called first.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Yeah, that's that's strange.

SPEAKER_04 30:23

The but sure, some they were in the Dominican. Oh, there was no one 911. I mean, they went to the hospital there, she was fine, but there was no 911 there.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

The world, why did she pass out like that with no with such a non-palpable pulse? Lord have mercy. That's scary. Do you guys ever get like if you're out and about and somehow somebody finds out you're like a doctor or nurse or whatever, and then they'd be asking you stuff you don't even know them?

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

All old people, I love all people. They just want to tell you all their ailments immediately, and it's like, oh God. Okay. And I can't tell, I can't do anything because they're so cute. They just want to talk to somebody. That's like all they have to talk about at that age. You know, it's like they don't talk about shows or music, they like talk about their health problems.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

No, I have I have when someone talks to me about in public, it seems like they're like they either can't see their PCP or they're like dragging their feet on seeing P their PCP. They're like, well, I could make an appointment, but I don't want to, so I'll just ask this guy at the supermarket instead. That'll be just as good. And that's kind of like the feeling I get. Like they really have been thinking about making an appointment and haven't. I remember uh late 2020s, like right in the middle of COVID. Um, I was working at the a small, I was just doing some moonlighting at like a small hospital in a small town. And um the restaurants had just started to open back up, so I left one day for lunch. I left campus and went and went to Applebee's. I was sitting at Applebee's at the bar, just enjoying my lunch again. This other married sitting over there, they saw us wearing scrubs, and they're like, Hey, you a doctor? And I'm like, I just want to enjoy my grilled chicken fajita wrap here. But I was like, okay, yeah, I am a doctor. And they're like, Do you think I should get that COVID vaccine? And I was like, Oh my god. No. And I'm and I'm like, it it seemed like it was like halfway medical, but also halfway like political. Like they wanted to start a political argument about it. And I just have this like delicious plate of food and fries in front of me. And I was just like, I I don't know, man. Like, I think you should talk that over to your primary care. Like, I I barely know you. And then of course it turned into a political discussion. I'm like, okay, like here we go. I just want to eat my my chicken wrap here.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

And like, I'm just sitting at Applebee's, let me eat my lunch.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Like, did like can you not see the food in front of me here? Like, I'm not here to talk about politics or medicine. I'm here to eat my food.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

That happened that that happened, that was probably the most annoying one. I've had other minor ones kind of like that too.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

That was very common during that time.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

My wife and I are cursed though. We moved to our current city about six years ago. And three times in those six years, which is actually kind of a lot, if you think about it, we have been out in public and stuff went down. Like every other year it happens to us, and and we have joked that we're cursed by that. And she's a nurse, my wife's a nurse practitioner, too. And so we feel the right thing to do is to go over and assess the situation. But it's always well again. One time we were at a we were at a Japanese steakhouse, like trying to enjoy it might have been our anniversary, but it was like it was supposed to be like a dinner, just the two of us, and then we looked over there and everyone was running and everyone was screaming, and then we saw chest compressions, so we were like, oh, damn it. And like we went over there and um stabilized things until the paramedics arrive. And that happens to us a curious amount of times, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:43

That's I've done I've done chest compressions in public twice. One was on the day that I got engaged.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Wow. Before or after you got engaged?

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Before, which like was like a whole it was like a whole comical story of events. Uh and like my now husband told me he was sleeping, so I was at the pool, and this guy like passed out in front of me, and the lifeguard just like threw him on the chair, and he's like not breathing, doesn't have a pulse. So like me and another nurse code him. EMS comes. There was apparently uh this he was apparently a local, and EMS knew the girl he was with, so then there was a fight, and then the hotel security guard in Vegas wanted my information, and I was like, no, like you're not quite no. And so then my husband's still sleeping, and so I go to the long story short, I go to the blackjack table and I got drunk. I told I I told the dealer about it, about Alban. And she's like, our lifeguard didn't do what they're supposed to, that's crazy. And so she starts waving down every cocktail waitress, and they're making sure my cup never gets empty. I'm just drunk out of my mind at this point on a hot streak. Well, and then he proposed, and I sobered up real quick. I was like, oh goodness, it was a very eventful 12 hours.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

When you said the chest compressions were before the proposal, in my mind, I was thinking like it was your your boyfriend who you resuscitated, and he was so grateful, so appreciative that he proposed to you.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

But uh No, it was just a stranger. Yeah, I've never had to do chest compressions on anybody in the world, like out in the wild.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Uh actually the the Japanese steakhouse, actually, the chest compressions were inappropriate. The patient was like awake and talking, so I actually stopped the chest compressions. I myself have never actually done chest compressions outside the hospital. Um, fortunately. I guess I probably shouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

I've done them on I was on my way to work. I was driving into the parking lot, and I see like there's like a car stopped, and then I just see like a body in the road, and I was like, I don't know what's going on. So I like stopped uh tech, was like crossing the street going into going into work. And where that corner, that intersection was, it was very dimly lit. But uh had gotten off work early, stopped at the stop sign, didn't see her hit her, her head hit the windshield, and then she hit the ground. And I did I started doing I did compressions. We got Ross and everything, but when she got to the outside hospital, she was brain dead. And it was her birthday.

SPEAKER_04 36:35

Oh, you're just m really bringing this up with the story.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

It was so bad. And another nurse showed up after the fact got the Daisy Award for it, and had the audacity to turn around and look at me like thanks for having my back, Cody. Said whatever.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

My God, that's right. She got the Daisy. Yes, girl.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

And I'll never be early for work again.

SPEAKER_04 36:59

That never happened since, don't worry.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Learn your lesson.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

If you had won the daisy, would you? Huh? If you if you had won the daisy, would you keep coming in to work early?

unknown 37:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

We have like the parking department with like the police and parking buildings that are like way off campus. And I was in there, I think I was trying to dispute a parking ticket or get something changed. I don't know. I was in there. And um, the lady that was working behind the desk like, are you a nurse? I was like, Well, yeah, I have a question. I was like, Okay. And she needed a shot, and it was like a hormone shot or some sort of shot that was like an IM shot, and she didn't want to give it to herself. She was like, Could you give it to me? And I was like, that's kind of sick. I can't remember. I'm like, well, could I, could I, whatever I was in there for? She was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, Okay. So I just we went in the bathroom and I gave her her a little shot and I got out of there quickly. But I was like, you don't even know me. Like, just because I'm a nurse, like, I don't know. I felt like that was putting your trust in somebody.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

I've heard nurses are the most trusted profession in America.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

You heard that?

SPEAKER_04 38:05

Uh yeah. I used to hear that.

unknown 38:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Like I say that in hospitals, and people say, no, that's not true, because everyone wants to hear the doctor read the Catskate report. They don't trust the nurse to read the Catskate report. But outside of hospitals, like out on the streets and everywhere else in America, the most trusted person walking up to you, number one is nurses, and number two is college professors, in terms of like, are you just going to believe them? Doctors are like 11 or 12 on that list. People don't trust us. Um, so I I guess I'm not surprised that someone asked you to inject them. That's that's that's that's a very wholesome story.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Yeah, it was cute. I was like, sure. I mean, I've done it a bunch of times. Like, I'm fine with it. Um, it's something that you've been prescribed. Like, she was telling me what it was. I can't, it was something legit. And I was like, Yeah, I can help you out. Like, I know a lot of people don't want to give themselves shots. It's no big deal. No, that's hard. I'm surprised that people still think that nurses are that trusted, just judging on people's behavior.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

I I think we get a skewed version of that in the hospitals because in the hospitals everyone expects me to come by and read the casket into them as if the nurses are not capable of reading English the same things I have, which is frustrating. But outside of hospitals, I I kind of I don't know, I I believe that I I do.

SPEAKER_04 39:13

Yeah. So we've had supermarket, we've had or Chick was a Chick-fil-A out at a restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

We've had Japanese steakhouse.

SPEAKER_04 39:23

Japanese steakhouse, we've had parking ticket office. Cody, do you have a weird I mean middle of the road, I guess, but I guess that's where you would expect a car accident. Do you have any weird spots that you've been asked to help or answer a medical question?

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Not really to answer a question, but like to hell. My my nephew's baseball game last summer, the umpire was dehydrated and cramping up, and everyone's like, I was already in the car, I was ready to go. It was so hot out there, and my sister calls and she was like, The umpire's cramping up, you need to come here now. I'm like, I'm hot myself, I'm cramping up. Like and what are you gonna do? You can't start him at IB. Right. I said he needs fluids and he needs some electrolytes, some ice on him, and we had like one little mini bottle of Gatorade in the midst of the sports complex, a mini Gatorade. And somebody from another team was like, We have something, we have some stuff, and it was a fruit punch, like a family-sized fruit punch pack. I'm like, nah. Anyway, he would barely drink the water. He was like, I can't swallow. I'm I'm I'm cramping up. I'm like, okay, I'm I'm done here.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

I'm gonna call.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

I need to call me call though. Some ambulance emergency services.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

One of the more one of the more awkward conversations I had um was there was a nurse, and I mean we shared like, you know, a dozen or so patients together. So we like recognized each other, but we weren't really like friends by any means. We're we were co-workers at this point. One day at work, she's like, Hey, can I ask you a question? And I was like, Yeah, sure, of course. And she talks, she starts telling me about these symptoms that her boyfriend was having for a couple weeks. Um, and you know, there's only really one reason that men in their 20s go to the doctor, so I was uh a little suspicious. Um and it was really awkward because like like I was a little like on my differential was gonorrhea. Um and I I I wasn't really sure how to like say that because I was like, well, this like does she really want me to be honest and be helped, which will kind of introduce a new chapter to our relationship as co-workers here, or should I just kind of like shrug and say, I don't know if she should she should see his PCP? And I didn't really um it was that was a very uh uh uncomfortable position for me to be in. Um I bit bullet and I just told her, I was like, hey, are you sure he doesn't have gonorrhea? And it was I was I tried to make it like funny, but like uh also not fun. Like I'm not really joking, and yeah. It turned out it wasn't gonorrhea, but it but it for for that for that day, I was very uncomfortable. I was very uncomfortable. I wasn't really I mean, I I have to my job is to keep a broad differential here, and I got a male in his mid-20s with some strange migratory joint pains. Uh you can't really rule out gonorrhea there. And uh that was that was a very strange day. To this day they're just not friends, so I I don't know, maybe she was mad at me for for suggesting such a thing, but how dare you? Like I said, I don't know. Does she want me to be honest or does she want me to be nice? I I I didn't know.

SPEAKER_04 42:36

I mean, if you're gonna you gotta be you gotta be careful what questions you ask. You're not always gonna like the answer. That's crazy. I'm I thankfully have never of all the questions have never had any related to anything sex. It I do get a lot of rash, but I get a lot of rashes. I don't know why I get sent a lot of skin, and I've told the same person multiple times that I don't I'm not a dermatologist. It's like outside of kids, it's probably the one I know the least. Like I'm like, I I don't know. I mean, it's probably just contact dermatitis. I mean, it's one spot on you. I don't know what to tell you, but hydrocortisone cream. That's all I said. It's like you can try some hydrocortisone cream and that's it. But I'm like, I don't know why you keep sending me rashes.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

There was this partner that got pulled to us one day, this is a long time ago, and she didn't work with us, and she was like having a very heated discussion on her phone on FaceTime, and she was like walking around and going in and out of the patient's room. So I was kind of like trying to corral her to get her out of like a patient's room because it was starting to get very heated and was between her and her boyfriend. And then it turned into this thing where it was sort of like he was having some symptoms that she was concerned that he had like an STI and that he would have cheated on her. And then she got goes, here's a nurse. And she turns it around to me and she starts telling they start involving me in the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

And I was like, here's a nurse with nothing better to do than to help referee this discussion.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

I was like, I I don't in my head, I'm like, I don't even know her. But also like, get off the phone, get off the phone. Like we're at work. I don't know you. This is incredibly uncomfortable. Like this is you're telling me all these things. And he's like, she's like, show her. Show her. I was like, I don't want to press the end button.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

I was like, you need to be off.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

I was like, you need to get off the phone. If you need to leave because you're you're you can leave. I was like please don't. I said you can't keep doing this. Like everybody can hear you. Like the patients can hear you. The families can hear you. They had no shame at all. She was like show her.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

I was like home don't show me what though his penis?

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Yeah. But something with that was going on and there was like some I I was like don't don't don't do that. My God at work. I was like you you can't I said you gotta go like you gotta get off your phone. Like you can't be walking around saying what you're saying. That is crazy.

SPEAKER_04 45:05

I love Cody being that I would have just hit the end button.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Literally it was a very high high it was heightened I didn't want to try to I didn't want to no shame.

SPEAKER_04 45:19

Okay. Oh those are yeah I'm I'm glad no one's asked me any STI questions or maybe led me down to like an STI because I don't know if I would how I would handle that. I'm sure you'd be very professional.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

Probably easier if you don't like know them if you're not friends with them. You know like this this that nurse who I like kind of casually knew barely knew her last name and I was about to tell her I thought her boyfriend had gonorrhea that that was a very uncomfortable feeling that I would not like to repeat.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

Yeah. I think some of them like some of it's easy right like you like women you know what a UTI feels like you know what a yeast infection feels like like easy ones are easy. Broken bones I guess Dr. Tyler's gotta be a little bit more varied in that diagnosis. I just found the words of it that's all I do I just call over but I think it's and I I do think some of it is a reflection of how long it takes to get into a provider or how busy now urgent cares are or ERs are. And so it's I do understand the hey let me ask let me ask someone else than in my life and I don't mind it. I like I've kind of touched on I just I still want an established relationship with you outside of I am your medical person in life but I do think it is a bigger reflection of kind of our broken healthcare system and people utilizing whatever resources they can to get the access that they need in a more timely fashion.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

Absolutely who knows maybe in uh five or ten years everyone will just have Amazon as their primary care and then uh they won't they won't be asking me for all this free medical advice.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

True I found out about that the other day what did you say? Yeah Amazon has a pharmacy that you can like chat with them and stuff. I didn't know about that. Yeah what I like ordered some stuff on Amazon and then like a pharmacy ad popped up and I was like we're getting too thinking it's too far now.

SPEAKER_04 47:33

Yeah they have the pharmacy that's crazy any any final thoughts from anyone on or final stories on what it's like to be the town healer the medical professional in any in everyone's life or strangers' lives apparently it seems like there's a lot of talking with strangers a lot of fun play talk strangers I'm just glad to know that I'm not alone in these experiences and maybe my sisters can feel a little bit validated that they're not the only family members asking people questions for sure. From all of us shift talkers here at banter at the bedside we'll talk to you next time. Make sure you hit the like follow and leave us a comment tell us your story about your favorite time or the craziest story weirdest place that someone asks you for medical advice or have you had to have the awkward STI conversation let us know we really want to hear it and we'll talk about it on a future episode. Until then thanks bye bye step into the light where the stories come