Life in the medical field.

Nursing school taught you how to pass a test.
 This job teaches you how to survive a shift.

In this episode, we’re talking about what hits new nurses the hardest—time management, prioritization, and realizing very quickly that not everything is as “by the book” as you were led to believe.

We break down how to actually decide who comes first when everyone feels urgent, why task lists fall apart the second the shift starts, and how real-world nursing forces you to think fast, adapt faster, and sometimes just pick a direction and commit.

We also get into the disconnect—what school teaches vs. what the floor demands—and how older nurses were trained in a completely different environment that didn’t come with PowerPoints and test strategies… just pressure and repetition.

This isn’t about doing everything right.
 It’s about doing the right things first… most of the time.

Because nobody warns you—
 you don’t learn how to be a nurse until you already are one.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome back to another Unhinged Essentials. So again, I've got Miss Mickey hanging out with me. Hey, hey, hey.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Hey guys, how's everything going?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

So Miss Mickey does have current events ready to go. So let's let's listen to them current events and see what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Alright, for April 15th, we've got major headlines, including escalating U.S. Mexico border tensions with the military deployment.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Okay, I haven't heard anything about that. What's going on there? Any any update, any news?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

The Trump administration is increasing pressure on the border and ordering military involvement and seeking to expand the detention facilities. Oh wow. So that's all they have reported on it so far.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Okay, okay, cool, cool. All right, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

So um then we've got um our international relations. Oh uh Salvador's president, Naya Billy, discussed a controversial deportion case with the White House and they left it at that.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

So nothing like deportation, is that is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, yeah, that's what it said, a controversial deportation case. So apparently, like no specifics of one or two people.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

They've left it at that.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

And on the educational department, we've got Harvard University faces a 2.2 billion freeze in federal grants and 60 million in contracts from the federal government according to the Democracy Map.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Not sure why. They did not give any reasons. So we have an international protest pro-Palestinians, protesters disrupt traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and in Seattle on tax day. Notes the Washington Post.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

I guess they don't want everybody filing their taxes. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

I mean, I'd be okay not filing taxes. I had to pay him a share. It was ridiculous. Yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

That sucks. It very much does. Uh thousands protested in the I do not know how to pronounce this work, but I'm gonna do my best. Tabiliacy against a foreign agent uh laws with reports and arrests.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Yeah, I have no clue.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

What that one is either.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Uh Singapore leadership, Prime Minister Lee Hingson, Liu, Liu, I believe, announced his registration for May 15th. Uh Lawrence Wrong said to uh succeed him. So I guess he's stepping down to somebody who's going to take over for him. Okay. Our historic events are in 1912, the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Oh, wow. We talked about that last week, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Yeah, because it's that voyage.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah, and it sank today. And then in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died after being shot uh the previous evening. Wow. So he got shot on the 14th.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

So he actually lived for a while after.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Well, this the pre he died the next day. So because he got shot on the 14th.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I kind of I kind of feel like back in the day, like their health care was probably not so great.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

So it was like all the medical advantages we have now, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Oh yeah, 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

So and then in 1947, Jackie Robinson broke uh the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

So they could go, you know, black and white.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

The Boston Marathon bombing occurred in 2013.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

I remember that.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah, that wasn't even that long ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

No, no.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

And in 2019, a fire caused major damage to the North Down North Dame Cathedral in Paris.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

And that is our history for today.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Okay, so on the nursing side of this, we've got stress and burnout. So it's looking like, just from what I'm looking at, uh 65% of nurses reporting high stress and 40% unsure they would choose nursing again. I will just throw this in here. No, I wouldn't. No, no, no, no, no. No. No.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

You know, like I said, I don't have the whole nursing thing, but I have home health. And I'll tell you what, there's days when I was doing home health and I would never do it again.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, no. I think like if I would have had other options, I probably would have done those. Yeah. Um, staffing shortages. Um, so it's still a major significant concern. Uh, 6% projected shortfalls in RNs by 2035. Yeah, I feel like I feel that's I think that's unfortunate. It's like, you know, nursing is not an awful job, but with the stress related to it, it makes it much, much, much worse.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Here's the deal on that too. I mean, uh, call in my perspective. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Um yeah, just caught that. We'll have to fix that.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Um some people can handle a high stress environment and some people cannot. And nursing is a very high stress environment, but if they had the staffing they needed, those stress would be way less.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Well, and I agree with that. I feel like, you know, I don't I don't feel like I don't know. It's like if you have like a team nursing environment, I think it makes it much better, you know, where everybody's pitching in, everybody's helping. But that's not what always that's not what you always get. It's always like everybody's out for themselves. And it's kind of it's kind of unfortunate.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

It's like, you know it's turning into a cutthroat business.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Well, I mean, and you know, it's kind of coming back to like the whole nurses ether young. I'm like, yeah, why would you do that? Let's train them up, let's get them to where they need to be, let's encourage them to learn, let's get them in situations where they have to learn, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Well, absolutely, because when you put a nurse in a situation that she's never been in or he's never been in before, you're asking for disaster if it's something critical.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Yeah, and you know, you have to consider like the drips. They're not going to be familiar with those, they don't know what to do with them. And I remember like back in the day, like I I guess I was a baby RN at the time. And it was like I had a friend who was like, she was trying to start a drip on a patient. She's like, I have no flipping clue what I'm doing. And she was like, I just keep recycling the pressure to see if it's coming up or not. And I'm like, that sounds like a good plan. Let's do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

You know, and nothing was ever put out to them.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah, you know, it's like I so in this this specific nurse was a traveler, which probably shouldn't have been, since they haven't had the experience. But you know, it's like you kind of learn on the fly, and that's the unfortunate thing about it. And especially like with emergency room nurses, you have to have some kind of an experience. You have to, you have to kind of know what you're doing because you're gonna be put in situations that's gonna leave you like, oh shit, what do I do?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

You know, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

And it's like it gets hard. It's like you have to at least be somewhat familiar. Like, I'm not gonna lie, I have cards on my badge that I have to go back and look at and be like, okay, what can I run this at? How often do I do I bump this up? Is it, you know, like I have to look at things, and there's still medications that I have no damn clue what I'm doing with.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

One of my favorite shows is Life in the ER or things, you know, uh about the ER. I love watching those kind of shows. And I watched one just the other day where a lady came in, she did not know she was pregnant, you know, she says she didn't know. I I don't know how that really you don't know. I just don't get that part. But she was literally in full-blown labor, but she was only like four and a half months along.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

And the ER staff knows how to deliver a baby, but after the baby's delivered, they had no resources for this baby. None. It was a very small hospital, very small town, and so they're trying to get a breathing tube down a baby whose throat's closed, you know, and all their tubes are not for infants, they're for, you know, small children, not infants or adults.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

And so it was very trying for them, but uh, one of the guys got it, and you know, but like he said, if I hadn't have worked in another hospital, a bigger hospital that had stuff like this occurring all the time, he said I wouldn't have known what to do.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Well, and that's a lot of the thing you get into. Like, people don't understand. Like, would you come to a hospital if they don't have OB services, they have very little means to take care of a baby. Especially if it's high risk, or if the baby's born and is not breathing and they have to put in you know, ET tubes and things like that, it makes it a lot different. It it it's just if you know that you're pregnant, go to the biggest flipping hospital you can find that has OB service.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

You supposedly didn't know, which like I said, I'm controversial on that because I don't see how you don't know you're pregnant.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Well, and I don't think that you don't actually know you're pregnant. I think you claim that. I think you claim that.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Been pregnant several times, and every time I was pregnant I knew. Every time.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

I mean, I think it's a way of people being like not held responsible for what they've done.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

In denial?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

I mean young children who say I didn't know I was pregnant are probably in denial, not thinking that they really are pregnant because they don't want to get kicked out of their home or they don't want to disappoint mom and dad or yeah, or just embarrassed in general.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Right. Well, you know, don't do the crime, you don't do the time.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Yeah. But okay, continuing with the nursing thing. So it says it says on here that LPNs and L VNs, so LPNs, certain parts of the country, LVNs, other parts of the country, um, they're only going to be able to satisfy 80% of the demand in 2027. So not so many people going for LPN and LVN. Right. Um, work-life balance is another issue with nursing. 67% of student nurses expressing anxiety about managing their workload. I get that.

unknown 10:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Because there's not enough staff.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, well, I mean, this is even just nursing students. You know, it's like with nursing, it's demanding. Like, even in school, it's demanding. Like, you have to learn. Does it does it I mean, it doesn't show you how to be a nurse, it shows you more how to pass the boards. You don't, you don't really get the meat and potatoes of it until you go into nursing, wherever you're gonna go. If you're gonna be an ER nurse, ICU nurse, med search, whatever, that's where you get your specific training. Like, I feel like nursing school is just based on passing the boards. That's all they care.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

So there is a new, a brand new nursing program at a college in Oklahoma that actually has hands-on, literally hands-on, right there at the school. They have a whole wing they built just for nursing. It's got animated uh infants, children, adults, and elderly. And you have to tend to them just like you would anybody else. And it's their new program to help these upcoming nurses um understand what they're gonna be doing and know how to do it and be able to practice it literally on a like an animatronic life like person.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Well, you know, like back in the day, they actually trained nurses in hospitals. That's how they did it. And, you know, getting away from that, I kind of wonder if that affected how nursing roles played out.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

I'm sure it did. I'm sure it affected it in a big way.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

It did, because you don't have like I mean, you have clinicals, so you go in and you do so much for s you know, you do you do the things, but like they train nurses actually in hospitals where I mean was it kind of it was probably kind of backwards, you know, because pretty much I think from what I've understood is the nurses had to give up their lives at home. Like they moved into the hospital, that's where they did all their training, that's what they did.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

That that's what defined that nurses back then as well, because they had the knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Well, and that's what defined them. They had so much classwork they had to do, they had so much hands-on that they had to do. Is today's way better than back then? I don't know. I mean, I really don't.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Do do I see yes? Some ways no.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah, I mean, do I see like nurses not not so prepared? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yes, and I think it's you see nurses that know exactly what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah, and I don't know like their backgrounds. Like, I've seen seasoned LPNs come in as new RNs and still struggle, you know, and it's like a lot of it is like time management and being able to do the things, right? You know, like like LPNs, LPNs, they have the hands-on skills, which is great because that kind of gives them a heads up. They they know how to go in and start a catheter, they know how to go in and start an IV, they know they know the basics. But when you come into like time management, okay, so you have a patient that's uh constipated, okay? And then you have a pay you have a patient that is hypotensive. What's gonna be your first move? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna go take of const take care of constipation or are you gonna take care of hypotensive? That's where they that's where they struggle. Yes. But when you're in the first thing, but when you're in the heat of the moment and you have three different patients, once constipated, cons can't talk. Words are hard.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Well, also, too, it depends. Is the constipation so bad that they're vomiting battle?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Well, even again, you still have to look at is the vital sign stable on that patient?

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Right. You know, like I mean it depends on the situation, not which one would really come first.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

So you like you have constipated, you have tachycardic, and you have hypotensive. Who's more important? And that's where like a lot of nurses struggle. They're like, okay, what do I do? So constipated is going to take more time if I just throw something on this hypotensive fluid. Do I have time to take care of the hypotensive over watching this? You know, I mean it's yeah, I mean, there's like so many factors, but when you have the prior prioritizing is like a big issue with new nurses. They just don't understand that constipated is going to be constipated no matter what.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Hypotensive isn't gonna be hypotensive until you fix the hypotension, tachycardia. How bad is the tachycardia? Do they need to be cardioverted?

SPEAKER_01 16:02

You know, there's just so many issues that and there's so many different scenarios that they have to look at. Yeah, it's just choosing the right path, and and they don't get that option in training. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

And so, and like, so is the old way of training nurses the better way, or is sticking them through a school for so many years and then throwing them out there and be like, figure it out and hope you don't lose your license before you get on, you know?

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Right. And that's scary for a nurse too, because they have to think, they have to start to think, if I do this wrong, I'm I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yeah, I mean it's I think like time management is a big issue. So I feel like like back in the day when they came into a program and they were required to do so much education, so much floor time, that they probably got better training because they had more hands-on they got to actually see how facilities or stay, you know, right there on the grounds of the facilities, but they had better opportunities to learn. Yeah. I mean, and so there's there's there's a lot of like, I don't know. So does so work life balance. Nursing does not does not give you that.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Yeah, I think you're right.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

It doesn't. It's like when you're in school, you're either studying, taking tests, or reading. That's all you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Well, you need more hands-on, I know that.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yeah, and I agree with that. You do need a lot of hands-on. But you know, like LPNs and LDNs, I I started out as an LPN, so I had a lot of hands-on experience. It wasn't so much the oh education part of it. It was more hands-on, you know. And do I get something from that? 100% because I was more capable of doing wound care, catheters, things like that, you know. So there's there's a there's a lot into that. Um mental health support. So um, so there's a lack of resources and support services for nurses.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Again, it stems the nursing field, is a hard thing to touch base on anyway.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

It is. There's a lot of stress and there's a lot of burnout, and a lot of the burnout, a lot of the stress is lack of support because you just don't have it. I mean, you don't. It's like all these hospitals, they look at the bottom line. So we have we're seeing, oh, I don't even know. We're seeing 4,000 people in a month. So Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

And a lot of it is lack of communication.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Well, it's not even it's not even just communication, it's the fact that understaffing and then not having the support that you need from administration, upper management, things like that, that's adding to stress and burnout. You know, it's like you can throw 600 people at a facility, and if the facility is not capable of taking care of those 600 people, what are you doing? You're throwing it on two or three nurses that are killing themselves trying to keep an ER or a med search floor or an ICU running. You know, you you have to have the support, and that's like the biggest thing. And you know, even like with lack of communication, it's like if you don't have a team environment, it makes it harder.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

You know, it's like you need to know the specifics, especially from administration and upper management. If upper management and administration are administration's a big part of it. Well, it is because they're the ones that determine whether your staffing is going to be this or this.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

And you know, it's not okay to have 20,000 people in a month and not have the staffing to cover the 20,000.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Especially like, and it comes down to like even night shift and day shift. Day shift can have 50 people on it, but if you have three nurses on night shift and no other support, you still get patients at night. It doesn't change.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Right. At night's usually busier than day, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

No, really, it's not. So I was a night shifter. I was a night shifter. I switched to days recently, and day shift is oh my god. Like, I'm fat, I'm old, and I'm like, oh my god, when I get home, all I want to do is shower and go to bed. Like, day shift is busy as shit. But still, night shift is busy too, especially like when they first come on, they're like every room full, you have EMS waiting, you have people in the waiting room, and you only have so much coverage for so much time. So when time runs out, say you have your triage nurse until midnight. What happens after midnight? Especially when you're staying until like when you're seeing so many people until four in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

So you're still losing one of your nurses in the back because they're having to make sure that these people are triaged, because you only have a limited amount of time that you can triage people in. Especially like if you get a stroke or a chest pain, Lord forbid. Chest pains, EKGs, 10 minutes. Get them done, get it out. Strokes, you have the last like their last known well is from the time that they were normal until they're not. And so if they come in and it's been three hours since they were last known well, you only have an hour to get everything done. So it cuts your times, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah, very trying.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

So yeah, um, we kind of got off the mental health support situation.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

No, that's okay. I mean, it's a good topic, though.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Yeah, but like mental health. Health. Like nurses are stressed. They like, and it's not only nurses, it's nurses, techs, it's actually anybody who has anything to do with the community. It's it's you you certainly need the mental health support. Um definitely I mean I know a lot of nurses who are seeking help. You know, it's like, okay, I need somebody to talk to because if I don't, I'm gonna be that crazy psycho, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

And that's important, though. Having that communication is extremely important.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

It is. I mean, you really need it.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

You do. It's a hundred percent gonna help, you know, in the long run anyway.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Yeah. And so then the last one on the nursing perspective or ugh, I can't talk. Okay, words are hard, guys. Um, so the last one that we're gonna talk about is competitive pay and benefits. So I will never, never, never, never, never understand why nursing benefits are worse than any other job, considering we're healthcare.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Yeah, I don't understand that either.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

I 100% do not understand that at all.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

I don't understand why people like nurses, and I'm gonna jump off topics for just a second. People like nurses and people like military and people like firefighters and stuff, don't reap the benefits that football players reap or singers reap, you know, things why do they have all these benefits and get paid so much to do something they love when people's lives are on the line and those football players, those singers, you know, the nurses are the ones that are there for them in the end.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Yeah, I mean, we all seen that I guess there was a football player, I don't even remember, it was probably a year ago that collapsed on the field and they had to do CPR, the whole thing, and like it was traumatizing to everybody that watched it. It's like, okay, think about this, guys. This is something that nurses see, doctors see, EMTs, first responders, paramedics, we see this stuff almost every day.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

And you think it's traumatizing for you. Think about for your nursing staff, your paramedics, your ER doctors, your even your hospitalists, your things like that. We see this every day.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

But that's why I say things are backworks, because without the nurses and the EMTs and the firefighters and the first responders of any kind, without them, these people that are living high on the hog and making the money and getting the benefits and not having to worry about a damn thing in the world, you know, why is the nurses on the other side of the fence? It should be reversed. I feel like and first responders shouldn't be making that money and reaping those benefits.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

I feel like, you know, I don't know, it's like popularity is what governs everything. You know, it's like, it's like, oh, he's a great football player. Okay, well, that's awesome, but what about that nurse that goes in and saves his ass when he has cardiac arrest? Exactly. You know, it's like, and guys, I'm not knocking football players. I know it's hard to do. I'm not either. I'm not knocking players.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

I know, I know that why you know the nurses are on the other side of the field and not, you know, in comparison with the high rollers.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Right. I mean, well, it's not even just nurses, it's healthcare in general. I mean, because honestly, if it wasn't for healthcare workers, a lot of people would be struggling.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

It's like, you know, it's like a lot of people would be dead, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Okay, so true. Um, but you know, I think it's I think it's unfortunate that people look at healthcare workers as subservient because we're not. Um, you know, like your nurses are the ones that's looking at these physician orders. So if a physician puts in an order that's incorrect, it's up to the nurse to catch that.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Right. You know, if because if you don't and you do what's on those orders and something happens, you're responsible, not the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Yeah, I mean, like if a provider came in and said, let's go ahead and just do a I'm gonna make up something stupid. I'm 100% going to. But let's say that he ordered 600 milligrams of decadron. Okay, well, we don't do those kind of doses. That's not that's not what is decadron for? Decadron's a steroid.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

And I mean, you have to watch these orders. Or if they order leave it levi-fed at give them a 100 milligram push, no, we're not gonna do that. No. What? No. And if there are nurses out there doing that and I have no clue, okay, you can call my ass out because yeah, I mean, it's it was something I would question. I'd be like, why am I doing this? Okay, so why am I doing this? I don't understand. Right, you know, so it's really up to your nurses. So think about this, guys. When you come into an ER and these physicians are putting in orders, and I'm not knocking physicians, they have a lot to do, they have a lot to look at, they have a lot to deal with. So look at your nurses like, okay, they're looking at these orders and they're gonna know something's not right. And it's up to them to call out that physician, and I'm not saying call out, like question.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Just inform them.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Yeah, say, hey, you ordered this. Like, I think at one point in my career, I had a I had a resident, he was a baby dog, a baby dog, okay, and ordered 30 milligrams of decadron. And I'm like, that is a large dose. Why are we doing this? And I questioned it, and of course it was wrong, so it just needed to be fixed. Like there there was another incident that I had some rando antibiotic orders for a patient, and I'm like, why are we doing this for this patient? That's not even the reason they're here. And so again, I questioned and I was like, I was like, so why are we doing Venk and why are we doing Zosin on this? Oh, it was just a mistake, so we just have to fix it. It was ordered on the wrong room. So, you know, like coming back to lack of experience with these new nurses, you because you have to watch those things. It's like if if the order doesn't make sense for the patient or the reason that they're there, you have to question it. You do.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, and like I said, I'm not familiar with all the hospital stuff, but I know in home health we have to deal with a lot of crap there too.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

So yeah, I mean, home health is a whole different situation.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

It is, and you don't have near near the experience, nor do you have the equipment to do anything that you would have to do in an emergency situation.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

No, I mean y'all are pretty much limited to call 911 immediately.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yes, yes, yeah, and start CPR.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Yeah. I mean, uh, have you been put in that situation before?

SPEAKER_01 29:36

I have. I actually had a deceased patient that I had to well, they deceased on my shift, and uh I had to uh you know do CPR on, call 911 to hold my drugs. Yeah, I've had that happen more than once.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Did they survive or no?

SPEAKER_01 29:53

No, they were very much elderly and very much really probably didn't want to survive at at that point.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

I gotcha. Okay. All right, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Yeah, no, it's happened several times saying it's not fun. I will tell you that, it is not fun.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

No, no. I mean, like CPR coding, stress, all that, it's like it's it's hard. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

It's stressful, it's very stressful.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

I mean, it's I think the thing that bothers me the most about doing stuff like that, like in a home health, because you're in the individual's home, and you know, you know they're elderly, or you know they have physical and mental challenges, you know that they're not, you know, in the best of shape. And making that phone call to the family is probably the hardest thing for me. So I can have patients die in my arms and take care of them as they take their last breath, and I'm okay, but calling that family to say, hey, you know, this just happened, you need to come. And and that's the hardest thing for me. That really emotionally weighs on me.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

Was this a situation that you were doing like live in care, or is it was it a situation that you walked in?

SPEAKER_01 31:07

I did a 12-hour shift. Okay, I swapped out with another girl. Um, and she did the night, I did the day.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

And I just, yeah, it was the hardest part for me is is making that phone call.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, I mean, trying to bring it to the family. I think like where I get uncomfortable is when you have to go ask them the questions. You know, it's like, because you have to get funeral home, you have to get like medical background, like medications they were taking. What were they doing before it happened?

SPEAKER_01 31:44

A lot of the patients that I did care for, all of that stuff was already in order because, like I said, most of them were elderly, uh-huh, and most of them were either mentally or physically challenged, and they were not in the best of health anyway. So most families, to be very honest, had most of that stuff in order. They had a packet on the refrigerator, they had a packet in a dresser drawer, something that had all the information that I had to, you know, make phone calls on.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Uh so you were left up to doing all the phone calls. You didn't even like you didn't have somebody to back you or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

No, no, and the agency that I worked for was um, I don't need to put any agency down, but they were not a very good one. They were what I consider to be poopy.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Um they did not care about their staff, they only cared how many clients they could get under them.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Ah, so more focused on money than anything else.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Yes, absolutely. And don't spend their money on the grocery stores and stuff unless you absolutely have to let the family replace what they need. Oh wow, philosophy.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah, that's awful. That is awful.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

It is awful. And I didn't work there very long, but I worked there long enough to have two clients uh pass away on my shifts.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Oh wow. So did you find them or seven years old? Did you find them or was it a situation that they um like my 97-year-old lady that I cared for, she actually had a heart attack. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

And yeah, she and I mean it was so fast. I did CPR and everything until the ambulance got there, but she was gone. She was long gone before they ever got there.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

I think that's what I like about doing the hospital thing is you know, you have your physician right there. So it's like when you have to go and tell the family the bad news or whatever, that they are there to support you. And typically they're the ones that will give them the news, tell them what happened, what we did, all the things. And you know, like there's situations that they will actually bring the family in, especially when it's somebody who's young and we can't get them back.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

They don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Unfortunately, yeah. I mean, and that's an unfortunate thing. It really is. So we kind of hit some deep stuff today.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Wow, okay. So, guys, um, I think we're gonna end this one right now. Um, Mickey had a lot of input today. I'm kind of excited about that. She's been kind of stand back ish.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

But I'll try to have more later, too.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

But I'm so glad that everybody came and joined us today. It was great to talk. Absolutely. Mickey, of course, as always, love talking to you. Enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

And talking with everybody.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Yeah, we uh we actually focused a lot on nursing today. That was kind of cool. Um healthcare in general, I guess. Um anyway, so we will end this episode here, I guess. Sound good?

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Sounds good. Y'all have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

All right, loves, hugs, cuddles, and kisses. Love you guys.