 Hey Alabama 4-H, my name is Christy Miller and I'm a 2020-2021 4-H state ambassador for this year from Shelby County. Today I have joined with me, Mr. Ken Starkey. Mr. Ken, how are you doing this morning? Good morning, doing great. Awesome. So today Mr. Ken is going to tell us a little bit about what's like on his job. So let's go ahead and start out what is your job title and then let's just tell me a little bit about yourself. Well my job title is I'm a certified registered nurse anesthetist or a CRNA. I am 50 years old and live in Alabama my entire life. Awesome. So since you said you're a nurse anesthetist, what exactly do you do each day at work? My job is to take care of patients who are having surgery depending on which hospital or where you work that might be more involved early on getting them ready for surgery. At my hospital it's more involved just simply during the whole time that they're in the surgery making sure that they're comfortable when they come out taking care of them and give them whatever they need while they're having surgery. Awesome. So how long have you been in this career field? I've been about 17 or 18 years. Wow. So did you always know that you wanted to pursue a career in the medical field? My mother worked for doctors and when I was younger that sounded interesting just like I'm sure every other kid they loved sports and whatever they were interested in everything. And the more I was around the things like medicine the more attracted those things looked and I took a job at a hospital just to help me pay for school and now as I discovered this job I thought well that sounds like a really good job so the more I learned about it the more attractive it became and just actually focusing on getting the degrees necessary for this job and I'm really thankful that I did. Awesome. So what was your initial major in college? There were about 75 of them you know and I was your typical 18 year old that didn't have a clue what they wanted to do and the major changed about every different week and somebody wouldn't mention something that sounded good but as I settled in and started understanding more about the nurse anesthesia job it required at this most different careers to do a specific education and this one in particular required a four year or a bachelor's degree in nursing and then at the time it was a master's degree in nurse anesthesia so which would be specialized training specifically for anesthesia and to do what I did. Awesome so have you always worked at UAB? I've always worked at UAB and also worked for 12 years in the army reserve so I was with deployed with the army and did that at the same time I was with UAB. Cool so tell me what is a day like on your job? Get it here early the surgeries they like to start as soon as they can so this morning is actually a late start it's about 7 30 so we'll start our first surgery we'll roll in the operating room at 8 o'clock they try to schedule this day as an education day so right now lots of people in my job and other nurses and people in the O are doing things to help continue their education but typically we'll get here I'll get here about 5 30 to 6 start setting up getting ready for procedures get find out whatever the cases are going to be for example today I'm working with people who are having orthopedic surgery or something on their bones UAB is a large trauma center so we have a lot of car rags a lot of people who are fall down various bone trauma so today we'll prepare whatever is necessary to help the patient get through this surgery and give them what they need so they can have their bones prepared and hopefully move on to recover. Awesome so what is the best thing about your job? There's so many things but as in most jobs I would say the people the experiences you get to see so many different things even in the most boring hospital there's never a time that putting somebody to sleep isn't dangerous even if I do my job perfectly and safely I'm still in total control of so many different variables than the patients relying completely on me so there's a lot of stress that goes with my job but the rewards are great because you see people not only get better you see peaceful and very stressful environments trust you and that's rewarding but it's there's a lot of rewards and obviously if I were going to weigh one job against all the others and weigh the pros and cons against no one against the other certainly if they were all equal I might choose one where the salary was going to allow me to support my family better than another job so you know there's lots of different things to consider and you know pros and cons and the investment and and your return on the investment certainly. What is a piece of advice that you would give a youth that was interested in your specific job? I would say and again it goes back to what I said I think I believe this whether everyone else believes it or not but I believe that we're all gifted by God with certain certain things that we like our pursuits our gifts and I think that each of us the 4-hers certainly said a middle school audience this morning you're starting to understand the things that we like to do the things that interest us and it might be everything but as we start to realize more and more what you want to do pursue what you want to do find a way to do the thing that interests you and you feel like will give you fulfillment that you feel like will be a way to use if you believe that God gave you those gifts utilize those specific gifts those attributes and pursue those things usually the money will follow and if you're doing what you're happy with the money won't be as important but there are always jobs typically that you will enjoy that will still allow you to have a rewarding life whether it's financiality or just simply with the fulfillment of the joy that you get from the job but pursue it be happy with whatever you choose and just pursue it to the fullest enjoy it and and typically that will that will come back and you'll be pleased with what you what you chose awesome and then any specific things about your job that you would tell somebody if they were wanting to pursue your same career a lot of people when they look up my career and they say oh well you're just sitting in the operating room all day and that looks so boring you're doing nothing well if someone tells me that my day is going to be boring i'm all for that that's great that means nothing went wrong the patient's doing great and and that's a perfect boring day that's awesome that means the patient was safe because if something does go wrong that's my job to take care of them then so my job is to prevent those things to see them hopefully before they happen and to help prevent them so i want some boredom that would be awesome so don't just look on the surface of the job most of the time no one ever sees the things that happen behind the scenes so if you enjoy science if you feel like you're good with the various math and sciences and chemistry and things that go along with that a lot of people in my field thought they would be interested in engineering that's kind of where i started thinking about going to engineering in the in my natural inclination towards science made that a lot easier i've always enjoyed that i've enjoyed the details of the job so if that's something that interests you i think that anesthesia would be a would be a great choice it's it's served me well there's it's a great market there are lots of jobs out there right now the average salary for a nurse in that this is a good very fair salary and it's something that you could do really well for your family so it's something that i would definitely recommend in the future i have no regrets about my job choice awesome and then the last thing what is a piece of advice you want to give to every forager as they are preparing for their future career and education endeavors pursue it to the fullest don't let anyone tell you know there will be obstacles it's probably not going to be worthwhile if it's easy you're going to get out of it exactly what you put into it if it feels like there are obstacles or it's going to be hard that probably means that's the right choice that probably means it's worthwhile whether it's going to school out of state or going to a school that you you didn't think about beforehand or maybe even not going to college at all you don't have to go to college to have a great fulfilling line but whatever your choice just pursue it to the fullest you put your heart into it and you'll be happy awesome really great advice and awesome your job is very interesting and thank you so much for taking your time with me this morning thank you very much