 I can! Can you hear me? So, I graduated from Arizona State University and I did some clinicals at the hospitals and I also volunteered at the nursing school, but the reason why I love ICU is I really love the ICU atmosphere. I love the critical thinking. I like the, you know, sort of fast-paced at times where, you know, you're really having to use your nursing judgment and I think that a lot of ICU nurses have a similar personality which I feel like I kind of blend in, you know, kind of that very detail-oriented, you know, in-depth thinking which really appeals to my interest. So that's why I, I, I see you appeals to me and then just wheels in general appeal to me because I had experiences, you know, volunteering there and my clinicals there and it's always been great. Have you been working as a nurse? Yes, yep. Okay, so why don't you tell me about that? What are you doing up there? So I am working at a hospital it's called and I am, my main position is actually on a medical surgical floor, but it's a very rural hospital and so I have been cross-trained into our ICU and ER. So actually most of the time I show up to my med-surge position and they say, oh, we're short on nurse in the ER or, you know, we have a high patient load in the ICU today or difficult patients and so we need you there or you're down a nurse in the ICU and we can put you there and so most of the time I actually end up not being on med-surge. So I'm cross-trained to all of the spots. It's a very rural hospital, it has an ER, it has a small OR, the ICU is a total of six beds and they have two nurses there and our med-surge is about 25 beds or so. Very tiny but it's been great because I get to be resourceful and I feel like I have a good contribution to the hospital because they can, I never get called off because they can always put me somewhere so it's just good. Yes, it was a huge shocker coming from, you know, ASU had such a great well-rounded nursing program with all the clinical sites, these huge hospitals and I come here, this is the only hospital I'm on, actually an island, it's the only hospital on the island and we still do paper orders, we're slowly, we're transitioning into not doing paper orders and I was like what is this? You know, I learned so many things that I didn't realize I was gonna actually have to know being in a rural hospital but it's been good and it's been nice to have the different aspect and approach to things compared to where I did my clinicals from. I have been there since beginning of September, I got my license in August so closely creeping up on you. When I started nursing, I, being a small hospital, they don't have a set orientation program or preceptorship program so I had like a three-day little clinical orientation as far as learning certain kind of equipment and the pumps and things like that and going kind of through policies and then I was paired with another nurse for about three weeks so it was not a very extensive amount of time. My orientation to the ICU and ER have been longer, I was paired with a nurse in the ER for about two, three months and same for the ICU and but I'm also picking up shifts over there so I'm not there consistently you know three, four times a week so that's why you know it's been a little longer of a stretch but my five-year goal, right now I would love to, I'm starting to think about what I want to do to expand my education, I'm really still you know getting my feet wet and you know learning what nursing is all about in the different fields and everything but I would ideally I see myself in five years have beginning or you know in halfway in or whatever to getting my masters or I've also thought about nurse practitioner but again I'm just right now trying to kind of figure out what I want to do before I actually go in and specialize in something. I think my strengths are one I am very outgoing I get along great with others I feel like I have a lot of knowledge to offer and you know if I in critical thinking if I don't know something I am going to figure it out and or ask people to figure out the answer I'm not afraid to ask questions I'm not shy of you know being open about what I don't know and I feel like I'm a great communicator whether it's communicating with my fellow nursing staff or the charge nurse or the managers or supervisors or the physicians I'm not scared to approach and ask those questions especially when it involves patient care because I never want to compromise that and so yeah those are some of my strengths so well one thing I do every day I have I don't think there's a single shift I have gone by that I have not looked something up but I've been they have little classes that are offered at my hospital that I do like I did one recently it was like a geriatric education course I I've got my BLS and ACLS I just finished a telemetry course in April that was like a nine-week extensive like in-depth course telemetry and pretty much I feel like at all times I've been doing some sort of course when I started in ICU I had to complete an ICU consortium class that was like 64 CEUs and it was online and so I did that to basically kind of like well it's very in-depth but an intro to ICU even though it was very detailed oriented but it was a good exposure to the information before I was actually you know seeing it in in person eye contact and also so eye contact looking at them and then kind of regurgitating what they're saying and making sure that I'm understanding them correctly and just being engaged and I think let me we know listening is a huge part of being a nurse and that's pretty much you know a big part of our job but yeah regurgitating what they say to make sure that I'm hearing them correctly and even if I have no idea what to say if it's a sad situation or terrible situation I feel like if you just regurgitate like I see I see that you're feeling distraught or I see that you're feeling frustrated that tends to work well for listening and the patients or family members or whoever it is as well. In your hospital are there any process improvement projects going on for anything in particular? So on the phone user they try to implement to help reduce falls. Tell me about a time you had to go above and beyond the call of duty to get something done. What was that? What kind of challenges do you face on your current job? Current job the challenges would be equipment that is older and not quite working as well can be kind of frustrating and recently I actually had a patient who was went downhill very quickly on med search and the blood pressure machine stopped working and the bed stopped working and we have double rooms and so we had to literally like pick up the bed we had a bunch of us to try and turn it and so I think one of the most challenging things is sometimes feeling like you don't have the resources there that you need to provide the best patient care and obviously that's something that they're forever working on especially not having as many resources but it's a frustrating from a nursing standpoint when you think back and say you know I wish this would have worked or we could have done this differently or if I had this this would have gone better but I mean that's one of the great parts about nursing is you always forever are learning from those mistakes or things that didn't go well and you can better improve for the next situation. Most of the great customer service well would be the making the patient or a person whoever you're feeling feeling like you are like almost like they're the only one there that you are going above and beyond for them and you know even if you walk into one room and you have a patient who is totally not doing well or angry at you or angry at the doctor is being able to walk into the next room and making that patient feel like you didn't just get yelled at you are there to be available to them and that you are there to meet their needs and no matter how what lengths that you have to go to to serve them and make them feel like their stay is you know going to the best that they can because no one comes to the hospital for fun ideally except in the ER I feel like some people come to the ER for fun it's like their hobby but you know no one's in the hospital for you know they're in their most vulnerable states and I think that's one of the things I love about being a nurse is you're working with them in the most vulnerable states so making sure that they feel like you are there for them whether it's listening or making them just feel better but yeah so I had a family one time that was they didn't like the hospitalists that was assigned to their father's case they had had this hospitalist before several times and they did not really they weren't very fond of her and you know as a nurse you I was you know it's hard cuz even though I really like this hospitalist you can't be like oh no they're wonderful it's fine cuz the I was validated I didn't validate you know their concerns of you know I entered I'm sorry you have this bad experience and whenever I have a family member who's upset whether it's a previous maybe a previous nurse or a previous physician I always like to say what can I do for you right now that can would help the situation what do you think what can I do within my power where we could solve this family member in particular they're very upset and I said you know I will I'll see what I can do I will talk with the hospitalist and let them know your concerns and see what we can arrange and they actually ended up switching the house a different hospitals there's always two on and so they were very thankful by the time they went home they felt like their dad was in better care even though this other hospitalist does a phenomenal job they must have just not lined up at some point and they are very thankful for that and it you know kind of put out a little fire that could have been bad at the start of my shift I did have so I mean this kind of goes along with it I'm trying to think of a good situation but I did have a nurse who was a I so I work kind of a mid shift right now I work from 3 p.m. to 11 30 p.m. and so this night shift nurse was coming on at 11 11 30 we were given report and she notoriously like to call me out on things in the patient's room that maybe I hadn't done that I should have done I was just you know I was learning at the time I was very new and so I didn't wasn't aware of certain protocols yet without things done and so this nurse had called me one time this patient was in for a fall and they were I think they know I don't think they fractured their hip I think they're in for a syncope a syncopal fall and so we were monitoring them and this patient was totally alert and oriented would call appropriately every time they need to get to the bathroom and so the bed alarm was not on the patient because they were calling appropriately but for our hospital policy if a patient is in for a fall they are to have the bed alarm on and so this nurse made me aware of that and in the patient's room during report which wasn't very professional on her end but I ended up afterwards after the situation had passed I ended up you know later on at the end of report not in the patient's room just saying hey if there's ever an issue with you know maybe I haven't done something correct you know I apologize I am still learning but if you know you can let me know outside of the room that way we can talk about it and you know figure it out in a professional respectful way that way that patient doesn't feel involved in the first she was a little taken back but you know now we're good we're great no issues have arised and you know sometimes it just we all need a little reminder sometimes and we you know very outgoing energetic a quick learner I've had a lot of nurses on my shift say wow you know you've only been a nurse for this long and you've already you know surpassed this nurse who's been a nurse for 10 years or you know they not that it's good to compare but they always are saying how they're like wow you do so much no you're in the ER and ICU and you're so new like how do you do it all and I think they describe me as a quick learner someone who's very focused and motivated and yeah important in my work environment is that I like who I work with and I like what I'm doing I think that even if you have a terrible shift if you have a great support system and team to get you through that that makes you know world of a difference and you can still come home and feel supported I also think having a great upper management with who you can talk to if you feel like a situation isn't correct where you feel like if you talk to them they're not going to go and disclose your name to other supervisors or things like that you know when they're talking with them is important and I'm fortunate I do feel like I have a good management where I'm at right now and I you know have utilized that where I've talked to my manager quite a bit and also she's been very open to me cross-training which is difficult for some managers to have an employee that they are now donating to other departments but yeah having a great when you have a supportive upper management is I think huge expectations is that I have a great team with who I can go to for questions I also would love continuing education opportunities and you know things that classes are you know we're finding able to find resources for ways to expand my education and I just mainly going back to feeling supported and in all aspects of you know I'm we're all still learning doesn't matter if you've been a nurse for 25 years you know every day still learning so yeah feeling supported like I have a good a good team yeah you too I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me absolutely my pleasure all right you take care of you too bye