 Hi, welcome to nursing school explained and this video series in the nurse interview playlist. Today, I'm here with Mark cake go currently works as a nurse case manager for the Navy hospital. But he also has a very interesting background and a very good variety of different nursing experiences so welcome mark thanks for joining me. Hi, thanks for having me. Yes, thanks for being here and for offering to share your, your, your awesome nursing career. How long have you been a nurse now. Since 2000, since there's 2000 it was like 99 but 2000. Okay, so over 20 years that's a, that's a lot of years. Sorry, it's gone by fast. I bet. Tell me about your nursing journey. So for myself. I originally was a criminal justice major kind of lost wasn't sure. And I became I wanted to become an EMT, because I saw some classes at the junior college, and then a friend of mine recommended joining the army reserves as a medic. So I became a EMT medic in the army reserves. And I learned the basics of, you know, C collar splints, litter carry ambulance type stuff. And then the army reserves. After I finished my initial training in Texas, I came back to San Diego, and the army reserves had a program where I went to LVN school. So I went to LVN school at a civilian school in San Diego, and the army reserves paid for the whole thing. So that was, that was a great deal. After I finished the LVN program I passed my, my, my LVN boards, I went back to the army recruiter and said I wanted to go active duty. I only wanted to go to Germany. And so it took two months and they said yeah we have a hospital spot for you in Heidelberg Germany and 1995 summer of 95 I went there. And it was a great experience worked med surge for about a year, and then I got loaned to labor and delivery. So I helped out there, doing the mother baby type duties. And it's been a great ride. How long did you stay in Germany. I was there for two years, two years. Okay. And then when you came back home, how did your journey continue. I went. So I was LVN and then I basically I did a RN program with it's a, it's a old it's a, it's like before University of Phoenix it was like a, they called it Excelsior. And it was kind of like I challenged some tests. And then I got my two year RN through them. And then I went, actually, I'm sorry I went I started working, I was working for Planned Parenthood as an LVN. And then I got my RN and so they kept me on, and then Planned Parenthood had some sort of funding. I want to say they call it title 10 funding but I'm not entirely sure if I remember correctly, but it was a women's health nurse practitioner program. And this was in 2001 at Harbor UCLA in Torrance in LA area. And it was a one year program specific to family planning, pap smears infection checks stuff of that nature. And so I did that program and then I worked for Planned Parenthood. It was about 10 years, about 10 years. That was I was working for them part time, because in 2001 911 happened. Of course, and that changed my mindset, and I basically was leaning away from GYN and I wanted to get ER experience. And so I kind of literally with no ER experience at all went to Sharp to Levista here in San Diego. I went to the ER and I walked in and I said, Hey, I don't have any ER experience but if my army reserve unit activates me for the war, I need some. Would you hire me and they did. And so really out of my element but I think I took to it pretty well. I ended up doing ER and Planned Parenthood simultaneously for a number of years and then ER only for about 12 years, 12 years. So, and then after that, I well I switched over to the Navy hospital I was originally working for Sharp. And then I was ready for change and switched over to the Navy hospital. And then maybe in 2015 I left the ER and went to the PACU. And so from 2015 till 2021 PACU. And then I actually was ready for another change. And so I went to case management about one year ago. And so that's that's where I've been ever since. Okay, so a couple of things thank you for sharing that couple of things that I want to touch on that some people might be interested in. So you pointed out that I think it's called the GI Bill right where the military helps you pay for school for specifically for nursing school and I think there's other careers to. And then also that title 10 or maybe it's a different number of the title that funding. So it sounds like you went through your schooling with a lot of help through like public funding and public grants and is there some additional information that you can share on about that because a lot of young people nowadays are struggling with their schooling, you know, school and their career and all that. So if there is an opportunity for free money and some really really good career training I want to make sure that we share that. Yes. The Army reserves, they have several programs and one of them is the GI Bill. And that's more for when you I think you do your time, and then you get out and then you go to college. There are some people who they still go to college while they're in, which to me was always pretty intimidating because the Army can kind of mess up your schedule and then mess up your school plans. So I think most, most people do use the GI Bill when they're out when they're out and they have more freedom to go to school and focus on school. I also used something called tuition assistance. And that was really great for me, because when I, I did some University of Phoenix classes and I want to say the tuition assistance paid for like 80% of the class. And some, you know, I would say maybe 50% of any fees and things like that so the tuition assistance helped out a lot about the title 10 funding that one was specific to California. So I'm not sure and it was specific to family planning. And I think, and I actually, I do know that since then, certificate trained nurse practitioners have been kind of phased out, and everyone has to have a master's, which wasn't my only reason for kind of fading away from that area. But it was a, it was a factor. I also did get busy with life and it was, I couldn't give three jobs to enough time. But I do believe title 10 funding is specific to family planning so that might be something to consider if if they're in that field already but I don't know if it would be helpful if they were not in family planning work work. That makes a lot of sense and I think the important thing is to note for anybody who's interested in a specialty area of any kind or really any kind of schooling. Just do your research talk to people that are dealing with scholarships and grants and tuition reimbursement and assistance because there is a lot of money out there. That a lot of people don't know about and then it goes on claimed and then people end up with a lot of student debt that doesn't necessarily need to happen. I totally agree and sometimes actually often when I was in the ER or the pack you when I would talk to nursing students who would come through, I would, I'm you know I'm definitely biased towards the military, because I've had a really positive experience I would think I know I know for a fact my experience has been very positive. So I would be encouraging hey you should join. And I would point out people see that CRNA right there. He got all his school paid for 100%. He was a physician he came in as a mechanic. Really. And now he's a physician because there are lots of programs in the military. Now they don't just give it to anyone you have to have good evaluations and be, you know, very competent in your in your area. But there is amazing programs out there especially in the military. So since you've been coming across a lot of different nurses with different experience levels and also different backgrounds in patient outpatient and then several different departments in the inpatient setting. When you encounter a new grad who comes in working with you what advice do you give them what do you say hey when I graduated 20 some years ago, I wish they would have told me this. I'm glad you asked that because I do think about the young nurses as they came through the ER and the pack you I don't encounter them in case management anymore and I do kind of miss that. I always tell them hey if you're going to do the hard stuff you should do it early. Do I see you do ER do the crazy stuff early in your career, and I really think that builds up your confidence, because I dabbled. MedSurg has LVN and the army wasn't super high high acute area. And then when I did go to the ER. That was after a shift from wanting to be in GYN to ER, and that was a little intimidating to go into an area, although it was by choice, I was jumping in because of the war. I thought I better I better get some ER experience and it was pretty intimidating. So I definitely if I could have done it all over again I would have done ER ICU right from the get go have that done and you know say get five years of experience. And that would just be a really solid foundation so that anything else after years five you know and beyond would just be oh that's nothing because I was dealing with ICU stuff already. So it was pretty nerve wracking, jumping from the GYN clinic setting into the ER. So that's something I tell the, the, the, the new nurses come through. I also do like I said I'm really biased I really encourage them to consider joining the military reserves at least because as a nurse, I really think the opportunity for adventure travel money for school I really think it's. There's no words I mean it's it's such an amazing opportunity for for a lot of these new nurses. And then they can do it early in their career they don't like it five years they're done so. Yeah, that's a very good point I think and I like what you said about jumping into the critical care areas first because not only is it a super fast paced environment usually, but it's also a little bit more taxing on your body. So while you're young and you're still strong and you know you don't have any injuries not not saying that nurses typically typically get injuries if you take care of yourself on your body then hopefully you can avoid those. But I think it takes a certain physical strength to to kind of work these jobs. Yeah, you always have support with you know your teammates and your CNS that support you and all that but I think also if you get that in early you kind of maybe get that adrenaline kick out of the way initially and then you can kind of go into a position that's a little bit more, more calm and not so taxing both physically and mentally. I definitely agree with that because, even though PACU is not overly taxing I there's a couple times where I was pushing some gurney like oh man I'm getting a little sore here. So I think I had a good downshift from crazy ER life and then PACU to be a little bit more moderate, and then now kind of downshifting to case management where, of course it's more office setting and you know it's been a good change of scenery over years I that's one thing I've been very pleased with nursing is if you want blood and guts it's there you want adrenaline it's there. If you travel nursing of course you can travel and then if you want to downshift to office life, the opportunities are there. So it's it's been good to me I can't complain. That's the beauty of nursing in general right and you really get one degree and there's a thousand of different opportunities, whatever tickles your fancy, you can go there. And if you don't have experience somebody will hire you a train you based on the other experience that you've had so I think that's a very positive aspect of becoming a nurse with just one degree and having so many so many opportunities. That's a great point and when you bring up the different areas. When you're asking me some advice I would give to a new nurse and another thing I would mention which worked for me was volunteering a little bit like if you can't get the job that you wanted and say you're working in a different area. I think it's reasonable and it worked for me is to say hey how about I volunteer four or five hours on, you know, one day a week or one day a month. And that's one way I got transferred from the ER to the pack you that was within our hospital system so of course it's a little bit easier, but I did reach out to them to say hey I think I did a conscious sedation class, or research in the pack you, and then I remember thinking, I think I'm ready for switch. How do you how would you feel about me volunteering here like one day a month, and they said fine. And it one thing led to another networking. That's the other advice I guess I'd say networking it's key, you know the people you talk with in you know the year 2015 chit chatting with if you network maybe in 2017 they'll pick you up for a job. So, volunteering and networking is some other advice I would give. And I think that's important to for new grads right if you're having a health care career let's say you work for a certain health care system and your work as a CNE or an ear tech or a transporter or whatever it might be. You build rapport with different people supervisors are the nurses they see your work ethic to see how you interact with patients and then you graduate and then you kind of plant that seed oh I'm about to graduate. And then they know, oh, Mark, he was a really good ER tech. We should consider hiring as a nurse because we already know him where we know what he is about the skills we can teach him right but we know that he's a good patient advocate he gets along with people. He shows up on time all these things so that networking is super important. One thing that I always find fascinating, no matter where you work. Nursing is a very small community. If you not even I mean the military is a huge entity in itself right or big cities might have multiple big health care systems. But if there's a badener somewhere, everybody will know about it and if they apply it might be really hard for them to get a job. But if you're really good work gets around to, and so that it helps you initially, or eventually that helps you in general, really, really well, because it. Yeah, work gets around and it's a it's a big world out there but nursing I feel somebody always know somebody who knows somebody also knows this person. So you kind of the networking is important but also you know don't get a bit of a reputation. Yeah, definitely word gets around. Absolutely. And I think especially with with the certain areas like, I mean I know just lots of ER nurses, and there's just a spider web connection. So you work with him or that, you know, at whatever ER is around town, and even coupled with the army reserves. When I go to drill weekend. When we chit chat people will network and say oh yeah we're hiring XYZ. Oh really. And that's another way that the reserves is a great, a great benefit is because there's like networking at other hospitals like I might know a lot at my hospital. But when I go to the army reserves I find out a lot more about the six other hospitals in the in the city. So that's a great plus. And then what is your commitment right now with the army reserves. It's one weekend a month, and then two weeks a year. I've been very fortunate to once in a while over the past 30 years to get some three week deals overseas. And those are really fun so if they send you overseas for like a humanitarian mission. They're not going to just send you for two weeks because they want to, you know, make it more worth everyone's time. And so we did three week missions in El Salvador, Dominican Republic. And we've, we did regular jobs in Germany for three weeks, and then Japan for three weeks. So those are really amazing. But generally speaking it's a two it's one weekend a month and then two weeks during the summer. Every once in a while and I, of course, things were different about, you know, 15 years ago with the wars and all the all the madness. You get activated. And for me, I got activated without volunteering four times over the past, because I 25 years. And then I leave San Diego for one year to work in El Paso, Texas, to replace a nurse who was working labor and delivery there, who then got to set back. This was in 2003. And so I ended up working labor and delivery in El Paso for a year. And then it happened again in 2009. But it was Colorado. And again, a nurse had to leave to who knows where. And then I replaced that person. And then 2012 it happened again. So it's, it's kind of, it's a different tempo now. And hopefully it stays relatively cool. And then I worked the ER in Walter Reed for one year. And then the other time, there's so many, it's so funny is four times in 2019 I got activated for about a year to go to Germany. And so that of course that was an amazing experience to go back to Germany. But that doesn't happen to everyone not everyone would be that lucky. So that's, that's generally the commitment though one weekend a month two weeks a year, and then maybe an activation every five years or so. And that sounds like there's some like you said some adventure involved there too and going on humanitarian missions and necessarily not really doing like frontline military, you know, like battle zone kind of stuff and hopefully what we won't have any more big challenges coming up where where we need that. But more on, you know, yeah, I know like eight, you know, really helping the people of the country rebuild and, and have that experience not a lot of people have had that and that is such a valuable, not only career experience but also life experience I think. It was all of the humanitarian missions overseas were life changing, because you get to see other developing nations, and realize just I mean American healthcare we all know has problems, but to see how fortunate we are really really hits you in the heart. And we had lines of 200 or 300 people waiting to either be seen by doctor for the first time in who knows how long 10 years five years. We had people seeing a dentist for the first time in years in years and getting teeth dental extractions. And so it was very humbling and very humbling yet rewarding experience incredibly rewarding to this day. The friends that went with us to those those countries that I mentioned we still talked about like wow that was those really great experience. So, like I said I really am kind of biased when I encourage these young nurses, join for the adventure to travel and have some really life changing experiences. Wow yeah thanks for sharing all that. So without that experience that you have, Mark, what is the one patient interaction that you'll never forget. You know, gosh. I had an answer and now it's a little. It's a little sad now now to say it and have it be recorded but it was, it was a. What happened to you if you want to share it or or not. I'll just say it was a suicide, a gunshot wound. And it was in the is in our parking lot it was it was all very sad and crazy and traumatic. And we're not a trauma center. So that's one reason it really sticks out in my head, but the other reason is that it just happened in our parking lot. And so, as far as patient interactions and stories and craziness. We, our nurses have crazy stories. And we, of course we can have a bit of a dark sense of humor or morbid sense of humor. Gallows humor. But, you know, when, when you ask which one sticks with you the most that one sticks with me the most it was just absolutely crazy. Very, very sad, very, very sad but. So, on a more positive note, I'll think now just shifting I do remember taking care of a near drowning girl in Germany she was American but she had a drowning near drowning incident at the the German Schwimmbad. And, and she had lost a lot of motor control function. And I remember helping carry her when you know I was probably 22 at the time, and she was, you know, seven or eight, maybe, maybe six or seven. And it's funny because I was helping her move and carry her. And I just recently my daughter has reached that age, and my daughter was kind of pretend that she was sick and fussy. And when I carried my daughter, it reminded me of that moment, 20 plus years ago like wow there's a big kid that I'm trying to lift. And it was it was that was another moment that stuck with me, very profoundly, I guess you'd say. So, and the girl she was okay then. Yeah, she started regaining speech and motor function later I wasn't taking care of her the whole time but I do remember asking how she doing in rehab and therapy and they said oh she's doing so much better. I never saw eyes on but it doesn't matter but it was a it was a good feeling to know that she was better. Yeah, and there are those stories right there are the good ones and then the bad ones but some of us, some of them will stick with us for longer and for the most part I think the positives definitely outweigh the negatives you just sometimes those are just so traumatic not only to the patient but also to the people involved in their care that they kind of come to the forefront of our memory when we talk about things like that. Definitely, definitely unforgettable. So with all the your busyness and your kids and your children, what do you do in your free time to keep work life balance and keep saying and keep balanced. I really like to go camping. I wish I could do it more, but basically camping and hiking and just kind of unplugging from the city. I feel is really really important, especially if I'm not working a high stress life anymore but I definitely think if you are working in a in a high acuity area, you would need to unplug and get away from the city once in a while just to get some nature to the city. So I do like to go camping, hiking, a little bit of fishing, and then bicycle riding with my kids. I really enjoy that. So the great outdoors. I try as much as possible. What's your favorite camping spot or camping trip. Well, in October of last year we went to Yosemite and I had been there like 25 years ago but just with a car and car camping. And we backpacked and with some childhood buddies and backpacked all around for about four days. So it was a blast. Wow, out there in the wilderness. Yes, it was a lot of fun. Wow, I can only imagine the beauty that you saw right there. Yeah, I loved it. Cool. Well any last words of advice or anything else you want to share. Just one thing I would say to any nurses that are curious about the military is you should do it. If you're thinking about it, do it. Talk to one of us and we'll try to give you the good and the bad, but the opportunity for adventure and travel and just meeting people all over the planet is something that's priceless. That would be my, I guess parting thoughts for any nurses that are out there that hear this info from me is if you're thinking about it, you should really do it. And if you don't like it after four or five years, you'd be done with it. It's not a lifetime commitment. Yeah, that's a very good point right to see if you like it like with anything else to see if you like it and if it's for you then maybe you stick around and if not, there's always time to change. If somebody wanted to reach out to you personally and ask a mark I saw this video and I have some questions. Could they reach out to me and then I could forward this information to you would you be willing to talk to people. Absolutely, I thoroughly enjoy I've been in the army reserves 30 years now, and it is my job to prepare or talk to the next generation about joining, not to just tell you the good. And the bad, so that you make an informed decision, especially for nurses. I mean I'll tell anyone that wants to join the military, my experiences but of course for medical and for nurses. It is my job to get you guys to think about it, but I do like to be completely honest and say hey man there's some things that really are big headache. But there's some things that are really great to thank you for offering that so I have a feeling that might be some some viewers out there that might be interested and then maybe we'll get some some people connected to you. So, Mark, I want to really thank you for your time and for reaching out to me to actually bring this this video this about military nursing here to the forefront. Because I think everything that you've shared this sounds super interesting and if I was 20 years younger I might consider it too. So thank you so much for everything that you have done and did you continue to do for our veterans and our active military personnel and good luck to you and whatever that your next endeavor will be. Cool. Thank you very much. I appreciate it and it was a pleasure to be here. Thanks so much. Take care.