PART 2: Bullies, Burnout, Going Viral, and Unfiltered ICU Nurses w/ Jason Wolf
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Well, guys, welcome back to Friends Anonymous. Oh, yeah, here we are. My bad, bro. No, that's great. This is Jason. He's already had an episode on here. So this is a part two. Yes. I feel like it went well. So we're just going to keep on going. Yes, I appreciate being here. Something you just said, though, that reminded me, when I was a new ICU nurse,

I'm sorry. When I was a new travel nurse, still new ICU nurse, I started traveling a year too early, I think. And I always say that. I tell everyone that. I traveled out a year. Oh, bold. Bold. Stupid. I think. I'll say it. I mean. Stupid. I won't say that, but I'll just say bold, girl. Bold. Knowing what I know. Yes. Knowing what I know now, I could have been placed in the worst unit and just like fed to the wolves. You know, like, here you go. Go on. Fly. Yeah. I wasn't. Luckily, that's the only reason I survived. And I had Jared, my husband, who's a year older.

ahead of me shout out to jared he's been a nurse a year longer than me so i was like well i'll at least have support but i was on this unit i see you nurse um my patient i had never seen a vagal response in real life okay yeah that's a scary one it's a scary one yeah

he's fine. And then all of a sudden he's not. And the monitor went down to zero. And when I tell that story, people are like, that doesn't usually, I don't know what to tell you. This guy, his heart rate went to zero. And I said, call,

I'm the rapid. I'm in the ICU. Two of my coworkers come in. They're like, what's going on? I'm like, he, as I'm trying to tell them, starts coming to. And I'm like, well, one was like two things. That was a bagel response. And we are the rapid. So you don't need to call for a rapid. I was like, I didn't know that because I was just so fresh. I had no clue. And every hospital is different. And every hospital is different. Maybe you're not the rapid if some hospitals, but this hospital is.

We were the rapid. I didn't need to call for it. It's like, somebody call a rapid. And they're like, girl, we're the rapid. What's happening? He's fine. I'm like, oh my God. That first bagel response, that scared the shit out of me. That'll wake you up real quick on a night shift. That'll wake you up real quick. I was like, okay, I need to go to the bathroom now. I'm about to shit myself. You know what? I got two funny ones. Good. Hilarious ones on this one. Not funny, funny, right? Nurse funny. Nurse funny, right? Dark humor, right? Yeah.

uh speaking of vagal i'll give you a vagal one right there was a patient that um

in this ICU where I worked at, we had the toilets underneath the sinks, right? So like you open up this like little cabinet, toilet comes out. If you've ever lived in an RV home or anything like that, you might know. Yeah. And so essentially this patient and Lord have mercy, I learned a lot of lessons this night. So I had this patient who was very, how do you say like,

Right. So everything was a big deal. Right. And eventually, like, you know, she's hungry. She hasn't eaten in days. If she's hurting, it's a 20 out of 10. And, you know, it could be something I don't know. Right. But her family just like always kind of comforts her and just like, it's OK. It's OK. Like, this is her. You know what I mean? So this is like the baseline baseline. Right. Right.

She just had an operation and I learned a life lesson here. She kept complaining of pain. Now that's to be expected after surgery. So I give her pain medicine, but her anxiety is not getting any better. And she's, it's getting worse. And she's like, it feels worse than before I came in here.

Now, I learned a lesson there because whenever people say this to you, it's like, for me, it's like, it shouldn't be getting worse. You know, it should suck, but it shouldn't be more suckage. Right. Not every time. Sometimes it is, you know, but like for the most part, right. You know, the, you know, the, the exception's never the rule. She gets up on a lot of pain medicine. Now she's confused. Right. I should have known better. New nurse. You know, we got to

space out the thing here, right? But it was the blind leading the blind. This resident was like, more pain medicine. And I was not questioning it. You're like, yeah. Yeah, of course. More pain medicine. That fixes everything, right? She's complaining about pain. Let's ignore what it is, right? Next thing you know, she finds a way to get out of bed and she makes her way to the commode. Still attached to all the...

Poor cords were stretched to the max, right? And you know the oxygen probe that's on people's fingers? Well, I'm just like sitting at the nursing station. It's three o'clock in the morning and I see this red light just like floating around, right? And I'm like, what the hell is that, right? I walk up into the window and it's her on the commode waving her finger around, right? And I thought it was ET trying to signal to go home. It was her with shit.

over her pale as a ghost vagal down it's everywhere right now we I'm like we're gonna have to code her and so I'm I'm yelling for everybody to help right because she's like right at the entrance of this like this sliding door and she's got shit all over her so the question becomes what do you do

Do you grab the patient with shit all over her and carry her to the bed with shit all over you now and code the patient? Or do you, and we got to move fast. Our heart rate is not doing well. Or do we go, where are the gowns? Let's get some gowns on. Tough decisions need to be made.

I'm not saying what I did, but we got her onto that bed and she needed to go back to the OR if she was bleeding on the inside and everything. Yeah, no, but some of us had to make some sacrifices. Somebody got shit on them. Yeah, and not saying who it was.

That's awful. Terrible. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. Terrible experience. But would you do it again? So that was the question, right? Earlier with the, yeah, with the little, yep. And I've done it once. I'd do it again. Let's go. Happy as a pig in shit, man. Well, I always love bringing up New Grad stories, especially our own, because it makes New Grads feel seen, heard. You know, we all are going to make a mistake. It's not if it's when. You're going to make a mistake. You are human. Yeah.

And I have a few embarrassing new grad stories that were written in by listeners. I figured I could read them and we can just kind of conversate about them. I love that. Cool. I haven't read this one before, so no clue what it's going to be about. This says, so as a new grad, I saw an order for two liters tap water enema for a bowel obstruction. The patient was like an 80 year old Vietnamese speaking only man weighing about 100 pounds.

The patient failed several other attempts at a bowel movement. I fill up the two liters and say to myself, this seems like a lot, not knowing you administer as much as tolerated. With no interpreter available, I begin to administer and he smiles and nods yes. He smiled? He smiled. Smiles and nods yes. Whatever floats your boat, bro. After about 300 mils, he smiles and says, okay.

I reply, no, sir, I have to do the whole thing. Every 300 mils, he's trying to signal he's done, and I keep apologizing. I'm also a male nurse, probably 80 pounds bigger than him. I put in the whole two liters and leave him on the bedpan and go tell my co-worker what I did. Everyone laughs.

Oh, my God. Everyone's jaw dropped when I told them I did the whole two liters. I come back in and bowel movement the size of a baby was in the bedpan. So bad. My gosh. I clean him and dispose of it and think now's a good time to go to lunch. Five minutes later, I give report to the nurse covering my lunch break and I say, let's check on the patient before I go. When I came back to the room, it had exploded.

He had exploded. The patient was sitting in a liquid puddle of poop. There's poop pouring out the water pitcher of his bedside table. I think he was trying to catch it. It's dripping off the bed, all over the floor. In the end, the doctor congratulated me on curing the bowel obstruction. Oh my God. You know what, man, what grinds my gear sometimes? What? Is like, there's this thing, man, where doctors, like...

sometimes man they put in orders right but it's like they put in the order and then you know and then they show up and then the they're it's like we're a genie it's like your wish is my command boom here it is you wanted that done boom here it is they don't know all the time what goes into the order right it's like when a doctor orders like a ct scan or something like that and they're like why haven't we gone yet it's like have you seen all the fucking shit they're hooked up to yeah

Take a look at that. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to carry this with you? Exactly. Like, shit. Takes a moment. Yeah. Takes a moment. Yeah. Like, give me a moment. Even if it's stat, it takes a moment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's so funny. Why hasn't this been done yet? And it's like, and then when they like, dude, one thing that grinds my gears is

I know it shouldn't. Maybe, maybe I'm sensitive, right? I'll tell you. Please. The, uh, when a doctor is like, well, patient really needs to poop. And then they like, then they put in like, uh, yeah, lactulose and they smile at me. And it's like, you know what manifests from this, right? You know what I have to do and you smile at

You fucking smile. It's war. Oh, dude. Let me tell you, man. You're not sensitive. That's war. That's war. That's an act of treason on my mental health. How dare you? Act of treason. Yeah. Terrible. That story is hilarious. Whoever sent that in.

fucking hilarious. It is hilarious because also... I wouldn't beat yourself up on that one, though. Like, that wasn't... No. That's respectable. Honestly, let's congratulate the patient that he took all two

Two leaders. No, but the real question that I want to ask that nurse that put that in is, was he still smiling? I'm sure he's. Poor guy. His smile was probably like, please stop. Yeah. He's like, man, some people got that thing, man. Miscommunication. Yeah. Do you want to read another? Let's do it. Okay. In hindsight, I can laugh about this, but it was completely traumatizing in the moment when

So to set the scene, I start my morning rounds and my second patient of the day is a very kind older gentleman. I take his vitals, he has no concerns, and I move on. The call light gets rung, I go back in. He tells me, quote,

This was the first time I'd ever seen such a thing. So I said, quote, I'm not sure what's going on down there. And he replied, I just need help with my foreskin. I said, okay, I think to myself, and I start trying to help this poor man. Well, obviously there's no luck the first go around. So I start trying to think of a more creative way. At one point, I was holding his foreskin open like a garbage bag and just kept tugging on it.

To which he promptly told me to stop because he was in pain. At this point, I'm panicking because I don't know what else to do. So I then go ask someone for help. We finally actually get some lube and ice to help with the swelling and everything's good. But I still think to myself, what would have happened if his wife came in and I was holding her husband's foreskin like a garbage bag?

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. There's so many moments where I'm just like, thank God there's no family here. Like right now. Oh, my God. Because like we're both learning together. Yeah. Clearly the patient's never been through it either. Yeah. I'm guessing because otherwise he might have a suggestion. Pretty impressive. He went through his whole life and didn't get it stuck, I guess. Ever. Well, and to be fair on this girl's part, I think a lot of people don't realize that can happen if you've never experienced that.

someone's penis yeah and in health care this does happen this is a frequent issue yeah and that's a funny thing too right because it's like with male nurses on the female anatomy yeah and everything and it's like when i was a student nurse they were like who wants to put in a foley and of course we're all eager beakers yeah yeah yeah yeah so like me and and but nobody in my group was like because i

We had some intimidating professors, clinical professors. So I, you know, I take one for the team. I'm like, it'll be me, you know? And they're like, okay, the patient's a female patient, blah, blah, blah. Immediately my heart sunk. And I'm like, fuck, right? Like, I was hoping this was going to be like a layup, you know? And I lean over to like one of the other nurses and I'm like, hey, I'm really embarrassed to ask this. Oh no, I'm so scared. Yeah.

Where's the hole? And she goes, Jason, like, how do you not like treat me like I'm dumb? Right. And then the male nurse that was like it was his patient.

And he leans over to another one of his coworkers in front of us. He's like, I've never put in a female catheter before. And she goes, wait, how's that possible? And he goes, I don't know where the hole is. Oh, no. So you both are like. No, no. But right then I was like, I am validated. I am validated. Another thing about being a male nurse. Right. It's like. Well, that's fair because like other way around, men have one hole. Yeah.

If you've never had experience with it, how would you know? Yeah. Guys are so like, we're so dense sometimes that like even in sex, like when, like little, like when you're first new to it, like, you know how many times I've, you know, they joke about it on TV where they're like wrong hole, right? Like they don't even know. And it's like, and that's a pretty large one to, you know, that's a,

It's a pretty easy one to find. Sure. Compared to the other one. The other one that winks at you. That winks at you. Right. Maybe. Yeah. If you didn't know when we, this is for all the non-medical or people who don't deal with inserting catheters. We are literally taught whenever we

clean it with iodine, that it winks at you. And it does. The urethra, you can kind of see it wink and that's how you know it's the correct hole. Yeah. I try not to stare too hard, right? Because it's like the most awkward moment that I had to deal with, like staring. I was in clinicals and oh my gosh, this place, like I could talk forever about this

rotation, but I was in the labor and delivery. Oh, no, no, no, no. Mother baby. Yeah. It was like right after labor and delivery. And so I'm 21 years old and I'm going with my preceptor and we walk into the room and she goes, uh, Hey, this is a, uh,

my name is Jessica and this is my student nurse, Jason. He's going to be shadowing me today. Is that okay? And she goes, yes. And then she goes, I'm going in. The patient was like a 21 year old girl. Yeah. And she's like, okay, so we're going to practice breastfeeding and we're going to do the C-clamp, I think is what they called it. Right. I'm not mother baby. So it's like, I forget to over a decade, but anyway, she's talking about how she's going to like pretty much

lactate and squeeze her boob. And she goes, is it okay if Jason watches? And I am so embarrassed at this point. And then it gets worse. She goes, the 21 year old patient goes, oh, it's okay with me, but it's up to my husband. And she looks over and now I'm looking at her husband and he's looking at me.

And I'm like making a silent promise to everybody in the room. I'm not going to make direct eye contact.

It's like, yeah, I'm going to be spacing out over here. And then when the preceptor turns around, it's like, you see that? I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly what, yeah, that's what happened there. Yeah. So as far as winking eyes and all that stuff, when you're talking about that, I'm like not making direct eye contact with. Yeah. Because it can get awkward really fast. Yeah. Back on the foreskin thing. No.

Not to bring it up again, but because this has happened to me too, but I think I was a tech the first time I saw it. Oh my God. And they poured sugar. No. Yeah. Like a prolapsed anus. Pour sugar? Sugar. Packet of sugar. Poured it. I mean, could have given him a UTI, I'm sure, but it didn't. What? It helps the penis deflate, essentially.

So like the head. So the porn industry keeps sugar off the set. They need to. Damn it. We need to patent that and somehow I'd like go sell it to them. Yeah, yeah.

By the way, guys. Yeah. That's crazy. Right? Yeah. I didn't know that either. But they do that on like prolapse. I just said it. Prolapse. Anus? Anus. Yeah. They'll put sugar on there too. What? Which I didn't know because I don't work in the ER. So they're like on all fours and somebody's pouring sugar. What kind of kink shit is that? Who figured that out? That's what I want to know. That's what I want to know. Who's the first one? Who said?

I'm going to pour some sugar on it. Yeah, yeah. And it just like absorbs the moisture. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

It's helping the medicine go down. Yeah, thanks, Mary Poppins. Always coming through. Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins. Did you ever watch that movie? I love Mary Poppins. I haven't seen it in a long time. I haven't seen it in like 30 years. In a long time. Yeah, that's weird saying 30 years. How old are you? I'm 34. Oh, okay. I just turned 34, actually. I was going to say, I thought we were... I'm 32. Yeah, yeah. So I was like, I feel like we're the same age, but 30 years, probably. There it is. I'm going to read one more. Then we'll get into your life. Oh, yeah. This one says...

I've been a nurse for over six years, traveler, and ICU, so this by no means is a new grad story, but I think a good learning experience for all. If your patient is having liquid stool and you decide to use the suction to help clean up the puddle and avoid spillage, it is important to check that the tubing is attached to the canister, not just the regulator.

Oh my gosh. My work wife and I found this out the hard way and shit was literally in the walls and the room was out of commission for a day. Stool in regulator, wall and up the wall ceiling. That is insane. You know one thing that's so foul about hospitals and everything? Because that story, I've heard that one before. I've never seen it, but I've heard of it. Yeah. But when I was in management...

There was a Hill Rom representative or like rep, if you will. And he would come around and he would check the beds and everything. And him and I were just like bullshitting and talking and everything. And most of those beds that people sit on and everything are like older than you are. They are like old refurbished, right? Because nobody buys new ones. Even when they say new beds. No, you got like, it's like somebody bought a used car going, I got a new car. Yeah. That's, things got miles on it. That's the truth. Yeah. And so it was so funny though, because he goes,

how often do you guys clean these beds? And then I go, every single time we're done with the patient, we wipe them down, you know, with bleach and all that shit. And he goes, no, no, no. How many times do you guys unzip it

and clean it. And I'm like, I've never thought of that, right? And he goes, yeah, I know. And he goes, and he unzips it, right? And when I tell you the amount of black mold and nasty that is in there, I mean... Why? I'm sorry, I probably sound dumb. Because they're like moisture wicking. Yeah, but I think it's like... The zipper. Well, no, what I think it is is like snowboarding, right? Gore-Tex is like a waterproof material. And...

It's only good for so long. But how long can that material last after getting bleached a thousand times? Fair. Yeah. I mean, this stuff isn't Kevlar. You know what I mean? And after 20 years, maybe... It's like breaking down. Yeah, it gets a little compromised. Now, I don't know. I'm talking out of my ass. This is a theory. It makes sense to me. Yeah, it makes sense to me, right? But just like...

Yeah. When I saw it and it smelled up the room and everything. And he goes, yeah, we do this about once a year and everything. But it was like, there's so many of those moments, right? Shit up the wall. You think anybody went in there and clean that out?

No, not the way they should. Not the way they should. Not the way they should. I have suctioned up poop before and it was in a canister though. Good job. I didn't actually make sure the canister was there to be fair. It just happened to be there and I assumed and it was, thank God. Because when someone's shitting and it's rolling off the bed. Oh, you panic. Oh, you panic. Yeah. I don't want to slip in that. I don't want to step in that. You find out what you're made of real quick in those moments. You do real quick. When shit hits the fan, literally. Yeah.

Yeah, literally. Yeah. It's rough out there. Goddamn. Yeah, that's, yeah. So not to segue too hard, right? No. But there was something that like actually kind of like I wanted to talk to you about the, and this is a perfect segue where we're talking about shit in the wall, right? Don't worry, I'm going somewhere with this. Talking about shit in the wall, right? And you as not only a patient, but an employee of this place, right?

You don't know what's going on on the other end of that wall. Did you hear about that story from Massachusetts where there was like a bunch of nurses all diagnosed with like brain tumors, cancer and everything?

And it's not a very common cancer. They all got it. I did a little bit of reading into it. And apparently the walls at this hospital were not threaded with lead, if you will. Right. So their department was right next to the radiology department where they're doing CTs nonstop for years. And you need lead in these walls, even the glass, because I asked the CT tech.

in a radiologist about the glass. Even the glass has got like something that protects from like gamma radiation and all that stuff. But these nurses all got diagnosed, right? And it makes me think a lot, right? Where it's like, we've got so much going on. I don't know how much we're getting naturally exposed to. You always see those commercials where they're like,

If you got mesothelioma or like if your ceiling's got asbestos in it or like you got lead paint and all that shit, like you could be to a class action lawsuit. These all all these nurses got hit with that. And, you know, I can only imagine as a business perspective that the hospital might just say, what a weird coincidence. Sure. Yeah. But it's like I always you know, my heart goes out to them. I.

And it makes me think I've worked at 22 different hospitals. I wonder how many times I've been like exposed, exposed. Yeah. And it gets you thinking.

I think it ended up being 17 nurses. 17. Was the end. And I didn't look into it as to how it happened. So that's interesting. So I was like, what do you mean? Because I was getting all fed up because I'm like, no, the hospital can't look away. 17 people from one unit. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's not a coincidence. That's more than most units having employees. Actually, you guys sounded very full staff. But also...

But I mean, that sucks. It's like, what do you mean they have a brain tumor? And I remember someone was like, well, it's not cancerous. It doesn't matter. What the hell does it mean? I don't care if it's cancerous or not. It still gave them a brain tumor and could still cause issues to their brain. Yeah. I don't know enough of the subject to say what the definitive thing was, but it definitely piques my curiosity of how these people are going to be compensated.

Yeah, they better be. I hope so. Yeah, I really do. And it's like, it's definitely a story that I'm going to keep up with. Yeah. But like in court cases and everything, you know, sometimes, you know, I'm so interested if there's other cases like that. Right. Because if it wasn't for social media, I would have never known about this story. Right. And if it wasn't for like...

For how long, how many decades has this type of stuff been happening to nurses and that none of us know about? Yeah.

if they get forwarded a nursing video, well now their algorithm is going to start showing them more nursing things. I've had so many people that like, even people that follow me, they go, I'm not a nurse. And, and I don't know because sometimes people ask questions like, what does this mean? Yeah. And I'm here. I am thinking that all of the people that watch my stuff are all nurses, but they're not. People are learning more and more and more. And it's, it's, uh, I'm really glad that we have that platform to be able to speak up on something like that. Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with you because, uh,

I know a lot of hospitals have like obviously social media policies about like filming at work, but some of them are coming out with policies on if you have a social media presence, you could be fired from here, which is interesting because...

we are more connected than ever. Is there a reason that they're saying stuff like that? Like, we don't want information getting out that makes us look bad. Yeah. But the truth is you're a business. At some point, you're going to look bad. Yeah. No, I can... You know, I understand where they're coming from a little bit. Like, and I get it. Like, any video that I ever did at work, I was on break. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's like, let me decompress the way that I want to. No patient information. Nothing like that was ever in a video. It's just me, like, I just needed a wall. Yeah. You know, and I'm like...

12 hour shift, you delete that day out of your life. I'm a busy person. Right. And so I'm like, I'll just use my break. Right. But even then, even using your phone on break time, I understand where the company is coming from. I understand. I get it. What I don't get is if you're operating like, you know, on your own personal time. Yeah. Stay the hell off my page. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And if I'm not

You know, giving away like vital information. But yeah, I do understand where a company could come from and be upset that you're talking shit about them. I get it. You know, work at Starbucks and you say, fuck Starbucks. You know, I get it. I get it. But, you know, it is a dangerous game to play, though, because it's risky. It is because if you allow them.

Exactly. There was a nurse in my DMs. She has a podcast as well, and she's getting in trouble at work right now. She's trying to figure out should she continue her podcast because it's very educational. She's not shitting on her hospital. She's giving her opinions about certain things that happen within hospitals. Hospitals, yeah.

And they're upset about it. And she's like, what do I do? I'm like, I can't tell you what to do with your life. The truth is it's risky. You possibly could lose your job if you continue doing what you want to do. But...

And sometimes the risk is worth it. Yeah. The juice is sometimes worth the squeeze. Right. But, you know, it's so funny, though. It's like, yeah, it's like even now I get like a little nervous. I haven't even like dropped one hospital name since we've been on the podcast because I like I don't. And don't. Because, yeah. Yeah. They could come after you. Yeah. For all those reasons. Yeah. And it's like I feel like we're like starting a revolution over here. I know. Come on. Oh, yeah. For the revolution. Yeah.

Yeah. But yeah, no, it's kind of funny, though. I think about like because I've gotten in trouble for like social media stuff. I actually had somebody report one of my videos. Yeah. Yeah. It was like another hospital. And somebody reported one of my videos, recorded it on my break. I knew it was somebody at the hospital because they knew that it was an ICU. But the thing is, though, is I didn't record it in an ICU. And they go, oh, he recorded this in ICU. And I'm like, what?

But I didn't. But I didn't. But you know that I work in the ICU here. So it's like, so it had to be somebody that worked there. And they said, I didn't lose my job. Nothing happened to me. Because what they did, spiteful, what they did is they said there was patient information in there. And immediately when something like that happens, it gets escalated to the top. Rightfully so. Right? And, you know, because you definitely don't want that out there. Right? For the patients and everybody involved. Right.

But there wasn't because there was never a computer. There was nothing. It was just me in front of a wall. That's annoying. It's very annoying. And they said that. The whole committee looked at it. They said no. And then my manager was really nice and he goes like, hey, just don't record at work. And so you'll see like even in my videos like.

I quit recording at work. There's a shift at some point. A shift. Yeah. And I didn't, I mean, I'm technologically literate. I didn't know how to do that whole green screen thing. You know, I helped you. I think you did. You did. And I thank you for that. No, I appreciate that. That was solid.

But yeah, no, I mean, that happens to everyone. A very short spiel on my part, but the job I got fired from, they fired me for social media, but they really fired me because I was stirring up, there's a bully on this unit and she should be taken care of. That was the real issue, but they couldn't fire me for that. So they fired me because I had previously recorded at work, but here's the

here's the thing. I recorded the break room. You didn't know it was the break room unless you worked in that unit. Somebody reported my video. It went through risk management, all this stuff. Well, I heard rumors for weeks that I was going to get fired. Now, mind you, I was about to end my contract and start a new contract. They re-signed me. So I'm like, okay, that's good. But I'm still hearing rumors that I'm going to get fired. So I took it upon myself to go to the manager. I said, Hey, I remember you were telling me about this. Yeah. I said, Hey, you know,

I know I recorded at work. I won't do it again. Obviously, bad idea. And it is just a bad idea. Like, I'm young. I was a little dumb.

almost thinking you're like immortal, not showing patient information, but thinking while I'm on my break, so I'm allowed to know this social media policy was no recording at work. So I went against it, but he told me, don't do it again. You'll be fine. Yeah. Cool. Never did it again. Still got fired for social media, even though they told me I wouldn't have gotten fired. I remember this. Yeah. This is a saga that I was like, what the heck? Honestly, just be honest with me. Don't gaslight me. But that's why they fired me. It was because a mixture of

I, well, they have something to fire me for. And that's what they used, even though they told me, yeah, you're good. You're clear. Yeah. It just irritates me because I'm like,

Why don't you just take care of your uni bullies? And then it would be fine. You know, I remember watching that video that you did and you didn't name drop. No, I didn't. No. And in fact, what you said was just like a situation that could have happened to anybody. And I think we've all seen that before. You know, we've all seen that. And yeah, the bullying thing, it gets so out of hand sometimes. I was in a hospital and there was a new grad nurse, right? It was a new grad nurse.

Well, it kind of was. He wasn't like a LVN, but then he got his like BSN. Okay. And then, but he was working in like a mental health place. And then all of a sudden he went to the big leagues, went to the hospital. Yeah. Working patient. And I was on a med surg unit. And I remember I was getting report from him. And while I was getting report, he had to like go and like fix a pump or something. You know what I mean? And his preceptor was rolling her eyes and she was going like...

She was talking shit about him. Now, I don't really do well with bullying at all. So what I did is I just I listened to her and everything. And she was like, he's late to giving this one med. We called pharmacy. Pharmacy wasn't sending, but he didn't double check and blah, blah, blah, blah. Now the patient got their medicine late. Now I'm thinking I understand a teaching point. Sure. But patient.

patient's lives come first before your grudge with somebody and she literally um delayed care

For this patient, right? Because there's two of y'all, right? So you could have easily given meds to this patient. You didn't have to make this a teaching point. You could just be like, hey, you forgot. I'm going to go do this for you real quick. But I'm going to go do this for you, but be better. Yeah. Right? But she didn't. Instead, she was allowing him to drown, which is what's happened to me in the past, where they allow you to drown to make a point and then after that,

When I saw that, right, I was so disgusted that like I talked to the guy and I go, I'm going to be real with you, dude. You do not have a lot of fans here. Right. But you are getting bullied. And I was like, you know, I was in my mid 20s. Right. So I just got done with that. So I was like, if you need to talk to somebody about that, like I'll be a witness. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so, dude, this place is so evil. Yeah.

I went in and there was we went to the chief nursing officer and we went up to him. I wanted to close the door because I didn't want issues. Yeah. I didn't want to be like the rat, the snitch. Right. Sure. So I was like, hey, can we close these doors and everything? And he goes, no, we're going to keep them open. And I'm like, well, this is not a very safe environment to talk. Let's not. Yeah. And then I tell my piece, you know, I pretty much told him exactly what I just said to you.

And next thing you know, there was people coming up to me on the unit going, I heard you and this other nurse were telling on people type stuff. And I was, I was a contract man. I was a traveler, man. I didn't give a shit. I'm out of here in a couple weeks. Yeah. Yeah. I was just like, you know what, man? Like kick rocks, everybody. But you know what? I couldn't let that slide. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and,

I mean, that's sad. For one, when you are a new grad of any kind, you are going to drown, but we shouldn't force you to drown just because it's a teaching moment. You're right. That nurse could have taken, hey, by this point, you know, we should have already given this med. I know you're drowning. I'm going to do it for you. But just so you know. Right. Time management. You typically would be the one doing this. Yeah. Time management. And it's scary. It takes a moment.

Yeah. And if he was an LVN or LPN before, he probably wasn't working ICU. Yeah. It was actually, yeah, it was a, it was a med surge unit. Sorry. No, you're fine. You're fine. It was, it was a med surge unit, but even then I was like,

And, you know, I don't want to like talk shit on like med-surgs and everything, but the stakes change, right? They do. Based off of like acuity and everything. And it's like sometimes when I think you rock so much anxiety in the ICU and you go down to med-surgs, I think that's the thing that pisses off ICU nurses sometimes is when somebody...

And it's all arbitrary, right? What is a big deal? But what's a big deal in med search is a different big deal than what is a big deal in ICU. Not saying anybody's wrong, just saying we focus our attention on different things. And what is a big deal to some med search nurses isn't that big of a deal to ICU nurses. And yeah, and sometimes there becomes like a little bit of a conflict of interest where it's like, and sometimes I'm just thinking, why don't we just

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel you there. I think anytime I've been sent down to med surge, if someone's blood pressure is getting low, you know, typically is when they start to panic. But I did reframe my mind because there was one time where I am an ICU nurse, but I'm on a med surge unit with less resources.

Less access to the doctors at the ICU I worked at the time. The doctors were there on the unit. So easy. Hey, this is happening. I need an order. There you have to call and do all the things. Not to mention the doctors don't typically take them serious in the med surge. That pisses me off. It is so funny that you mentioned that. Yes. It's real. Yeah. And it's like these are nurses too. They just deal with, like you said, we have different tasks, different workloads. So

they're just as competent as me. Yeah. Just in a different way. A hundred percent agree. You don't think that, and that's so funny that you mentioned that same hospital actually. And I'm really like, it's taken every ounce of strength of me not to like flame this place right now. Uh, there was a patient that,

that I checked her blood sugar and it was a little low, right? It was like 86, right? Yeah, a little low, right? But she hasn't been eating for days, right? And she had NS going at like 75, right? So I thought a friendly suggestion would be to the doctor. I said, hey, you know, check the blood sugar. I've seen, you know, I saw like it was like 123, 106, 86, you know, see where this is going, right? We're trending down. We're trending down. Yeah, that's the exact word that I use. And the reason why is

That is such a pivotal word is because I suggested D5NS, right? And she goes, why would I treat a normal blood sugar?

And I'm like, and she's talking to me like I'm. Okay. Rude. Rude. Right. She's like, why would I do that? And I'm talking to her on the phone and I was like, oh, because, you know, I've seen it trending down, you know? And then she goes, but still, why would you like, she's like talking to me. And then also, and I like, I didn't want to do this yet again. I'm in my like early twenties. Right. So I'm like. Kind of I did. Yeah. But I'm like, you know, I pulled the ICU card. It's like, you know, my ICUs I've worked at and I've never.

seen a doctor not want to treat a trend yeah if you're trending in any direction that's not good right because i mean we're headed to zero you know what i mean like this it can happen it can happen yeah and it's like but but once i've like pulled the like i'm not i'm not like these other like i'm an icu like yeah i didn't want to i want to be this guy right i'm an icu nurse right don't take me serious yeah i want you to take me serious yeah and she's like okay but then she like

Decided to get smart with me and she put in like 30 orders. Yeah. And it was just like, yeah, you doing this to spike me? Yeah. Yeah. But the trend here is she thought you were a med-surg nurse and med-surg nurses don't deserve any type of talk like that. Agree. Because they are just as competent. A hundred percent. We just have different workloads and we see different things on the daily basis. So it's like. You want to make an ICU nurse feel dumb? Ask them to discharge a patient. Yeah.

I always have to have help every single time. I never know how to do it either. I'm always like, please, somebody hold my hand. They're like, let me teach you how to do this. And I'm like, I honestly don't even want to learn because the next time I discharge a patient from the ICU will be in like three years. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah. That's so funny. By the way, can I, I hate to hijack this and go back to a funny story. Do it. One of the nurses' stories that you read was about a Vietnamese speaking gentleman, the one with the enema and everything. It reminded me of this like hilarious story, very similar to that shit one I was telling you earlier where we had to carry a patient full of shit like over to the bed. Yeah.

But this patient was an older Vietnamese gentleman. And did you know, fact, huge Viet population in Texas. It's the third most spoken language in Texas. Yeah. English, Spanish, I assume, than Vietnamese. Interesting. Yeah. The more you know.

And so we took care of a lot of Vietnamese patients. Anyway, this guy did not speak any English. And he had a son in the room whose English wasn't that good either. And that's okay, right? And so we go through and I hear screaming. And I'm like, it's night shift. So we go in and the older gentleman, the patient, he dies.

He had an A-line and he was attached to a heparin drip. And he got up out of bed out of confusion, ripped the A-line out. But because his blood was like so thin, it was misty. Oh, no. Out of his arm. And we tied his hand like this because we wanted his wrist straight. So he looked like Spider-Man. Oh, no.

Right? With his blood. With the blood. Just spray it. And he's like freaking out. And the son is freaking out because his father is waving his arm around in his mist of blood and surrounding him. And there's blood everywhere. And he's like, ah, ah. And then the...

the Vietnamese like patient, he's like, oh, and then we're like, we need to grab his wrist to stop the bleeding. But the problem is there's a haze of blood in the air, right? So now we're faced with this dilemma where it's like, and I

And I don't know what this guy's got, like bodily fluids. I'm about to walk through like a perfume spray of blood. Yeah, this guy's spray painting his bed with blood. And so we were like, what do we do? What do we do? And then one of the nurses had a bed sheet. You're like, everybody get behind the sheet.

And we're like marching towards the patient with the bed sheet. And we wrap him up in the bed sheet. And we're like, get him. But he doesn't speak English. So he's like, we're like, stop moving. And he's freaking out. And he's like, ah. And we're like all coming at him behind the sheet. This guy's probably confused as shit. And we like wrap him up. And we're like, where's his wrist? Where's his wrist? Oh, no. And we're like looking for him. Like, I got his wrist. Oh, no.

And then we're like, where's the blood? It's still coming. Wrong wrist. So then we grab his other wrist. And then we like, eventually we stopped the bleeding and everything. But the, but the son was like, ah, ah. And it's like in this tornado. Oh my God. This tornado of anxiety. It was terrible. But I'll never forget that. But we were all like hiding behind the sheet because it was like, what do we do? Yeah. What do you do? What do you do? Yeah. That's awful.

Yeah. Poor guy. You find out what you're made of sometimes. He's probably told someone that same story, but from his point of view. Oh my God. They came in with a sheet and wrapped me up in a sheet. These crazy monkeys wrapped me up in a sheet. Yeah. He's probably like seriously traumatized. They used me for a pillow when they were trying to case me up, man. Yeah. That's funny.

Okay, well, last episode, you were telling me that you had a story you wanted to tell. Oh, thank you. So pivot again. I want you to tell your story, and then we'll wrap up this episode, and I'm sure you'll be back for another. Let's do it. Okay. Yeah, so this is arguably my craziest nursing story of, like, all time. This is on my Mount Rushmore, right? And I will...

I'll say the area that I was in, right? Because I worked at multiple hospitals in this area. I was in San Francisco, right? And the only reason why that's important is because this was, the year was 2022. This is like during the, right after the COVID pandemic type business, right? So everybody's on like real high alert for new pathogens. And there was a new one that came out around that time, if you remember, COVID.

I don't know which one it was. Delta? Monkeypox? Monkeypox? I do remember monkeypox. Yeah. So it was so funny, though, because I was working in the ICU night shift. I get floated up to a med search unit, right? When I arrive, it's me and another traveler. And all of the staff nurses there are like, yay, they're here. We get to go home. Now, I thought that was day shift talking to me, but it was night shift. Because travelers came to float, they were

canceling their nurses. Oh, no. So when I say, and I don't know what they were thinking, but we were short-staffed. And so what happened is there's nine patients on this wing of the unit. One nurse is getting five. The other one's getting four. Guess who got five? You! Yes. So I got five. I've got five patients, but one of my patients has monkey pox. Oh,

Oh, no.

that San Francisco had an outbreak, but it was like almost what you would call ground zero for monkeypox, right? And we're all scared because of COVID. We're all scared because of COVID. This is my mindset going into this assignment, right? And I'm scared. And so I'm telling my friends, I'm like, guys, I've got the monkeypox patient. And one of my friends in the group chat goes, I took care of that guy yesterday and he died.

He was going crazy. He's a homeless guy and he goes crazy. He will try to grab you and hug you and, and he hides in the bathroom and he does all this stuff. Right. And I'm like mentally preparing myself. Right.

But I'm giving report and I learned a lot of life lessons and you'll see. So what happened here is I'm getting report from the nurse and everything, but we don't really go in the room to do the report because we're afraid of monkeypox. Right. So we're doing it outside the room. And whenever I, whenever like I'm like passing out my meds, there's a priority to like passing out your meds. Right. So, um, that, um,

And every nurse knows that if you have an isolation room, they're typically last on the list. It's just the way it is. Don't be in there for a moment. You're going to be in there for a moment. Right. And we cluster our care. Right. So we gather everything that we need. I'm making sure in the call lights are going crazy. It's me and a charge nurse. We're about to lose our charge nurse at midnight. Right. So the charge nurse now is like she's helping us answer the call lights and everything. She's being a real one. Right. And I'm going crazy. Right. It's not until about like nine thirty. Right. Maybe.

10, 10 o'clock at night, right? I'm now I'm on my final med pass, right? And I'm getting, he's a homeless gentleman. I'm getting all his meds. I'm getting probably some narcotics that he's, I know I was looking at, he's been taking them regularly. His PRNs. His PRNs, he's going to want that. So I'm like, I'm going to be a good nurse because I don't want to go in and get hazmatted up. Every time. Let me go get that one pill for you to go and then come back. Right? So I go in there and for the sake of this like story, right?

I'm just going to make up a patient name, George Michaels. Okay. We'll call him George Michaels.

So, uh, I go, uh, I go in the room and I, I have like all the meds and everything that I know he's going to want. Uh, but when I walk in, I don't see him in the bed and I'm like, oh my gosh, like he's hiding somewhere. Like, this is crazy. Right. And so then I see, like, I'm like looking underneath the bed and I'm looking underneath like furniture and everything. I'm getting kind of scared right now. Right. And I see that there's like a hospital gown and like a bunch of stuff like on the ground, clothes and

gown on the ground. So I'm like, he's probably in the shower. So I start to like walk into the bathroom and I'm like, you know, I'm kind of squared up a little bit because I'm both scared. What's about to happen? What's about to happen? Is he about, this is like a scary movie. He's like, ah, you know, it's night shift. I'm like, oh my God. So I'm like, yo, George, George, like, where are you at? George? And I go in the bathroom. He's not in the bathroom. So then I'm like,

Oh no. I would be so scared. Oh no. There is a naked homeless man with monkey pox running around the hospital and he's my patient.

I call immediately the charge nurse and I'm like, we're in trouble. You know, she's like, call the house supervisor. I'm like, why me? Right. Why can't you? I don't know this guy. And I'm a traveler. Right. I'm expendable. They'll be like, blame me. Yes. It's my fault. Right. It's my fault. Right. If anything bad happens, blame the nurse. Blame you. Blame the nurse. Right. So I called the house supervisor and him and I got to know each other really well tonight because it was so funny.

So funny, though, because I call him and I'm like, hey, you know, the monkeypox patient we have. And of course, everybody in the hospital knows this monkeypox patient because it was like COVID. When there was the first COVID patient, we're like, oh, we have a COVID patient. Right. Everybody walked past the room, see the hazmat stuff. We know. We know. We've got one in the hospital. Right. It's like when Ebola happened in Presbyterian of Dallas. Right. Everybody knew.

I knew on my couch that there was an Ebola patient in Presbyterian Hospital because they reported it on the news. Oh, my God. So this is a big deal. And I've got the monkeypox patient that everybody's worried about. And under my watch and supervision, he's now naked running around the hospital. And I'm like, hey, you know that monkeypox patient that we have? And he's like, yeah. And I'm like, well, he's naked running around the hospital right now. And he goes, stay right there. We're coming. Oh.

So not but two minutes later, him and security are there. Right. And and and everybody's like freaking out. And they're like, what what does this patient look like? The only thing that I got in description was that he was homeless and that he had dreads. OK. And I'm like, that's all I can tell you.

And they go, how do you not know what your patient looks like? And I'm like, weren't you listening? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Bad on me. Life lesson learned. Always, always, always look at your patient. You learn life lessons hard sometimes. Right. So I'm like, I don't know. And he goes, how do you not know what your patient looks like? It's 10 a.m. or 10 p.m. And I'm like, because it's me and another traveler with nine patients, no resources, call

Call lights are going crazy and we're about to lose our charge at midnight. I don't know who signed off on this. Right. But we are very short staffed right now. Yeah. Right. What could you have done better? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let me turn that one on you. Yeah. And so and so he's like, oh, I didn't know. Right. Next thing you know, we had another traveler like float to like be a resource and everything. Right. Because these call lights were going ham. Anyway, the security guard goes off of my description. He goes, it's OK. I'm going to call you.

I'm going to find him. Right. And so he's like, wait right here. They're like, we're going to check security camera. Yeah. Right. And I'm like, okay. Like, thank God you guys are here. Right. 10 minutes later, security guard comes back and he's got George Michael. Yeah.

And he goes, I found him. And I was like, oh, my God, George, thank God you're here. I was like, oh, my God. I was like, George, thank God you're here, man. So he goes through and he's like, oh, like happy. He had a dinner tray that like got delivered. I hand him his dinner tray. And I'm like, George, man, we've been looking all over for you, man. Like, man, have some food, man. I'll heat it up for you, man. Get in there and quit playing, man. Like, please.

don't do that because my job's on the line dude i needed you here man thank god they go in there i'm gonna get your meds man i'm like super like super duper friendly with them right and uh next thing you know uh the day is saved right george michael's in the room right i i go and i get all the meds that i know he wants uh and then i go and i'm like he's eating his food he's happy as a clam i mean he's like covered in piss and everything and everything and i was like poor george man like

Hey, man, I'm going to get you cleaned up a little bit later, man. Like, don't worry, man. We'll take care of you, man.

And he's like, he's in the bed. He's happy as a clam and he's got his ID bracelet on. So I go and I scan the bracelet and an error message pops up on the computer. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, they didn't give my boy a chance. They already discharged him out of the system. And then I go and I read and it said, uh, Rick Fox has already been discharged. And I'm like, Rick Fox? Yeah.

This is not George Michael. This is not George Michael. And I'm like, George. Oh, my God. He's not responding. And I'm like, George. He's not responding. And I'm like, Rick. And he goes, what? And I'm like, what?

Oh, no. So I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, is your... Do you go by... I'm sending a prayer to the heavens, man. Send a prayer. I'm like, is your middle name George? Do you ever go by, like, George Michael? You know, like... Yeah. And he's like, no, it's Rick Fox. And I'm like...

Oh, and he said it was conviction. And I was about to handle a bunch of narcotics and a bunch of shit. Right. But I'm so thankful I scanned the bracelet before and not a bracelet on a keyboard or anything like that. Right. Because if I would have done the opposite, the opposite, we'd be having a much different story now of how my career ended. Right. So I'm like, but the situation still isn't any better because now we have a

a different homeless man in the monkeypox room eating George Michael's food. With dreads. They both have dreads. No, but now here's the awkward part. He didn't have dreads. What? Wait, George Michael's didn't or Rick Fox didn't? Rick Fox didn't. You just said, this must be the guy. Dude, I was in so much panic. And it was an African-American gentleman who didn't have dreads and everything. But he came when they were looking. He said, this is me.

This is, yeah, yeah, here's, ooh, food, right? Could you imagine if you're this guy, you're just some, like, homeless guy right outside the hospital, some angry security guard comes out and he goes, you! Come here! Come here! And then he comes, and he's in this elevator, and he's like, mm, what a nice place. The door opens, you're greeted by me, and I hand you a warm meal in a place to sleep in, and I'm about to give you a bunch of narcotics, you hit the jackpot, motherfucker. Here we go, right? This guy was so happy. And so...

He then goes, I leave the room, grab all the meds, make sure, you know, and I call the house supervisor again. And like I said, he's going to get to know me very well tonight. And I'm like, hey, man, do you remember George Michael, the monkeypox patient that escaped? And he's like, yes. And I'm like, he's still at large. Oh, my God. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. This guy is still out there. Right. And he goes, wait one moment. I'll be right there. Security comes. They go and they're going to escort him out. Now, George Michael got very comfortable.

He was wearing street clothes. There's so many indicators that should have told me that this is not the guy. But the security guard was so you looked at security footage. Everyone's panicking. Yeah. You grab the guy. I'm taking your word for it because I don't know what he looks like. But you looked at security footage and you and you just grabbed him. Right. And so so he's in. I'm not making this up at all to ask anybody was at this like hospital that night. This guy is now naked in the bed smoking.

And I'm thinking it's crack and he's like smoking. And then they go, the security looks at me and they go, can you help us get them out of here? And this is like a thing that pisses me off in nursing where every job becomes a nurse's job sometimes. And I told them, I said, because I don't want my fingerprints on any of this. I'm just like, look, I deal with patients. You deal with civilians. Yeah.

You are security. And I didn't bring this guy in here. You did. Yeah, but I didn't say that part because I'm actually... I'm thinking it. I'm so mad. I'm so mad that I'm like laughing at this point because I'm like... Because what else do you do? What can you do? Because I'm like, I'm fucked. This is fucked. So they end up getting him. They grab him out. He's like walking out. And I'm like...

See you later, Rick. Then he's like, it was like pleasure meeting you. Yeah. And he's like super happy. Uh, what happened to him? I don't know. But, um, the funny thing is though, is that an hour later, the house supervisor calls me and he goes, Rick or George Michael left at like 3 PM on day shift. And I was like,

You're telling me. Right. No one. So no one from day shift had been in there. No. Since before three. And they just passed on report to you. Yeah. Now it's the night shift. Yes. Everything gets blamed on night shift too. It's the night shift and the travelers issue. Yeah. I'm not in a good position, but there was a sigh of relief that he did not leave on my shift. On your shift.

But I knew I was going to hear about this story later, right? They called a Code Purple at this hospital, which is like a missing adult. And it was the anthem that night. It was on the speakers all night. And everybody's like, this Code Purple's going on, right? And then word got out very quick that it was my patient because everyone's like, that's Jason's patient. You know, like everybody's laughing. I go to like other hospitals in like the San Francisco area and they're like, oh, I heard about this one.

Yeah. I'm like, yeah, this is like one of the most traumatizing things that have ever happened to me. And then all of a sudden at the very end of it all, I get a call an hour later about that. Like we found out that he was like, he left on day shift and everything. And here's the ironic part.

George Michaels was not an African-American gentleman. He was a white guy with dreads. All I said was that he was homeless and he had dreads. So a week later, I had to participate in a Zoom call that was going to like tell us like what we could have done better type situation. Everybody was a real G. Nobody threw anybody under the bus. That's good. Yeah. I didn't throw day shift. I didn't even mention it. Yeah.

You know what I mean? You know, we were all very supportive. We were like with everything that happened, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Everything was good. Security gets on the phone.

And these people, man, like, you know, and they go, oh, well, we were told that he was an African-American gentleman. And I'm like, you racist assholes. Yeah. I did not say that. I did not. I just said he had dreads. You. Assumed. Assumed. And this motherfucker didn't even have dreads. The guy he brought in. The guy he brought in. He just brought in. It's like, oh, my God. I was like, oh, you know what? But nothing came of it. Luckily, everybody understood what it was. I was sweating bullets for a moment. And in

And it was like one of the craziest things ever. And it was like to this day, you know, if I'm at the club, you know, we're pouring out bottles. I'll pour one out for George Michael, you know. We lost a brother back there. We lost a brother back there, man. George, if you're out there, man, I think about you all the time, man. I hope you're doing well.

I hope he is too, because he had monkey pox and he just bounced. Just bounced, yeah. And then, like, shortly after that, man, I was watching the news, like, heavy, and there was a huge outbreak of monkey pox. You're like, I have no clue how that happened. Yeah, like, jeez, man. That's crazy. Yeah, wow. Every time I saw the news, I'm like...

Is this my fault? No, it was never your fault. It was Dayshif's fault. It was Dayshif's fault. Dayshif's fault, man. I'm telling you, man. That is a crazy... I've never heard a story like that. Yeah, that was... A real one. A real one, yeah. You know, I'm not dropping any names, hospitals, or anything, but there's a lot of people that can vouch for that story. I believe you. Yeah, that was...

arguably one of the probably the craziest moments of like my whole career. And I saw I love San Francisco. I love the hospital. They handled it very well. Everybody did a good part. I loved it so much. In fact, that's where I met you. Right. It was a good time of my life. I was so afraid of losing everything that I worked for. Oh, that's so sad. So I was going through some emotional roller coasters like it's like, oh, like George, I

I lost him. We found him. Oh, no. We just exposed the public. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, absolutely crazy. I mean, it's hilarious now, though. I mean, I can look back at it. Like, that's a top story that has to be in, like, your index in your head. Like, oh, I got a good one. Yeah. I gotta go. People tell me to, like, retell that story sometimes. And I'm like, it takes so much emotion. Like, that story was at least 10 minutes. It's hilarious. Because most likely he's, well...

We hope he's okay. But none of it happened on your shift. And that is like the funniest part. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's the only reason why this story is funny to me. It's because it didn't happen. Like, technically, it didn't happen on my shift. It's like, yeah, it's always different when you're in the passenger or passenger seat to the driver's seat. You know what I mean? When you're holding that steering wheel.

I was white knuckling that thing. I was like, gosh, dang, dude, this cannot be real. And valuable lessons, like you said, which I've been through, too. I can tell stories of my own. Check the patient. Oh, yeah. You know, at least glance. Yeah. A little step in there. Or are they in there? Check the patient. And you scanned the wristband. Scan that bracelet. Because had you not, how many times have we... Oh, the one on the computer. Yeah.

Yeah. It's easy. It's convenient. It's right there. It must be right. Must be right. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. No, terrible. Yeah. And it's really crazy, too, because it's like...

You know, it's no surprise. I mean, it's like, I hate it when like people ignore the elephant in the room. Yeah. Corners get cut at places. Yeah. You know, people, you know, people are busy. Sometimes you have a violent, angry patient and you don't want to, I don't know why, but every single time I like try to scan a bracelet, it's the fucking QR code, whatever it is, is always like stuck to the skin on the bottom. And then you have to like...

You're trying to turn the bracelet, but it's that plastic that just sticks to their skin and you're trying to like turn it. But then it's like they start waking up and they're like, the hell is this? And then you're like, and then your night's over. Right. And then I'm like, or.

Like just scan it on the keyboard. Right. You get to sleep. Or they do this and you get it turned and then they do this and you're like, quit moving. And then they do this and you're like, quit moving. Yeah. They're trying so hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking quit moving. Oh, dude, you know what's another one that like really drives me crazy is, and I love patients that are autonomous. I love patients that like want to help themselves. Yeah. It's great. Right. But sometimes I'm just like,

I've done this before. Let me do this for you. Like a prime one is like when you're giving medicine to a patient and when you're giving medicine to the patient and they insist on taking, I'm like, let me just pour it in your mouth. Please. Please. Right. But they're like, don't, don't do this one. Or they're like the, you know, the 17th century beggar, you know, they're like, uh, and then, and then you're like, I know where this is going to go, but let's fuck it. There's no, yeah, I'll pour there. And they go, huh?

oh no and then i'm like okay now i gotta go dig for this shit right yeah or or when they they do the et right where you're like or the the god and god and uh adam you know like the michelangelo where it's like you're just like that you're giving them the pill and then they and then you have to like coordinate the effort to like get it to their hand and then they're like got it and

And then they're like, and I'm like, this would be so much better. If I did it for you. Yeah. Like, come here, Cleopatra. Let me just feed you the grapes of Fandu. Let me just do this for you. Okay. Like, be a king in your throne, man. Just sit there. Open up. Just relax. Yeah. This is a spa. Yeah. Because I'm doing it for you. I'm doing it for you. Yeah. And a lot of times I do, you know, complain a little bit. Like, you know, when a guy's like, can you hold my urinal there? And I'm like, dude, man.

The average wingspan is the length of your body. Yeah, you could do it. Your hand. I'm touching my knee right now. Yeah. I know you got this. Yeah. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

they can do it they could do it did i feel bad for women when when guys have to you know what i mean oh i'll come get it well here's the thing if they really can't because i'm every big once in a while they really can't i'm like all right yeah i get it you can tell very quickly you can tell very quickly you know you've been doing every single other thing with your hands but you can't do the thing that's closest to your penis yeah you're fucking texting right now right you got nimble fingers man they're working great they're

Great. Yeah. Immediately, I'll go get a male nurse. All of a sudden, they can do it. And that's when I'm like, really? Yeah. Really? Yeah. That's gross. I've had girls go like, can you do this for me? And I'm like,

Yes. I went kind of not nuclear, but I was tired, overworked. You know, this shift was not the shift for this to have happened. I was floated to ER. I'm not an ER nurse, but I was floated there. And I was like, yeah, I can keep up as I can. Shout out to ER nurses because it's not until you float there when you're like. Literally. Yeah. Do you get it? You guys are fucking in the trenches over there. Now when they call me and they're like, sorry, I didn't have time to get a report. I'm like, bring them up. I get it now. I get it. It's perspective. I'm like, okay.

I go down there, have a patient. I have to straight cath him. His wife's in the room, mind you, but she's turned, facing away to give him some privacy. I'm going to straight cath him. We have to hold their penis to do so. Yep.

He grabs my hand, strokes and moans. And I was like, let go of me right now. I was so mad. I was like, don't touch me. You don't touch anyone. His wife turned around. I'm like, you did it with your wife in the room. That's weird. He was like, I didn't do anything. Yes, you did. And I was like, now you have to bear the wrath of the male nurse. Yeah. I will go get right now. That's so fucking weird. It's weird. Don't do that. You know, we get exposed to so many weirdos out there. Yeah. And it's like, yeah. In the ER. Yeah.

It is the bread-a-filter to the whole hospital. Bread-a-filter, that's a good way to put it. No, it really is because they see everybody. Yeah. The only time they don't see anybody is when it's like a direct admit, but that's very rare. Very rare. Yeah, they see everybody, man. Yeah. No, it's so silly, though. I was...

I was in San Francisco and I can't say what was happening to me. People who worked there know, but I was not feeling well. And I talked to a doctor and I go, this is happening. And he goes,

This is an emergency. You need to go down to the ER right now. And I'm like, really? Like, you don't think maybe like primary care physician or something? Urgent care? Urgent care, you know? And he's like, no, you need to go down to the ER. And when the ICU doctor is telling you that, you're like, oh, yeah, didn't know this was what I thought it was. But maybe this is.

Go down to the ER and they, I don't want to be seen because I've floated to this ER before and I don't want people to know. No, you never do. The problem that I'm having. And I'm like, you know, and like for notes, right? If I slip and fall, hit my head, I do not want to be taken care of by my coworkers. I do not want anybody putting a Foley in me, talking shit later. You know what I mean? You know, like, did you see that Foley in there? We had like, you know, we had the condom cath. We got the small one. Yeah.

You know, I don't need to hear that. I don't want to hear that. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, just fucking transport me out, you know, and if I'm bleeding it from the head, let's just hope it doesn't get too bad. Right. Cause that transfer me out, you know? But anyway, I go to the ER and I had a couple of like nurse coworkers that like came in from the ER and they go, Oh Jason, you know, like, you know, how are you feeling? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, how'd you know I was here? And then they go,

Oh, we have the TV on the board at the nursing station and it tells us their name and what they're here for. Everybody knows why you're here. And I'm like, kill me, please. Immediate drain. Oh my gosh. Yeah, no. That's the worst. No, it was atrocious. I was like, I was so embarrassed. And then I got a shot of antibiotics, actually, preventative. I know you're probably...

Oh, I'm going to figure it out. But don't worry, I won't say it all out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I get a shot of like antibiotics and everything. And it was one of my nurse co-workers. And she goes, OK, I need to give you a shot on your bottom. And I'm like...

I do not want to pull down my pants in front of my coworker ever. Right. And I was like, how about we do that shot in the shoulder? Yeah. And she goes, okay. Very quickly, I realized why that shot was meant for the bottom. My shoulder, like she injects this viscous shit and my shoulder just starts ballooning up. And when I tell you that shit actually hurt me.

She's poke. It's like, ah, right. And then I'm just sitting there like, be a man, you know, like tough enough, you know, like do not show signs of weakness. And yeah. And then, uh, right after that, um, you know, I'm like, oh, good job. Good job. But really I'm like, ah, right. And yeah, that, there was so, it was like a whole 10 CC like type thing in the shoulder. Oh my God. Yeah. And I was like, it's a lot. Yeah. Should've went in your butt. Should've went in my butt, but I didn't. Yeah.

You know, maybe if I would have threw away a little bit of dignity...

I would have been a lot more pain-free. Right? You know? So sometimes it's a good trade-off. It is. It is. Yeah. You kept your dignity, but you had a little bit of pain. A little bit of pain. But it's not until you, yet again, you're a patient sometimes when you realize, like, how hard it is for patients when they're like, I don't want to use a bedpan. And we're like, just do it. You know? But it's like... We're so desensitized. Yeah. Or, like, patients, what we expect them to do, like, behave like vampires. Yeah. Like, we go...

We're putting these leads on you. Lay on your back. Yeah. I don't know a single person that sleeps on their back like that for long periods of time. I'm a side sleeper. I'm like a Heisman Trophy. I would piss off every nurse, all the leads. Oh, yeah. Bringing the leads with me as I turn the blanket, you know, like people sleep on their stomach, but we look at them like they're crazy, you know, when they're like, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? And it's like, it's only natural. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, this was a great episode with you. I hope to have you back in the future. If you guys want to go follow Jason, his socials will be in the description. Sir Master Wolf for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Yes. Right. All right. Thank you so much. And until next time. Bye, guys. Bye, guys.