Deep Dive
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Like right after I had graduated, and this is crazy because I was in clinicals. I was getting my ass beat at night, all night, and then I was getting up and going to clinicals the next day. Oh my God. And nobody knows that. No one knew that, and it was just this dark secret. I was the girl with the long sleeves in clinical. I was there early. I stayed late because I didn't ever want to go home because I dreaded going home. And let me tell you, if you're ever in a relationship and you dread going home, and I don't mean like
my husband and I got in a fight if you dread going home just know that that is all the sign that you need that that is not the right place for you hey besties it's your favorite caffeinated medicated and never hydrated nurse nurse john and welcome back to your favorite gossip break room podcast I
I beg your pardon. Besties, I miss you so much. Another week, another episode, another amazing time together with you. So wherever you're listening right now, at home, at work, doing errands, groceries, wherever you are, I hope you're doing well. I hope life is treating you well. And if it's not, remember, I always tell you guys, there's always another day to make it right, right? If life throws you lemon, use the fucking lemon. Period. Period.
That is, listen, that's so funny, but at the same time, it's so real because what I've realized in myself is that, you know, life will really throw you a lot of things. And if you're just going to catch it and like,
mourn, be depressed, anxious, and all this stuff about it, nothing will happen. Take the fucking lemon, use it, drink it, do whatever you want to do with it, but don't let it get into you. Because, you know, I'm being therapized now. You know, the best seat came back to therapy. It's my second week of therapy, and therapy is doing so well. I'm so happy to be back.
So if you're not in therapy, this is your therapy session with me every single week. And yep, so wherever you are right now, Bessie, I hope life is good and I love you so much. And I know that you matter. You are love. You deserve every single good things and even this bad things because the bad things actually teaches you and help you grow in life.
And now, besties, if you're listening to this podcast right now, make sure that you follow us on Spotify. Share this episode to all your friends and all your social media so they can listen to this and leave us a five-star review. And also, bestie, if you don't know, I'm currently right now in New York City. The greatest city on earth. The concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There's nothing you can't do.
I'm back in my favorite city ever. Yes, it is my favorite city because I used to live in Montreal and New York is five hours away. And this is my favorite holiday spot and summer spot because there's no place like New York City. It's either New York or nowhere. And I got it from someone who I'm with tonight. Yeah, I'm singing. Yeah.
You know, I'm always checking out with my... I'm always checking my friends out, following them, supporting them wherever they are and whatever they're doing.
But yes, we're in New York City because I'm currently on my New York City show here at the Beacon Theater. And I'm super excited because this show was postponed from last year because of some crazy ass stuff. But now that we're here and we still got shows in North America before I go to Europe and Australia, get your tickets now at www.NurseJohnNNShows.com because I want to be able to see you live with your friends, family, partner, co-workers, and
Bring your colleagues. You know what? Bring the neighbors too. You know what? They got to understand the shit. Exactly. They got to understand the shit that you go through every single day at work and outside of work. And that's it. And now, Bessies, to get into this amazing, amazing episode, I brought someone very special to my heart, someone that I've met, I think, two, three years ago. And she has been a monumental...
monumental very inspiring she i think she's one of the og social media nursing influencer out there he's trying to say i'm old oh my god please i can you at least take me out to dinner first she looks amazing okay i brought you guys the new yorker the social media influencer the baddie out there katie duke oh my goodness
- Hey, Katie. - Hi. First of all, very humbled, very honored, very flattered for this invite because I admire you so much. I look up to you, I admire you, I respect you, but also you're just so fucking genuine and real, and that shit is hard to find in this day and age.
Especially in this little influencer world. Let's just keep it 100, right? Exactly. It's a little spicy out there. So, thank you. Hello, everybody. I beg your pardon, crowd. Thank you guys for chiming in. Here's your warning. If you have children or easily offended people in the area, you might want to get them the fuck out because...
It's going to be a little explicit this episode. Yeah, this episode is just real. It's just like everything is going to be on the table. So you'll be eating. Everyone's going to be eating on the table. Get your plates because everyone gets to share every single traumatic fun experiences together with us. Exactly. Look at me. I'm literally setting a stopwatch because I can talk forever. And I'm like, Katie Duke, you need to stay on times.
Oh my God, Katie. I love Katie because Katie is just so real. But just like you said, I love you too. I have admired you for a long, long time. I think you're just so real too. You share...
every single piece of your life out there to people to inspire them, to help them, to give them, I don't know, motivational stuff, even though when you're in your lowest. And that's... Shit's hard. Shit is hard, but here's the key. That's when we need motivation the most. That's when we need...
Our lowest moments, listen, we should all share the highs, absolutely, and I'm all for sharing the highlights, and most of social media is a highlight reel, and I get that. That's great. But I wish we had more people sharing our lows. So back in the day, when I started on social media, first of all, I had a MySpace, if anybody...
knows what that is. I've had MySpace too. Have you ever tried Friendster? I haven't, but did you have a pager? Because that's how fucking old I am. Pager? Yes. Doesn't even know what a pager is. Okay. Wait, what is a pager? Oh my God. All right, let's just keep it real. I'm 43 years old.
She doesn't even look 43. Listen, 20 years of neurotoxins and really expensive skincare. I got my money's worth. But I had a pager, okay? So I've been around since like the beginning of the digital era. But the millennial generation, we've experienced all these things. So I was around in the beginning of Instagram when people were literally just like taking pictures of their dogs, their cats, their kids, their lunch. Right. It had this ugly brown logo. We didn't know what we were doing, right? But I was working in the emergency room as a nurse. And...
So a little bit of background about me. I have been in nursing for 21 years. That is two freaking decades, you guys. You realize that we don't last two weeks anymore in the same unit anymore, right? In this generation of nursing. So I started on MedSurge.
Oh my God. Shout out to my med surge people. Med surge sister. Yeah. We messaged about this like a long time ago. I was like, thank you for shouting out med surge because they don't get enough credit. And so I also come from a family of nurses. My mom, my sister, my aunt, my cousin, all nurses. Are they all nurses? Yeah. My mom,
a nursing educator. My sister's an NP. That's why in your social media you always highlight your mom and pop's drink. And I was like, why can't they drink this much? I was like, okay, that makes sense. That tracks. I have so many pictures of them over the years where my mom is holding a giant margarita or an entire bottle of Prosecco and my dad's like, Carolyn, taking it away. She's drinking away her years of med-surg nursing.
You know what? She deserves it. She deserves it. So I come from a nursing family. Nursing was always in my life. But, you know, when I was in grade school, my mom would flip like at night, my story time, like my bedtime story to go to bed was a med search book. We'd be looking at ostomies, wounds. It was actually amazing. But I'd go to school and I would tell the kids at school about this and the teachers would be like,
you're describing very graphic things. And I went to a Catholic grade school and like, they would call my mom and be like, what are you reading your daughter at night? So nursing was always in my life, but I never wanted to be a nurse. I actually wanted to be like Indiana Jones. I wanted to be like an ancient, like archaeologist and like, like,
I guess like historian. I'm a big, big nerd. I watch tons of documentaries. I've never seen a reality show. I am a huge like history buff. I love stuff like that. So I never wanted to be a nurse. This is what I tell people. Nursing found me when I need it most. Oh, my God. That is so well put together. Here's how that happened. So this is how I became a nurse. So I was in.
When I graduated high school, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I had no direction. I was hanging around a bad crowd of people. I was in a very... So when I graduated high school, I got into a very physically abusive relationship with an alcoholic Italian guy. Nothing against Italians, but I just have this image of him in my head.
being, you know, in St. Louis. So I was born and raised in St. Louis. Missouri? Missouri. Wait a second. Born and raised in St. Louis. You're a Midwest? I am, but I've been in New York for...
I've been in New York for 17, 18 years. Oh my God, you're a Midwestern girly. Shout out to all my men was girly. Where you all at? Shout out to the girls making casseroles and biscuits and barbecue and ribs. Do you hear me? Hey, please. Those biscuits are eating up real good. So I was in a very abusive relationship right after high school because I didn't want to go to college right away. My mom and my dad and our relationship was very bad.
That shit wasn't good. It was very tense. We kind of had some, not falling out, but we kind of estranged. And I was like, I'm moving in with my boyfriend because I know everything and I'm gonna work and get a job and make money and I'm fucking brilliant. And news flash, I was 18. I didn't know anything. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing in life. I was just a hard-headed little asshole making bad decisions that were rooted in insecurities.
So everything goes back to the insecurities. I was looking for validation in the wrong people. And I think a lot of us...
have went through that of like insecurities validation i mean we live in a world right now where everything is based off of like you know being dependent on someone being you know being seen more of your physical look more than like what's inside of you popularity and all that giant fucking popularity contest every day and if you think about all the dopamine triggers that are around social media and just the media in general it's all feeding into our like
pleasure and reward center. And so we're looking for confidence in the wrong places. So me, all these years ago, I was in a bad relationship. I had gotten bullied really bad in seventh and eighth grade. I went through some very traumatic things in high school, which I might be putting into a book later on this year, but we can talk about that later. Never told anybody about it. Oh, we got a book coming.
Maybe we should drop it on Nurse John's podcast. Period. Hey, you guys, you got to hear it first. You heard it first. You heard it here first. Heard it first. So I was living with this guy estranged from my family, and we were living in the equivalent of a condemned apartment in St. Louis. There was no walls. We had no drywall. I had an electricity cord running to the neighbor's house for electricity. I had no hot water. Sounds like Midwest to me. Sounds like fucking Missouri, right? Yeah. It was...
I didn't have money to eat. I was working at a sandwich shop making $5.15 an hour, which back then was minimum wage. A lot. Yeah. And I was too ashamed of the situation I was in to go and ask my parents and my family for help. So I hid this dark secret from them. And-
That relationship turned into a very physically violent relationship several months after I moved in. Yes, a trigger warning for everyone who's listening right now and if you also have been...
In this kind of situation. And this kind of trigger you. Take a pause. Pause the episode right now. Take a deep breath. If you need help. You know where to get help. Right? Everyone needs help. And if you are currently in one of this relationship right now. Just know that there is an exit for you in this situation. Just know that everyone loves you. And somebody loves you out there. And you have to recognize that. And that...
this isn't the end for you. There is more to you. When you're in that situation, um,
you don't see and think clearly. It's really easy for us to make logical decisions and offer support and do all these things because we're looking through a different set of lenses. But the lenses that I was looking through at that time was that I didn't deserve better and was that I deserved this. And again, it's deeply rooted like self-deprecating insecurities. And so I was physically beaten up
five, six nights a week. - I am so sorry about that. - He would hit me with objects, like he worked construction. Also keep in mind he was a very violent alcoholic. So he was drinking every day from sunup to sundown. We were living in this terrible situation. I was estranged from my family. I just like didn't know what to do. I ended up like staying there for like about a year and a half. - Wow. - And during this time,
he just chipped away at a little bit of me every single day. And there was this one night where I was like, I was just so tired. And I think I was like tired of, um,
Constantly having to be on these eggshells. Like, who's going to walk through the door? Did I make dinner correctly? I had to pawn my high school class ring for beer. Because if he didn't have alcohol when he got home, I knew that I was in for a problematic evening. So I was enabling him, but...
from my own like odd safety. And I still ended up getting abused anyway, which was, this is terrible, vicious fucking circle. So a year and a half goes by. And again, I have hidden this from my family. I'm so ashamed. I have no friends and I am in this bubble. And I was sitting up one night and I'm like, God, I don't want to go make sandwiches tomorrow. What am I doing with my life? But I just didn't know. I didn't have anyone around me to encourage me. This is why my mom always said this. You are the company you keep.
You are the company you keep. And I didn't have company around me. And I alienated them because I was ashamed. So I was sitting up at night and this infomercial pops on. I don't know if you guys remember the ShamWow. But the ShamWow commercial popped on. It was like 2.30 in the morning. And right after it, there was a commercial for a local nursing school saying, come and be a nurse.
nursing can help your life find purpose and direction and offer job security we're taking applications we have an open house this week and I was like that's what I'm gonna do that's what I'm gonna do in fact like I was enrolled in a local community college in a culinary program that's how lost I was I was just taking things for the sake of my parents like
still trying to have some kind of connection to them. I didn't know what I was doing. Was I going to be a chef? Fuck no. Was I going to be working in a hotel somewhere? Absolutely not. You were young too. I had no idea what I was doing. You're young. Yeah, I was 19 by that time. Oh my God. Going on 20. And so I went to the open house and ended up finding out that yes, I can apply for this nursing program, but I have to do all the prerequisites first because it was a two-year ASN program.
That's an associate's degree. For anybody who doesn't know, this is in 2002, 2001, you could work with an associate's degree, at least in Missouri. And I think some places you still can as well. But I did it. So I switched from the community college to doing, like, pre-nursing courses, took all that, went through and, like, worked.
right after I had graduated and this is crazy because I was in clinicals I was getting my ass beat at night all night and then I was getting up and going to clinicals the next day and I and nobody knows that no one no one knew that and it was just this dark secret I was the girl with the long sleeves in clinical I was there early I stayed late because I didn't ever want to go home because I dreaded going home and let me tell you if you're ever in a relationship and you dread going home and I don't mean like my husband
and I got in a fight. If you dread going home, just know that that is all the sign that you need, that that is not the right place for you. So I am in, you know, I'm in nursing school. I finished nursing school. One night I was at the laundromat because again, had no money, completely fucking broke, had to do laundry at the laundromat. And I'm spending four hours at the laundromat and I come home and I have these big loads of laundry and I walk into this shit hole apartment and I see him there with another bitch.
And I just lost it. And I was just like, not only are you like so abusive to me, but like, he's also this bitch from the neighborhood. Like what? What?
And I lost it. I fucking lost it. Like, listen, I think I, yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. This sounds like a labor and delivery kind of situation. Oh, it was such an L&D situation. So I went over and like she gets kind of scared. She runs away and I go up to him and I'm like in his, he's also six foot four.
I'm five feet tall girl, and I'm like you're saying and I just lost I had like a toll breakdown But I'm not physical. I'm not a physical person, but listen if you throw hands at me I'm a New Yorker in that sense, but he ended up taking his fist and he cold cocked me and he knocked me unconscious and
and he hit me right here. This is one reason why I'm like my left side is my good side. There's so much background here. So he closed fist, cold cocked me, and he hadn't closed fisted me to that point. He opened hand me, he would hit me with belts, cocking guns, hammers. He would make me sleep on the floor. He would hit me with anything. And it was always a back or a closed hand or like an arm or an elbow. But the closed fist,
And this is how low my self-value was, my self-worth. It took me saying, well, this time he knocked me out to have enough to where I'm like, I have to leave. I woke up to people from his family being like, Katie, you have to get up. You have to go. You have to get out of here. No one offered to help me. No one offered to take me to the hospital or the emergency room. And I ended up taking myself. But my eye was swollen shut for about two and a half months.
And I had some like orbital area damage and I still have some like scar tissue that's built up. That's a little messed up there. But the Botox fixed it already. So, yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. We had a little filler. Thank you for the filler and the Botox. My aesthetics girlies. But so.
When that happened, that was the thing that made me leave. And when I left, it felt like I had this new life. So I started working in MedSurg as a nurse. I started first as a patient care tech because I hadn't taken my board yet, but they hired me. They're like, you're out of school. You can be a patient care tech. And then I went and become a nurse. And I spent about a year or two there. And then I took a travel contract locally to different hospitals in telemetry. And at that point in time, I was just like,
I usually say this. I was circling the drain. Right. I was circling the drain. I was your patient that is just coding, and you're like, I'm not sure what else we can do for this person. Like, throw some, you know, buy car batters. It would happen. But I needed to get out of St. Louis, so I took a travel nursing contract to New York City. Wait, travel nursing existed in, when was this? This was in 2003. No, sorry, sorry, 2000. By the time I moved to New York, it was 2003.
They did have travel contracts before. Oh, yeah. Travel nurses have been around a long time. I worked for Cross Country TravCorps and I stayed in hospital housing. And like, yeah. So that's actually how I moved to New York.
was, Katie, if you don't get the fuck out of St. Louis, you're going to die. You're going to die. Honestly. So I moved to New York. I was a travel nurse. I got a job on the neurosurgery step-down unit at New York Presbyterian Cornell. And I loved it. I was working nights. But I had never been to New York a day in my life. I had never taken the train. I didn't know what the hell was going from St. Louis. From St. Louis, Missouri to New York is insane. Yo, I went in a diner and I was like, do y'all have biscuits? And they were like,
We got matzo balls. Maybe we got matzo balls and pizza. We got matzo balls and we got bagels. You want a bagel? I'm going to give you a bagel. We don't have any biscuits here. And I'm just like, oh my God.
What have I done? But I loved it. And I felt this rebirth because you know what? I had to leave this place that I had always called my home. Your home. This thing where I was so comfortable, so familiar, so secure, even though it was not the right situation for me. I had to leave there and go somewhere where I'm like, am I going to drown? Who the fuck knows? Who knows? And I thrived in New York. And I found that New York made me want to do better for myself.
Oh, my God. So flash forward many years. I'm working in the ER at New York Presbyterian Cornell, and I am in grad school at Columbia University. I'm a nurse practitioner. I did the acute care MP program there, and I got the student loan fucking debt to prove it. Oh, my God. And I was really just living this life that felt so right for me.
But when I was working at NYP Cornell, ABC came by and they were like, "We're gonna film a medical documentary series at your hospital." And that was great because we were all like, "Awesome, are you gonna show what the nurses actually do?"
Or are you only going to follow the doctors? And they're like, well, we're just going to kind of get the feeling for some things. And by this time, I had been in the ER for about five years. I was a charge nurse, triage nurse. I precepted everybody who came through the ER. I was a nurse clinician. I had the highest level. Like, I was right under, like, your nursing leadership. Right. Like, I was, like, the mom in that ER. I was the tita. And honestly,
Without the Filipina. Exactly. But honestly, first of all, Katie, I just want to say and like,
honestly bow down and congratulate you for first of all from getting out of that miserable toxic harmful dangerous life that you've had in st louis missouri and i to all the besties listening right now you're probably wondering and some of you are wondering well you've you've experienced so much of this physical abuse from this person but why did you stayed until to the point of like
he not he he knock you the fuck down until you're unconscious it's because like what people don't understand is that when you have no one and the only person or only comfort that you have is that person even though that person is abusive you stay with that person and that's what a lot of things happen in you know what we can actually relate this in nursing and how like
Some nurses stay in a toxic unit even though it's draining them because they're just so used to it and it feels like home for them. That even though home feels draining and even though home feels like a nightmare, that's the only comfort place that they have. It's their baseline. Exactly. It's your baseline. It's your baseline. So you are the company you keep. So eventually what happened was...
I was not raised in a, listen, we're going to keep it all the way real. My mom is a very insecure person. She did not raise her four daughters to be confident, strong-willed, interpersonally confident women. Like, so we were not shown that confidence and that I get my self-worth from me first attitude growing up. Um,
We were taught to people please and to don't cause any trouble because that's the Catholic guilt. Don't cause any trouble. Wait, you're Catholic too? Yeah. Me too. Yeah. I was born and raised Catholic. Right now I just kind of describe myself as being a Christian who respects everybody's faith. Yeah. And...
I know is that I'm grateful every day. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in the power of people having something higher that they look for. But, well, you know, I don't go to church. I don't, you know, I have an aunt who's a nun. I feel like I kind of have a shoe into heaven. But like, honestly, like there's also that, you know, religious trauma to add to a lot of, you know, factors of what makes people different.
hate churches or being religious or believing on something higher because it's so judgmental in this, like, I guess in this era that we're at right now. Just like for me, I used to go to church a lot. But I realized that actually church is not where you find God. You find God everywhere you are. And every day. Exactly. And other people. Right. And what you do every day that is likely as Him is
is what matters more than going to church because i've seen so many people who go to church every single sunday and do the most evil shit every single day it doesn't it doesn't add up and so like just being a good person every single day makes a lot of difference for you and for whatever is their purpose for you at the end of your life or like wherever you're gonna go something you just said just kind of like hit a nerve in me and i just feel like i just need to say it um
So I was born and raised Catholic, went to Catholic school. Me too. High school. I got pregnant the first time I ever had sex when I was 14 years old. And I was in a Catholic all-girls private high school. And the people who were like the most cruel to me, because I did not have an abortion.
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This is where things get interesting.
And I'm going to leave people hanging there because this is not the time or the place because we only have half an hour more. Katie, my heart just dropped. What I am going to say is that the whole concept of like, I go to church, therefore I'm holier than thou. At the end of the day, it's do you treat people how you want to be treated? Are you kind? Do you help those who need you the most?
And I remember like going to these places where people, again, people at my high school were very kind. They were very loving. But there were people at our church and there were people around the neighborhood. And at the Catholic hospital I delivered at, I still deal with the shame that they put on me. And so I don't look at somebody's
and determine like how faithful, how good of a person are you if you go to church or not? Because to me, those aren't always the most, you know, God-like people. They're not always the most loving, embracing people. So that was kind of the thing that did it for me. And...
I just remember hoping, I used to go in there and hope that these people will embrace me. Because you should. You should embrace young girls in trouble. Those 14-year-old girls that come into the ER who are pregnant and homeless or on drugs or distraught, don't turn them away. Don't judge them. They're the one who needs help the most. Don't shame them. That's what happened to me. I wasn't ever on drugs. Check that off the list. Hey!
Didn't do drugs. Oh my God, Katie, you're putting me on tears. Didn't do drugs. But you got to use the filler. I know. I know. There has caffeine in it just because you didn't know. But be kind to those girls because those are the people that need it most. I don't care how many days a week you go to church. God sees whoever you answer to above sees those moments.
They see how you can, how you treat the person who can do nothing for you and how you treat the person that everybody else judges. How you treat the person that everybody else would sneer at or shame or judge. And I just wish that, I wish that I had that experience. So...
Let's flash forward a little bit. We're getting a little dark here, people. Let's lighten things up. But Katie, honestly, you know, the things that you've just shared to us is for sure a lot for you to, you know, you still have the pains. I've actually never told anybody that. Only like maybe like, so obviously the people I went to high school with, obviously, but like my family and direct friends, like,
I've never announced that publicly. I don't know how people are going to respond to this because for one, people don't know what happened. And honestly, I think one thing you can take away from our community, the people who listen to this and the people who have been, you know, an avatar that I beg your pardon podcast is that we are here to feel that, you know, you're not alone. You said it was therapy session, so I'm giving you fucking therapy. It is therapy session. And honestly,
There's so many out there. If you're listening right now, if you've been through the same situation as Katie, no matter what, like what phase in life, you know, you can relate to her. Just know that. Look at her right now. She's such a successful, educated, smart and, you know, motivated woman. And,
Nothing of your past can describe who you are now in the future and present. And what matters the most right now is who you are now and what you become. And you fucking built yourself from the ground. You know what? It's not even the ground. The gutter. I was in the fucking gutter. I was in the subways like forever.
underneath the tunnels. I was in a dark place, and I'm telling you, I had to get out of St. Louis, and I love St. Louis. I love St. Louis, everything about it, but me, I did not do well there, and I had to get out of that uncomfortable place. Because you were meant for something big. And I felt that, but I just never knew what it was, so...
I'm working in the ER now as an ER nurse. ABC is coming to film a medical documentary. Docu-series. Docu-series. It's like a limited series on primetime, ABC. Oh my God. And this was in 2011, I believe. And...
They chose to follow three nurses in the ER, and those were the only nurses on the show. Everyone else was doctors and surgeons. See, this is why I hate about medical show. I'm tired of this medical show. I know that people love The Pit. I know people love Pulse. I know people love St. Denis Medical. But, guys, there's too many doctors and actions in here. And in reality, it's not. And, again, I'm not shitting on doctors. No, we don't want to take away their shine. I love my doctors. Doctors work as hard as nurses. Yeah.
But I think like when you call things like the pit, the pit actually is...
Most of the people that's in the pit are the nurses. Yeah. We are the pit. We are the fucking pit. And when I say nurses, I'm talking about LPNs, RPNs, CNAs, health aides, housekeeping. The patient care techs, the EMS. Every single one of us are in the pit. And that's why a hospital is functioning. It's because of those nurses. And I'm tired of people...
saying and even thinking for themselves, no, I'm not a nurse. I'm just a CNA. You are a nurse. You never just anything. It's funny that you said that just a. Yeah, because a lot, like whenever I go to my show, I was like, oh, what kind of nurse are you? He's like, oh, I'm not a nurse. I'm a CNA. I was like, baby, you're a fucking nurse. Or they would say like, I'm a stay-at-home mom. Baby, that's fucking nursing. 24 fucking 7. And that is something. You got the most difficult job on the fucking planet. Shout out to the stay-at-home moms because. I know.
It's the equivalent of like 80, 90, 120 hours a week of work. Oh my God. Unpaid work, unpaid work. Unpaid work too. And you know, like the only thing you got to do is raise these kids full of love so they don't end up like us. Yeah. You don't want them ending up like me. Let me tell you. Especially if you're Catholic. Exactly. And did you know that I started EMDR?
Did you? Yeah, I started EMDR. Oh, I'm so curious about that. Yeah, I will let you know. I'm so curious about that. I'm in like phase one, but since I took like two weeks off for my birthday, because my birthday is in like a week, May 8th. I'm a Taurus. I know. I'm turning 30, ho. Happy birthday.
I know. Oh, my God. You're just a baby. Oh, my God. I know. 30s. This is wonderful. You look good. You're successful. Oh, my God. You're in New York, the greatest city on the planet. I know. I mean, look at everything you got going for yourself. But, you know, again, what I'm just saying is that life is lifing. Life is fucking lifin'.
Life is life thing. But yes, nurses are the people in the pit. And this nursing week, this it should it shouldn't be a nursing. It should be nursing fucking month. OK, we deserve more than just recognition for a week. And we're tired of fucking pizza and fucking rocks and goddamn. I know we can. I'm not going to like plug brands or anything, but a brand that I work with has nurses week three sixty five.
That is the most amazing thing. It's nurse.com. You can probably edit that if you need to. I love nurse.com. But every month, nurse.com this year has done a giveaway. Not like pizza gift cards. They deserve that. Like $500 Delta gift card and like a vacation or like a cruise. I love. So next week when you're on your birthday, myself and Kat Golden are hosting a Nurses Week cruise on Virgin Voyages.
Virgin Voyage. Hey, shout out Virgin. We deserve recognition all year long. More than just anything else. Do you remember how you said just a nurse? So here's a funny take on that. So ABC is filming the series and they chose three nurses. Right. Now, I was one of the three nurses that got chosen. Our director, our patient care director, his name is Brian.
Hey, Bri. On my podcast, everyone knows his name from back in the day, but Brian was very... Also, Brian is deceased, so he's not going to hear me talk shit about him. Am I going to hell for that? Maybe. We love you, Bri. But I'm going to look cute in hell. So I worked for Brian as a patient care director, and he was quite jealous that, like,
you know, that like we were on this show and he wasn't really getting recognition and he would always come out to the nurse's station and be like, take your mic off and like, you know, they need to come interview me. There was so much drama. But ABC was actually very professional, like nothing was scripted. They followed us on our shifts and they showed what we really did. And if you watch New York Med, you can watch New York Med or New York ER. Those are the shows you'll see. It was a real depiction of ER nursing in New York City. And I found it to be really respectful
and gave our profession the honor and credit that it deserves. But our administration was like jealous. It was wild. Oh, admin. We're talking about admin. Come on, management, admin. Come on, clock them shit in. They filmed two seasons. Now, I was on both seasons. I was, you know, listen, I...
I always play by the rules, but sometimes I bend them a little bit, like the uniform code. You want me to wear a white scrub top? It ain't fucking happening, okay? I'm always gonna clock in seven minutes late. I'm sorry, I'm that person, but you know what? I'm gonna come in and I'm gonna do my fucking work, okay? It's just what it is, it's just what it is. We can own this here, this is a safe space.
This is a very safe space for everybody. This is fine. I'm always seven minutes late. That's me. I'm the fucking girl, but I will bring cookies. I will bring, I will bring treats for everyone. I'll take care of people. We balance things. For sure. So Brian, um,
I was in the middle. We had a septic patient. Right. I was in the recess room. So New York Presbyterian Cornell is a level one pediatric and adult trauma center. We also have a full service psychiatric ER. We're also a hazmat and a decon center and a burn center. Oh my God. It's full. Oh, it's amazing. It's packed. Yo, Monday nights, we would have a census of like 186 by like 8 p.m. So like Monday nights historically are the worst night in the ER in New York City at least. It's insane.
Monday after a holiday? Oh my god. The worst, for sure. Yeah, the worst. So I'm in the middle. I'm in recess four.
Recess room four. And I'm literally in the middle of working up. I'm like labbing and lining an 80-something-year-old septic gentleman. And myself, my charge nurse, Lucy Tiffany, rest in peace, and two other nurses. And then, you know, the patient's wife was there. And we're, you know, just kind of giving her some support. We're explaining to her as I'm popping a 16-gauge in this little guy and all these things. And the residents are in there. And we're just going through the algorithm for sepsis. This guy was...
sick. He was circling the drain. He was decompensating. And my camera guy is filming the case because the spouse gave consent for us to film the case. A lot of New Yorkers love being on camera. They were like, sure, you can film my loved one actively decompensating. So we were like,
Guys, I don't even like I even tell people I was like, listen, if you got if I'm ever in a situation where I have to be in the ER, please don't bring me in the ER that I used to work with because I don't want none of my co-workers seeing my coochie down there. No, fully.
Zero. No foley, no nothing. Let me die. And if you're ever in a coma, someone please pluck my chin hairs. Please. If you guys ever feel me. Thank you for having me out there like that. If you ever feel me when I'm like dying, please make sure that the angle is right. Make sure you're tight and fresh. Tight and clean. Tight and fresh. We need a nip and tuck. Oh, shoot. So, um...
My camera guy is... So we're filming this case, right? Right. And this patient, we were just... Let's get this patient stable. Obviously, spoiler alert, there's no beds in the ICU. Newsflash. Doesn't work like that. Newsflash. So Lucy, the charge nurse, gets a call on her vocera. Send Katie Duke to admin office and have her remove her microphone. Her cameraman cannot come. And...
I'm like, oh, it's like 7 p.m. First of all, what's Edmund even like doing here at 7 p.m.? First of all, why are y'all here at 7 p.m.? Okay. No fucking clue. So I put my stuff down. Lucy's like, I'll take over because like our charge nurse in the recess area in that ER would kind of float between the significant case. They didn't have their own patient assignment because you fucking can't. No, you can't. That's just impossible. Yeah.
Yeah, so I hang my antibiotics and I go out and I give Lucy my vocera and just give her a quick little report on my other two patients. And I'm like, Jack, Jack's my camera guy. I'm like, Jack, I'll be right back. He's like, I'm just going to like trail behind you. But I had to take my microphone off. I was like, OK. And I'm like, I bet I'm getting written up. I definitely clocked in late.
I'm probably getting written up. I'm like, something's going down. And I go back there and I knock on Brian's door and I go in his room and our nursing manager, Rhonda, was sitting to the right and Brian, the patient care director, was in front of me and he was sitting down. And I walk in and he's like, shut the door behind you. And I'm like, okay. This is a reality. We about to have a throuple.
What is really good? And so I walk in and he's like, have a seat. And I'm like, I don't want to sit down. What's going on? And I knew I knew I was getting fired. By this point, I had been at that ER for seven years.
The TV show, we were in the middle of filming our second season at that time. It was wildly popular. There were 36 million viewers the first season. And that's actually what launched my social media platform back in the day. And so I was the first nurse influencer on social media. I started on Twitter and I started on Instagram. And this was way before hashtags, way before brands. It was just, you know, whatever. Everything.
But again, remember I said I shared my life from being an ER nurse in New York City. Now, this is 2012, 2013, now by now, Instagram. There's no FTC rules. There's no social media policies. Nothing existed because nothing, no one knew.
No one knew. And even then now, like, it's not a whole thing. Yeah, it wasn't a creator economy. Like, hospitals and brands did not have pages, if that makes sense. Oh, zero. Zero, zero. They did not exist. Hospitals now have TikToks. Please. Listen, none of this existed. No. But...
some of us like hospital staff who were on the show we were encouraged by the hospital's pr and marketing department to share our life on this social media stuff they were the ones who actually told us you should start a twitter page you start a facebook page you start instagram page and they were encouraging us because they wanted you know people to watch the show and tune in and us to share our lives and i'm like cool
I think that nurses need someone to look into and be like, what could my life look like if I become an ER nurse? Or, hey, is this relatable? Like, we need people to look up to. And so I'm in the office, and Brian's like, you know, over the last, like, seven years you've been here, you've really done so much. That's actually how a shit can moment starts out. It starts with a compliment. It's actually called a shit can sandwich. And it starts out with a lovely compliment, and then you get the, boo!
and then you get another little compliment and send you on your way. So that was the top layer of our sandwich. You have done so much over this ER over the last seven years, which I had. I had literally precepted like
maybe like 50, 60, 70, like new grads and nurse residents and nurse clinicians. I was involved in every quality and patient safety project. I had all the accolades. I did everything you were supposed to do. That place was my home. That place was my whole identity in New York city. Cause it was my family. I had, I didn't know anybody when I moved.
moved up here. That was your first. I was in the step-down unit for like two contracts, so like 26 weeks, and then I went to the ER. So the ER was where I spent most of my life up here. So I felt like I was losing my family at this moment and my identity. I was also in grad school at Columbia and they were paying for my tuition reimbursement and my health insurance and everything. So Brian's like,
However, however, however, however, however, you know, since this whole TV show thing got started, you know, you've had this social media stuff like we don't even know what to call it because we don't think that you should be on social media as a nurse. But like you're just trying to do too much. You're trying to be the next Dr. Oz and you never will because you're just a nurse.
And he said, we don't want you working here anymore. I don't want you working here anymore because I run this place. This is my ER. You will never have more influence than
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Brian and what he did was he handed he'd like took this piece of paper out and he like throws it across his desk And I'm like, but you can't just fight. I'm like you can't just fight We're not a union hospital. First of all, shout out to New York State Nurses Association and all my unions I'm a union NP for years. We were not a union hospital so he hands us this like piece of paper printed out and it's a picture of like an Instagram post and
And the Instagram post is from my Instagram page. And it was a picture that I had reposted from our chief resident, who was a friend of mine, Dr. Akunyili. He had posted this picture on his Instagram page. I reposted it. We had a traumatic arrest that came in. We had a patient who was hit by the sixth train, survived.
You all know my ER people out there know traumatic arrests, unless it happens on the hospital grounds, you're not even making it to the hospital. Like most cases do not do that. It was a fucking miracle case. It was a fucking miracle case. The news, everybody was all over it. He was on the news, the hospital, we had everybody, fucking New York Times, everybody. The story was everywhere.
A Dozie Akinyele, our chief resident, posted this picture of an empty trauma room on his Instagram page and, you know, had some random comment. I reposted the photo. And under my comment, I said, amazing work, you know, between the doctors and nurses in New York Presbyterian, like saving lives. And I put a couple hashtags in there, like traumatic arrest or ER, man versus six train. I didn't really...
Hashtags weren't a thing. And it was harder for people to understand those things before. But I remember that the articles that were out about him, it was like man versus six train. Anyway, so I'm like, I didn't take the picture. There was no patient identifiers in there. There was no body parts. There were no limbs laying around. It wasn't even gaudy.
And so the paper that he threw at me across the desk was actually a printout of that Instagram post from my page. And he said, I know I can't fire you because I don't want you working here anymore, but I can fire you for this. And it was this copy. He's like, this is insensitive and we feel it's unprofessional. So we're firing you on the ground so that this is insensitive and unprofessional nursing behavior. And I look at this and I'm like, your chief resident took this picture, bro. Is he getting fired too?
And he's like, that's not my business. That's not my problem. Obviously, he didn't get fired. But he said, there's 100 people out there waiting for your job. Your time here is done. We don't want you here anymore. Social media will never do anything for you. And it just ruined the best job you ever had.
And then he wouldn't even let me go and clean out my locker. He had security come to the office and escort me off of hospital grounds. So by the time I get out of this was the foul shit, right? Like, you know, I can't even like, I think he knew I would go out there and I would start some shit and I'd be like, Brian fucking fired me for bullshit. But my camera guy, remember, was like lurking.
So when he saw security come and get me, he ran and got his bag and my bag from Lucy, the charge nurse, and was like, something's going down with Katie. And he met me outside where security escorted me out. And I was like walking down the street and I was just like in tears. I was totally distraught. And I was like, I just got fired and I really don't understand why.
I really don't understand why. I had a very hard time understanding why. I did everything you wanted me to do. I have been a leader. I have been the best fucking ER nurse. I have helped. I have done all these. I have sacrificed. And you know the fucking sacrifice we do as nurses. And ABC televised that to six million viewers. That was the season opener for season two. Season two, episode one.
Of you getting fired? Me getting shit-canned. So the beginning of the episode was me getting shit-canned. Oh, that is messy! Me getting shit-canned was the beginning of Season 2, Episode 1. Now keep in mind, they already had Season 1, so people knew me. They're like, this is a good ER nurse. She's a kind person. She's compassionate. Nobody has reached out to you and like... Oh, a lot of people reached out to me. This is where shit gets interesting, right? So I...
So season two is coming out and I'm over here having a nervous fucking break. But what people didn't know was a few weeks after that, I had went and got a job as a local travel nurse in one of the other ERs across town, which used to be known as St. Luke's Roosevelt ER. ABC had...
rights at that hospital. So ABC continued to follow me in that new emergency room because the producers were like, we want to make sure that people see that you can't keep a good nurse down because fuck that. You can't keep a fucking good nurse down. You can fire me over some bullshit because your fucking ego is the size of a fucking pistachio.
But I'm going to find a way to come back and I'm going to fucking come back. And you're going to regret the day you did this. This story has a crazy fucking twist in the end. And I'm so excited to drop it because you're going to lose your fucking mind. So just do it. I know. I am. I know. I know. My heart is pounding right now, Katie. So I'm so we're at the new emergency room. We're filming here. So season two, episode one, it shows me getting fired in the first five minutes of the episode. I have to. Is it? Is it up?
Oh, yeah. It's been up. You can get it on ABC Go. You can get it on YouTube. You can get it on like. What's the name of this whole show again? NY Med. Like New York Med. Oh, God. And then it has a spinoff called NYER, which was on like Discovery Health Channel, TLC, Discovery Live Channel and everything. ID, et cetera. But you can pretty much watch it anywhere. So it showed me like, you know, being like, yeah, I got fired. But you know what? Life goes on. There's always going to be a place that values you.
and your skills and what you bring to the table. Just because you're at this place and it's your whole identity and it's your whole life and it's everything you know and that's comfortable doesn't mean it's the right place for you. Are we seeing a theme here? We're seeing a theme here. Let's tie these knots together. So I ended up going on with my life. I finished grad school. I became an NP. My first job as an NP was at Mount Sinai Hospital. I worked inpatient cardiology, heart failure, LVAD, mechanical circulatory support, cath and EP lab.
And it was a phenomenal job. But I was goring my social media following like substantially over all these years. But I felt that I wanted to be somebody who people looked up to as a mentor. I wanted to be somebody who people looked up to to help find their path and their purpose.
And so I've hosted hundreds of workshops, keynote speeches, retreats, mentorship programs over all these years that have been on social media. And what I have done and what I still continue to do to this day is help people to find their path and their purpose, whether it's their path in nursing, whether it's their path finding a remote job, whether it's their path just finding their personal self or overcoming difficult situations like abuse or
a dad with Alzheimer's, which is what I'm also dealing with right now, or whatever life throws at you. Social media helped me find a voice and it really kind of helped me pivot my nursing career.
And flash forward, I've been working at Mount Sinai, right? This is right before COVID happened. We haven't even got to COVID yet, but that's another episode. I get a phone call from a nurse. Sorry, I get an Instagram DM. And she's like, I'm a nurse up at Jacoby Hospital, which is a hospital up in the Bronx. Huge, major hospital. And she's like, can I get a call?
can I have your phone number? I need to ask you a professional reference opinion. I'm not a crazy person. We had some mutual friends in common. I'm like, sure. And I'm like, ER nurse reaching out to me. Maybe she needs career advice or whatever. She's like, yeah, so we have, keep in mind, this is 2020. This is not, I got fired in 2013. Okay. From Brian.
The nurse says, I'm on the hiring committee at the emergency room at Jacoby Hospital. And we have an applicant coming in for our nurse manager, patient care director position. And I see that they used to work at a hospital with you. Now, I've worked at a few hospitals. I also worked at Lenox Hill Hospital for a couple years. I know a lot of people in the ER world. We're all very connected here. And we're all like...
Family right even after you get shit-canned. She's like yeah So I just want to see if you work with this person if you can give me any insights on their work ethic because we've been through a lot of so fish She's like cuz we've been through a lot of nurse managers over the years and we really need somebody cuz Jacoby er is rough like the nurses need support it is a Tough environment. She's like and we just don't want to keep interviewing and interviewing the wrong people. I was like sure Who's the person it was Brian?
No. And she said, I need to know if you can tell me about this guy, should we interview him? And this was like a full circle moment for me because how like serendipitous was it that I got fired from Brian for me wanting to be Dr. Oz apparently on social media and truthfully, like I've never wanted to be Dr. Oz. Sure. I'd love my own fucking talk show. Shameless plug. But like, I don't want to be Dr. Oz. I want to be myself.
You're gonna, you're gonna, this isn't gonna get you anywhere, Katie. We're firing you. You're insensitive. You're unprofessional. Nurses shouldn't be using their voice on social media. We want nurses who are just gonna come here, be a nurse, and go home. You're just a nurse. Seven years later, somebody who follows me on social media, who trusts me, calls me.
To ask you about... To ask me about should we hire this guy because Brian had lost his job at New York Presbyterian Cornell for reasons that are unbeknownst to me. But I said, and here's the thing, I have a motto. I will never burn a bridge and I will never wish ill will on anybody ever. Love that. I do not know who Brian needs to support with his job. I do not know his life or anything.
I really wanted to hold on to that moment though because I... Part of me, I was like, fuck him, man. Don't fucking hire him. Fuck him. He fucked my world up. He took my home away from me, my identity.
And then I was like, but you know what, though? It pushed me out of a situation that forced me to grow. And I wouldn't be sitting here in Spotify podcast studio with the one and only fucking nurse, John. I beg your fucking pardon if he wouldn't have pushed me out of that because I would have never left. I would still be in that ER, you know what? And I would love it. But I just wouldn't have reached this potential in me. So I said, listen, I will never tell you anything other than
what I think will help you make a decision to hire this person. I said, so what you need to do is you need to ask him how he plans on supporting the nurses in the unit and how he has shown that support in previous jobs. And you need to ask him about, you know, mistakes that he's made in the past and see if he's transparent with those mistakes.
'Cause you know, a lot of times in interviews, they'll be like, tell me where you've gone wrong before and tell me where you've done this and that. And I said, if he can be transparent and say, this is where I've let my nurses down before, this is where I have room for opportunity to learn, then you should hire him because people like that deserve another chance. But if he comes in pompous and ego driven and like, no, no, you got it, you know, then he's probably not the right fit for you if you need somebody who's gonna support your nurses.
And I left it at that. And she's like, I feel like there's something you're not telling me. I said, no, there's not. I never told her it was Brian. It was the Brian. I never told her any of that. I kept that to myself. And I don't know if she ended up hiring him or not. But I thought that was like such a wild fucking moment. Everybody give Katie a wonderful clap. Applause. I'm sorry. I've been talking for 50 fucking minutes. No. Oh, my God. No.
Honestly, Katie. No, honestly, Katie, that was so amazing because this whole life. You're like, I need a cigarette. I know, right? I'm going to need a vape right now. Zen somebody. I need a zen. Can you give me a gummy? Do you have any gummies? No. Okay.
You know, I've learned about Zen because Midwest people love Zen. Yeah. Oh, my God. They chew that shit like nobody else. They definitely do. New Yorkers here, we love some gummies. Gummies. People have, like, some weed vapes and stuff. Right. But, honestly, Katie, holy shit. That was a ride. What a six fucking flag. I need a wet towel after that one. I know. Holy crap, you guys. That's so inappropriate. Honestly...
You know, see how fucking...
How we turn such a horrible situation into something funny. This is such a nurse of us. This is it. We're morbid. We're dark, morbid people. This is how crazy we are as nurses. We would see something so traumatic. We would cry about it, be angry about it, be anxious, all this stuff. And then the next thing we know, we are laughing our asses off. Oh, yeah. And we've learned something. We've learned something. Exactly. And it's just insane because like, wow, Katie...
I mean, props to you for all the shit that you've gone through. And I just listening to it, just I'm like, holy fuck. Like my life isn't that bad. Because you know how like some people are like, my life is shit. But then they heard someone else's life story. And then you're like,
you know what? There's always something to be grateful about something. Perspective. Perspective, exactly, right? And like, you know, it's not to say that the traumas that I've dealt with and the things that I've experienced in my life isn't as heavy as yours, but it makes you realize how like there is so much more to life than your problems. Like your problems is actually not 99 because you have 99 solution and you have one fucking problem. And you know what the problem is? Your brain. Because your brain
Thank you. Biggest fucking enemy is your brain, not the 99 problems that you have. Being stuck in your head and forgetting to look at perspective. Because let me tell you, at that time, I was like, my life is over.
Everything is over. When the season two, episode one came out and that showed me getting fired and coming back, do you know that overnight, and this is gonna be the fun part, you could probably look some of this shit up, overnight, the nursing and healthcare community around the world either loved me or hated me. There are so many terrible Reddit threads about me that are full of hateful comments. And do you remember allnurses.com? It was around like,
in the beginning of time girl it's ghetto listen ghetto it is it is 125th and lex at the 456 train and any new yorker will understand it's like a fucking it's like the apocalypse up there it's terrible it's trash that's what all nurses.com was but overnight the community people were so hateful and they're like you're such an immoral nurse people tried to report me to the board of nursing
For what? Because I reposted a fucking empty trauma room and now look what people post online. It's crazy. So I was in a dark place when this happened because I was like,
Had lost my job I had put something very personal on TV to millions of viewers who don't know me Personally who they only have a split-second view into my life It was really hard for me to find perspective in that moment, and it did take me some time So you will not get this these these clear glasses. You know Immediately it took me a long time right and honestly Katie. I think like I
As someone new to social media, not as long as you have been, something I've learned in social media, because we're running out of time. What time is it? 1.30? Okay. We're running out of time. I knew this would happen. I know. Katie, we should have like 10 episodes. I'm like, we need a part two and a part three. Part two, part three. I'll come back and get you again. Period. But what I've learned in social media is that
No matter what good you do, no matter how good of a person you are, someone, somehow, somewhere will still find something to hate about you. And honestly, it doesn't fucking matter. Who the fuck cares? Because the only thing that matters is the people who actually knows you. You knowing yourself and you knowing if you are actually a good person or not. Because social media is so just... It's so...
superficial that it's hard to find people who are authentic and who can give real you know the vulnerable moments real vulnerable moments and just you know I've learned so much in this past few four and a half years in being in social media that
at the end of the day, no matter how much hate you get, as long as the people who have supported you from the very beginning, who knows you, who knows your, you know, your intents are good, your people, your community. Yeah. You will never have to defend yourself in,
In any fucking day. And that's something I've learned. Because I've gone through some hates too. And listened. Oh yeah. And listened to me. I did not have to defend myself. Because my people. My community. My besties. Knows exactly who I am. In and out of social media. Your people will show up for you. And that is all that matters. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's it. And we get so caught up on like.
We want everyone to like our content. We want everyone to approve of us. Listen, I'm not for everybody, and that's cool. I don't need to be for everybody. I need a fucking buffet. Exactly. I get it. If you don't like apples, don't eat the apples. It's fine. And just don't touch the apples. You don't gotta. A fish will live their entire life with insecurities if you embarrass it because it can't climb a tree. Period. I may have butchered that, but...
Oh, my God, Katie. Okay. But like, you get it. Period, Confucius. Like, you fucking Katie fucking Confucius. Dude, whatever. I love it. Listen, Katie. There's actually a really good quote from that. But I totally butchered it. I'll have to look it up. But yeah, it's all about
Just understanding that it's okay to not be for everybody. The people who come at you, listen, if you're feeling spicy and you want to respond, fucking go for it. Sometimes I have to get spicy back at people and be like, I have to. Thank you. Clock them motherfuckers out because some people just need to be silenced. Yeah, you got to advocate for yourself. It's okay to stand up for yourself.
Sometimes you don't have to be silent. You have to silence someone. You have to silence people. Oh my God, Katie. I hope people can take some lessons away from this last one. Holy shit. Listen, Katie. I'm so tired. I'm tired of touring and some stuff in my life. But I'm like, you know what?
I fucking love life. You love this life that you've created, that you've worked so hard for. And I love the problems that I've had because honestly, your past inspires me that my past doesn't have to define who I am now in the present or future. It doesn't. It actually adds to it.
Oh, my God, Katie. It does. It adds to it. And we should never run from the things that people try to shame us. In fact, we should welcome them because of the fact that I have talked about how I've been in domestic violence relationships, how I have been shit canned on national television, if that, that I have, you know, lost jobs, that I have made made made mistakes, that I have made bad decisions, that I have done these things, that I have lived in, you know, squalor.
That's relatable shit because everybody can identify with a struggle and transparency is more of what people need these days. So like run into those moments. Don't let people shame you. That actually builds character. Challenging times build character. I would be a boring fucking bitch if I hadn't been through any of this stuff I have in life. Yeah, you gotta be a...
traumatic bitch to be cool enough in these new generations. Oh, you think I'm cool? It's because I got a lifetime of trauma. Adds to the character. It's like flavor. Oh, I love it. Like flavor in the stew. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Katie, for being here with us. And I beg your pardon, podcast. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for sharing such a vulnerable piece of your life. And I know that people are going to be taking home so much lessons and motivations. And you guys, listen,
Where can people follow you on social media so they can communicate with you, follow you, support you with all the things that you do? Thank you. I am the Katie Duke, like the T-H-E, and then my name, Katie Duke, on TikTok and Instagram. And I respond to messages. I love to engage with people, and I'm always here to help out.
Yay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And again, that is the Katie Duke, the one and only, the OG, the most inspirational out there. And guys, you've heard it. Stop it. The shitstorm.
You've heard it here. She's about to release some. Listen, I will be the first one to buy that book. I will be. Her ADHD is preventing a little bit of the progress. But we're going to refocus. Oh, my God, Katie. I will buy the book. Tune in and follow Katie in all the things that she do. Because honestly, you guys, she inspires me the most. And again, thank you so much, Bessie, for listening to this. Very inspirational. Very rollercoaster-y. But yet. Oh, my God.
motivational and honestly like makes you be grateful of life and that your past doesn't have to define you and who you are now in present and in the future and thank you again and I love you besties I will see you again for another week another episode of your favorite caffeinated medicated and never hydrated nurse in this favorite podcast I beg your pardon thank you all so much and we will see you guys again next time
Bye. I feel like we just went through a shift in the ER. Oh, my God, Katie. I feel like we just went through a shift in the ER. That was the roller coaster.