EP 216: A Critical Look at Childbirth Standards With Nathan Riley

EP 216: A Critical Look at Childbirth Standards With Nathan Riley

The Failure of Modern Medicine: A Critical Look at Childbirth Standards

We would like to introduce you to Nathan Riley. Nathan is a board-certified OB-GYN and fellow of ACOG who left the medical industrial complex due to his disillusionment with the “standard of care” within the conventional maternity care model. He advocates for home birth and still attends births for those in need. He boasts a c-section rate of <5%, which is one of the best in the U.S. His mission is to uphold midwifery as the art that it is and to honor birth as a sacred process and the transition to parenthood as a spiritual transformation.

Questions and Topics

  • Can you give us a little background about yourself? Why did you choose the OB-GYN route? Is it something you were always interested in?
    • What do you do as an OB-GYN? What does your day-to-day look like? Do you do home visits?
    • What are some of your responsibilities?
  • What pushed you away from the typical OB-GYN career path?
    • What was it missing? When did you realize the flaw in patient birthing or the typical hospital birthing process?
  • How is it being a male working as an OB-GYN?
    • Did people or your colleagues look at you differently because you were a male going into this field?
  • How does your practice differ, and how have you achieved such a low C-section rate? (Average rate was about 30% in 2021)
    • Can you walk us through the whole birthing process, the actions you and the future mother take, and some of the emotions that come with it?
  • What do you think physicians in your field need to understand? Where is the lack of education, or even where does medical school fail its students?
  • What is man’s role in childbirth, and how do you balance the masculine and feminine roles?
    Infertility is starting to become a problem; where do you think it stems from? Is it because people choose to get pregnant later in life, or is diet and lifestyle an issue? Is it multifactorial?

    • What is some advice you can give to future mothers and fathers
  • Can you share with us some history of medicine and what is Rockefeller’s medicine?

Watch full episode: https://youtu.be/CRFlWxZt5BE

GUEST SPEAKER LINKS:
Website: www.nextlevelnurses.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanrileyobgyn/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nathanrileyobgyn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holisticobgpod
YT: https://www.youtube.com/@theholisticobgynpodcast/featured

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8 Mistakes That Rookie Travel Nurses Make While on the Job

8 Mistakes That Rookie Travel Nurses Make While on the Job

8 Mistakes That Rookie Travel Nurses Make While on the Job

Working as a travel nurse is one of the best decisions you will ever make in your nursing career. Of course, just like any other newbies, you can’t wait till you are assigned to a different location.

While waiting for an assignment, it is best to read about the eight mistakes that rookie travel nurses make so you can avoid doing them in the future. Here’s what you need to know. 

Avoid These While Going Through Your Contract

#1. Skimming through your contract.

It is a big booboo on your part if you do not read your contract thoroughly. Your travel nurse contract is an essential part of your assignment, so any responsible nurse will carefully read through it before signing [1]. Skimming through your contract will place you in a situation that you might not like. 

Before signing, make sure to check for accuracy and completeness. Check also for the assignment, pay rate, dates, travel reimbursements, bonuses, time offs, and other special agreements that you may have.

Your agency should be able to answer all your concerns if needed. So, don’t just skim through it; read your contract well!

#2. Being unprepared for your assignment.

As nurses, we are trained to be ready at all times. We can even give boy scouts a run for their money if we talk about preparedness! It is a part of our nurse’s skills to be alert and ready for anything.

However, rookie travel nurses are too complacent about their assignments that they don’t bother preparing – a big mistake! They let their excitement get the best of them. Remember, you are traveling for work, not for fun.

Be in a work-mode mindset as you take on an assignment. While you can still see sights along the way or during your offs, you still have to be prepared to do your nursing duties. Avoid these mistakes that rookie travel nurses make, and you will save yourself from trouble.

Agencies will help you process everything you need – even your license entering a compact state. In short, you have all the help you need. All you have to do is show up on time and make sure that you make a good impression on your first day.

Always bring your supporting documents if your supervisor needs them – it will show how responsible you are for a rookie travel nurse!

#3. Bringing too much stuff with you.

The shortest duration of your assignment is around four to eight weeks, with the longest of thirteen weeks. There’s no need to bring too much stuff with you.

Bring only the essentials, and make sure you have enough to reuse. If you are assigned to a different state during winter, bring clothes suitable for the weather. Other than that, leave the ones you don’t need during this assignment. Besides, the weeks will fly by, and the next thing you know, you are off to another location again. 

Take note also of the place you are staying. Is it furnished or not? See what is included in your accommodation. This way, you can decide whether to bring other items along or not. 

#4. Not asking questions.

As a travel nurse, you will always be the “new kid” in town. And as much as you want to do your job and go, it is not always the case. Whenever you are assigned to a new facility, be sure to ask the right questions.

You need to learn where things are, who you need to call for emergencies, what practices are done, or protocols to follow. Asking these questions will help your survival on each shift. 

Be sure to make new friends too. Sure, you are the extra hand, but it won’t hurt if you greet people and be friendly. After all, you work in the same facility. Besides, having new friends broadens your network.

So, do not hesitate to be nice to everyone you meet along the way. You will need guidance and help as you go. 

#5. Acting like you are not part of the team.

Sure, you may be a temporary nurse extending help, but that does not mean you should also exclude yourself from others. Staff nurses will expect you to do your best. Showing up on time and doing your duties are essential, but you are not hired to work there to separate yourself. 

Try to be a part of the team, be nice to people, be prepared, and do your part. If you work like you are part of the team, your coworkers will treat you the same. Don’t be a total stranger. 

#6. Acting like you know it all.

Another mistake that rookie travel nurses make is acting like they don’t need help from anyone. Being a know-it-all is something you should avoid. Sure, you have the skills and knowledge, but ignoring protocols and not following the standard procedures in the facility you are working in is a huge mistake. 

Take time to listen and learn from your coworkers. It does not matter how long you have been a travel nurse or new to the job. Being open to suggestions and learning the trade is vital if you want to keep your job.

Learning new skills will only strengthen your ability as a nurse. Once you have shown that you are valuable to the team, you might find your coworkers asking for your input. 

#7. Joining the hospital drama.

One mistake that rookie travel nurses make is by joining hospital politics during their brief stay [2]. As a result, they found themselves tangled in the drama that they could’ve avoided in the first place. 

As tempting as juicy gossip can be, avoid engaging in it. Remember, you are only working in this facility for a few weeks. It is always better to build strong relationships than to be part of the gossip crew.

Besides, you don’t know the people involved or the whole story, so why bother becoming a part of it? So, do what you came to do, avoid gossiping, and focus on your patient care. You will be appreciated more!

#8. Working hard or hardly working.

Last but not least, one of the mistakes that rookie travel nurses make is working too much or too little. As a nurse, your work is a priority, but you can become a workaholic when you work too much and don’t pause to breathe.

So find time to balance work and recreation. One of the reasons you became a travel nurse is to see other places, so do it! Take a look at your schedule and plan an activity for the day.

While you are assigned a job, why not take the opportunity to see places? Knowing when to work and have fun has its perks. Besides, after a long day of serving patients, a breather sounds about right. Enjoy the moments while you can! 

Find Balance on Your First Job

Becoming a travel nurse is exciting, primarily if you are assigned to a place that you haven’t been to before. But as you do, find balance in your work and play. Be mindful of your ways, be presentable, arrive on time, and leave work at work.

Over time, you will enjoy each assignment, and you don’t have to make the same mistakes rookie travel nurses make! Being a nurse is a rewarding job, and for you to deliver quality care, you must also take care of yourself.

Hopefully, this list cleared it out for you. Best of luck! 

Looking for more nursing and travel nursing information? Check out these helpful links!

 

10 Tips for Staying Healthy on Your Night Shift

10 Tips for Staying Healthy on Your Night Shift

10 Tips for Staying Healthy on Your Night Shift

Your night shift is one of the most challenging shifts you’ll experience. Not because it’s busy and patients are coming in but because you must stay awake. The struggle is real, as they say.

The hospital is often the busiest during the daytime, so working the night shift is exciting. Your first three days may be great, but it can be exhausting if you keep doing the same shift for months.

Sleeping during the day feels different than sleeping at night. You may feel extra exhausted and sluggish. It is vital to stay healthy even on your night shift. How can you do it? Here are helpful tips for doing that.

 

We Are Role Models

Staying healthy while on your night shift is possible. You have options on how you make healthy choices even while at work.

As nurses, we promote health and provide patients with quality care.

We must be good role models by showing them how we care for ourselves. And we can do that by doing the following: 

 

#1. Eating healthy 

While eating fast food at night is tempting, it’s not always a good idea to do so. Keep yourself healthy by eating healthy. Eating foods high in sugar and trans fat can destabilize blood sugar levels and may cause stomach upset.

Stay healthy on your night shift by packing healthy meals like fruits, veggies, salads, or trail mix. Doing meal prep at the start of the week is also a good idea. It will cut your time preparing your food each time you go to work.

You can also choose good and healthy options to eat for the whole week. 

 

#2. Set your sleeping schedule

A consistent sleeping routine is crucial in preparing your body for the night shift hours. If you have the time to sleep the moment you get home, try sleeping in two sessions.

Try resting from 7 am to 11 am, then another from 3 pm to 5 pm. But if you don’t like naps, you can always choose when you want to sleep. Make sure to set the mood of your room when sleeping at home.

Create an environment that’s convenient for you to take the snooze. Use black-out curtains and turn on the AC in your room.

Be sure to set your alarm too. While sleeping in this kind of room sounds fantastic, you don’t want to be late for work too! 

 

#3. Get plenty of exercises

It may be hard to incorporate exercises into your daily routine, especially if you just got off an exhausting shift. But to stay healthy, you must also put in the extra effort. Incorporate exercise into your weekly schedule.

You don’t have to go to the gym regularly if your body can’t make it. Simple activities like biking, walking, hiking, or jogging work well too. It will also help you get some fresh air and some cardio. 

 

#4. Keep yourself hydrated

Staying awake for a long time during the night shift is challenging. There will be moments when you want to go to sleep. But before you do, hydrate yourself by drinking enough water and other fluids.

It will also ensure that your body is functioning correctly, as water keeps your body’s organs running. 

 

#5. Reduce your caffeine

Night shift requires staying awake and alert at all times, even if the patients are asleep. It’s also the reason why many nurses have caffeine fixations.

While coffee and caffeine-packed drinks are lifesavers, it’s not always a good thing. It will give you a surge of energy for a few hours, but once it crashes, you end up exhausted and wanting more.

We cannot entirely remove caffeine, but we can reduce our intake. Avoid drinking caffeine once your shift hits 2-3 am. It will prevent you from being able to get sleep once you’re off duty. 

 

#6. Schedule your night shifts closely

Some nurses have weird night shift schedules. Some nurses would go on night duty for two days, have a rest day, then return to the night shift for a day. It ruins their body clock.

Asking your scheduler to put all your night shifts in one row will help you get the rest you need and not waste your days off catching up with sleep. 

 

#7. No alcohol

Drinking alcohol to help you fall asleep after your night shift is one of your biggest mistakes. Not only will it induce your sleep, but it also affects your REM and may develop into an alcohol addiction if you’re not careful about it.

So, it would be best to avoid drinking alcohol before sleep to be safe. 

 

#8. Naps are OK

Timed naps on your break are good. It will help you stay alert and focused all through the night. Find a dark space where you can rest for at least 20 or 30 minutes on lunch breaks. Power naps can help you get through without feeling too exhausted after the work shift. 

 

#9. Limit your screen time

You’re probably thinking if you keep staring at your phone, you’ll be okay through the night. It won’t help you. The blue light emitted on your phone harms your sleep hormones and melatonin. Minimizing your screen time at night or before bed maximizes rest and sleep. 

 

#10. You need to move 

Sitting all night will make you sleepy. Take time for short walks and do simple cardio exercises while on your night shift. It will keep your blood pumping.

Walking stretches your muscles and wakes up your legs. It’s a refreshing way to keep yourself awake. Plus, moving around feels good. It reduces your sleepiness. 

 

Your Night Shift is Going to Be Hard

The night shift is hard, especially if you’re a new nurse. Staying up all night for many days can take a toll on you, physically and mentally. And as nurses, we must take care of ourselves.

eople rely on us; we must remember self-care and get enough rest. It makes a real difference. Hopefully, these tips helped you out. 

 

Looking for more nursing and travel nursing information? Check out these helpful links!

EP 212: A Patient’s Perspective of Delirium With Amelie Susanne

EP 212: A Patient’s Perspective of Delirium With Amelie Susanne

EP 212: A Patient’s Perspective of Delirium With Amelie Susanne

What is a patient’s perspective of delirium? An induced coma is also known as MIC or medically induced coma, barbiturate-induced coma, or drug-induced coma.

It is also called as temporary coma or a deep state of consciousness controlled by an anesthetic drug.

Often, barbiturates like pentobarbital or thiopental are used to help patients. It can also be intravenous anesthetic drugs like midazolam or propofol, but what happens when a patient goes through an induced coma and wakes up from it?

Can a patient recall any memory while they are in a coma? This episode will talk about a patient’s perspective of delirium and many more. 

In this episode, we would like to introduce you to Amelie Susanne Roth. Susanne is a coma survivor. After an initial bacteria infection, Susanne had to be placed into an induced coma that lasted 16 days.

We talk about her time in the ICU and her experience of being in a coma and suffering from it. In this episode, we flip the script and learn firsthand about the patient’s experience.  

 

Questions for Our Guest

The questions below are some we’d like to tackle. We often go off-topic, so we don’t expect to hit them all. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

Looking forward to our conversation!

These are the questions you had in Calendly. We’ll go off our questions, and wherever else our conversation goes.

  1. Please give us a little background about yourself.
  2. How did you end up in the hospital? And can you go a little in-depth into what happened?
      • Do you know what kind of infection it was? Where it came from?

3. Can you put us through the course of your hospital experience? Before this, coming from the day you came in?

      • What you heard, what were you told, and how did you feel?

4. You going into a coma and being intubated; was this something you expected? 

5. When you were intubated and unresponsive, what was happening? 

      • Do you remember any of it? 
      • How did it feel?
      • Were you able to hear anything?
      • Was it just like a dream state?

6. When you came out of the coma, were you mentally back to normal?

      • Were you aware of the whole extubation process? For example, when nurses say, can you open your eyes, squeeze my hand, weaning process?
      • Did you suffer from any delirium or confusion?
      • How did you feel during everything that was going on?

7. Where do you think healthcare providers can improve?

8. What was the process after you regained consciousness?

      • Did it take you a long time to bounce back? PT/OT? What does PT/OT mean?

9. How has life changed for you?

      • Additionally, did you have any big realizations? Like a change in mentality or outlook? 

10. What made you decide to write a book?

 

Ending Questions

Before we end the show, we have one last question we like to ask all our guests.

If you had the opportunity to have a Cup of coffee with anybody one last time, who would it be and why? 

 

Links: 

www.ameliesusanneroth.com
https://a.co/d/efqtaHD

Do you want to learn more about a patient’s perspective of delirium? Watch the full episode here 👇👇

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction
01:32 About Amelie Susane Roth
02:38 How it all started
07:25 Experiences of Being Under Sedation and in a Coma
13:40 How does it feel to be in delirium or a coma?
15:57 A better understanding of why a patient gets agitated
18:14 The post-coma experience
25:03 Medicine Failing Patients and the Need for a Different Approach
27:50 Coping with Traumatic Experiences After a Coma
35:00 Life’s outlook after coma
40:48 Amelie’s life prior to becoming a patient
44:27 The Life Lessons While Traveling The World
47:18 Wrapping up the show

5 Tips to Effectively Earn Your Patient’s Trust

5 Tips to Effectively Earn Your Patient’s Trust

5 Tips to Effectively Earn Your Patient’s Trust

How do you earn your patient’s trust? Earning our patient’s trust is vital to us nurses. We can provide them with the best nursing care if they trust us.

But how can we gain our patient’s trust? Is there a magic word to use? 

 

Every Patient is Different

Not all patients are the same. They all have different personalities, moods, and preferences. Sometimes, it’s hard to guess what kind of mood our patients are in, especially when they’re in pain for some time. 

As nurses, we must adjust our personalities to our patients. We cannot be angry or grumpy when the patient screams at us.

We have to be firm but gentle towards them at the same time. Seeing them beyond their pain and complaints is the first step to earning their trust. 

So how can we gain our patient’s trust? Here’s how

 

#1. Introduce yourself and address your patient by their name

The first thing you must do in building any relationship is to introduce yourself. An introduction is an obvious thing to do, especially in a healthcare setting where you care for different patients. Just like building a relationship, an introduction is the first step.

However, introducing yourself to your patient is sometimes forgotten in a busy healthcare unit or setting. But remember that you will be the patient’s first point of contact for their concerns, calls for help, or inquiries.

It is vital that they feel like they know you and are receiving personal care from you. We cannot always remember every patient’s name, so an initial introduction is crucial. 

Introduce yourself and shake your patient’s hand. Tell them your name and who you are. Ask them what they prefer to be called and take note of this on their chart.

It will ensure a consistent level of care even when staff changes. It will also help the patient feel at ease, knowing they have someone to call if needed. 

 

#2. Always dress professionally

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “First impressions always last.” This phrase is accurate, so how your patient sees you is essential. How you introduce yourself is one thing, but how you show up is another.

As nurses, we must dress appropriately. Wearing a nurse’s uniform is one way, as most people will think that a person wearing that uniform has the proper training and knows what they’re doing.

But make sure that your scrubs or uniform are clean and pressed. It will create the right impression. Avoid showing up in your patient’s room with blood-stained scrubs or drenched in puke or body fluids.

Your patients may not be comfortable with you and may not cooperate with you at all. Always keep your appearance as positive as possible. 

 

#3. Listen to your patients.

Going in and out of your patient’s room is easy, especially when you’re taking their vital signs. You can mutter a few words while writing information on their charts but earning your patient’s trust is more than that. If you want to build trust:

  1. Talk to them.
  2. Make eye contact and actively listen.
  3. Ask questions, and converse with them.
  4. Pay attention to your body language, sit in front of them, and make it clear that they have your attention. 

Sometimes, taking a break from your usual nurse routines and being present with the patient. Take time to hear them out and listen to them express themselves.

When a patient knows they’re being listened to will make them feel confident that their concerns are addressed. That makes them trust you as their nurse. 

 

#4. Keep your word

It’s tempting to comfort a distressed patient by telling them that things will be okay. However, you must make sure that you act with integrity and honesty at all times.

Patients and their families appreciate honesty even though your honesty can sometimes be hard to accept. Avoid making false promises. Keep your word by following through with what you tell your patient. It is one of the best ways to earn their trust. 

You don’t have to promise anything significant. Following through with simple acts can help your patient feel they can rely on you. If you say you’ll be back in an hour, then be back in an hour.

Again, keep your word. If you can’t guarantee this, tell them you’ll likely be called away to an emergency or other tasks. Again, don’t make any promises you can’t keep. 

Our work demands are unpredictable, especially in a busy healthcare setting. If this happens, ask someone to speak with your patient, maybe another colleague familiar with your patient, and keep them updated on what is happening. These are a few ways to earn your patient’s trust. 

 

#5. Be Trustworthy

To be trusted means you have to be trustworthy too. Being open and honest with your patient is one step. And even when the situation is unfavorable, keeping your honesty is a must.

Your honesty may not always be a comfortable place to be in, but your patients and their families will appreciate it. 

Always keep your word, and do not promise anything you can’t do. When your patients trust you, building a relationship with them can help improve their recovery time, making administering treatment more manageable.

Therefore for your patients to trust you, you must also put in the effort and show them that you’re genuine with your intentions to help them. 

 

Looking for more nursing and travel nursing information? Check out these helpful links!