Postpartum Nurse, Tammy Dunehew

[00:00] Michelle: Well, what can I say about Tammy Dunehew? I can tell you she's experienced, capable, compassionate, and funny. All the qualities you want in a nurse. Yes, you want your nurse to have a sense of humor, and Tammy fulfills that requirement perfectly. In this episode, she tells us what it means to be a postpartum nurse, including being a Charge nurse. She was great at clearing up the misconception that "postpartum nurses just hold babies." In fact, their work in helping families transition to being parents just might be one of the most important roles in society. In the five minute snippet, we find out she's harmless. She wouldn't hurt a cricket. Here's Tammy Dunehew. You're listening to the Conversing Nurse podcast. I'm Michelle, your host. And this is where together, we explore the nursing profession, one conversation at a time. Well, good morning, Tammy. Welcome to my closet.
[01:14] Tammy: I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
[01:18] Michelle: Well, you're welcome. You and I have known each other for a very long time. We've worked together for a long time in kind of different roles. But I was very excited that you said yes, that you will come on and be my guest, because you have a lot of experience that I think our listeners will really appreciate as a postpartum nurse. And so I'd like to just jump in. So just tell me, what does a postpartum nurse do?
[01:51] Tammy: There's a lot of misconceptions about being a postpartum nurse. One that we hear often is like, oh, you guys just hold babies. And that could literally be the furthest thing from the truth. A lot of times, whenever we get somebody that on occasion does float to our unit, they always leave saying, like, oh, my goodness, I had no idea that this is what you guys do. So I would say the biggest thing that would encompass a postpartum is the ability to help a mother transition through motherhood. Because not only do you have the clinical side, the science side, the pathophysiological things going on, but you have somebody who just had a major life change. I mean, whenever I take care of a patient, it's not just the patient, it encompasses a family. And times have changed, even, what does the family mean anymore? So you have all these different aspects, social aspects, that you're helping somebody in one of the biggest milestones of their life to transition, but also medically what's going on with their body.
[03:16] Michelle: Right. Which could be a lot.
[03:18] Tammy: Which could be a lot.
[03:20] Michelle: I think we're seeing a lot of women come in today to deliver that are older. They have a lot of social problems. Maybe they have substance abuse problems. And so our population is a lot different than what it used to be, even when you and I first started our nursing careers. So I think you did a really good job at describing that kind of in just a very succinct way. So I know that you've been a Charge nurse and tell me about being a Charge nurse on a very busy postpartum unit. What was that like? What did you like about it? What could you do without?
[04:11] Tammy: Well, have you ever been to a carnival or a circus? You have the performer that has all these plates spinning, or even basketball, and you have them all up in the air and they're spinning and you're balancing, and you just feel like one wrong move and it's all going to come crashing. Because, like I said, you can be dealing with medical emergencies, staffing issues, patient care issues.
[04:44] Michelle: Physicians, providers, family member families.
[04:47] Tammy: And it's just kind of keeping a lot of things up in the air and trying to balance them all, because you do have all those aspects to deal with at the same time. Very rewarding at the end of the day, I will say that. And really, a postpartum charge nurse has my respect. I've done it. I don't mind doing it, but if there's somebody else who's in that position, I try to give them all the respect in the world. It's not an easy task.
[05:18] Michelle: Man, I second that. I was a Charge nurse for quite a few years, and I think I had the opposite feeling of, like, sometimes when I would get home, I would be like, man, I don't feel like I made anybody happy today. So I feel like that's how it went for me. Everyone's, like, pulling at you, hey, I need this. Hey, I need that. And then, hey, this patient's mom is on the phone, and then this doctor is saying, hey, I need a bed for this. And the days that it went well, where everything fell into place, yeah, those days I was like, okay, I might do this again tomorrow, but most of the days for me are just like, I'll pass.
[06:08] Tammy: Yeah. I think maybe my response to that could have been, like, the timing. Whenever I was Charge nurse, we were extremely busy. We had a lot of changes going on, and we were constantly full. We had a 40 bed plus unit, and at any given time, we were pretty much maxed out. We were short staffed. And also because I had been there so long that I had a lot of different relationships on different levels with people. And I just felt like it was an honor to try and keep everybody afloat. I'm kind of an inner cheerleader by nature, and it's like I took the aspect of, like, I'm not here to tell you what to do and be an authority figure. I'm here to empower you and I know what you're made of and just play off the strengths of many of the nurses that I was working with at that time. Was it always necessarily appreciated by some? Maybe they didn't have the same vision, but majority of them did. And that's where I chose to focus my energy, because I get it. And the ones that did have that attitude, I realized it's not easy, and if it was, everybody would be doing it. And even then I had respect for that because I thought to myself, well, you're here and you're trying.
[07:36] Michelle: Yeah.
[07:37] Tammy: So you're going to have my respect either way.
[07:39] Michelle: Yeah. And that has to account for a lot. And I totally see that in your personality about being the cheerleader and empowering people. That's one of the things that I've always appreciated about you is your attitude is so positive. Like, in every situation, you see the good. You see the good in people, you see the good in bad situations of how they're going to come out. And I just really appreciate that in you. I always have a tough role, and you get a lot of scrutiny by other nurses that say, why did you make that decision? Why did you do this? And I would tease, half tease, and say, like, there's a lot of the armchair Charge nurses around here. It's kind of one of those things, like, if you think that you can possibly do it better, like, I will step aside and you can have the phone and you can have all the questions and all the crises that happen, but until you've walked in my shoes, please don't tell me how it needs to be. And I have taken that approach in my own life of, like, I don't know where this person is coming from. I have not lived their life. I have not walked in their shoes. So I need to reserve my comments to myself. So you work on a very busy postpartum unit, and you guys have patients that have delivered vaginally, patients that have had fetal demise, patients that have been C-sectioned, patients that come in, do you still get patients that come in for a postpartum infection, wound infection or anything like that, or do those patients go somewhere else?
[09:49] Tammy: No, from time to time, we still do get those situations. Yeah.
[09:53] Michelle: Okay. And we live in California, so we're very familiar with patient ratios. And so what currently is the ratio where you work? Let's talk about that for a moment.
[10:07] Tammy: So our patient ratios are four couplets, which is four mothers and four babies.
[10:13] Michelle: So essentially eight patients to one nurse.
[10:17] Tammy: Yeah. Now, that doesn't always happen because we can look on the other labor and delivery side, and we can see like, okay, this person is eight or this person is pushing. And so they know that within a reasonable amount of time, we should be getting those patients. So maybe some people start off with three or a little bit less, but they'll be getting the first transfer.
[10:41] Michelle: Well, I'll tell you what, when I interviewed Christine Daniel, excellent labor and delivery nurse, one of the things I said was, I don't see you guys sitting around. And it's the same thing for postpartum nurses. Like, you guys are on your feet all the time. So how do you, if you start off with three couplets and then one of the babies is hypoglycemic, one of the moms is bleeding abnormally, one of the moms, you take her blood pressure and it hadn't been high, but now it's 180 over 100 and she's complaining that she has a headache and she's seeing spots before her eyes. And then they call you and tell you that you're getting a fresh C-section. And these scenarios are 100% accurate of what happens.
[11:33] Tammy: Absolutely.
[11:34] Michelle: How do you prioritize as a nurse, like, what you're going to do first in those situations?
[11:42] Tammy: A lot of that is knowing your resources, communication. And I have always tried to take a path of being proactive. I know some people, who like to hem and haw about situations because they're just not sure. And I would rather execute and be preventative and try to take care of the situation before it gets worse. And I think that that just goes with being in this field for so long that you know how bad things can go real quick.
[12:13] Michelle: And probably your experience as a Charge nurse, too, like Charge nurses, you have to be proactive. You have to know what's going on at L&D. You have to know what's coming your way because everything flows from L&D. Right?
[12:27] Tammy: Absolutely.
[12:27] Michelle: Being in the NICU, being in postpartum, we know that all of our patients come from L&D. So we've got our eyes on L&D, what's going on, and you know as well as I do that can change like that. You could be having a, "slow day", and then three moms come in at ten.
[12:52] Tammy: At one hospital, but I've since moved to a different hospital in the Valley, and there's just a little bit of a different makeup to how they run their facility because we don't have a "NICU." That is part of the hospital that I work at. We have a satellite Children's hospital that is in our facility, but it is not the same thing. So if a baby does go to their care, it has to be transferred. So because of that, we've also taken on the role of we do IV antibiotics, we take care of a higher level of care for our infants. We keep babies on bili lights, we take care of all kinds of different aspects. So that is also in our workload. Plus we're required to go and catch oh, yes, if it's in the OR. So not only do you have your patients on the floor, but you can be called, and we do take rotations, and somebody will just have to watch your patients out on the floor while you go catch. And so there's been instances where we've just caught a baby and we're doing all the resuscitative measures and, you know, trying to get that baby to transition. And they'll call and say that there's a medical emergency in L&D and those couple of nurses that they may have had in L&D who maybe didn't have a heavy assignment, all of a sudden, we are thanking our lucky stars that we didn't dock down too low or that we left that little bit of cushion because somebody just went into labor at 34 weeks and has their feet hanging out.
[14:35] Michelle: Right.
[14:36] Tammy: And that has happened before. So it's a little bit of an ER type of feel to it in addition to our regular duties.
[14:46] Michelle: Right.
[14:46] Tammy: So it makes for a busy day.
[14:49] Michelle: Yeah, like I said before, you guys don't sit down very often. And I did talk to Christine about this. One of my questions for her was, talk about the physicality of the role of being a postpartum nurse or for her being a labor nurse because it's very physical. And do you get home at the end of the day and you're just, like, shredded and you need a day to recover?
[15:15] Tammy: Well, everybody in my family knows that before I have my shift, I need a day to rest for my shift.
[15:22] Michelle: And then the day after to recover.
[15:24] Tammy: I need my recovery. And I wish I was joking, but I'm not. And my daughter will you know, she'll tell you that. She knows that everything has to be off the table, off my plate. She's like, oh, she'll come up to me and be like, mom, can we do this? And she'll look on the calendar and she'll be like, oh, wait, no, that's your recovery day. So you know that she's been indoctrinated before she was born, right? So she kind of knows the schedule. But no, you actually have to take your health into consideration. This is not for the faint of heart. We've had a few new nurses who maybe they're six months to a year, and they're just like, this is not for me. I didn't realize, I just didn't realize this. And it's definitely a work of heart, and you have to take that time to take care of yourself on your off days if you are even going to think of functioning on your shifts.
[16:27] Michelle: When I retired, so I retired in January, and one of the things that I did in preparation for retirement, because I was thinking that I probably wasn't going to like being retired very much, so I was advised to talk to a nurse that's retired recently and see how that person feels. So I did talk to a labor and delivery nurse, and what she told me is, you're going to love retirement and here's why. Because when you're a nurse, you spend so much time and mental effort preparing for your shift. So resting, having a rest day before your shift, preparing your food, so maybe you have to do some food prepping. You have to do the laundry because you're going to work the next three days in a row and then after your shift you need to rest because you're exhausted. So she was like, you know, that's going to be gone. And it was totally true and I'm very thankful for her kind of preparing me for that. But I didn't until she said that, it didn't really come to my mind like, oh yeah, we do that because we've just always done that in our careers and our families know not to bother us, you know, because we got arrest. So you guys just run around and I'm always in awe. You had a huge unit and then when we moved to the NICU, we had a huge unit and I go, oh man, now I know what these postpartum nurses were going through. I need my fucking rollerskates.
[18:11] Tammy: Yes, absolutely.
[18:12] Michelle: That's crazy.
[18:14] Tammy: And not only that, but in between your shifts, you just have that break before you wake up, I would say, like blink and then you're back. It's just kind of trying to shut your mind down, wind down, to actually get some rest because you know what you're going to into the next day. And I'll give you, for instance, like you talked about, unfortunately, sometimes we have patients who may have a situation at home or that they're struggling with personally and they are not able to care for their child. And you know that very next day that social services have gotten involved and that they are going to not be able to take their baby home with them and you know that they are not going to be very happy about that.
[18:58] Michelle: Yeah.
[18:58] Tammy: I mean, even though that they've been told. And you're just thinking like, wow, I got to get my mind together. I got to get my mental strength together. Because when people act out, they're acting out of emotion and they can be abusive to you, they can be abusive to your coworkers, they can make life very difficult because they're going through something so emotionally charged that they can take it out on you. And you're just a normal person clocking in for the day. And so sometimes you have to try to rest your mind and gear up for the next day.
[19:38] Michelle: Yeah, so true. Well, I have actually liked retirement and that's one of the reasons why. Because I don't have to put all that mental effort into it anymore. So that's a good thing. Well, I wanted to talk about your population. So obviously you care for women that have delivered babies, but they are not your only patient. So kind of your whole patient is the family because like you said before, it's a transition, a whole transition for that family. And so talk to me about just how much education new parents need.
[20:22] Tammy: Wow. I have seen a drastic change in this, and I think because now we have access to Google, the Internet, all these different things, and we've really become a very social media society. And sometimes our new patients are so hyper focused on the media part that they may not even realize what it is that they need or what their baby needs, and they just think, oh, I can Google it. Or, what have you, and you can just kind of see some of the things unfold and you just realize, like, man, I mean, I remember when I started a regular vag postpartum would be in the hospital two to three days. Now they're there for maybe 24 hours, right, and you don't know what you don't know. And so we've had some of these moms come back or then you've seen people on blogs and what have you, and they're just like, oh, I wish my postpartum nurse would have told me this, or, oh, I didn't know that I would be going through this or all these different aspects of things. And so I think we've lost touch a little bit with that bedside education. Does that make sense?
[21:40] Michelle: 100%. And being from the NICU, so I would go to your unit, to the postpartum unit, to talk to moms about starting pumping for their premature infant or their sick infant in the NICU. My audience knows I'm a lactation professional and also a NICU nurse, but I would find exactly what you're talking about. So I would go in and introduce myself and, you know, congratulate them on the birth of their baby and maybe empathize with them that, I'm sorry that your baby is in the NICU. I know that we would rather have your baby with you. And they would immediately just, like, pull out their phones, and they would be so distracted constantly by their phones that I'm sure they got very little bit of education. Yeah, and when I, you know, at first when I started doing that, I would just keep talking, and then pretty soon, I got to be like that teacher that when all the kids are talking in class, they just stop talking, and it's silent. And so I would just stop talking, and then they would look up from their phones, and I'd say, you know, maybe this isn't a good time to talk. So if you have something on your phone that you need to handle, I can come back. Oh, no, I can put it away. Okay, that would be preferable, because what we need to talk about is really important, and you need to hear this. So I totally get you about the social media thing, but along the lines of education, you guys do a ton of education. You also do a ton of tasks, right?
[23:30] Tammy: Absolutely.
[23:31] Michelle: So you do the PKU, and you do the CHD screening, and you do the bili check, and you do the weights, and it's just like, that's just for the baby. You do a lot of tasks for the mom, too. Do you think that some of those tasks can be delegated to a non-RN, like in the future, can the RN be freed up to do other RN things? What do you think about it?
[24:02] Tammy: Absolutely. However, when I started, I was a CNA initially and I did a lot of those tasks for the nurse. Yeah, I did all the PKU's on pretty much every baby that was going to be discharged that day. I remember I took out the foley, I took out the IVs, the saline locks. I got them up to the bathroom for the first time. I helped them with their peri care. I did so many of those tasks because, again, social change at that time, and this is to really date me, the nurses had to be out at the nurse's station charting their labor curves and looking through all their paperwork. Well, since computer charting has been the standard, now it's so much easier where you can be in the room and you can chart with your patient as you're like giving education, you can do a little bit of charting because each room has a computer. And so I think now they're trying to keep the continuity of care just like we'll just have the RN do it, doing a lot more tasks. And they took away the ancillary staff. Even the new hospital that I had transferred to, they had a lady who that was her job, where she did all the PKU tests and a lot of the 24 hours task type things. But once she retired, they didn't refill that position. And I think it's just because they're trying to bring it all back and have nurse-centered care. Yeah, it would definitely be helpful.
[25:36] Michelle: Yeah. I feel like we have to do something, and not just in postpartum care, but really all through nursing. I think there's so many tasks that we get tied up in that we can't do other things that are really crucial to our patients recovery and health and all of that. So I think as a profession, we need to look into that. So talking about the patients and all the tasks that we have to do, one of the things that we do is we try to help them transition into being a family and getting to know their baby. So you had said before, like, when they're so tied up in their phone and social media, they're not aware of their baby's cues, they're not aware of what their baby needs or maybe what they need. And so one of the things that I know that is really standard now in postpartum care is skin-to-skin and breastfeeding. So talk to me a little bit about the importance of those two interventions in sort of the success of the family, getting to know one another.
[26:51] Tammy: Well, the thing with skin-to-skin is that studies have shown that back to the beginning of time and this is what I've heard, was that if you ever see that picture of the number one human being and they have that kind of little peanut head, and it was because they were born at a certain time. But now, since we have grown and we're more intelligent human beings, that our heads have gotten bigger.
[27:22] Michelle: Yeah, our brains are bigger.
[27:23] Tammy: So now they say that we deliver it at nine months when back in the day, a woman would be pregnant for up to a year. So they're saying that babies who are born, they would still have about three months to develop.
[27:38] Michelle: They're like brain growth and their brain.
[27:40] Tammy: Growth and things like that. And so you can totally see it. You have this baby who has just grown inside their mother, and then now it's on the outside of them, and then you just go put it across the room in a crib?
[27:53] Michelle: So strange, right?
[27:55] Tammy: It is like when you think about the concept of it, but when you do that skin-to-skin, it just gives that little bridge in between what they've known.
[28:06] Michelle: Staying warm and their blood sugars and everything. So you just have extra things to prioritize. When you have a couple of with a baby, that's a late preterm.
[28:18] Tammy: So I'm glad that I had that background because I do know how fragile they can be, and I can be and you'll see a parent and there's just little to no awareness. It's just like, oh, look, my cute little baby out here.
[28:39] Michelle: Yeah, they're good. Boom. Fail. Yeah.
[28:45] Tammy: So we will keep our eyes on that.
[28:48] Michelle: Yeah. Well, I want to switch gears for a moment. Are you certified in OB care?
[28:53] Tammy: I am certified. And you know that word certified and terrified. I don't know why, because I was just terrified to even try to go there. I was supported to do that because I went ahead and I jumped and learned a lot. And it feels good to be certified in your specialty.
[29:21] Michelle: To talk for a moment about you might have a family or a mom that has a substance abuse. You suspect, like, there's some domestic violence or there's some neglect with other children in the family, or maybe she is not tuned into this baby.
[29:41] Tammy: Well, those are definitely issues that we do face. We actually have a screening tool that we screen all of our moms, all of our patients, not only just for social issues or substance abuse issues, but also for domestic violence, but also do they have the support that they need. We also do a depression screen on every Edinburgh.
[30:05] Michelle: Yeah.
[30:06] Tammy: And so we do that privately, and we get them the resources that they need and also be advocate for that baby. Because if I can see that you're having a deficit in what this baby needs because, you know, history of drug use or what have you, then that person does need to be supportive. So, yes, we do get the social worker, the hospital social worker involved, and then they have their protocol that they will then reach out to different authorities and such.
[30:35] Michelle: Right? Yeah. And like you said earlier, those situations can be really emotionally charged. It could mean the possibility that they go home without their baby. It can bring a lot of feelings of pain for that person if they're using drugs or if they're in a domestic violence situation. And so this time in their life where they're having a baby and it's supposed to be just such a joyous occasion.
[31:13] Tammy: And they may not have even been forthcoming to their partner.
[31:15] Michelle: Yes.
[31:16] Tammy: Believe it or not, there's been times where the partner has been caught off guard and they literally had no idea that maybe these things were happening behind closed doors. And not even just about that. Maybe the person had had extramarital affair.
[31:31] Michelle: Or there's an STD.
[31:34] Tammy: There's an STD, yes, the list goes on.
[31:38] Michelle: Very difficult situation for the family and for the nurse.
[31:45] Tammy: Or maybe the new partner had no idea that and I know this is hard to believe, but maybe the partner didn't even know that this patient had so many pregnancies and maybe didn't have her other children.
[31:57] Michelle: Right.
[31:58] Tammy: Or had had other issues before.
[32:02] Michelle: Tammy, are you saying people keep secrets?
[32:05] Tammy: Keep secrets?
[32:06] Michelle: What?
[32:07] Tammy: There's more people in the closet than just us that's doing podcasts?
[32:14] Michelle: That is great.
[32:15] Tammy: I love that.
[32:18] Michelle: Well, Tammy, I want to talk about something that's very difficult for any family and also for the providers, for the nurses, for the physicians and that is losing a mom or a baby. And I know that happens. It may not have happened to you, but I know it happened on your unit where you had a mom, you know, have a stroke. Same thing with a baby. Maybe the baby is sick, went to the NICU, passed away. You process that and kind of take us through that whole process.
[33:06] Tammy: Wow, that question the first thing that comes to my mind, I kind of chuckle is that maybe you should ask some of my coworkers, because any time that we've had this situation and I was on duty, they would give me the case, because they're like, you handled this so great. But now that you're asking me, wow, it's like, how do you just what's all the compassion that I have to give? It is very difficult. People do not realize that's not the first thing that they think of whenever they think postpartum. It's always happy times. It's joyful times. It's easy. And this is definitely not easy.
[33:56] Michelle: It takes a toll. It's not so easy.
[33:59] Tammy: It takes a toll.
[34:01] Michelle: Sometimes I think in this day and age, women are still dying in childbirth and after childbirth. And I go and I know they have lots. One of the newest inventions is the Bakri balloon, right? For postpartum hemorrhage. And so they have all these things, and the hemorrhaging protocols, but women are still dying and crazy.
[34:29] Tammy: I think the public would be astonished at how often that does happen, like you had said, I had never personally had that happen to me, but I have had to take care of maybe a father or after the fact and the new baby. It's extremely difficult. I don't think that anybody can pay for that or give you the education for that. I think you just have to dig really deep into your spiritual beliefs, just who you are as a human being, and just go with that. I think I'm just kind of with that question. It just brings back these different scenarios that I've been in, and it's one of those things where you look back and you're like, how did I how did I do that? Obviously, somebody that observed me thought that I did a great job. The father very appreciative, even had family members come back and say, this was a horrible situation, but we could not have asked for a better person. And I really don't have the answer for that. It's difficult all around. If somebody has that figured out, please hit me up on my Instagram. I don't have an answer for that. It's tough. It's not easy. It never has an easy no, it isn't.
[35:57] Michelle: And I think when you say, I don't know how I got through that, I don't know how I handled that, I don't know what people saw in me that I didn't see in myself. And I think as nurses, we are a special breed of people in that maybe we went into nursing because we had this compassion or empathy, and we've been handling crises all our lives before we got into nursing. And so when there's a crisis going on in the unit, we just kick into something familiar that we know. And in our head, we might be having a little crisis of our own, but outside we are calm, and we have a calm voice and a calm demeanor, a comforting demeanor, an empathetic touch, whatever it is, I think that's like our superpower. What is it about postpartum nursing that keeps you coming back every day?
[37:11] Tammy: So I actually had the choice of what I wanted to do. I started in labor and delivery whenever it was just in its totality, how do you say it? And we would get to work, and they would say, like, OK, we're going to put you in the NICU, okay? You're going to labor and delivery, okay, you're going to go to Peds, and then again going back to social change. Our little town outgrew that model. And so then they said, no, we're going to have to have these two separate units. And they said, well, where do you want to go? Well, of course, nobody wanted to leave or that unit because that was our home at that time. I was in nursing school, and I just simply said, you know what? I know that nobody wants to be broken off and put on the island over here, but if you work around my school schedule, I will do whatever need be. And, you know, that ended up being a blessed because I absolutely love postpartum. And the reason for that may not be somebody else's answer, but I have been doing this job since 1995, and the thing has changed with me in the fact that we get these souls in heaven and these mothers from a new life to come this side of heaven. There's not been one day that goes by that I don't hold a little baby in my arms and I just say quick prayer for its life, for its reason to be here. And there is a miracle just about the baby, but also the mother who has chosen to give birth, because there's lots of different alternatives out there. And I just can't get over the all of that. And for me to be put in this situation, to be part of such an amazing event, it's been part of my life, and I would not change it.
[39:28] Michelle: You've been blessed.
[39:29] Tammy: I have been blessed, yeah.
[39:31] Michelle: I see that you were born to be a postpartum nurse. Yeah.
[39:39] Tammy: And you know what? We never asked that question, what made you want to be a nurse? I never told myself I was going to be a nurse. I had a friend in school, and her mom wanted her to be a nurse. And we were 16. We were in our junior year. And her mom was like, you are going to be a nurse. That's the less than you do. And they had a CNA program that you could in high school. And she was just fit to be tied. She wanted no part of it. And so she asked me if I would do the program with her. And I was like, nursing. I had 16 years old, and she said, we get off campus after lunch and we never have to go back.
[40:25] Michelle: You're like, sign me up, sign me up.
[40:29] Tammy: And she had a car at that time, and I didn't. So she was like, I got the transportation.
[40:33] Michelle: Oh, my gosh.
[40:34] Tammy: We only have to go to school till lunch because these credits count, and you just go this program with me. So we were in the program, and I had to do good because it was part of my schooling. It was part of my grade that I was going to graduate. So I went through it, and I just thought, oh, my gosh. It was all like, geriatric care. And it wasn't that I didn't like geriatric care, I was just so heartbroken. I did not grow up without grandparents nearby. And I just could not believe that people could just leave their loved ones like that and the loneliness that they felt, and it really hurt my heart. I had a hard time with that. But at the end of it, I passed. I had my little certificate, and it sat in my drawer. And then fast forward, I turned 18, my parents had separated, and they went their separate ways. And here I was, 18 years old, and I needed a job that had benefits. And so I was like, oh, wait a minute. I have that certificate in my drawer. I'll just see if I can get a job at a hospital, just enroll in COS while I figure out what I'm doing with this thing called life. So I remember going to the hospital, and they showed all these different departments, and so I said, oh, anything but the OB department. Yes, anything. I'm serious. I was 18 years old, I don't know, I barely knew where babies were coming from. I don't know anything about that. Anywhere. Anywhere, please. And that's the only department that came back.
[42:16] Michelle: Oh, my gosh.
[42:18] Tammy: And I was just like and you know, the crazy thing I remember to this day, my nephew was being born, I was at my sister's side, and she had just given birth, and I got in my little car, and I went to the Kaweah to do my interview. I was so exhausted being up all night, and I just have this all my nephew being born. I was like, I'll take it.
[42:44] Michelle: Wow.
[42:44] Tammy: And so I did that, and I ended up absolutely loving it. But still, I hadn't planned on being a nurse. I like to be the helper on the unit. But I had so many loving nurses and support, and they were just like, Tammy, what do you mean? You're going to do something different? Like you're a nurse? And I was like, oh, no, I cannot possibly do that. No, no, no. And they just kind of walked me through it, and I thought, well, maybe I could be an LVN. So I was 19 years old, and I did the LVN program, and then shortly after that, I got into the RN program, and the rest, 25 years later.
[43:25] Michelle: You know, that just goes to show a couple of things that people see in you sometimes, things that you don't see in yourself in the nurse personality. And the second thing is, I interviewed my brother, Dr. Chris Patty.
[43:40] Tammy: Oh, yes. Dr. Chris patty.
[43:43] Michelle: He was so fun. But one of the things I said, and I've said this before or since, too, is that sometimes the reasons we get in nursing are not always, like, really lofty reasons, you know, like, I want to help people or whatever. There are those people that get in for that. But I was talking to Chris, and he said he was a surgical tech, and here he is, on his feet for 12, 16, 18 hours a day, handing instruments to the surgeon and taking bullshit. And he looks over in the corner, and he sees the circulating nurse reading a book. And he goes over to the nurse, and he says, how do I get your job? And he says, go to nursing school. So Chris is like, that's what I'm going to do. And a fabulous nurse is he!
[44:39] Tammy: There is no nurse without Chris Patty right now. That had to happen. That was definitely in the cards.
[44:49] Michelle: Definitely, divine intervention. And so it just goes to show more nurses that I talk to, and I say, why did you get into nursing? The more responses that I get are not lofty ones.
[45:04] Tammy: I would say, I didn't choose nursing.
[45:07] Michelle: Nursing chose you. Well, I think that's a perfect time to end our talk today. You know that at the end. I always do the five-minute snippet. So are you ready for the five-minute snippet?
[45:26] Tammy: I'll do my best. Give the people what they want.
[45:28] Michelle: You know all the answers. I will bring up my timer, and I'm going to bring up the questions. So we will just have fun with this. And it's a chance for our audience to get to know the off-duty side of Tammy, the side that I know. I know you're off duty and I know your on-duty side.
[45:51] Tammy: Let's do this.
[45:52] Michelle: All right, we will start. Favorite airport snack or meal?
[45:59] Tammy: I'm just going to go straight into it and say, a cold bottle of water, be hydrated, and not have to wait for the cart to go back and forth. And also those little nuts that they give you, and then they choke you, and you're just like you don't want to be that person on that plane.
[46:15] Michelle: You don't want to need resuscitation.
[46:16] Tammy: No.
[46:19] Michelle: Okay. Where would you go if you were offered a free trip to anywhere in the world? Free trip? Where are you going?
[46:29] Tammy: The motherland. I would go to Italy. My mother is part Italian, and it's been in my roots, and it's been in my blood and it's been in my heart and my mind. And I would go there and explore and eat all the yummy goodness that carbs had to offer.
[46:50] Michelle: Oh, my God. Just the carbs, right?
[46:53] Tammy: Yeah.
[46:53] Michelle: Well, you're going to have to talk to Dr. Chris Patty. He's been there many a time.
[46:57] Tammy: Oh, yes.
[46:58] Michelle: So he can tell you all the best places to get all the best carbs and everything.
[47:03] Tammy: Okay.
[47:04] Michelle: Okay. So speaking of food, I know you're kind of a foodie. Burger or hot dog?
[47:13] Tammy: You know what? I'm going to go hot dog on this. And you want to know why I'm shocked? Yeah.
[47:19] Michelle: Can you see my mouth right now? It's open!
[47:20] Tammy: And I think it's because I don't like to mess with my burgers. I like a nice hamburger, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, just the basic. Yeah. And so I don't really like to mess with that because they're big and they tell you what. Yeah, but hot dog, there are so many different things that you could do.
[47:44] Michelle: That's so true.
[47:45] Tammy: Yes. And different styles of hot dog, and you don't really I think maybe you eat a hot dog, like 4th of July, not very often.You don't really eat a hot dog very often.
[47:54] Michelle: Sometimes at Costco, you're in line. You're just like, yeah, ring me up one of those Costco dogs.
[47:59] Tammy: I barely had my first Costco dog ever. Yes.
[48:04] Michelle: Oh, my lady. You are okay. Have you ever eaten an insect? Like, on purpose?
[48:11] Tammy: I'm sure inadvertently, but on purpose? No. I don't like to get adventurous with that. I'm going to go with no.
[48:19] Michelle: Well, I would advise you to start now, because the way the world is going, we're going to all be eating insects at some point to get our protein in. They're going to get rid of cows.
[48:32] Tammy: Yes, I heard that.
[48:34] Michelle: Yeah. So start getting ready.
[48:38] Tammy: What would you suggest would be my first?
[48:39] Michelle: I ate a cricket and it just tasted like grass.
[48:43] Tammy: I could absolutely not ever eat a cricket.
[48:45] Michelle: It was dead, but it just tasted like grass.
[48:54] Tammy: But crickets are good bugs. No, can't do it.
[48:56] Michelle: Okay. Coffee or tea?
[48:58] Tammy: I'm a tea drinker.
[49:02] Michelle: You're drinking tea right now out of a Frosty the Snowman mug.
[49:06] Tammy: That's something I learned about myself. I realized that I liked herb tea, and once I started, I couldn't stop. And I used to joke and say, I love tea so much, I should be British. And then we did our ancestry.com and I'm like, 40% British. Yeah, I'm blood.
[49:23] Michelle: Okay, we got 35 seconds. This comes from WTF. If humans came with a warning label, what would it be?
[49:37] Tammy: Don't take me to heart.
[49:40] Michelle: Oh, wow.
[49:41] Tammy: You know, I used to take things personal, and now I realize it's more about them and their heart then it has anything to do with me.
[49:51] Michelle: I've been reading a ton about the ancient Stoics, and that's one thing that comes through in their teachings all the time. It's not about you, it's about them. Don't take it personally. Our timer has gone off.
[50:10] Tammy: It's been a pleasure.
[50:11] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. It's been an absolute pleasure. I wish I could do all my interviews in my closet. It's so different seeing you face to face.
[50:21] Tammy: It is an adventure. It's been a while and I just thought, you know, I want some human face to face contact michelle yes. Well, we can make it happen.
[50:30] Michelle: Me, too. Tammy, thank you so much. I appreciate you coming on and telling our audience about everything postpartum. Well, you have a great rest of your day.
[50:41] Tammy: I will, and appreciate it.
[50:44] Michelle: Take care. Bye.