Rapid Response Nurse and Podcast Host, Sarah Lorenzini

[00:00] Michelle: Pablo Picasso said, "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."
Sara Lorenzini has a life filled with both meaning and purpose. She is a rapid response nurse who utilizes her knowledge and storytelling skills to educate nurses in various critical care aspects through her podcast, Rapid Response RN, which has over 120 episodes. 
In the podcast, she effectively breaks down complex concepts such as cardiac tamponade, spinal cord ischemia, and serotonin syndrome, all with an exuberant score of ten out of ten. 
Sarah's commitment to education extends beyond her podcast as she mentors students, nurses, and allied health professionals in their roles. She believes that saving patients is a team effort, and as a rapid response nurse, she sees herself as there to elevate and support the bedside team. Sarah embodies kindness, empathy, and leadership, qualities she also encourages in others. She is truly living out her calling and embodies her gift and purpose. In the five-minute snippet, Sarah is bonkers for Boba. Well, good morning, Sarah. Welcome to the podcast.

[01:45] Sarah: Thank you. I'm so glad to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

[01:49] Michelle: Well, I'm so happy that you're here, too. You were referred by Annie Fulton, who is the podcast host of Up My Nursing Game. 

[02:00] Sarah: She is such a great friend in the business. There's not many nursing podcasters out there, so we reached out to each other very early on, like, okay, we need to be buddies here.

[02:10] Michelle: Stick together, right?

[02:12] Sarah: Absolutely.

[02:13] Michelle: Yes. And so she was great, and she said, "You have to have Sarah on", and you are the podcast host of the Rapid Response RN podcast. And we'll get to all of that. But first, I wanted to start out by finding out a little bit of who you are. Who is Sarah Lorenzini? What is your story?

[02:36] Sarah: Sure. Well, I've been a nurse for 20 years. I started my career in the ER at the ripe old age of 19. I did dual enrollment in high school, so I finished my nursing degree earlier than most. So I was very quickly made preceptor, charge nurse. I was a charge nurse before I could even drink alcohol legally yet. So I was, like, in charge of the whole department. And I couldn't actually go drink alcohol at my own. Yes. I just love ER nursing. I never went to nursing school with the intention to be ER nurse. I wanted to be, like, labor and delivery or pediatrics or something. But in nursing school, I got a job in the ER as a nurse tech or, like, a CNA in the ER, and I just fell in love with taking care of patients and their families that are in crisis. I was like, man, I love this. I'm fairly good at this. Maybe I should be an ER nurse. I kind of surprised myself, and I love ER nursing. And then as I got more and more experienced, I found out that I also love teaching ER nursing as much as I like doing ER nursing. And so I was very heavily involved in the onboarding of all of our new grads in the department. Decided to go back and get my master's degree in nursing education. And in grad school, all of my professors were like, girl, you need to work outside of the ER. Like, you cannot be teaching med surg nursing and. And not have worked anywhere besides ER nursing. So I went and worked in the cardiac ICU. Did that for a while. Loved cardiac ICU. The nerdy side of me got to really, like, dig in deep to the path, though, and I, you know, like, really pour over the labs and everything. I love cardiac ICU, all the gadgets. And then the hospital at the time had a rapid response team, and I was asked to be on the rapid response team. You know, background ER nursing and cardiac ICU was just a great combo to be a rapid response nurse. I did that for a while. Finally finished that darn master's degree. I was a nursing professor for a whopping one year, and I loved every bit of the students and the teaching part. It was like the office hours and the faculty meetings that I just was not ready for. I am just like, go, go, go, go. And that was just too much sitting for me. And so then, actually, the nurse who was the charge nurse when I was a new grad, became the director of the ER, and he called and was like, hey, I need a nurse educator. Come join me. Be a nurse educator in the ER. So I left my professor position, became the ER nurse educator. Man, that was a great job. It was, like, all my favorite things, right? I get to teach about nursing and do it a lot as well. It was such a good job. And then did that for about five years, and then Covid hit and everything changed, and I did not want to keep teaching donning and doffing of PPE. I wanted to be in the trenches with my team. And the hospital that I work at currently at the time, did not have a dedicated rapid response team. So, like, when a rapid response was called, when there was emergency. On the med/surg side, the ICU charge nurse would have to leave the ICU and go manage the emergency, which was okay until Covid. And, like, everyone's sicker. The med/surg patients are sicker. The ICU patients are sicker. Everyone's intubated. It was just not a good picture. And so I went to nursing leadership and was like, listen, we need a rapid response team here. Can I start one? And they said, yes. There's a little more to it than that. Much more data abstraction and looking at the finances of it all. But I did convince them. They said yes. So I started the rapid response team. That was fall of 2020. And so now I'm no longer officially the ER educator. I am a rapid response nurse. And then I miss being an educator. And so I was talking with my husband. I was like, man, I miss being the educator. Like, it's still running through my veins. I want to teach, but in this rapid response role, it's so busy. There's often not time to, like, sit down with these new nurses and explain to them the rationales behind what I'm doing. And I missed that. And my husband's like, why do you start a podcast? And the nurses can, like, listen to it on their drive to and from work. And I laughed because I am. I'm, like, the least technically savvy person you've ever met. Like, I barely know how to use my cell phone. Like, it is a struggle for me. But with the help of YouTube and some people I know in the business, I started a podcast, never with the intention of it being like a business. For me, it was more just like, I still love teaching and I still wanted to get back to the profession. And I needed an outlet to be able to teach because there wasn't as much time for it in my role at the hospital. And I wanted to highlight the nurses that were doing a great job. I really just envisioned it being a local thing. Listen to our rap response nurses podcast so you can learn about things that are happening in the hospital. And it blew up. Clearly, there was a need for a nursing education podcast about emergencies. So, yeah, my podcast is called rapid response rn. Every episode, I share a real life story of a real patient I encountered, obviously HIPAA appropriate. I'm not giving patients names and identifications on the podcast. And then I use the story as a bridge to break down the pathophysiology and the pharmacology and the nurse's role in managing that patient. And it has been so rewarding. Such a huge joy in my career to create these episodes. And the best part of all is not just like, oh, I have 120 episodes under my belt. No, the best part is when nurses message me and say, I listened to episode 52 and I had the exact same patient, and I knew exactly what to do. I was prepared for that emergency, and I could advocate and I could jump into action, and I saved a life. I'm like, yes, it was worth the hours I spent in my podcast closet creating this thing to help some patient on the other side of the country that I'll never meet. So it's been. It's been such a joy to be a podcaster. I did not go into nursing thinking I'd have a podcast. Podcasts weren't even a thing in 2002, whenever I started school. But I really have enjoyed this journey. So I've been podcasting since maybe like, November of 2020 is whenever I launched the podcast. Yeah. And now it's big. I have 120 episodes and, like, 45,000 downloads per month. It blows my mind how many people have found the podcast, like, around the world. But I'm very, very humbled, and I feel very grateful for the opportunity to give back to my profession in this unique way.

[08:59] Michelle: Man, it is, it is. It's just one of the best things, I think. And, man, you have a lot of energy, Sarah, I love it. I love it. And I think you're perfect for all those things, for teaching, for doing what you do as a rapid response nurse, as an emergency room nurse, and as a podcaster, because half the battle is, I guess, in your knowledge base, you need to have a knowledge base. You need to have an experience base, which you do, but you also need to be able to communicate that well. And I think that it comes across really, really well in your podcast, in your instagram. Yeah, I just think you're a natural born leader and, you know, a natural speaker and communicator. All of those things are coming, coming through. And, you know, one of the other things you did is you write. And so I was looking at some of your content from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses blog, the AACN blog. And one of the articles that really stood out to me was Staying Calm During a Crisis: Managing Yourself in an Emergency. What you said was the most prevalent response I've encountered, and one I have personally struggled with, is freezing. This state involves an inability to recall patient information, difficulty processing instructions, and a general sense of being overwhelmed. And that was me. That was me, for sure. And I had to really work on that, but talk a little bit about that kind of what we can do as nurses to mitigate some of those things that we go through in an emergency.

[10:49] Sarah: Sure. So, again, I've seen this in myself. So, this is where this all started, right? Is seen in myself, and then I've learned strategies to overcome it. And then when I became a rapid response nurse. So now I'm seeing every emergency that's happening in the hospital and every nurse's response, and I'm recognizing this is a common thing for nurses. They know so much. They know their patient's history. They know, like, what they're in the hospital for. They know the last set of vital signs, and then the emergency happens, and they just, like, freeze, forget, can't speak. So it's a common thing. So, actually, my very fourth podcast was about managing yourself in emergency, because I would hear so much from nurses. Sarah, how do you stay so calm? How are you not freaking out right now? How do you handle this? And so I wanted to, like, give back to my colleagues and, like, really deep dive into it. But again, there's emergencies happening all the time, and I can't always stay. So I made the podcast episode for that very reason. So a little backstory. I am just like everyone else. I'm not, like, special. I do have the same response to emergencies as everyone else. Like, my heart races. My hands are shaky. I feel like I can't catch my breath. I, too, have a hard time, like, focusing. I am. I'm nothing special. However, I have learned over the years that those sensations that my body is interpreting are actually signs that my sympathetic nervous system is kicking into gear. And we often want to misinterpret that as something that's, like, harmful or hindering our ability to function. Like, oh, my gosh, I can't breathe. All my hands are shaking. I can't draw this medication up. Oh, my heart's racing. I can't do it. But actually, our bodies are wired to respond to emergencies. So if I saw a bear. Oh, yeah, my heart would be racing. My blood pressure would go up. My hands would shake a little bit, because there's epinephrine and norepinephrine dumping into my system. And that's because my body's helping me to run away from the bear. Right. It's not hindering me. It is helping me in the moment. So when we experience an emergency for our patients, our body doesn't know that I'm not being threatened. It's the patient's life. That's being threatened right now, but my body has the same dump of hormones, and so now whenever I feel that dump, you know, I can feel the shaking. I feel my heart racing. Oh, gonna take a deep breath. When I feel that, I say, oh, it's go time. My body is kicking into gear and helping me be the best nurse that I could be for my patient. We know that when the sympathetic nervous system is activated, your vision actually gets better. Your ability to process information speeds up so much more. You are physically stronger. So, like, I'm 5'3", 120 pounds, but, man, I can get a patient up off the ground when my SNS is kicking into gear, right? I can do a full minute of CPR because I am stronger and faster and sharper. I can notice the little changes in my patient's skin and, like, their vitals. Like, I can just notice the differences in them all the more so when I feel that, like everybody else, instead of saying, oh, my gosh, I can't do it, I say, okay, I feel it. Whoo. My heart's racing. Ooh, my hands are shaking. This is my body helping me be better. So I just had to take a deep breath, slow it down, and kind of focus on the task at hand. And I think it really is, like a mental shift more than a physical shift. I have a hard time controlling my body. I can't really, like, make my heart rate slow down unless I, like, vagal down or something, but I can mentally and emotionally choose. I'm not gonna freak out about this. I'm not gonna be scared of my hand shaking. I'm not gonna be scared of my tachycardia. I'm not gonna be scared of this shortness or breath I feel. I'm just gonna breathe into it, and I'm gonna focus. Right now, when I run to an emergency, I literally, I book it across the hospital. But right before I enter the floor that I'm about to, you know, respond to the emergency, I stop, take a deep breath. I kind of tell myself, like, you got this, Sarah. Like, this is what you're made to do. You've prepared for this. And then I enter the room. Now, we don't always have time for that. Sometimes we enter the room, we find a pulseless patient, and we have to just, like, kick into gear. But it is important to take that extra 2 seconds to kind of center yourself, to get in the right mindset so that you can be the best version of yourself, of your patient, rather than the frazzled freaking out. I can't do this version of yourself. So this is not something that you can just, like, make a mental shift. And here we are. I fixed it. Oh, this takes years of practice. I've worked on this for years to overcome my own, like, overreactive sympathetic nervous system. But here I am 20 years later. I feel like for the most part, I've got it down. I definitely make mistakes. I definitely have times when I'm not my best version, best version of myself in an emergency. But for the most part, I've kind of learned to hone or, like, reinterpret those sensations to help me be better for my patients.

[15:38] Michelle: Yeah, that's fantastic. And you're absolutely right. It's a skill that you have to hone, and it takes time, for sure. And I'd love the reframing that you did. You know about when we feel all of those sensations in our body, how we've kind of been trained, like, that's bad. And to reframe it as, hey, my body is preparing to do all of these things, like, you know, have better vision and be stronger and be more focused. And that's a great message for nurses. I love that reframing. There was another blog that you did that I also just wanted to comment on because I thought it was really great and it was Exploring the World of Rapid Response Nurses. So you said, contrary to popular belief, the life of a rapid response nurse is not a continual sprint from one code blue to another. And when I read that, I said, that's so true. But that might be what most nurses see, right? If the rapid response nurse is not providing any education or not hanging around after the incident to debrief or things like that, they might be viewed as just like they're putting out fires, right? And I certainly saw that in my own institution when we first formed a rapid response team because I think it was just so new and nobody really knew what to do. And being a nurse mostly PEDS/NICU. Sometimes I would float to mother-baby, and we would have incidents where moms were bleeding or the blood pressure was really high or the patient started seizing and we would call the RRT and the team would come, and sometimes it was kind of a punitive thing, like, why didn't you call us sooner? Or you didn't really need to call an RRT on this patient, and then they would just leave and we were kind of left, like, oh, God, this doesn't feel good. So, thankfully, our team came up to snuff really quickly, and then we had critical care educators and clinical nurse specialists, and they delved into all of that education. But just maybe comment on my observation.

[18:03] Sarah: Sure. Yeah. So I have a big, like, visceral reaction when you say that, that a rapid response nurse was either dismissive or rude when they showed up. Because here's the deal. If the rapid response nurse has that, like, condescending vibe when they show up, that actually harms both the patient they're responding to and future patients. And here's why. If I show up and make you feel stupid for calling or make you feel stupid for not calling earlier, you're going to hesitate to call every time in the future. And so that means future patients are going to get later responses from a rapid response team. I love responding to emergencies, but I love preventing them as much as I love responding to them. So, yes, we put out fires. I also like to take preventative measures to keep the fire from ever brewing. So whenever I hire nurses for the rapid response team, as a supervisor, I look for not only clinical competence, like, yes, you have to know your stuff, you have to be a CCRN or CEN, and, yes, but it's also a certain personality type. I look for the preceptors, the nurturers, the ones who love to give back to the profession, the ones who like to teach, the ones who are humble, the ones who are compassionate. That is the face I want to show up to the emergency. I don't care if you're the smartest nurse in the hospital. If you're rude, I'm not interested in you being a rapid response nurse. I would rather take someone with only three years of experience that really loves to invest in nurses. Cause I can teach you all you have to know to be a great rap response nurse. Clinically, I cannot teach kindness, empathy, leadership. Like, some of those things really take you. I have to have it, like, intuitive, I guess I can teach leadership, but the compassion and, like, the vibe you give off, that really is something you have to have internally. So I'm super picky with who I hire. A lot of people want to be rapid response nurses. It seems like such a sexy job, right? And it has its moments. However, I don't just want someone who's, like, wants you to sling up an effort and do CPR. I really want people who recognize that their role is just as valuable clinically as it is from an education standpoint. We provide a lot of education as rapid response nurses, and we have to be able to do that in a way that's going to build up our team. So the idea of, like, step aside. Rapid response is here. I hate that. With a passion. What I love is, hey, guys, how can I help? What's going on? How can I help? Because that is how I see my role. I'm here to support and elevate the bedside team. This is their patient. They know them better. I'll just bring my skills and my background and my knowledge to support, but I'm not going to stomp on anybody or make them step aside. This is a team effort. And, man, we all operate better with that mindset. And in times where I have felt like someone's judging me or being condensing towards me, it really makes it hard to function at my max capacity. But when someone thinks I'm awesome or is grateful for my advocacy, oh, yeah, I operate at my best in that moment, and so why would I not want to show up with that supportive mentality? So that we can all be best for this patient. So, yeah. Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry. I had that experience with rapid response team, but I have worked so hard to shift that culture in our hospital and support the bedside nurses. We've done several interventions to kind of, like, shift the hero dom off the rapid response nurse and put it onto the bedside nurse, who. They're the ones that recognize the patient was declining. They're the ones that spoke up and advocated. Like, they need as much praise and accolades as the rapid response sponsors who was there for 20 minutes. Right? So we do several things. Like, we have this thing called the lifesaver award. So when a nurse or nurse tech or patient safety center recognizes the patient's decline and they speak up on advocate, and they're, like, a crucial part of this patient's save. Oh, we do. Like, they get a little pin on their back, we take pictures of them, we put it on Facebook. It's like, a big deal because we don't want it just to be like, whoa, the rapid response team.

[21:56] Michelle: Wow.

[21:57] Sarah: No, no, no. This is a team effort. I say all the time on the podcast. Saving lives is a team sport, and it's such a privilege to do it together. I could go for a while with show, but the silos between departments, too. Like, you know, when the ER is bashing the floor, the med search is bashing the ice. I mean, I cannot stand that. I cannot. And so, however I've worked in all those different areas, however I can to, like, slash that, to squash that, like, old toxic culture. It's really important to me that we work together as a team interdepartmentally. And then, you know, like interprofessionally, obviously between the disciplines. But, oh, yeah, I could go on, I could do a whole podcast about this, but, well, that comes through.

[22:40] Michelle: Yeah, no, your advocacy for team, you know, team spirit or whatever you want to call it, comes through in your podcast all the time in your Instagram. And, you know, I love that you have a part in hiring, you know, people for your team because I think that says a lot about your personality and knowing the pitfalls or and knowing the strengths of nurses, it can only make your team better. And I love that you guys are empowering those nurses and making them the heroes. And, you know, those are some of the soft skills, those are some of the things that go into the realm of emotional intelligence that sometimes you can't teach those. You just, somebody has it or they don't have it. But yeah, definitely by the time that I retired, our team was just amazing, you know, like your team. And I think it was just growing pains. So. Okay, well tell me about the Rapid Response Academy.

[23:47] Sarah: Oh sure. Okay, so I am an extrovert, like extreme on this extrovert spectrum, okay. I love people. I love interacting face to face and imagine how hard that must be for a podcaster, right? I love to be with people, but to do my podcast, to create this type of education, I have to go by myself in a closet and record and edit. And it's so like solo work. And for some people that's awesome. For me, I'm like, oh, I want to, I love teaching. I can interact with the person. And so I was like, man, how? I'm like brainstorming. How can I mesh the podcast with that like live teaching element? I have nurses from across the globe, but how am I going to get with them? And that's how I came up with Rapid Response Academy. So it really is basically like podcast 2.0. So every podcast is like, I don't know, 15 to 30 minutes. It's quick, it's succinct. I just kind of get to the point but there's no interaction. So I'm just teaching what I think people want to know, but I don't know. I'm not like talking with them while I'm doing it. So in rap response academy, every single week I go live for an hour. And because of the Internet, we go live together. So all the nurses at Rapid Response Academy can log in live. I teach live. I have all these very detailed slides that I create with like visuals that would go along with, you know, say the podcast but it's all different stuff than just the podcast. It's its whole thing. So it's either me sharing or sometimes I'll have guest speakers that log in and teach. Like last week we had Sarah Vance taught about twelve lead EKG interpretation, which was so good. So yeah, so nurses can log in, they get to hear from me live. They get like mentorship, which I love, mentoring nurses and supporting nurses on every stage of their career journey. So. But not, they're not only learning from me, they get to learn from each other too. Like there's things that I do not know. Like we have oncology nurses in the group that know so much about drugs I have never even heard of, and they can speak to that. We have critical care transport nurses, we have other rapid response nurses. There's ICU nurses, there's ER nurses, there's medicine nurses. Like all types of nurses in rapid response academy, it has been so cool to learn from them and like to see them supporting each other. So in rep response Academy, yes, there's the weekly go lives where I teach there. All those are recorded and made available to you to watch, you know, at your leisure, whenever you want to, as many times as you want to. All of the slide decks from my teachings are available for download to review later or have a copy of. And then there's this whole community aspect. It's kind of like discord meets Facebook, where you can like jump on and ask questions and then other nurses can chime in and answer your question. So there's like a heart of nursing, we call it circles where nurses can share an experience they had that kind of reaches the heart of nursing. How would you guys have handled the situation and had this difficult thing with a family, with a patient, an ethical issue? How would you guys deal with this? And then there's also the science of nursing. Like, look at this EKG, guys. What is this thing? Look at this patient's lab values. What do you think's going on? Like, it's cool to see other people chime in besides me and answer nurses questions. So the idea that like a nurse from Australia can be talking with a nurse from Ohio and supporting each other, dude, it gets me chills to think about. It's just so cool. So yes, that's rap response academy. It is an academy. It is a monthly membership, it is live teachings every week. It is also like community support, mentorship kind of all meshed into one. So yes, I absolutely love it and I'm so glad that I did it. It's been such a joy.

[27:19] Michelle: That's so cool, man. What a fantastic resource. How do nurses access that?

[27:25] Sarah: If they go to my website, there's like a whole tab and they can learn more about it and sign up.

[27:30] Michelle: Okay, cool. I'm going to put all those in the show notes.

[27:33] Sarah: Okay. Thank you.

[27:34] Michelle: Yeah. So on Instagram, you told a story in one of your stories. You're such a great storyteller. And in the five-minute snippet, we're going to have a little story time, too. But you told a story about someone in the elevator at your work, knew who you were, and saw you responding to RRT's all over the hospital, hoping one day to be as good a nurse as you. And your takeaway from that was, everybody is watching. And if we could, like, rewind my nursing life, that was a lot of what I said to senior nurses, to newer nurses, to nonnurses, everybody is watching, and just always be aware of that and act accordingly. Was that your message that you wanted to get out?

[28:26] Sarah: Yeah. I mean, everyone's watching, not just, like other nurses, right. This. This woman was a phlebotomist who aspired to be a nurse one day. And so how I interact with the phlebotomist, with all the ancillary team members who might one day choose to pursue nursing because of something that I did, and even, like, patients and family members, like, we are constantly on display representing our profession as a whole. And so I take that seriously. Like, we need more nurses. So I'm going to make nursing look freaking awesome and enjoyable. I never want to be seen, like, being negative or, like, complaining about nursing. I mean, yes, there's definitely some aspects that can be frustrating, but I want people to always hear that patient care is a privilege and a joy. Yes, documentation sucks, but the actual patient care stuff, I love. I had another encounter. I haven't shared it on the podcast yet, but I responded to a woman who was choking, and she had some developmental delays, and so she had a sitter that was with her, non medical, but just a support person that kind of stayed and helped redirect her for safety purposes. Anyway, so I responded. She was choking and she went to cardiac arrest, and she, like, fell into my arms. And again, my SNS kicked in. Little ol Sarah picked her up, threw her in the bed. I don't know how I did that, but threw her in the bed, jumped on the chest, started compressions. Then I see chicken nuggets coming out of her mouth because she's choking and my compressions are pushing it out. So I reach in. I'm like, throw the chicken nuggets out. Doing CPR. I think we probably did CPR for like 1 minute. Not even a long time. We got a pulse back. The woman lived is the moral of the story. Okay. Two years later, there's a nursing student, and she's like, oh, Sarah, Sarah, hey, do you remember me? And that's like, the question that I'm like, oh, my gosh, how do I. I'm like, remind me how I know your face. Remind me how I know you again. Cause again, I see lots of people, right?

[30:23] Michelle: Yep.

[30:24] Sarah: She's like, do you remember there was the cardiac arrest, the woman who was choking? Remember that? I was like, oh, yeah, I remember that. She goes, I saw you and what you did, and I was like, that's nursing. Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna go to nursing school. And here I am. I'm a nursing student now, and I'm gonna be a nurse. And, like, I didn't even recognize that she was in the room, right? I showed up, there's someone choking. I threw in the bed. I did compression. Got it. Pulse back deep with the team. I did my job. She's watching the whole time. She's like, oh, that's nursing. Oh, man, I wanna be a nurse now. So, yes, people are always watching, and so let's represent our profession well.

[30:58] Michelle: Love it. Well, as you said earlier, so you just published your 120th episode.

[31:05] Sarah: Yes, it came out today.

[31:06] Michelle: Dang, that is awesome. I love everything about your podcast. I really loved episode number 107, Nurse Stories from NTI 2024. So just talk about what NTI is. And was there anything surprising from the feedback from the nurses from NTI?

[31:25] Sarah: Sure. So NTI is a huge nursing conference put on by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. I go every year. It is not only really good, up to date, evidence based education like presenters from all over the country, it's also just so cool, the camaraderie of being alongside thousands of nurses who are like minded from across the country. That, to me, is just as valuable as the educational content. So, yeah, I love going to NTI. And then this year was my first year, I actually had an expo booth at NTI, this huge purple pop-up display with my face on it. And then I was able to get to, like, meet and greet the nurses who listen to my podcast all over the country and kind of hear their stories. I did, like, little mini-interviews. And I guess the big takeaway from the nurses that I talk with is, like, the heart of nursing. Like, yes, we all love the nerdy science stuff. Like, of course, why else would we go into healthcare? But I think at our core, we are all driven to want to care for humans and to want to be with people who are suffering. And so to get to hear that over and over again, like, yes, I love the ICU. Yes, I love the gadgets. Yes, I love the pathophys, and I love all that. And I apply all that so that I can care for people. I think that was kind of the biggest takeaway is just to get to hear that from my. From my audience and, of course, to get to meet people who are like, your podcast has helped me so much. That really is very rewarding for me. Whenever I'm alone by myself at 11:00 p.m. editing a podcast, I'm like, no, it's for that nurse in, you know, the UK who's brand new and struggling to understand the patho/phys. And I get to, you know, provide a podcast to support them. So, yeah, that was the big takeaway. NTI. NTI is great. I recommend it to any nurse. Again, not just for the camaraderie, but also for, like, the clinical nuggets that you walk away with. Love, love, love NTI.

[33:14] Michelle: Yeah, I really loved hearing all the stories and just your energy. I could tell it was really fun to be there and, oh, yeah, yeah, definitely love that. Very cool. Okay, well, what. What kind of experience do I need and how much if I want to be a rapid response nurse?

[33:34] Sarah: So that's going to be, you know, different hospital to hospital. At my hospital, we decided upon three years of experience in either critical care or ER. So if you worked five years med/surg, you just been in the ICU for one year, you had to have three years in the ICU or three years in the emergency room. In addition to that clinical time in a critical care environment is also your CCRN or CEN. So critical care registered nurse or certified emergency nurse, those letters behind your name don't make you a better nurse. But the time you spent studying for that test, I feel like, reflects positively and your commitment to the patients and to, you know, constantly updating your knowledge and your professional development. So we required that you have one or both of those. So that's minimal. And then, of course, you have to have, like, the personality type that can lead and support and teach. So that's what we require. And then nurses that tell me, hey, I want to be a rapper sponsor. It's like, what recommendation would you have for me to be a rapid sponsor nurse. My biggest recommendation, outside of just go work in critical care or emergency room, is you need to become a resource in your own department before you can be expected to be a resource for the whole freaking hospital. So, like, what are you doing to give back to your own department? Are you a preceptor? Are you a charge nurse? Are you a super user in this area or that area? Are you teaching classes? What are you doing to give back already? How are you already supporting nurses? Because if your own department sees you as a resource, likely the rest of the hospital will, too. But if you're not really interested in investing in the small, one single department that you work in, then I would not expect you to do much more for the whole hospital. And so becoming a resource is, like, the biggest recommendation I have there. And then also kind of prioritizing the softer skills that you had mentioned. Like, yes, you have to understand acls and how to assess critical patients and how to manage a ventilator and how to titrate drip. That's important. But how can you read the room? How can you lead a team of people who are all scared to respond succinctly and effectively for the patient's best outcome? Those skills are ones that you kind of need to chew on, think about, work on, because, I mean, acls, I can do it in my sleep, but every time I show up to an emergency is a new challenge with the team dynamics that I have to be able to overcome or work through or guide, direct, whatever. So those are also some skills I think need to be kind of tweaked a little bit before feeling like you're prepared to be a rapid response nurse.

[36:08] Michelle: I love it. I'm a big fan of your message. Start at home, right? You know, your goal might be to become a rapid response nurse, and you have your eyes on that. But, you know, start at home and become a leader in your own community there at work first. I think that's a real gem. So thank you for that. Yeah, yeah. And thank you for all of your gems today. My gosh, there's been so many. I just. I'm so glad that you came on to tell my listeners all the great things about what you do and how they can access your resources. And, you know, you like Annie. She told me about FOAM, right? Free, open-access medical education. And I think it's so important that we promote that. And definitely, you know, her podcast, her Instagram, your podcast, your Instagram, those are all accessible by anybody, anywhere, and we can really learn from you so thank you so much for all you do, because it's not easy, especially the tech, right?

[37:27] Sarah: No, it's not easy at all. For an extrovert like me that wants to be talking to me. It's not easy, but it's worth it. It's worth the time.

[37:34] Michelle: I love it. Okay. Is there someone you recommend as a guest on this podcast?

[37:39] Sarah: Oh, man. You've already had a lot of the really good ones, right? You've had my friend Annie. You've had Sarah Vance.

[37:44] Michelle: Sarah Vance is coming out next week.

[37:47] Sarah: Yeah. Kali Dayton.

[37:49] Michelle: So I'm interviewing Kali next week.

[37:51] Sarah: Okay. Okay. Awesome.

[37:53] Michelle: I know.

[37:54] Sarah: My friend Nick McGowan is also awesome to talk with. I can send you his contact, but he is a rapid response nurse, ICU nurse out of California. And he also teaches CCRN prep courses, but he's. He's a fun guy to chat it off with, for sure. Super smart. Yeah, those would be some good starts. But there's. Oh, gosh, there's so many great people in nursing right now. That's, like, the beauty of the Internet is these nurses that I would have never meth. I now get to connect with on, you know, Instagram or however. It's so cool. Like Sarah Vance. I was just scrolling, and I saw her video. I was like, oh, that's good. That's a good breakdown. I was like, oh, my gosh. Her name is Sarah, and she's a critical care educator, and she has a nose piercing. Oh, we need to be friends. The two of us need to be friends. I just messaged her, hey, we have a lot in common. We should be friends. And then we're quite good friends now, which is awesome. We've been, like, hours and hours away from each other, so, yes, there's a lot of great people out there.

[38:47] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. That's such a pleasure. One of the pleasures of podcasting is you get to meet so many cool people, and I feel very fortunate to have met all the people that I've talked to, and you, of course, today. So, again, thank you for coming on. Where can we find you?

[39:05] Sarah: So, my. Probably Instagram's the easiest way, right? I'm 
@therapidresponsern around Instagram, not because I'm the only one, but because rapidresponsern  was already taken when I tried to make an account. So I have to be @therapidresponsern, and that's also my handle on TikTok as well. And then my podcast is called Rapid Response RN and you can handle on any podcast player. My website is rapidresponsandrescue.com. and from there you can read, like, my bio and learn about rapid response academy. I also have, like a 1 hour mini-course that people can take. It basically is just an introduction to how I approach emergencies, both mentally and physically, how I respond and, like, jump into action when, you know, time is critical. Where else? Those are kind of the big ones. But Instagram is where I. Where I hang out the most. I'm not much of a TikToker. I have a couple YouTube videos, but again, it's video is a whole other beast that I don't at the moment have time for working two jobs and having five kids.

[40:04] Michelle: Right?

[40:05] Sarah: But yes. So I'd say Instagram is probably the best place if you wanted to DM me there.

[40:09] Michelle: Cool. I'll get that in the show notes. And I love your Instagram. Love watching you.

[40:13] Sarah: Yeah.

[40:14] Michelle: Okay. Well, we've reached the end, Sarah, and that means we're ready for the five-minute snippet. It's just five minutes of fun. You ready?

[40:22] Sarah: Ready. Let's do it.

[40:23] Michelle: Okay, favorite crochet stitch.

[41:04] Sarah: Favorite crochet stitch double crochet, because I can do it without thinking.

[41:09] Michelle: All right, cool. My grandma tried to teach me how to crochet, and it didn't go well, so I'm jealous.

[41:18] Sarah: I'm a busy body. Crochet is like a struggle for me, but it helps me actually sit still and, like, focus on, say, a movie or some sort of task or something. It's like a joke in my family that mom is either sleeping or crocheting during a movie because I cannot sit still and watch a movie for long enough without falling asleep because I have to be busy all the time. I love crocheting. It's been kind of like an odd side hobby for someone who's as, like, go, go, go as me. But I really do enjoy it. I've made a ton of scarves and blankets, and that's the extent of my skillset.

[41:54] Michelle: And you live in Florida, right?

[41:55] Sarah: And I live in Florida. I know, I know.

[41:58] Michelle: Okay. I'm at a party, and I see you talking to a group of people in the corner. What are you talking about?

[42:06] Sarah: Oh, my gosh. Anything or everything. My kids, most likely. I could just. I have five of them, so there's always something going on with the kids that's, like, endearing or funny or, you know, of value in some way. So probably talking about my kids or bragging on my husband. I have. I married, like, the best guy in the world. He's such a. Such a saint just for putting up with me, but, yeah, probably talk about my family.

[42:30] Michelle: Okay, favorite item in your fanny pack?

[42:34] Sarah: My granola bar. I carry a lot of stuff, but I usually have, like, a little snack for whatever lunch is, like, taking too long to get to, you know, it's 03:00 p.m. and I still haven't eaten. I got my granola bar ready to go.

[42:47] Michelle: I love it. I love it. Okay, favorite tattoo.

[42:52] Sarah: Oh, man. Okay, so the one on my left arm, people can't see it in the podcast, so I'll describe it to you. It is a nightingale bird, like Florence Nightingale. And the bird is kind of holding a lantern in its beak. All of the classic imagery of Florence Nightingale. She's holding a lantern, caring for the soldiers in the Crimean war. And then there's a scripture passage right underneath it. It's Ephesians 4:1. And that passage says, "live a life worthy of the calling you've received." I feel very called to be a nurse. And so this whole. It's like a bird with the lantern and, like, flowers and the passage all kind of mixed together on my upper arm, and I put it there. It just has a constant reminder of what I'm called to do as a nurse. It's not just a job that brings income for my family. Like, I'm grateful for the income, but it's also something I'm called to do in this world. And so just living a life, doing this role with excellence, knowing this is what I'm called to do.

[43:46] Michelle: That's beautiful, Sarah. I love that.

[43:49] Sarah: Thank you.

[43:49] Michelle: Okay, favorite Boba tea.

[43:52] Sarah: Oh, gosh. Jasmine green tea is probably the best one, but when I'm in a funny mood, I might get something sweeter. But jasmine's like my go-to.

[44:00] Michelle: I haven't tried Boba yet. I'm gonna have to.

[44:02] Sarah: Oh, you're missing out on.

[44:04] Michelle: I know.

[44:04] Sarah: Oh, good. It's like, Boba tea brings me so much joy. I know it's ridiculous, but I just. Every time I get one, I'm like, oh, it's gonna be a great day. I just love Boba tea. It's like my special treat. Oh, gosh.

[44:15] Michelle: Okay. Favorite Power Ranger and why?

[44:18] Sarah: Oh, goodness. To be honest, I did not watch Power Rangers growing up. Um, my rapid response team, our hospital does, like, a big Halloween trunk or treat event. And so we decided collectively, we're going to be the Power Rangers. What? Really? They decided we're going to be the Power Rangers. And so they were like, well, you're the leader. You're Red Ranger. And I was like, okay, sounds great. What's Red Ranger like? They're the leader and that's you, so therefore you're Red Ranger. So I guess that's my favorite. But I couldn't really tell you too much more about the other character attributes. Sure, Red Ranger I will be.

[44:52] Michelle: I love that post. And I did look up because my daughter watched that growing up, and I was like, you know, who is the Red Ranger? And says, usually the leader of the team. So I said, well, that was perfect for Sarah. Yeah.

[45:06] Sarah: It was also a really fun costume to wear and to see all of us dressed in our, like, homemade diY.

[45:12] Michelle: Oh, my God, costumes.

[45:13] Sarah: That was such a fun night. And we won. We won the costume of the year prize or whatever. So, yeah, it was a blast.

[45:20] Michelle: That is fun. Well, I'll tell you what, you are one fun person. I love your energy and I love your mission and your purpose. I think all of those things are so important in nursing. And of course, your skill and your knowledge, your intelligence, all of those things matter. And thank you again, Sarah, for coming on and just sharing yourself today. I really appreciate it.

[45:50] Sarah: Thank you for the opportunity. You know, I don't always get to share, like, my backstory, like, my origin story or like, my heart on the podcast. It's still, like, pathophys heavy. So this is a treat for me to get to share. So thanks for giving me the platform and the opportunity.

[46:03] Michelle: Yeah, it's been a real treat for me, too. So have a great rest of your day.

[46:07] Sarah: Thank you. Same to you. Bye.