The Intuitive Nurse, Jennifer Johnson

[00:00] Michelle: The current state of healthcare, especially under the strain of a pandemic, has put immense pressure on those in the field. Nurses are burning out in record numbers and leaving a profession they used to love.
My guest this week, emergency room nurse and author Jennifer Johnson, is on a mission to bring back the love. And it all starts with intuition.
Jenn is known as the Intuitive Nurse, and after working 16 years in the emergency room, she's honed her intuition, trusting her gut when assessing patients.
But she also uses her intuition in another way. She is reaching out to fellow nurses and offering them hope through her book, Nursing Intuition: How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity, and Survive Your Career. Channeling her own experiences and the collective struggles of many makes it profoundly meaningful. The challenges she's faced and the empathy she has for her colleagues shine through. And by sharing her experiences as a top critical thinking voice on LinkedIn, she's helping create a sense of community that is desperately needed right now. 
In the five minute snippet, what goes up must come down.  Hey, good morning, Jenn. Welcome to the podcast.

[01:37] Jennifer: Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.

[01:40] Michelle: Well, you're welcome. We have already been chatting before I hit the record button and laughing, so this is off to a great start.

[01:52] Jennifer: There needs to be laughter. Always, always, always. Life is way too short to draw.

[01:58] Michelle: You are post night shift, post nap, highly caffeinated. We're both in our closets. What's the matter? Okay, well, you're here today to have some fun, which we've already started, and to talk a little bit about some serious things that you're doing, because you're doing a lot. And we'll touch on all of these during the interview. You're an author, you're a mentor, you're an emergency room nurse. You're the CEO of A Nurse in the Family, which I want to talk about. So there's a lot. But let's just start at ground zero. Talk about your emergency room history. What's that like? How'd you get into it? All that good stuff.

[02:53] Jennifer: Yeah. So I've been in it 16 years now. LinkedIn wanted to send me a notice that a buddy of mine had been in that 16 years, and I'm like, oh, we graduated at the same time. I thought I was only doing this 14. And so I look it up and I do the math. I'm like, oh, God, it's been 16 years. So it's been 16 years of ER through ER's both big and super, super small. I'm talking like one RN for the ER department small and then up to trauma centers and stroke centers and that kind of thing. Yeah, just kind of coming at it from all angles. And where I started it was so small that there was only two RN's in the building that were working as nurses. So one of us was for the ER and then one of us was for the floor with our 14 beds plus two RPN's and that was my start in emergency medicine and it was a very, very small rural ER. And you know, looking back I'm just like, oh, I could've gotten into so much trouble. Like had something come in that was out of scope without me kind of getting my feet wet a little bit first could have been disastrous. But thankfully with the time that I had, especially on night shift, sometimes not a soul would come in on the night shift. So I thought well I'm going to do some education and get some knowledge going and so got a critical care certificate and my ER certificate and yeah, just kind of the vibe of the ER very much matched my personality which is kind of go, go, go and putting band aids on the big issues and in and out and let's go and that kind of thing. So I went from there and we moved back down south southern Ontario and went to a much larger ER stroke center and completely found my people. From just being me in the ER to then having I think ten or twelve other RNs surrounding me and everybody of different backgrounds and educational, like everybody was getting their masters and upgrading and people have been there like lifetimes and I'm like oh well that's fantastic, so let's learn. And so just the hilarity from that moment on was just nonstop. And so whether it was from that emerge or to our pediatric emerge or back to a different trauma center, it's been a wild ride.

[05:43] Michelle: Wow, did you go into ER nursing right out of nursing school?

[05:47] Jennifer: So when I first graduated I had met my husband, my now husband prior to graduating because the town was deemed underserviced by our government. For every year I worked full time hours, I got one year's tuition back. So I thought well I'm going to make this work for sure. And he already had a house and he was established and he was the paramedic supervisor. So I was like absolutely, we're on the right track kind of thing. And so there were only two places to go. It was either when you worked in the hospital, you either worked on the floor or you worked emerge and you would flip flop. So those doing full time, you just go back and forth as to like, okay, day one, you're in the ER. Day two, you're on the floor. If you're on a third day or night, you go back to the ER. Like, you just flip back and forth. So there wasn't really even a choice per se. But as much as I didn't enjoy working there, it was my introduction to emergency medicine. So I can't, can't fault them for that one.

[06:51] Michelle: Wow, that's fantastic. And, you know, I can just tell by the way that you're talking that you have a real passion for emergency nursing. And what's the best thing about it? What do you love about it?

[07:04] Jennifer: I love taking somebody who's super, super sick and watching them turn around in a few hours time, especially pediatrics. You know, as unfortunate and as hard as watching kids be sick is, man, they turn around fast. Holy cow. I've seen quite a few, like, damn near on death store and fluids, a little bit Advil, a little bit tunnel some time, some antibiotics, and within, man, like, yeah, two, 3 hours. All of a sudden, they're laughing and they're kind of perking up, and they're joyful, and you're just like, this is not the same kid that I just saw a few hours ago. Like, this is insane. How is this possible? And so it just became this obsession with trying to see, like, I love me a good glow-up story. So anything like Miss Congeniality or Home and Garden where you're flipping homes, and it's all this transformation. I love a good before and after. So, for me, emerge is a fantastic place for a very quick within the shift, if not within the few shifts turnaround for people, because a lot of people around here, you're not getting a bed up on the floor for a good 24 to 72 hours. So if I'm doing a couple in a row, I actually get to kind of see you through the day, be like, oh, look at you. You look so much better than you did before. That's fantastic. You know, and then the family goes, oh, you were here last night. I'm like, oh, I was here last night. Holy. I was here. I was here. And he made me. He made me work for it last night. But look how good you look today. So that's. I find so much satisfaction in that.

[08:57] Michelle: That's very cool. And then you're like, now get the hell out.

[09:02] Jennifer: !00%. Treat them and straight em. Bye. If you've got that patient, that really, really, you know, uptight family member who. There's no pleasing them no matter what. You could be coding somebody and they're the ones at the door looking for a warm blanket. You know, heaven forbid you get one or two of those in a shift, and it just, you know, murders your empathy. And. But then you're like, okay, bye, see you. You're getting a bed on the floor. Guess what? Bye. So it's like, yes. Okay, we'll make note of that for next time. Because, you know, we get a lot of, not necessarily bounce back, but just constant in and outs. We've got a very high elderly population where I'm at. We've got a huge influx of retirement homes, and they're looking to build more nursing homes. So it's just a very elderly area. So the urosepsis runs rampant.

[09:56] Michelle: Yeah, well, that's crazy. And, man, you have me chuckling there. Just, you know, just remembering all the ins and outs of nursing specialties. And, you know, I interviewed Emily Brown, another ER nurse here in California at Stanford, and just hearing the same things, you know, it just seems so pervasive in that specialty and definitely a certain personality for it.

[10:26] Jennifer: High energy, very completely untreated adhd, 100%. Not one of us can get a diagnosis. I don't know why. Pretty sure we all live on caffeine and hatred, and I love it. Not one of us can get a diagnosis.

[10:46] Michelle: All right, so night shift ER nurse, and yet, you know, a lot of people would, you know, in the nursing community, they would say, wow, long time night shift ER nurse. You know, jaded, you know, cynical. But then you have this side to you that is very compassionate and very intuitive. In fact, you know, on LinkedIn, you are the Intuitive Nurse, and you've actually written a book, which is pre order now, and maybe by the time this airs, it's going to be out. You can tell me that. But you are the author of Nursing Intuition, How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity, and Survive Your Career. So who is this book for? And can you give us a synopsis of it?

[11:38] Jennifer: Yeah, so, a, I'm very sorry if my MacBook air is all of a sudden putting out. I don't know if you can hear my MacBook air. Go. But here we are, old technology at its finest. So Nursing Intuition came about just actually, during COVID I remember listening to a podcast from, or not even a podcast, but Lillooet, which is a spiritual kind of holistic book publisher in the United States was putting on online book tours, which was fantastic. You know, you could finally, you'd listen to these authors talk for half an hour and you could kind of get a feel for their book. And if you were interested, you could buy it. If not, you got a little bit of a, it's like little mini nuggets of information here, there and everywhere. It was fantastic. And the one book was nursing or, sorry, Intuition at Work. And I just kind of stopped. I said, intuition at work? I'm like, of course I use my intuition at work. Like that's. I use it all the time. And I'm like, wait a second. I wonder if there's any, like on a lark, I wonder if there's any, you know, evidence based practice to pack this up and so do a little digging. Go here, there and everywhere, and God bless Google. And multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple scholarly articles, peer reviewed based evidence based practice material just raring to go. Not only have they proved intuition with evidence based practice, but especially intuition and nursing, and even more so, intuition within critical care nursing. And they figure it's more that critical care nurses just don't have the time to second guess themselves. So they just go with these gut feelings, these snap judgments, and they just follow them without really questioning where they're coming from. So they end up honing their intuition a little bit more sharply than somebody who has got the time to hem and haw and go, well, I don't know if that's right or, oh, the vitals are fine right now, but, you know, I just don't know if they look okay. But, you know, something in my gut is saying something's wrong. And so, honestly, the only thing I hope to get out there is just that. Just trust it, just go with it, because the evidence back you up, even if you're wrong. And you get your physician to take a second look at that patient, that patient's mortality and morbidity improve like your patient outcomes improve just by the physician seeing them and having another look at them. So even if you're wrong, you've still improved patient outcomes, which is fantastic. So the book is, you know, started out as a trauma journal during COVID and, you know, just kind of a summary of all my crazy cases from the emerge that I could kind of rattle off from the top of my head. And then the intuition portion just seemed to be a common thread. And I'm going, okay, well, how many times did I use intuition? Like, did all these cases? Like, sure, okay, yeah, like, let's link all this together. And, you know, why not just put it out there? Because why not, you know, if it's peer reviewed based evidence, we're supposed to be learning it and it's, it's supported, so why not fully go for it, go fully crazy lady and just put it out there for the world? And so not only is it the intuition and the education portion, but it's also me laid out on a platter. If I ever need another therapist, I just hand them the book and go, here's volume one. I'm going to save you some time. Here you go.

[15:12] Michelle: Here's a bit of easy reading. Right, right.

[15:15] Jennifer: It's just, it's super fun. It'll be an easy read. It's great. Just have at her. It's fine. So, you know, it's just, it's just me and it's a little all over the place, kind of nearing the end, which, again, makes complete and total sense. But, yeah, it's, it's pretty much, it's more so aimed at your student nurses, your newer grad nurses, those who are coming into it and are completely overwhelmed with absolutely everything that you actually have to do in a twelve hour shift, let alone what you're expected to do. And it's just a way to give you more support and let you know that this is more than just a 03:00 a.m. conversation where we're all joking about that time that somebody said that they didn't have a good feeling about somebody and, you know, they turned out to be right. And then all the other stories start coming out because the more I talk about it, the more my coworkers talk about it. And then it's like, man, this is a theme for sure. Like, why aren't we teaching this? It's time. We gotta, we gotta just take the woo totally out of the bag and just go for it.

[16:22] Michelle: I love it. Yeah, I was reading, you know, your synopsis of it and, and just hearing you talk right now, there's so many things that, you know, as a longtime NICU nurse that I can totally relate to in terms of the intuition. And, you know, we had a lot of new, like, neonatologists come through that were, you know, maybe they'd only been a physician for a couple of years, you know, out of their fellowship or residents or whatever. And, you know, nurses, you know, they would go through all of their steps, like, of course, you know, that's what they have to do. And they're so analytical. And when you've been a nurse for such a long time, and you've seen so much, and you've learned to hone the skill of listening to your gut, honing your intuition. You can say, no, this kid doesn't look good. This kid is not right. There's something wrong here. And it would just be so, you know, you never want, obviously, you never want a kid to be sick or anything like that. But if you're trying to get to the heart of the problem and, you know, you've used that skill and you're right, it just feels really good and. Yes, absolutely. And that's so cool that there's a, you know, peer reviewed literature on this skill and honing this skill and the other things, you know, that would happen are the new nurses, the student nurses would just kind of be in awe. Like, how did you know that? And it's like, even sometimes we can't explain it. Right? It's like, I just had a feeling. I just. I just had a gut feeling. I've seen this before, whatever it is. So that's great. I'm excited for your book to come out. And as we said, so today is July 29. Yeah.

[18:28] Jennifer: 29th.

[18:29] Michelle: And it's on pre order now. I saw that.

[18:32] Jennifer: Pre order.

[18:33] Michelle: Yeah. And then when is the actual debut of it and where will be able to find it?

[18:39] Jennifer: The release date is November 1. If you want to go full woo. We've. It's just me. I need to stop saying we. I consulted an astrologist to say, like, hey, what do you think? And we went through my birth chart and fully went full woo on it. So November 1 is also one, one, one which in spirit and numbers is like new beginnings. That's also a new moon. I'm just like, I hate to wait that long because it could be available on Amazon tomorrow. And I've already waited two and a half years with my publisher, and unfortunately, my publisher kind of backed out at the last minute. But again, this patience has got to be a skill. Everything happens for a reason. You know, I'm trying to wait. I'm trying so hard. But if you are on Reedsy, Reedsy.com, you can sign up to be a beta reader. And so I've got it in three days. So August 1, you can be a beta reader, and you can have access to the full book and then do a beta read for me and give me your thoughts and go from there.

[19:45] Michelle: Oh, cool. I love it. Okay. I love anything Beta.

[19:49] Jennifer: Yeah.

[19:50] Michelle: I love that format. So that's cool. And I'm going to make you a bookstore on bookshop.org, and we'll put your book in it. Yeah.

[19:59] Jennifer: Yeah.

[20:00] Michelle: It's really fun. It's. I love bookshop.org.

[20:04] Jennifer: So cool.

[20:05] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. You got to get on there. It's a conglomeration of lots of small mom and pop bookshops everywhere.

[20:15] Jennifer: Oh, that's so cool.

[20:16] Michelle: Yeah, it's very cool. Okay, well, you mentioned earlier that this book is geared towards every nurse, but in particular, new nurses, student nurses. And. And, you know, you mentioned mentoring, and you are a mentor for new nurses. And when I think of mentors, you know, I think of. I think back to this quote, and I don't know who said it, but it's. "Be who you needed when you were young." Right. And in terms of, like, childhood trauma, things like that. And I feel like mentors for nurses, you know, we need to adopt, "Be who you needed as a new nurse." Right. And I will speak for myself as a new nurse. Back in 1986, we didn't get a lot of mentorship. It was kind of like, hey, sink or swim. Here's, you know, here's your unit. You're a nurse now. You have authority over things. This is your scope of practice. And, you know, I was 21 years old and didn't know what the hell I was doing, so. Yeah, so talk about the importance of mentorship and how we, as seasoned nurses can mentor nurses just coming into the profession.

[21:44] Jennifer: Yeah. So that quote makes me want to tear up so hard just because my first five years were just probably the roughest in my career. Not just from a standpoint of getting started and getting your feet wet, but just the bullying was just horrific. You know, I still, to this day, don't know what I did to this woman. Probably nothing, but she just had it out for me, and she was the one making the schedule, and so she'd schedule you double backs, even though our union says that you do that. She just, you know, schedule you one night, one off, one night, one off, one night, one off. Like, all nights on the weekends. Like, just had it in for me. And to be fair, she had it in for a lot of people, but just, you know, being in a situation where there was really only one other rn to kind of bounce ideas off of, and they might not even be beside you. So calling up to be like, hey, like, I don't know about this or that, you know, it felt like it was super frowned upon. Like, why don't you know that already? You're graduated. You're new, like, you should know this, like, I don't understand. And there was no support whatsoever. So it's kind of become a mission where I refuse to let anybody be eaten up, like chewed up and spat out. You know, if I hear that it's happening, it's stopping. If it's happening inside, like beside me, you better believe I'm going to take you aside and say something. There is absolutely no reason to be doing it. There's absolutely no professionalism behind it. And, you know, it's just flat out completely beyond the times. And, you know, the fact that it was an accepted behavior for so long is just heartbreaking because I can't even imagine how many fantastic nurses have been pushed out of, you know, jobs, if not entire careers, because of people. And it hurts my heart. And then you get into today's day and age where its like our roles and responsibilities are way further than they were back in the day. The 1940s and fifties where you're just kind of the assistant, and now the advocacy, the knowledge base, the skill base, the specialties, everything is just huge. So, you know, I can't imagine not being there for, I want to say kids. I want to say kids so bad, but they're adults, you know? You know, but you just for me personally, I feel like, come here, come here. Let me protect you. Let me take you under my wing. Let me teach you all of the things that it took me 16 years to learn. Let me try and save you an ounce of pain. Here's all my mistakes. Please learn from them. And, you know, I want us to work in a place where we're very open, we're very easygoing. Nobody's super critical of each other. If you're having a hard time, somebody's volunteering to help you because they see you like, not just because they see you drowning, but it's just a habit to ask. Hey, you okay? Hey. Okay. Hey. Okay. You know, that's the key. And we continue to talk about, you know, the nursing crisis and what's going on with that, and it's got to come from the ground up. It's going to take years to a decade to fix, if not longer. And the only way it's going to get fixed is if you support people and grow them and care for them. And maybe we change a couple of stereotypes in nursing. Sacrificing everything to be a nurse and that's what makes you a good nurse does not make you a good nurse. That makes you folly for burnout and ethical fatigue and moral fatigue. And all the things, you know, realizing that you were a person. Yes, you are a nurse, but you are also a person. And you're your own person. You're going to have your own thoughts and feelings and ideas, and sometimes they may be a little kooky and off the wall, like nursing intuition. If you come at me with some science, I will 100% stand right by you. So, you know, as long as we can support one another and come away from eating each other alive just for the sake of feeling like, you know, I'm the big man on campus because I've been here umpteen years and I know what I'm doing and you don't. And I already know you're feeling bad, but let me kick you while you're down. It's just not acceptable anymore.

[26:19] Michelle: Yeah. I'm so happy to see that changing. You know, I think if you stay in it long enough, I've said that, you know, if you stay in anything long enough, you're going to see waves, you're going to see patterns. And definitely when I got into nursing, like, way back in the day, and it really was in the day in the eighties, right. It was. It was very much like you said, just kind of, hey, you're a nurse now. I don't know why you don't know this, but you just got to get up to snuff and. And there's a different vibe today. It's one of, you know, mentoring. It's one of, you know, I almost want to say what we say a lot in postpartum, you know, because we have a lot of moms that come in that weren't mothered well. And we say, you know, part of our job is mothering the mother. Right. And I feel like that, you know, like you made a gesture, like, come here. Like, I want to, you know, I.

[27:24] Jennifer: Just want to keep you safe from the people.

[27:28] Michelle: It's just this instinct that we know how rough it can be because we've lived it, and we want to protect our new generation of nurses from going through that. So I love that. And I love that you're a mentor in addition to already so hard.

[27:47] Jennifer: Why are we making it harder?

[27:49] Michelle: Right. Like, let's make it easy. We need the easy button. That's what I always say.

[27:54] Jennifer: Seriously, honestly.

[27:56] Michelle: Yeah. And so in addition to being a mentor, you're also a healer, and part of your bio, you say, "My gift is helping to heal." And so what are we as nurses? What do we need to heal from, and how can we heal?

[28:14] Jennifer: Ooh, that one's deep, Michelle.

[28:17] Michelle: It's pretty loaded, huh?

[28:21] Jennifer: How do we heal? So people compliment me on my glasses, which they're super kooky and I love them, and I like to retort with, thank you very much. I've decided I'm entering my villain era. And so the era of I am no longer working for the corporation, I am no longer overextending myself, I am no longer saying yes when I want to say no. I am no longer picking up the phone when I know it's work, calling for short shifts, and I feel weak in the moment and might say yes when I really need a day off. I no longer making excuses when I actually do pick up the phone and they say, oh, do you want to come in for nights? No thanks. And just, that's it. There's no excuse. There's no, oh, my God, I'm sorry. There's no more I'm sorries. If I can do it and I'm up to doing it, I will come in. If not sorry. I'm in the era of saying no and saying that my mental health trumps the floors issues and realizing that it's not my job to staff the entire department, it's not my personal physical problem to be there to staff the holes. That's not my problem anymore. So it was never my problem. It was never my problem. But it is not my responsibility to fix the staffing issues in my department. You know, this whole, the scheduler is using guilt to, oh, they're too short. Oh, no. You know, all this kind of.

[29:57] Michelle: Aren't you a team player, Jenn?

[30:00] Jennifer: Really? What else do you have to do? Do you, you know, what do you mean? You've been drinking. It's, you know, it's still 2 hours before the shift, you could come in and you're like, no, like, are you kidding me right now? You know, and it's, it's a little easier when it's a scheduling team that's calling. It's not your buddies who are trying to fill the shift because I've been there before when it's just the nurses, it's part of the nurse's job to, to fill the shift and they're calling out and you're, you're, again, you're doing anything you can to try and get people to come in and, and it's not the way it needs to go. So how you heal is to finally realize that it is not your job to fix nursing. You are more than a nurse. If you were to be stripped of your nursing title tomorrow, would you be somebody who would be absolutely left on your knees? Because that's how you identify. And truly, I'm one of these people. I catch myself, and it's been years of me trying to come away from identifying very quickly as a nurse because it lends itself to a little bit of power, a little bit respect. You know, you get, you know, your typical questions of like, oh, what's the worst thing you've seen? And I'm like, I don't think you want to hear that, my friend. I don't think you want to hear about those days. But it's, it's time that my life matters. I'm already sacrificing so much mental energy, physical energy, spiritual energy, just in the fact that, like, I am taking these patients home sometimes and whether I mean to or not, there are memories of certain patients that are sticking and they're, they're not going anywhere. So they're, they're part of my, my team where, you know, these are just my patients that, you know, we, we didn't win. We definitely lost. But, you know, something about them or their families stuck. So, like, my first death, which is talked about in the book, was supposed to be just a routine, scheduled c section. And, you know, I was a student nurse. I was fourth year. I thought, oh, you know, I've seen a couple c-sections now. I've been on the floor for a while. Things are fine. And, you know, the mom's telling me, oh, I just pass out with needles, like, just as an FYI. And sure enough, she did. And, you know, it was a second c section. It was totally routine, or it was supposed to be. And we get in there and, you know, they of course, put me at the head because I'm just a student nurse. What am I going to do? Just stay out of the sterile field kind of thing. And, you know, the bells and alarms start going off and people's voices start getting a little bit louder, and I'm going, okay, well, that's. I'm not sure what's going on. And she starts talking about seeing God and, you know, that she's okay and that she's going home and, and all this kind of stuff. And again, as a fourth year, I'm like, no, no, no, no. You're going to be fine. You're going to be fine. I'm telling you, you're going to be fine. And she ends up having an amniotic fluid embolism and codes. And so that's my first code as well. And, you know, traumatic as that is, you know, watching that, we. We did get her back. We shipped her out to the nearby cardiac hospital where she died later that afternoon. And, you know, you're just sitting there and they gather everybody up in the nursing station. They're like, oh, wait, okay, well, just so you know, you know, great work this morning, everybody. But she died. Part of me, and it was like my whole world just was rocked. And it was all I could do to, like. But I told her, I. I told her she was going to be fine. I told her. I gave her my word, like, that she was going to be fine. And they're like, do you want to go home? Like, yeah. Yeah, I can't be here right now. Like, my mind's gone. Like, I'm out in left field now. So it just. It was one of these that we'll never forget. Went to her funeral with my preceptor, and, you know, in the blooming ages of Facebook, ended up somehow. Somehow connecting on Facebook with the family and, you know, knowing that it was like, it's probably not what you're supposed to do, but I'm a student, so I'm gonna just go for it. And, you know, you want that follow up. You know, I want to see these. The girls grow up. I want to see how they're doing. I want to see them flourish. I want to see, you know, it's. It's super selfish of me to want to see them grow up and be happy and. And all that kind of stuff, but. So her chapters in the book, and I actually reached out to the family and to the dad, and I said, you know, here's her chapter. But then again, here's the whole book. I said, if you do not want me to say a word, if something's wrong, like, I will exit. Like, I will cut it out so fast that you won't even. You won't. Don't even worry about it. Never mention again. And he was so thankful to have her memory lived on 17 years later. And so he's. He just. He's like, yeah, put in all. He said, put in her name, put in all of the correct information, because I changed things a little bit. And he goes, put it all in. I said, are you sure? He goes, yeah. I said, okay, done happily. I said, you will get first copy for sure. So, you know, those patients and those experiences that stick with you. So it's not just a job. There's so much more to it, and it's so much more complex than nursing school would have you think it is. You know, we're not just saving the day 365. We're carrying a lot of emotional stuff, as well as growing and failing and succeeding and failing again. So it's time that we heal. And the easiest way to do that is just to start saying, no, we need some boundaries. It's about time that we all had boundaries.

[36:07] Michelle: Well, I mean, I can hear the emotion in your voice, and I can see it.

[36:16] Jennifer: Not to cry right now.

[36:17] Michelle: Yeah. I mean, like you said 17 years ago, and it's still right there. And I just. This could be this story of a nurse talking about a traumatic death and how she managed it could be replicated millions of times right through the nursing community. And has it helped you to write about it and to talk about it? Has that helped your own healing?

[36:50] Jennifer: Oh, it's been life changing. Like, I I thought I'd always wanted to write a book, but, you know, it's high school, and then real life happens, and it kind of gets tossed to the wayside, and then you're so busy writing papers in university that you're like, I'm never writing again. And so this was the first time that I had sat down and wrote anything for, you know, ever. It's been so long. Never was really anybody to, like, journal per se. So this. It was just so cathartic and, you know, hard taking those stories and, you know, we condensed them down to the two minute funny. Haha, you know, sharing our stories around the circle at, you know, 03:00 a.m. kind of thing, and going back and sitting in it and going like, okay, like, what do I remember happening? And let's, you know, expand on some things and what did she say and what way did that happen? And what did I do and what did I hear? And to, like, sit back in those. Those rooms was tough, you know, because it's so easy just to like, boop, we're just gonna push it down and we're not gonna talk about it. And because, you know, back in the day, we don't talk about things, you know, there was no debriefs. There was no, hey, how are you doing? There was no EAP, like, employee assistance programs. There was no, you know, if you reached out for help, oh, you're so weak. Like, oh, my God, what are you doing? Like, this kind of thing. Whereas now, the first thing I say to people when I either get, like, a new orientee or I see somebody who's new to the unit or whatever, I'm like, hey, get a therapist or two, please and thank you. You may also pick up a drinking issue. I'm sorry about that. But we all cope in different ways. Get the therapist.

[38:41] Michelle: That's great advice. Yeah, get a therapist. And I think, gosh, so, you know, I've talked about it on this program before that I've had a therapist since I was in my twenties and I just turned 60. Yeah. You know, it's just sometimes you just need that help to get through some of these things or get insight into, you know, what's going on in your heart, in your mind, in your soul. Because we deal with a lot of heavy stuff and we can compartmentalize it and laugh it away. And I think that sometimes, you know, that leads to our being hardened or jaded and, and we're not those people. You know, that's, that's a shell, that's a protective mechanism, right. To.

[39:30] Jennifer: So much so. Yeah, so much so, so.

[39:33] Michelle: Wow. I love that you are doing that. I love that you are in that role as a healer and starting with yourself, right? Like you can't heal anybody if you still got all those demons. And so, you know, start with yourself and then move outward. I love it. And you talked about journaling. And again, I've been a journaler, you know, all my life. I find that that's a really good way to process things. And so you have an Etsy store. First of all, I love Etsy. I know. Since the beginning.

[40:09] Jennifer: Yeah.

[40:10] Michelle: And so in your store you have journals, planners and you have these inspirational cards. And when I saw these, like those spoke to me because I'm that person. I'm that nurse on the unit that finds inspirational cards and leaves them at the desk of the nurse sitting next to me or puts it in their little mailbox in the break room. Yes. I love that. I love doing that. And so one of your cards just really spoke to me and it's super cute on the front there's like this sweet graphic of a bunch of puppies. And then you read the message and it says, "I am free to be my goofy, weird, authentic self. Everyone else can go fuck themselves if they don't like it." And I was like, Jenn is speaking to my soul right now. I love it. But tell me what we can find in your Etsy store.

[41:11] Jennifer: Oh my God. So the Etsy store has got my journals. So they've got a death journal. So it's a, it's got prompts for kind of working through some of your most recent deaths or deaths that are really kind of sticking. And it's got five spots to, to journal about them. There's the wellness journal, which is kind of, again, just your general, how am I doing? More prompts, more like, I'm trying to make it easy on you. I understand we all have no time in a day, but if you want to take just like 1 minute, look at the prompt, be like, okay, this is, you know, maybe the shift sucked, but was there one, one thing that I was grateful for while I was grateful we were short staffed or I was grateful that we were fully staffed, or maybe I'm grateful we were only short staffed? One, you know, was I, was I grateful that I can breathe easy? Like caring for a bunch of COPDers? Like, thank God I can, I can breathe without pain and a nice deep breath when I want to. Thank God I'm not sitting in the bed next to them. You know, thank God I can go to, I can take medications and sleep in my own bed when I'm able to, kind of thing. And then there's the hundred shifts planner. So the idea for that kind of came up with all of the skills that they don't teach nurses when they first start, which is all the soft skills, which, you know, nobody wants to focus on the soft skills, but it's building resilience, it's gratitude, it's watching your skills grow. So especially starting out early, you know, we're going to make mistakes and we're going to have little wins. But the little wins are so quickly forgotten that when you're having a really rough day and either you've made a mistake or just things aren't going your way or somebody's freaked on you, I'm hoping it's a patient, not a staff member, and you're just kind of really down on yourself. You go like, I can't do this. I'm not learning. I don't know what I'm doing. You can go back into the shift journal. And so it summarizes a twelve hour shift, you know, did you have what went well? What didn't go well, what memos? Did I kind of want to look up of things when I had a chance, when I got home, did I drink enough water? Did I get a food break? Did I, how many steps did I put in? Were we fully staffed? That kind of thing so that you can go back and you can find the little wins. Like the little wins are, you know, you advocated for a patient or I, you caught something early and then that kind of changed the trajectory of healing. You were able to talk to the patient, you realized that they actually needed a little bit more social work than actual medical care. So you were able to get that social work referral, you know, doing all these little niggly things that can, in a moment, feel like nothing, but really, you put them together, and all of a sudden, oh, look at me go. And then you have a hard day, and you're like, okay, this hard day sucked. But I can advocate. I know what this medication was. I was able to titrate this medication without having to go back 16,000 times. I was able to go back only five times and check the titrations. And I knew what this medication group was for, and I knew what that medication group was for, and I knew the outcome of this, and I remember the pathophysiology of that. And if we keep track of the little wins, we can. We can better support ourselves through the really shit days, because there will always be shit days. So. But, you know, coming out of school and getting slapped in the face with reality and people and their emotions and their baggage and their baggage triggering your baggage, you know, all these things where, you know, the book helps you identify triggers, you know, what kind of things really aggravate you? Well, that's actually something you should look in yourself. So for me, it's. It used to be addicts, you know, like, it boggled my mind as to, like, you're going through so much physical and mental pain. Like, I don't understand why you can't get clean. You know, we've thrown so many resources at you, and you got more frustrated the more times you saw this person through the years. And you watch them go down this hole, and you watch their family kind of waste away. And you're like, I can't understand how you can't see this. And in reality, you take a step back and you're like, you have no idea what they've been through. You know, you watch enough Intervention, you're like, you don't know what they're trying to numb from. You don't know how that even started. You don't know. You know, maybe their family puts on a really good front about being supportive, when really they're the problem. And here I am vouching, oh, you should go hang. You should stay with your family. I have no idea. So it's like, I need to be very much aware of that. Everybody's got trauma, and everybody's got a ton of backstory, and there's no way that I'm going to understand even one 10th of their backstory because it's not like anybody could understand a 10th of my backstory. I mean, they may because of the book now, but, you know, you never know what's going on with somebody. And so it's taken a few years to kind of, like, come to terms with it. But I'm getting better, recognizing that, you know, sometimes people want to be helped and sometimes people don't. And it's not up to me to just roll in and save the day. Sometimes it's just up to me to make sure that they're safe for the next 12 hours. And that's not satisfying, it's not fulfilling, but it's what I'm there for.

[46:45] Michelle: Yeah, I love that. And journaling, you know, like I said, I've done it all my life. And I think for me, the purpose of journaling is like getting all those thoughts out of my head and onto paper. But for me, again, more importantly, it's the ability to go back and look at where I was and to see the growth. And by the way, I love journal prompts because sometimes when I sit down to journal, it's just like, there's so much in there that it just can't come out. And to have a prompt, it's like, oh, okay, cool, I have stuff for this. I can write about this. And one prompt will prompt me to think about something else. So it's great. I love it. And I love your Etsy store. It's so fun. And you and I had talked before this interview about Jen Crow and her site, Nurses for Nurses, right? And I was like, Jenn, you need to meet Jen Crow. And you're like, that's so yesterday. I've already done that. And I went on that on her site last night and I saw all your stuff on there. I was like, yo, man, I'm late to the party.

[48:01] Jennifer: No, no, no. So she texted me or she emailed me and she just had updated. She's like, hey, just take a peek. Like, make sure it looks good. I'm like, everything you do looks fantastic. And I'm just so pumped to be, you know, on, to have another avenue to help because again, like, it's not about leaving the bedside because I don't ever actually see myself leaving the bedside. I'd love to live comfortably at part time at the bedside, but for me, I belong at the bedside. That's, that's just one of those things that I really like it and I really enjoy it. And watching people helps. And I can't see walking away from that, you know, there's been times where it's tough, and then you're like, you know what? I'm getting out of this. I'm doing something else. But the idea was never to get rich or to have a full time income through Etsy. But it's just, please, please heal. Please. And then supplement my income.

[49:08] Michelle: Yeah. Again, I've always said nurses don't do it for the money, right? Yeah.

[49:13] Jennifer: And you're doing it for money. You are going to burn out so hard, and it is going to leave such a scar, and you are going to be so jaded that I'm actually really sorry for you. I hope you find a corner of the nursing world that you actually really enjoyed.

[49:29] Michelle: Yeah, so true. And we also don't do it for the applause. I've said that, too.

[49:34] Jennifer: I'm lucky if I get a thank you once every six months. I am lucky, and I usually have to push for it.

[49:41] Michelle: And don't you covet those? Those thank you cards that you get that have your name on it. Like, I have all mine that I've kept. Yeah.

[49:49] Jennifer: I should have been taking photocopies through the years. I really should have. Because, again, like, you take those thank you cards, you stick them in the book and you go, hey, look, again, this was this family that I helped, and this was a win, because you forget about the little wins. It's just. Oh, that was just another Tuesday. You know, it wasn't some cool, crazy story that I'm reciting a hundred plus times over my career. You know, you get maybe six to ten of those, but you don't. You so forget about, like, oh, well, I just recognize the sepsis early, and we got antibiotics and we got fluids. And off of that, you know, the gentleman that had a very large stoma who was on the medical floor, and they called a code. And so me being me, I booked it over there. And I had actually had this patient the week prior. And so the wife was primarily the one managing, suctioning his secretions, and he was pneumonia. And so everybody's kind of standing there and just kind of looking, and the sky is damn near pre code. Like, moments from pre code. And without even thinking, I'm like, boop. I pop off the little top and I, like deep suction and, like, just gobs, phlegm come out and you see him. All of a sudden the color starts turning from that gray to white. We're kind of going to. Red-y, purple-y. Okay, now we're actually kind of moving towards pinkish, pale-ish pinkish. But we're away from, like, that death-gray. And it's just like, everyone's just kind of looking at me, being like, how'd you know how to do that? I'm like, what? I'm like, my first. One of my very first jobs was as a home care nurse for somebody with a trach. And we used as a cough mechanism, and so I would deep suction them, like, three, four, five times a shift. Like, no big deal. And everyone's just, like, looking at me, and I'm like, was I not supposed to do that? But, you know, it ended up being that. I know that that gentleman lived for at least another couple of months. I don't even know. He might have even gone home. But of course, I don't get the follow up because I'm out of circle of care, you know, I don't. I can't just check up on him. Which, man, I wish there was a better way to, like, close loop communication that, like, hey, your intervention did great things, so he was able to go home kind of thing.

[52:15] Michelle: Yeah.

[52:16] Jennifer: Because that helps us with our resilience and our healing and our learning. Like, okay. Like, that was great. So after that, everyone's like, can you show us how to do that? I'm like, absolutely. I'm like, so, you know, the next week, it was like, hey, just to my educator, I'm like, hey, maybe we can do some, like, deep suctioning. Like, I know it's kind of a learned skill where it's kind of RT, but we don't really have RT all the time, so it's like, it's a fine line, but I said, honestly, save this guy's life. So, yeah, here we are.

[52:45] Michelle: Yeah. And in that moment. Yeah, in that moment, like, you alleviated his, you know, his problem and made him feel better, and that's definitely a win. And, you know, with your journal, we can. We can document those wins and go back and go, oh, yeah, I did good. That.

[53:03] Jennifer: Yeah, right? I did good. I did okay that day.

[53:06] Michelle: Yeah.

[53:07] Jennifer: I knew what I was doing that day. Fantastic.

[53:10] Michelle: I knew what I was doing. That's somehow how it is, right?

[53:14] Jennifer: Oh, too often.

[53:16] Michelle: Well, talk to me about A Nurse in the Family.

[53:19] Jennifer: A Nurse in the Family. So, A Nurse in the Family originally had started out during COVID. Clearly, Covid was a gigantic turning point for me. Probably it shouldn't have actually been nursing, but here we are. So nursing the family was the original idea was conceived to, okay, you know, we're fresh into Covid. We're seeing all these people, so know the patients that were seeing are so much sicker than we are normally used to seeing them. Had somebody just gone into the home, done a quick set of vitals, reported back to the family physician, we could have, like, avoided a lot of this. So that was the original idea, was just mobile health and kind of advocacy and talking with the patient and just somebody laying eyes and getting a fresh set of vitals on the patient because it was a little bit before the e-doctoring and the e, the zoom-doctoring that was happening. And so it's just like somebody just actually needs to lay eyes on people because, like, this whole telephone thing isn't working. And so that was the idea. However, as Canadians, we do not pay for healthcare and are fairly stubborn in doing so. So unfortunately, fortunately, there was no interest whatsoever for A Nurse in the Family. But now it's kind of morphed a couple of times over and so now it's my business that I'm using for the journals and that kind of thing. So it's, you know, it's another pivot, it's another turn, and it's probably going to be morphing again into Rx for Growth. So prescription for growth, which I'm going to health HLTH in Vegas, I've been chosen as one of 30 nursing led businesses to go and represent at health. And so they had suggested, hey, maybe just a little bit of a name change that's kind of more representative of the journals and where you're headed with resilience, training and support and that kind of thing. And so I'm like, okay, here we are. Prescription for growth. We're going to just go for it. And another pivot and another rebrand. I feel like I've rebranded myself like six times since 2020, right?

[55:40] Michelle: Haven't we all?

[55:41] Jennifer: The caring, intuitive, the intuitive nurse, er nurse Jen, you know, nurse in the family, prescription for growth. I'm like, being businessy is exhausting.

[55:53] Michelle: I mean, I've talked to so many nurse entrepreneurs, nurse innovators, and I think that is like, one of our superpowers is being able to pivot when we need to, being flexible. And I just think that's a good thing. And maybe there's ten more pivots for you, Jenn, and that's okay.

[56:15] Jennifer: Yeah, I'm just along for the ride at this point. I honestly, I am true er nurse just flying by the seat of my pantsing it. And I'm, you know, people who I'm meant to kind of run into and talk to and share things with that's what's, those are the people that I'm going to meet which is why I'm so excited to meet you. And, you know, it's just a matter of like community and, and a little bit of a switch and, and, you know, learning about some of these other businesses that are going to health. I'm just like, oh, man, you guys are like, it's Safe Seizure and nursing and Prep RN and like all these phenomenal businesses and I'm just like, I am selling some journals.

[57:01] Michelle: Don't you dare go down the imposter syndrome route.

[57:05] Jennifer: Don't you dare.

[57:06] Michelle: And you belong right in there.

[57:09] Jennifer: Everybody's AI and they've got a mobile app and this and that and I'm like, kudos to all of you. I'm coming at it from the opposite end, which again, has to happen because we can't all do it from the same end. So I'm like, I'm happy to just come at it from the super simple. I'm aiming to impact those at the newly front lines. Right? Like new to school, new to graduating, new to practice versus some of these businesses are looking to talk to the CEO's and they're looking to talk to the people with buying power, you know, that kind of thing. I'm just hoping to grab a CEO and be like, you need my journals to help out your new nurses so that you retain them. You know, onboarding a new nurse is $60,000 us. You know, I can help, you know, keep them.

[57:59] Michelle: Yes.

[58:00] Jennifer: I'm going to try and pitch it like that and I and again go along for the ride and I'm still trying to get my husband to come with me because he's going to be pissed if I go to Vegas twice without him.

[58:15] Michelle: Okay. You have to send me the link for that. So I want to put it in the show notes. Yeah, cool. You belong right in there, Jenn. It takes a village to heal the nursing profession and to innovate. It just takes so many different avenues and you belong right there with Taofiki and Joey and Susan and all of those nurse entrepreneurs that are doing so many great things like yourself. So, wow, this has been a very stimulating conversation today. I am just so happy that you came on and have shared everything that you're doing for the profession and for yourself. I think that so many people can get get inspiration from you and how you have been instrumental in advocating for yourself and healing yourself. We can learn a lot from you.

[59:16] Jennifer: I'd like to say it was for completely non, you know, unbiased reason, but it was. And again, no, that's it. We're changing the narrative. I'm putting me first. I'm not upset that I'm putting me first. I'm worthy of spending the time that I need to another affirmation. You know, I'm worthy of this time, and I'm worthy of the success, and I can't wait to just help. And it's, you know, we got to help the helpers, because nobody. We're always the last, last thought process when everyone's going like, oh, I don't understand why we can't keep anybody at the bedside. Well, let me tell you why you can't keep.

[59:57] Michelle: Pull up a chair. Let's have a conversation.

[59:59] Jennifer: Pull up a chair, friend.

[01:00:00] Michelle: Yes. Well, I love it. Well, you. You know, a lot of people, you're pretty big on LinkedIn, and so think and see if there's someone you recommend as a guest on this podcast.

[01:00:14] Jennifer: Ooh. Okay. Later. So, Maggie Ortiz is also coming to HLTH with us. I met her again just through randomness on LinkedIn. She is the real deal. If you want somebody who's, like, fully speaking from the heart and, you know, no fucks given about what she's saying, but doing it for purpose, it's Maggie. I love her to pieces, and I can't with her. She's so funny. Alex Whitefield.

[01:00:49] Michelle: Oh, yeah, I've had Alex.

[01:00:50] Jennifer: Yeah, I love him. He would make. I think he was probably the first person that I talked to after kind of like joining LinkedIn and kind of trying to figure out what the hell networking is, and he was so fantastic. And I'm just. I'm like, I tried to pitch his program to. To my facility, and they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you can do a presentation on. I'm like, I don't think I can do a presentation on it, but whatever. But I'm pretty sure that was enough for my boss to very gently shut me down. As amazing as she is, I think she's probably had enough of my nonsense. So. So she's, uh. She's a gem. I've never had such a good boss, man. She's. Bethany is an absolute. So she's an ER nurse, for one, a career ER nurse. And then she went into ER education, and this is her first management job. And so we get her while she's still er nursing, frontlines based, and, man, she has done a world of good for our department.

[01:01:51] Michelle: Every unit needs a Bethany, right?

[01:01:54] Jennifer: Oh, we all need a Bethany.

[01:01:58] Michelle: I love it. Okay, well, where can we find you.

[01:02:01] Jennifer: So you can find me on LinkedIn @Jennifer Johnson. BScN, RN, I believe. I'm on Instagram. @Ernursejenn with two ns. You can find me on TikTok. Ernursejenn with two n's. You can find me on Etsy at the intuitive nurse. You can also find me at my website, www.nursejenn with two n's. And probably Facebook. I don't know, NurseJennCreative, I think. Again, another rebrand, another failed rebrand.

[01:02:38] Michelle: All right, I will put all those in the show notes so that everyone can find you. That's so cool.

[01:02:44] Jennifer: Fabulous.

[01:02:45] Michelle: I love it. Well, gosh, so much for coming on. And man, especially after working a night shift.

[01:02:53] Jennifer: And it was just the one. It was just the one and done. So it's not. It makes me get up and I'm shocked that my kids kind of kept it as low as they have.

[01:03:05] Michelle: There's still time, right? We have five minutes.

[01:03:08] Jennifer: I heard the tub going, so I'm sure my eight and a half year old's, like, busy floating in the tub and making a mess in my ensuite.

[01:03:15] Michelle: Lovely. Well, we're ready. We're ready for the. I was going to say we're ready for the fun part, but I feel like we've been having fun through this whole conversation.

[01:03:23] Jennifer: It's been so much fun. Fun. I love these podcasts. They're so fun.

[01:03:28] Michelle: Well, I love doing them. So we're ready for the five minute snippet. Are you ready?

[01:03:33] Jennifer: What's the five minute snippet?

[01:03:35] Michelle: It's just five minutes of fun. These are just off topic questions, not about. Not about nursing or anything.

[01:03:44] Jennifer: Okay.

[01:03:47] Okay, first question. Convince me to live in Ontario, Canada.

[01:04:30] Jennifer: Free healthcare, free health care. We have all of the seasons. Niagara Falls is fantastic and beautiful. And as much as I appreciate the veil falls of the US, I much as I prefer a horseshoe falls. 

[01:04:45] Michelle: Wow, it sounds lovely. And the free health care is a big pull.

[01:04:52] Jennifer: But the housing market, you're looking at roughly a million for a detached two bedroom home. Two, three bedroom home. It's ridiculous.

[01:05:02] Michelle: Yeah.

[01:05:03] Jennifer: I keep getting things for, like, Texas, of, like, it's 4000. You're like, pardon me? Even with the exchange rate. That's right. I wouldn't personally live in Texas, but that's me, right?

[01:05:17] Michelle: Yes. I've been there. Many times. Okay, tell me about a game you played with your kids when they were little.

[01:05:23] Jennifer: We love Connect Four. Connect Four is a fan favorite. We still play it. And my daughter, you can't even fake trying to let her win because she is, like, she sees it in, like, 4d. Because all of a sudden she'll be like, and I'm done. I'm like, what do you mean you're done? She's like, I won here. And I'm like, where? She's got it. She's phenomenal. She's smart as a whip, that one.

[01:05:49] Michelle: Okay. Would you rather do dishes or vacuum?

[01:05:53] Jennifer: Vacuum. I hate dishes. I can't. Something about getting my hands wet. Well, no, thanks.

[01:05:58] Michelle: But you're an ER nurse.

[01:06:02] Jennifer: Of the things that I deal with. And I hate. Hate getting wet hands. Hate it.

[01:06:07] Michelle: Oh, my gosh. Okay, tell us a time you were out of your comfort zone.

[01:06:14] Jennifer: Going to HLTH, like, so I thought I was applying to speak about nursing intuition, and somehow it turned into a nurse business startup support group for going to HLTH. And I'm like, pardon me. And, you know, talking to Shannon Dunn and Rebecca Love. And Rebecca Love is, like, huge in the LinkedIn sphere. And she was like, you know, on it to the point, you know, what's your spiel? And da da da da da. And I'm just like, I'm super comfortable with being very laissez faire, not businessy. So going to HLTH and being very businessy and very professional and talking to CEO's without swearing is what scares me.

[01:06:57] Michelle: They swear, too, Jenn.

[01:06:59] Jennifer: I know, but I'm just like, you never know where people are.

[01:07:02] Michelle: Just picture them in their underwear.

[01:07:04] Jennifer: Oh, God.

[01:07:08] Michelle: Okay, here's another would you rather question. Would you rather wear one color every day or seven colors every day?

[01:07:17] Jennifer: Black all day long. You should see my wardrobe all day, every day. It's all black. Without intention, it's all black.

[01:07:25] Michelle: For some reason. I thought you were going to say seven, because you're just so colorful.

[01:07:29] Jennifer: My scrub tops. So I wear your patterned, old school scrub tops. Still. They're my favorite. And they're very bright and very colorful, but for some reason, I always end up with, like, black hoodies with very sarcastic sayings on the front.

[01:07:44] Michelle: Okay, would you rather have your own theme park or your own zoo?

[01:07:50] Jennifer: Ooh, theme park. Love rides.

[01:07:52] Michelle: I was like, she's an adrenaline junkie.

[01:07:55] Jennifer: Absolutely. But I won't throw myself off of things. We went to New Zealand when I had first graduated nursing school. My parents gave me a gift, and I'm like, I'm going to New Zealand. And they're all about throwing yourself off of this, that and the other. I'm not down with that. No, thank you. Wow. Thank you.

[01:08:16] Michelle: Okay, last question. Winter or summer?

[01:08:21] Jennifer: Ah, fall.

[01:08:25] Michelle: No, summer.

[01:08:27] Jennifer: Just because the, the winters in, in Ontario can vary in length and, and intensity, but the summer is a pretty much guarantee, you know, what you're, you're in for. So I prefer what summer's like there. Summers are quite hot, like, right now. What's, what's 30 degrees, 30 celsius to fahrenheit? Do, do, do. Oh, 86. So summers are quite warm, but they're lovely. A little bit of rain here and there. You know, just your typical, your typical summer. Sometimes it'll get down to, like, a perfect day is about 23, which is about 73 for you guys.

[01:09:10] Michelle: I love it.

[01:09:12] Jennifer: So it's, it's a beautiful day. It's sunny. You know, you're trying not to get burned too badly because all I do is burn. Yeah.

[01:09:21] Michelle: Wow. I love it. It sounds awesome. Yeah. But fall is better.

[01:09:27] Jennifer: I love the fall. Halloween is my Christmas, so I'm very much, you know, if so, we call it a code orange, those of us who are lovers of the fall. So anytime a big department store starts putting out their Halloween stuff, like, it's all over. All the chat groups to be like, code orange and target. Code orange and this. Code orange and that. You're like, audit gone. Like, you're just like, what are we doing this year?

[01:09:54] Michelle: Oh, my gosh, I love it. Well, I'll tell you what. Your exuberance and enthusiasm are just infectious. I have been totally taken by you, Jenn. I love what you're doing. I love what you're doing for the nursing community and for your patients and for yourself. And thank you for sharing today.

[01:10:15] Jennifer: Always. I am probably way too much of an open book.

[01:10:20] Michelle: That's okay. We need those open books. And I can't wait to see everything on Nurses for Nurses. And check out your Etsy store. All of that good stuff. All the things and your book. Yes.

[01:10:33] Jennifer: All of the 16 directions that I'm going.

[01:10:36] Michelle: You said undiagnosed ADHD.

[01:10:39] Jennifer: Listen, I was told it was anxiety, and I'm like, I don't think so.

[01:10:45] Michelle: I love it. Well, have a great rest of your day. Whatever you're doing, we'll do.

[01:10:49] Jennifer: Off to lounge on the couch the rest of the day.

[01:10:52] Michelle: That sounds lovely. Okay. Take care.

[01:10:55] Jennifer: Will do. Have a good one.