DNP Ep. 78: Protecting the Peace of your Nursing Career with Melanie Van Sistine, BSN, RN

Sandra Pagenta: Hi, Dr. Nurse Podcast Nation. Welcome to another episode. Today we have on Melanie and she is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in 2018 with her Bachelor’s in Nursing. Interesting little side note for her career. She actually did not pass her n class on the first time, but she still became a nurse.

She’s still fabulous. She’s doing her own thing. She’s here to tell you about her journey today and the fact that you’ve got to prioritize the things that make you feel alive in your career in order to be a good nurse. So I am so excited to have you on today. I’ve introduced you prior to the podcast and given ’em all your little factoids about your degrees and everything else like that.

But I’m so happy to have you on today, Melanie.

MelCrafty:  I am so excited to be here. Sandra, this is just so exciting. I am loving everything that you’re doing and I feel so honored to be a guest on podcast today.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh my gosh. I was so happy to hear that you’ve listened to the podcast, that you’re a fan of the podcast.

Yes. Big fan. That you’re, yeah. That you’re all about like creating multiple streams of income and Yeah. Stepping away from the bedside if it’s not meeting your needs anymore.

MelCrafty: So that’s, you know, what you gotta do, what’s best for you, whatever that looks like. Yeah. For me it looked a certain way and it looked differently at a different point in my time.

And it’s okay if plans change and things happen in your life and circumstances arises that are maybe out of your control. But I found that it’s what you do with what you have in front of you. That’s what’s most important. And it’s finding the ways to create your own joy. And for me, it’s finding ways to spread my sunshine because I have a lot of love to give.

And this world is pretty dark and nursing has gotten pretty rough over the past couple years and. I really just wanted to create a safe space and a community for my friends, is what I like to call them, to feel appreciated, feel heard, feel loved, feel everything that they may not be feeling from their jobs or from their life or their careers or what have you.

It’s just been such a fun journey so far and I’m so happy to be here talking to you about it. ,

Sandra Pagenta: I, love it and I cannot wait to hear all of what you’ve been doing with your career. So take me through kind of how you see yourself right now. What’s your current role

MelCrafty: well, it’s funny you always say that about being a crafter, cuz I kind of started out saying that I was a peds nurse by day and a crafter by night because that’s, or no it was the other day. It was the other way around. Cause I was working nights as a peds nurse , and then I would, whenever I would get canceled is when I would find myself crafting because I was getting really bored just sitting on the couch, and yeah, I just needed, I needed a creative outlet.

So I kind of don’t know where to start. It all kind of started as a hobby and, turned into this happy accident is kind of what I like to call it.

Sandra Pagenta: So tell me, when did you leave the bedside? Tell me when did you leave?

MelCrafty:  I left the bedside. Okay. That’s a great place to start. I left the bedside in September, so six months ago.

Okay, okay. How long ago? I was a nurse for Almost, go ahead. Yeah, almost four years prior to that.

Sandra Pagenta: Go ahead.

MelCrafty: Yep. Prior to that I was a nurse for almost four years and I did it wasn’t a CNA job but it was basically a glorified sitter prior to me being a nurse when I was still in nursing school, it was kind of my foot in the door to get into the facility that I wanted to work at and it was, I learned a lot and it really helped kind of solidify my want to be a pediatric nurse and it helped cuz I was afloat.

So I was able to go to all the different units and see the different specialties and really kind of have the luxury of being able to kind of pick my poison a little bit when I was going to apply and when I passed my NCLEX after taking it the second time. , yeah.

Sandra Pagenta: I love stories like that where people.

Like, cuz people probably look at you and think like, oh Mel has it all together. And then you share this like really vulnerable story about how, you know, you struggled to pass the NCLEX and then you did. And one, it makes you love your degree or makes you love your certification a little bit more cause you really have to fight for it.

Mm-hmm. But then also it shows like how you overcame something that was really challenging and then set yourself up for all these other great things in your career. So you worked as a peds nurse for four years and then again find yourself crafting on the o on on your off time. Mm-hmm. And one of the things that I find when I talk to people is they, they are looking for, they love working bedside.

They chose being a nurse cause they like helping people. Yes. But then they find that they’re getting burned out. So tell me a little bit about, and I know you were kind of sharing with me, like working during Covid and all these different things that I think were probably, I don’t know, you tell me, but were they leading to this crescendo of like,

I don’t know how much longer I can do this. This is, this is wearing me out. Like what was it for you that made you kind of start to wanna shift?

MelCrafty: Right. Well, it was kind of a multitude of different things. It kind of started with Covid. Covid kind of affected the pediatric population a lot differently than it did the adult world.

Mm-hmm. , you know, our schools were closed, surgeries were canceled, both of which make up a wild highly percent of our patient population that I saw in the acute care side of the bedside. And I was working as a prn. I was not a full-time, I was hired on as a PRN nurse, which is as needed. So I was working, yeah.

I, and it, it all, it was kind of what was best for me at the time. I was able to still be on my parents’ insurance cause I was young enough. And then when I was able to get married, my husband had better insurance than what the facility was offering. So it all kind of, Nice made sense to me at the time.

But then when Covid hit PNS got canceled first and very often. And my unit was actually closed for about 18 weeks. So we were combined with two other floors. So you have two to three units of nurses fighting for 24 beds. Oh my goodness. Half the time. So there was two months straight where I was scheduled to work, 19 to oh seven, and I got canceled every single time for two months straight.

Wow.

Sandra Pagenta: Wow. And yeah. That’s scary. Like if you were depending on that income. I mean, again, you’re, you’re working prm, but still, I mean, what if you needed that little income to make a little bit, you know, whatever. Now that’s, I

MelCrafty: have loans, I have bills, you know, ? Yes.

Sandra Pagenta: Just like everyone else. You pay my bills, can you pay my bills?

Can you pay my telephone bill? You

MelCrafty: pay my bills? And it’s, I don’t have mommy and daddy that just pay for everything. Yes. So I, I needed something. I was, you know, kind of, I was begging my management for hours. I was like anywhere I could go. I was standing at the front entrance, scanning and screening all the nurses and healthcare workers coming in.

I was checking their temperature, asking them their, their screening questions. I did that a couple of times overnight. I did the Covid vaccine clinic where once they started rolling out the vaccines and they needed to administer the staff. I was doing that. And then once they started rolling out the children’s vaccines, I was out there doing that, doing the flu clinics.

We even had a Covid hotline where employees would call if they were sick or they were exposed and they needed the proper what to do now. You know, I was kind of just grasping for straws at anything I could do to just get hours. And they were helpful to me in giving me what they could, but they also had to share the love because there were other PNS and other nurses that were trying to get hours and that were canceled.

And, and if you were PRN and you didn’t work, you don’t get paid. We didn’t have PTO or PPL or any, you know, pockets of hours that could help. Yeah. Subsequent those. That time lost. Yeah. And, and there was even programs in the beginning at the facility that if you were full-time and you did get canceled, there was like funds that would pay you because it was like, not your fault that you got canceled.

But I didn’t get all of those benefits as well being prn. So there was, there was a, a lot that I was kind of just trying to find my purpose of. I couldn’t do a job that I loved, that I felt like I was, I always thought I was born for the bedside. I was very thankful that I had about six months, six to eight months, less than a year of experience at the bedside before Covid hit Covid.

Mm-hmm. , which I am looking back very thankful cuz I helped precept a couple nurses and just seeing what these new nurses are having to go through right off the bat. It is scary. Yeah. It’s scary sometimes. Yeah.

Sandra Pagenta: One of the things I think is so interesting about what you’re talking about is that through this, and again, this is something that I always find in all these journeys, it’s so strange.

Mm-hmm. , it’s this little more soul of difficulty, strain, disappointment, something with their nursing career that’s just not going right. That leads. to spend a little more time in silence. A little more time with themselves. Yeah. Mm-hmm. that then sparks them, sparks the ingenuity, right. Of building something for themselves.

So here you are sitting on the couch canceled week after week after week, and instead of watching just yes hours of Netflix and chilling, you’re just like, and I did that

MelCrafty: Disney anymore. I did that , but I was getting, I was losing my mind because nurses were busy bodies. Like, I need to do something. And I slept all day thinking I was going into work because God forbid I didn’t do that.

And then they actually do need me to come in. Oh yes. Because that happened one time. Cause I was like, oh, I’m not gonna go in. I’m gonna get canceled. Nope. They had a lot of call in back. Always works like that. Like that. Yeah. It, it, it just was a point where it’s like, okay, I had, I had my cricket, I bought a cricket for my wedding that I, yeah.

I got married in September of 2020. I was a Covid bride. And after that was kind of all said and done. I, I still just needed an outlet. Cause thankfully I had. , that creative outlet. With my wedding. I DIYed all of my wedding signs to save cost and did my invitations and just kind of played with it that way.

And I needed something else once that was done and I wasn’t getting, you know, my purpose from going to work or going to do the job that I maybe signed up for . And it honestly started with me making like glitter ornament recipes and just trying out like different stupid stuff on TikTok. Yeah. And I would video record myself.

And still to this day, my highest viewed video on my TikTok account is me testing out a glitter ornament recipe. .

Sandra Pagenta: Oh my goodness. So you

MelCrafty: started and then it just all kind of started cricketing? Yeah. Yeah. It was just with cricketing and then once I started going back to work a little bit more, I. I kind of just wanted something for myself cuz I, I had the motion, I was like, okay, if you look good, you feel good, you’re gonna have a good shift.

It’s, it’s, you know, it’s gonna be good if I have a bright rainbow on my shirt, nothing bad can happen today. Right? So that , that was my mentality. So that’s what I did. I, I put a rainbow on my, on my t-shirt and I put peds nurse under it and I walked around my unit and got a couple girls and were like, oh my gosh, that’s so cute.

Could you make me one? Made a couple for the girls in my unit and some of the floaters that were traveling, all the different units. And that’s honestly like how it all kind of snowballed. It was getting too overwhelming, keeping track of everything in my Instagram dms and doing like a Google sheet in Venmo.

I was like, you know what? I should just build a website, right? Like, Should I do this ? Yeah. It was a, it was a, it was a big internal, I was like, I went to nursing school. I did not get a business school. I did not know the first thing about running a business. Crafting could tell you all about, I could tell you how to make this, this and that.

I could do it for you, whip it up really fast. Taxes

Sandra Pagenta: game over llc. What?

MelCrafty: What? Yeah, right, right. Sales tax. No. Yeah, all of the above. Thankfully my husband, he is in marketing, he has a business degree, so he has been able to help a lot with, you know, help kind of build some things up. And I use Shopify and they made it so incredibly easy.

I built my own website. Still to this day, that’s what you see is I built it myself. So it’s made it really easy and, and straightforward and it’s all been a great learning opportunity and I’m still learning. I learn something new every day. I’m kind of making it up as I go along. Yeah, no, I’m just having so much fun.

In my little And do you

Sandra Pagenta: miss the bedside? Yeah. Do you absolutely miss the bedside?

MelCrafty: Yeah, absolutely. And if we’re talking about other like disappointments, cuz that’s kind of another reason why, you know, I ultimately like took the step back is I had a back injury at the beginning of January last year. Oh no I heard on the floor.

What did two of my discs

Sandra Pagenta: from pulling a patient or what did you Hmm. Caught a

MelCrafty: patient. So who did that? Two, two weeks prior to the straw on the camel’s back that put me in the emergency room. I had a patient that came in at three o’clock in the morning. He was a total care patient and he did not have a turning system underneath or a transfer system to transfer him from the gurney to the bed when he came up from admission.

And you know, me being resourceful and parents, it’s late, it’s three o’clock in the morning. I just wanna get my questions done so I can let you guys try to get some sleep. Cuz you’ve been in the ER all day. Yeah. So me and and a couple dudes got resourceful and we took the corners of the fitted sheet on the gurney and we transferred him.

And I felt something, I felt a strain. And for two weeks I worked Christmas Eve, I worked New Year’s Eve, and then I straw in the camel’s back. I put a pizza in the oven and herniated two of my discs on January 7th.

Sandra Pagenta: Oh my goodness. . And this original injury, like you kind of listed up at work and this is the, and I didn’t, when I did this and I didn’t file the report either, I was, I was just about to say, they told me I was young and then I should be fine and I didn’t file a report and I still have back problems to this day from a very similar situation.

Mm-hmm. . And so here we are, thirties, twenties, thirties. Mm-hmm. . And we are hurt on the job. Yes. And we’ll carry this until the day

MelCrafty: we forever. Forever. Yeah. And so what

Sandra Pagenta: did you do for your back? Did you end up having to get like, you know, they just did like rest or they did an mri? What’d they, what’d they do?

MelCrafty: Thankfully it wasn’t bad enough where I needed surgery. They said I was really lucky where it wasn’t that bad. Yeah. Could I have gotten surgery? Yes. Would it, would that have maybe sped up my recovery? Yes. But it’s back surgery. My dad has had two spinal fusions in his life and the first one he was 46.

Yeah. I just turned 28. No. And I don’t have kids yet, but I do want a family and I do want to live my longest, healthiest life. I wanna travel, I wanna, I want to do all these things and I can’t do that with the bad back. And I’ll tell you, Sandra, it was, I didn’t work for five months. Sorry. It was, I’m sorry.

And I’m gonna try to like, not cry, but it was like, yeah, the hardest. Experience that I’ve ever gone through in my entire life, physically, mentally, emotionally. Mm-hmm. , it was trauma, it was traumatic. The whole, the whole thing from the actual injury itself to all the time that it took, all I could really do was physical therapy and medication and chiropractic adjustments, and those only went so far.

PT destroyed me. It sucked. It made things like even like worse. I wasn’t progressing at all. My insurance wouldn’t cover steroids, which is ultimately what my doctor thought that I needed. And I tried like dry needling, which is basically a elevated version of acupuncture. The needle’s like this long versus this long, and they go in and they tap your bone to create a micro injury and send signals to your brain to.

Science, calm down or Yeah,

Sandra Pagenta: write it all.

MelCrafty: science. There’s some science. . Oh my goodness. They, I had weight restrictions and was trying to work with my management team on trying to get me back to work and also getting me back to work with a realistic weight restriction for what we were doing at the bedside.

Yeah. And there was a couple of times where I brought up my restrictions and they’re like, I’m sorry, we can’t accommodate this. It’d just be too much. Yeah. It would be too like,

Sandra Pagenta: yep, you’re too much of a burden on the unit because you’re not pulling your weight. Literally, you’re not pulling somebody else’s weight is really what it is.

I’m pulling my weight, but now you’re asking me to pull somebody else since physical weight and yet No, I’ve been there, girl. I know exactly what you’re talking about.

MelCrafty: Bingo. It’s awful. So ultimately I did go back, I went back in May from January and I went back with a weight restriction and even like an hour restriction, like I couldn’t work 12 hour shifts.

I thankfully being prn I had the luxury of scheduling myself in the holes in pockets. So I was able to kind of break my shifts up, which I needed to do because even with the weight restriction, you’re running around like a chicken with your head cut off, you have less resources. There were days where I was in charge and I had a full assignment.

I had three patients of myself in charge from 15 to 23 with a weight restriction. And

Sandra Pagenta: a bad back. Yeah. Yeah. No, and every step, you’re having pain, every time you’ve bend over to get a urinal from the supply room. It’s, everything is dependent on your back, especially in nursing saying you’ve got sciatic running down your leg.

You’re just, you’re constant pain. I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve had it happen to me and more nurses don’t talk about it and, oh, I’m so sorry. I know exactly what you’re, what you dealt with. Dang. Y and, and you know what, we just keep working. Nurses just keep doing it, and you’re so tired.

And then again, you feel like this burden on your unit. And yet here I am charging, taking a team, and I’m, I’m hurt. I’m playing hurt. And nobody acknowledges that we’re playing hurt. You’re getting the same pay for playing hurt that you get whenever you’re girl. I already, I already know exactly where you are and.

I think it is, again, incumbent upon nurses to talk about this stuff so that hospital systems can start to go like, oh, wait a minute. What are we doing to people here? These poor nurses pour theirselves out. Literally, I caught a guy who had a brain surgery. He, you know, I was working neurosurg. So they’re all, they’re all operating on, everybody is cuckoo.

Everyone’s either cuckoo or fallen over cuz they’re neurosurgery, . And so this guy was both, he was cuckoo and fallen over. And so I looked at him, I was like, don’t move, stay right there. I gotta go do something. So I went to go grab something to straddle both worlds. And homeboy was like, see you later. And he just goes to fall.

So you’re natural reaction to catch ’em. And I’m like, yeah, oh my god, my back. And then you go to try to get help, you try to get support and they’re like, yeah, we don’t, we need you. We need you in there. Like in the trenches working and you’re like, I can’t carry. So eventually you just end up going. So it’s either me or you.

I, I have to pick myself because if not, not

MelCrafty: exactly what it came down to. It was I, some, some incidents came to light and I finally had to just ask myself, is it worth it? And because it was obvious to me at the time that there were definitely people that did have my back and did support me, but there was a lot of people that didn’t.

And m working a job that’s already impossible and not having some of the support that you need, , it’s like how do I wanna say this? My dad said, like, you literally, literally and figuratively need to have your back. And when I wasn’t feeling that, I needed to ask myself if it was worth it, the cost that I was, you know, bringing up to the table.

Physically, mentally, emotionally. I

Sandra Pagenta: have two things to say. First off, what price would you put on a bad back? That’s pretty much priceless. I, I’m not gonna, like, I couldn’t, I have a really high price for how much my back is worth. So there’s not enough. There’s not enough for, I

MelCrafty: wouldn’t wish it on anybody.

On my worst enemy.

Sandra Pagenta: It’s every move, right? Every time you reach or touch your mind, it’s everything, right? So that’s the first thing. The second thing my dad said that I thought was critical as I was going through things as a nurse, a lot of tough, tough stuff. The field of nursing, there is too much room for errors for people to not have your.

So if you don’t have, and my dad said that to me and I didn’t quite understand it cause I was really young. That’s, I was going through all this stuff. 22, 23. Mm-hmm. . It’s such a great line. And my dad’s so smart and just, he’s just the best. He’s a very smart man. Very smart man. And he said that to me. He said, Sandra, this career, there are too many areas where you are vulnerable already.

Yes, yes. That is. People don’t have your back to cover you. To go like, oh, this nurse left this out. Or Oh my goodness, her pump is beeping. Or, oh my go. Or she needs

MelCrafty: help transferring a patient

Sandra Pagenta: or, or she needs help transferring a patient or whatever. If people don’t have your literal back and your figurative back, then that job, you can’t do it anymore.

It’s not safe. And so when he told me that, I realized I needed to leave the four I was on because I was like, oh, he’s right. I am so much more vulnerable. Not only am I physically vulnerable, But now my interwork dynamics have made me vulnerable as well, because people don’t think I’m pulling my weight.

People think that I’m, I’m constantly asking like, Hey, can you help me in here? Cause I can’t, I can’t lift. And they’re like, oh man, I’ve got like my stuff and now I gotta do your stuff. Like, there’s such a dynamic that if you don’t have that, you don’t

MelCrafty: wanna be the burden to that. You don’t wanna be the cause of annoyance.

That’s the last thing I wanna do. But I’m not here to annoy you. I’m here to try to do my job to the best of my abilities, just like you are. And I can’t do my job if there aren’t certain things set in place for all of us to be successful. Not only me, but I was a, I got to the point, and like we were saying about safety, Not only my safety was at risk at times, but it was starting to get to my patient’s safety and that’s what I’m not okay with.

And that’s where I had to draw the line because it was, I stayed a lot longer than I should have. Looking back, I w I, yeah, it, knowing what I know now, I should have listened to my gut and not my heart. Cuz in my heart I was, you know, trying to be the team player that I thought they wanted. And I just wanted, you know, everyone else was all going through everything and what they went through when I was at home, my leave and what they had to endure when they were working in Covid and I was pushed to the Covid vaccine clinic.

It just wasn’t conducive for anybody. And I tried. I really did. I worked with my management. I tried to go in with a positive attitude and spread my sunshine where I could, and it just, it wasn’t working anymore. Melanie had to go question.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. Because you were prn, do you think that you were treated differently?

Yeah,

MelCrafty: a thousand percent. Any PRN that worked on my floor will tell you the exact same story.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. Yeah. So your PRN and now your back is hurt, so now you’re worth even less. Is that,

MelCrafty: there were times when I went in for a bonus shift cuz they were just sending out calls all the time. Like, please come and help us.

We’re so short staffed cuz there was a time where when we were so low in census, a bunch of nurses quit because they needed to provide for their families, especially the PRN nurses. They were like, I can’t just. Not work. Yes. So a lot of them left the facility and either went into different lines of nursing or different, you know, places.

But I was in a position where I like could, you know, play it out and pick up extra bony shifts here and there and, and I was passionate about the mission of the facility and I wanted, I worked my butt off to get there. Yeah. I wanted, I wanted to, to be there and it’s, it’s disappointing now and this is where it’s like I’m, I’m not disappointed that it all happened cuz everything happens for a reason.

I’m a very strong believer in that. And obviously, obviously, Things happened in life. Mels Crafty Corner, , Santa Mels Crafty Corner has saved my life in like more ways than one. I’m not even kidding you. Yes. It is just been such a joy and a blessing and to be able to like use my creative outlets to help spread that joy to my friends who want to receive it.

That’s what I’m here for. Yeah.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. It’s, you know, honestly, I love what you just said. You answered so many of my questions. Just like the challenge of your career, what drove you to start your own business? Mm-hmm. , what does it bring for you? What does it do for you? And I’m gonna be honest, you know, you sharing this has given me a level of brave, a bravery to share like what I’ve endured as well as a part-time nurse practitioner.

I have not talked about this on the podcast because I, I feel so many things that. described as well where you said, I just, I don’t wanna be a failure. I just wanted to keep going. I knew in my gut, yeah, I should have left a lot sooner. These things that you’re saying, I know other people are thinking and they feel, and so like, I’ll even share, like with my nursing job currently, I have had issues as a nurse practitioner being part-time with not just management, but the other people that I work with being upset that I’m part-time as a nurse practitioner in this role.

And you’re thinking, wait a minute, like I’m choosing this. I’m taking the pay cut. I, I’m the one that’s wanting the balance and yet, I’m having so much animosity from those that I work with. And so you are not alone in this. This is not something that you are, you’re dealing with alone. I have never talked about it openly on the podcast cause I felt like, oh, there’s a level of shame surrounding this.

I thought I was alone. I thought, wait, why is it my sunshine appreciated? But again, you’re you telling that story I know is making other people that are listening go, oh my gosh, I wasn’t alone. I did experience that. Right. And so again, that just spurs you to go get your own thing. Go do the thing that’s gonna bring you joy because you’re not gonna be appreciated If you’re trying to find that balance in the hospital setting.

MelCrafty: Go ahead. I just keep preaching. You have to do what’s best for you, whatever that looks like. If it works great for you in your life with your work life balance to work part-time, that’s great. If it doesn’t work for somebody else, cuz they maybe their financials are different and they have to work full-time, okay, that’s, that’s what you have to do.

That’s what’s best for you in your situation. That’s what and. And it’s, it’s hard dealing with people who have big thoughts and opinions about doing things kind of against the grid. Right. And especially like in nurses, and I’ve gotten a lot, and I’m sure maybe you can appreciate this. Oh, you went through all that work of getting that degree and going through school and you’re not even, you’re not even a, a nurse anymore.

It’s like, oh, no, no, no honey. I am still a nurse. I worked really hard for those letters. They’re still behind my last name. I’m just not practicing nursing right now. And arguably I’m still practicing my nursing in other just creative ways. Come on, come on, come on. I’m doing a mentorship pro program with a local university, so I have like a mentor that I have under my wing and we, you know, help her out in little ways that I can.

And obviously I have Mels Crafty corner in, it’s just safe space in that community that it’s brought me and. Yes. It’s, it’s just, it’s so important and it’s really interesting that you bring up like the vulnerability and being open and honest because it has been really hard for me to do. And there are aspects that I do want to share more about.

Mm-hmm. , but at this point in time, I feel like I can’t, and that’s really sad because there was one point where I did speak up a little bit about why I left the bedside, and it took me four months to bring up the courage to let my community know that I wasn’t working as a bedside nurse anymore for X, Y, and Z.

And, Than getting a lot of love and appreciation from other people saying thank you so much. Like, I needed to hear this. You know, I was, I’m debating on leaving and this helps, you know, showcase me that there is something better out there for me because I’m not happy and I wanna be happy cuz we deserve, we have this one life, right?

Like, we deserve everything good that it has to offer. So like, why are we wasting our time with negativity and toxic environments and just crap. We don’t need it. We don’t need it. I don’t need it. If that’s something that you need, okay, then that’s fine. You, you just fester in it. But I’m not gonna let it happen to me anymore.

Yeah. I have done no too much rolling over in my life that I am not gonna let it happen anymore because I know it’s helping other people. Like you said, like it’s. and I do, you know, want to be more, and, and I am very vulnerable on my, especially my Instagram stories. You’ll find me very emotional. And obviously I was crying earlier on this podcast, so I am, yeah, no, you know, stranger, I always tell my friends it’s, yeah, I’m no stranger to emotions.

It’s like, it’s okay to have big feelings. It’s okay to have, feel this sense of shame and guilt. And I even went through my own sense of identity crisis, of like, okay, I have this nurse brand, but I’m not practicing a nurse. I don’t go to work in the hospital anymore. But, so there’s, there’s been a lot of, yeah, my own personal like self-identity that I’m trying to still like, kind of figure out because I am still a nurse.

I’m just not practicing that aspect anymore. Not to say that I’ll never go back to nursing. I do still, I miss patient interactions so, so much I. I even thought about just doing like some home care or something. Just like find a client, just go to their house like once a week. Handle their pump settings.

Do I don’t know something? Yeah, because I just, I just, I just missed that. Like, that was, that was my bread and butter. Like that’s what I went to work for. I didn’t go to work for the politics or the fluff. I went for my, I went for my friends. That’s what I call them. I call my patients my friends. I was like, oh, my friend in whatever room.

Cuz that’s, that’s what I was there for. So I do miss that. And there are aspects of the nursing career that I do miss, of course. Cuz that’s what I ultimately went to school for and that’s what I went, yeah. . That’s another reason why I’m like so open and honest and vulnerable about it.

Because it is okay that your passions and your paths can like change or skew or like go back there or whatever. As long as you are happy on your journey, that’s all that matters. Cuz there have been too many points in my life where I have not been happy in my journey and I’ve been trying to make other people happy.

Oh, come on. And it has just demolished me in the end.

Sandra Pagenta: So, Yes. And that’s what I’m for my podcast is to enjoy the journey. And at some point, when you’re not enjoying your journey in nursing, it’s time for a change, which is what this podcast is about. If you are not happy with what you’re doing, if you are not enjoying nursing, if you are not figuring out where your path is supposed to go and you’re lost and confused, like come listen to these nurses that were in similar situations, that were going through stuff that were like, wait, I’m gonna make nursing work for me.

And then when you do find that rhythm, then you find out, oh my goodness, I’m having to fight against people that aren’t happy that I’m making nursing work for me. And Right. It’s because maybe they’re in that situation where, They haven’t done that work. They haven’t made nursing work for them, so they’re miserable.

Right. And they just want, yes, they’re un they’re unhappy to see you using your skillset, other things. Mm-hmm. and you’re making nursing work for you. I think that more nurses need, and I think I’m gonna just say this as well, more hospital systems need to be paying nurses. and paying attention to nurses that are getting burned out, tired at the bedside.

Mm-hmm. , we need to give them opportunities to just go like, Hey, if you need a break, go take one. Like, I, I made sure that for me, with raising my children, I wasn’t going to be a full-time nurse practitioner. I know certain things are gonna happen. My pay is gonna get cut. I’m not gonna have opportunities like other full-time nurse practitioners.

I let those things go, but then to receive the backlash of other people at your job that are like, mm-hmm. , oh, I’m upset that you’re not here all week. It’s like, wait a minute. But I’m choosing this. I, I, I don’t have a brand new car. I don’t have a super, these are things that are fine for me that I’ve decided on my journey that make me happy.

Right. And so, I, I find it so ironic that when, as, as I moved into this space, I received a lot of backlash and Yeah, it sounds like you did as well. And again, I think, oh, if we’re so desperate for nurses or we’re so desperate for healthcare, I mean, people can, I’ve, I literally am waiting to see doctors like two, three months at a time, and you have a nurse practitioner to fill some of that gap, even if it’s a couple days a week.

Right. Why don’t you deny that healthcare for other patients? Like, it’s just, it’s incredible.

MelCrafty: It’s so funny. It’s very weird. A couple things. Comment that Misery loves company. I’ll say that. Mm-hmm.

Sandra Pagenta: Excuse you, . Chance agrees. Did you hear that ? Yes, I did. He was like yep.

MelCrafty: Amen. Yep. Love company. My puppies in the back.

You guys can’t see him, but he, he’s just a grunty, sleepy baby . But yeah, it’s definitely you, you’re gonna get back have, yes. Yep. People have their thoughts and opinions, like no matter what you’re gonna do. And I, I’ll also say we’re talking about pay, that hospitals need to kind of like kick it into gear and I can just, based off of my experience, cuz I, my facility with working in pediatrics, we did not get a lot of the same benefits that other adult hospitals were getting in terms of incentives for nurses to come in extra.

I had a girlfriend who was working at Rush Medical Center and was getting hazard pay was getting two times pay. Oh. And I You never got that? I never, never got that. Nope. Never the most I ever got for, and it was, and this was only bonus shift, but she got that hazard pay like for every shift that she was scheduled for.

For like months. Because it was just hazardous for them to work in those environments. Yeah. So they got compensated for it and Wow. The most I have ever gotten for working bonus. So picking up an extra bonus shift. And at the time you had to like do a program, so you had to do like, there were different tiers and the levels of bonuses that you got, but it was a time and a quarter was the most that I got.

And then working during covid. Yeah. And then you would get an extra 50 to a hundred dollars if you picked up an extra four hours. Wow. Like on top of your pay, but not like per hour. Worth

Sandra Pagenta: it. It was something. Yeah. Yeah. No, but it’s not worth it if your back is hurting and you’re not being appreciated for the work that you’re doing. Right. And so as much as like, as much as Yes. What you do with your, with your shop and you’re bringing joy mm-hmm. and people are getting things and they come back to and they’re like, I love your stuff. They leave a review.

Yes. And like that, you, you work for those things. Those are the tangibles of work, right? Yes. Is that the stuff that people appreciate what you’re doing? Yeah.

MelCrafty: They appreciate that. They appreciate the, the little subtle nuances. Like I had a mental health collection that I dropped last year that’s become a wild bestseller and kind of snowballed a lot of my floral designs.

But I said, be kind to your mind. It’s a floral brain. And then I also had a floral serotonin that was the first molecular Oh yeah. Saw that. That was the first happy drug that did Beautiful. And then I did, I added dopamine and oxytocin to that. So there are still aspects of like medical. , but like, you don’t have to necessarily be a nurse to buy it, even though I do have like nurse merch, but I, yeah, just try to like create things that just make people happy and that they feel good when they wear it.

So then when I get the comments back that, you know, they were having a really hard time and one time that they decided to treat themselves and get themselves a new sweater that I made, and then their five year old son comments on them saying that she looks beautiful and it just like sends her into like a spiral of like good feet.

All the dopamine is running through her body and then it’s a running through mine. It’s just all, all feel good. Yeah. It’s, it does, it just feels so good to, yeah, be appreciated and not be questioned of why we’re doing what we’re doing. I did another podcast and they asked, you know, what advice I would give my younger self and it was that y how did I word it?

You are not doing this for them. They’re not who you’re doing this for. So I always keep trying to What do

Sandra Pagenta: you mean by that?

MelCrafty: The bullies, the haters, the people who don’t get it. You’re not doing it for them. You’re doing it for the people that need and appreciate and that are not happy in their careers or don’t feel fulfilled in their life and need, you know, some sense of community and purpose.

And that’s kind of something that I’ve been able to help, not only my fellow nurses who either are struggling. Being a nurse and all of that, that entails, or it’s other small business owners now who can relate to, you know, doing this full-time or whatever. It’s, I’ve, I’ve kind of collected people from all walks of life.

Mm-hmm. It’s been really fun.

Sandra Pagenta: You know what I was thinking when you’re talking, I feel like what you’re saying and what I’m hearing is find your own tribe.

MelCrafty: Amen. Your vibe is your tribe,

Sandra Pagenta: right? Like, instead of being so bummed that your floor nurses don’t like you or I’m getting all this extra hate and all this extra animosity and all these different

MelCrafty: things.

Or maybe the unit that you’re working on isn’t for you anymore. Like if you’re a new nurse Exactly. And you started on a floor and it’s just not vibing with you. It’s not bringing you joy. It’s okay to leave. You have, and like, and I even try to tell some of my newer nurses that came on and you, I could kind of tell that maybe their heart wasn’t in it and mm-hmm.

and it’s not like they need permission, but sometimes people just need like the okay from somebody else that like, no, like, you don’t have to do this. Like, if you’re not happy, you don’t have to be here. Like, we want you to be fulfilled. Like if you’re miserable here, like that’s not gonna help anybody. Yes.

And like, we, so it’s like, it’s, it’s okay. Yeah. I even had to tell my newer nurses that. Yeah. Yeah. She came to me when I was in charge one night. She just, I just feel so lost. Like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have the support that I feel like I need. You know, I’m running around and I just was weighing on her.

She was feeling the burnout and she had only been a nurse for. A couple months and only been by herself off of orientation for like two months at the time and just feeling like lost. And I just like swooped her into a big hug. Cause I knew exactly how she felt in that moment. And like I said, thankfully I had some experience under my belt to like feel okay with feeling like you were drowning.

But I just told her it’s like it’s okay to like that. That if this isn’t for you, it’s okay that it’s not what you expected because my expectations have changed. And that’s okay. That’s time. And now it’s something that you know that you did and that you tried. And then you can take the experience that you learned from here and put it towards your next journey.

Yeah. Whatever that is

Sandra Pagenta: exactly. And go find that thing. Again, there’s so many avenues to nursing. There’s home care, like you said. Like I just go be a home care nurse, or I can go do an infusion pump nurse, or I can go be a vaccination nurse. Yes. Or I can go do telemedicine, or I can go do all these. I can go work as an adjunct professor.

I can go all these, everything, these different things that you can do that again. Mm-hmm. , go into these systems and then you might go, oh, these are my people. Like, I wasn’t for that group. And that doesn’t mean that I’m, there’s something innately wrong with me. There’s nothing innately wrong with you. It’s just you were a square peg and a round hole.

You just didn’t fit there. And so again, On top of, that’s a great

MelCrafty: way to look at

Sandra Pagenta: that, right? Like it’s, I like that there’s nothing wrong with me. There’s just, I was no spot. And so, yes, at different points in my career, I’m starting to learn this. And then as I move into this kind of entrepreneurial space of building these things and I’m like, wait, what is it that I’m go, I can go and be my full self and again.

Mm-hmm. using emotional intelligence, making sure that I’m doing all the different things that are easy for me, but then also I’ve gotta work on it. Cause I’m not super great at these things are whatever aspects in improving myself, but for the most part, who I am and the way that I am is not wrong.

Mm-hmm. , I just might have been in the wrong space. And so I love that you say like my sunshine, I just want to be how I am. And Yes. Then you found your little corner that you can craft and you can do the things that Yes. Bring you joy, that you can be yourself, you can fully express yourself and not feel like mm-hmm , I can’t do that because,

MelCrafty: or I have to be a certain person.

Yeah.

Sandra Pagenta: Exactly. I don’t have anymore. That’s what I, I love about it. I love that about it. Because then when you go into the hospital setting mm-hmm. You’ve got a renewed sense of vigor that you can have more of a buffer at times to handle the stuff that goes on in the hospital because you have that space where you’re fully yourself.

Yeah. And that you don’t have to be anything else. And so, but the problem then is that you might start to encounter some of these interpersonal things that you have to deal with other people that I did not anticipate either. So I think it’s really good that we talked about that today on the podcast, because Yeah, I think people need to realize that, that sometimes when you do move in that space, you’re gonna meet opposition.

That you don’t anticipate that you’re like, yeah, whoa, I can’t believe I’m having, and that’s okay. This.

MelCrafty: Yeah. And again, I, yeah, I didn’t ask to have a bad back. I didn’t ask to have it herniate, you know, covid happened. Nobody, nobody asked for that. But it’s taking what you have right in front of you and using all of the tools that you have gathered in your life’s journey and taking it wherever you wanna go next.

Wow.

Sandra Pagenta: I love it. I love it.

MelCrafty: Yes, the last, all my questions point that I will, that I will just make is just make sure that whatever you do is that you are protecting your peace. And what I mean by that is, is making sure that, and this is something that I have to remind myself too, is like being a business and cause.

There are things that have taken some of the joy out of it, like answering emails and like doing returns and taxes are super fun, . But it’s making sure that I’m protecting my peace too, and recouping and not getting burned out so that I can keep, cuz this is fun and I wanna keep it fun, so I have to remind myself those times.

Yeah. And just, and that concept goes for everybody, just protect your peace. Yeah. Whether it’s saying no to something or saying yes to something. You know? Yeah.

Sandra Pagenta: Goes first. And setting up those systems to protect your piece too. Yes. Because there’s systems you can put in place that can help. Mm-hmm. kind of go, like, I love, I love how you told me before the podcast, you’re like, I don’t do these things on Sunday.

It’s just my, yeah. It’s just my rule. Rule and you just stick to it. You’re just like not doing it. I protect my peace and so it’s like, there

MelCrafty: are obviously things I can always be doing, but I’m not always going.

Sandra Pagenta: Yes. Yeah. And you know what, and I think that even from, and I, I always talk about the Bible in my podcast because I think that it’s important for life and I, you know, people can agree or disagree with me on yeah, biblical matters.

But let me tell you something. There was the God of the universe worked for six days of the of the week, and then he rested on one day. Men, the God of the universe has to rest. And I say this all the time on my podcast, if the God of the universe has to rest, what makes you think that you can just continue to keep working and burn yourself out?

Right? He protected against it. You are not even God. Make sure to protect against the burnout, and it gives room for the universe to create opportunities for you. If you are constantly working, yes. And you aren’t resting when things happen during rest periods. For me, I’m like, that doesn’t even make any sense.

I haven’t even been working. Right? How did this show up? I haven’t even been working. Right? It’s like, oh, Someone’s taking care of me. It’s because I am not in control. And so I always talk about that on my podcast, that yes, as an entrepreneur, I love that, that you are doing things and you are creating and you are working.

But there is a need for space to let God work. Because if you just absolutely continue to burn yourself out, you will look back and go, oh, I did it all. He didn’t do it all. And there was, and you’ve gotta create that, that buffer to allow for Yes. Universe, for me it’s, it’s God to just work. And so absolutely, you gotta create space for rest because Yeah.

Amen. He deemed it appropriate. He deemed it appropriate. Amen. He shows you what to do. He created you. Let him show you, Hey, listen, I catch you right. Faith. Love it. Faith, I love it. So yeah, we got, we have to do that. I, I want you to pre, and again, I feel like we haven’t really talked about your product, but I am gonna tell you something, Melanie.

I. I was not expecting the conversation to go in this direction, and I think it’s been so neither freaking cool. Like where we started and where we’re ending. Yes. I just think it’s been so incredible and I just, I don’t know. I’m just so excited. I can’t wait for this podcast episode to come out.

MelCrafty: Because I have felt that it has been just me and especially in this nurse entrepreneur realm who have left the bedside and have had to deal with some of the repercussions of that.

And I don’t think it’s talked about enough and mm-hmm. . I am happy that we are both opening up our own chapters

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. And sharing the truth. No, it’s true. Because I think, like you said, you do, you, you pour yourself into the career and to the job, and then when you see how it all goes down and you leave it like that and then you’ve got no one to talk to about it.

Yeah. It just feels like this, like really like scarlet letter. It feels like a scarlet letter and to like shit. It does. Right. Remember that book in school? Yeah. And then whenever you show your Scarlet letter and now like, I just proudly wear the pin. I’m like, here I am. This is like, I got burned by this career field.

Right. And I don’t think I’m a bad nurse. I don’t think that I’m a bad nurse practitioner. I actually feel like I have a level of sunshine that I am supposed to bring to the airways or to my Mels crafty corner.

MelCrafty: And, and if you’re working less, then sometimes you’re able to provide more of that sunshine.

Because you’re not burned out. No,

Sandra Pagenta: exactly. A couple, a little bit more. Exactly. And so maybe that’s the answer to those other, and I think we said that, we pretty much alluded to that, that that’s why Yeah. They are so angry. And so it’s like, dude, just come how

MelCrafty: girl, tell me of this. Yeah, she, she said that.

Tell me. She’s like, well, it’s because you were p n and we were all working full-time. So it’s hard coming in with, or it’s easy to come in with a positive attitude when you’re only here one or two days. That’s how she works. .

Sandra Pagenta: Ironic, isn’t it? Maybe you should join me. I mean, come up . Let’s maybe instead of looking at me adversarially, maybe you go to your administration and you go, listen, I’m miserable.

I want what she has, right? Cause she comes in here, she’s not miserable. So put me pr n Y’all are desperate for people. Y’all desperate? Yes. For people to come in here and take care of people that, that’s right. Put me on PRN status. Mm-hmm. and lemme go spend some time alone with myself so I can hear what my soul is crying.

I’m supposed to be changing tires. I like doing automotive work on top of being a nurse. So I’m gonna go do that thing on the days that I’m not working. And now you start a side hustle. Now you’re doing some other stuff and people, you’re not even looking to get paid. You just like changing tires. So, and then you just start doing it.

You work as a nurse a couple days a week, you go in joyful. You leave. Yeah. You come and you do your other thing. And all of a sudden now you’re like, wait a minute. How is it that I’m, okay? Well, I, I don’t only wanna work one day a week as a nurse and you. Again, you were creating the life and the journey that you want and I and I of protecting my peace.

Yes. And I think it’s beautiful that you shared Yes. That that’s the thing you miss. It’s to take. Mm-hmm. . It’s the taking care of people because honestly, I do. There is something so beautiful about stepping into the trenches when someone is sick and taking care of them and seeing them become well. Yes. Or watching them go through that journey and being a part of someone’s story as a nurse, it’s so beautiful.

I just had my baby, especially for me, like, and that was the most important aspect was the nursing care. Yes. That I got. Yes. Period. Point blank. What were you gonna say?

MelCrafty: Especially working in pediatrics too, like I, and especially in my population that I worked in, we had a lot of chronic patients that we would see, you know, I had one patient that I sat with as a sitter a lot.

He was a little boy that had lots of tubes and liked to pull and was, you know yeah. Just needed somebody in there to help keep him safe. Cuz if one of this tubes was out, it was an emergency. Yeah. And even I got to care for him, you know, as a, as a nurse and start watching grow and, and just the resiliency in children, it just blows my mind.

Like this same patient that I’m talking about, he wasn’t even supposed to make it outta the nicu and he’s turning seven this year. Wow. And Oh, that’s cool. It’s, and it’s, and it’s being with those patients and like, and that’s what I’m talking about, like missing the patient care and I’ll, I’ll mention this because I think it speaks volume to maybe the situation.

When I came back with my weight restriction, I was put in a position I took on a patient that was above my weight restriction and I. It was a really tough situation. I won’t get into like the details, but ultimately I got a Daisy nomination out of it. And in the nomination the mom even mentioned that she knew that I was not supposed to be their nurse and she was so thankful that the universe or God put me in with them at that time cuz they don’t think that they would’ve gotten through it with anyone else.

So I’m telling you, I knew what I was doing was making an impact. Yeah. Even if I wasn’t supposed to be doing it. And even if

Sandra Pagenta: you weren and

MelCrafty: even if I three hours I’m looking at my garden that I’ve collected, like Yeah, it’s, and I think it also kind of goes to speak volume too for the administrative side too, is I’ve seen a lot of good nurses.

get pushed out.

Sandra Pagenta: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And they

MelCrafty: keep rewarding.

Sandra Pagenta: Yes.

MelCrafty: Some of the people that

Sandra Pagenta: stay, yeah. Yeah. The bullies, they reward the bullies. The bullies move out. Yes. To bullies get promoted. Bullies get the daisies. Yes.

MelCrafty: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They get promoted or , they get the paddle back and we get shoved out the door.

Sandra Pagenta: Yes.

MelCrafty: Yeah. Yeah. So I, and it breaks my heart and yeah, it breaks my heart. .

Sandra Pagenta: I think it’s so incredible to hear your journey and to know, like the start of your business was the start of you prioritizing yourself and putting yourself was first and mm-hmm.

through that, you know? Yes. You wish you could have kept nursing and maybe you’ll go back. It’s not necessarily meaning that you’re never gonna do it, but Right. There is an element of when you do start prioritizing yourself, you’ll start to find what brings you joy and you’ll be able to move in that space and it might set you free from the other stuff that you’re doing in the bedside.

She’s totally falling asleep. So funny. Good. So for the last part of the podcast, which again, I know we’ve totally gone all over the place, but I, this, this is where it was.

MelCrafty: I’m loving everything about this, so I’m

Sandra Pagenta: very with it. Me as well. Please tell my listeners where they can find you. They can find your little shop, find you Instagram, all the little things.

Tell me

MelCrafty: you can find me a lot of different places. You can find my Shop Mills Crafty Corner at Shop Mills crafty corner.com. You can find me on the LUMIFY marketplace. I’m actually have a couple products posted in there. It’s a platform for healthcare workers, all alike, getting resources and different things.

So you’ll find a couple of my products on there. If you have the LUMIFY points, you can use it towards that. And they run sales and stuff. So that’s one place you can shop. You can find me a lot on Instagram. I’m very vulnerable in my stories. Yeah, so definitely watch there. If you need a little bit of.

Vulnerability or feeling like you’re, you’re not alone. I love that. If I’m on TikTok too, I’ve been sharing more of like my, my thoughts more on there. Yeah. I’m a little, been a little bit more loosey goosey. Yeah. I’m living in that era right now, .

Sandra Pagenta: I love

MelCrafty: it. Oh my gosh. I’m just living my best life. So yeah.

You can find me on Instagram, TikTok, find my shop Mills Crafty corner. Come, let’s be friends.

Sandra Pagenta: I love that. And for the last part of the podcast, I will say the Last part of the podcast is the rapid fire.

Questions, questions? Questions. Are you ready? Are you ready now? Yes. Let’s do it. Yes. How, what is the last thing you watched on tv, Netflix, and show, what was it?

MelCrafty: The last of us, the last night? The last of Us? Yeah. I finished, we finished the series last night on HBO Max. Have you seen, heard of it?

Sandra Pagenta: Not none of it.

None of it in the mom game. Is it good? That’s fair.

MelCrafty: Yeah, it is really good. So, little backstory, it’s based off of vi video game. Yes. Called The Last of Us, where it’s like apocalyptic, kind of zombie, but not follow this guy and. This girl that he picks up along the way and try to save her cause she’s supposed to save the universe and hopefully have a cure for the apocalypse.

And it kind of just goes through their journey. It’s really good though. I really like shows that I, I like the depth to it though, like there’s so. There’s not that many. It’s not zombie heavy. It’s more like, yeah, emotional storytelling backend. How is she the way that she is? Why is he the way that he is?

Yeah. You’re doing a lot of character development, drama.

Sandra Pagenta: Love it. I like, love it. Yes. So where do you go when you want to be alone? What do you go to? Like just

MelCrafty: your crafty corner. I go to Mouse Crafty Corner and I shut the door .

Sandra Pagenta: Love that.

MelCrafty: Love that. I either do that or one of my guilty pleasures that I’ve been trying to do more of for me is Yes, massages. Especially for my body. They’ve been really, with my back injury, my muscles have never been the same with the amount of spasms and sciatica that I’ve experienced.

Yeah. There’s knots that my massage therapist didn’t even know existed, and she’s been doing this for like 25 years. So that’s been, that’s, that’s for me. Mels craft is, I’m

Sandra Pagenta: gonna actually say this too. Whenever you’ve got like stress, I think it manifests yeah, like physically. Oh yeah. And so that’s probably why she’s finding not, she’s never found before because it’s a nurse’s back that carries the stress of, and the anxiety of the floor.

So I think it’s like, as you like step away further and further away from that stress mm-hmm. , you’ll get stronger as my like Oh yeah. Every, like, every day. My little voodoo like thoughts. And if you could learn any language, what would it be and why?

MelCrafty: Ooh, well I know sign language. Fun facts. Stop. Stop. I did not notice this.

Yes, I took, that’s great. That was my, that was my foreign language in college. I tried Spanish in high school. I passed the first semester, year two. It destroyed me. the hard, I literally failed. That was the only, like I had to pull out of the class before the deadline. Otherwise I would’ve gotten an F on my report card for sure.

But ,

Sandra Pagenta: I would say, I so say language. That’s

MelCrafty: cool. Yeah. So I know sign language, but if I would want to like learn one, I would love to learn Swahili.

Sandra Pagenta: Is that from random, is that from your time in? Wait, but that you went to Kenya. I know that. I saw that story. I went to Kenya. Yeah. Yes. With your instructor met her, like parents stayed in her hu Yes.

I mean it was like really

MelCrafty: cool. Yes. So it was JohE. Yes. I went with my college of nursing. Yeah. So I, I learned a couple words and phrases but it’s just a beautiful language. I love to learn

Sandra Pagenta: more. That’s so cool. Well, Mel, again, thank you for coming onto to the podcast today. Thank you.

Thank you for being so appreciate for me, you for inviting me. Oh my goodness. I honestly wanna repeat you back. Yes. I was just gonna say, let’s do it. Spelled, spelled therapeutic for both of us. So good. I hope that, again, somebody got something out of this that I, we were able to connect me too, that people can see the importance of doing something for yourself and and amen.

Yeah.

MelCrafty: Protecting your kids God do for you girlfriend. Love it. Boyfriend, all the friends. Yes. . We don’t discriminate all the friends. Exactly. Exactly. We love all. We love all, yes. But no, thank you so much for having me. I would love to come back to chat more, maybe more of the topics that you wanted to talk about originally , but we kind of got on our own journey.

Sandra Pagenta: I think it was supposed to be talked about today. I, I leave it like open, like Yes. Yes. I have like a structure and I think about certain things, but then I’m also like, all right, just guide the conversation. Yeah. Where it’s supposed to be and I accept it for what it’s supposed to be. So I think this is gonna be good.

Sound like

MelCrafty: we both needed a little bit of this mm-hmm. today. Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate you so much for allowing Yeah. Be in the safe space with you and to speak our truths. Mm-hmm. and Yes. Yeah. I just, I really hope that it helps somebody. I know it will. So whoever I think so that helps you. Yeah. Thank you for being here and listening.

Yeah. Allowing us the opportunity to provide insights.

Sandra Pagenta: And guys, don’t forget to enjoy the journey of your nursing career. Thanks for hanging out. Amen.

MelCrafty: Bye.

Sandra Pagenta: Thank you. Bye.