DNP Ep. 74: Using Your Nursing Mind to Solve Career Challenges as an Entreprenurse with Janine Kelbach, BSN, RNC-OB

Sandra Pagenta: Hi, Janine. Welcome to the podcast. We’re having way too much fun. We haven’t even gotten started. I love it. Absolutely love it. So, Janine kach is A B S N. Rn. Looks like you’re certified ob. Yeah, certified in op. She’s a wife, a mom of two boys and a great Dane, which dog babies count, educator and author of the book Entrepreneurs, which is a book that tells you about 30 plus nurses that turned.

Into business owners and they share their secret to success. She has been a freelance health content writer since 2013, and she’s the c e O of Wright nurse. She also hosts the savvy Scribe podcast and owns the savvy nurse writer.com, and she helps healthcare companies with her content and social needs.

Welcome to the podcast, Janine. I’m a fan of you. I’m so happy to have you on. Well,

Janine: thank you so much. I am, I appreciate that. I’m excited to be here and like you said, too much fun before even 9:00 AM is always a good day. always a good start to our day.

Sandra Pagenta: I haven’t even had my coffee yet. Oh my goodness. I can’t imagine.

I can’t imagine. Well, I’ve introduced you to my guest. Please kind of describe how you see yourself day to day, kind of how you see your role as, as a nurse.

Janine: Sure, sure. So I started my career back in 2006 at the bedside at in ob, like you said, and I, I’m a nurse here in Cleveland, Ohio, and I started at our tertiary center downtown.

I’ve done like all the things between bedside nurse, the preceptor to charge nurse to educator, to assistant nurse manager, all the things except probably director. I was on night shift for about 10 years, did all that stuff, and, but I was always working a side job. We’re working with the PRN and I noticed that a lot of nurses were also doing the same, and I was like, floundering in the space of like, I don’t know what I wanna do.

Like I, I love OB and I don’t see myself leaving ob, but I just don’t, there’s something missing, but I didn’t know what it was. I realized that it wasn’t like another job, it wasn’t working for someone. There was this like entrepreneurial spirit inside of me that I didn’t know really existed until, actually it was when I was working a home care job for a pregnant women.

And I would go out to their houses in the inner city of Cleveland and give them their injections and I was like on my own. Throughout the day. I just chart and then I like schedule my patients and make sure everybody. Coordinated, and I only called the center if I really needed something, which I really never really did.

So it was like, great. But then I realized, I’m like, wait, there’s, there’s something here. Like I know I like to work by myself because I am self-motivated and I know what I need to do, and I know what needs done, but there’s gotta be many more. There’s gotta, like, I crave that time with my family and my time with my kids.

Mm-hmm. . I was picking up a bunch of night shift, like for extra money, for extra time, whatever, and it was still just like not, I didn’t know what else to do, so I went like many nurses on the Google search of what can a nurse do on the side? And I found, not through nursing, but through moms, a mom that was doing freelance writing.

I had no idea what that meant. I didn’t know what a freelancer was. I didn’t know what the heck they wrote or who they wrote for, and I had no idea that you could make money doing it. But that’s kind of how it started. And I went down that path and got some support in that group and grew a freelance writing business on the side of actually those two jobs, the home care job and the bedside job at that time to try to figure out what it was.

And then I fell in love with it. Yep. This is exactly what I want. I’m with my kids working whenever I want.

Sandra Pagenta: It was great. Fantastic. And has your freelance nursing savvy writer, nurse career taken the place of working bedside? Are you working bedside still and still working in the the home care job?

Or are you just, are you just doing that or are you split still? .

Janine: So I started this back in 2015, officially is when I started my business, my llc, whatever. And this past March is when I quit bedside nursing. I slowly went down. I was full-time, then I went part-time, and then I went PRN and then I eventually fizzled the rest out after I transitioned into an agency.

It’s what I am now. So yeah, it was, that’s fantastic. It was a slow process, but that was okay for me. That’s how I wanted to, yeah, to have it.

Sandra Pagenta: What I like about that too, and a lot of people have described it on the podcast is when you take your time, it feels less stressful than when you’re like, yeah, just all in, you know, like when I say like balls to the walls, you just throw it all in, all chips in Casino Royal style.

You just take your time and you play the game. And it’s a lot less stressful, especially when you have children, especially when you’re a mom, that liberty, I feel like is something that’s reserved for someone that’s not have a kid that’s like your mom wants to eat. You know, when you’ve got somebody that’s dependent on you to eat and to live, it’s a lot more risky to just throw it all in.

So that slowly, gradual backing away from the work as you ramp up your side hustle, I think is just a lot of wisdom, especially for people that have people depending on them. So I like that a lot. How did you choose nurse writing and how to be a writer?

Was this something that you kind of sat down and were like, these are my strengths, these are things that I’m good at. And then how you were able to channel that into something that you can do? Because I know a lot of nurses are sitting there and they’re like, okay, I don’t really know what I’m good at.

I like writing. Yeah. I don’t like writing. I like blogging, but I don’t like writing. So like how did you kind of sift through your soul and figure out. This is what lights me up. This is what I’m called to do. How’d you find it?

Janine: So I think the first thing was that entrepreneurial spirit.

If you’re gonna work for yourself in whatever you’re good at, and you don’t wanna be an employee of somebody else. I think that’s where I had to channel in first, is like I am self-motivated. I know what needs done, I’m organized and I’m pretty productive. I can get a lot of things done in a day, probably more than most people.

And it’s because I plan everything and it works out. Of course, seasons of life happen and it doesn’t always work out. But in general that’s kind of how I plan my days. And I think too, the writing wasn’t what sparked me at first. It was more of the drive, what could get me home, what can, what can I do that I would still enjoy?

And what I did enjoy was when I went for my bachelor’s, I did it online and I went through a program that I didn’t have any tests. I had all papers. And that’s when I realized, you know what I like, I love evidence-based research. I love putting things into language that makes sense for people rather than these scholarly kind of articles all the time.

I was able to write a paper that actually kind of made sense and people would actually enjoy reading it. So there I actually enjoy writing. And a lot of people don’t enjoy writing. It’s a skill that a lot of people really don’t enjoy, but what it is, is it’s also something that you can improve on.

And I think a lot of nurses that come to me and they’re like, Jean, I wanna start my own writing business, but I don’t think I’m a good writer. Usually what I say is, well, were you a good nurse when you first started as a nurse? No, you’re not. Everybody sucks at first. And it’s the same thing like nursing.

We needed a a degree to do exactly what we’re doing. We had to do a lot of experience in clinicals and whatnot. But in writing, I compare it to an IV start, we all sucked at it at first, but then over time you might be working with a preceptor who’s like, you know, do this before you try to do your iv.

Try and get the vein to do this. Look here first, and over time you kind of pile these things together and now you could probably start an IV on anybody and that’s a skill that you develop. Whereas nursing degree is something that you had to study and really eventually get a license to do.

Writing’s different. You don’t need another four year degree to become a writer. You just really need to practice and practice and practice, and then you end up getting good at it. It takes time like anything, but that’s what I honed in on is that I knew I was organized, I knew I was productive.

I was always the person on our unit that was putting things together, thinking outside the box and was able to put that into my own work and my own.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah I think a couple things. I think a lot of nurses are naturally good at that part that you’re describing. The planning part, the implementation part, the thinking outside of the box.

I remember following after a nurse and just being like, How did she figure out how to, she’s like, so we hung the opposite and then we had to like piggyback that with the D five cause it’s not compatible. So we had to make sure that we had the normal sailing running through the port. We got that like every nurse just naturally does this right.

And we don’t even realize that these skills that we acquire at our job translate very nicely into running your own business. Yet in the moment you just think oh, I’m just figuring out how to get a patient as medications. No, you aren’t. You are actually figuring out how to create solutions, which is.

What business owners have to do constantly. They constantly have to have this, well, successful business owners have to have this mindset of abundance. I don’t see problems. I just see I need to make solutions and when I need to get to these points, and then I have to be well-planned, right? So I remember also as a nurse, in order for me to get my day started, I had to get my brain.

right? I literally had to write my brain from the hours of seven in the morning till seven at night. I knew when this patient was getting a subq injection. I knew when this patient he went to radiology for this period of time I have to catch up on his meds. It’s what we do.

I think it’s just so interesting that you were very clearly able to see that these are things that you just naturally do. They are proclivities, they’re things that come easy. And you’re right, it does translate very nicely into business. The next thing I was thinking about when you were talking was, you know, what, have you been able to grow in your business?

So, I know you’re an author, I’ve read your book. It’s very, very good. In fact, I think I read your book. I wanna say it was like three or four years ago. Like, it’s in my Kindle. The Kindle. I. I loved it.

And it was funny cuz when you, when we started talking about you coming on the podcast, I was like, that title of that book is really familiar . And then I was like, oh my gosh, this is the author of that book that I read like X Money years ago. It was just such a cool like aha moment. It’s so fun. It was such a fun book.

Such a great book, and it’s so chock full of information. I started, I think that’s what probably sparked

Janine: Macy Nurses sparked

Sandra Pagenta: a lot of ideas. Yes. As business people like, oh no, we can build stuff. We can make stuff. We are actually creative. Like, yeah. , we don’t just have to be in the hospital.

So that, I have to give you credit on that and so everyone can hear it. That. Thank you. I think that’s just so cool. But I know you’re an author, you’ve got your business. Do you have like coaching business where you teach nurses how to grow their own, writing businesses and then kind of what you’ve been able to kind of branch out almost like what I like to call, like roots of the business.

And so you’re able to pull in more revenue. So what have you been able to develop as an entrepreneur? .

Thanks for listening to the episode. I hope you’re enjoying the conversation. I wanted to take this time and remind you to check out the success. NP Etsy shop. It’s a shop that I design with my best girlfriend, cute nurse practitioner gear hats. Bags, anything you could think of as well as adorable digital products.

Mom life stuff. So resources for nurses to come. We’re just excited about our shop. It’s another way to support the podcast and to get really cool gear. Check it out and be sure to tell your friends about the podcast as well as the se shop if you’d like and what i’m building here, any promotion any sharing helps build my audience and i greatly appreciate it now let’s get back to the episode

Janine: So I think going back to how I slowly left the bedside, I think I would’ve left sooner if 2020, didn’t it happen? But 2020 happened and even though it took me a minute to leave the bedside.

It actually changed my whole business and I was doing savvy nurse writer. My podcast Savvy Scribe started as like a podcast to help nurses go into their own freelance writing businesses. So from the podcast, , I was doing like group coaching and then I developed a course, but it wasn’t like where I wanted it to be.

And then in 2020 I launched plan produced profit, which is the course for nurses to become freelance writers. So like the, the podcast feeds, you know, it feeds, feeds each other, honestly. And that was great. It was wonderful. I was helping a lot of nurses while I still had. And so my business, right? RN is my freelance writing business for myself.

So like what I helped nurses do that was mine. And so I had my own clients and so I would have projects for them, and then I was still coaching nurses. Well, then in 2020, I ended up having to then be, so I was the unit educator at that time. So like I said, I work in ob. So not only was Covid a mess, Everyone in the hospital OB was particularly a mess because we had absolutely no idea about how Covid was like affecting a regular human, let alone a baby human or a mother human.

So it’s, it was very scary for a lot of nurses. It was very scary for a lot of patients. I had a lot of nurses quitting. I had a lot of nurses starting, and I had two hospitals and I was doing flexible kind of hours so that I. Remote teach my children, which I never wanna do my entire life. Plus I had pretty much full-time client work in my writing business.

So I was like, something has to give children can’t give. Hospital job pays my bills and my benefits. I can’t let that go, but the writing business, I gotta, I gotta do something here. So I coached a lot of those nurses and I was like, Hey girls, I have a lot of clients and I can’t meet these deadline.

Anybody wants some work? Oh yeah. Well free client work. Absolutely. So I was subcontracting these nurses to work with these clients and it worked out wonderful. Really great. But then I was like, wait, I think I got something here. So what ended up happening over the last three years was I built this database of nurse writers who have specialties from peds to cardiac to.

Mental health to the ob, to wherever. And we have this huge database of writers or aspiring writers who write for clients of Rite rn. That’s how we’re an agency now. So for example, like some of our clients are like sports Illustrated or There’s a, a mental health eating disorder client. We write for a few medical universities for their blog, a couple hospital blogs.

So some of them want like that eating disorder. They want nurses that work. With patients bleeding disorder. So we’re able to like match up nurses with, with the client. But I’m like the middleman, so now I don’t do, yeah, I don’t do too much of the writing per se. I do a lot of the project management day-to-day stuff, so my focus is more on that and on the course and my students, which is wonderful because we have so much going on in there.

It’s not just like a course we. Life guests and we have workshops and we have q and a sessions and, and a whole bunch of fun stuff to ha have like a community of writers, not just like a course that you sign up for and like learn it and you’re done. So it’s, it’s, it’s awesome. It is like, ugh. Nothing I could have ever predict predicted three years ago by any means.

Sandra Pagenta: You know what is so funny? As you were talking, like I was just getting like, my heart just felt like it was swelling. I was just like, oh my gosh. Like this is like, it brings me so much joy to hear how things just organically develop and you’re like, wait a minute. Yeah. Something here, like you, it wasn’t something that you like intentionally tried to build or make or like produce.

Like you were just paying attention and you were just like, oh. Yeah, I think I got something here like, and again, like I don’t think it could have happened to a better person, but you know what? I think the best part too, thank you, is that you go back to how you started and where you are now, and it’s so incredible to watch the growth. There is no cap, there is no ceiling on what you can do now. Right, and like with hospital jobs, with, you know, any type of employment type job What you, what you think is just, you have opportunities, you’re gonna have growth, but there’s always a ceiling, there’s always a cap. It’s because there’s somebody that’s dictating what you can and cannot do.

And so by doing something for yourself, and this is what I want nurses to hear, like by starting something small, even if it is. Not even nursing related. I mean it was for you in this case, but for some people that’s, it’s not, they just wanna start cricketing and they just wanna just cricket, like go do it, like go get started.

Because it could be this thing that you can just eventually go, oh, wait a minute. How did I. I got something here like, and it’s just so neat. Yeah. To hear your story and again, it just fills my heart with so much joy to hear that because I want that for so many nurses. Like again, if they want the entrepreneurial route, but even so, even if this was just a hobby or something that you enjoy doing.

Yes, yes. Talking extra money about writing. It’s just a little extra money on the side that can get you to your goals and it’s different part of your brain.

Janine: You know, it’s not like you’re working another 12 and like going to work and have to find coverage for the kids and, and all that stuff. Like, it’s just a such a, you know, there’s, there’s, it’s obviously not like about the money.

There’s so many other things to entrepreneurship that like, is things I never even knew, like, you know, it’s winner here right now. And the snow days for example, we would like fight my husband and. You call off? No, you call off. I had to call off. I’m gonna get two points. If I call off now, you’re, you need to call.

It was always a fight. Now it’s like, oh, everybody’s home. Cool. Like, whatever. And then it’s like just in summertime we got to go on. We, we took our camper, which we didn’t have back then cuz we could never go camping. But we took our camper this past year up through Maine and like through the New England area and I had a hotspot.

I was able to sit in the car for eight hours while he drove and answered emails and did this and that and, and it was like amazing. It’s just, it’s just a different life that I. Thought we, we could possibly have. And you know, it’s really, I I’ve inspired, which, you know, makes my hearts well other people in my life, like, not just like the nurses that I help, like my brother-in-law started a tea and spice shop.

In, in here in Cleveland. And he was a, a radiology tech at the bedside, like totally different. And he was like, I want, I want a different type of life. And you know, if you, if you feel it, go for it. Like take the risk if you can. If you can’t calculate a risk, like think about it. It’s not like, like you’re going to the casino and throwing all your money away.

You need to think about it. You need to have a plan and you need to know, okay, the worst thing that could possibly happen is this fail. And guess what? There’s always gonna be a bedside job for me. Always like I’m not concerned about it. But then you get this like stubbornness inside of yourself. You’re like, well, I’m not gonna let it fail, so I’m not going back bedside , like how it out

Sandra Pagenta:  I love that. And I love what you’re saying about the impact that you can make because you’re limited to the scope of your hospital field or wherever you’re working. You’re limited to. Values and beliefs, right? Yeah. So you know how whenever you get started at a job and they give you that sheet of paper that says, these are our core values.

And so like, yeah, they give you the core values cuz hospitals know people don’t spend the time personally to create their core values. But hospital institutions know we need to have a set of core values, man. Cuz if we don’t have a goalpost, we don’t have something that we’re trying to like use as our boundaries, we’re gonna drift.

So if you notice guys, hospitals set up values and beliefs and then. put them on us, right? And we were like, these are our values, so you need to make sure you push them. But when you’re a business owner, you get to set your values, you get to set your beliefs, you get to go. It’s important for me to be there when my kids meet me.

It’s important to me to go on those vacations and make those core memories with my children and my family and my husband. And it’s also important to me to impact the career of nursing as a whole, because think about all the other women, all the other men. Nurses that you were able to help grow businesses, that they’re able to create their own lives.

They would’ve never had that impact in the hospital. Yes, you take care of patients, but it’s like individual people that you’re changing their lives. That’s so cool.

Janine: Well, and that’s what I struggled with though, Sandra, was when I went into this, I was like, how am I gonna help people anymore? Like I was.

Really struggling with that. Like, because all I can think of is a nurse helps patients. A nurse helps patients, a nurse helps me, and I’ve helped so many patients over 20 years. Like I, I’ve delivered so many people’s babies that were like, I call ’em my repeat offenders like that, come and have more and more babies and like, we’re like friends now and like you see ’em in the community and it’s.

How am I gonna do that? Like, I miss it. Like how am I gonna do that? But then, like you said, nurses have come to me and they’re like, you helped me. Even if it was like, you helped me get tires on my car, you helped me pay for groceries with, without you, I couldn’t have paid off my student debt without you.

I couldn’t have done this, done that. And I’m like, Oh my God. Like .

Sandra Pagenta: I just not know what a full career,

Janine: it’s them that took action on doing it. But truly I gave them that outlet to be able to do that. And it’s, it’s mind blowing, like how you feel like you’ve done that. And I, and I didn’t even realize it until other people have said it, and I’m like, Yeah.

Yes I am. Well, that’s pretty cool. Like I, I never realized ,

Sandra Pagenta: people reading your book, you don’t even realize. You’re like, oh, you read my book. Don’t , pour all over it. Loved it. Thank you. Yes,

Fantastic. So what is something that you would go back and tell your younger self at the start of your career that you wish you would’ve known as a baby bedside nurse, that you’re like looking back, you would give her as a piece of advice?

Janine: I think it’s go follow your heart . Like I was always listening to what other people wanted me to do.

Go back to school, go do this, go do that, because that’s what you’re supposed to do. And I almost went and got a master’s in either nursing education or midwifery. I almost. But I knew I didn’t want to do that. I, but I was told, well, you know, you, you’ve done everything at the hospital here, so you either go into administration or you could go into midwifery or you’re like, well, that’s, I, I don’t know.

That doesn’t seem like where I want to go. And thank God I didn’t listen to it because I don’t know where I’d be, I’d be in a lot of debt, honestly, because I wanna be pursuing what that was supposed to do. Like, I like, so there’s, I think just a lot of it’s, Follow your heart. Always, always look beyond like where you are.

Like if there’s like, look like always educate yourself on everything and it’s like, it doesn’t matter. If it’s a diagnosis that somebody has that you never heard of, go look it up. Like figure it out and just be prepared and, and just know that there. Your life isn’t what it’s gonna look like now. Like it shouldn’t, it shouldn’t look like what it does now.

10 years from now. It shouldn’t. Yes. Or you’re not growing.

Sandra Pagenta: No, that’s good. Or you’re not growing, you’re stagnant. And I love what you said about the debt and the midwifery program or the, the masters, because it would also, that debt keeps you shackled, right? It keeps you shackled to Yes. The hospital and either in a loan repayment type program, hundred contract.

Exactly, you’re in a contract. Or even some of the nurses will find themselves needing that income to pay their student loans cuz their student loan is just almost as much as their car payment. You know, like, or more, or, or it’s like, as much as they’re, you know, how, depending on where you go to school it can be very expensive.

And so it’s like, again, That’s why the side hustle, the side hustle thing has become something I’ve been fixating on because it’s like the more we start to diversify our income, the more it does give us freedom. It gives us options. It gives us, again, if you can passively make money while you’re asleep, I mean, come on, this is like, this is, this is what we need to be doing as nurses to set ourselves free so that in turn we can turn to hospitals and say, okay, so I know these are your beliefs and values, but here are.

So for us to work together, you’re gonna need to adhere to my beliefs and values. Cause I’m not just gonna push yours, . I’m gonna push mine because I’m in this relationship as well. Right. And so we’re both gonna come together. Yes. And work together. Because I’m only gonna do this. I don’t need you for the full 40 hours a week.

I don’t need the ba, you know, whatever it is. Whatever it is that you need the hospital for. You guys can create a symbiotic relationship instead of the solo, the solo relationship. If I just need you, please don’t let me go. Because you’re hearing about the nurses, right? You know, striking up in Mount Sinai and I’m seeing all this stuff on Instagram and I’m like, what is going on?

But I do just kind of go like, yes, I don’t know what’s happening, but we’re fighting back. We’re trying to say, Hey, listen, like value us.

Janine: And so I think that’s, well, I saw that it wasn’t just about money. It’s not about money. They, and they just think that nurses are so greedy and it’s like, well, first off, just pay us what we’re worth.

Nobody will be greedy. And second, like, no, it’s not about that. It’s about our safety. It’s about our license that we work so hard for, like just respect us. And yes, it’s, it’s a shame. It really is that they, that they just don’t see it. And that nurses are the little. It’s mm-hmm. , it’s nickname, honestly. Yes.

Sandra Pagenta: I love the movie Ants. Have you seen that movie Ants? You have gift kids? Yeah. Do you remember Ants? Yeah. So I remember watching it just recently with my toddler, and I saw it through a different lens for the first time. Like I’d watched it before and I’m like, oh, ants revolting against the crickets. But the ants outnumbered.

The crickets, right? Like there’s 4 million nurses. Yes. There’s 400,000 plus or minus nurse practitioners, like, There’s a whole lot of us. And yet , we let the crickets come in and run the place. You know what I’m saying? Yes. So I remember watching the Ants, the, you know, it’s a kind of Disney movie. I don’t know why I’m getting amped up about this like Disney movie, and my kid is just like, you know, they’re just ants and crickets.

I’m like, it’s not ants. It’s the nurses and it’s the, you know, the nurses in the head. Yes, head, , so and so. Yeah. I mean, you watch that movie now, everyone watches it now it’s gonna be like, oh, great. Sandra ruined it for me. But it’s just like a total like vibe where you’re like, oh, we outnumbered them. Like, we need to see our value, we need to know our worth, and then we need to advocate to be treated that way.

And so, yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent wonderfully said.

Janine: when things really like piss me off that are like safety related and they’re not respecting nurses and like whatever, they would like come up on our own unit and they’re like, we’re gonna be cutting staff and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I’d be the only one to speak up. Nobody would speak up. I don’t know if they were afraid they were getting fired, but I just didn’t care. I was just like, you can’t do that. Like, why would you do that? And everybody’s like, No,

Sandra Pagenta: no. Janine .

Janine: Yeah, no, it’s true. That’s why I could never be in a, like a director role because I’m not a yes man.

And I, and I’m not gonna stand for it. And I think that’s kind of what pushed me to the limit at the end of my career at the bedside was I couldn’t, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I couldn’t handle the dictatorship and the, the, you know, the, them ruling us all the time and it’s like, no, that. Just cause we work for you doesn’t mean you, you own us and yes, that’s how it is.

I hate it. Yeah. I went out there recently just to visit. And everybody’s like, oh, you’re coming back, Janita. You come back. You’re like, no, no, I’m not coming back. And I just still saw it. I’m like, couple things here and there. And I’m like, that’s the reason I left. That’s the reason I left. And I’m like, it’s still, it’s so prevalent now.

And when you’re in it, you’re like, yeah, I could deal with it. Yeah, I could deal with it. And now that I don’t have to deal with it, I’m like, Oh, I’m so glad I’m not there. So glad.

Sandra Pagenta: Yeah. . No, and I, you know what? It’s so funny, I just had this thought as you were talking, but again, I think going back to that same mentality of getting hospitals to respect our, our skills and our value, when you begin to operate and you start to see your worth in value, you then require everyone else around you to step up.

It’s like, I’m just not gonna take it. Mm-hmm. , or I’m gonna go. And so when you, when hospitals start to view us that way, it’s less about. , you know. It becomes more about nurse retention. How do we keep nurses? Because they have so many options that we’re just one of them, okay? We’re not the only one, right?

And so when nurses start branching out and saying, yo, yo, yo, I’ve got three other incomes. Like, you’re just one of them. So what you’re not gonna do is run me ragged, which you’re not gonna do. Like when nurses have the option. Then it’s almost like dating, right? Like, I mean I know that sounds kind of crazy.

Yeah. But it is. It’s like dating. You’re just like, listen, yeah, I got a, I got this kinda guy after me. I got this guy after me. I, I married this guy cuz he’s great. And then I’m, I’m thinking about adding another one. So I’m just letting you know, like, if you don’t work out, it’s fine. I’ve got other ones like, it’s all right.

I’m okay. Right. Like, you don’t wanna Right, right.

Janine: All the men, Jason nuts

Sandra Pagenta: So that’s totally what. Girls get you multiple, get you multiple girls anyway. Money. It’s get choices. You get choices . Exactly. Exactly. Cause then they’ll treat you different. Right. Like they will, hospitals will treat you differently when they know nurses can do.

They got competition. I got competition. They got competition. Yes. Yes. I think so. I don’t know. Those are just thoughts ahead right now. Maybe shouldn’t share them, but I, but I did, so here we are.

Janine:  So well you know the other thing a lot of nurses think is, You know, we’re, we are like the little guy and like, these like big wigs come in and somehow we’re supposed to act different.

Like we’re supposed to, we’re different than them. They’re not different than us. They’re, they’re the same type of human being. They’re going home and to their families, they’re going, they put their, you know, pants on one leg at a time like everybody else. Like, it’s so funny to me how like skittish, like nurses get around, even doctors or the CEO or.

Who cares. They’re human beings. You’re gonna see ’em, you know, a giant eagle, our grocery store down the road. Yeah. Like they, they’re just normal human beings. And I think that’s the other thing too, is a lot of people can’t talk to the higher ups because they’re like, they’re afraid or something. And it’s,

Sandra Pagenta: it’s, yeah.

Nonsense. It’s not sense. Yeah, no, it’s true. And what you’re saying as well is, Again, I think in healthcare we see ourselves as like the, they know that we separate ourselves from the patient. And even that is like another hierarchy class, you know? Yes. Classification that we try to live in. Well, those are the patients.

I’m the nurse. Then there’s the nurse practitioner. Yes. Then there’s the doctor. Then there’s, you know, the administrator and so there’s this like class system when we realize like, no, like we’re all rowing the same boat, like we’re all rowers and so. Without us, the boat doesn’t go just like without the doctors.

The boats don’t go. And, and without the people running the business, it doesn’t go. I mean, we are all needed. And so it needs to be kind of more of a collaborative thing. And I like this book called, I Think It’s Good To Great or Built To Last. Those two books are so good, but they talk a lot about getting the right people on the bus, right?

And so, A bus, all the seats on the bus, like you just gotta get the bus rolling and you want the right people in the right spots doing the right things that are towards, you know, that shows them that they’re respectful, they’re respected in, they’re needed on the bus because everyone’s ne is necessary for the bus to get going and having the right people in the right spots.

And so I like that book a lot because it just kind of goes back to like that, that mindset of. we’re all needed, like none of us. Mm-hmm. are any higher or lower, but just something about human nature just wants to devalue certain people and lift other people up. Yeah. And it’s just like, man, we’ve got to fight that because you will find that you can be a, a, a, a janitor and have more influence on people than some of the physicians.

And I’ve met doctors that I. If my son acted like this guy, I would be so upset. I have failed as a parent. Whereas I’ll meet a janitor and I’m like, if that my kid acts like that janitor, I would be so proud of him because he works his butt off. He doesn’t complain. He’s always looking at, he’ll look for the patient and he’ll go into the room and he’ll bring something to the patient and I’m like, you’re just the janitor.

And he shows pride in your work, just Jan? Yes. Yes. You’re just the janitor. But I’ve seen them do little things for people. Some of them have done that and I’m. , this person’s a leader, period. Doesn’t matter what they’re doing. Yeah. They’re just leading. Yeah. And it’s incredible to watch. So, Janine, for the last part of the interview, le, let’s just leave it on.

That is the rapid fire questions, and then I want to get, I want you to give a shameless plug for your business. Okay. So, okay. What is your favorite holiday?

Janine: My fever holiday is Halloween cuz I have a candy addiction. ,

Sandra Pagenta: you’re the first to come on with Halloween. That’s the fun. Just like the candy. That’s so funny.

That’s so funny. And then what is your spirit animal? If you had to pick an animal that you felt like you see and you’re like, my spirit isn’t that animal. What would you say? It’s

Janine: probably a bird. Any type of bird. Bird, I feel like, I feel like birds and I like, I don’t know. I, I think because they can go anywhere they want and they’re not limited, limited by anything.

They could go south. They could go north, like they can do whatever they want. I think that’s what I

Sandra Pagenta: like about a bird . So what I asked you that question. You know what animal pops in my head for you? An E, an eagle. An eagle. And I don’t know why. An eagle. Oh wow. That’s an eagle. And then you send bird. And I was like, well, there, it’s, I just knew it.

I was like, she’s like an eagle. Totally. What? Okay. And then only like five

Janine: foot. And like

Sandra Pagenta: a hundred pounds. Like I’m a really small eagle, but I’m an Eagle. Eagle.

That’s funny. And then what are your favorite pizza toppings, if you have any? Do you eat pizza? I don’t know if you eat pizza, but what is a favorite pizza topping? Pizza. Yeah. I love

Janine: mean like I’m a, I’m a like a supreme, like veggie person. Like any, like all the things. All

Sandra Pagenta: the things. Oh, all the things.

Like everything like pineapple. With like a mushroom, all of this.

I

Janine: never actually had anchovies, but I’d probably like all, I don’t know. I’m not picky.

Sandra Pagenta: That’s

Janine: really good answer. Cause I can’t have all that together. That or barbecue Chicken pizza. I really like to,

Sandra Pagenta: that’s toos Good. That’s a good one. I’ve had that one too. Yeah. That’s good. So please tell my guests where they can find you. Give a a shameless plug for your business before we get

Janine: outta here.

Yes. So my nurses who are interested in discovering freelance writing, seeing if it’s something that you would like, go to savvy nurse writer.com. Or check out the podcast.

Sandra Pagenta: Just have, yeah guys, I’ll link all our stuff in the show notes. Thanks for coming onto the podcast today and listening. I hope you were able to get something from today’s message and that you guys go out there and enjoy the journey of your careers.

Thanks for hanging out guys.