Episode 13 - Janine Kelbach - Bringing Creativity & Independence Back into Your Nursing Practice for Career Satisfaction

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this week's guest, Janine Kelbeck. Janine has been a labor and delivery nurse for over 17 years. She's a wife, a mom of 2 boys and 2 Great Danes. She's an author, and she is an accomplished nurse entrepreneur of her very own company, Write RN. She's also the host of the Savvy Scribe podcast, a show for healthcare professionals who want to build a profitable writing business. Her team of RN writers help healthcare companies with their content and social needs. So let's welcome Janine to the show. Welcome to the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast, brought to you by The Nurse Speak, a show where we rally some of our nation's greatest nurse leaders educators, experts, and advocates to tackle some of our greatest challenges that the nursing profession faces. My name is Damion Jenkins, and I'm your host for this show. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn that nurses can do anything. Okay, Janine, thank you so much for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Why don't you just take a moment and introduce yourself for the listeners? Let them know a little bit about where you started in nursing and where you are today.

Well, thank you for having me on the show. I'm Janine Kalbach. I have been a labor and delivery nurse for almost 16 years now, and I started my career here in Cleveland, Ohio. I actually started as a nursing aide before that, years before that. And that's how I knew I wanted to specialize in labor and delivery. Went to school, did nursing school, and then knew I wanted to actually be a nurse at the inner city hospital. I really enjoyed our clinical time there. And I had my son in nursing school as a single mom. So I knew I needed, I needed to like plant roots for a minute. And then I was able to go downtown, got the tertiary experience, did home care in the pregnant population. It was awesome. Uh, it was very dangerous, but very awesome. And ended up coming back home, um, at the local hospital again on night shift and took the manager— assistant manager role. And then eventually went into day shift and did charge nurse, did precepting, did kind of all the things. And then eventually got certified, got my bachelor's, and eventually took the educator role in our department. And now I, you know, even through there I started a business on the side. We'll get into that a little bit. But now I actually just work PRN. I still enjoy the bedside. I still enjoy delivering babies. And that's where I am now. I still have lots of years left before I could retire. So I still like to be at bedside. I don't have to anymore, which is the luxury at this point.

Awesome. So you've done quite a lot. And how many, how many years from start to PRN about? How many years?

Um, so I started in '06 and I went PRN in '19.

Wow. Yeah. So, so you've moved in a variety of, of what I call pivots in your nursing career. Same thing, same thing as me. I've done a lot of things to try to figure out what it is that I liked the most or to gain additional experiences so I can position myself, you know, to be the best educator I can. And I know that you thrive in the education space and You mentioned you created your own business, and I don't want to wait too long to talk about that. I do want individuals to know why it is you started your business. What need did you see there? And what are you doing with your business?

So to start, I want to just say, like, back in '06, when I started as a nurse, my vision was never to go PRN. I never thought of that. My vision at that time was to be the best OB nurse that I could possibly be. Be. And then I got to that point, I was like, well, now what? And I wasn't feeling totally fulfilled at the bedside. I love my job, but there was just something missing all the time, and it was my creativity. Um, I'm a very independent worker, and I love to be creative, and you don't get that a lot at— in nursing at the bedside, right? When I'm at the bedside, I'm not independent. I rely, and I also help my fellow coworkers. I love going to work and being that person to constantly help other people. So when I'm on my own, I do like independently take care of my patients, obviously. But I, I still, I would go home and like, something's missing, something's missing. Well, when I had my second son, that's when I was like, I need to be home more. And I was also at that time still on night shift, picking up extra shifts, just trying to help her. And I was starting to get burned out. And that's when I was like, I need to do something different. So it was almost a selfish thing in a sense. I was like, I need to do something else. I need to do something else. And a lot, like a lot of nurses, what do I do? Well, who, I'm a nurse. What can I do? Well, I'm here to tell you there's a lot of things that you can do. For me, it ended up being freelance writing at first, and that's what I started my business doing. And now I'm actually, I run a content agency where I kind of do the project managing. For my clients, and I have writers underneath me.

Nice. So I think that leads a lot of nurses into starting their own business, right? Um, this, this need for autonomy, this need for creativity. Um, some people seek out financial freedom in creating a business. And, you know, for those who have been following this podcast and other podcasts like this, people are starting to learn that nurses can do anything, and we can go far beyond direct patient care services and even change the way direct patient care services even looks, which is pretty amazing. So it's really exciting to be in nursing. There's a lot of challenges, as we know, which is really the topic and focus of this podcast, is kind of identifying one challenge, you know, and it could be a group of challenges that you've identified in your journey as a nurse so far. Um, let's talk a little bit about kind of the one thing that you think is a big problem for nursing, and then we'll talk about what we can do about it.

So I think the biggest problem in nursing right now is the burnout factor. And I know it's like the big word right now, and it's so relevant, but it's so true. It's so true. And that's, you know, the reason I chose that is because that's exactly where I was, yet it wasn't during the global pandemic, it was during my own career journey. And so it's just highlighted now because of the pandemic, I believe.

Yeah, I think the general public has a better understanding of what burnout of nursing means. Um, but yeah, let's talk about that in deeper because burnout has so many different factors to it. It's not just one thing that happens that burns out a nurse, right? There's a lot of different things. And, and I've discussed this in previous episodes, but I always like to elaborate on it. And, you know, the issue that I find, or the main issues that I find that surround burnout, has nothing to do with nursing specific, right? It's usually not the role of the nurse, or, you know, the skills that we have to do, or the critical thinking we have to do, or the, the tasks, or meds, or assessments, or documentation. It's generally not the work that nurses do that causes the burnout. So let's talk about burnout for you and why it's such a big issue?

I think for me it was the night shift. It was night shift and it was the 12-hour shifts that were never just 12 hours. And then I was also the facilitator, so I just felt that I was responsible for the unit all days, all nights, all hours. And I would put it on myself and stress myself out that if I wasn't there or I wasn't by my phone to answer that question then somehow the whole unit would go under or something like that. And, and that's not to sound egotistic. I think it's just as a good nurse or somebody with experience, you start to feel that way. Like, you, you want to help these new nurses be the best that they can be, and sometimes that is on the expense of you, and not just you, your family, your friends, your relationships. And I love the, the word burnout because it's exactly what it is. It's like you're We all start as like a lit match, and unless— there's one thing that finally blows out the candle, and that's your total burnout. That's when you finally either quit, you retire, you move on to something else. But if you don't do that, you will just keep burning down and burning down, and all the lights will go out behind you, and you're that one flame that might still be on, but you're exhausted and you just can't think of another day. You don't enjoy your job anymore, right? And when you start to not— I think if we knew what If burnout was just nursing, we wouldn't have gone to school and we wouldn't have graduated as nurses because we would have been like, yep, this isn't for me, right? It's not the job. You're exactly right when you say that. But what I've noticed helped me the most with burnout is starting my own business. And, you know, if you're not like me and you're thinking, I can't just start a business, I wouldn't know what to do, whatever, some things you can do to just start the burnout, like start decreasing the stress around you is to look at what are you doing in your job that you actually have to do every day. If you're in that leadership role, do you have to have your phone on 24/7? You do not. I know you think you do, but you don't, right? You do not. Your, your body, your, your brain, your heart does not belong at your employer 24/7. And if you don't claim that as your own, it's, it's going to burn you out. You will be exhausted constantly.

Yeah. I mean, that's a, that's a really great tip to share with individuals. You know, I've been in leadership roles. I work with lots of leaders and they do feel obligated to check their inbox every 5 minutes or check their phone every 5 minutes. And they're afraid that they're going to miss something important. But then I can see, I myself have saw where I start dropping the ball or, you know, missing things because I'm so stressed and so overwhelmed with the tasks, I'm not really having an opportunity to think about the bigger picture, to plan ahead, to, you know, recoup some of my reserves and my energy so that I can tackle the bigger things that I'm assigned to do. And I find that that's the same thing for nurses at the bedside, you know, especially, you know, I mean, all of the nurses, LPNs or RNs. I'm going to advocate for both because I work in intimately with both and have over the years. We're all essential to the, to the care team. But when RNs specifically are tasked with all of the hands-on regular routine skills, you know, medication administration, those types of things, and we're not provided the opportunity to really think about patient care, to really think about how are we going to improve this patient's outcome, how are we going to work together as a team to make sure we appropriately handle the patients on our unit, If we're not provided that opportunity or the resources to do that, then we're in the same position. We're just overwhelmed with tasks and we can't really think things through clearly, which leads to a lot of the frustrations that we have, which eventually turns into compassion fatigue, right? We, we start not— we feel like we start not caring enough. And I don't think any nurse truly says I don't care, but it doesn't impact us quite the same way. We get a little jaded, right? We get a little cynical, and then that turns into really unhealthy behaviors. And those unhealthy behaviors turn into us bullying each other, right? It turns into us not doing those thorough assessments for our patients and oftentimes missing things, not doing complete or comprehensive documentation so we can clearly spell out what's happening with our patients. It leads to us taking shortcuts so we can get out of work faster, so we can cherish every single second we get out of the unit. And even the drive home sometimes is cathartic. It's just that 20 or 30-minute drive home is like where we are kind of just meditating almost on autopilot because we're so exhausted. I can remember going home and my legs from my toes to my knees are numb. You know, I can't even feel my legs because I've been on them for so long running around. And I just think to myself, how am I possibly going to recover before 5 o'clock in the morning when I have to get up and get ready to go back and do another 13 or 14-hour shift? So yeah, I mean, but a lot of it, again, it's not necessarily the work of the nurse, but it's the system we're in. It's the, you know, the essential skills that we may not have. It's leadership kind of not seeing the big picture. It's I feel like healthcare being dictated from a business standpoint and not necessarily on a holistic wellness kind of model. So there's so many things. So you, you saw your burnout as an SOS, right? You were like, okay, if I keep going this route, I'm not going to go very long. So I need to do something with it. And you started your business. And so you mentioned just briefly that, you know, some people might say, well, I can't start a business, but I would like to challenge everyone and say, yes, you can, because it doesn't have to be a multimillion-dollar corporation that you're establishing. It doesn't have to be, you know, something that is going to take every moment of your waking days, time and energy. There's so many things that nurses can do and so many skills we already have that if you're willing to supplement your income and just transfer your skills to doing something autonomously, You know, there's always a little bit of a startup that has to happen, you know, a little bit of work you're gonna have to do up front. But I mean, I have more nurse entrepreneurs in my network now than I have bedside nurses. Yeah, and, and that's because, you know, I'm also in business, and so, you know, I surround myself with like-minded individuals. And by no means am I trying to pull away nurses from the bedside, but the bedside doesn't have to dictate your entire profession. As a nurse. So, so, so what did you see the need for this writing? You know, so you got into writing. What was the need that you saw that you could fill with your expertise?

At that time, it was the need to give patients education that they could read and understand. Because I don't know about you, back at the bedside, when they're coming in with these things printed off Google, or they said Google said this, I'm like, what? Where are you getting this information? I wanted to make sure that nurses were putting out relevant evidence-based content. And that's what I focused on. And quickly companies were like, yeah, this is a need. Yeah, this is what we're trying to do too. Can you help us? And yeah, that's, that's kind of where I started with it. And that's how I know there's still more work out there. And it's not going away because content is everywhere. Whether you're writing blog posts, producing videos, making social things, eBooks, emails, it's, it's still content. Content's content.

Yeah. So everyone needs content, right? Some of us are pretty savvy at writing our own, right? Just like you would claim to be with the Savvy— what is it?

Savvy Nurse Writer.

Savvy Nurse Writer. Right. So, you know, your, your own company's name podcast, right, is what you do. I was on your show a while ago.

A while ago.

Yeah.

The episode, because, yeah, it was, it was in the summer. I remember. I think it was the summer of the pandemic. You were on my show.

Yep. Absolutely. I was in, I think I was in, I think I was in Connecticut. We had, we were just getting ready to come back to the city. But yeah, so, you know, so there is a big need. With content creation. I myself have really kind of made some good money off of content creation using my expertise as a nurse, as a nurse educator, and creating content that speaks to meeting the needs of individual learners, whether they're nursing students, new graduate nurses, professional nurses alike, or even people just interested in learning more about nursing in general, whether they're an advocate of nursing or they're maybe interested in pursuing a career in nursing. Nursing, or seeing how they can support nurses and, you know, improving outcomes for our communities. Um, so, you know, there's a lot of need. And so, you know, I know you very well, um, welcome healthy competition because we know there's a need for— there's so many needs you can't fill them all, right?

Yes. And so I like how you said that, that like healthy competition, or I always feel like There's, there's room for everybody in the pool. Come on in.

That's it.

And that's the thing, such a different— and you've seen it in the nursepreneur world, it's a different thing than at the bedside. People want each other to succeed. Yes, they're always helping, they're networking with one another. Like, they're so— like, I want your podcast to succeed as much as I want my podcast to succeed. Like, this is how we, we do it. And absolutely, it's really fun that way. I really like it. It's my kind of people, right? You kind of kind of find your people.

Absolutely, you find your people. We are all supportive of one another, and, you know, we're all on the same mission. Our mission is to improve healthcare, to improve patient care, to improve the profession, you know, to take back our profession from corporate America and turn it into what nursing truly can be, you know, being back in the community, you know, really extending our reach, you know, elevating We're one, we're one of the most credentialed professions of them all. We have the only certification process for career coaching than any other profession in the world. We have more professional organizations that support, govern, and, you know, elevate the profession than any other profession in the world. There's no reason why nursing can't become like the, you know, go-to for all things, you know, wellness, holistic health. And it, and it goes beyond just, just physical wellness, you know. We can—

I feel like we're at these changing times, like something's changing. Things are changing in the nursing arena for the good, for the good.

Absolutely.

I mean, it's kind of ugly right now, looks ugly. Yeah, but it's not. It's a change, and we're going to come out on top. We're going to come out more positive. Yeah, nurses are going to get the rates that they deserve at the bedside. It's going to happen.

It's, you know, there's a big, there's a big tug of war happening right now. Right. It looks ugly because we have, you know, the people at the people, the, the business mindset or the financial mindset still kind of pulling back on the fact that they don't want to have their profit margins change. Right. They're so used to making so much money, you know, per quarter, per year or whatever, that they don't want to go go back on that at all. And I understand that from a business point of view, you don't want to go backwards in profits. However, we all are smart enough to know that there are plenty of resources out there. They just need to be redistributed, right? You don't have to lose money in order to pay nurses more. You just have to be a little bit smarter about how you're spending your money and move your money around.

Not just take it from the nurse.

Correct. Um, and again, that, that goes back to what I've discussed on previous episodes, and you may have even discussed this as well is that nursing needs to change the way that we are compensated, right? We can't keep being room and board. As long as we're room and board, right, for healthcare institutions, we're always going to be a cost to the facility, and we're always going to be the ones to get a lot of the resources taken away. Um, so that payment structure has to change. How it changes— there's a variety of things in the works right now. Hopefully one of them comes true in the near future. And so we can see, but in the meantime, as we're navigating the complexities of a changing healthcare system and nurses kind of taking back their power and utilizing their power, we can create our own businesses where we can have that fulfillment, that creativity, that financial independence, and still pick and choose when we want to be in an institutional setting so we can do our bedside care keep our skills up, or maybe even do onboarding for staff development like I do. Right. So there's a variety of things. So, all right. So you now mentioned that you have a team of writers under you, which means your business has grown, right? Which means you personally couldn't keep up with the demand that you needed, which is always a great place to be when you can't keep up with the demand. You have to start outsourcing, right? You need other professionals who have similar mindset, similar skill set, who can fill in the gap and write this amazing content so that you can sell it to the individuals who need it. So let's talk a little bit about at what point did that happen for you and how, how much of a daunting task was that to seek out and start hiring individuals? Because I think this is one of the main things beyond nurses getting over the fact that we should charge for our work, right? That's the first hurdle we have to get over because we're so used to giving everything away for free. Um, once we establish our worth and we're like, okay, we are going to charge a decent amount of money for our services, now we have to trust other individuals to do the same work we're doing. That has to be a little scary. How was that process for you?

So I love that you said about the nurses charging for like what they're worth, and it's so funny because in one of the lessons in my course it talks about rates and charging and It's always the— what sets people back. They won't go forward on it because they're scared to death to charge more than they are getting hourly at their job. And, you know, I break down the stats, I show you the research that freelance writers make more than nurses, and then I just go, and I don't know why, I don't know why, I don't know why, but it is what it is. And we can't just be the underdogs and nurses that write— like, we can't take down the freelance profession. Just stick with what everybody else is doing, like, and people actually will value you more because you are a nurse, so you actually should get higher than the average, right? And so I had to stop on that point that you made because it's so true. Like, we don't— it's, it's such a setback for many nurses to get stuck. You get so scared to say how much you're worth, and it does. And I struggle with that myself when I was first starting out.

Yeah.

And then when it goes into outsourcing. So when it first happened, it was when everything shut down in the nation, and I had to homeschool my kids. And that— okay, just like I said, in 2006, I became a nurse and never thought I'd go PRN. I also birthed my children to never have to homeschool. Sure enough, I had to homeschool. So I was like, alright, gotta figure this out. And we did it somehow, some way. But in the meantime, Even since like 2015, 2016, after I established my business a little bit, nurses were coming to me like, how do you do this? I want to learn how to do this. And if they were really serious, I would take them on as, as clients to coach. And I was able to coach these nurses to do what I was doing much faster than I did it and able to then either work full-time or part-time, whatever they wanted to do. I was like, huh, well, if I could do that, I can do a course. And show nurses, because like then I was starting to get more like group coaching clients and one-on-one clients for coaching to do this. And I'm like, I need to bundle all this because stuff I keep saying. So that's, that's when I had the course. And then on top of it, those nurses, I had a lot of work and I had to homeschool my children. I was like, I need help with my work. Are you guys— and I knew I vetted them, I trusted them, they did great work. And yeah, I'll take your work. So I subcontracted And that's how I've built the agency. Now what we have now is a free database. So if you're like, Janine, I like to write, I don't know if I could ever do this online full-time, but it's something that helps me be creative and I have a lot of knowledge. You could just come to our website, thesavvynursewriter.com, go on job board and click on database, and you can add your information in there. Doesn't mean you'll get a job, doesn't mean anything. You can be in the database. And then when I get clients through the agency, WriteRN, then they say like, hey, Jeanine, do you have anybody who works in oncology? Or, hey, Jeanine, like we just had a client who's like, I need nurses that are certified in their profession. So say it's inpatient OB or EFM in the L&D side. Yeah, actually I have this many. And I just like look at my list and see the credentials. And they're like, oh my gosh, you actually have these writers? Because for whatever reason, they cannot find writers to do this. So I reach out to my database and I'm like, hey guys, are you interested in writing this stuff for this client? And yeah, I'd be interested. Yeah, I'd be interested. And boom, make a connection. Then I do the project management side of everything. And it's, it's an awesome, awesome thing.

Nice. So with that new, with that new kind of business model, are you still putting out, you know, your own content at a regular pace? Or are you kind of just doing project management now?

So I'm doing content on the, like, um, Nurse Writer side, a lot of that. So I do the podcast every week. And then I have some webinars and trainings that I'm really active in our Facebook group. So content-wise over there. And then on the agency side, I do produce a lot of content for clients that are interested in content services or whatever, just even optimizing their websites Right. Like that, the internet marketing kind of content. So it's changed a little bit. It's not patient-facing content any longer.

Yeah, because now you have a team of writers. Yeah, you can offload that kind of writing to those individuals, which is great. So, you know, so you've been a nurse since you said 2006?

Yep.

And now we're, you know, kind of approaching the end of 2021, and you've been in business for how long now?

So since 2015, I established my LLC in 2015. I dabbled since about 2013.

Sure, right. A lot of us dabbled before we got, you know, before we got brave enough to say we're actually going to go into business, you know, just like when you buy the domain and you're like, okay, well, I'm going to do this. It's getting real right now. I have a domain. Now I have to create a website. Now I have to do an email list, you know. Yeah, it's nice. The beautiful thing about, you know, becoming a nurse entrepreneur is that you can slowly and carefully piece together your business while you're still working, which is what we've all done. Many of us have. I don't, I don't know of anyone who just quit their job and started like that. I don't know anyone who did that.

I don't recommend doing that.

I don't, I don't recommend it either unless you have lots of resources.

Yeah, I experienced way less burnout, I'll tell you this, because this is probably something that that probably holds nurses back from going forward. I experienced a lot less burnout when I just started my side business than when I just kept— even when I wasn't making a lot of money at first. As long as you want it and you're driven and you have those logical steps in order for your next step of action, you will feel less burnout even though you're working on your day off. You will feel less burnout than you will picking up that fourth night shift.

Absolutely.

100% of the time.

Absolutely. I 100% agree with that statement. Um, really nursing education has— is what kept me in the profession. Um, honestly, you guys almost lost me.

Yeah.

I know I've said this on other episodes. Um, but you know, nursing almost lost me. Um, I almost went back to the food and hospitality industry, back to culinary school. And I was, I was like, if I'm gonna work awful hours every holiday, never see I'm at least gonna, you know, have a less risky job. And to be honest, cooks get paid more than nurses on average.

There you go!

So I was like, why am I even doing this? But if it weren't for me being so passionate about filling in the gaps, doing that nursing education, you know, devoting myself to finding a way to do it better, right? Because even as a nursing student, I had some amazing professors and I had some not so amazing professors. I had some amazing clinical instructors and mentors and some that I was wondering, why are they even doing this? And then when I got into the workforce, you know, basically felt like I was being trained by brand new nurses who didn't know anything themselves. And I'm like, this is not how I imagined this at all. And then, you know, I just kept trying to learn as much as I could. And, you know, I traveled the country, did, you know, contracts, places, did a lot of internal agency, bounced around a lot of the hospitals. You know, in Baltimore, and, you know, kind of seeing that a lot of the issues again aren't really nursing-specific. They're system-specific, operational-specific, communication breakdowns, you know, leadership issues. A lot of the essential skills that nursing school just doesn't have the capacity to teach nursing students as they're going through. And then oftentimes, the, you know, to no fault of the educators at the hospital There's just a lot of breakdowns in our ability to have an awesome preceptorship program. The nurse educators can't handhold each new hire the way that we would like to because we have other administrative things we have to manage. It's not just teaching the staff.

I feel you there from being in that role, right? It was very hard, right?

If the job was truly focused on teaching the staff, then it would be perfect, but we know that an educator role— but it's not It's, it's more of a weird, like, collaboration with leadership and management. You're a middleman constantly being pulled to, to fill in the needs. Like, you know, if there's a snowstorm, they expect educators to stay and assist on the floor, and I'm like, what? Instead of pulling in more nurses, you know, or, or having an on-call structure, or having, you know, agencies supply the, the extra nurses to fill in they want the educators to fill in the gaps. And, and I feel like the education department's constantly defending their, uh, right, or their, their right to get paid, the need, right? Like, how, how—

it's like they know the need, they know there needs to be an educator, but they don't want—

they don't want to— they don't want to pay for it because they, they don't view it as, you know, essential because we're not taking care of patients, which patients generates income, money. Yeah, but the interesting thing is, is every time a nurse makes a mistake, or every time there's a negative outcome or a sentinel event, they call the educators and they're like, educators, we need you. And it's—

did she learn this in onboarding? Yeah, precepting.

Yeah, well, probably, but yeah, exactly. So, so then we go and we validate their understanding and then go back to leadership and say they know how to do this. And the issue wasn't, you know, a compliance issue. The issue was a circumstantial issue because it was 2 nurses and 48 patients.

There you go.

And no, no nursing assistant, no charge nurse, no manager.

Yeah.

So this is why this happened. And of course, and of course, they never seem to do anything else beyond— oh, okay.

Well, it's nice to know, you know, out where you work and even in Ohio, it's all the same.

It's all the same. And again, it comes back down to the way healthcare is run, the value that we place on certain things, um, you know, the lack of resources that really should be in place. Um, you know, just like a business has to invest in all of the things to get started, they also have to invest in the things to keep it going strong.

Yes.

And that's where a lot of businesses fail. And, you know, a lot of us who have been around long enough to, to be able to make that good assessment Healthcare is in danger.

Very much so. Very much so.

It's in danger. And I think the public is growing more and more weary and less trusting of healthcare. Um, you know, fortunately nurses have been able to hold on to, you know, still being the number one trusted profession. Um, but if the general public's, you know, sense of healthcare as a whole keeps going down, it's just a matter of time before they stop trusting nurses.

Yeah. So nurses, I think the other thing too, you know, you mentioned like your passion for nursing education. I know a lot of nurses that are like, but like, I don't have a passion. That's— you don't have to have a passion. You can just have a why, or you can have what would give me meaning in my work. Like, if you just have meaningful work, and that could be meaningful to you. If your meaning is I want to be home more If your meaning is, I don't want to work night shift because I'm exhausted, I need a day shift job. Maybe your job itself is not the most meaningful of work, but you're getting meaning from it because you aren't exhausted, you're not burnt out. And the same thing when it comes to like starting a job on the side. If you're really so-called passionate about doing something on the side, or you really are like, this is it, this is— I know what I want to do now. If it's to become a writer, I don't know, right? It's that you're like, I'm putting the eggs that I have left in this basket and I'm taking it forward. And you're like, well, now what do I do? My job is exhausting me. I have no free time. Maybe that's the— that's what you need to change. Maybe you need a different job. And that's okay. Especially this, this day and age, nobody stays at jobs anymore. So really, it's not that big of a deal. I'm not saying you know, your unit doesn't need you. They do. I'm not saying leave the bedside, just like Damion Jenkins. Like, we don't want nurses just to leave the bedside.

No, we need you.

It's like, my thing to combat burnout was to get a side job because I knew that would fulfill or give me meaning, I guess, to my work again.

So yeah, exactly. You know, you know, helping, helping new graduates pass the NCLEX was something that I did initially to kind of distract me from, you know, the burnout and the frustration of being at the bedside. And, you know, taking on one student here, one student there, you're never going to make a tremendous amount of money that way. But I found such value in what I was doing. And I did that for a very long time before deciding to scale up by creating an online platform where more people can kind of independently move through the course and then book me if they need that additional, you know, one-to-one guidance, which some people just need the validation that they have the process down pat and then they feel more comfortable moving through it independently. So many people don't even know where to start. And so instead of having just one client at a time, I scaled up and created an online course, which now, you know, I can have thousands of people go through the course at a time. And then, you know, however my availability allows it, I can take on those one-to-one one clients as needed. And I still find great value in that. And, you know, even if I were to go back full-time to an employer or do some PRN work here and there, I've now created something that is kind of on the passive side where I can now focus and learn, learn more. I can do more, you know, skill— patient-facing jobs, learn new skills, maybe even go back for a certification or go back to school if I choose to. Um, so it's helped keep me distracted from the frustrations that is the job, right? Um, the things we have to deal with as nurses. And so, you know, a lot of my colleagues—

the unit, right? It keeps you out of the politics.

Politics.

It's too many people there. Like, they're so miserable, and I just want to be like, find joy somewhere.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not here. You gotta find somewhere.

Exactly. And, and, you know, and every miserable person I speak to, they all tell me the same thing. They're like, but I love being a nurse, and I love taking care of my patients, and I love when I help someone, but I just hate the ways in which I'm forced to do it.

Right.

And then, and then I just simply say, well, it's time for you to change the narrative.

Yes. Because you can, you can learn how those nurses that have been there a while.

Yeah, of course.

And you're like, yeah, you're like, okay, if you're not happy, don't, don't stay somewhere if you're not happy.

Yeah.

But they still have in that mind that like for some reason seniority gets you something. It doesn't anymore.

It does not.

It does not anymore. Yeah.

And if anything, you know, we can— I can, I can attest since graduating nursing school in 2010, you know, and starting my first acute care job about a year and a half later, I bared witness to senior nurses being forced into taking a pay cut, getting demoted and going back to the floor, or losing their jobs.

Yep.

I bared witness to that, and that has been cyclical through nursing.

It might give you the first vacation pick, but good luck getting one because you probably won't have enough PTO.

Correct.

Okay.

And if you hit, if you hit an all-time high in salary, you're usually one of the first ones they get rid of.

Yep, exactly, period, right?

But even now, right, 11 years experience, 8 and some change of master's degree nurse educator experience, I'm still being offered jobs in the educator role in the low 40s per hour. Yeah, low 40s per hour. So any of, any of those nurses out there who think you know, you know, nursing educators or managers and stuff get paid a lot. We really don't. We really don't. And some get paid way more than what I'm getting paid and have less years experience. I don't know how that happens. You know, but I also know people who have more years of experience who are making the same as I am.

Yeah.

And I know people who, you know, have been in, say, more of just like a a traditional bedside role who are making $30 more an hour than I am. Yeah, well, it just really depends on where you came in.

Yeah, they, they have like a PRN wage or whatever. I got a cut from when I was an educator. They cut me back to— I was at— I forget what I was as an educator. I just know I'm at $38 now. $38 an hour, almost 20 years experience, done all the things, certified. And I got a cut.

Isn't that crazy? Yeah, I got a cut to leave long-term care to go to acute care.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, I was like, wait, what? Less money to what? Patients are sicker, huh? Okay, okay. I— but I knew I was on a track where I needed the experience, but that's where they— I feel like that's where they have, you know, the powers. Like, they know you need the experience. So they know they can do that. And all of the local institutions talk to each other. They all share what they're making. So you're not going to get a significant pay increase from one hospital to the next.

It might be a dollar, like, and that might go to parking, like, correct, like what you have at different hospitals.

Being agency, I didn't have to deal with a lot of the politics, a lot of the—

and if you're stuck in a job with politics, my advice for that is to just keep helping people, keep trying, trying to create your team there. Like, it's truly like, it's going to work is what you make of it. And it's, if you just fall into the negative role of some of them people there, it's gonna drag you down and you're gonna be just like them. And if you just go in there, positive attitude, we'll get through the day. Be the person who makes the coffee, like whatever that is. Start to know what people like in their coffee and bring them a cup. I mean, seriously, they're sitting down charting, bring a cup of coffee.

In addition to those nice gestures like making the coffee or going out of your way to, you know, kind of do that nice thing, I think showing up for your colleagues, you know, by like rounding on them, right? Not just rounding on your patients, yeah, rounding on them, checking in with them throughout the day. How are you doing?

They're sitting there charting, say, do you need anything? As in like, do you need me to check on a patient? Do you need me to medicate somebody? Do you need me to do Like, if you're freed up, because here's where— and I know, and I know you're going to work with those people that are— they're never going to reciprocate. They're just never going to do it. But you need to keep doing it. And eventually, you'll ask them. Yes, yes. Eventually, it will reciprocate. And the fact that there's going to be more people on your side. And, you know, it will— you'll build a better team, but it takes time. It's not going to happen. You're trying to be the good person.

Yeah.

And You know, it's— you do, because I think in general, because yeah, we have hard days and yeah, people are negative, in general we all care about each other. We work with each other because we care about each other. We're like a family.

Yeah.

And you're with each other on holidays and weekends, and we're with each other sometimes more than with our families.

Long hours.

Yeah, you might as well make the best of it and not dread the people you're working with all the time.

Absolutely.

Because there are quirks. Whatever.

Yeah, we're all, we're all different. Awesome, Janine. So you— we've covered a lot about some of the issues in nursing, a lot of the ways that we can get around these issues. Always there's a way to start up a side gig. That's something I know that you can help individuals do if they wanted to get into the freelance writing space, which there's always room for that. How can people find out more about your program so they can learn how to be a freelance writer? Or if they already are a freelance writer, how can they maybe get more clients or learn new tricks or strategies?

So you can go to SavvyNurseWriter.com, check out that website. You could check out my podcast, The Savvy Scribe, or, and, or you can, um, check out our Facebook group, The Savvy Nurse Writer Community.

Nice. Awesome.

All free. All free. Come on in. Lovely.

That's beautiful. And so, uh, thank you so much for being on this episode of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. I always enjoy our conversations, and as always, I'll be picking your brain for ways that I can continue to pivot with my expertise and my audience. So thank you so much for being on the show, and I can't wait until next time we get to hang out. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you so much for having me, and you too have a wonderful day.

Thank you so much. And that concludes episode 13 of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this week's guest, Janine Kalbach. We hope that all of the strategies we've covered in today's episode will inspire, motivate, and empower you to lead the charge. All of the ways to connect with Janine will be included in the show notes of this episode at thenursespeak.com/podcast. If you have any questions regarding anything we covered in today's episode, you can get in touch with me by visiting thenursespeak.com/contact. I would love to have a conversation with you. So until next episode, take care, be well, and remember, that nurses can do anything.