Nurse News: Nurses Mourn Dr. Janell Green Smith, The Pitt Wins Awards + Season 2 Launch, Nurse Brings HIV Care to Drag Race, 21K NYC Nurses Near Strike, and Flu Surge Hits Hospitals

Nurse.org and major league sports teams are honoring nurses with discounted game tickets and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. From throwing the first pitch to riding the Zamboni to on-court recognition, join the fun. Visit nurse.org/nursenight to find a nurse appreciation event near you and grab your discounted tickets today.

Welcome to Club Nurse. I'm Colton Lord, your host. By you being here today, it shows me that you are someone who wants to learn, grow, laugh, Connect and just let your emotions flow. We are here to share real stories and hear real life experiences from real people. You are not alone in this, and Club Nurse is here to show you that. Don't forget to follow the show and share today's episode with someone you love. Now let's dive into today's conversation.

All right. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Club Nurse Podcast. My name is Colton Lord, your host. I'm super excited to be back. We had a little bit of a break with the holidays. Really haven't been doing any of these Nurse News segments for, I don't know, I think it's been about a month since we last released an episode for the news segment anyway. So I'm super excited to be back. Happy New Year. Happy 2026. I truly hope that this is a great year for everybody. And yeah, let's start this on the right foot. Let's get some nurse news in there. 2025 was, you know, a little bit rough, I think, for some of us. At least for me personally, it was a rough year. But, you know, there's, there's always so much going on in the world. So depending on how you're looking at things, every year can be rough. But I hope that you had some really good high moments in 2025. And I really hope for a prosperous, happy, fulfilled, peaceful 2026, even with all the things going on in the world. This segment of the Club Nurse podcast is all about news, things that are happening in healthcare, in nursing specifically. But we do kind of talk about healthcare at large. While also focusing on nursing, because that's what I believe most of us are, are nurses. We are here on the nurse.org platform. You can get all of this news if you like to read this, the articles, you like to see things. There's links, so many links. You can go to nurse.org/news and that will give you access to all these articles for free. You can click on, you can listen to the episodes in the articles and then read through any news story that you want. All right, so for this week we have just a couple stories to go over, and honestly it's kind of a big week for nurse news. I felt like I was looking through these stories, kind of reading through things, and I was like, wow, these are I think some really important things, some interesting things to talk about. The first one I wanted to touch on is this story. It's terrible. This is a very sad one to start with, but let's just get it out of the way. Let's talk about it. It's important. We need to talk about these things. But the title of this story is Nurses mourn midwife and leader Dr. Janelle Green Smith, who died after childbirth. Now, the key takeaways from this story was that Janelle Green Smith was a certified nurse midwife and DNP who dedicated her career to improving maternity care and patient safety. Unfortunately, she died following complications after the birth of her first child. The exact cause of death has not been released publicly as of the 4th of January, so a couple days ago. This is a really, really important thing to talk about because I had a guest on the podcast, Mama Nurse Tina, shout out, out of Canada. The episode actually has not come out yet, so there's a little sneak peek for you into that. It'll be out, I believe, next week. Today is January 6th, so it'll be out the following week with Mama Nurse Tina. She talks all about labor and delivery, healthcare disparities, which is important because, you know, something I guess I didn't realize until I started diving kind of into Tina's social media and hearing these stories. We all remember that viral story of the mom who was in the ER triage room. She was a Black Black woman, and she was really being obviously ignored by the triage nurse while she was in active labor. And these things are real, these things happen, and the disparity between maternal complications and death from Black women is insane in this country, and it is not okay. It is a big issue, and it's something that we need to talk about. The CDC data show that maternal complications and deaths occur at higher rates among some racial and ethnic groups, even when income and education are similar. Think about this. Janelle Green Smith was a certified nurse midwife and DNP. Not that that necessarily, you know, makes her any better than anybody else in the sense, but it's just to show you that even with the education, even with that, you know, level of status as far as having the DNP behind the name, these disparities are still there. Health systems are working to reduce these gaps through better monitoring, standardized care, and expanding postpartum follow-up. Her passing has prompted tributes from healthcare professionals and renewed focus on postpartum monitoring and maternal outcomes. There is also a GoFundMe a GoFundMe that's been established to support her husband and newborn daughter as the community honors her legacy. So there was a statement posted on social media from the American College of Nurse Midwives. It's a pretty long excerpt that you can read through if you want, but I wanted to highlight this one specific part that says her death underscores the persistent and well-documented reality that Black women, regardless of education, income, or professional expertise, face disproportionate risks during pregnancy and childbirth due to systemic racism and failure This is so true. It's what I was just talking about. Again, I had a little bit of a conversation with this with Tina, Mama Nurse Tina. Be looking out for that episode. But if you want to hear more about this story and kind of keep following as things come out as to what the cause of death was and things like that, be sure to go to nurse.org/news and you can follow that article to see more about Dr. Janelle Green-Smith and this unfortunate case. All right, let's move on to the next story. So I don't know if anybody watched the Critics' Choice Award. I was watching Love Child. I love Chelsea Handler. Thought she did an amazing job. Oh my gosh, she's so funny. Love her. But the reason I'm talking about the Critics' Choice Award is because The Pit did a really great job there. They won quite a few awards. The Pit continues to stand out for its realistic portrayal of nurses and frontline healthcare work, earning multiple wins at both the Emmys, which we remember, and the 2026 Critics' Choice Awards. Nurse characters, especially the charge nurse role, are central to the show's storytelling, highlighting leadership, advocacy, and emotional labor in high-stakes care settings. Oh, that's so cool. So what they won was Best Drama Series, which was awesome. Best Actor in a Drama Series, that was for Noah Weil. And Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Katherine Lanasa. I'm hoping I'm saying your name right. I said this last time that I covered this, anything, the news on The Pit. I believe it was around the Emmys. I've never watched it. I don't love watching medical shows. I don't know why. Well, I think I know why. I just don't think that I like to put myself into that world when I'm not working. This one specifically is all around the ER. So I don't know, I just— something about me and it, I just, I have not watched it. I don't know that I will, but I respect it. I love it. I love that this, you know, gives people a real-world lens into the ER because that is what I have gathered from hearing all this and seeing just clips on social media is that this really does portray the ER and healthcare in a really accurate way, which I appreciate because we all know how annoying it is to watch medical anything I just watched a show and I don't want to call them out. I loved the show, but the scenes in the hospital were just so cringy. Like, this is so like not believable to even somebody that doesn't work in healthcare. So I love that. And you know what? Every single person that got up there to speak to accept the award gave a shout out to nurses and healthcare workers. And I just love that. That seems to be the central focus of all of them is to keep giving the credit back to us as healthcare workers. And I really love that and appreciate that. And they deserve all the honors that they're getting.

Hey nurses, looking for exclusive discounts? Nurse.org has you covered with deals on everything. Save big on the essentials you need to excel in your career. Don't miss out. Visit nurse.org/discounts for the latest discounts made just for you.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

This next one, I also really love this. Um, so Mandy Mango, a nurse bringing HIV care to RuPaul's Drag Race. Um, it appears that the new season has just launched on January 2nd, 2026 with 14 Queens competing for the $200,000 cash prize. I love that nurses are really getting into reality TV. Oh my gosh, I'm blanking on the name. The girl who was on Love Island, was it Amaya Papaya?

Was that the nurse?

I can't remember correctly, but yes, along with a pit, I don't watch a lot of reality TV over. I just don't watch a lot of TV. Love that nurses are getting representation, and this one specifically I really loved. This one hits home for me with the gay community. Because Mandy Mango is a practicing infectious disease nurse specializing in HIV and sexual healthcare in Philadelphia. She's competing on RuPaul's Drag Race in season 18, bringing nurse representation to the main stage. And her story highlights how nursing skills, empathy, resilience, and confidence translate beyond the clinic, beyond the bedside. Uh, so this is great for the LGBTQ+ community. Sounds like Mandy Mango does a lot of work for her community in Philadelphia. Um, these things are important. STI screening, uh, PrEP, you know, getting education out there about HIV, because even in the world we live in today, 2026, um, there's still, I think, a huge gap in just knowledge and education about these things. So love this. I'm actually, I've never watched, don't come for me. Okay. I've never watched RuPaul's Drag Race either, drag show, but I'm going to watch it. When I read this, I was like, okay, the new season just started. I love this. I'm already a fan of, of Mandy Mango. So I'm gonna go out there and watch, and hopefully this Philadelphia nurse will be crowned winner at the end. Oh, I didn't even realize. Apparently there's a few nurses competing on the show. Mandy Mango's just one of them. Yeah, I'll definitely be tuning in. All right, I'm moving on to New York City. Uh, I'm sure that you've all heard 21,000 New York City nurses are on the brink of a strike after a 97% vote.

What?

That's unity, girl. And that's why we have unions. And that's why nurses have to band together to speak up and strike and go against these hospital systems when things are not right. And for New York City, It seems like their biggest issue is safe staffing ratios. I think it's been a big issue in New York City. Anybody that I personally know, and these are just personal accounts, when you go to New York City to work as a nurse, it's the staffing, it's the ratios that are insane, that are a lot harder to deal with than a lot of other places. And so yeah, up to 21,000 New York City and Long Island nurses could strike as early as January 12th. So make sure you're staying tuned for updates on that. The New York State Nurses Association delivered a 10-day strike notice to 15 hospitals. Again, It was a 97% in favor of authorizing a strike from those nurses, which is an overwhelming unity. This could become the largest nurse strike in New York City history, surpassing the 2023 walkout. And like I said, safe staffing ratios remain the central issues, echoing demands that led to enforceable staffing agreements after the 2023 strike. Contract negotiations are ongoing. Hospitals do have time to reach an agreement before that strike would go into place. Just some key things to remember about this. The strike vote was December 22nd. That gave the 97% vote to authorize the strike. The contract expired on December 31st, 2025. The 10-day strike notice was delivered on January 2nd, and the potential strike start date would be January 12th, 2026. And this would be affecting up to 20,000 to 21,000 healthcare workers. And again, like I said, why they're threatening this strike Safe staffing, wages and compensation. Compensation. We all know how expensive it is to live in New York City. And even if you don't know the exact numbers, you know it's expensive. I've even looked at moving there, just looking at apartments. I cannot believe how much money it is. I mean, I was paying a lot of money to live in a one-bedroom apartment in Boston. New York City just surpasses that. These things are important as a nurse and in a union. It is important to stand up, use your voice. Vote. When I first was a part of a union, I'll be totally honest, I didn't understand it. I was like, why are we doing this? Why are we complaining? And that's because I had indoctrinated inside of me, in my head— is that the word, indoctrinated? In my head, working in Arizona, I did not understand what was going on. After being exposed, learning education about unions, I'm all for it. I think they're very helpful to get nurses' voices heard. And if the nurses strike and there's no nurses, these hospitals cannot function. And it's so important to use your voice. And it's okay. It's okay if you're not sure, if you don't understand these things. That's what I'm giving you, my firsthand experience on not understanding, not being educated on unions, and then working for— in a union and understanding kind of the nuances and why they are important. Um, so it's okay if you don't know, but it's important to educate yourself. And stories like these, even if you don't live somewhere where you're part of a union, it's important to know because maybe you will be the one to start a union where you live. So we'll be following that. All right. I don't need to talk much about this. We all know, especially if you're a nurse, the flu this year is insane. Flu Flu A has plagued the United States. I don't know if it's plagued the world, but it's all over the place here. I've even seen some nurses on social media saying their hospitals are mandating masks, and flu is everywhere. Get your flu shot. I'm sure you've already had to if you work in the hospital. You know the flu. This is all giving us PTSD to COVID with how many people are getting sick. The CDC has estimated at least 7.5 million illnesses, 19,000 hospitalizations in a single week in more than 3,100 flu deaths this year. All right, that's it for the nurse news this week. Thank you for welcoming me back. Like I said, this is something that we are really focusing on for 2026 is nurse news. We really want to keep doing this, be consistent with it, and keep delivering the news to you accurately and as quickly as we possibly can. In a world of AI and just things everywhere, you know how much headlines and how many stories are constantly circulating. But I think it's important as nurses, as healthcare workers, that we stay informed. That we stay educated and we know what's going on in our world. So that is what I'm going to do, bring these news stories to you. I will do my best to keep it as accurate as possible, as possibly entertaining as I can. And I hope that you found some value in this. Thank you so much to being here on the Club Nurse podcast. Like I said, make sure to look at nurse.org/news. You can catch all the podcasts, nurse.org/clubnurse. Follow on socials, @NurseColton, @ClubNurse as well. There, that's the podcast page. But thank you so much for being here, and we will see you next time on Club Nurse. From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank you for being here at Club Nurse.

I hope you gained something valuable from today's episode, and if you did, remember to share this episode with someone that you love. Follow me on socials @NurseDaddies or @ColtonLord17, and be sure to follow nurse.org to stay informed with all of the hottest healthcare topics. Until next time, Take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else.

Love ya.

Bye. Bye.