Nurses and the Medical Draft: What Would Really Happen?

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.

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Welcome back to Club Nurse. My name is Colton Lord, your host of this podcast. Thank you so much for being here again, for coming back to hear some more information, more stories, whatever I've got for you. Uh, if you've stuck around through the first couple episodes, thank you. Uh, anytime you start any kind of new process like this new project, there's always some bugs to work out and just kind of start to like get the feel and the flow of how this all works. I've done some podcasting before, but not really ever like nursing or like in healthcare like this consistently. So yeah, today I am, I'm actually, it's like, oh, it's actually almost 8:00 PM when I'm recording this. I've had a busy day. I am headed out of Boston tomorrow where I live, and I'm gonna go to Tennessee, flying to Knoxville where my sister lives, and I'm gonna go spend some time down there. She owns a boat, and so I'm gonna spend some time with my family, go out, relax, just chill. Yeah. You know, because we need that nurses. We all need that, right? So what I was going to talk to you about today—I know that this has been all over my TikTok and my Instagram. People have been making the funniest content around this, although in reality it's really not that funny. But this is just how we cope. This is what we do. The internet is so unserious, and I love it because we have to make light of these crazy times that we live in. And I when I think about it, I know people always say like, "Oh, times are so scary. It's so hard right now." Like, and I think I want. To acknowledge that for one, yes. But I also want people to realize that it's always been hard, no matter what time period you grew up in. There's never been a time where it's just been like easy breezy, beautiful cover girl to live. It's hard. Life is hard. There's always crazy things going on. There's always things with the government, wars, famine. Like there's always something that's going on in the news. And what I've realized and what I've talked to, I've had these conversations before, is These things are so normal and like shoved in our face nowadays. You know, we all carry tablets around, phones. I'm so sorry, I sound like, I sound like a boomer generation of the boomer generation. We all carry phones around and constantly are being fed headlines, and you're seeing the up to most up-to-date news every single day constantly. And even if you're not watching CNN, Fox News, you looking and scrolling through TikTok, like people are talking about the current events of things that are happening. And so I think that it's since it's so readily available to us and we're all constantly aware and hyper-aware of these things, our perspective of the world is, oh my gosh, things are terrible. The world is ending. There's no good humans out there. We're all going to die. And I just refuse to believe that because when I think back, you know, there's so many times in our history, the world history, really not just the United States, of times that were just really, really hard. That's why there, you know, there's things like Holocaust museums and we talk about these things in history because They happened. And when you think about living through the Great Depression or living through the Holocaust, or just these huge events that have happened, it makes you kind of think, oh yeah, like maybe it's not so bad right now. Uh, there's just, there's always going to be issues. We're never going to live in this perfect world. And so if you're very anxious about what's going on, I wanted to offer that little nugget of perspective to you, the listener, because sometimes I need that reminder too. Like, oh, Okay, like yeah, there's things that are hard in my personal life and at the world at large, in our country and in our communities. But when I when you look back over time, there's always something going on. There's always history being written in real time. You know the COVID pandemic that will forever be in the future history books, and people will learn about it just like the the plague or things like that because there are just these moments in history that really affected. Really the world. So I think the message I'm trying to send to you is if you're feeling stressed, if you're feeling very overwhelmed or anxious about the state of the world, okay, means you're aware, means you're paying attention, which is a good thing. But just take a minute to just realize like, okay, things are always happening. It's really in my face. Really try to filter what you're seeing on your phone because you can, you can filter the things that you're listening to, the things that you're seeing. And if you're having a really, really, really hard time, I actually highly recommend taking a break. I just think that Sometimes we as humans, I think oftentimes need a break from the social media on all the things that we're constantly seeing. Maybe open a book or like go for a walk or just give yourself and your— if you're feeling that angst, like you just like want to crawl out of your skin because of what you're seeing, take a break, turn it off. And like, that's what the phones are meant to do. They're meant to suck us in to get us to go scrolling and go down the rabbit hole of whatever it is that we're looking at. They're literally Designed to do that. That's what the purpose of them are. Does that mean it's healthy for our brains? Absolutely not. We've all sat there, you know, it's nine o'clock at night, like I'm gonna go to sleep, but before that, let me just look at my phone, and then before you know it, it's one a.m., and you've just doom scrolled the hell out of your phone, and you're stressed and anxious because of all the information your brain is now trying to process when you're trying to close your eyes and sleep. It is literally impossible. So I am here to just give you that little reminder: it's okay to turn off the phone. It's okay to not know all. the information that's happening every single day. Just turn it off, take a break, go for a walk, give your family a hug, and realize, okay, I'm in my body, I'm living this life. Everything that's happening externally and what's going on is not currently going on inside my own life, in my own body. It's, it's going to be a-okay. And I know you're probably listening thinking, yeah, whatever, dude. Like, there's— my life is a mess. Okay, maybe it is, but turn off the news, turn off your phone, turn off your feed. And just live in your life for even just like a day or two to just like disconnect a little bit. What I wanted to mention about these mini segments that we're doing, I am working on coming up with a better name for what these episodes are called, 'cause these are not really full episodes where I'm, you know, interviewing somebody or giving you a full episode of myself talking. These are just little episodes. And I don't love the name, like mini episode, little episode. I wanna give it a better name so that it's like a segment of what We're talking about. But the purpose of these episodes that are being released is just to give you some current event, something that's going on, talk about what's going on in the nursing world and healthcare, and sometimes even outside of that. Maybe, you know, who knows where this will lead us, but I just think that it's, it's cool to just, you know, talk about things that are happening and maybe give a little perspective, give you my perspective, open the conversation up. Sometimes these little mini episodes, well, I'll have somebody on to maybe discuss a quick topic that we can have like a 20-minute conversation and be like, oh, like what's, you know, let's, let's chat About this. Like, this is interesting, or what you're doing is interesting. So yeah, that's what these episodes are for. And I also wanted to note, I don't know if you're seeing any of this anywhere on video. Again, I'm not sure exactly where this is all being posted yet, but I'm not always going to be in scrubs. Whenever we first talked about doing this podcast, Club Nurse, the idea was, you know, to kind of wear scrubs and embody the healthcare, the nurse role. But the more I thought about it, the more I was like, you know what? No. Like, I don't always— I don't walk around in scrubs. I don't feel my most comfortable in scrubs. And I want to show up here as my true, most authentic self for you because you're taking the time to listen to this. And that's amazing and awesome. And I'm honestly so honored and thrilled. And even if there's just one or two of you, or if it's just my mom out there listening, you know what? I just want to feel comfortable. And I think I can show up as my best self if I feel my best in the clothes that I'm wearing. You might think that that's crazy, but it's just— The way that I feel. All right, so hot topic that I wanted to discuss today was everything that is going on. I think I had mentioned it earlier with all these TikToks and Instagram Reels. And like I said, we all cope with these hilarious— this hilarious content. It's not really funny when you really think about it, but it's just sometimes humor is a great coping mechanism. So let's chat about the— and I'm gonna— the information that I'm giving you is based on the article that nurse.org read. So if you are interested in what I'm saying and you want to dive a little bit deeper into this information, go to the nurse.org website. I'm sure we can link it in the show notes here and read the article that was written by Brandy Pinkerton about nurses and the draft and what would really happen if there was a national emergency where we were going to war. Uh, because I think, again, it's been at top of mind for everybody and it really doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum you land. It is just the truth of what is going on in all the headlines, and we have no idea what's going to happen. And I think it's important to just talk about this. And I wanted to give you a little history on, on nursing and the draft and in the military. I don't know a whole lot about this. I'm not an expert on this. Again, I'm basing this off of the article on the nurse.org website, but from what I read, there's never been A draft for nurses. It wasn't until actually World War I where nurses were really actually like recognized and served in like the Army and the Navy Nurse Corps, where they were working like under those conditions on the front lines and actually taking care of the people that were being injured during the war. And over 20,000 nurses served during World War I. And then World War II, And more than 59,000 nurses served working. That was like hospitals in the field, in ships, or even like doing like flight nursing. And again, I can only imagine the post-traumatic stress that you get from something like this. The only frame of reference I have is working through the COVID pandemic. And, you know, every week we all that worked through that took, you know, even if you don't realize it, you subconsciously have trauma from if you worked in the hospitals during COVID there's no way that you don't have something living inside your body. From that experience, because that was wild. That was one of the most insane experiences of my life. And for me in particular, it was very isolating because I was working in Arizona, which Arizona was one of the hotspots during the pandemic. It was it was really scary, and people weren't taking it seriously. I even remember you know having some really serious conversations with my family, and there were some members of my family who were like, "Oh, this you know this isn't really real," or you know the masks are silly. And as much as maybe people Maybe in hindsight, you can look back at some of the things that we were doing, like the mask mandates or however you actually feel about that. Like that may have felt crazy or weird in the moment. And even in hindsight may seem wild, but you have to understand, like at that time when things were unraveling, we were just trying to do the best that we could to contain this thing and stop spreading it. And so there were extreme measures that were being taken and for good reason. And yes, again, in hindsight, we can look back and be like, why did we do that? Like maybe that, that probably had no effect on, you know, containing the virus and not spreading it. But when rapidly spreading and killing people by the thousands, you're going to go to drastic measures. And so that makes me think about military nursing and working, you know, being a nurse in the field on the front lines of this, of these world wars and having to, you know, take care of patients and people who are being devastated, like injured in devastating ways. That, that's traumatic. That's why they call it trauma. That's why when you work in the emergency department or you work in a hospital, they are like, oh, trauma room, you know, that's where you go. Red coming, or this is a level 1 trauma center. Like, it is traumatic, and the effect that it has on your body and your brain if you're not processing that is— it's huge. It's a big deal. That's, that's why things like PTSD exist. And I can only imagine what, what these nurses had to go through. But as far as if there's going to be a draft, from what I read, the Selective Service system is still basically only in place for males. From the ages of 18 to 25. So if there was ever a draft again, that is the current like standard as far as I understand. Males 18 to 25 have to have to enroll in that once they turn 18. I don't know what the repercussions are if you don't, but that is what we are supposed to do in as a U.S. citizen as a male who turns 18 years old. And so this again, I would I would recommend going to dive deeper into this article if you wanted to know more information, but. What I gathered from this is if, if there was— basically it's kind of a call to action. If something happened where there was a war on US soil, it would really be kind of an expectation of the nurses to step up. And as we do, as we did during the pandemic, to step up and assume the role to take care of people and to help these, you know, hospitals that are in, in these war zones or these hotspots, as you want to call it. Uh, that would kind of be our role. So as far as like some kind of military draft, I don't think it's really something that's possible or going to happen. But who knows? I am not in charge here. And with everything that goes on, again, as I was talking about earlier, all the stuff that's going on today, you never know. You never know what's going to happen. I would not be shocked if they tomorrow were like, okay, all nurses must enroll in a draft. But as of right now, that does not seem to be the case, does not seem to be a possibility. So I think that we're okay. I did make, I did make, I did hop on the bandwagon of chatting about this on my Instagram and TikTok about reasons why I don't think I would be a good candidate to go. And I made it funny. I said things like, well, I'm colorblind. I won't be able to see who's who. Like, I won't be able to know who's my team and who's the other team, uh, which I am actually colorblind, but you know. Um, and then just funny things like that. We have to be able to make humor out of these situations. And I think the, the message I want to write home in this episode is to just take care of yourself. These headlines are scary. It's, it is important to stay informed. It's important to know enough to form an opinion or form a stance on what's, on what's happening and just stay educated and be able to have a conversation about these things. But it's not your civil duty to be obsessing about it, to wake up every morning. Going to your phone first thing and checking the headlines, like you're not going to be able to change the world. You've got to be able to live in your own body, make peace here. Your body is your home. And trust me, I am saying this to you and I am not the best at this. I work at this every day. There are still days that I wake up and the first thing I do is grab my phone and scroll and it is terrible. I notice a huge difference in my day when I do that versus when I don't touch it and I just allow myself to wake up with my natural thoughts as we should before I go touching screens. So that's that's really the message I wanted to write home here today, and what what I learned from reading and researching this is there does not seem to be any kind of draft in place for nurses. If there is some kind of war that breaks out, we are not going to be forced anywhere as of right now as it stands. And if there was something that happened on U.S. soil, basically it's just going to be a call to action. Please come help. Same thing during the pandemic. It's really interesting. I'll add this note. It's really interesting, almost like the gaslighting that happens. Like I. Remember during COVID when it was really bad, what were they saying about us nurses? Oh, they're working on the front lines. They're healthcare heroes. Like, girl, we all know what you're trying to do. You're trying to make us feel like we're like these amazing people so that you have nurses that, that feel that like, oh, I gotta show up. I, I have to take care of people. I'm a hero. I'm on the front lines. Like, ugh. Like literally the hospital organization I worked for at the time had made us shirts that said like healthcare heroes. Oh my God. I remember wearing it one day. Not even at the hospital that I was working. I just wore the shirt and somebody was like, are you really wearing that? And I was like, oh my God. Like, I'm embarrassed. I'm still embarrassed about that. I can't believe I was wearing that. Yeah. Ew. Gross. Whatever. Anyways, I love you all so much. Thanks again so much for being here. Uh, this is really a work in progress. And if you're sticking with me through this, if you've made it this far, you're amazing. I can't believe that you even want to listen to the sound of my voice, but the fact that you are, uh, means that, yeah, you're trying to learn something. You're trying to get perspective. Uh, maybe you want to be a little bit entertained. So thank you. If you have any ideas for what we should call these little segments, these episodes, let me know. Shoot me a DM @NurseDaddies or @ColtonAllenLord on Instagram. Uh, let me know, or write into nurse.org and give us your thoughts on what you think we should call it. Also, I ordered this cute little sign. It's Club Nurse. That's neon. And it's going to be here hopefully next week. So hopefully some of the new episodes will be, you'll see like the cute little light of Club Nurse up here. But that's it. That's it for today. Go get some sleep. Stop worrying. You're not going to have to be GI Joe, GI Jane anytime soon unless you want to. And I'll take this moment to shout out all the military nurses for anybody that served, any of our veterans. Thank you. Like, really, thank you. It is an honorable thing to serve in the military, to be out there offering yourself as a Navy nurse, Army, Air Force, any of the branches. It really is honorable. And we do thank you for the people who actually do volunteer to do things like that, because then those of us who don't want to don't have to, and we appreciate you for that. It's like people who work in med-surg or in the ICU— thank you, because I don't want to do that. I want to stay in the ER, or really not at the bedside at all. That's my honest answer. But so thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, um, to everybody out there. My name is Colton Lord, your host of Club Nurse, and we'll see you next time.

Bye.

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.