In this solo mini‑episode of Club Nurse, host Colton Lord reflects on Taylor Swift’s surprise visit to the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. He describes how the celebrity’s presence, alongside service dogs, lifted the spirits of both pediatric patients and the hospital staff, illustrating the powerful effect of unexpected positive distractions. Drawing from a nurse.org article by Brandy Pinkerton, Colton shares four actionable nursing tips—make it personal (use patients’ preferred names and interests), employ age‑appropriate distraction techniques, document positive experiences for continuity of care, and create joy through small, tailored gestures. He reinforces these points with a personal anecdote about providing a patient with Hot Cheetos to brighten a difficult day. Throughout, he encourages listeners to consider alternative morale‑boosting ideas beyond typical pizza parties, invites stories of other celebrity or public‑figure visits, and calls the audience to follow the show and share the episode.
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.
Welcome back to Club Nurse, everybody. My name is Colton, your host of this podcast, and today we are doing one of our mini episodes where basically what I am doing is talking to you about anything and everything for just a few minutes, uh, to give you maybe some nursing news, some current events, or just things that I am loving to see in the media. Sometimes there will be people that are doing really cool things in nursing Or in healthcare, or just in the world who I want to bring on and chat with for a few minutes. Uh, today the guest just was not able to make it. Um, I had sent her a text message and she was supposed to hop on, but she couldn't get here. So yeah, whatever. But we're going to talk about Taylor Swift in today's, uh, mini series of Club Nurse because she did something that was like super, super, super amazing. And I think that a lot of celebrities actually have done this. We'll talk about what it does for just the morale and the overall Unit. It just boosts everybody's moods, the morale, and I think it's amazing to do things like this. So let's talk about Taylor Swift and what she did at the—I think it was called the yes—the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. If you have not seen the media, the TikToks, the Instagram reels going around about her stopping and talking with these kids, please go check them out. It is so wholesome, and it really just, I think, speaks to when you have such a huge, huge platform. She doesn't have to do this, but just to take the time out of her day to stop in, meet not only the patients— and again, it was a children's hospital— so not only just like provide a little bit of just brightness in these kids' lives, but also the staff, like the nurses, the doctors, the CNAs, anybody else who, you know, is obviously a fan of Taylor Swift or Just to have somebody like that stop into where you're working is— it's amazing. And it's so much better than just, you know, the management. If management is listening to this, take some notes. Okay. I know you probably can't get Taylor Swift every day, but there are other ways to boost your units and your staff's morale versus just throwing a pizza party like everybody wants to do when things are tough. And trust me, I'm not going to deny a slice of pizza if I'm stressed out, but There are several ways to boost morale than to go out and just like buy a box of pizza for the staff. As I was going through this article written about Taylor Swift and just kind of looking at the media outlets, I had just— I had seen a picture where it was the staff of this hospital at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, Taylor Swift, and then the service dogs that are in the picture as well. And again, this is something that I remember working anytime I've worked in the hospitals. We don't see it as much in the The ER, especially where I work now. When I worked in the ER in Arizona, we did actually have the dogs that were in the department with us as well, which was cool. But they were working. They were like security German Shepherd dogs. But whenever I remember working in, in the main part of the hospital, and anytime that the, the service dogs— they're usually like Golden Retrievers— come by, like, it just instantly just like makes everybody happy, makes everybody smile. It's a little distraction for the patients, for the staff, in a safe way. And I think that that is what we're looking for in these scenarios. Like, these kids especially that are having to spend days to weeks to months in the hospital because they're battling cancer or other, other illnesses, just to have a little moment of distraction from what is going on in their real life is so important. Like, imagine this, you're in so much pain, you're just like sitting there in the hospital bed, and in walks Taylor Swift. Like, are you kidding? Anybody would forget about their pain for Even 5 minutes, just like forget what's going on, have that moment, and just like to be able to meet such a superstar, like so cool. Taylor Swift shout out. Like I said, she was supposed to come on the pod today, but she just wasn't able to make it. I guess she had other obligations. So as I was scrolling through, uh, this article for nurse.org, who was written by Brandy Pinkerton, uh, there was something in here that I, I liked and I kind of wanted to just share with you guys here on Club Nurse. So these are tips for bringing Swifty magic to your patient's day. Okay, that's what we're going to talk about. Make it personal, number one. So use your patient's name, their preferred name, and learn about who they are and their interests. This is especially true for people who are working inpatient, who have the opportunity to kind of get to know their patients throughout the day. Working in the ER, it is a little bit harder to build that personal bond with somebody over— because you don't have as much time with them. But you can do that in the short amount of time you're with somebody. You would be amazed how far it goes to just use somebody's first name. I'm going to say that I'm actually kind of guilty of not doing this because I have this, like, I don't know what it is, but I have this fear that I am going to forget somebody's name or not say it correctly, even though I'm seeing it and reading it. I always think, oh my God, well, what if they go by something else? Like, how embarrassing that I'm walking in using The wrong name. No, make it personal. Use their name. If it's wrong, hopefully they'll just correct you. Although sometimes when people call me the wrong name, I just, I just let it go. Number 2, distraction techniques. You use age-appropriate distractions during procedures to ease anxiety. Love this. Again, Taylor Swift, a major distraction from what you're going through, from your illness and while you're in the hospital. Just gives you a little moment of just like, oh, okay, everything's gonna be okay. Number 3, document the good stuff. Record positive experiences to maintain care continuity. Okay. Love it. And create joy. Small gestures tailored to patient interests can make a big difference. This one I agree with. I remember this specific scenario when I was working as a med-surg nurse, and there was this patient who was always in and out of the hospital, and it was a really sad situation. You know, her— she had a lot of chronic illnesses. Her family would just not really come visit her. She was very difficult to deal with. Like, it was hard. And even if you had built a good rapport with her, She just was just complicated, and she had pretty severe Asperger's, and it was just difficult to care for her day in and day out, especially if she was having a bad day. And I remember she was just obsessed with Hot Cheetos, and she wasn't really supposed to have them too often. But if I was working and she was having a really bad day, I'd be like, girl, listen, let's go. I'm gonna go get you— I'm gonna go get some Cheetos. And we'd walk to the vending machine and I would buy her some Hot Cheetos, like those little things. Like, you don't understand how far they go, especially for somebody like that who almost feels abandoned, has these really— like, she knew she had these problems, but she couldn't control them. And so just those little small gestures, just for a second, like, gives them just a moment of hope. And I think that it's really important to continue doing those small gestures for people, because even if you think it's small, for somebody else it may be huge. Um, so it's just really something to think about. It's something to remember. And yeah, I would love to hear if anybody else— if you guys have any stories of celebrities coming to your hospitals or public figures coming through and seeing your patients, I would love to hear about them. Send us a DM, let us know if you have any videos or anything, because yeah, I would love to know. I've never worked somewhere where we've had anybody with like celebrity status come through and see the patients. So I think that they do this more with children's hospitals, which is Amazing, as they should. These little kiddos are going through a lot. I can't even imagine. All right. Yeah. So that's what I was wanting to share with you today. That's our little mini episode on Club Nurse to talk about just current events happening in the nursing world. Taylor Swift, of course, makes headlines anywhere she goes. So fitting that she walked into a hospital. Now it's all over the news, all over social media, and of course here on nurse.org in an article. That's all I really have for you today. Thank you all for coming today to hang out with me on Club Nurse on this mini episode. Like I said, if you— there will be more like these just talking about these current events. It's just me chatting with you for anywhere of 5 to 15, maybe upwards of 20 minutes about things that are happening around the nursing world. Be sure to follow the show wherever you're watching. That way you don't miss any episodes. It's only gonna get better. We're just starting here, so. It's going to get better. There's going to be awesome guests on here. We're going to cover some cool conversations, cool topics, uh, things that I think you're really going to benefit from and learn from and be able to take with you into your life and maybe into your nursing practice and just things to learn, girl. So yeah, super excited. I am so grateful that you're even here, uh, just to listen. So follow and subscribe to the show and we will catch you next time. My name is Colton and this is Club Nurse. And hopefully next time, by the way, side note, Hopefully next time Taylor will be here with us as well. Okay. Love you guys. 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.
