Welcome to Club Nurse with Colton Lord

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 Hello, hello everybody.

Welcome to Club Nurse, and this is the first episode, the introductory episode. I figured I would give you just a little background on me, the host. My name is Colton Lord. If you're going to be here spending time listening to the show, I figured I should give you a little background on where I come from, my nursing experience, what the show is going to be about, and I think that would be just a good place to start. So I really got the idea for this podcast and the Inspiration for this podcast because I had started down my own little venture of podcasting. I have, I do have a podcast on my own called the Mile 17 Podcast, and really I haven't been doing a whole lot with it. I have been very busy and I have thrown it to the wayside. I really haven't done a whole lot with it, but I loved the podcast. I love listening to podcasts. I love the connection. I love how you can learn things from other people's perspectives. I love listening to just to just interviews of people, of celebrities, of just people who write books, and anybody really that is out there just doing something inspirational, or they've gotten somewhere and you're like, wow, how did they get there? And I, I just find that it's interesting. And when you listen to other people's stories, sometimes the most random things will spark something inside of you, and you'll be like, oh, like maybe I can do this, or I can do that. And what I have found when I listen to things, it's the most unexpected times that I I find these little nuggets of perspectives or things that I'm like, maybe that gives me like an idea for something that I want to do or a way I want to change my life or how I want to show up for people. And, and I just want to provide that. I want to be a space that can be safe, that we can have these conversations, that you as the listener, as the audience, come here knowing that you're going to get value or some entertainment, or just be able to escape from your life for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, whatever it may be to listen to somebody else or listen to me, or just be in a group and find community, really. And I must mention too, I don't know if anybody is watching this on video, but my dog, my doodle Kona, is here. She's a mini golden doodle. She's, I don't know, 3, a little over 3 years old. So I pulled up the other chair so that she could be here because she's exhausted because we just went swimming. Because I'm in Boston, by the way, it's where I live, and it is scorching hot today for New England. It was It's like 90 degrees. It's warm. So I took the little doodle swimming. But anyways, back to me. So I, I was born in Show Low, Arizona on January 30th, 1996. Just kidding. I know you really don't care about any of that. I'm an Aquarius is my sign. I'm a Gemini rising and Gemini, my big 3. I don't know exactly how it all goes, but my big 3, Aquarius, Gemini, Gemini. Okay. That's important to know. I don't know what it all means exactly, but I know it means I'm a little crazy. So welcome. I lived in Arizona. I went to nursing school at Northern Arizona University. I started my nursing career in Phoenix, and then during the pandemic, I started doing some travel nursing, ended up in New England, and I've lived in the Boston area for going on 4 years. Yeah, about 3 and a half going on 4 years. So, uh, it's been fun. It's been an adventure, and I think that I have a lot of perspective to offer People, and I think there's a lot that I don't know, a lot that I can learn, and I hope to gain that perspective and learn things from people that come on the podcast. I hope that we can kind of grow and learn together. I think it's gonna be a really, really fun space for you. If I mentioned, I think that I mentioned this before, but the podcast is called Club Nurse, okay? But this is not just a nursing podcast. This is not all about nurses and our day-to-day lives, or let's talk about med-surg, let's talk about ER, let's talk about ICU. That's not what this is. There may be some of that. Like there's going to be some elements of nursing and the struggles and the things that we go through, and you know the day-to-day life in these specialties. Sure, but that's not that's not the impetus that I want this podcast to be. I want this podcast to be for anybody to come to find value from. It's not going to be every episode with nurses talking just about their life in the hospital. Again, there might be some of that in here, but that's not that's not what I want. That's not the goal for the podcast. I want I want people to come on from a patient's perspective. I want people to come on who have, you know, some advice for nurses from their life experience, even if they're not in healthcare. I think we all can learn from each other, and I think that if we just, you know, we're grounded in nursing because this is on groupthenurse.org network, so a lot of it ties back into nursing and how we can maybe use that in our career. But I don't— that really translates to a lot of different things. Like, you don't have to be a nurse to listen to this podcast to relate. Like, we're not going to sit here and talk about Taking care of you know a critical patient in the ICU or in the ER and things that you have to know. Like we we're not going to do that. Like it's not going to be you know nurse language or healthcare language. It's going to be something that you can relate to, that I can provide you educational informative entertainment from me from guests. And yeah, I just I really really really have a great vision for this and I can't wait to share these things with you. But anyways, I keep going off on tangents and you'll learn that about me. My brain will focus on something and I'll just go down this rabbit hole, and I'm like, where are we cold? And let's tie it back into to what we were talking about. So me, I yes, I finished nursing school in 2018 in Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona University. Shout out the Lumberjacks, the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks. Shout out. I started my nursing career in the Phoenix area, where I worked on a my capstone. So my last semester of nursing school, my capstone was in a it was on a med surg unit that had a psych component. So these patients. Were behavioral patients for the most part, but they had a secondary, like, acute illness that needed them to be in the hospital. So it was challenging because you not only are dealing with patient that has a behavioral health component, but they also are dealing with, you know, an acute illness landing them in the hospital. So I really learned a lot there. It was a really, really hard unit. It was a locked unit. And the other thing with that is they— it wasn't just that, like, we were also an overflow for Just regular med surg patients. So, and I don't like the term regular; it's hard. I don't know the right word for it. But if they, even if they didn't have that psych component, like they could still be placed there, and a lot of them would be like, "Why am I on a locked unit? Like did I do something?" And it was like, "No, like we're still at the end of the day like a med surg unit." But they just liked to have those patients with a behavioral component there because I think in their their thought process was if we have these nurses who are specially trained to take care of these behavioral patients that have these mental health diagnoses. Diagnoses, then maybe we can limit you know like things happening or whatever. I really don't know, but that's where I ended up in my capstone, and I through my preceptor who really became one of my very best friends to this day helped helped me get a job there, and that's just where I started my nursing career. So there I was, new grad Colton on a med surg psych unit, and I just spread my wings and flew from there. I was only there for six months. We can talk about a little bit later as to why I transferred. There was a really Really serious event that happened in my first 6 months of nursing that kind of caused me to pivot that early in my career. Ended up working some oncology, and then from there I went to the emergency department where I have spent— that's where like the most of my bedside nursing experience has been, has been in the emergency department. And I did that at that same hospital. And then during COVID I decided to do some travel nursing, as most people did, because It was a shit show, and I was like, you know, if I'm going to be doing this, I might as well be making really good money. So I did some travel nursing, and that's just really around New England. I was already moving out here, decided to pick up the travel nursing to make the make some money. Did a stint in Rhode Island, and then otherwise I've been in the Boston area. I've done some ICU, surgical ICU, but ultimately most of my experience has been in the ER. And I do have to say, this is a total side tangent. I'm wearing headphones, and they are killing my ears because I. I just got my ears pierced yesterday and it hurts. Okay, it hurts. So I'm doing this for you. Okay, you're welcome. Anyway, so yeah, I've done a lot of things: psych, med search, oncology, ICU, ER. I've had some IV jobs doing like IV therapy. That's been really fun. It's a you know just like a get away from the bedside type of job. I also right now I'm working a remote job that I work for a transfer center. It's a lot of triaging, a lot of connecting doctors between facilities to get patients transferred to. You know, higher level of care, or if they have like a continuity for like some kind of diagnosis that they really need special care for, like we'll take them back and help facilitate those transfers. So that's me. That's my nursing experience. Again, I'm not an expert by any means. I don't, I don't consider myself an expert, but what I think I can do is be a, a messenger, be a vehicle for information to have these conversations to pass on to people. And I'm really passionate about that. I, like I said, I think we really underestimate how much we can learn from each other by just listening, really. And I think that's why I love podcasts, because you can flip it into your headphones and you can continue on about your day, which I think a lot of us do. A lot of us are, at least for me, I know I have a really hard time just like sitting still. So the podcasting world is really nice for me because I love the information. You know, I like to read. I don't do it as much as I should because like I said, it's hard for me to sit still. If I try to read at night before I go to sleep, I just fall asleep like while I'm reading. So I love the books, I really do. But podcasting is something that I've really found as a great way for me to just like listen and learn because I can do laundry, wash the dishes, I can take my dog out for a walk, I can be driving and listening. Like it's just, I think it's just amazing. And there's so much information out there. There's so many amazing people that don't have like a platform to share their knowledge, what they've gone through. And I just, I love that so much. And I think specifically for nurses in the social media world, There's been an uptick in nurse creators and people, you know, speaking their mind and spreading what's happening in nursing and in healthcare, which is great. And I think that there's really an opportunity for us to just keep having these conversations. I have also ventured into the social media world. Some of you listening may know the platform, the Nurse Daddies. I am one half of the Nurse Daddies, and that's been a fun experience being in social media. So that's what I want nurses to understand is like, there's so much you can do out there with this license. So you're not stuck. Stuck in being a nurse and just being a nurse. Like, there's so much out there in this world, and my hope really is to just provide that for you and make you realize that you have to, you have to explore your passions and be creative and, and live your life fully and not be so stuck and pigeonholed into, into being— I hate to say like just a nurse because you're not just a nurse. Like, there's so much more to you, uh, or like the term like just a nurse makes it seem, um, I don't know, I don't even know how to explain that, but there's, there's so much more to you is what I'm trying to say. So along with, you know, some solo episodes of me, uh, sitting here just talking to you about my nursing experience or things that I think nurses could benefit from, as well as the guests that I'll have on, we're also going to do a little bit of like covering some nurse news. So there's always these headlines, uh, if you follow the nurse.org platform on social medias or you get their emails, their newsletters, you'll see the things that they, that they push out that they, you know, show happening in the, in healthcare and the nursing world. And so I think it's important to give people another modality to get that information because not everybody likes to read an article or, you know, dive into the rabbit hole of a social media post. And so I think like a podcast, just like little mini episodes during the week to kind of give you like little updates on things that are happening. For example, the nurses in, in the Boston area at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, that there was several nurses on the same floor that had randomly all gotten brain tumors. Wild, crazy. Like, things like that we can cover on here. Just talk about, keep you informed, keep you up to date. If there's like developing stories, I'd love to just touch on them and then keep you up to date as, as things kind of come, uh, come to the surface. So that's, that's really the plan for Club Nurse. This introduction episode was just to give you a little idea of me, let you hear my voice so that you know if I— you know, if you listen to me and you're like, wow, this guy's really annoying to listen to, now you don't have to next time because you've You know my voice. Maybe you like it and you want to come back and hear more. I don't know, girl. But I am beyond thrilled, grateful, and just yeah, just really thankful for just even an opportunity to be here with you to spread any kind of knowledge or entertainment or just give you a little little light or escape from your life if you feel like you need that. That's what we're here for. It's Club Nurse. It's a club. Everybody's welcome here. Again, you don't have to be a nurse. You don't have to be in healthcare. You don't have to. Like this is a place to come to learn and to just. Some really, really, really good information. I will shout out, and like I said, I don't know who's watching this on video or if this video is even fully posted. I'm not sure how we're doing it yet, but I'm wearing my Pride scrubs today because it is Pride Month. So we are here for the gays, the girlies, and the straights too. If you're going to be an ally, you can be here too, but that's, that's what we're here for. And lastly, just to be clear, I am not here to give any kind of legal advice. I cannot give you any health advice on what I think you should do as far as your health goes. This is just an entertainment and informative podcast. If you feel like you are searching for some kind of diagnosis or needing some like assistance in your medical care, you need to seek medical advice. That is not what this podcast is for. I just wanted to be very clear on that. But with that being said, I am so thankful that you're here. Thanks for listening to this first episode. If you've made it this far, uh, just wait Got some great things planned, great things lined up for you. I'm so, so, so, so excited to have these conversations and to share them with you. So again, my name is Colton Lord. This is Club Nurse, and we will see you next time. All right. Love you. 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. 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.