Following Jesus in Nursing

Welcome to Following Jesus in Nursing, a podcast for nurses and students produced by InterVarsity's Nurses Christian Fellowship. I'm your host, Lara K. Kiser. And together, we'll be inspired by our guest stories, tackle big questions with experts in the field, and walk together in following Jesus at the intersection of faith and nursing.

He definitely hears us as nurses. He knows how we're feeling. He sees those nurses that are burnt out. He sees those units that are understaffed, and he's there. When you're sitting there at your nurses' station and you're ready to quit, like, Jesus is sitting there with you.

Welcome back y'all. In the last episode, you heard the first half of my conversation with Josh Mays, a travel nurse in LA. He shared his backstory of spending a lot of time in the hospital growing up and how that led to him becoming a nurse. Today's episode is the rest of my conversation with Josh, where he shares some harder moments on the job and how he approaches life and nursing with gratitude. Here it is.

So how has Jesus met you in some of the harder moments in nursing?

I would say there can be a lot of hard moments. So I worked at a level 2 trauma center here in Vegas before I started travel nursing, and I worked the night shift. So you never know what's gonna come through the door. So we got everything from, auto-ped, which is someone being hit by a car, to MVCs-- motor vehicle collisions-- motorcycle accidents, shooting, stabbings, suicide attempts, sorts of things, you know?

And I remember this particular night, we have our trauma pager. And when it goes off, it'll just tell you what the event is, the sex and age of the patient and the ETA. So that's all the information that we have. And we run down to the ER to assess the situation. Me, the scrub tech, and then the anesthesiologist, and then also the trauma surgeon will show up, as well as all the ER staff, which work the patient up and stabilize the patient.

So this particular night, the pager goes off, and it says, gunshot wound, 54 year old male, ETA, 5 minutes. So when you get a gunshot wound, as we're walking down, we're always trying to figure out, okay. Where is he gonna be at? So there's different trauma levels. So, like, level 1 will be somewhere in the torso.

Or, like, somewhere in the head. But if it's in the arm, it will be, like, level 2. Or if it's in the, like, lower extremities, it'll be level 2. So this one's at level 1, actually. So we we get down to the ER, and I see the patient rolling through the door, and they're already doing CPR, which is never a good sign. And as they get closer, I realize it's a police officer. And every once in a while, we'll have police in the ER. If it's some sort of criminal case or something, it'd be, like, 1 or 2. But I noticed there's a ton of them. There's, like, at least 5 to 10 police officers around this area.

And so a very chaotic situation. The prognosis wasn't good, and we were trying everything. He ended up not making it, which was extremely hard for everyone because we try our best for everyone. But, you know, when it's a police officer, as a nurse, it's kind of like, you know, we're on the same team. We're helping the public.

So yeah. So that was especially hard. There ended up being, like, this whole procession to take him out back out of the ER and there was a whole motorcade. It was this crazy thing. And the team that I was with, we were able to encourage each other and remind each other that we did everything that we could. And even though we were in this extremely hard situation, we still have each other. And the next shift, we're gonna start fresh, and we're gonna give our best once again. And I was praying throughout this whole thing too. Like, Lord, be with the surgeon. Be with me. Give give the surgeon everything, all the critical thinking that she needs in order to make the right decisions and everything. So it was quite the night, but at at the end of it, you know, we stuck together. We had each other, and we encouraged each other and also honored him for his service. So, yeah, that was one of the hardest situations that I've had to deal with in my career. And, yeah, it's about reflecting and remembering, you know, why we're here.

Like, as a nurse, I'm here to do the best I can each day. And sometimes even when you do everything you can, that won't be enough to save someone's life.

I'll share one more story. This one was almost as hard because this lady also ended up not making it. And I remember I talked to her in the preop, and she was, like, still kinda joyful and nervous about surgery. And what happened was she tripped on her rug and fractured her back. And I remember her in the pre op. She's like, I feel so stupid. I don't know why I did that. And I felt really bad for her. And one thing that they tell you in nursing school is is never to give false hope. Like, never say, everything's gonna be okay, because you don't know.

Right.

But what I did say was, you know, we're gonna do our best to take care of you. That's usually when I say something along those lines. And you're in good hands, and we're gonna try to make you as comfortable as possible. And that's exactly what I did. So, we rolled her back, and I was there with her as she went out to sleep. So I did my part there to ease her anxiety, and it ended up being this really complex, difficult 10 hour procedure.

We're there all night where it was a spinal fusion ehere there's an anterior approach where you're going through the abdomen, and then they close that up, then they put the patient posterior. You change positions and then access the spine through the back, and then go back anterior. And, yeah. So there's some complications with the procedure. She ended up going to ICU. And then after a couple weeks in the ICU, she ended up passing, which made me feel really bad. But once again, I reflect on my part as a nurse in thinking that my little interaction that I did have with her was positive.

Even though she was anxious, even though, like, she didn't wanna be there, I did my best to give her peace and just soothe her anxiety in that moment. And sometimes in nursing, that's all you can do. And I try to also, like, just to myself pray for my patients too, because you never know what's gonna happen. And at that moment, sometimes that's all you can do.

Yeah. It really sounds like part of Jesus meeting you in nursing is reminding you, reminding us, all of us, of kind of our place in our role in the world and in helping people is. There's all like you've said a couple times, there's only so much we can do. The rest is in God's hands, and I think we forget that sometimes. And I will speak for myself in saying sometimes I think things are more in my power than they really are. But I would imagine being in those situations that you've described, that it really puts it into perspective of whose hands everything is in.

Yeah. Absolutely.

All you can do is sort of sit in those those spaces, those moments, and ask Jesus to be with you.

For sure. Yeah.

Well, thanks for sharing those, Josh. And, yeah, I just really appreciate your perspective on points of joy and points of hardship. I mean, there is a lot of hard stories in both sections, but I appreciate you being open to, you know, doing the best that you can in each situation and and just praying for people.

So I would love to zoom out a little bit and get your perspective or sense of how you think Jesus is speaking into the culture and field of nursing in this season.

So if we think about the state of nursing now, I see things on the news about nurses being held liable for certain things, some of which may be negligent, some of which isn't, and hospital administrators talking about nurses getting paid too much. This is about a year ago or so where they're trying to put a cap on the hourly rate. I'm a part of a few different nursing groups, specifically with travel nurses, and I see things about rates being cut drastically. And you also have the ever going, ever persistent issue of nurses being understaffed or units being understaffed, and that's everywhere. And nurses as a whole are just becoming more and more burnt out.

They wanna be compensated for, we wanna be compensated for our work and our time, and be paid and treated fairly, especially post pandemic. So we're in this post pandemic nursing culture where, once again, nurses are tired of the platitudes from from upper management. They're tired of pizza parties and just want to be treated fairly and want those actions to back up those words. So with that being said, how does Jesus feel about this? And in my perspective, I think he definitely hears us as nurses. He knows how we're feeling. He sees those nurses that are burnt out. He sees those units that are understaffed, and he's there. When you're sitting there at your nurses' station and you're ready to quit, like, Jesus is sitting there with you. And it may be hard to think about having a lifelong career in nursing when you can't even get through that 12 hour shift that you're assigned to. But it's important to just think about it on a day by day basis. So, like, when you think about the Lord's Prayer, it says, give me my daily bread. You know? Give me what's sufficient for this day.

And I actually believe that God can do that for you. Jesus can do that for you if you allow him to. But if we zoom out, zooming out from just your daily practice, I think that and this is gonna be, once again, an unpopular opinion. It's important to be content with where you are, And I'm not saying not to fight and push for what you also deserve, but don't let that consume you. So while you're signing petitions and doing things like that to fight for things that you do deserve, also, be content and grateful for what you do have. So a lot of people would be ecstatic to have the salary that most nurses have or even having a 3 day work week that most nurses have. And in a lot of places, I would say most of my coworkers are a joy to be around. You know?

So being able to work in a place where you can have fun with the people that you work with, and being able to meet new people, A lot of patients have really cool life stories that they're really proud of and will appreciate if you ask them more about themselves. A lot of patients will appreciate that. So if you take time to focus on things like that and see, like, what's right in front of you, what all you have right now instead of what you don't have or what you wish you had, I think that would do a lot for nurses' mental health and just overall spiritual state.

That's so well said, and I appreciate the tension that you're naming here of things aren't ideal, and there are changes that we want to push for. And we're always trying to cry out and fight for and vote for justice and equality and dignity of people, nurses included. And also, we have a lot to be grateful for and content with. And I think it's really hard to hold those things in tension because it seems like they both they can't both be true, but they can. They can coexist.

Absolutely.

Well, you've mentioned gratitude as a helpful spiritual practice a couple times. What other spiritual practice helps you stay grounded as a nurse?

I would say, like I mentioned, most nurses have a 3 day work week. So for me, I work 3 twelves in a row. And in the morning, when I first get to work, usually in the parking lot, in the church that I used to be a part of, I started this thing that I that even, like, made little stickers for. It's called park and pray. Because we wanted to remember to pray more.

So, like, anytime we go somewhere, when you park, you just pray no matter where you're at. So, usually, in the parking lot, I try to remember whether it's in the car or as I'm walking in to just pray for the day and pray for myself, pray for the patients that I'm gonna encounter on that particular day, pray for the surgeons and my coworkers, and just pray for a good day, you know, and everything to go well. So that's kind of, like, my first step. Getting enough rest may not be categorized as a spiritual practice. But if you think about it, if you're well rested, you're just gonna be an overall better person. You're gonna have better mental clarity. You're gonna make better decisions. You're gonna be less less likely to snap at people. So that that's important.

I think it's absolutely a spiritual practice. I mean, the Sabbath you know?

Yes. There we go. Reflection. So in moments where I'm in a really difficult or stressful procedure. Like, this is a few months ago. We were in this vascular case. We're doing, like, a bypass and all this stuff, and I'm in this small room. We're doing a procedure where the room should have been twice as big, but it's the older side of the hospital, so the rooms are smaller. So I'm kind of stressed out in this situation. But, like, I left the room to get some supplies, and I just took a moment to reflect and think about, okay. I'm only gonna be here for a couple more hours. Take a deep breath, and remember why you're why you're here. You're here for the patient. Think about if that was one of your family members on the table. Like, what sort of disposition would you have if that was your family member on the table?

So that's another practice. You know, treating patients as family, as if they were your family. And also just reflecting on taking moments throughout the day just to reflect on why you're there. That's another thing that I do, and that helps me to just recalibrate in moments where I might be getting frustrated or annoyed by different things. What works for me is remembering that life is temporary, and this is more a step towards eternity. So that I apply that to everything. That's just how I go through life. Like, whether it's somebody cut me off in traffic, it's not that serious.

So a surgeon asking me to go get another electrocautery tip, which is just what they use to cauterize bleeders because they dropped it on the ground, which isn't my fault, and I'm annoyed. Like, it's okay. Just go get it. It'll be fine.

Everything in perspective of eternity.

Yeah. Yeah. Just having an internal perspective. That's all.

Yep. What was the last one you're gonna share?

And then I also practice compassion, which also ties into treating patients like family. So if we think about Jesus in situations where you may not have expected him to be compassionate, whether it's the woman at the well or, like, the the other woman with the issue of blood or countless stories where you expect Jesus to be kind of annoyed or frustrated. You see him being compassionate, and I try to take that approach when I have a patient that some might perceive as difficult. So there are times where I would walk into the preop area, and the preop nurse is like, Oh, this patient is a handful or this patient is such and such. And anytime I hear something like that, and this is something that I've also gotten better at over the years, just not being judgmental. And I thought being judgmental was, like, gossiping or being really outspoken about someone. But I've even noticed that I could judge people even in the little things. And, like, when I hear someone say something about someone else, I could take that and already begin to prejudge that person.

So my practice in compassion is like, if I hear that, I'm like, okay. I'll hear them, but I'll kind of set that aside when I walk in to go introduce myself. So, like, anytime I meet someone for the first time, I try to meet them with a clean slate. And, like, that goes with surgeons where someone says, oh, this surgeon is picky or blah blah blah. I'll try to start off with a clean slate and just give them the benefit of the doubt. And it almost always works out to where it's never as bad as the person told me it was going to be. And it seems like that person is really exaggerating the posture or demeanor or personality of the person that they're talking about. So it's kinda funny that anytime I go in and and meet the person, it's never as bad as they say it is, which could be because of my disposition or just because my perspective on listening to that person and trying to see them as a person rather than just seeing what they're doing or listening to what they're saying. You know?

Yeah. I wonder if compassion sometimes draws out the best in people as well.

Maybe.

Well, any last pieces of advice or encouragement that you'd like to share with our listeners?

I would just reiterate what I said about the nursing culture from a few questions ago and just reemphasize that it's really important to express gratitude for what you do have rather than what you don't have. Even in nursing school, you may be like, oh, I just wanna be at the end. I just wanna be a nurse. I just wanna start working. But when I look back to nursing school, we still had each other. Like, me and my classmates, we still were were in it together, and we're able to have fun. And, you know, those times where you might go out to eat or something like that, like, enjoy those moments. Enjoy each day, because there's still a lot of uncertainty in our world, and tomorrow isn't promised for any of us. And if you're always stuck on some future opportunity or or future goal, then you're never gonna be satisfied because that goal post is always gonna move. So practice contentment, practice gratitude, be nice to your coworkers, and help them help them out. Find solid community, that's important, and, be the nurse that you would want to have, in a nutshell.

I love that.

That's the the simplest way to put it.

Yeah. That's great. Thank you so much, Josh. This has been a really good conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Yeah. I appreciate you having me. It's been great. And thank you for tolerating all my rambling.

It was so good. I love your ramblings. Gratitude is so powerful. I really loved what Josh said about practicing gratitude and contentment, even in the midst of longing for improvement and reform in the way nurses are treated and compensated. Whether you're in a tough season or a joyful season or somewhere in between, what are you grateful for today?

A friend of mine often texts me out of the blue just to share what she's grateful for lately. And I found it so encouraging and contagious that I can celebrate these things with her. And it makes me reflect on what I'm grateful for. So maybe you'd like to text a friend to commemorate and celebrate and solidify your gratitudes for this season of life. Before we wrap up this episode, I just wanna remind you of our NCF membership coupon code for podcast listeners.

You get $10 off by using the code following. You can find more information about membership at ncf-jcn.org. This link and the coupon code will also be in the show notes. Hey, thanks for joining us for another inspiring episode of Following Jesus in Nursing. We hope you've been encouraged and equipped in integrating your faith with your nursing practice.

Be sure to check out our show notes for info about connecting with Nurses Christian Fellowship as well as links and resources mentioned in today's episode. And remember, as you go about your work as a nurse, you are not alone. Jesus is right there with you guiding your steps and using you to bring healing to those in need. Thanks for listening to following Jesus in nursing, and may your faith continue to be a light in the world of health care.