Elizabeth Legarski and Kayla Kerstetter: The Art of Nursing

00:00:00 Sumer Beatty: Welcome to Tomorrow Makers, where we explore how we learn, live, work, and play now and in the future. I am Sumer Beaty. 00:00:11 Carlos Ramos: And I'm Carlos Ramos. Hi, Sumer. How are you doing? 00:00:14 Sumer Beatty: I'm good. Welcome back, everybody. Yeah. Welcome. We have Elizabeth Legarski with us today. She's a nursing instructor here at Penn College, and we also have her student, Kayla Kerstetter. Wonderful conversation. Learned so much today about nursing, about what goes into nursing, what it takes to be the right kind of nurse, and really to know that there is not one nurse. No. I mean, it was just really cool to hear Elizabeth's journey into nursing and, Kayla's, perspective on what it takes, to just create that personalized approach to nursing. So it's, it's not black and white. So that's what I took away from it is just nursing is not black and white. And I think, I think this is a great conversation. I really think you're going to enjoy this one. 00:01:01 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. A must listen to for anyone who's going through a nursing program right now, whether it's a Penn College or anywhere else. And, you know, just for anyone life in general, I think there's some really good advice here to take away at the end. Yeah, definitely. So, let's do this. Tomorrow Makers. Enjoy. 00:01:19 Sumer Beatty: Enjoy. All right. Welcome, everyone. How are we doing today? 00:01:28 Elizabeth Legarski: Doing great on this Monday morning. 00:01:30 Sumer Beatty: Awesome. Well, we're here today with Elizabeth Legarski, also known to her fans as Nurse Lizzie and student Kayla Kerstetter. Good morning. Good morning. So, we're here to talk about nursing. So, what drew you to nursing, and more specifically, pediatrics? I think I read somewhere, you weren't one of those young girls who grew up thinking, I always want to be a nurse. So, how did you end up where you are today? 00:01:59 Elizabeth Legarski: Yeah. So, Sumer, I never wanted to be a nurse. And if you told me in high school, this is where I'd be sitting, I would have laughed. I wasn't into science. I hadn't, I just didn't, I don't want to say I didn't take it seriously, but I guess I really didn't take it seriously. my background initially in high school, upon graduating, I went to art school for interior design. I love art. I'm, I'm, I've always been that person. I'm drawn to color and textures. And I thought I'd be at this point in my life living in a city and designing spaces and working for like a textile company. And I went to art school and you have that idea in your mind of what life is going to be like. And I got there and it was nothing like what I thought it was going to be like. And I just felt very empty. And I remember thinking, this just isn't for me. And while art is a big part of my life and certainly a hobby, that's kind of where it stopped. So I was like many college students, really lost. Like, where do I go next? I moved away from home. I moved out to Seattle for a while to try to find myself. Still couldn't find myself. I moved back home with my parents. And my mom's like, why don't, why don't you go to Penn College? I never thought of that. Okay. so I did. I enrolled in our former program as a physical fitness specialist, earning an associate degree and working out in the field. And at the very end of that program, I was fortunate enough to do an internship in cardiac rehab at our local hospital. And while the position was based upon exercise, I was working one on one with nurses and patients. And that is when I discovered, Oh my goodness, I love this. I want to work with patients every day. And I want to be the nurse. I want to be right there, you know, in the middle of care and being supportive and encouraging. And that is how I decided I wanted to go and become a nurse. 00:03:57 Sumer Beatty: Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. So, and then PEDS. Yeah. How did... 00:04:02 Elizabeth Legarski: Love kids. Yeah. I tell students all the time. So, you know, a lot of them, they love or hate PEDS. It's usually, you're usually not down the middle, and obviously I'm one that loves PEDS. When I was in nursing school, so much of the care you provide in the clinical aspect, you are working with adult patients. primarily. And the whole time I'd be out at the hospital, I'm like, well, this is okay. I could do this, but it, I still just felt like a piece, a piece was missing to my puzzle. And it was, you know, when I got into that pediatric rotation, I know that I've always loved kids and you have to be that adaptable, flexible person that you're like the Jack of all trades. So you're not just the nurse, you play with the kids, you color with the kids, you problem solve with the kids, you're working with their parents. And that is the type of person I am, and that just really draw, drew me into working with kids. And I knew that while not everybody loves that, I did, and I do. And I wanted to be that person, that bright spot in their day. 00:04:59 Sumer Beatty: That's great. So you weren't afraid of change? Oh, heck no. And you know, as you're describing it, it almost kind of feels like a little artistic, you know, there's not, there's that, there's the art side of care too. Absolutely. Just going with the flow. It's not fixed. 00:05:14 Elizabeth Legarski: No. Never in PEDS. 00:05:17 Kayla Kerstetter: No two days are the same. 00:05:18 Sumer Beatty: Exactly. Yeah. So, Kayla, you worked in PEDS as well. You said you have a... 00:05:24 Kayla Kerstetter: So, I had my clinical rotation in PEDS. Okay. Actually last semester. So, Mrs. Legarsky, as I know her as a student, was our clinical instructor for that rotation. So I got to work with her on the PEDS floor and kind of get just a little bit of a feel. We, I don't think we get enough time. in the pediatric side, but I also fell in love with it. So I could spend every day there and it wouldn't be enough time. 00:05:53 Sumer Beatty: Oh, that's great. And you have, rotations, right? So you get to, like, you get to, expose to all different areas? 00:06:00 Kayla Kerstetter: Yeah, so we saw, two different floors. One's kind of the younger kid's side and the, more adolescent side and then we also were able to have, one day into one of the more specialties. So like the NICU or the pediatric ICU. so we got just a glimpse of what that looked like. 00:06:26 Sumer Beatty: Nice. Yeah, so I imagine that's helpful as nurses decide where do I want to go from here, you know, so that wasn't split down the middle for you then either you know, you knew you were on the love side of love hate. Yeah, 00:06:39 Kayla Kerstetter: Yeah, it's interesting to see my classmates kind of fall one way or the other. Some of them went into it, not knowing whether they'd like it at all. We have a classmate who, is older, nontraditional student, never had any kids of his own, and I was fortunate enough to see him first day just kind of swoop in and care for, just a little, little girl, and it was like this instant connection, and he was so wonderful with her, so it was really cool to see that. 00:07:13 Sumer Beatty: That's great. Okay, so, and then you ended up here at Penn College, back to Penn College as an instructor. 00:07:23 Elizabeth Legarski: You know, that was always on my bucket list. I have, I have a really big bucket list. So, and I think that's the cool thing that we're always evolving and changing. Nobody's stagnant. But yeah, I was here as a student. So twice as the, once as the physical fitness specialist student, and then as a nursing student. And while getting ready to graduate nursing school, I felt very much that being an educator would someday be in my future. And, I said, you know, set my eyes on that goal to get back here someday and teach where I want. I believe in our program. I believe in our students. And being out at the hospitals and working with so many different students in the areas, you can really. You know how we stand out among some of the other local programs and I wanted to be a part of that, a part of that success story. Absolutely. 00:08:11 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, that's really cool. So what's it like, have you gone back to a floor where you've worked before as an educator supervising students in a clinical setting? 00:08:21 Elizabeth Legarski: Yeah, so I get to go every semester to my old stomping ground in pediatrics and, and, It's, it's an interesting experience, when you're wearing a different set of shoes in that role. But it's also great when you get to work with some of your former colleagues, and you still get to see their part of success being hands on at the bedside. And, I love being able to partner some of the students with those really strong nurses that helped me become who I was and shared their skill set with me. so I think it's, it's just a really fun position to be in because I get to see the best of both sides. 00:08:56 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. Do you have any students that are then in the, you know, I'm trying to think of how long you've been in this position. Like, do you have students that are then in the field that say, Hey, Hey, 00:09:06 Elizabeth Legarski: I do. 00:09:07 Sumer Beatty: I'm so happy this is happening or this is really cool. Yeah. So I do see them. not, not tons of students, but just this semester, there's somebody that I had a couple of semesters back that has now graduated and has taken a position in Peds and she's like, look, here I am. And I'm like, I love it. Like, I love that for you. And then it's always great to be able to pair students then with that former student who understands, you know, what a current student is going through and what they need to focus on at clinical and they can kind of share that camaraderie of I've been there. I know what it feels like. You can do it. And I think it's just, it's just a fun process to watch unfold. 00:09:45 Kayla Kerstetter: I really like when they pull us aside as students and they're like, Hey, I didn't get to see this in nursing school. Come take a look. Or do you want to see this and really involve us in. the patients care whether or not we're assigned to that nurse, they still reach out to see, you know, do you want to be a part of this? 00:10:03 Sumer Beatty: Nice. Yeah. It's all part of the hands on experience, right? 00:10:06 Kayla Kerstetter: Oh yeah. And there's a lot that we see in textbooks, but we don't see in patients. So when that patient comes in, It's kind of like that, I want to see everything. So it's nice to have that opportunity. 00:10:19 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. And you're prepared next time around. It's not new. 00:10:23 Kayla Kerstetter: You're at least not quite so scared to kind of tackle it. 00:10:26 Sumer Beatty: This is true. Yeah. 00:10:29 Carlos Ramos: Now you noted that, you wanted to be part of the, the program on the education side and that there was, that our program is, is different in, in ways from other programs. What, what do you see as being different? I'll turn that to you, Lizzie, and then, Kayla, I don't know if you've had exposure to, peers from other programs that you might have some insight on that as well. 00:10:57 Elizabeth Legarski: Sure. So I would say the thing that truly sets us out above other programs is the hands on aspect. So while all schools go to clinical and all students have, you know, clinical experiences, An incredible amount of time at the bedside, and we don't wait. You, you were out there like week two . 00:11:16 Sumer Beatty: Oh wow. 00:11:17 Elizabeth Legarski: As a brand new nursing student, your hands are in the pot. And I think that's so important because when you're teaching somebody how to be a nurse, it is all about the patient and the patient care. And like Kayla, mentioned. There's only so much you can learn from a textbook. You have to be able to see things with your eyes, feel things with your hands, do things. And our students are out there doing that. And I just think that that goes such a long way in the success that they have as a future nurse. And, you know, making those connections in the community, with other professionals. And I know that we, our students do stand out among the healthcare systems. And they're very eager to hire our students. So, it speaks volumes to the programs that we have. 00:12:01 Kayla Kerstetter: Yeah, so, on my end, I've had a few co workers, because I actually work as a patient care tech for Geisinger, so that kind of gives me a little bit of a different side to nursing. I mean, it all interconnects, but, I've had co workers who are in nursing programs, and they spend a whole year in, like, the, kind of the school aspect of, Learning disease processes and some of the hands on stuff of caring for patients, but it's not until their second semester that they're even introducing themselves to an actual patient. Whereas it was, I want to say, maybe week three or four of my very first semester, we're out in clinical. we're not doing quite a lot because there's still a lot we're learning. And, like, patient skills and things like that, but we are able to start to develop our nursing style because everybody approaches it differently. So it's nice to interact with patients and they, everyone I've worked with thus far has been so understanding of, hey, I'm a student, there's a lot I don't know, and they're that helping piece and they really enjoy that. So it's nice to have this all. before it's on my license. So I'm a big person for, I want to see everything and anything. just because if I run into this as a brand new nurse, I'm probably going to be that person stuck on the wall because I'm kind of in like in a fear mode. so I'm able to kind of hit that early on to get more comfortable in my shoes as a nurse. 00:13:54 Sumer Beatty: And having that experience, did that reinforce, yes, this is the right path for me? I'm assuming you're sitting here as a nursing student. It did. Yeah. But that's a huge benefit. I mean, can you imagine being in a program for a whole year and then going into clinical and being so scared and just put off by it? Oh, yeah. I don't want to do this. I just wasted this year, you know? I mean, so I think that's a huge benefit too. It's engaging for the students, but it's also helpful from a career perspective. 00:14:20 Kayla Kerstetter: Oh, and it definitely has helped kind of knock out areas that they do and don't like. I went into nursing school not knowing what kind of nurse I wanted to be. I wanted to be very open minded. I had interests and, because there's so many different aspects of nursing, whether you're a floor nurse in a specialty, there's school nursing, like there's just so much. And being able to take that in from the get go was very nice and very helpful. 00:14:50 Sumer Beatty: And Kayla, what is your intended licensure when you graduate? What are you looking to achieve? 00:14:57 Kayla Kerstetter: So, upon graduation, my ultimate goal is to go for my RN. Okay. and then, hopefully with time, kind of further that to the BSN. I'm in the two year program, so I'm eligible to sit for the NCLEX, as an RN. Okay. 00:15:19 Sumer Beatty: And so for our listeners, Nurse Lizzie, it might be helpful to explain the difference between what a student might do to get their R. N. licensure versus B. S. N. and M. S. N. 00:15:31 Elizabeth Legarski: So here at Penn College, we have a lot of different tracks, and that's really helpful because People are coming in at different parts of their life, whether you're the traditional student, or maybe this is your second career, maybe you were lost like me, there's a place for everybody. So, we do have the two year associate degree nursing programs that will allow you to sit for the registered nurse exam, just like Kayla mentioned. You can do that on a, it's a full year, two, two year program, full time. Or we also now offer that part time option for people that do need to go out and work. now granted, it's going to take longer than two years, but you're able to make that work with the position you're in, in, at the moment with your life. And they, those students too will be eligible to sit for their registered nurse exam, for state boards. We have a traditional bachelor's program for those students who are coming in, you know, fresh out of high school. They know that they want to go into, a bachelor's program. We have a bachelor's completion program. So that's, you know, if you were like me, I went through the two year associate degree program and then worked for a while and then decided to go back. That's an option too, where you start taking classes on a full time, part time basis. We also have, you know, our LPN to RN program, so those are working licensed practical nurses who are coming in and going through, the associate degree RN program. And now our newest feat is the Masters of Nursing Education we have online. so there's just so many options and so many ways to meet your goal. 00:17:01 Sumer Beatty: Wow. Yeah, for sure. It sounds like it. I want to talk about Nurse Lizzie and the YouTube channel if that's okay. Yeah. So I think we might have a handful of faculty members with the YouTube channel, but not too many. So we were excited to talk to you about that and how that all originated. 00:17:18 Elizabeth Legarski: Sure. it's been a work of love for quite a few years, to be honest. It was just a matter of working up the nerve to kind of jump all in. it's something that my husband and I have talked about for the last. Three and a half years, I realized when I was a new grad, as excited as you are to become a nurse, it's really scary. I went right into a pediatric intensive care unit as a new grad. There's so much that you don't know, and so much of your learning happens on the job. You learn what you need to learn in school and to pass boards, but then there's the next phase. And when I was a new grad, YouTube was just getting started. There were not all these wonderful educational outlets and different forms of social media to better understand concepts. And as time went by and YouTube became a bigger thing and Instagram and all the things, I noticed that while there's lots of nursing avenues, there's not a whole lot in pediatrics. And I know how helpful I would have found that as a brand new nurse, just trying to freshen up on ideas that are content areas that I learned in school. You know, cause you're, you're working 12 hour shifts, you're busy, but you could. See something one time and you don't see it again for six months and you just need a quick reference aside from a textbook. So, that coupled with seeing some students really struggle in a specialty that they have that love or hate relationship with. I'm like, well, why can't I fill in that gap? Why don't I share some of that, that knowledge that I have over the past 11 years in the field with people, whether it's. Students or new grads or nurses that maybe they've worked for 20 years with adult patients and now they're coming into peds where you're like, oh gosh, it's been years since I took care of a kid. I don't remember. Or I, I know I learned it in school. I don't remember. So that's really where that idea of Nurse Lizzie came from. Not to say I, you know, my goal is to help anybody in their walk of, of nursing, whether it's a student, a new grad, or a seasoned nurse. But I definitely see that, we have a need to foster some additional help in pediatric nursing per se. 00:19:31 Sumer Beatty: So what does that look like in practice? Your site, I know you have a couple videos on there, you're fairly, you just launched it, right? Yes. It's pretty fresh. 00:19:41 Elizabeth Legarski: We're in the infancy stages. so right now I, yes, I do have a couple of YouTube, educational. related videos, as well as some just, I call it more like lifestyle videos. I'm just being honest about, you know, things I take to work in my nursing bag. How would you ace a nursing interview? So it's in its very young stages right now, but what I'm hoping to do and to grow with time is certainly to be able to, offer one on one tutoring sessions that are tailored to a unique student's or new nurse's needs, potentially being like a guest lecturer in a, in a facility, being a guest speaker, doing some podcasts, activities down the road, just like this one. This is great. Good practice. Knocks that right off my bucket list. all things that I see, you know, and, and providing, you know, for example, like digital study guides for students that I know helped me or things that I know that. I utilize to help my students that I can allow, you know, other people to use. 00:20:45 Kayla Kerstetter: When I know another thing that I kind of pulled from the couple videos I watched was that it was just able to kind of give you a further look at what pediatric nursing is, because I think there is a stereotype. into pediatric nursing, it's like, Oh, you're just taking care of babies and, Oh, your, your job must be so much fun or so easy. And yeah, your shift does not look like that necessarily. So it's nice to kind of squash that stereotype and to see. Like, yes, there are definitely some fun aspects to it, but not every day is cookie cutter like some people may assume. 00:21:25 Elizabeth Legarski: So true. 00:21:27 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, I love that your students are seeing the channel and able to get some good, good info from it. Are you, you're getting, I'm assuming, some great feedback just like Kayla shared? 00:21:38 Elizabeth Legarski: I mean, so far it's been great. it's, it's interesting. Like what, you know, some people are like, I just found you on YouTube. And that's, that's always a fun conversation. You're like, Oh, really? Great. Thanks for watching. I hope you subscribe. So you never miss something. But, Kayla's class in particular, that a lot of the students in her cohort, they were like, why don't, why don't you share some of your insight with other students or students that don't just go here. And I'm like, I'm working on it, you know, and it really did help, motivate me to just jump all in. 00:22:12 Sumer Beatty: So how do you come up with your topics? I'm sure you have hundreds in a notebook in your purse somewhere written down that you just need to take the time to record. 00:22:20 Elizabeth Legarski: I do. So I'm the queen of post its. There are so many post its, at our house of ideas. That, you know, it's just lots of things that I have coming down the pipeline. But I try to look, I try to just look at the overall curriculum of what I'm teaching students, on a regular basis and what they need to know to pass boards, and then kind of coupling that with what did I struggle with as a student and then what did I struggle with as a new grad? Or what kind of gaps, you know, things that people just. They need to talk through it with somebody. I kind of think of myself as like the big sister, to some of the learners that are out there because I know I, I felt like I needed that as a student. I just needed that little bit of support and I didn't always know where to turn to to find that. So that's kind of helped me to narrow down some of the areas I want to focus on. 00:23:08 Sumer Beatty: Great. So, I'm just thinking through the community aspect and the, so YouTube, the videos are up there and people can comment on them. Is there a plan to move into some type of community where there can be an exchange of ideas between, between nurses, both students and practicing nurses? 00:23:31 Elizabeth Legarski: So one of the things that we have kind of planned for the future, it's nursing in the spotlight. And what I would love to do is collaborate with different specialties in nursing around our local community and pull in some of the grads that have gone through our program to see where they're at now and host, you know, more of like a live type of session where students can ask their questions in real time and get an answer, get feedback, be part of the conversation and hear from some of our nurses in the community. What are you doing now? What, what does the day look like to you? and really just, I think the sky's the limit with that one. There's so many avenues that we could explore and pulling in people in the community. 00:24:11 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, sure. And I can't help but think about the nursing shortage and the need for community and the need for support to just continue to elevate the really important role that you all have in in the community and serving patients. 00:24:25 Elizabeth Legarski: Absolutely. I know, hope I'm speaking this quote correctly. The American Nurses Association, it's about 18 percent of new grads leave the profession within the first year. And you compound that with our nurse, our already existing nursing shortage. I, I think it's so important to have support systems in place. To you, you've worked so hard as a student to get through nursing school to sit and take boards and be the nurse. We don't want you to walk away like the world needs nurses for sure. Patients need you. So I think it's important to look at ways we can build up a community of support. no matter what stage of nursing you're in, 00:25:04 Carlos Ramos: is it the stressors of the, the shortage that we already have that's causing these, these new grads to, to leave at a rate of one in five That that's crazy. 00:25:16 Elizabeth Legarski: So it's a couple things. You know, you have new grads training new grads and we've lost so many of our seasoned nurses that were such a, like a rock solid support on the floor and burnout and staffing shortages and that patient acuity is much higher. It's all of those things coupled together. But the one thing that we can really look at is, what kind of support and what kind of training are we offering new grads? And how do we keep them there? We, we've worked so hard to get them, so how do we keep them in place? And I think that's a huge, plays such a huge role in that turnover in that first year of the profession is what did your orientation or your preceptorship look like and did you feel like you had somebody to, to go to, to help you through those tough times and tough moments? I think that's where nursing in general, we need to really focus our attention on to retaining those new grads. 00:26:09 Kayla Kerstetter: And I think COVID played a big role in the loss of nurses. there was a lot of students who because of COVID didn't get to have that hands on experience. So they have all textbook. So when they got onto the floor, it was nothing like they expected. And I think that was just such a struggle for people that they left bedside nursing and they went into other roles just because there are so many. And that just really kind of put a hindrance on everything. 00:26:44 Sumer Beatty: So do you want to pivot to I'm just I have to bring up the physical fitness background because I think somewhere I read that you, you know, consider yourself a holistic nurse. So how does that background and physical fitness play into your approach to nursing and educating young nurses? 00:27:04 Elizabeth Legarski: Great question. So I think when you look at You know, your physical health is just one small piece of the pie when you're looking at your patient and there's so many other aspects, your spiritual, your emotional, your social, psychological well being, all of those things. And when we're out taking care of patients, they come in with a diagnosis of XYZ. It's a problem that we have to fix. Nine times out of ten, coupled with that actual, you know, medical surgical problem, there's an emotional problem. There's a psychological problem. And that's all aspects of nursing. It's not just adults. That's peds too, or the family dynamics that we're looking at. And I think that we can fix a physical problem. And that's great, but we have to fix the other components as well. So, you know, looking at the bigger picture, you have to be able to be one of those nurses that you see the forest through the trees. You, you know, how, if I'm, how can I best help them? What other support systems can we get in place? And sometimes nurses are the first part, first people, that we recognize, hey, We need to get social, social work involved or we need to get, a psychologist in here to talk with this patient that might be the first time where we've been able to intervene for them. So I think that, you know, while everybody has their own style and their art of nursing, you have to be able to look at that whole person that you're caring for, to truly provide for their needs. And that's, that's my approach, you know, just looking at the big picture. 00:28:33 Sumer Beatty: Do you think that's common? 00:28:35 Elizabeth Legarski: Not anymore. I think that because of our nursing shortage, a lot of the care that is provided has become very, task oriented, where it's just like checking off a box, yep, I bathed my patient today, yep, I turned my patient, did you sit and talk with your patient, do you know anything about them? And granted, we're very fortunate in peds with our nursing, our staffing ratio and our patient ratio is, it's very small. So you do have time to sit and color with a kid or, or paint their nails or do their hair, find out about their life story, play Legos. And sometimes you're the one that they'll open up to. but for me, success is, you know, when I look at how did I provide care for a patient today, did I check a box or did I genuinely bond with that patient and provide for their 00:29:25 Kayla Kerstetter: Yeah, and I think that's huge, too, to develop that relationship. I always tell patients when they're being discharged, like, it was great to work with you, great to see you, but I don't want to see you again because that means they're back in the hospital. I'll tell them, I'm like, oh, it's great. I'll see you out for coffee or at, like, the grocery store. Like, I love that. Like, I want you to be in a place that you don't need to be in a hospital. but I still like to develop that kind of relationship where that doesn't come off, like it comes off as more of like a joke and they kind of get a laugh out of it. You see these people sometimes out there very worst. So to see them go from one end of the spectrum to the other, in terms of how they're feeling or their, their general health is really, I can't think of a word right now, but it's, it's just really nice to see. It's rewarding. 00:30:19 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. Yeah. And that's a word we use a lot when we talk about nursing because it is a rewarding career. Absolutely. 00:30:27 Carlos Ramos: So, I am curious, Kayla, you, you talked about, you know, building that, that relationship with, with the, the patient. Are you seeing patients more at the, acute end or are you seeing, like, patients that are coming in with chronic issues? 00:30:46 Kayla Kerstetter: It's a little bit of both, you do get the chronic kiddos that, you'll see their name pop up on the, on the board to come be placed into a bed and you're like, oh, I know, like, so and so is back in, and you already kind of have an idea of maybe what brought them back in, if it's an exacerbation of symptoms, or there's a, a little kiddo who's coming in for something acute, whether it's they had their tonsils removed and they're in for an overnight stay, but, yeah, that's it. You want to look at treating either patient the same. obviously you're going to have more of a relationship with a chronic kiddo because you've seen them a couple times. But you still want to develop that kind of style of a relationship with somebody who's coming in for a night. It makes caring for the patient a lot easier and the aspect of... They're more willing to work with you. The parents are willing to work with you. And I think the parents are the hardest part of pediatrics, not necessarily the, the diagnosis of the kiddos, because a lot of these parents are scared. They don't know what's wrong with their kid and they want them to get better. And it's hard to kind of, delineate, like, yes, I'm caring for the kiddo on the bed, but I also have to remember to take the parent into consideration as well. 00:32:06 Carlos Ramos: Because that's part of that, that holistic treatment. 00:32:09 Elizabeth Legarski: Absolutely. The whole family unit, the whole patient themselves. Yeah, that's great. 00:32:15 Sumer Beatty: Is there anything that's happened, I guess, to either, in either of your cases where you've been in a really, interesting and, and rewarding, I'll use that word again, situation with a patient or, Nurse Lizzie in your case with a student that, you know, has sort of validated, okay, I am doing the right thing. This is really amazing. 00:32:35 Elizabeth Legarski: I can say both in taking care of kids and taking care of my students. Absolutely. So I have a, I spent eight years in pediatric oncology, so I'm seeing kids with some really difficult diagnoses and sometimes what you see in the chart, you're like, they're never going to live through this. All the odds are against them, but you keep that open mind and you, you, you're part of their care and you're part of their story and to see them walk out the door is the most, it's just the best moment. I, I can't even put it into words when they go on and they live a beautiful life and they are a okay and they make it on through, and you know that you were a little piece of that's just awesome. As far as students, I I love all my students, but I, you know, I enjoy working with those that maybe struggle a little bit or need that extra push because I know that I did at one time as a student. And if it wasn't for the people that took the time to meet with me one on one and help me understand difficult concepts or encouraged me, you know, after I had a difficult test or I didn't do so great, I might not be here today. So, you know, whatever I can do to help in somebody's journey, that's why I'm here. 00:33:48 Kayla Kerstetter: I think my biggest thing thus far has just been kind of pulling all my concepts together in patients, to see their diagnosis and realize, oh, hey, I learned that in MedSurge or whatever course I'm in at the moment, and I'm able to tie it all back together. For me, that's really rewarding just because I'm like, oh, hey, look, I'm actually learning this. 00:34:10 Sumer Beatty: Right. The process worked out. 00:34:12 Kayla Kerstetter: Yeah, exactly. So it's nice to, to have. That in the back of my mind. Good. 00:34:17 Carlos Ramos: So, Lissy, you have a strong mentor role with these students that you're working with. Who was your mentor or who have been your mentors and what have they meant to you? 00:34:29 Kayla Kerstetter: I have a couple. 00:34:30 Elizabeth Legarski: So, first and foremost, my husband's my biggest mentor because he is incredibly talented and creative and he is the, he's my go to. He's the jack of all trades, but I can throw all of my ideas at him and my. I want to do this in 10 years. I want to do this in 5 years. This, can we do this, Chris? And he's, he's always got a plan. He's the planner. so plays a huge role and he's done so much behind the scenes for Nurse Lizzie. It wouldn't be a thing if Chris wasn't part of that story for sure. and as far as being a nurse and, and getting to the educator role, there's definitely, faculty here that I had as a student that played a huge role in encouraging me. and making sure I didn't give up when I wanted to throw in the towel and just seeing their approach with students inspired me to take on that educator role and be like, be like them. I mean, they were a huge part of my story. So I definitely wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't have that strong faculty cheerleader when I was going through the program. So that's kind of my hope that I was a cheerleader. So I'll always be a little bit of a cheerleader. Like I want you to succeed. So absolutely. 00:35:42 Carlos Ramos: And Kayla, where do you find that inspiration to do what you're doing as a student and future nurse? 00:35:49 Kayla Kerstetter: So that actually came a lot from working, in my current role, seeing the nurses on the floor. I've gotten a lot of This is the nurse I want to be and a lot of this is the nurse I don't want to be because you do see that still, that was what drew me back into nursing. I'm a non traditional student, so that played a big role in even coming back to school because that was a big big feat to cross. But once I got into kind of being a full-time student again, which is a crazy thought to me, I already have a degree, in exercise science. formerly physical fitness specialist. so I had a definitely a different. Kind of career in mind. Nursing was not it. So I have drawn a lot from my personal experience and then coming to campus and seeing totally different nurses that we have 'cause a lot of them were floor nurses 20 years ago. They haven't been a bedside nurse in a number of years. So, it's their teaching styles that kind of help. kind of form who I want to be as well as like my clinical instructors who are just a wealth of knowledge. I've not had a clinical instructor that I haven't liked. So that's been really helpful in kind of tying it all together to kind of form who I want to be. So I'm a little bit of everybody in a sense. I'm a good mix. 00:37:26 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, I love this. I never thought about nursing in a person, like such a personalized way of, and Kayla keeps saying the nurse I want to be. I just, I think that's really, really cool. I've always expected, you know, there are terms, there are textbooks, there are skills you need to master and then you deliver those skills. And then we all have personalities, but I love that. That's just something I never considered. 00:37:51 Kayla Kerstetter: And it's interesting to see even just in my cohort of I think there were 20, 22 students to see how different of nurses we are from one to the next. We've all kind of developed our own little style and kind of in the way we want to be a nurse and the style of nursing and the field of nursing. There's no two students alike, which is interesting to see, to kind of see where we drew to what brought us and where we're going. it was just something that I didn't expect. 00:38:27 Sumer Beatty: Right, and it pulls in the emphasis on our instructors and how important you all are as role models and as mentors. So we're very lucky to have Nurse Lizzie on board here educating our students. 00:38:40 Elizabeth Legarski: Thank you. Thank you for that. I'm very delighted to be here. 00:38:45 Carlos Ramos: If there's one thing you'd like the listeners to take away from this conversation, what would that be? 00:38:51 Elizabeth Legarski: Dream big. nobody has to fit inside a box. Life's too short to fit inside a box and you can do all the things and you can have the, the bucket list that's really, really long. I know I do. but I think that just dream really big and never stop growing because you just don't know what the next chapter is going to look like. And I, I, I know when I was a student, I'll never be able to do this, this, and that. And. I've crossed it off the bucket list, so dream really big. 00:39:21 Kayla Kerstetter: I think the big thing is it's never too late. I never thought I'd be the non traditional student to come back to school again. So to have that ability and to be able to do not only do it, but to conquer it is really nice to know that there's light at the end of the tunnel. 00:39:39 Sumer Beatty: Thank you for that. Those are great. I don't know how we can do any better. I mean, I feel like we left on such a high note. Yeah. Thanks so much for being with us. 00:39:49 Elizabeth Legarski: Thank you so much for having me. 00:39:50 Sumer Beatty: Absolutely. 00:39:51 Kayla Kerstetter: Thank you. 00:39:54 Sumer Beatty: Thanks for hanging out with us today. 00:39:56 Carlos Ramos: Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 00:40:00 Sumer Beatty: Check out our show notes for bookmarks to your favorite sections and links to resources that we mentioned in today's episode. 00:40:06 Carlos Ramos: You can find past episodes and see what's on deck for upcoming ones at pct. edu slash podcast. 00:40:13 Sumer Beatty: And of course, we are open to your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. So send those over at podcast at PCT dot edu. 00:40:22 Carlos Ramos: It's been real. 00:40:23 Sumer Beatty: Catch you next time.