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much and don't forget dr.tv where you can

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see the streaming program Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Generally, it's

1:14

3 o'clock Pacific time today. I'm

1:16

excited to welcome nurse

1:18

Blake Blake has

1:20

an extraordinary path from nursing to comedy

1:23

He talks about how humor can help

1:25

us work through trauma. He's

1:27

played a major role in band

1:30

for life Which is a media social media

1:32

campaign to get the FDA to end the

1:35

lifetime ban on gay men from donating blood

1:37

which was bizarre As

1:41

though as though being gay was

1:44

was the marker for infectivity or something It's

1:46

just bizarre but but a lot for us

1:48

to talk about Blake in terms of many

1:50

of the bizarre aspects of our healthcare system

1:52

Thank you for joining me. Yeah.

1:54

Thanks so much for having me on and you've

1:56

also got nurse con at sea Well, first of

1:58

all, where's your website? Where do you want

2:01

people to go? You can find me in

2:03

nurse blake.com. I'm you know, everywhere, LinkedIn, Facebook.

2:06

It's all as nurse, nurse Blake. You've got all

2:08

those addresses. Okay, good. Yeah. And then a nurse

2:10

conduct dot at C caught my attention. Like, well,

2:12

I want to go on a cruise. What's going

2:14

on here? What's that? So

2:17

it's a whole ship, 3,500 nurses. It's

2:20

insane. It goes out every year and we

2:23

bring on drag queens and educators and it's,

2:25

it's pretty much the ultimate nursing conferences. I

2:27

don't know about you, but I've been to

2:29

a lot of boring healthcare conferences. Oh my

2:31

God. I, I, I sort

2:34

of stopped going to them in person.

2:36

I'd look for stuff online now because

2:38

it's just so stultifying and

2:40

I do as many tests and things like that that I can

2:42

do to sort of meet my demands. And

2:44

I actually, I get way more out of it than sitting

2:46

there listening to lectures. I don't want to listen to. So,

2:50

so why not listen to a lecture

2:52

on the ocean with a margarita? That's

2:55

what I'm talking about. So, uh,

2:57

so let's, I, I almost

2:59

don't know where to start with you because, you know,

3:02

let's start with this. Let's start

3:04

with what you said when, when we opened our conversation

3:07

before the mike's heated up with the, you're the doctor.

3:10

And, and I, it made me bristle a

3:12

little bit in a weird way because I

3:14

have nothing but gratitude

3:17

for nursing colleagues. And,

3:19

and also I have

3:22

like concern that the public

3:24

doesn't understand the fund

3:26

of knowledge that nursing has. They'd rather turn

3:29

to some, I don't know what, you know,

3:31

some sort of paraprof... I don't know how

3:33

people are being trained anymore while

3:35

nursing has not only the training,

3:37

the experience, but the judgment to

3:40

actually help people with medical stuff.

3:42

Give me your take on the landscape. So

3:45

I have to say and support back to all

3:47

the doctors, cause you all work really,

3:49

really hard, I know no matter where you

3:51

work in healthcare, we're extremely short staffed, but

3:53

I always think there is a little beef between

3:55

the doctors and the nurses, which is

3:58

super fun to like play around and joke with. But

4:00

at the end of the day, you know, we all

4:02

got to support one another care for the patients There's

4:04

gonna be though. They're really it's odd to me that

4:06

there would be I shouldn't be so I I you

4:09

know You're you've done a lot of ER

4:11

work, right? That's mostly where you've been. Is that true?

4:13

Mostly adult trauma? I guess in in

4:15

the ER setting right now a little bit also

4:17

in the ICU Okay, I've done so I spent

4:19

a lot of time in ERs and ICUs a

4:22

lot of time and All

4:24

that time was hanging out with nursing I

4:26

don't hang out with physicians in the ICU hanging out with

4:28

the nurses and we were a team And

4:32

I like working in teams. In fact now I think about

4:34

it my My addiction unit when

4:36

I ran that the reason I kept doing it is

4:38

I just had such respect and admiration for my team

4:40

of Which nursing was

4:43

the key component so I

4:45

don't understand What

4:47

the fuck is wrong with my peers that

4:49

they would ever ever have any weird feelings

4:51

about nursing? No, it's so funny

4:54

I mean it sometimes it's like a pissing contest,

4:56

you know Who's got the say

4:58

for the patient and then we always

5:00

joke that the residents come in every

5:02

every July? Yeah, you know But

5:05

I've always been one to you know support one another I

5:08

I've also worked in the ER and ICU and

5:10

I feel like those units are a little better

5:13

You have to work closer together But

5:15

when you're on a floor like medsurge or step

5:17

down, you don't see the doctor all the time.

5:19

You don't really know. Yeah Yeah,

5:21

there is a little right and there and there's a little Take

5:24

you if you're on a late night shift or something is

5:26

a little irritability that comes And

5:29

I Really tried hard not

5:31

to do that But I would find myself getting

5:34

irritable if people couldn't communicate to me that they

5:36

couldn't tell me because I'd go into kind of

5:38

a panic Like well, this is now this link

5:40

in the system is me understanding what you're trying

5:42

to tell me And if I don't really get

5:44

it, we got a problem and the

5:46

patient's got a problem. But but but but back

5:48

to nursing being more

5:51

Upfront I I mean, I think people

5:54

are getting it with nurse practitioners and

5:56

And sort of understanding a little more because

5:59

of that. You don't have

6:01

to nurse practitioner to be a

6:03

source of really significant medical information.

6:06

Now. I mean, even in a pandemic, you would

6:08

think that the public would understand a little more

6:10

about what they're sincere, which, which, I think they

6:12

do. We are the most trusted profession, obviously, and

6:15

the hottest profession. Ah, I don't

6:17

know that's the thing, but as to

6:19

be I'll know. Ah, but no. definitely.

6:21

I feel like we get a lot

6:23

of slack, like we just follow doctor's

6:25

orders. Know we're not smart enough to

6:27

get a medic. Boomers are. no. The.

6:30

That's only hear all the time that

6:32

earth you're just in nursing sedated after.

6:35

He. I listen. I once recently.

6:38

when i my prostate on of

6:41

years ago and. The nurse

6:43

that came in the room. That

6:45

had time to discharge. I just

6:48

i really like thought oh man

6:50

this this woman is smart like

6:52

super crazy smart and or through

6:54

see him hurt my peers and

6:56

I sort of worrying about nights

6:58

i you know I don't get

7:00

to see that kind of smart

7:02

all the time amongst my peers.

7:04

that which is the again. Interesting

7:08

interest I saying that nursing students and

7:10

on you know medical students should train together.

7:12

I think that's where we should be

7:14

energies to like in the classroom or

7:16

one hundred percent know I mean start

7:18

us out and school during clinical rotations together

7:20

because we tend to start out with

7:22

rely on knowing what each other deal

7:24

and the not a toddler so much toxicity

7:26

it were in the end you know

7:28

and the your you are you complaining

7:30

about the residents come against the the

7:32

their freaked out you know I know he

7:35

either either over them he of multiplicity.

7:37

Of reasons they're freaked out: A because they

7:39

either they may be just gone from internship

7:41

to resident in in a D all of

7:44

a sudden people are going will you make

7:46

the decision Bread which is vague, they are

7:48

not so there's no transition. There's no sort

7:50

of you know. Here's the thing is, you

7:53

did pay attention to what you make the

7:55

nothing to do it. and

7:57

same thing as they go up the scale

7:59

It's like, okay, now you are the lead

8:02

surgeon in the case. Go. Good

8:04

luck. Yeah. It's like, I

8:06

shouldn't do it. I'm glad I'm not, I'm not, I'm

8:08

so glad I'm not on that side, but I definitely

8:10

think it's church and school. Yeah. That's the shiny part.

8:12

So now I want, I want to get into what

8:14

you've done with your career, the integration of all these

8:17

things, which I love, and let me,

8:19

you know, you're doing all this social media

8:21

and you're using humor and now both

8:24

nursing and medicine, I, at

8:26

least when I was, you

8:28

know, deep in it, we're

8:32

military style systems, both in terms of

8:35

how they trained and how they administer,

8:37

administer themselves, especially nursing nursing is a

8:39

very, it's like a military

8:41

unit. And so

8:43

when somebody steps outside

8:45

of the usual military,

8:47

um, what's

8:50

the word, the countenance, the, you hear from

8:52

above. Uh,

8:56

and yet there, you're not alone. There are other,

8:58

I've seen other nurses do similar kinds of things,

9:00

right? And certainly during the pandemic, lots of dancing

9:02

and things that people were,

9:05

but they were, but they were sort of, sort of

9:07

applauded for that. Um, but

9:09

I thought to myself, well, you can only go

9:11

so far because, so, cause I stepped out of

9:13

line in 1984. I don't know

9:15

if you know, this is not my history, but I

9:17

was, uh, given this

9:20

opportunity to go on a radio program.

9:22

And at the time when Anthony Fauci

9:24

was pounding on younger physicians to go

9:26

out and talk about this thing that

9:28

we were just starting to call AIDS,

9:30

we just isolated a causative agent that

9:32

we called HTLV three. And

9:35

when I went into the studio, I was

9:37

shocked that young people had never heard of

9:39

it and I couldn't believe it. And

9:42

it was considered when I started

9:44

doing it bizarre that a physician

9:46

would talk to young people about reproductive

9:49

health and sexuality. That was, that was

9:51

outlandish. And trust me, I was, Oh

9:55

my God. I went through so many crucibles of

9:57

fire. So what were your stories? What happened to

9:59

you? I'm guessing. I think somebody called you in somewhere.

10:02

So I have to say, unfortunately, there

10:05

are not a lot of hospitals or

10:07

organizations that ever give nurses the mic.

10:09

So thank you so much for having me on. And

10:13

unfortunately, because I'm so

10:15

outspoken and such an advocate, no

10:17

hospital will hire me. Like what? I

10:19

can't ever get through the HR process.

10:21

Cause they're like, number

10:23

one, your mouth is bad. We've seen your show. We

10:25

see what you do on social media. There's

10:28

no way we're going to have you. You know, represent

10:30

our company. You know, what you need. You know what

10:32

you need? Well, boy,

10:34

a lawyer, because that is,

10:37

that is insane. That

10:39

is not okay. Yeah.

10:42

If you see it all the time, nurses will

10:44

make a video about education and hospitals are like,

10:47

absolutely not. They get fired. Oh

10:50

man. You need to fight that.

10:52

That is not good. That is,

10:54

I'm not surprised. Well, I

10:58

thought you would just be getting shit. Did you

11:00

have to fight your way through? I am, I

11:02

am blown away that they would be so far

11:04

as to be clearly discriminatory

11:06

in their hiring practices,

11:10

somebody participating in the

11:12

current state of the

11:14

communications. I'm

11:16

just, I, I, you need a lawyer, man. I

11:20

want to see you. You got to do

11:22

this because this, this is all right. So

11:24

keep going. So what else has happened? Were

11:26

you fired from a job because of it? No,

11:28

luckily I wasn't not fired from a job for it,

11:30

but I know a lot of nurses who haven't fired

11:32

for it. And what did I'm

11:35

disgusted. I'm disgusted. And what is

11:37

it they take issue with specifically? Social

11:40

media is what they say. Um,

11:43

what is it? What did you say that is

11:45

so, I, to me, it's a, it's a first

11:47

amendment issue for God's sakes, but what did you

11:49

say that is so reprehensible? You can't be hired

11:51

as a quality nurse. I always

11:53

get a record. I'm blemished. I mean, I

11:56

always get on staffing. I get on staffing

11:58

issues all the time and hospital. hospitals

12:00

really don't like that. So when I started social media in

12:02

2017, I would actually get

12:04

hired to speak at a lot of hospitals

12:07

and nursing organizations, but I would have

12:09

to say what they wanted me to say. I was

12:11

like, no, I'm not going to do

12:13

that. So then I started doing my own shows and

12:16

really ramping up my social media and

12:18

talking about what I wanted to talk

12:20

about issues that affect nurses and patients.

12:23

And now I'm just kind of unapologetically me.

12:25

I talk about issues I want to talk

12:27

about. I don't have to

12:29

ever look over my shoulder to see

12:31

if a hospital is watching my back.

12:34

And I make it, I understand you and

12:36

you need that freedom and you need to

12:38

break free like that. But at the same

12:40

token, those of

12:42

us that have

12:44

these skillsets, we need to use them. And

12:47

they're kind of, I don't like it

12:49

when people are on the

12:52

sideline with a bunch of skills that can

12:54

be useful to people. You know what I

12:56

mean? Not just yourself, people you can serve.

12:58

That really troubles me because of speaking your

13:00

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14:41

right, so oh man, do you ever thought about getting an

14:43

NP license or something and maybe just doing that kind of

14:45

thing? Oh, am I going to go back to school? Absolutely

14:47

not. OK. It wouldn't be that hard for you. It'd be

14:49

pretty easy. No way. All right. Oh my gosh. OK, OK.

14:52

So you have, because you wanted to be a, I read

14:54

some of your stuff where you wanted to be a nurse

14:56

your whole life. And it sort of breaks my heart a

14:58

little bit on a certain scale that you can't keep doing

15:00

that. No, it's OK. You know,

15:03

running the nursing conference, sorry I sound like

15:05

a lesbian right now. I just did my

15:07

100th comedy show and I kind of lost

15:09

my voice. Nice. But I sound like my

15:11

lesbian cousin, Mandy. She's

15:13

going to laugh when she hears this. Oh, that's incredible.

15:16

But yeah, now I run one of the

15:19

largest nursing conferences. I thought you sounded like

15:21

one of the Simpson's sisters actually. They

15:23

could be gay, dude. Well,

15:26

thank you so much. I sound like a straight man. So

15:30

go ahead. I've interrupted. You finished your thought there. Oh,

15:33

yeah. You know, now I kind of like lead my

15:35

own path. I think nursing could take you so many

15:37

different places. And now I lead

15:39

90 people to

15:41

do nurse competency every year. So it's really cool.

15:43

Yeah, and that is really one of the nice

15:46

things about clinical medical training. You can do a

15:48

lot of stuff with it that's very useful. But

15:51

you didn't really flush out my statement

15:53

about how nursing is not used enough

15:56

front and center. The

15:59

same way, I feel it's. same way about pharmacy, by

16:01

the way, these, there are disciplines

16:03

in medicine, there are highly trained

16:05

clinicians, highly trained biologists and scientists

16:07

that need to be upfront more

16:10

in this, this modern world of

16:12

medicine than they just aren't. These

16:14

hospitals won't let us. I mean, they will

16:16

not let us do it. They will not.

16:19

God, everything you say is grossing me out.

16:21

I know, it's bad. It's

16:23

the centralization of authority is killing,

16:25

is making it real. It's your

16:28

patients. Oh my goodness. All right.

16:30

You need to please do me a favor.

16:32

If you leave this conversation with one thing, think

16:36

in a problem solving way about how

16:38

to create a parallel something of service,

16:41

economy, something other than what you're doing

16:43

that goes directly to patients on behalf

16:45

of nursing because it needs to happen.

16:47

All right. As far as you

16:50

mentioned, sounded like a straight male, which thus

16:53

you're not. But

16:55

you had a story coming

16:57

out, which I just saw alluded to

16:59

a couple of places. Did you have a difficult time

17:02

with that? Yeah,

17:04

coming out, I, one of

17:06

my cousins was watching me. She was in her 20s. I was

17:08

a 15. I don't know

17:10

why I needed a babysitter, but she saw me

17:13

kissing a boy who I had to come

17:15

over and she outed me

17:17

unfortunately to my family and did

17:20

not go over well. Okay. So

17:22

let's slow down. So

17:24

was that a relationship with that

17:26

boy? A

17:28

little bit. A little bit. We were kind of just

17:30

seeing each other. So were you comfortable with your sexuality

17:33

up to that point? Were you clear about things or

17:35

were you just unclear? No,

17:37

I was comfortable in my sexuality. Like I

17:39

knew I was gay, but I

17:41

wasn't ready to let anybody know. Okay. But

17:43

I'm just going to make sure that you

17:45

already weren't having an ambivalent feelings about it

17:47

or that they just inflamed. So you were

17:50

clear. You could cool with it. And

17:52

then it's your cousin. Yeah.

17:56

And what's your ethnic background? Because

18:01

there's certain ethnicities, right, where it's like, oh my

18:03

god, I didn't know. I'm from Florida. Is

18:06

it bad in Florida? I don't know.

18:08

From Florida. It's coming out worse than

18:10

Florida. It's bad in Florida. It's almost

18:12

a comedy routine, but I'm sorry to

18:14

hear that. So what happened?

18:18

So like the next day, my parents pulled me out

18:20

of high school. Oh my. I

18:22

was sent across the street to see a priest who

18:24

was also a counselor. So again, slow down.

18:27

We are a very religious family to that point. No,

18:30

they weren't religious at all, which was so funny.

18:32

I was actually the religious one. And the priest,

18:34

is he helpful? Is he supportive?

18:36

Is he making things worse? Oh God, making it

18:38

worse. Like you could change.

18:40

You don't know you're gay. You're going to go

18:42

to hell. Oh

18:46

my God. Oh

18:48

my God. So how did this play out? So

18:52

I went through conversion therapy. When was

18:54

this? 15

18:56

to 18. But how old are you now? Weren't

19:01

those things already illegal by that point? No,

19:05

they weren't. They were out

19:07

of Florida actually Exodus International. One

19:10

of the leaders, Allen Chambers was from Florida.

19:13

I remember I heard about that. So I

19:16

was a part of that program for quite a while. How

19:18

long were you in there? Four

19:21

years. Now it wasn't something I was like in every

19:23

day. It was like an annual thing, but

19:26

I also went to counseling on a regular basis. And

19:29

yeah, it was really hard. But at the

19:32

time I was like, oh, it's fine. It's whatever. But

19:34

it really didn't hit me until six

19:37

years ago. I really

19:39

like struggled with the trauma of it

19:41

all. And can you

19:43

describe that to me? What that trauma was

19:45

specifically? Yeah, I had a panic attack. I

19:48

was driving home from work. And this is

19:50

actually when I started creating videos on 2017.

19:53

It was like super stressed. I had been a nurse

19:55

for a few years. It was burnt out. I

19:57

was. I'm

20:00

going through divorce right now, but I was

20:02

married to a guy. We've

20:05

been together 12 years married for six. I

20:07

was just having some relationship issues and

20:10

all of that trauma started coming back

20:12

up in the drama between my parents

20:14

and my family. So

20:17

over the past few years, I've been in and out counseling therapy

20:19

and stuff. Which is a good thing. Did

20:23

the therapist immediately put his or her finger

20:25

on the source of this? We

20:29

did an EDMR therapy. EMDR,

20:31

yeah. It all goes

20:34

back to when I came out when I was 15. Wow.

20:38

Oof. Yeah. It's pretty

20:40

deep. The EMDR work for... I'm

20:42

so sorry. I'm so sorry that people do this

20:44

to young people. Did EMDR

20:46

work for you? It worked really, really good.

20:48

I'm someone who suffers from... I

20:51

can't focus on a lot of things that

20:53

happened at once. So just hearing the beeping

20:56

was allowing me to really focus and let

20:58

my mind just go. Just go places

21:00

where my therapist wanted to take me. Yeah.

21:05

Well, I thought we were... I

21:09

just thought it was overwhelming because I thought

21:11

we had resolved

21:13

ourselves to what's good

21:15

for young people's development and mental health.

21:17

In fact, you were subjected to that.

21:20

I think it's still legal in a lot of

21:22

states. Is it really? It is.

21:25

But it's been so thoroughly condemned by

21:28

the medical communities. I don't know

21:30

how they get the practitioners and things, but okay. Okay.

21:33

Well, all right. But guess

21:36

what? So gay. My parents never

21:38

got a refund. What? Never

21:40

got a refund. Oh, man. They

21:42

should sue them. What a bad treatment. I

21:44

actually learned some of my best tricks there, Dr.

21:46

Drew. For what? You

21:49

know. Oh, gay trick. Oh, good for you. Being

21:54

surrounded by, you know, a thousand other gay

21:56

guys isn't necessarily bad. Oh, my God. that's

22:00

so interesting, that's so funny. Well, so

22:03

good, I'm glad you're here now and you made it

22:05

through all that and I'm sorry about your marriage not

22:07

working out, that's traumatic no matter what. Is

22:09

that all, are you kind of through that now? Not

22:11

yet, in the middle of it right now. I'm

22:17

sort of a little overwhelmed but I didn't expect this

22:19

part of your story, it's kind of overwhelming

22:23

and disturbing to hear about it. I don't like that kind

22:25

of stuff. Who does, let's be

22:27

fair. So now

22:31

you're doing videos, how did that happen?

22:35

So yeah, so like I said, I was driving home

22:37

from work and I had just that feeling of like

22:39

impending doom, I'm like, oh my god,

22:41

my heart's racing, I can't breathe, you know, I'm gonna

22:43

die. So I pulled over, I was living in Houston,

22:45

Texas at the time and I called 911. I'm like,

22:47

I'm dying and

22:50

she's like, I'm like, I can't breathe. She's like,

22:52

no, you're talking, breathe

22:55

and I'm like, oh, that's right. I'm a nurse, I

22:57

should know this and they came out. Did

22:59

they talk you down without having to get the paramedics in there? No,

23:03

they had the paramedics come out

23:05

and I realized it was a panic

23:08

attack and I just

23:10

needed kind of an outlet and I started

23:12

making videos just for myself and they quickly

23:14

went viral. A lot

23:16

of other nurses were able to relate

23:18

to them. So now I continue making

23:20

content. I do it when I want.

23:22

So it definitely still helps me in my, you

23:24

know, my mental health journey, you know, that I

23:26

think we go through our whole life. And

23:29

tell me about some of the things

23:31

you've observed, you know, the experiences we all have

23:33

in ER that you're making fun of. Did you

23:36

get it? Oh, everything. I mean, talk about a

23:38

flexi-seal. Do you know what a flexi-seal is? I'm

23:42

sure I've seen that. Is that for, where's

23:44

that? It's a poop tube. Yeah.

23:47

Yes. The tube that goes in

23:49

the ass. So if you have a patient who's got

23:51

like liquidly stool, you know, yeah, you put

23:53

that in there, right? And you fill it up with

23:56

water so it doesn't fall out. Yeah. I was working in a

23:58

neuro ICU in this patient. She

24:00

just grabbed hers and pulled out

24:02

her ass tube. Yep And

24:05

swung it around like it was no one's

24:07

business. Nice Literally

24:10

it went everywhere. So was she in

24:12

a coma or something? I got waking

24:14

coma. No, she was she

24:17

was aware Oh my god, she

24:19

was aware and it just went she was

24:21

punishing you guys interesting You

24:24

know what? That's what I should have left nursing. Dr.

24:26

Drew like that should have been my son so I

24:28

I've had I've had so many experiences

24:31

with the whether it's a A

24:35

urinary catheter or an anal, you

24:37

know, those anal tubes never

24:39

really worked. They'd always get clogged up, right?

24:42

They just don't work very well. This will

24:44

be a liquid liquid liquid diaphragm. Yeah. Yeah,

24:46

and I've had experiences with people blowing

24:49

them out and then Who

24:52

goes everywhere, right? It's been back up and

24:54

a good and not from the not from

24:56

the tube from the anus because they're Yeah

25:00

everywhere I've

25:02

had that happen And then on the

25:05

urinary and the and the anal side

25:07

I've also had people ripping the shit

25:09

out of themselves and then bleeding everywhere

25:12

Right. I mean they rip their fully catheter out and

25:14

it's like a balloon It's like a small balloon, but

25:16

it's still a balloon, you know coming out of your

25:18

penis. You're like Yeah,

25:20

and it's things tear and it's

25:22

bleeding bleeding bleeding and That

25:25

can be a whole thing Could be

25:27

a whole not now you've got a new

25:30

problem You're you're contending with which is the

25:32

erythral strictures and God knows what up in

25:34

the prostatic urethra and things just a mess So

25:36

yeah, these are all things that people don't think They

25:40

don't think about what else what else

25:42

gets on your on your radar I

25:45

always talk about you know things that we find

25:47

up our patients, you know Ask that shouldn't be

25:49

there and everyone's got a wild

25:51

story. I had a patient come in to

25:54

the ER with a Febreze can and Dr.

25:57

Drew when I say it's not like spring rain

26:00

It's like spring rain. Nice. He

26:03

got what he was looking for. No

26:05

matter what. They're always

26:07

like, oh, it was an accident. I just

26:09

slipped. It was an accident. I always sat

26:11

on it. Always.

26:14

Always. I don't know what the human

26:16

being, what makes the human being

26:18

think that a staff in an emergency

26:20

room is going to go, oh, okay, you sat on the

26:22

floor. I get it. Okay. You

26:26

know, it's interesting. Back in my

26:28

day, when I was working in ERs,

26:30

it was always I sat in

26:32

it. I've noticed in recent

26:34

years, there's a little more of,

26:36

yeah, we were fucking around. People

26:38

are more honest. Yeah. It's

26:41

a little more like some people are not ashamed of that stuff anymore.

26:43

They used to be ashamed of it. I asked people during my show,

26:45

I'm like, what have you seen of your patient's ass that she's going

26:47

to be there in this one girl? She's like, oh my God, like

26:50

you're not going to believe it. I was like, what? She

26:53

said, and dildo. I was

26:55

like, girl, no, what is not supposed

26:57

to be out there? Right. Exactly.

27:01

Exactly. This is, this is when,

27:03

but, but you know, we've, I've had people have to

27:05

go to surgery for the, for the virus. Oh,

27:08

if they get stuck and they, the blood

27:10

supply gets compromised because of how it's positioned

27:12

or something. Uh, and, and I've

27:14

also had surgical, when I, I

27:16

haven't seen this since I was like an intern,

27:19

but I've had surgical residents put their whole arm up

27:21

there to get it out. Oh yeah.

27:23

And then go get it and they got it and avoid

27:25

the surgery. I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do.

27:28

So that's life in the ER. You

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heard me talk before about sugar shift

27:38

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27:40

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27:55

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27:57

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28:00

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code DRU15. So

28:52

I want to talk a little more about gay

28:55

in America. You

28:58

know, your story was so

29:02

awful. I don't know if this is pertinent

29:04

for you, but I've been talking to

29:06

some of my gay friends recently and I've noticed, I

29:09

don't know if this is a new thing or quite what I'm seeing, so you're

29:11

gonna have to explain this to me, but

29:13

they will often say something

29:16

like, you know, along

29:18

the road a lot of people

29:20

say, no, I'm bisexual or I'm

29:23

pansexual and really they're gay. And

29:25

they'll, I'm not saying that everybody,

29:28

by the way, stop it everybody, I'm not

29:31

saying everybody that is pansexual is gay or

29:33

is, I'm saying that my gay friends usually

29:35

have a stage along the way where they're,

29:38

it can be quite long, where they're sort of,

29:40

and when they look back they

29:42

will say things like, oh,

29:44

it's so hard to be judged and people

29:47

you don't understand the stigma and stuff. And I thought,

29:50

and I've started asking now, now you're, you were

29:52

in Florida, I'm in California, so it's different, right?

29:55

But I've started asking like, who did

29:57

that to you? Did your parents say that?

29:59

No, not my parents. Did your peers? No,

30:02

no, my peers thought it was

30:04

great. It's like, where do you

30:06

internalize that from? In

30:08

today's world, save Florida,

30:10

I guess, I didn't realize,

30:13

where are those messages coming through to you?

30:16

And it made me wonder if it

30:18

has something to do with the parents, that

30:22

subtly in some way, they feel like they're

30:24

disappointing their parents or something because they're not

30:26

going to have a heterosexual relationship like their

30:28

parents or something of that order. You

30:31

tell me what you think that is. Yeah,

30:33

I've just recently experienced this with my lesbian

30:35

cousin, Mandy. She

30:37

just turned 40. She hasn't pointed out at you, is

30:39

she? No, different cousin. No. Different

30:42

cousin. She just turned 40 and she

30:44

just came out a few months ago and

30:46

when she came out and told everyone in the family,

30:48

I was there and they were like,

30:50

no, you're not. Yeah. She's

30:53

like, no, like literally, I am there like, well, you

30:55

used to sleep with guys, but you love

30:57

men. You always used to talk about men. And

31:00

she's like, no, like I'm an

31:02

adult. I'm 40. I know what I am.

31:04

It took me a while to get there. And a

31:06

lot of it is because her mom used

31:08

to be homophobic when she was growing up. So there

31:10

you go. But let's say there

31:12

is a homophobic parent. Let's say they can't put

31:14

their finger, because I've encountered this a lot lately,

31:16

but they can't put their finger on why they

31:18

felt the way they did. And

31:20

I'm trying to figure out where the vestiges are

31:23

in places where there doesn't

31:25

seem to be any. I

31:27

said, you know, in Florida all the time, like,

31:30

Florida, stop. Don't stop with the Florida. Clearly

31:34

things are different. I'm shocked

31:36

here when you went through Florida. Save

31:39

me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

31:44

Yeah. So

31:46

it's my sense has

31:48

been since we got over our

31:51

consternation about gay marriage, things

31:54

just kind of settled. And maybe

31:56

it's something historically that people went through when they were

31:58

in their adolescence or something. or something and we're

32:01

just moved past some of that now. And they're not, they

32:03

can't put their finger on it cause it's not around right

32:05

now so much. But go ahead and tell me what Florida,

32:07

what's happening in Florida. Everything.

32:10

It's not good here, Dr. Drew, save

32:12

us. But I know part of

32:14

Florida. I'm in Orlando. Yeah,

32:17

cause I was gonna say, you could have the South Beach. I

32:19

think things are cool. No. Things

32:23

are much better in South Beach. Things are

32:25

okay in Orlando. You know, I joke about Orlando. I

32:27

think it's just cause I was born and raised

32:29

here. I did live a little bit in

32:31

California. So it was very nice to be welcomed

32:34

and loved and supported. But

32:36

in Florida, it's just a lot of, you know, a

32:38

lot of politics down here. Yeah.

32:41

Still a lot of racism, a lot of homophobia.

32:45

Especially when I was gay in nursing school. It's a

32:47

great thing to hear that. Especially in nursing school. You

32:49

see it in healthcare all the time. What

32:52

did you see? That, you

32:54

know, some of my nursing professors were

32:57

homophobic. You know, you

32:59

see patients that'll say, I don't want a queer

33:02

taking care of me. I don't want a gay

33:04

guy, you know, looking at me, touching me. So

33:08

you see it and you don't really think about it, but it all

33:11

internalizes itself. That

33:13

for sure would. Well,

33:15

I believe in my

33:17

heart, we're getting through that as a country.

33:20

I think it's getting better. Yeah. I'm

33:23

really glad to see that stuff out here. And

33:26

so I'm guessing, and we do tend to at

33:28

least socially kind of lead the way in California,

33:30

I think, but Florida used to too, to be

33:32

fair. So I don't know. Okay.

33:36

So let's talk more about your videos and

33:38

what you're up to now. How do you do

33:40

your work? How do you, do you just

33:43

do standup also? How do you,

33:45

what's your craft right now? So

33:47

right now I just ended my 100 show

33:49

comedy tour, which is so fun. I got to see like

33:51

150,000 nurses and

33:54

it's so cool the different ages because

33:56

it'll be like a nursing student who's 20, laughing

33:59

and drinking. next to a nurse in their 80s. So

34:02

in addition to my comedy tour, I

34:04

run a managed nurse comedy team,

34:06

which is definitely a full-time project.

34:09

So we give accredited education to nurses

34:11

and let them kinda go out and

34:13

have a fun time and have

34:15

a drink and try to balance the fun and

34:18

professionalism, you know, that is nursing. Is

34:20

it only, your comedy really only for

34:22

nursing? Is that inside baseball? I would

34:24

think everybody would find this funny. Everyone

34:28

finds it funny. I have people that aren't in healthcare at

34:30

all that come to my show and have just as much

34:32

fun. And where do I find

34:34

out about your tour? nurseblake.com.

34:36

You can find everything on my

34:39

website, nurseblake.com, all my updates. And

34:41

give me a little hint of what's coming

34:43

up video-wise. Oh,

34:46

coming up video-wise? Yeah. Well, I

34:48

do this series, The Real Nurses at 4B. So

34:51

it kinda mimics The Real Housewives because

34:53

there's so much drama in nursing. It's

34:56

actually, it's really funny, the different types of nurses that

34:58

there are. And they're all very

35:01

stereotypical. Talk to me about it. I'm curious

35:03

because I bet I'm familiar with them all.

35:05

But I couldn't break it

35:07

down off the top of my head. Like,

35:09

even when it comes to scrubs, like, there's

35:11

only a certain number of

35:14

different brands of scrubs. Like Dickies

35:16

is a brand. Yeah. And it's

35:18

always the straight, white, male, bald

35:21

nurses that wear Dickies. Carhartt,

35:23

all the lesbians that

35:26

drive a Subaru. Which

35:28

one is that? Which green is that? Carhartt.

35:32

Yeah. Carhartt's a brand.

35:34

It's just like really boxy scrub. Okay, okay.

35:36

Like, it's just like really thick. It's real,

35:38

like, butch and lesbian. Okay, got

35:41

it. And then you have Figs, which is the

35:43

new scrub brand. All

35:46

the Gen Z nurses wear Figs. They're

35:48

like $125. And

35:50

I'm like, listen. I mean,

35:53

they fill up their gas tank $10 at a time, these

35:56

nursing students. Their Sarah in a Netflix

35:58

account is like $12.99. a

36:00

month but yet they want to look sexy and

36:02

they're $125 scrub. Not only that but the

36:05

idea of scrubs was just you have to think about

36:08

your clothing at all. No one

36:10

cares what you look like. So it's so

36:12

stereotypical. And

36:18

then what goes on, see I don't get as

36:23

exposed to what goes on between and amongst

36:25

nursing in terms of the housewife

36:27

kind of stuff. What kind of conflict comes

36:29

up. So I

36:31

would say you know that nurse that's really

36:33

smart. Right. They're super smart. They know what

36:35

they're doing. Typically kind of an asshole and

36:37

kind of bitchy. They don't suffer fools gladly.

36:44

Oh Drew, I don't know what that

36:46

means. They are impatient. They're impatient. You're just

36:48

supposed to keep them kind of thing, right?

36:51

You'll learn the most from them. Yeah.

36:53

They're gonna be a bitch to you. One

36:55

of my trainers was like that. I was

36:57

so scared of her. Yeah. But I

36:59

learned the most. When you say a bit

37:01

because there's different versions of bitch nurse, right?

37:05

There's really harsh,

37:08

aggressive, personally. They're like a

37:10

personally come after you and

37:13

then there are people that just will

37:15

sort of make you feel dumb. Right. And

37:17

I'm guessing that that latter category you're talking about. Yeah,

37:20

this is gonna she's gonna make you feel dumb.

37:22

Yeah. She's gonna teach you what's up. She's gonna

37:24

take you under her wing. She's gonna shit on

37:26

you. Right. Yeah. She's gonna chew your

37:28

food and then give it to you. Yeah. You'll love

37:31

her in the long run. Yeah. And

37:33

then you have the nurse managers that are never there. They

37:36

are always in a meeting. When

37:39

shit's going wrong, they just send in, you

37:41

know, a Papa John's pizza. They're

37:45

never there on the weekends. They're never

37:47

there at night. When I work nights, I

37:49

never saw my nursing manager. I was when they

37:51

took the job. It's a five

37:53

job. Yeah. But they but not to be

37:55

what though they have more paperwork than anybody.

38:00

so much BS paperwork. It's just

38:02

terrible. I feel so bad

38:04

for them. My heart goes out to them because

38:06

I would never want to be them. They're in

38:08

a horrible spot. Can

38:10

you imagine just for a

38:12

given diagnosis on a given unit coming up

38:14

with the policies and procedures that makes

38:16

JCO happy? Just

38:19

one diagnosis on one unit and they have...

38:21

What are you holding up there? They would

38:23

freak out about my water bottle right now.

38:25

Oh yeah. I've gone after

38:28

JCO joint commission so many times. If

38:31

you don't know what joint commission is or this organization

38:33

that comes in and they tell the nurses

38:35

what they can and cannot do, but

38:37

they are paid by the hospital. They're

38:40

paid by the hospital. Yeah. It's a

38:43

review company essentially to come in and tell you what

38:45

you're doing wrong. They change

38:47

their... I think they've even changed their name

38:49

again now. They call themselves something a little

38:52

different. They change it all the time so

38:54

people don't know who they are. That's right.

38:57

For instance, I was

39:00

managing a drug unit

39:02

and they came

39:04

in one year and they go, we

39:06

need a summary every week where I

39:09

can go to one place and summarize

39:11

everything that's going on with the patient

39:13

in the preceding week.

39:15

Their biological state, their

39:17

medical state, their addiction

39:19

thing, their withdrawal symptoms,

39:22

their family. Where I

39:24

can just go to... And they kept saying it over again.

39:26

Where I could just go to one place and get it

39:28

all. I go, okay, done. For

39:30

the next, what is it? Three years

39:32

between reviews, two years or something? I

39:35

create those documents every week and they

39:37

were two to three pages, single space,

39:39

lengthy reviews of what's going on with

39:41

that patient. It's kind of an interesting

39:43

exercise. I really get into the grit

39:45

of what's going on with each patient.

39:47

Now they come back and they go,

39:49

well, this is a summary. I go,

39:52

yeah, you asked for a summary. They go, no,

39:54

no, we wanted integrated... They had some of the

39:56

name for it. An integrated summary. We

39:58

want you to give me the... conclusions that

40:00

you've come to as a result of

40:03

integrating all the material from the previous

40:05

week. I was like, oh,

40:08

for God. I just like, oh, this is impossible. This

40:10

is just impossible. I'm trying to take

40:12

care of a patient and save someone's

40:14

life. And you want me to write

40:16

a paper? Yeah, yeah, that's right. And

40:19

remove my water? It's like, no, absolutely

40:21

not. It's so far from what is

40:23

important, you know? But

40:25

because it's so

40:28

mind-numbingly awful, that's

40:30

why I feel really bad for nurse managers,

40:33

and particularly director of nursing. Oh, my goodness.

40:35

Director of nursing. Can you imagine? I could

40:37

never. I couldn't do it. I couldn't be

40:39

in administration at a hospital. Sorry

40:41

about it. Yeah, I'm with you.

40:43

People don't understand that the amount of

40:45

stuff they've got to create, and it's

40:48

never right, never good enough to always...

40:52

The opposite of what you go into medicine

40:54

for, the opposite. I mean, why would you

40:56

do it? Yeah, no one says, oh, I want

40:58

to go into nursing to become a nurse manager. Like,

41:00

ew, like, that's so gross. Ew,

41:03

so gross. Oh, my

41:05

God. It's so funny when I make fun of

41:07

nurse managers, I could tell the good

41:09

ones from the bad ones because the good ones are

41:11

like, that's so funny. I'm not like that. And the

41:13

mean ones are like, why are you making fun of

41:15

us? I'm like, no, because that's what you do. Yeah.

41:24

You're about to hear a preview of the

41:26

Jordan Harbinger Show with the investigator who solved

41:28

a serial killer case that had gone cold

41:30

for decades. There was a

41:32

definite spike in serial predator crime

41:35

in the 1970s. Joe

41:38

DiAngelo was a full-time law enforcement officer.

41:40

He's breaking into houses in the middle

41:42

of the night, raping women or girls

41:45

that are home alone that he's finding

41:47

up and sexually assaulting. He ended up

41:49

committing 50 of these attacks in Northern

41:52

California between 1976, 1979, and

41:55

just disappeared. The last thing

41:57

I did in my career before I retired was

42:00

I drove up and parked in front of his house. I

42:02

didn't know he was a Golden State Killer, but I

42:05

debated should I just go knock on his door. This

42:08

was such a brazen, brutal

42:11

predator. He absolutely had

42:13

to be caught. To

42:16

learn more about how Paul Holes puts himself

42:18

inside the minds of serial killers, check out

42:20

episode 725 of

42:22

The Jordan Harbinger Show. Joining

42:29

me in the early 80s, Ario

42:31

Speedwagon's airplane made an unannounced, middle

42:34

of the night landing. This is my friend

42:36

Kyle McLaughlin, the star of Twin Peaks. And

42:39

he's telling me about how he discovered a

42:41

real life Twin Peaks in rural North Carolina,

42:43

not far from where he filmed Blue Velvet.

42:45

What was on the plane was copious amounts of drugs

42:48

coming in from South America. Supposedly

42:50

Pablo Escobar went looking for other spots

42:52

quiet, out of the way places to

42:54

bring in his cocaine. My

42:59

name is Joshua Davis and I'm an investigative

43:01

reporter. Kyle and I

43:03

talk all the time about the strange things we

43:06

come across, but nothing was quite as strange as

43:08

what we found in Varnam Town, North Carolina. There's

43:11

crooked cops, brother against brother. Everyone's

43:14

got a story to tell, but does the truth

43:16

even exist? Welcome

43:18

to Varnam Town. Varnam

43:21

Town is available wherever you listen to

43:23

podcasts. And

43:33

how about the interpersonal part of

43:35

this? What are the personality

43:37

things that you have to watch out for

43:40

in nursing that can become problematic

43:44

day in and day out? So I

43:46

think there's so many different generations of nurses. We have

43:48

our Gen Zers who want

43:50

to post on TikTok about how sexy nursing is.

43:52

And then you have your older

43:55

nurses who are 80 years old,

43:57

still taking care of patients on

43:59

oxygen. And I'm like girl, you're gonna go

44:01

from working in the ICU to being a

44:03

patient From

44:06

one shift. Oh my god, and

44:08

I just think it's the lack of training

44:10

and Collaboration that really pins us

44:13

against each other at the

44:15

end of the day. It's shift work, right? So you don't

44:17

know who you're working with you have a team

44:19

but just for that day I don't know who

44:21

you're gonna have the next day or next

44:24

week. So you're really just looking

44:26

out for yourself and your patience So

44:29

that needs to be a lot more done When

44:32

nurses together I you see when I think

44:34

about hanging out in the ER or the

44:36

ICU I Expect

44:38

a certain People to be

44:40

there There's a group of nurses that are always there and

44:42

that's who I want to hang out with and talk to

44:45

and you know Share notes with and things and

44:47

so how is that

44:49

right? Especially with travel nurses? Yeah

44:52

Yeah, the shortage you walk into a unit. You're like

44:54

who are these two new people? They're like, we're just

44:56

travel nurses We'll be here for a month and then

44:58

you're like and the travel nurses

45:00

are doing the same job and getting

45:02

paid Full worth times as much as

45:04

me doing the same job. That

45:07

that seems like a source of tension right there Protect

45:10

one example. Yeah, particularly by the way a lot of them. I

45:12

noticed you tell me if this is true I

45:15

noticed this during the pandemic that a lot of

45:17

those travel nurses Were not

45:19

ICU nurses to begin with and

45:21

we're ending up in ICU shifts

45:23

and going. Oh, it's so overwhelming

45:25

People die people die go dude.

45:27

That's ICU work people die in

45:29

ICU all the fucking time The

45:32

90% don't come out with the heartbeat It's

45:34

just the way the ICU is and when

45:36

I started hearing this people die, I thought

45:38

oh those are nice you nurses They're traveling

45:40

nurses ended up in the ICU, right? It

45:44

was such a mess during the pandemic. I mean these

45:47

travel nurse agencies just jumped on everyone

45:49

you can make Ten

45:51

thousand dollars a week. Yeah, you know and then

45:53

nurses are like, oh, yeah, I'll do it But

45:55

then the hospital just throw them in

45:57

without looking at a resume. So it was a

45:59

nightmare Yeah, it's still a

46:01

nightmare. You have confirmed what I was

46:03

thinking at the time because I was just like,

46:06

how long have you

46:08

been working in ICU and you're worried about

46:10

death? But it all goes back to

46:12

the hospital. The hospitals need

46:14

to love their staff, pay

46:16

them well, and make

46:18

sure they're staffed. And then that's

46:21

what's caused this whole crisis for

46:23

travelers. They can't keep any nurses.

46:25

Well the reason they weren't staffed

46:27

is they were running lean to

46:29

maximize their profits to satisfy insurance

46:31

companies. And so staffing is kept on

46:33

a razor's edge and then all of a sudden you

46:36

had to expand your staffing and they couldn't do it.

46:38

They just couldn't do it. And when

46:40

you hear there aren't any beds, I want

46:43

everybody who's listening to this podcast to

46:45

immediately hear no beds,

46:48

no nurses. Because there's plenty of

46:50

beds. The problem is nursing

46:53

staff the beds. Yes,

46:55

you're so right. I

46:57

was screaming that all during the pandemic. I said, no, no,

46:59

no. And then they'd say,

47:01

the county has no ICU beds. Yes,

47:04

the county is stretched. That's a county

47:06

system. The private hospital across the street,

47:08

they have beds. They will put people

47:10

there if they have to. Yeah,

47:13

no, it's so true. But we're seeing

47:15

nurses come out and strike in massive

47:18

numbers. And I think that to me

47:20

is so promising. There's nurses

47:22

out of New Brunswick, New Jersey. They've

47:24

been striking for over 130 days

47:27

with no pay, no health insurance, but

47:30

they're fighting for safe staffing. So

47:32

it's really cool to see nurses come

47:34

and advocate and really tell the hospital. People

47:36

don't understand that. That is

47:39

one of your greatest risks in

47:41

terms of safety and quality is

47:43

the patient to nurse ratio. Ratio.

47:46

And I talk with that by putting in CNAs

47:48

and things and put all kinds of not nursing

47:50

sorts of people that

47:53

then they call the nurses or they give

47:55

them nursing responsibility. And then the poor RN

47:57

upstream is trying to be responsible for all

47:59

that. Yeah, that that's another

48:01

game. It's an old game. It's a

48:03

game because it's unfortunate It's bloated and

48:05

centralized and it's under the control the

48:07

insurance companies That's right, or even if

48:09

it's not insurance coming Medicare. Medi-cal is

48:12

just all Way

48:14

over centralized way over bureaucratize and that does

48:16

not do well for patients for that So

48:19

I mentioned banned for life at

48:21

the beginning of our little conversation that tell me

48:23

more about that in that experience Yeah,

48:26

so I was in nursing school back

48:28

in 2012 2014 one of my really

48:30

good classmates has sickle cell anemia So

48:33

she would be hospitalized all the time, you know

48:35

receiving blood transfusions So she's like Blake you should

48:38

go out and donate blood and I'm like, no,

48:40

I hate needles This is like

48:42

no do it. So I went to

48:44

try to donate blood and they're like you

48:46

can't because you're gay I was like, excuse

48:48

me And they said the

48:50

FDA bans gay and bisexual males from

48:52

donating blood for life. I'm like

48:55

this. When was that? 2013 oh

49:00

Yeah, not that long it's like why am I

49:02

blood different I got glitter in my blood Yeah,

49:10

so I Took on the FDA

49:12

in nursing school and we got them to end

49:15

the the lifetime ban. So is it super cool?

49:18

I think moment in my life where I learned,

49:20

you know, if you see something that's not right

49:22

that needs changed Do it give

49:25

yourself a voice and we got the FDA

49:27

to change it Some gay

49:29

nursing student from Orlando, Florida got that

49:31

easy to listen. I'm amazing That's a

49:33

phenomenal and in what did you just

49:35

so people understand what you used as

49:37

your argument? I can imagine but but

49:39

do you tell them what you actually

49:41

did? Yeah, we would we well

49:43

what we did is we raised awareness on the issue

49:46

because no one had ever heard of it before and

49:49

We would host blood drives around the country. So

49:51

I would say I'm banned So can you donate

49:53

blood in my place if you're eligible? We

49:56

could collect the petition signatures and

49:58

our argument was that all blood blood is

50:00

tested. So why discriminate

50:02

and ban a whole group of people, you

50:05

know, on something

50:07

that's not scientifically based. It's just for

50:10

you. That's the part I assume you

50:12

emphasize. Yeah, it's not

50:14

always a tested but even

50:16

if somebody, I

50:18

mean, HIV, you know, if

50:20

your viral count is zero, your viral

50:23

count is zero. Right. That

50:25

is. Exactly. So there's, it's not about gay

50:27

or not gay. It's about what is, you

50:30

know, what, how many viral particles are flying

50:32

around. That's it, period. Yeah,

50:34

it was a big issue again,

50:37

back when pulse happened, you know, being from

50:39

Orlando, Florida, the pulse tragedy, the pulse shooting

50:42

at the nightclub. Yeah. A lot

50:44

of people, you know, in that community wanted to donate blood

50:46

because they needed a lot of blood

50:48

donors. And unfortunately, there was still a ban

50:51

at that time. So while we

50:54

got the FDA to end the lifetime ban, there's

50:57

been multiple iterations of it over the years. So

51:01

unfortunately, I'm still not able to donate blood.

51:04

FDA still doesn't let me, but hopefully one day

51:06

I'll be able to donate. Wait

51:11

a minute. You can't you can't donate now. So

51:13

even though they lifted the lifetime ban, they

51:17

put in place a one year deferral, which means I

51:19

would have to say accident for

51:21

a year. What? That is

51:23

so bizarre. And then they

51:26

changed it again during the pandemic. It

51:28

was three months of abstinence. And

51:30

now there's other protocols like if

51:32

you take PrEP, you

51:36

know, the prophylactic medication,

51:39

you can't donate. There's so many different reasons

51:41

why gay and bisexual males still can't donate

51:43

blood. But we're still trying to fight them

51:45

on the whole issue. Wow, isn't that something?

51:48

That's a really interesting situation.

51:50

Maybe one day. And

51:52

how did they how, by the way, did they document

51:54

three months of abstinence? What exactly? They put it. Thank

51:57

you. What? That's

51:59

the question. Right. How do you know? You put

52:01

a hoeing device on your penis or something and

52:03

they're like, what is the plan here, guys? Put

52:05

an apple air tag on my asshole. I,

52:11

hmm. Yeah,

52:13

the more I learn about the FDA,

52:15

the more concerned I am. Because

52:18

if this was the only

52:20

irrational policy they had, I would be

52:22

like, huh, what? Why are you not

52:24

being sane? But they have lots of

52:26

irrational policies, lots of them. And

52:29

I've seen them in full display during COVID. Just mandating

52:31

vaccines for a 22-year-old or pushing vaccines

52:33

on a 22-year-old. I don't, I don't,

52:36

what's the risk for everybody? I just

52:38

feel like healthcare, healthcare

52:40

is so outdated and

52:42

unfortunately it needs to be run like a

52:45

lot of the other industries like the airline

52:47

industry, which has so many, you know, safety

52:49

precautions and the TSA that oversees. And

52:52

it's just unfortunate that healthcare is always

52:54

behind. We're always behind. Well, that's interesting

52:56

that you say that because, first

52:59

of all, I really think that

53:01

young people in healthcare need to be,

53:03

their instincts need to be applied to

53:05

the solutions to make things better. But

53:09

I do feel like we need to

53:11

try lots of different things. I got

53:14

involved with this thing called the Wellness Company because I

53:17

wanted to try different things. And

53:19

I just think different models, I know Mark Cuban's

53:21

getting in there and trying different models. I just

53:23

think we need to, it's

53:25

so broken. It's so bloated.

53:28

It's time for, and

53:30

unfortunately because it's so regulated

53:32

and so othefied

53:35

in terms of its financial

53:37

structure and stuff, it's very hard for people to

53:40

break into it and to compete

53:42

to bring things to market that would actually

53:44

compete. So it's going to be slow. It's going

53:46

to be slow, but it's got to happen. It

53:49

actually, I've been a nurse 10 years now and

53:51

it's so surprising that my same jokes still

53:54

land 10 years later because

53:56

the industry is stuck in that

53:58

same place it was 10 years After

54:00

all the things we learned over the

54:02

years you're telling stories that I recognize

54:04

from my residency Isn't it? The

54:07

wild it's wild. Yeah, I

54:09

mean I was resident 80 Well

54:12

really 85 to 88 they know I'd like that and So

54:18

early 80s, you know mid 80s and

54:21

yes, same stuff same same exact same

54:23

shit. Yeah well,

54:25

listen, I appreciate spending a little time with me and I

54:27

appreciate the work you're doing and I'm

54:29

sort of still really troubled by this

54:32

but you were subjected to as a kid It's just

54:34

it's just so odd to me

54:36

that it's still going on and that you know But

54:39

hopefully hopefully we're moving the right to but I know we're moving

54:41

the right direction and so people are understanding

54:43

these things What what

54:45

would you like people to do going forward? Where do you want

54:47

them to find you? They want to read your books. What where

54:49

should they go? You find me on nurse lake

54:51

calm Do you want to come to a show a tree to

54:53

nurse give them the best night ever? Or

54:56

encourage them to come on a nurse kind of

54:58

see the ultimate nursing conference That

55:00

and if you have medical questions, uh,

55:02

and you know nurses ask them first

55:05

They'll have opinions they'll have ideas. Don't send

55:07

me a picture of your rash, please I

55:10

swear to god if I get one more

55:12

picture, yeah best friends. Yeah, dermatology is not

55:14

something I would necessarily Yeah,

55:18

but Really medical questions

55:21

or questions about the system especially

55:23

or questions about medication By

55:25

all means ask your nursing friends. So

55:29

All right, my friend Well, thank you for spending time with

55:31

us and uh, i'll keep a close eye on you and

55:33

if I can do more for you Let me know. Thanks

55:35

so much. Appreciate it. I like everybody. Thank you. See

55:37

you next time Conversation and information

55:39

exchange during the participation in the doctor group podcast

55:41

is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only do

55:43

not confuse this with treatment Or medical advice or

55:45

direction Nothing on these podcasts supplement or supersede the

55:47

relationship and direction of your medical caretakers Although dr

55:49

Drew is a lessons physician with specialty board certifications

55:51

by the american board of internal medicine in the

55:53

american board of the dudson medicine He's not functioning

55:55

as a physician in this in the center the

55:57

femophank any professionals who may have Son

56:00

of arms titled

56:16

Moon At

56:20

the explaining, Megalovian

56:28

Pluto TV app and start streaming

56:30

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56:32

demand.