Humans of Healthcare: Dr. Mohak Davé and Leah Wallace

On this episode of Humans of Healthcare, Dr. Mohak Davé, Chief of Emergency Medicine, and Leah Wallace, Clinical Simulation Educator,  discuss the highs, the lows and the unpredictability of working in healthcare and emergency medicine.

Humans of Healthcare goes beyond the medical jargon to reveal what it means to care for others and unveil the extraordinary human connections that form within hospital walls. Each episode is a reminder that in healthcare, true healing stems from not just medical expertise but from the people behind healthcare. 

Thank you for listening to our podcast! If you have a topic you would like us to discuss, please visit nghs.com/podcast.

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Transcript

Transcript 

00:00:06 Marie Krueger 

Well, hey, everybody. 

00:00:07 Marie Krueger 

Welcome to the Health Perspectives Podcast brought to you by Northeast Georgia Health System and beautiful Gainesville, GA. 

00:00:12 Marie Krueger 

I'm your host, Marie Kruger, and today we're trying something a little bit different. 

00:00:17 Marie Krueger 

We have some wonderful guests here today with us and we're going to talk about. 

00:00:21 Marie Krueger 

Humans in healthcare and really try to get to understand the frontline workers and what makes them tick. 

00:00:27 Marie Krueger 

So let's get started today we have Doctor, Mohawk, Davey, welcome and you are the medical director of emergency medicine at Northeast Georgia Health System. 

00:00:31 Dr. Dave 

Thank you. 

00:00:35 Marie Krueger 

Among other things, of course, we'll talk about that. 

00:00:38 Marie Krueger 

Welcome. 

00:00:38 Marie Krueger 

And Leah, how are you? 

00:00:40 Marie Krueger 

And you are the clinical simulation educator. 

00:00:43 Marie Krueger 

Let me get this straight. 

00:00:44 Marie Krueger 

The Center for Simulation and Innovation. 

00:00:46 Marie Krueger 

That's correct. 

00:00:47 Marie Krueger 

All right, awesome. 

00:00:48 Marie Krueger 

Welcome. 

00:00:48 Marie Krueger 

Let's start with telling us a little bit about yourself. 

00:00:52 Marie Krueger 

Do you guys have families? 

00:00:53 Marie Krueger 

Do you live around here? 

00:00:54 Marie Krueger 

What's going on, where you from? 

00:00:55 Leah Wallace 

You start. 

00:00:56 Dr. Dave 

I'll start. Well I I. 

00:00:57 Dr. Dave 

Live here in Gainesville. 

00:00:58 Marie Krueger 

OK. 

00:00:58 Dr. Dave 

I live on Lake Lanier. 

00:01:00 Dr. Dave 

My wife works at the Good news clinic, which is a free medical clinic in town. 

00:01:04 Dr. Dave 

Yeah, and she's not a physician. 

00:01:05 Marie Krueger 

Is she a physician as well? 

00:01:07 Dr. Dave 

She does office work there on the support staff and project coordinator and then I have a 19 year old daughter who's at Auburn and and Rory Eagle. 

00:01:14 Marie Krueger 

War Eagle. 

00:01:15 Dr. Dave 

That's right. 

00:01:16 Dr. Dave 

And a 17 year old son who's graduated from. 

00:01:17 Marie Krueger 

High school. Ohh, that's wonderful. 

00:01:20 Marie Krueger 

Tell me about yourself. 

00:01:21 Marie Krueger 

Yeah, so? 

00:01:21 Leah Wallace 

I grew up in Georgia. 

00:01:22 Leah Wallace 

I went to nursing school in Dahlonega at University of North Georgia, and then I started my clinicals at Northeast Georgia and on a Med surge unit. 

00:01:31 Leah Wallace 

And lately went down to the emergency department. 

00:01:33 Leah Wallace 

So I've lived in Gainesville for about four years. 

00:01:35 Leah Wallace 

I moved to Swanee recently, but Gainesville kind of home for. 

00:01:39 Marie Krueger 

Oh, that's great. 

00:01:40 Marie Krueger 

So I'll be very honest with you guys. 

00:01:42 Marie Krueger 

Emergency medicine terrifies me. 

00:01:44 Marie Krueger 

It is just one of these specialties that I would not thrive in. 

00:01:48 Marie Krueger 

What excites you about that specialty? 

00:01:51 Marie Krueger 

And what keeps you motivated? 

00:01:52 Marie Krueger 

As you have gone through, we're going to talk a lot about, you know, the pandemic. 

00:01:56 Marie Krueger 

We had a chicken plant explosion not long ago. 

00:01:59 Marie Krueger 

What do you love about emergency medicine? 

00:02:01 Marie Krueger 

Let's start there. 

00:02:03 Leah Wallace 

I would say that it's always changing. 

00:02:05 Leah Wallace 

It's fun going into work and not knowing what's coming in used to in emergency medicine, have to know just a little bit about all the specialties, but now an emergency medicine, you have to know everything about everything. 

00:02:17 Leah Wallace 

So it's very challenging. 

00:02:18 Leah Wallace 

It's very exciting and you're always learning. 

00:02:23 Dr. Dave 

Yeah, it's it's a challenge I think is is a big one. 

00:02:25 Dr. Dave 

But you know what? 

00:02:25 Dr. Dave 

What we enjoy is that we're really helping people, oftentimes in one of the hardest moments of their lives. 

00:02:30 Dr. Dave 

And so you're there every day being available for people when they have emergencies. 

00:02:36 Dr. Dave 

And so that's really, really important. 

00:02:39 Dr. Dave 

And the unpredictability actually is is also an appeal. 

00:02:41 Dr. Dave 

You know, we don't have a patient list that we know what's coming in the next hour, next minute even. 

00:02:47 Dr. Dave 

And so just being prepared, we realize how important that is. 

00:02:50 Dr. Dave 

So it's not just a matter of just the adrenaline, but you also have to be, you know, objective and perspective and be ready for what the next challenge may be, right. 

00:03:00 Marie Krueger 

Master problem solvers. 

00:03:03 Marie Krueger 

So, Leah, you went from working by the bedside, and you've transitioned pretty significantly. 

00:03:09 Marie Krueger 

Now you're in simulation. 

00:03:11 Marie Krueger 

Tell me a little bit about. 

00:03:11 Leah Wallace 

That journey. 

00:03:12 Leah Wallace 

So when I came down to the emergency department, I started on night shift. 

00:03:15 Leah Wallace 

Like most new nurse. 

00:03:16 Leah Wallace 

Just do did that for a couple of years and then an opportunity became available to become the clinical educator. 

00:03:22 Leah Wallace 

So I did that for a little bit of time, then assistant manager and then I became the nurse manager. 

00:03:26 Leah Wallace 

So with the help of many mentors and many of my physician and colleagues, I was I was able to move up quickly in my career. 

00:03:33 Leah Wallace 

I got my masters in Health Administration while working full time. 

00:03:37 Leah Wallace 

And then the pandemic hit. 

00:03:38 Leah Wallace 

So through all of that, I took a little break, did a little travel nursing. 

00:03:44 Leah Wallace 

It was local travel, but had a good. 

00:03:46 Leah Wallace 

Them and, you know, got to see a different health system. 

00:03:49 Leah Wallace 

Got to learn a lot about what they do differently, what they do. 

00:03:52 Leah Wallace 

Well, what they don't do well and coming back home like I say, when I came back to Northeast Georgia and my new role, I'm kind of able to take what I've learned through all of my different roles and emergency medicine and teach others. 

00:04:05 Marie Krueger 

So it sounds like you can do a lot with nursing. 

00:04:08 Marie Krueger 

And have you had many mentors in your career? 

00:04:11 Leah Wallace 

Have I have? 

00:04:12 Leah Wallace 

I was thinking about it all the way here. 

00:04:14 Leah Wallace 

So I remember when I got the first call that I was going to get a job in nurse. 

00:04:17 Leah Wallace 

And it was from a recruiter in HR, Melissa Thompson, who I have known for 12 years now, and I still frequently talk to and just the impact that just a a recruiter had on me and then getting the chance to work as the educator and emergency medicine, you know, Kay Hall is has been such a mentor through that. 

00:04:35 Leah Wallace 

And then my physician partners, I've worked for Doctor Devay. 

00:04:38 

I was. 

00:04:39 Leah Wallace 

Counting up 11 years now, knowing him and how much you know, working with him has made me who I am today as a clinician, as well as a leader. 

00:04:41 Marie Krueger 

Oh wow. 

00:04:48 Marie Krueger 

OK. 

00:04:49 Marie Krueger 

That's that's pretty incredible. 

00:04:50 Marie Krueger 

So 11 years you've worked together, so let's talk a little bit about the pandemic, because it's been such a you will never forget it and there's collateral damage now afterwards. 

00:05:01 Marie Krueger 

And maybe that's still going on. 

00:05:02 Marie Krueger 

Maybe afterwards isn't the right word, but Doctor Devay, how how has that experience changed you and and how are you doing today? 

00:05:10 Dr. Dave 

It's it's been a a challenge. 

00:05:11 Dr. Dave 

I mean it's in healthcare and just any human being that has lived through this has obviously been this has been a challenge. 

00:05:17 Dr. Dave 

I think that from an emergency standpoint, you know it's solidified our commitment as to what we're here for, but it's also made it harder because you know, we are now seeing sicker patients than we've ever had. 

00:05:30 Dr. Dave 

We have seen access issues that we've never had before. 

00:05:33 Dr. Dave 

I mean, it's harder to get in to see a doctor. 

00:05:36 Dr. Dave 

Your primary care physician or any any specialty because there's labor shortages, whether it's nursing or. 

00:05:40 Dr. Dave 

Others you know, there's a lot of mental illness collateral from from the pandemic. 

00:05:48 Dr. Dave 

But you know, when I when I take a step back and reflect where we were even three years ago. 

00:05:52 Dr. Dave 

You know, after we had already three years ago, right now it was, you know, just about become March. 

00:05:58 Dr. Dave 

We were hearing about what was happening in other countries and hearing about. 

00:06:01 Dr. Dave 

Cases that were just starting in New York and, you know, places that we thought we probably may not. 

00:06:06 Dr. Dave 

Come here. You know, we're hopeful, right? And we know, you know, I think that we have realized that this is not something's going to ever go away. 

00:06:13 Dr. Dave 

And it's something that we have to deal with just like any other condition that we had to deal with in the past. 

00:06:18 Dr. Dave 

So we take a step back. 

00:06:20 Dr. Dave 

I think it's it's we have to reflect is that you know patients are still going to get sick. 

00:06:25 Dr. Dave 

Whether they have COVID or not. 

00:06:27 Dr. Dave 

And we have to always be there for them and recognize that, you know, I think that there's so much more to focus on than just whether or not somebody has a positive COVID test. 

00:06:37 Dr. Dave 

And we we didn't do a great job with that across the world, candidly, early on. 

00:06:43 Dr. Dave 

And I think fortunately we've seen quickly that how important that is is that we have to go back to the center of the patient, right, regardless of whatever condition they have. 

00:06:52 Marie Krueger 

Right. 

00:06:53 Marie Krueger 

And that's probably the motivation, because I think from the outside looking in, folks might say you came back to work after seriously after after seeing. 

00:07:01 Marie Krueger 

Patients dying one after the other. 

00:07:04 Marie Krueger 

I mean that weighs on you mentally, physically. 

00:07:06 Marie Krueger 

Your families probably had a lot of concerns when you were going into work every day. 

00:07:11 Marie Krueger 

You mentioned something about the shortages with physicians and also nurses. 

00:07:15 Marie Krueger 

So let's talk a little bit about that. 

00:07:18 Marie Krueger 

There's a lot of factors that go into folks leaving this. 

00:07:21 Marie Krueger 

This profession you kind of left a little bit and you're taking a little bit of a turn. 

00:07:26 Marie Krueger 

Maybe you can tell us. 

00:07:27 Marie Krueger 

A little bit about how that worked for you. 

00:07:29 Leah Wallace 

So I think with nursing, you don't just have to be a bedside nurse. 

00:07:32 Leah Wallace 

You can do a lot of different things as my career has. 

00:07:35 Leah Wallace 

Shown you, but I think the nursing shortage is twofold. 

00:07:39 Leah Wallace 

I think it's the, you know, generation that is retiring that maybe is retiring earlier because of the pandemic. 

00:07:46 Leah Wallace 

That said, OK, I'm done. 

00:07:47 Leah Wallace 

I can't do this anymore. 

00:07:48 Leah Wallace 

And so they're they're kind of taking their step away. 

00:07:50 Leah Wallace 

So I think that with that and the ability to do so many different things in nursing. 

00:07:55 Leah Wallace 

That people are just taking a step away from the bedside. 

00:07:58 Leah Wallace 

It's hard to be a bedside nurse right now. 

00:08:00 Leah Wallace 

It's it's difficult. 

00:08:01 Leah Wallace 

The patients, like he said, are sick. 

00:08:03 Leah Wallace 

They're sicker than ever because they haven't had access to care. 

00:08:07 Leah Wallace 

You know they they when we said please stay home. 

00:08:10 Leah Wallace 

They did. 

00:08:10 Leah Wallace 

You know they didn't. 

00:08:11 Leah Wallace 

They didn't go to the doctor. 

00:08:12 Leah Wallace 

So it's hard to be a nurse now. 

00:08:16 Leah Wallace 

You always have to be on your toes. 

00:08:17 Leah Wallace 

You have to think critically all the time. 

00:08:19 Leah Wallace 

And it's. 

00:08:19 Leah Wallace 

It's a challenge. 

00:08:20 Marie Krueger 

Right, right. 

00:08:21 Marie Krueger 

And certainly for our new doctors that are coming up when we train our new nurses and our new doctors, what are some of the pieces of advice that you would give them as they navigate this journey? 

00:08:32 Dr. Dave 

Well, speaking for emergency medicine, I'll go back to what I said earlier is that you know, we as physicians, we get trained so much on, you know, metabolic cycles and pharmacology and Histology and and anatomy, right. 

00:08:45 Dr. Dave 

But we don't get enough training on how to hold someone's hand, how to talk to a a patient or a family member when they're dealing with a loss of a loved one. 

00:08:53 Dr. Dave 

And so we remind our physicians that you are treating patients at their often most vulnerable or our hardest time and it may just be another day or another shift for us. 

00:09:04 Dr. Dave 

But for for the patient, it's terrifying. 

00:09:06 Marie Krueger 

Right. 

00:09:06 Dr. Dave 

And, you know, even though it's this condition that we may often see, we see on a regular basis. 

00:09:11 Dr. Dave 

It's terrifying for them and so. 

00:09:13 Dr. Dave 

And so we, you know, we all I think that the key is putting yourself in that patients perspective and why are they what are they worried about? 

00:09:19 Dr. Dave 

Why are they upset? 

00:09:20 Dr. Dave 

What can we do to help them? 

00:09:21 Dr. Dave 

That empathy really helps to connect us to why you come to work every day and put that badge on, you know? 

00:09:28 Dr. Dave 

And I think as long as we stay focused on that is what's. 

00:09:30 Dr. Dave 

Purpose it it it really helps and that's I've learned that, you know, my mentors have been the nurses I work with because they have taught me that and I wish I could say that every physician, when they come out of medical school, gets that training. 

00:09:43 Dr. Dave 

But unfortunately it's not the case. 

00:09:45 Dr. Dave 

I don't know it is nowadays. 

00:09:46 

Right. 

00:09:47 Dr. Dave 

It's been a minute but but. 

00:09:50 Dr. Dave 

You know, I've learned so much from the nurses that I work with about taking a step back and reminding why we're here to do what we do. 

00:09:57 Marie Krueger 

Right. 

00:09:57 Marie Krueger 

Well, let's take a journey back in time a little bit. 

00:09:59 Marie Krueger 

I want to talk about something that happened here in Gainesville. 

00:10:03 Marie Krueger 

There was an explosion in a chicken plant. 

00:10:06 Marie Krueger 

Devastating on so many levels. 

00:10:08 Marie Krueger 

You both worked that case or that scenario. 

00:10:11 Marie Krueger 

What was that like for you guys dealing with that especially right in our backyard? 

00:10:16 Leah Wallace 

Yeah, I remember getting the first phone call from our Emergency Management Management Preparedness director at the time called because I was the manager of the emergency department and he said that there was an explosion at chicken. 

00:10:26 Leah Wallace 

Aunt and I won't lie. 

00:10:27 Leah Wallace 

I thought it was a. 

00:10:28 Leah Wallace 

You know, because we've we've drilled it, we've practiced it. 

00:10:31 Leah Wallace 

So I honestly at first thought it was a drill and I heard it was a plastics plant. 

00:10:35 Leah Wallace 

So I'm thinking, OK, you know, shrapnel injuries, you know, penetrating injuries, thinking about all those things and then to find out it was a nitrogen leak. 

00:10:43 Leah Wallace 

I had to Google. 

00:10:44 Leah Wallace 

What does that mean? 

00:10:45 Leah Wallace 

What does that mean for the staff? 

00:10:46 Leah Wallace 

What does it mean for the patient? 

00:10:48 Leah Wallace 

You know, these are things that you. 

00:10:49 Leah Wallace 

Kind of maybe. 

00:10:50 Leah Wallace 

Get a chapter of training in nursing school about, but really until you live it, you don't really know what you're you're preparing for so. 

00:10:57 Leah Wallace 

I think that luckily we were in the middle of the pandemic, so we had our PPE available. 

00:11:02 Leah Wallace 

We had our gowns and our gloves and all the, you know, protective equipment for our staff available, which was, you know, I don't know if that would have been available if we hadn't been in a pandemic pandemic, but that was a scary day, you know, because we we didn't know what to expect. 

00:11:16 Leah Wallace 

We didn't know how many patients. 

00:11:17 Leah Wallace 

You never know what's going to be coming through, but when you get that initial call of a chicken point, you know it's the middle of the day. 

00:11:22 Leah Wallace 

There's hundreds of people working. 

00:11:24 Leah Wallace 

Most of them were Hispanic, so we don't have, you know, the translators available. 

00:11:29 Leah Wallace 

We learned so much from that event, but I think what we did as a healthcare system was come together. 

00:11:34 Leah Wallace 

You know, I remember reaching out to physicians and everyone that lived, you know, in Gainesville showed up that day and and did whatever they could to help well. 

00:11:44 Marie Krueger 

I think a common theme in our community is that they are always here to help. 

00:11:47 Marie Krueger 

We've got so much support in our community as well. 

00:11:51 Marie Krueger 

Do you still feel like a healthcare hero? 

00:11:55 Marie Krueger 

That's a tough one. 

00:11:56 Dr. Dave 

I've I've never felt that term really should be applied. 

00:12:00 Dr. Dave 

You know, we're doing a job. 

00:12:02 

OK. Yeah. 

00:12:02 Dr. Dave 

We were we we've been doing this. 

00:12:03 Dr. Dave 

You know what I mean? 

00:12:04 Dr. Dave 

Our nurses, I mean, the nurses, I. 

00:12:06 Dr. Dave 

Work with some of them are. 

00:12:06 Dr. Dave 

Doing it for 40 plus years. 

00:12:08 Dr. Dave 

Right. You know, they they were. They're heroes to me. Then they were heroes. Now it didn't change just because it came to work. In March of 2020. 

00:12:16 Dr. Dave 

But I do think that there's a recognition of the of the casualties that physicians and nurses and any healthcare worker is endearing. 

00:12:25 Dr. Dave 

I don't like the term hero because to me, I mean there's people that serve our country and do so many other things that are true heroes in my mind. 

00:12:31 Dr. Dave 

And I don't, I don't think it's fair to put us on that stage. 

00:12:35 Dr. Dave 

But I also think it's important to. 

00:12:36 Dr. Dave 

Highlight the the the impact that daily healthcare how, how it affects individual healthcare workers. 

00:12:46 Dr. Dave 

You know the the mental impact, the post traumatic stress and those types of things which I think have come to light because of the pandemic. 

00:12:52 Dr. Dave 

But these were there long before that right and and so they became worse of course, but. 

00:12:58 Dr. Dave 

So you know, is it a hero or not? 

00:13:00 Dr. Dave 

You know, we're committed to taking care of patients, right? 

00:13:03 Dr. Dave 

I mean, that's our job. 

00:13:04 Dr. Dave 

You know that title? 

00:13:06 Dr. Dave 

It certainly is, is uplifting at times, but I don't think anyone feels that they did anything more or. 

00:13:12 Dr. Dave 

Yes, pre pandemic or not, or even what they're doing now, it's still what they wanted to do, which is take care of patients. 

00:13:17 Marie Krueger 

Understood. Yeah. How about you? 

00:13:20 Leah Wallace 

Yeah, I agree. 

00:13:21 Leah Wallace 

I think that it was nice to be recognized throughout the pandemic for the work that we do. 

00:13:26 Leah Wallace 

You know, it was nice to have that national recognition of look at these nurses on the frontline. 

00:13:29 Leah Wallace 

Look at these doctors on the frontline, the lab techs, respiratory, everyone that was really struggling through that. 

00:13:34 Leah Wallace 

It was nice to have that recognition finally because like you said, we've been doing it. 

00:13:38 Leah Wallace 

Before and we're doing it now. 

00:13:41 Leah Wallace 

This wasn't the first time we were seeing death on a daily basis. 

00:13:44 Leah Wallace 

We were seeing death on a daily basis. 

00:13:45 Leah Wallace 

Every day. So nothing really changed to us. You know, the patients were sicker and more complex, and we learned a lot about COVID, which, you know, who knew what that was in March of 2020. 

00:13:56 Leah Wallace 

But it was nice to have that national recognition. 

00:14:00 Leah Wallace 

I think the Community did a really nice job of supporting the nursing staff, supporting the physicians and the hospital. 

00:14:06 Leah Wallace 

Itself, right. 

00:14:06 Leah Wallace 

So I do thank them for that. 

00:14:08 Leah Wallace 

But we're still in it. 

00:14:10 Leah Wallace 

We're still. 

00:14:10 Leah Wallace 

Still, you know in our own. 

00:14:13 Marie Krueger 

No, that's a great point. 

00:14:15 Marie Krueger 

There's a lot of challenges going on in healthcare, certainly, but there's also some wins, right? 

00:14:19 Marie Krueger 

You guys hopefully have had left work one day and said, gosh, I did it. 

00:14:23 Marie Krueger 

That was, that was fantastic. 

00:14:24 Marie Krueger 

I got someone home to their loved ones. 

00:14:26 Marie Krueger 

Can you recall a specific story that you want to share where things went really well? 

00:14:31 Marie Krueger 

Things worked good. 

00:14:32 Dr. Dave 

You know, one of the things that I've I've always enjoyed is our our, our recognition of of of survivors, of heart attacks. 

00:14:39 Dr. Dave 

Trauma and stroke. 

00:14:41 Dr. Dave 

You know, because those are truly, I mean, they are the manifestation that we can clearly see of a team coming together. 

00:14:49 Dr. Dave 

There's no individual person that can be recognized. 

00:14:52 Dr. Dave 

For the outcome of of returning a patient back after they've had a heart attack or a stroke or trauma, or are a. 

00:14:58 Dr. Dave 

Lot of other things. 

00:14:58 Dr. Dave 

But those conditions in particular truly show the importance of a team and without any, any one part of that could fail, and the outcome could be very. 

00:15:09 Dr. Dave 

Very different. 

00:15:10 Dr. Dave 

And so I think when we look at our, our heart attack survivors, our stroke survivors and they come to the emergency department or we have a recognition event for them in an auditorium with their families and and they get up and speak and they see these trauma survivors that are graduating from University of Georgia it to this day if. 

00:15:28 Dr. Dave 

That doesn't affect you. 

00:15:29 Dr. Dave 

Then you're. 

00:15:30 Dr. Dave 

There's no reason you should be coming to work every day, right? 

00:15:32 Dr. Dave 

You know it is. 

00:15:32 Dr. Dave 

Those are the kinds of stories that. 

00:15:34 Dr. Dave 

On a daily basis, we do see, you know and we see a lot of things that are psychologically traumatic for us. 

00:15:41 Dr. Dave 

But seeing those is the reason that keeps us coming. 

00:15:43 Dr. Dave 

To work. 

00:15:44 Leah Wallace 

Yeah, I completely agree. 

00:15:45 Leah Wallace 

Just yesterday, me and Davey were at a driving summit to teach about safe driving for teenagers. 

00:15:52 Leah Wallace 

And, you know, just looking around, we were talking a lot of our colleagues that we used to work with all kind of came together to do this education. 

00:15:58 Leah Wallace 

And it was. 

00:15:59 Leah Wallace 

It was like we were working on a case that day. 

00:16:00 Leah Wallace 

I mean, it was really something to look around and just kind of see where we've all come and where we are now. 

00:16:06 Leah Wallace 

And being able to, you know, do that teaching out to the the community that we that we live in. 

00:16:10 Leah Wallace 

And we love. 

00:16:11 Marie Krueger 

That's awesome. 

00:16:12 Marie Krueger 

Do you ever miss being in the Ed being in? 

00:16:14 Marie Krueger 

The thick of it loaded question. 

00:16:16 Marie Krueger 

Yeah, well. 

00:16:16 Dr. Dave 

I guess they're being. 

00:16:17 Dr. Dave 

In the can I answer that? 

00:16:17 Marie Krueger 

I bet, yeah. 

00:16:18 Marie Krueger 

Yeah, absolutely. 

00:16:19 Leah Wallace 

No, I miss. 

00:16:20 Leah Wallace 

I do. 

00:16:21 Leah Wallace 

I do. 

00:16:23 Leah Wallace 

Yesterday was kind of a little glimpse where I got to be a trauma. 

00:16:26 Leah Wallace 

But you know, I was in leadership for the the last half of my career in emergency medicine and I still try to take care of patients every day. 

00:16:33 Leah Wallace 

If I could I miss the patient interactions. 

00:16:36 Leah Wallace 

I miss the teamwork, the environment and the people. 

00:16:39 Leah Wallace 

More than anything. 

00:16:40 Leah Wallace 

You know, I have some of the most, you know, incredible relationships because of the emergency department and the people that I met through nursing school and have grown up with, you know. 

00:16:48 Leah Wallace 

Been to weddings and baby showers and you know, now I'm going to their kids soccer games and stuff like that. 

00:16:54 Leah Wallace 

So it's really. 

00:16:57 Leah Wallace 

I do I do miss it, but I'm really enjoying what? 

00:16:59 Marie Krueger 

I'm doing now. 

00:16:59 Marie Krueger 

That's great. 

00:17:00 Marie Krueger 

That's great. 

00:17:01 Marie Krueger 

So we're level 1 now. 

00:17:02 Marie Krueger 

How exciting is that? 

00:17:03 Marie Krueger 

What does that mean for our community? 

00:17:05 Marie Krueger 

Can talk through that. 

00:17:06 Marie Krueger 

A little bit. 

00:17:06 Dr. Dave 

Sure. So I mean. 

00:17:07 Dr. Dave 

Our community has really benefited from us having a trauma designation for, I think 2013 or 2014 as when we first became as a. 

00:17:16 Dr. Dave 

It designated Level 2 trauma. 

00:17:18 Dr. Dave 

Center, which again going back to organized systems of care, has shown the community are as well as our EMS or any anyone around that that touches our healthcare system that we are committed to building this type of system of care. 

00:17:32 Dr. Dave 

So going to level one really just fortifies that commitment. 

00:17:35 Dr. Dave 

Is that OK, we you know one of our core values is a passion for excellence, so. 

00:17:39 Dr. Dave 

You know, whether we were level 2 or level one, it really doesn't know how. 

00:17:42 Dr. Dave 

We had no designation, right? 

00:17:43 Dr. Dave 

We are still have to do things that can make our care better for our patients. 

00:17:46 Dr. Dave 

So level one certainly means that we're, you know, have are doing things that are more involved and are highly scrutinized compared to level 2. 

00:17:55 Dr. Dave 

But the what the Community should know is that regardless of designation, it makes this Community, you know, our commitment makes this Community better because we are prepared. 

00:18:05 Dr. Dave 

And but it also makes other parts of healthcare better because because we are level 1 trauma focus, that actually helps other services, whether it's improving. 

00:18:15 Dr. Dave 

Our sepsis pathways or heart attack care or radiology or stroke, we all it's we all kind of just follow the same type of of mindset is that OK this is a patient with a time sensitive condition. 

00:18:24 Marie Krueger 

Right. 

00:18:27 Dr. Dave 

And how do we manage it and? 

00:18:29 Dr. Dave 

Come together. 

00:18:30 Marie Krueger 

This is kind of an interesting question that I want to know if you guys can answer what do you wish. 

00:18:35 Marie Krueger 

Patients knew about. 

00:18:38 Marie Krueger 

Healthcare providers, doctors, nurses. 

00:18:40 Marie Krueger 

What do you wish they knew that maybe. 

00:18:41 Marie Krueger 

We don't know kind of what you. 

00:18:42 Leah Wallace 

Said when we started this. 

00:18:43 Leah Wallace 

We're humans, you know, we we feel the same way they do. 

00:18:47 Leah Wallace 

We get sick like they do. 

00:18:49 Leah Wallace 

So, you know, coming into the emergency department specifically. 

00:18:52 Leah Wallace 

So they come in with a terrible headache. 

00:18:54 Leah Wallace 

Well, one of us might have woken up with a headache that day, and we're not feeling as well, so. 

00:18:58 Leah Wallace 

I think what's? 

00:19:00 Leah Wallace 

It's hard for them to look at. 

00:19:02 Leah Wallace 

Us as if we're not human. 

00:19:04 Leah Wallace 

Sometimes we feel what they do. 

00:19:06 Leah Wallace 

We go home with their pain. 

00:19:08 Leah Wallace 

You know, it's not easy telling a family member that they've lost their loved one. 

00:19:12 Leah Wallace 

You know, we go home and we have to digest that every single day. 

00:19:16 Leah Wallace 

And it's difficult. 

00:19:17 Leah Wallace 

So I think just the aspect of that, we're human. 

00:19:20 Leah Wallace 

We make mistakes, you know, we we are there for them. 

00:19:23 Leah Wallace 

We we chose this career for a. 

00:19:24 Leah Wallace 

And I love that we're. 

00:19:26 Marie Krueger 

Trying our best. 

00:19:27 Marie Krueger 

And get me choked up. 

00:19:29 Dr. Dave 

I mean, one of the hardest things, especially over the last several years has been, you know, with masking. 

00:19:34 Dr. Dave 

I mean when when you ask, what do patients which we know it's like you know we we've kind of masked our own feelings and emotions. 

00:19:41 Dr. Dave 

You know, we don't. 

00:19:42 Dr. Dave 

Patients don't get to see our faces or smiles. 

00:19:44 Dr. Dave 

We don't get to see theirs as much and unfortunately, we're getting, you know, we're moving away from that. 

00:19:49 Dr. Dave 

But you know that human touch became even harder. 

00:19:52 Dr. Dave 

You know, when you had to put on gloves and gowns and face. 

00:19:56 Dr. Dave 

And so I think that that if I wish patients knew the impact that had on on, we know it had tremendous impact on them. 

00:20:03 Dr. Dave 

But the impact that had on us too was, is, you know, something, I hope I never have to deal with again because you know that that really again going back to why do we get up and put on our our badges and go to work. 

00:20:14 Dr. Dave 

It's it's to take care of people. 

00:20:15 Dr. Dave 

And help them. 

00:20:16 Marie Krueger 

Right. 

00:20:16 Dr. Dave 

And it's harder to do when you can't see their face or see their smile or their fear, you know. 

00:20:22 

Right. 

00:20:22 Dr. Dave 

And so I'm glad that we're moving in the direction to get away from that, but I think I wish that's something that is portrayed to patients as they know about us. 

00:20:31 Dr. Dave 

Is that, like Leah said, we are human. 

00:20:34 Dr. Dave 

We have our, you know, our our need to touch one another and hug one another and and and help each other. 

00:20:41 Dr. Dave 

And that's been harder. 

00:20:42 Marie Krueger 

Yeah, yeah. 

00:20:43 Marie Krueger 

I mean, you guys are a family. 

00:20:45 Leah Wallace 

Yeah, absolutely. 

00:20:45 Marie Krueger 

Essentially, especially since going through the the traumatic events that we've all been going through. 

00:20:50 Marie Krueger 

Lastly, before we close up, have you always been this resilient? 

00:20:53 Marie Krueger 

Is it ingrained in you? 

00:20:55 Marie Krueger 

Because I feel like that's something that comes with age. 

00:20:58 Marie Krueger 

Certainly an experience, but golly you y'all are resilient. 

00:21:02 Marie Krueger 

You got some high intelligence of of emotions and. 

00:21:06 Marie Krueger 

It's not easy. 

00:21:07 Dr. Dave 

Yeah, I mean the resilience again comes from the focus on the why on the why. 

00:21:10 Marie Krueger 

On the Y, yeah. 

00:21:12 Dr. Dave 

It's harder. 

00:21:13 Dr. Dave 

It's it's sometimes I mean practicing and Healthcare is is it can be very, very frustrating, especially when you're dealing with nursing shortages or medication shortages or supply shortages or there's not enough people to keep certain aspects of healthcare running. 

00:21:26 Dr. Dave 

That have nothing to do with. 

00:21:27 Dr. Dave 

With nursing, I mean whether it's. 

00:21:28 Marie Krueger 

So when patients are frustrated, you're you're equally as frustrated. 

00:21:31 Dr. Dave 

I mean, we're all patients too, right? 

00:21:31 Marie Krueger 

Certain things. 

00:21:33 Dr. Dave 

I mean we we we touch we have touch points in the healthcare system. 

00:21:36 Dr. Dave 

So you know I think that that's the the resilience is often tested it's been. 

00:21:40 Dr. Dave 

Tested a lot. 

00:21:42 Dr. Dave 

Recently, it's even now when you see the COVID numbers, everything else falling. 

00:21:46 Dr. Dave 

That doesn't mean that the resource problems and and the issues that we're having have changed if in fact they've probably gotten. 

00:21:53 Dr. Dave 

And so I think that that's the story that is not being told. 

00:21:56 Dr. Dave 

Is that practicing now actually was a lot harder than was even three years ago, because three years ago we had a lot of fear. 

00:22:02 Dr. Dave 

Because of the pandemic. 

00:22:04 Dr. Dave 

But then we had scare patients from coming. 

00:22:06 Dr. Dave 

To get care right. 

00:22:07 Dr. Dave 

So we didn't have a lot of. 

00:22:08 Dr. Dave 

Where to give? 

00:22:08 Dr. Dave 

And now we have tremendous. 

00:22:10 Dr. Dave 

We're overwhelmed with the amount of care that's needed and we have people that have gone to other industries or retired from the profession and and we still have supply constraints, etcetera. 

00:22:22 Dr. Dave 

So what's your? 

00:22:23 Leah Wallace 

I agree. 

00:22:24 Leah Wallace 

I think that it, like he said, it's harder now, you know, we don't have the highlight. 

00:22:29 Leah Wallace 

You know, the patients are sicker, the resources are less and it's kind of like kind of spot on the rug almost in in the nation. 

00:22:36 Leah Wallace 

But I think that in the end, nurse seems still fun. 

00:22:40 Leah Wallace 

It's still a great career. 

00:22:41 Leah Wallace 

I would never change my career. 

00:22:46 Leah Wallace 

You know, I'm so glad I went into nursing and I think everyone has a different story of why they went into medicine. 

00:22:51 Leah Wallace 

Right. 

00:22:51 Leah Wallace 

But looking back, I would never change my career and I think that every day it's easy to put on the scrubs. 

00:22:57 Leah Wallace 

It's easy to put on my badge and and say that I work at a hospital with amazing people every day. 

00:23:04 Marie Krueger 

I know I feel like that might. 

00:23:04 Dr. Dave 

The job. 

00:23:06 Marie Krueger 

Happen in moonlight, you know, work on the weekends. No, thank you. And I think sharing your your story is going to help bring light to to some of the things that you've been dealing with ever since 2020 and prior to 2020. But I just really appreciate your time, you guys, and and sharing your your stories. So. 

00:23:22 Marie Krueger 

Thank you everybody for watching. 

00:23:24 Marie Krueger 

And if you haven't already, please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast and we'll see you next time. 

00:23:28 Marie Krueger 

Take care.