Welcome to the doctor nurse podcast.
I'm your host, dr. Sandra contenta.
I'm a doctor, Lee prepared nurse practitioner.
And I am so glad you decided to join me today.
The doctor nurse podcast is a podcast for nurses and nurse
practitioners that are wanting to understand what exactly their
degrees can do for them. After the birth of my son, I had
this baking desire to have more flexibility in my career
choices. Despite feeling like all the
alphabet soup, after my name didn't really afford me.
Me very many options, I launched the podcast to find the answers
that I so desperately needed. But I also knew I couldn't be
the only nurse who felt this way.
This is sound like you, if so, come and hang out with me as I
figure out what our nursing degrees can give us access to,
as far as career flexibility control, over our schedules and
Entrepreneurship my talking with NPS and our friends who are
doing exactly that. Sit back and enjoy the
conversation. Doctor nurse Spam.
Welcome to another episode of the doctor nurse podcast.
Today on the podcast, we have Melissa Pauline, she graduated
from nursing school, with her associate's degree in the 2003
she worked in, emergency medicine for 10 years before
going back to get her BSN, which that just goes to show you, you
don't need to be assigned to get working as a nurse.
And then she went back, finished your BF that in 2013, and then
she got her first master's degree in adult geriatric,
primary care. And And then she went back in
2017 and got her acute care postmasters.
So she is working as a ICU intensivists or ICU nurse
practitioner and then on the side, she has her own rejuvenate
you Wellness Clinic where she's doing IV, hydration drains,
weight loss, Aesthetics. She works part-time at that and
she works full time. I don't know how as an ICU NP,
welcome, Melissa to the police and the thank you for having me.
I'm so glad to chat with you and I And there were talking before
the podcast. She is just she's crushing it.
She's the literally just moving from space to participate.
She's got goals, she's got vision and she's knocking them
down so I can't wait to hear. So Melissa, tell me a little bit
about how you kind of see your role.
I've briefly introduced, you kind of what you're doing but
really explain what you're doing in the ICU setting.
And then what you're doing in your senior side, hustle
business, ISO and ICU setting. I a massacre I see nurse
practitioner or I I see you intensivist and what we do is a
group of us nurse practitioner. We run a n bed, medical ICU
unit. That means we go from omitting,
the patience to providing this, as far as putting in lines.
So, arterial line, Central lines, it sebacean chest tube,
lumbar puncture you name it. We do it.
And we also with multidisciplinary rounds, we
also manage the patient's putting in ordering medications
figuring out. What course we want to take when
it To antibiotic figuring out the social aspects of our
clients because because I do work in a level one, Trauma
Center in an urban area. So, we have a lot of social
issues in regards to our patient population.
So we do a lot of that with the help of Art and we switch out a
10 minutes once a week. But pretty much we run the, I
see. Wow!
So I've had one other acute care
nurse practitioner on and that's pretty much what she said
because the residents cycle through the attending cycle
through, but then NPCs are They're Monday through Friday
and they know what's going on. And so the docks were really
rely on them heavily to carry the unit and let the, you know,
kind of let the boss know what's going on.
Tell me what I need to do, tell me how to help problem solve
think through things, but you guys are the ones running
running the show. Is that is that kind of what
you're doing, where a constant on the unit?
I was say that we're like an island of our own.
So we're not registered nurses, which means we're not following
orders, but we're also not positioned.
So, you know, we're not an MD so we're like, A little first
practitioner Island owned. Those really hard when it comes
out liberating us, right? So, do we fit into nurses week,
but we're not that. Do we fit into dr.
Dave, we're not physician, so, it's kind of like, you know,
we're kind of like the in-between between the two, the
two islands, what we are, what links we link the nursing
bedside at the MDF. Because, you know, in order for
us to be nurse practitioners, had to be fed signer begin with.
So we can we can get acclimated know what?
Rose need to be played. Yeah, what I like to is, I'm
kind of seeing this word picture, you guys are like a
bridge, right? And unfortunately, the bridge
never gets recognized. You just walk across the bridge,
right? And so the people on the ones
that are just like the bees on there.
Sorry. Like and you're like, listen,
you guys can't talk and get things done, if it wasn't for
us, unfortunately, I agree. There isn't a great way to
celebrate nurse practitioners and what we do in the different
areas that we work in, so definitely can understand the,
the kind of disappointment that can be for sure.
So, Tell me a little bit about your side hustle as well because
again in the middle of rock, in the ICU and keeping patients
alive in the acute care setting doing incredible procedures that
again nurse practitioners can do within their appropriate scope.
Tell me a little bit about what you decided to build on the side
though because I am double board certified.
So I can be an office versus and also being hostile to decided to
open up rejuvenate you want this class.
This was in May of 2020. So, right in the heart of covid,
we realized that, you know, we need, I had of the hospital.
Because it's actually in a room for them so but other way to
help them is through the wellness clinic.
So we provide IV vitamin. So high dose vitamin C a
cocktail weight loss trips buttock performance trip.
So it's just a way of keeping clients hydrated without
actually having to go to the emergency room.
We also do like Aesthetics so we do see him in for the fine
wrinkles we do lip fillers on the post-op side.
You like sir a drainage is for clients that hypo sucked in.
Have like the fluid collection and can't get that massage shop.
We remove drains for clients that come in from out of the
country that had like three stalks and stuff and they come
back with the brain. Normally you can't just go to an
urgent care or your doctor's office.
Get those taken out because, you know, if they don't put it, they
don't want to take it out for an instant removal.
So I do a bit of a lot of things clinic but I can be able to help
keep my client the hospital. Yeah, so tell me a little bit
about your time split between the two for someone that's like
Okay. Wait, how is she managing all
this and in the day, how do you kind of work out your schedule?
So you can keep up with both of these?
Well, am I in my office right now?
I did have a medical assistant working with me who just
recently quit. So, right now, their goal the
to. So I do 36 hours the, I see.
I'm also the team lead, so I'm in charge over there, so, I do
three days. So I'm gonna do like day Monday,
other day during the week and then, in my office, I'm normally
here two or three days a week, but it's Bayou.
My only can't just like walk in and think some here.
So it's just everything is by appointment only and I try to
kind of gauge it where I kind of front-load everybody.
So like I'll have like my busy, today's Tuesdays and Thursdays
where I put everybody in that on the schedule for those two days
and then that way, you know, I still have I'm a wife, I'm a mom
of two like I still have, you know, my responsibilities at
home so I still have to give them at least a day if.
Yeah. Exactly that's crazy.
So how did you so we know that You learned all your skills for
your. I see you work through it
working as an RN but then also going back for your master's
degree. Now, these other things that
you're doing at your clinic at your personal, you know,
part-time job, how did you learn these skills?
Because it's something that you went to school for, you took a
course. Like, how did you learn how you
take courses? So, my best friend, she also
does what I do. But she's like an hour and the
way from where I'm okay. So she started doing it first
and then we took courses and I was very interested in the IV,
vitamin therapy because June of 2020, I had weight loss surgery
at the we've done and you know, that we that done like, you
don't process and digest your foods and your vitamins.
I'm supposed to take, you know, calcium and magnesium, and all
that every day, I realized what the class that I just can't do
it once a month. And it's the same amount of
vitamins and flu, is that I get every single day versus taking
every single day. I do an IV every month to keep
my body. Many levels.
So we just take classes, you can take any type, of course, as
long as you're depending on your state that you're in some states
are completely independent and the state of Georgia, we're not
independent. So I have a collaborate in MD
that I said, I work, I don't work alongside but he checks my
charts, every quarter to make sure that I'm doing everything
that they need to do. Yeah, so interesting as you were
as you were talking about, you know, learning about the
different courses, taking the different things and then doing
it. What was the turnaround time
between learning and then starting to implement these
things in your own practice? How long did you give yourself?
I started taking the course maybe Mark, so hard to 2020.
I took a took IV by is called IV Therapy Academy.
I took their online course and it was like a self-paced type of
course, and everything that I need to learn how to open up the
business, how to do everything, and then I register business
name, May of 2020 and that I opened up the door.
September. 20th. Okay, so it wasn't long at all
like six months from taking the course to starting opening
pretty much. Yeah.
If you're if you're passionate about something and you really
want to get it done like this should be no barriers just be
able to say yeah. Yeah.
One of the things too. I love about what you're
describing and how you kind of got started.
With the idea is you solved your own problem, you know what I'm
saying? So like a lot of entrepreneurs
come on here and there like I noticed that this wasn't being
solved and so I Sweat and solved it.
And so you had to kind of assess where to put your business, how
what would be the great location?
What would be the structure of it?
And one just get started. You'll figure it out as you go.
But how did you kind of assess where to put the business when
you were looking for a spot for someone that's like, okay, maybe
I could do that. Where, where do I even start
with a business? Where do I even put it though?
I mean, the right answer to that question is market research,
right? But as a nurse, we didn't teach
us any of that stuff. They don't date.
What I learned as a nurse, when I graduate in 2003 was, you need
to start in men, searched. A need to turn your pain every
two hours and a right. Don't teach you about being
business. My nail.
They don't let you know that you can be an entrepreneur and you
know these are the things that you can do to make that happen.
So I just kind of had to figure it out.
Myself course, you know, it wasn't losses, it was Lessons
Learned through this process, but I just know my area.
I know what area, I know what kind of business I have.
So, I have a cache based business, right?
So they don't take insurance. So I what do I need to say?
Myself. I need to be in a place where I
know that their household income is at a certain price point,
because then I know that this is not a, some people would say
it's a necessity but it's really not a necessity preventive.
Care is something that you want to do.
So it has to be with people that have disposable income to be
able to pay for a treatment out of pocket.
Yeah, for exactly. So again, kind of looking at the
area around where you're thinking about putting a
business is a great way to Start because it allows you to kind of
go, like I'm going to be able to make money here.
People have that disposable income and I'll be able to, to
have the clientele to meet when I'm when I'm servicing, when I'm
offering. So tell me, what was one aspect
of starting a business? That was challenging because of
your background, as a nurse, kind of like what you said.
I just, I they don't teach us the stuff in school and then one
thing that you're like, this is easy because I was a nurse and
this is an easy part of owning a business.
Let me see the Hardest part is all of it, all of it.
We, you know, you are behind you.
They give you all the paperwork. OSHA HIPAA privacy.
You do all of it. You find four days.
You do the classes go, right? You don't care.
If the electricity is paid or not, like it's Hospital though.
It's not. Let me flip the light is gonna
run, right? So, all of it was really, I just
had to like really do my research and really learn the
ins and out of the business. I mean, I'm sure for you to
still things that I need the working on that I need.
It's like perfect but I think a lot of it was hard.
The one thing the when you ask me like what was not hard client
relations customer service right into your winter people, they
taking care of people is like, I've been doing it for so long
that that's not the problem marketing Network.
I mean not marking but networking and talking to
clients and tell them about your business.
That is not hard. That's the easy part.
Thanks for listening to the episode.
I hope you're enjoying the conversation.
I wanted to take this time and remind you to check out.
The success and P at Z shop. It's a shop that I design with
my best girlfriend, cute nurse, practitioner gear, hats bags,
anything you could think of, as well as adorable, digital
products, mom life stuff. So resources for nurses to come,
we're just excited about our shop, it's another way to
support the podcast and to get really cool gear.
Check it out and be sure to tell your friends about the podcast
as well as the SUV. Op if you'd like and when I'm
building here, any promotion, any sharing helps build my
audience and I greatly appreciate it.
Now, let's get back to the episode running.
The business marketing is not as easy as people make it seem just
like the financial back off. A lot of that stuff is just it's
just a lot but you learn, as you go.
Yeah. And with hiring your ma, I know
you said you lost your ma, are you looking to hire have you
been thinking of ways of making this more?
- so that you can kind of step away from the business and let
the business kind of run itself. Let that be a passive source of
income, which again, nothing's ever really past it.
That's one thing that I've been noticing as well.
The different conversations is that, yes, money might be coming
in, but you have to manage it. Anything that doesn't get
managed. You can't measure, you can't
determine. Is it growing?
You have to measure and you have to manage passive income period.
But is there an attempt that you're trying to make to keep to
make this business with the attempt is?
Is what I've learned is that people are like fickle they'll
start off and you're hired them everything and they're like this
is not my thing. So I've dealt with that.
So what I've learned is to kind of take a step back, reassessing
re-evaluate and see really where I'm trying to go and where I'm
trying to go is to have to be to manage the back office and not
necessarily be in the front office all the time.
So I'm I will be looking to hire like an end to be able to do the
things that I can do and then I could be in the back office.
And just manage it that way. Yeah, yeah.
That's a really good thought. Because if you can get someone
to do a certain amount of it, even if you offload, a portion
of it, certain amount of visits that are ongoing, you've got it
visits in between that you can then get in the back do that
work come out, do a patient, she's done two or three, you're
going to be making more money and you're not doing all the
work necessarily by yourself. Of course offsetting her salary.
But the more productive she is the more money.
She makes me make that an incentive.
If use you, if you hire someone. So, yeah.
That's really, really good. So for an inspired an aspiring
entrepreneur. That's like I really want to I
really want to get into this. What is something that you would
tell her that she needs to do to get started him or her, you need
to do this? If you want to get started with
a business idea, I think what I would, her would be just to
figure out what your goals are in life because I'm like, if
you're, if you get, anybody can say, anybody can take a course,
you can teach anybody anything right.
But like, they like the good old saying, said, Take, you can take
a horse to water but you can't make them drink it.
And that's what I've learned everybody.
You know, they'll get on social media.
Oh, this looks so cool. And I want to do this and I want
to do that. And then of course it but don't
execute but what I would tell people to do is like if you're
going to put your money out there, put your money where your
mouth is, if you're going to put your money out there and take a
course, then you need to at least execute because you can
never stay that you never accomplish anything without
trying after try. You know this is not a hard to
get into any vitamin there. You won't make.
You like a millionaire but you just have to know in your
surrounding area, what you can add on to that and build and
expand. So like for me in my area,
started with IV vitamin therapy and quickly realized that my are
they have fine lines and wrinkles if they like fillers
and xeomin and Botox and all that.
But then I asked the class and I added that to the business to
start scaling and then you know, to be able to get Revenue.
So you just have to know what is area 2.
Able to skip bill. Yeah, so that's kind of going
back to that market research and just kind of listening to what
the clients need when they come in, right?
And they'll start to tell you like, hey, do you do this?
And you're like, no, but I could write like so that again, is
something that, you know, as I've been building my Etsy
business, and we've been kind of creating content digital content
shirts, things like that. I've been pushing more towards.
Like, I need to ask people, what they need, what they want.
Like, what is it that you guys want?
What is it? That you need so that I can then
fill those gaps. Because if you again, get in
that mindset of, I'm here, as a gap to fill gaps to create
Solutions, then those Solutions can end up turning into
profitable side. Hustles businesses, business
ideas, and things that you can end up scaling, which is really,
really great. And so working in the ICU, doing
the part-time side, hustle business.
What would you, what would you be?
What would be one thing? You would tell your younger self
you go back and tell, you know, Melissa.
Hey, you're starting off your career.
This is something that you need to remember at the start of your
career and carry it throughout your the rest of your career.
Anything is possible. Anything, you put your mind to
as possible. Had I known in 2003 that there's
a possibility that I can leverage my nursing license to
open up my own business. I would have done it a long time
ago. I think you get errors,
especially younger, she get caught up, you get caught up
with the income and you don't realize that you need to
leverage the income in order to do bigger things.
Cuz I mean, I was young, I was 12 years old, I had just turned
21, I became a registered so I was just like I was all about
working in the ER, making some money and going on vacation.
That's what I really need. You see, it, took me 10 years to
get my bachelor's. The reason why I got my back
because I was getting passed up on opportunities in men because
of the fact that you have my bachelor's.
So that's really why I went back and then quickly realized that
when I was working as a, how supervisor in this in the
c-suite as you know, administrator that I'm like,
okay, this is not what I want. I want to open up my own
business. I wanted to still take care of
clients but actually make an impact.
Hmm. How did you change your mindset?
What's something that you did to kind of get yourself out of that
mindset of employee to now business owner?
Because that's sometimes really hard for people to make that
switch from like I'm working for the man to I am the man, how do
you make that? How did you make that switch and
your career? I think everybody's different.
My personal switch was when I realized that I was nothing but
a number in your there. But then when you're not there I
mean you can they'll forget about you in a second
personally. In 2018, I had lost my son and I
was same time so when he was sick in the hospital, it was
what are you coming back? Not that I'm doing.
Is he okay? It was like, Hey, we're short
and we need you to come back to work and you know, from then I
started thinking about it, I was just like, you know, I'm just
nothing. But if something were to happen
to me, I could have they would send my family, a fruit basket.
Then by the time, Basket was delivered.
My job would have been on the newspaper or online in to fill a
spot, right? So I think since then I was
thinking about a way to get away from the bedside or get away
from working for the man and solely.
And it's not even, there's nothing wrong with the working
in a hospital system of working for the man, right?
Just like now, I know that when I go to work, isn't it isn't, it
isn't an option because I know that, you know, if I didn't feel
like going to work, if I wanted to be a full-time entrepreneur,
I can just be like, okay, Well, here's my notice and I'm gone,
you know what I mean? I love what I do in the hospital
and that's why I'm there. But I realized during those
trials and tribulations with my family, I realized that I was
nothing but a number and that I needed to find a way to give
myself that option and opportunity to do something
bigger - I'm so sorry for your loss of your son.
That is being a mom like, that is the hardest thing I can ever
imagine going through period and your Y is bigger.
And that I think people need to take home right now is
Melissa's. Why for why she is an
entrepreneur, why she hustles like she does is your Y, is
huge, your Y. And again I talked about as well
as how my podcast is, what are your, what are you chasing
after? And you're chasing after and not
just the coin that's I mean, whatever.
You can always make more money and that's one thing we learned
is Nurses. You can go make money but the
freedom, the security that, you know, trusting in your Skills,
those things like that stuff. That's that's that's the real
meat and potatoes of life is being able to go.
I don't, you do this anymore, I'm not happy.
I get to go do something else. And that was what again, that I
talk about on my podcast, at my son was the thing for me to that
made me go, like, wait a minute, like I've been spending all this
time at this place, which is fine.
There's nothing wrong with that job, but you are right, you are
replaceable, and you are irreplaceable in your home.
Your people around. You that you love are
irreplaceable. So yeah, I think that's
incredibly emotional and thank you for sharing that with me
because again it is, it's the truth.
It's really what? We need to be chasing and I want
more nurses to have that same sense of like I go here because
I want to not because I have to and I think needs a y and that's
that's one thing to tell people. If you want to be an
entrepreneur, you have to have a.
Why can't just do it? Because it's a fad, it's cool.
You have to have a, why? Because, you know, It's not easy
when you have to do things on your own.
When you work in a hospital you can clock out right?
No call, no show you lose your job but here in as an
entrepreneur like you it's a struggle.
You have to force yourself every day to come in, whether you have
people on the books or you don't have anybody here, you still
have to struggle them and make things have been on your own.
There's nobody, that's gonna be like, well, you're supposed to
clock in at 7:00, a.m. where are you?
Nobody's gonna actually use your business.
If I don't show up today, I'm not gonna, I'm not For myself.
You know, I'm not not any but I'm not showing up for myself.
If I don't come in today. So I so you have to be able to
be. You have to be able to have a y,
and you also have to be structured enough to show up for
yourself. If you can't show up for anybody
else, you need to show up for yourself.
Yeah, yeah, that's incredible. Incredible.
I love that. And I think that's the take-home
message is showing up for yourself and have a really big
why? As to why you're doing it
because you won't keep Going and it's the same for working out
eating. Well, all the different things
motherhood parenting. These are all the same Concepts,
they're just, they're all the same theme, they're just that
same work of both are harmed. Both are hard, right?
So choose your hard. What's your hard going to be?
Yeah, working out, hospitals hard.
And whenever you whenever you have, you know, something tragic
happened there, like, when you coming back, that's hard, but I
thought the same thing as hard showing up for your Use your
heart and think that's what I hear you saying, which I love.
I love that. Give me a Shameless plug for
your business for people to find you on.
And if anybody wants to reach out, Say, Hey, I want to know
how you did it. I want to know how you became a
double board certified nurse practitioner.
I want to know how you started your business, give a Shameless
plug for you and your side and your side household.
Girl, we do have a Instagram page Missy the IQ which names
don't change sooner rather than later.
It was the MRP Wellness Consulting.
So, what I've decided to do is take all the knowledge that I
have in the business that I have start teaching other nurses, how
to find their wise, help them start their own Wellness Clinic
is coming soon, so you guys can follow me on Instagram.
And my page is at rejuvenate you Wellness click and that.
Gotcha. Perfect and guys, check her out.
Thanks for listening to the podcast.
As always enjoy the journey of your career and if you have any
questions, reach out to me, reach out to her and we'd love
to just feel them. And yeah, thanks for listening,
Emily. Okay, I love you mama and thanks
for letting me so that's a wrap. Be sure to subscribe to the show
so you don't miss an episode and leave me a review.
If you like the show, I would love to get 5 stars.
The doctors podcast is all in the world, wide web, YouTube
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, patreon, and Tick-Tock subscribe
to my newsletter for updates on new podcast episodes and other
information to help you on your own nursing Journey.
You can always message me at the doctor nurse podcast at
gmail.com with any career professions that you're
interested in hearing about and just a friendly.
Reminder, the information on this podcast is for educational
purposes only and the information should not be used
in substitute for Professional Care by a medical provider.
The information in this podcast does not represent medical or
professional advice or services. podcast at gmail.com with any
career professions that you're interested in hearing about and
just a friendly. Reminder, the information on
this podcast is for educational purposes only and the
information should not be used in substitute for Professional
Care by a medical provider. The information in this podcast
does not represent medical or professional advice or services.