Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr. David Hilden , primary care physician and acute care hospitalist at Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis, where we cover the latest in health healthcare and what matters to you. And now here's our host, Dr. David Hilden .

Speaker 2: 0:18

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Healthy Matters podcast, where we dive into the world of healthcare with the experts who live it every day . I'm Dr. David Hilden , and today on episode 10 we'll have a look at the fast-paced front lines of one of the most intense and high stakes environments in medicine, the emergency department. And we're gonna do this through the lens of one of the most beloved, trusted, and just plain awesome healthcare professionals we have and that in our nurses. So our guest today is Kara Fui . She is a critical care nurse. And let's just say she's seen it all from traumas and medical emergency to the completely unexpected in both the ICUs and what we're gonna talk about today, the emergency department. So she's here to share her experiences, insights, and what it takes to thrive in this challenging role. Kara , thank you for being here.

Speaker 3: 1:04

Thank you so much for the invitation.

Speaker 2: 1:06

It's great to have you on the show. I always love to talk to nurses because frankly, you're the heart and soul of medicine. And so start us off, if you could describe just one of your emergency department shifts, in a few words, what would they be?

Speaker 3: 1:20

Well , um, I think the first thing that came to my mind was that friends episode where Ross is moving the couch down the stairs, screaming, pivot, pivot, <laugh> . And

Speaker 2: 1:31

That as they're moving the couch,

Speaker 3: 1:32

As they're moving the couch, that's kind of what we do in more of a human capacity. We're always pivoting, looking for what needs to be done first and down. Also, crazy train also is constantly replaying in my head because we're always kind of off the rails with whatever's coming through the door. We have to be ready for,

Speaker 2: 1:54

It's gotta be one of the most intense jobs where you don't know what the next hour of your life is gonna be. A lot of us have jobs , uh, e even me when I'm practicing in clinic, at least I know, okay, I've got a patient at this time and this time and I roughly know what they're coming in for. You probably don't know what's walking through the door or maybe not walking through the door.

Speaker 3: 2:12

Right. We can go from no one in triage to 40 in triage, waiting to be seen and stabilization cases through the rigs rolling in nonstop. And it can really put pressure on all of the staff because we have to band together and work as a team always and have each other's backs.

Speaker 2: 2:34

When you went to nursing school, is this what you knew you wanted to do or what drew you to this?

Speaker 3: 2:38

I've always been kind of drawn to Hennepin. Um, originally my family had some concerns about me working downtown Minneapolis. In what do you mean?

Speaker 2: 2:47

It's a garden spot of the

Speaker 3: 2:48

Country. The glorious Hennepin County Medical Center. They're on the news a lot. I've always been drawn here. So I finally came down here with LifeSource,

Speaker 2: 2:58

The Oregon Procurement Organization.

Speaker 3: 3:00

Yeah, correct. I was working with them and I was spent a lot of times in the surgical intensive care unit evaluating patients and spent so much time down here and I found myself lost in the emergency department, wandering through it and went, oh, this isn't so bad. Saw they had some openings, was feeling a little tired in my intensive care career. So I applied and fortunately got hired and I really haven't looked back. This has been my jam.

Speaker 2: 3:27

Anything surprise you about it? I mean, because , 'cause people who haven't been in emergency department, except as maybe a patient when you're wield in on a gurney or you're scared and sick and you , but those of us who work there, I've been practicing medicine 25 years and I'm a little bit intimidated by it. The the environment is high energy most of the time.

Speaker 3: 3:46

The most surprising thing to me has been my coworkers stories and how they've gotten to the place where they're at in their life. A lot of them have had some really significant major life events that have been traumatic for them. And I think that makes them more relatable to our patients, myself included. When we look at each other, we just see, you're my nurse, you're my doctor, you're my respiratory therapist, whatever. But a lot of these people have been through some major traumas that they've overcome and now are using all that life experience to better other people's lives. And the other thing that always surprises me is even our nursing assistants, they're like advanced practice nursing assistants. They have got military training, they have got multiple bachelor's degrees. Many of 'em are trying to get into medical school or PA school or their nurses in training. Really, really high level at all levels of care there. I

Speaker 2: 4:46

Haven't thought of that so much. Um, when you think of an emer , when people think of an emergency department , you , you don't think as much, I don't think about the experiences of the people that are caring for you and how that might make them better. Yeah . To care for whatever is bothering you that moment, whether it be just a , a little pinky finger you broke, or whether you were in a bad car accident or something. I really like that, that your personal lives can, can make you a better nurse, a better caregiver, a better doctor in the hospital. Is it possible to say what a typical day looks like?

Speaker 3: 5:17

Um, it's never typical. It always is changing. Some days it seems like we're heavy on maybe chemical dependency or mental health things. And then the next day it's traumas, car accidents , um, you know, some of that can be predicted by the weather. Outside in Minnesota, we have the beauty of four glorious seasons and a lot of outdoorsy people. So we, we do see a fair amount of exposure to the elements. Traumatic injuries just from either carelessness or chemical dependencies. Just a lot of variety can happen in one little tiny setting.

Speaker 2: 5:59

Yeah, that's, that's incredible. So Kara , since you are also a critical care nurse in ICUs Yes. At this hospital and others, you see what happens to patients who are critically ill. I'd like you to talk us through one type of critical illness that being trauma. If you could talk us through what happens when you're in that emergency room and the ambulance shows up what you call the rig. I love that, that people in e emergency medicine call 'em the rigs. So when the rig pulls up with a patient on a gurney with some trauma, let's say it's a bad car accident or something, what happens? What processes get put in place in those first few minutes?

Speaker 3: 6:36

Well, the staff all does a lot of training on trauma care and how to look at that patient. And we start the second, we get what we call a zip it , we'll get a little brief from our EMS dispatch , um, on who it is that's coming in, what kind of scenario we're looking at. Very brief , um, maybe the age, and this is

Speaker 2: 6:58

Before they arrive .

Speaker 3: 6:59

This is before they even come in the door and we know that they're gonna go to the stabilization room where the most critical people go to. And that's the place that I gravitate to just because of my critical care background. It makes the most amount of sense to me. So once those patients roll through the door, we do a kind of across the room evaluation. Is there anything that we need to reprioritize? Are they breathing, are they awake, are they bleeding? And the rig rolls in the EMS , they are EMS are amazing. They have patients so kind of buttoned up for us to really succeed in the stay room . They usually have IVs that , um, they usually have fluids going and they have a great history for us. So they will tell us what the scene looked like. They'll tell us any extra factors that were involved, you know , people, weather conditions , um, who was on scene, what was done before they even arrived to us. We get 'em on the cart and we do head to toe. Head to toe is always what we're doing. Getting 'em on the monitor. The nurses especially are more involved on the medication side. We get IV access first and foremost. We get 'em on monitors, constant communication in that area. We have such a great team of medical physicians, the residents, ultrasound people. We have pharmacy usually with us. We always love to have pharmacy there, especially with pediatrics because of the weight-based dosing of medications. But the whole team knows their role and are heavily involved in that. And we're always triaging, does this patient need to go back to the beginning? You know, are they still breathing? Is their hearts still beating? Is the bleeding under controlled? The big things

Speaker 2: 8:49

I've been there , uh, many times and, and listeners, I have nothing to do with any of this. I treat diabetes. I don't, this isn't anything I have anything to do. So I'm just in awe of the stab room process. Stable , short for stabilization. In some ways it's a teeny bit like the TV shows what you see, but in most ways it's not. Because when you go in there, there are, there's 3, 4, 5, 10, 12 professional caregivers all with their various jobs. And they're not yelling and screaming at each other. There's not blood flying across the room for the most part. I mean, sometimes <laugh> , but, but it's a , it feels calmer than you might expect, but yet a high intensity energy, I dunno if I , if that sounds right, it's like a calm energy when you're in there. There aren't people yelling and screaming and it's not chaos like on the TV shows, but people are just as sick as they are on those TV shows. How do you maintain that sense of calm professionalism when someone might be bleeding or, or frankly their belly might be hanging open or they're unconscious and you've got seconds to act. How do you keep that calm?

Speaker 3: 9:53

I think there's a lot of confidence in our teamwork. We do go through a lot of training, a lot of certifications. I have the benefit of my life experience in the emergency department and critical care that helps me kind of run the algorithms. I know what's going to come next. And then really having that strong team atmosphere. Always consistent layout. We know where our equipment is. We all are trained on how to use it. And I think that's where the comfort level comes. And really being focused on, we're gonna bring our A game to this person. They are our main focus right now. They're the sickest in the department. They deserve our 100% attention and we have all these brains, eyes and ears on them to get them to the best place that we can.

Speaker 2: 10:45

Yeah, I like that about the teamwork that you said and everybody knows their job. And you briefly commented about the paramedics. I do want to give a shout out to first responders, the paramedic community at Hennepin Healthcare. Hennepin EMS is the best in the business. When you see a Hennepin ambulance show up, you're in good hands, everybody. Absolutely. And I would say that it's also true for other EMS services in town. Paramedics in general are awesome. But just a , a shout out to our Hennepin EMS colleagues. They're fantastic. And if you want a little bit more about EMS, I'm reminded of the last episode, the bonus episode of season one, where I did a ride along with our EMS and we recorded some of what they do. So could you, without obviously violating patient confidentiality, are there any cases that stand out to you from the stay room ? And I know that the vast majority of patients who come through the emergency department leave better than they came in the vast majority. You save people's, literally you save their lives. Not all, not all. Um, are any cases doing any stand out to you that were sort of career defining for you? Or at least ones that stick with you?

Speaker 3: 11:50

There's many that stick with me. Um, a lot of the peds cases are really tough no matter what the outcome is. Children,

Speaker 2: 11:58

Children, children.

Speaker 3: 11:58

Yeah. Um , they're always tough. But on a different note, we had two different cases one summer where both of these people were flown in from a different state. The same state. Both of them were farmers. Both of them had been working on their tractors. One of them, his tractor started on fire and drove over him. He was flown to us for burn . He also had trauma, but burn was his top priority. The other was also a farmer working on his tractor. That tractor drove over him and he was more trauma traumatically injured than burn , but was also here with burns. And it was the same summer, same state out of state . I'm

Speaker 2: 12:43

Surprised that farmers came in. There's an old joke that the farmer like could have their arm half hanging off of them because of some injury, but they finished milking the cows before they come .

Speaker 3: 12:52

A hundred percent true. Both of these guys . But these guys got rough over . Yeah. Both of these guys were like, please don't give me narcotics. Can I have some Tylenol? Actually, no. They asked for aspirin and we're like , uh, no, with the aspirin and the bleeding

Speaker 2: 13:05

Aspirin's gonna make you bleed worse . Yeah . That would be so good . There is no tougher individual than I've ever met than a farmer.

Speaker 3: 13:12

Agreed. Except for maybe the farmer's wife. Just

Speaker 2: 13:14

For maybe. Exactly. So both these guys got run over by their tractor.

Speaker 3: 13:19

Yep . And both had burns and both had traumatic injuries one . Oh , they do. They both did great. I think they were both discharged within a , probably a ridiculously short amount of time for their injuries. So

Speaker 2: 13:30

Did they get flown in? Did they get driven in on by the ambulance or how did

Speaker 3: 13:34

They get here? I think both of them were flown 'cause they were from a different state. So

Speaker 2: 13:37

We do have , uh, two helipads here at Hennepin Healthcare. Mm-hmm . One's right on the roof, right above you guys. I love that that thing is right on top of you. And so they can go from the helipad to the emergency department, do not pass go do not stop at any floor. It's just the elevator goes directly.

Speaker 3: 13:51

Right. Yes. Whoever got funding for that genius.

Speaker 2: 13:54

So I'd like to pivot a little bit, as long as we're talking about the word pivot, about how the nursing staff specifically manages that stressors in their own life. When a lot of people go home from their jobs, they didn't see people having all these problems. They didn't see people not always surviving. They didn't see children getting hurt. They didn't see people with, with the severity of what life throws at them. As you do. So specifically for nurses, because I'll also say that doctors tend to come and go, you know, we're in there with you for five minutes and then we go to the next patient . The nurses are with you all your stay the whole time you're there. How do you cope with those stressors either during the day or when you go home?

Speaker 3: 14:36

Um, during the day, I am able to pretty well redirect because I always have another person that needs me. There's always a need that needs to be addressed. And I can stuff my own thing .

Speaker 2: 14:47

You mean the other rooms aren't just vacant?

Speaker 3: 14:49

<laugh>? Boy, that would be nice. That'd be amazing. But I think I'd be out of a job. <laugh>

Speaker 2: 14:55

<laugh> . That never happens, folks. Emergency room's , the busiest place in the hospital.

Speaker 3: 15:01

I think that some of us cope with things very well and some of us cope with them very terribly. And there's a whole spectrum. Some days I'm the one that's coping poorly. I have had a therapist on and off. I have ran too many miles. I have gone home and just been silent in the corner. Um, I'm not a huge crier, so when I do cry, my family doesn't know what to do with me.

Speaker 2: 15:29

Yeah, that's a , that's not the norm.

Speaker 3: 15:31

No, no. Um, and I think that no one understands outside of the people that actually work in that situation day to day . So we really kind of lean on each other. We try to keep our eyes open to each other's struggle. Our chaplaincy group here, amazing. They will seek you out if they know you have been in a difficult case and just offer their support. Just a really amazing group of people to work with. And we also do a fair amount of debriefing on difficult cases. Some of the more challenging cases, they will do a STA conference with where the attendings will attend. Um, the residents that were involved will present a lot of times the , um, ancillary staff and the nurses will be there as well. Just to review what happened and how it went. Right, how it went wrong.

Speaker 2: 16:23

I'll bet there's a ton of peer support in mental health resources, but maybe not adequate to the job. I don't know. Um, if, and I'm talking not specifically about my hospital, but in general, I wonder if our healthcare systems and our society recognizes the toll that healthcarers and in , in this case, emergency nurses are doing.

Speaker 3: 16:44

I think that in years past, it has really been a neglected area. And I think that Hennepin especially has stepped up to the plate for this. We've had more than I care to talk about staff that have suicided. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Um, most recently, Carl, Chelsea, Ryan. These are people I worked side by side with. These are people that were at the top of their game. Really great humans. And I never wanna their names , um, because they were my coworkers , they were my friends. Um, we loved them . And I, I don't know that if the support was there, if they would've taken it. And I think that's a big piece of being, having some self-awareness, knowing that you need to reach out and ask for help because sometimes the support can be there and you are, you know, I'm, I'm the tough ER nurse or the tough EMS medic. I, I can do this day in and day out. But we've started talking more about the secondary trauma that the staff feels. They um, just from witnessing it, you know, the secondary and tertiary trauma. So I really believe that Hennepin Health is trying to get us the support that we need in the ed. Especially I've noticed our leadership, they reach out also now on difficult cases and they circle back with us and just really try and get us what we need to bring us back to a fully functioning and feeling good about what we do at the end of the day.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Yeah, those are great comments. I agree. It's been neglected over years and I'm glad to hear at least some progress is being made to support the team down in the emergency department. So we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, Kara is gonna share some of the biggest challenges emergency nurses are currently facing some advice for aspiring nurses. And we'll also see if we can throw a few more fun questions their way as well. So stay with us. We'll be right back

Speaker 4: 18:52

When Hennepin Healthcare says we are here for life. They mean here for you, your life and all that it brings. He up and healthcare has a hospital HCMC and a network of clinics both downtown and across the west metro. They provide all the primary care and specialty care you would expect to find. But did you know they also have services like acupuncture and chiropractic care available at many of their primary care clinics and at their integrative health clinic in downtown Minneapolis. Learn more@hennepinhealthcare.org. Hennepin Healthcare is here for you and here for life.

Speaker 2: 19:30

And we're back talking with fui . She is a critical care and emergency medicine nurse at Hennepin Healthcare here in downtown Minneapolis. And we're talking about life in the emergency department. So now I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the challenges of the intensity of the work in the emergency department. A lot of my patients are worried about the wait times. Those are real. A lot of us in hospital administration in emergency medicine know that there's no place to put patients, so therefore they board or they stay in the emergency room for a long period of time. Could you talk to us about that reality and what that feels like to you?

Speaker 3: 20:05

Yes. Um, I think pre pandemic, we still had some generous wait times , um, depending upon what was going on in the department because we are that safety net level one trauma facility where we take everyone and we don't really close our doors ever, but during the pandemic we had, you know, this unnerving lull while people were kind of sitting at home sick and then , um, would come in really sick or with really critical emergencies, which was an interesting turn of events. And then , um, once the pandemic really started cooking, we saw all these, you know, really sick people with respiratory illness after pandemic. We are still seeing a lot of people very ill. They have many, many medical problems in general that can kind of complicate their whole stay. So they come in very complex but have one emergency that we need to address while you can't ever just address that one piece because all those other factors play into it and really kinda guide their course and whether or not they needed to be admitted. We have been seeing people staying in the emergency department for a couple of days, which is never ideal. We always hate that 'cause we feel like we're not doing them justice because we are emergency based and we wanna put a bandaid on it and get 'em going. So we really try as hard as we can to either room them within the facility, find them another facility that they can transfer to if it's not appropriate for them to stay. And the wait times really wildly vary. Always know that we never want you to wait, we don't want you to wait for a hangnail, but much less a emergency. But we're always gonna take those true emergencies first.

Speaker 2: 21:57

You triage everybody.

Speaker 3: 21:58

Yes. Everybody gets triaged and they get re triaged and we're always looking to take the top priority first.

Speaker 2: 22:06

If you're having a heart attack, you're not sitting in the waiting room.

Speaker 3: 22:08

Right. And we don't want you to sit in the waiting room, like I said, no matter what your concern is, we don't want you sitting in the waiting room being uncomfortable and ill and unhappy with your care because you're waiting. Our staffing always in the emergency department is kind of at a par level. Sometimes they'll have more for events that are happening in town where we think there might be an influx of

Speaker 2: 22:32

Patients zombie pub crawl.

Speaker 3: 22:33

Oh my gosh. Do

Speaker 2: 22:34

You know about zombie pub call ? I

Speaker 3: 22:35

Do. I actually have that on my notes . You do. As one of my most traumatic events, we had a zombie pub crawl pre pandemic where we had an influx of people who were very intoxicated

Speaker 2: 22:49

And they're dressed like zombies and

Speaker 3: 22:50

They have this really elaborate makeup we had to scrape off because we weren't actually sure if they were injured with a trauma or if they were just drunk or chemically impaired in some way. And it was really challenging because some of these people had such amazing costume makeup on that we really had a hard time differentiating between a true injury and

Speaker 2: 23:18

Makeup . It is a little bit funny, it's urban legend. I don't know if it is in other cities, but in the Twin cities in towns to Minneapolis, they used to have the zombie pub pub crawl where you'd go from pub to pub and drink too much and dress like a zombie. Yeah. So that really cracks me up that you still remember the zombie pub pub crawl situation. Yes.

Speaker 3: 23:36

Yes. I think it's coming back. Oh , good

Speaker 2: 23:38

Grief. I'm you think it would be the rock concert at the stadium or the Vikings game or, or something else? No, it's zombie pub crawl . Yes . That sticks in your mind.

Speaker 3: 23:47

Yes. Yep . I also had a traumatic St Patrick's Day too, where there were must have been a large delivery of designer drugs into the Twin Cities metro area. And there were a lot of intoxicated leprechauns in the Oh gosh . In the department. Oh no . And we had beds in the hallway and there were people having myocardial infarctions and you know, there was so many really, really critically ill patients and a lot of it was from chemicals that they had ingested on the St . Patrick's.

Speaker 2: 24:22

You do indeed. See it all. There you go . Um, let me, let me pivot again to your safety and the safety of all the staff in the emergency department. It might not be well known to people that being in healthcare has evolved over the last decade or so into a place where workplace violence is not uncommon. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Nurses, paramedics, security people, physicians maybe to a little lesser degree are subject to violence. Yeah . Could you talk about that, what that feels like?

Speaker 3: 24:51

You know, early in my critical care career, I was assaulted by someone who was under the influence. Um, they didn't have any idea what they were doing, but they really injured both myself and my coworker . And I, I'm sorry. I almost thought that was gonna be the end of my career. And I was a little bit reluctant to take care of patients who had a violent history after that. Um, it was a little bit triggering, if I'm honest. When I came down to Hennepin, I was a little bit concerned that those feelings would come back. But Hennepin's security has only been improved upon. The security guards are at our back nonstop. They are always present. Um, we usually have a fair amount of sheriff presence in the area for whatever reason. So we really get a lot of support by the community and our in-house security. We love that we're downtown Minneapolis. We love our clientele, but we also wanna make sure that the staff is safe to take care of them. We also wanna make sure that the people that come in are safe. And we know that in this era some people don't have good intentions and mm-hmm <affirmative> . We just wanna make sure that everybody's well taken care of.

Speaker 2: 26:09

Yeah. And and the the , you can't take care of others if you're not physically and psychologically safe. Correct. So , um, thank you for commenting on that. Could you give some advice to people who want to go into nursing and particularly or any career in the emergency department? What does it take to thrive down there? A

Speaker 3: 26:27

Huge amount of empathy and understanding of , um, what these people are coming from and some of the challenges they face in their own life, whether it's poverty or health crises, their own personal history. Um, there's so many different variables that each person really has to live through and overcome to get to where they're at. Even if they look like they have it all together, they have a history, usually a backpack full that we need to sometimes go through and talk with about. I think that you have to have a good understanding of yourself. I really hate it when people say you must see a lot down there. Well, I'm not actually standing around spectating, <laugh> , it's bring my a game every shift that I'm there or someone's going to not do well because of it. It's a team effort and we really need to band together and collaborate. So knowing yourself and using your tools to help people is really what you need to do. Check the pride at the door. 'cause you're gonna learn something and usually an unexpected ways . It might be from a new grad, it might be from your patient. When you feel like you're the clinical expert, someone will prove you wrong.

Speaker 2: 27:44

<laugh> , I bet you're great at what you do, you know, <laugh> , um,

Speaker 3: 27:47

Some days ,

Speaker 2: 27:48

Some days. Uh , yeah. You know. Wow. Um, what, what great advice. Um, I think that's just incredibly good advice. You know , Kara , before I let you go , uh, I have a few questions I'm sure listeners might like to hear a little bit about. Um, so what's the most unexpected or unusual thing that has happened on one of your shifts?

Speaker 3: 28:05

I think it's the zombie pub crawl. I think that was so unusual for all these fake injuries to come in. And I truly believe that we, I don't remember having an actual trauma from there, but many were considered like kind of worked up as a trauma.

Speaker 2: 28:25

I wish there were video of that. No, but we can't because you know, like there's like patient privacy. We never, ever, ever will divulge your personal information on this show or anywhere. Right. It strikes me as like that's a TV show waiting to happen.

Speaker 3: 28:38

Yes. And it speaks to our theater community here and <laugh> amazing Tail

Speaker 2: 28:43

Wind , <laugh> . It was realistic. One <laugh> . That's so real. Those are people living their best life right there. So speaking of TV shows , um, ER was Big then came Grey's Anatomy and Life in the ER and all the other shows, Boston Medical or whatever that, so do they get things right? Do you watch these shows and go, oh, come on. Or do they get it right?

Speaker 3: 29:03

I used to watch them more. Um, my family doesn't like the commentary that I provide for that . Oh

Speaker 2: 29:09

Yeah. I bet you're real fun to watch a emergency medicine show on.

Speaker 3: 29:13

Um, I think they always get the resuscitation piece wrong. They always show it and nothing against my physicians 'cause I love them and I think they're amazing, but they always show the physicians doing everything while the nurses are just standing there watching

Speaker 2: 29:30

'em . Yeah. That isn't how it goes is <laugh>.

Speaker 3: 29:33

Um, they never have the breathing tubes, the intubation. Correct. They're either just a piece of hose sticking outta their mouth or you know, attached to nothing.

Speaker 2: 29:45

I love that comment. They always have the physicians doing everything. Yeah . And the nurses standing around. I am here to tell you it's the <laugh> , it's the reverse. Usually the doctor standing there, probably the one sort of standing off to the side, you know , maybe they're thinking a lot, but it is the nurses who are doing all that.

Speaker 3: 30:01

Yeah. Yeah. We do a lot. Um, but our residents are also very hands on .

Speaker 2: 30:06

Yeah . Residents, physicians in training. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 30:07

Yeah. They're amazing.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Alright . Lastly, what's the most rewarding part of your job that people might not expect? That

Speaker 3: 30:15

People trust me with their life. They let me in and I once told somebody that I feel like I am heavy because of the weight of the secrets people tell me. Mm-hmm . I have so, so much that I take in that people just divulge I'm a stranger and they are trusting me with this information. They're trusting me to provide the best care, bring my a game to get them to the healthiest that they can be in that situation. And a lot of times I'm seeing them maybe at the worst point in their entire life or their family's worst point in their entire life, which is an extremely stressful position for anybody to be in and then see strangers and allow them into that scenario with 'em .

Speaker 2: 31:05

That's powerful. And what meaningful work It is. Meaningful work. Thank you. Thank

Speaker 3: 31:09

You for having me. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 31:10

It's been great having you on the show. We've been talking with Kara Fusi , she's an emergency medicine nurse at one of the nation's premier level one trauma centers here at Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis. And listeners, if you happen to need to go to the emergency room, I hope you get Kara , uh, you would be very fortunate if she were to be your nurse. Thank you. So I don't think we can give a nurses enough credit. I started the show and I'm gonna end it. They are the heart and the soul of our medical system listeners, I hope you've enjoyed the show and I hope you'll join us for the next episode, which will drop in two weeks time. And in the meantime, be healthy and be welcome .

Speaker 1: 31:46

Thanks for listening to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr. David Hilden . To find out more about the Healthy Matters podcast or browse the archive, visit healthy matters.org. Got a question or a comment for the show, email us at Healthy matters@hcme.org or call 6 1 2 8 7 3 talk. There's also a link in the show notes. The Healthy Matters Podcast is made possible by Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engineered and produced by John Lucas At Highball Executive producers are Jonathan, CTO and Christine Hill . Please remember, we can only give general medical advice during this program, and every case is unique. We urge you to consult with your physician if you have a more serious or pressing health concern. Until next time, be healthy and be well .