From ER Nurse to PA & Mom of 5: The Belief-First Way I Keep Home Calm [Season 1, Episode 1]

Transcript

Grace: Hello.

Grace: Hi,

Grace: welcome to the Girls for Mom's Podcast.

Grace: Glad to have you here.

Grace: Your host, Grace Gerk, physician assistant and mom to five active boys, eight down to infant.

Grace: And just want to impart some tools for you all for wholehearted living.

Grace: So we are testing this to see if this is something that our friends and community like.

Grace: So just full disclosure, we are not professionals at this and we are just trying it out. We hope that you get something out of it and we want to start out

Grace: actually hearing grace's origin story how She came to her core beliefs and the conclusions she's made.

Grace: So we are going to just dive right in.

Grace: So do you want to talk about where you came from and kind of your background?

Grace: like Where are you from, Grace?

Grace: Yes, well, I'm a Texan, which I know Texas is like another country or something.

Grace: So I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, in a Christian home, grew up in a Presbyterian church and then did youth group at a non-denominational church in Dallas.

Grace: So that was very formative for me.

Grace: I also was classically educated from kindergarten through eighth grade at one of the first classical Christian schools in Texas, I believe.

Grace: And then found the news out eighth grade that I was going from this small Christian

Grace: kind of a fluent school to what I call hood, a public, large, um diverse school in Dallas. And so that was a real eye-opening experience for me.

Grace: I did cross country there, varsity all four years.

Grace: so I loved to run and really just devoted myself to academics and was able to, from that experience, go on to nursing school at the University of Arkansas.

Grace: I had my heart set on going to the University of Virginia, but it was like full ride or $50,000 a year.

Grace: You know, what am I going to choose? So I ended up getting to go to Arkansas, and I'm glad that I did.

Grace: i was a fellow there and was able to meet my husband there and some of my best friends.

Grace: So I'm glad that I

Grace: chose there even though virginia would have been a beautiful part of the country as well so i got my nursing degree at the university of arkansas

Grace: And then i loved Arkansas so much, I was like, you know what, I want to live here.

Grace: And so I stuck around after college, got my first job out in the ER.

Grace: I love the yeah ER.

Grace: I love the intensity of it.

Grace: I tried out the ICU.

Grace: You know, you do all the rotations when you're in nursing school, pediatric, OBGYN, OBGYN. the general floor, you know, mental health, site psychiatric wards, but i definitely fell in love with the yeah ER.

Grace: ICU has the intensity, but it's so calibrated and kind of like for the long haul, you know, where yeah ER, you're kind of stabilizing, saving people's lives, and then getting them up to the ICU so that they can, you know, continue to get better.

Grace: And so I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

Grace: And I continue to love to help with minor emergencies.

Grace: We've possibly stapled some kids' heads, you know, our own children.

Grace: um Super glue, you know, things that I know how to do that are easy easy to do, dermatology procedures. It's like, why not just do them in our home if, you know, a kid has a need and I know how to do it.

Grace: um

Grace: So, yep, I was an ER nurse for, guess, four years.

Grace: But during that time, I met my husband.

Grace: We got...

Grace: engaged and ended up moving to Dallas. At that point I realized I really wanted to do more with my knowledge and experience and so i was planning to go to medical school.

Grace: So I wanted to have the option to go to all the Texas schools, ideally UT Southwestern.

Grace: That's what I had known the best things about and I

Grace: lived in Dallas, so it was a good location. But then through, i guess you could say Providence, when I was studying, I think, for the MCAT one time at a coffee shop and had taken all the prereqs for med school, was getting ready to apply.

Grace: And these two girls who were PA students at UT Southwestern said, oh I overheard you talking about missions and medicine and these topics.

Grace: Like, have you ever thought about... um you know, going to PA school instead, you know, and they kind of were plugging it of like, it's a little bit less long and more flexibility and you can switch between specialties, you know, and you're still trained in the full medical model versus like nurse practitioner, which I kind of arrived to the conclusion. I personally didn't want to go to nurse practitioner school. i got burned out with the care plans and Just the nursing philosophy is quite a bit different than the medical philosophy.

Grace: And so I was excited to be in medical school and do all the just nuts and bolts of medicine, you know, just work.

Grace: the full cadaver lab and having all the same, you know, just being taught all about the body. um And so anyways, through a series of events, I ended up getting to know these two girls, shadowing them, applying to PA school, shadowing PAs all over Dallas in different fields from open heart surgery to cardiology to dermatology to pediatrics.

Grace: Through that experience, I realized, man, I think this is something that would be like a win-win, you know where I'm able to practice like a provider. I am a provider, but I also wouldn't be in school as long and would have more options when I graduated um versus and you know when you're a traditional doctor.

Grace: you know You spend so much time through residency that a lot of times it can be hard to start a family and that kind of thing.

Grace: So yeah, I ended up applying to PA school and was able to get in um to my dream school.

Grace: I got to go to UT Southwestern, which is one of the top schools in the country with their pass rates and the number of people they let in.

Grace: so I was really just excited and thrilled about that.

Grace: We bought a house near there.

Grace: would be easy commute. And let's see.

Grace: During. during

Grace: Did you ever take care of anyone as an ER nurse? I'm thinking specifically at a time in Dallas where there was a national kind scare and crisis.

Grace: Yeah, so when we had moved back to Dallas, since I was planning to go to medical school, I went ahead and worked as a nurse, kind of part-time, also getting ready to go to PA school.

Grace: And I ended up working at the hospital, Texas Health Dallas, where they had the first Ebola patient.

Grace: And so, yeah, I...

Grace: got exposed to Ebola.

Grace: Thankfully, I never, you know, got Ebola, but had to go through the kind of intensive process, you know, all of the donning and doffing. And every day we were getting new information from the CDC about the procedures and protocols changing.

Grace: had my own CDC doctor on speed dial that every day I had to call her and go to the hospital to, you know, share all my vital signs to make sure I didn't have COVID, not COVID.

Grace: That was a whole other thing, um to that I didn't have Ebola. And so

Grace: And that kind of opened my eyes during that time to just the brokenness in some ways of our medical system, you know, where here we were relying on the top, the zenith, if you will, of practice for the for the nation.

Grace: You know, I relied on the CDC website when I'm going to mission trips to Africa, which vaccines to get and what to do. And here, know,

Grace: every day they were basically changing the protocol based on our experience like oh we used to say two gloves but now that's not working out so well so maybe we'll say three gloves oh back to one glo one pair of glove tape them oh don't tape them and so we felt a little bit like guinea pigs i would say but i did feel protected during that time and had a supportive family and thankfully didn't have to go under like full isolation at the hospital um and um you know

Grace: learned a lot definitely. And then I think when I was then a PA later on during the COVID time, it kind of like, okay, I've already been through something like this.

Grace: And I didn't maybe have as much fear as as some other people had just because I had already been through exposure to an illness that was much more virulent and deadly than than COVID.

Grace: And so there was still, yeah, some sobriety of what we were facing.

Grace: But yeah, I was like, I don't know kind of like a preparation for that. Yeah, it was an intense time.

Grace: Great.

Grace: you talked about we lived close to the medical district in South Dallas. You became a PA.

Grace: Can you tell the story about

Grace: how you felt you had to choose between

Grace: pa and family when when our second son was on the way? Yeah, yeah, so I always knew I wanted to have a family.

Grace: You know, and I think the hard thing about when you pursue higher education is you feel like you're at this crossroads of like, do I have kids, do I not?

Grace: And you can't wait forever.

Grace: um You know, and then once you start having kids, um they're like, oh, now you're close to 35, now you need to stop, you know?

Grace: So it just feels like you're kind of trapped. So I did end up finding out slightly before I was going to graduate that I was having my our first child, my son, and was super excited about that.

Grace: But it was also a little nerve wracking because I thought, oh, I'll have him nine months right when school graduates.

Grace: But he ended up coming seven months before that. And so um it was a unique experience, you know, finishing up all these rigorous rotations, psyche, are infectious disease, dermatology, ENT.

Grace: family medicine at a Native American clinic, and doing all of that while having a newborn. And i couldn't have done it without family support.

Grace: My mother-in-law and mother were taking care of him when I was at on my rotations.

Grace: They'd bring him up to the hospital so I can nurse at lunchtime.

Grace: And so they really supported me making it through that time.

Grace: And then once I graduated from school, I wasn't quite ready to so jump into a job just because I'd been

Grace: with a newborn in school. And so I took some time off.

Grace: And then when I finally was applying for jobs, I was running into this roadblock.

Grace: Every job for a PA is full time.

Grace: This feels like as limiting as, um you know, becoming a physician.

Grace: Like I was really looking for something part time because I was a mom with a child at that point. And so I ended up volunteering at like a free clinic as a PA and then ended up moving into like a paid role at this free clinic.

Grace: And so it was great experience.

Grace: But, you know, it's a free clinic.

Grace: It's not the pay. You know, it's not like what it would be if you're working for like a bigger institution.

Grace: And so i ended up applying and getting my dream job doing pediatric ears, nose and throat at the big children's hospital. in um dallas and really enjoyed that time like all the jobs though i had to work full-time which is just how it is and so i was able to push through now being pregnant with my second child but it was really hard for me and i just kind of knew i couldn't keep that up and so when i was on maternity leave with my second son i was planning to quit i had my resignation letter and was able

Grace: um just through favor to come back two days a week and really grew a lot.

Grace: I ended up working for four and a half years at that job and, you know, moved into a role of taking call at, um,

Grace: the Plano Hospital, so being on call for a full weekend for all the ENT consults from the ER r to the ICU to the floor, um you know managing all of our recovering patients in the hospital, and being the resource person for you know the ENT doctors when they have a peritonsillar abscess.

Grace: I would be the one who would go in and drain it. and um You know, if someone's having some sort of airway breathing issue in the ICU or in the NICU, you know, we we were the people that would go in and scope the the kids and find out what was going on.

Grace: um So gained a lot of experience, but as we had our then third child and then fourth child after my fourth son,

Grace: I ended up again resigning, this time for good, just because it was just a big juggling um game.

Grace: And we had decided to do like a hybrid classical school for our older two sons. And so that's a big commitment, too, if you're doing homeschool of any sort. And so, um yeah, I've stepped back from like official medicine and I'm still practicing medicine in the sense with my home, with my kids.

Grace: um

Grace: Yeah, i kept keeping up all my board certifications, which is like 100 continuing at hours every two years.

Grace: And then just growing, I feel like a lot, I would say more in like functional medicine and alternative care and kind of that bridge between.

Grace: um allopathic medicine and more like homeopathic or alternative medicine and how they're really both are essential you know for acute crises you need western medicine you need the er's and things like that but then when people are having chronic issues if you just pop more pills or you know do more surgeries it won't necessarily fix what's going on and needing to get to those kind of root cause issues yeah

Grace: So why are you deciding to create skills for moms?

Grace: Yeah, so I think it came honestly through some

Grace: dreams I had at night and inspiration for my husband.

Grace: It's just been, I would say, percolating inside me for probably about five years now.

Grace: So I've been writing down ideas of things that I want to share with other moms.

Grace: And you know certain things are just, especially when you're in the medical field, you start to realize a lot of complaints that people come in for, like say ear infection type complaints or a cold, you know an upper respiratory infection.

Grace: it's like things a lot of times you can so at least start treatment at home.

Grace: Maybe you still do need a doctor eventually.

Grace: And there's re there's times to go to the doctor right away.

Grace: So I don't want to negate if you have that intuition to go to the doctor, um, to go right away, but to realize, man, there's a lot of things we can do at home that are so simple.

Grace: For example, nasal saline, um, with congestion that can make a huge difference, you know, and,

Grace: If a mom is empowered with some of those tools, simple things you could do for your kids that make a big difference, like, why don't we talk more about that, you know, and put some of these things out there and really supporting moms throughout um the journey in womanhood, you know, from

Grace: When we become women, when we start our periods, childbirth and then on into perimenopause, menopause, because that's a big spectrum of different hormonal changes and things that really impact our daily life that are different than for men.

Grace: you know And so I think as women, we need resources of like, how do we take care of ourselves while we're taking care

Grace: of our family. And, you know, we're all busy.

Grace: Like I resource, you know, people that know more a lot more about law than me for things like that.

Grace: You know, I could do research, but that's not my specialty, you know.

Grace: And so it's really nice where a couple of our kids have some breathing issues like I had when I was a kid of mouth breathing.

Grace: i don't know if anyone can relate to having a kid who their mouth's open, their tongue's down.

Grace: And how do we help fix some of this stuff? But a lot of it, it's, you know, I ended up having jaw surgery when I was

Grace: 18, that's part of my story. And so we've done some pretty radically different things with our young kids to help them with nasal breathing and learning how to keep their tongue in the right spot and increasing jaw strength that we probably wouldn't have pursued if I hadn't had that as part of my story that I needed jaw surgery at 18.

Grace: So, you know, we're trying to carve, I guess, in some ways, a different path than I needed to have.

Grace: And through that, I hope it can help other people as well.

Grace: So I think this is a great place to wrap up for today. Talking about why you're doing this, kind of a little bit about your origin stories and some big key events.

Grace: So next part B, I think next episode, I'd like to dive in deeper into how you persevered, specifically proving your belief

Grace: how you were kind of tested And then how you, some of the plans we you have to bring your ideas to life.

Grace: And then part C I think would be interesting to dive into is your visionary, visionary long-term vision for the kind of community you'd like to see.

Grace: Maybe your hopes and dreams for the health industry. And then just the future that you're trying to create.

Grace: want to rehash that?

Grace: So we might edit my part out, but do you want to say about perseverance and future vision?

Grace: Sure.

Grace: Yeah. So for the next episode, I'd love to share more about kind of my story with perseverance and some of the challenges i faced in my life and how those have shaped me.

Grace: And I feel like give me credibility to speak to other moms and women, people in general who are struggling. and need some tools to live more wholeheartedly.

Grace: And then I also want to dive more into like the vision of where we're going.

Grace: This is not a podcast giving medical advice.

Grace: You know, that's the big disclaimer of, you know, I will share ideas and tips and tricks, but ultimately, you know, you need to talk to your health care provider and decide what's best for you and your family.

Grace: um you know every situation is so unique and individual and so it's really important to establish care with someone locally who you trust and have those real face-to-face relationships not just rely on like podcasts and instagram reels and things like that to get your knowledge we'll dive more into that in the future of just the importance of the written word and um getting away off the screens as you can even though they're great tools but like moving it into um

Grace: you know, those real life conversations and the words. So thank you for your time today.

Grace: We'll see you next time. I hope you have some tools for wholehearted living.

Grace: Hope you found these tools for wholehearted living useful. Do you want to say something?

Grace: Sure, yeah. I hope you found this part of my story helpful to share a little bit more what i come where I've come from and that these tools for wholehearted living would help you.

Grace: And cut.