Épisodes

  • Trailer
    May 9 2023
    Nashia Williams and Kate O’Connell have been ER nurses (and best friends!) in New York City for over a decade — and since every nursing year in the trenches equals 10 regular years, they’ve got a lot of battle stories to tell. They’ve learned that the ER is often the last stop for those who've been failed by America’s systems. In fact, if the United States itself walked into Kate and Nashia’s ER, they’d rush the country straight into Trauma 1. Racism. Violence. Poverty. Poor sex education. The mental health crisis. What happens when these issues walk in through the ER doors? And what could have been done to prevent it? Nashia and Kate investigate. They speak candidly with a different guest — patients, medical professionals and experts alike — each episode. They talk with people who understand these issues first-hand, and learn how we can each do our part to prevent these systemic problems from claiming more lives. Through it all — their uniquely dark nurses-station humor keeps us all from crying at the dire state of our country’s health. Join us, as our fed-up and faithful nurses do a head to toe examination of the United States. Many of these episodes contain mature content, and listener discretion is advised. This project is presented solely for entertainment purposes, and it not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional. All the views expressed are either ours or our guests’, and don’t necessarily reflect the views of Audible and its affiliates.
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    2 min
  • Episode 1: The American Violence Emergency
    May 11 2023
    School nurse Robin Cogan’s father lost his entire family to a shooting in 1949 in Camden, NJ. Decades later, her niece Carly survived the Parkland, Florida school shooting. Kate and Nashia describe the terrible feeling of the red phone going off in the ER — and knowing it may mean that victims of a “mass casualty incident” are approaching their doors. They talk with Robin about the root causes of mass violence in America, and Kate is surprised by Robin’s framework.
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    32 min
  • Episode 2: When the Storm Hits: "Bubblegum, Prayer, and Band-Aids"
    May 11 2023
    We are living in an age of increasingly frequent storms, floods, and fires, but our country treats each one almost like it’s a surprise — cobbling together a response without a robust national infrastructure in place. Kate and Nashia discuss their experiences with disaster relief and storms in the ER — on the homefront and abroad. They chat with Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, former president of the New York Nurses Association, about how she makes health care accessible in the aftermath of a disaster. By the end of the episode, Kate and Nashia sign up to save the world.
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    26 min
  • Episode 3: "Safe, Satisfying, and Sacred" Births for Black Parents
    May 11 2023
    America has a Black maternal mortality crisis. How do we treat it? Brooklyn midwife of over 25 years Helena Grant tells Nashia and Kate that everybody used to have a midwife. In most other developed nations, lots of people still do. And their maternal mortality rates are much lower than ours. Helena explains how obstetrics took the place of midwifery in the US — and the conversation unlocks a painful memory for Nashia.
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    33 min
  • Episode 4: Carceral Health Care: Does My Time Match My Crime?
    May 11 2023
    Adequate healthcare is a human right. So why is it elusive for much of America's incarcerated population? Nashia brings us along on the commute to her second job as a correctional nurse, and we meet Ron Shehee. Ron uses a wheelchair to get around, but when he arrived in a prison camp to serve his time, he realized that no one was prepared to handle even his basic needs. He says he was told that he couldn’t bring his chair inside — and another wheelchair wouldn’t be provided. Ron confides in Nashia and Kate, sharing what it was like to be a patient in the carceral system, and Nashia shares her experience trying to provide care and dignity to her patients in jail.
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    33 min
  • Episode 5: The Sex Emergency
    May 11 2023
    Everyone has an embarrassing sex story. And some of those tales end up in the emergency room! Kate and Nashia share ER stories of patients who are confused about the basics of sexual health (no shame here!), and sex educator Ericka Hart tells us how she keeps her classrooms focused on pleasure, inclusivity, and consent regardless of the political climate.
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    29 min
  • Episode 6: Our Mental Health Crisis
    May 11 2023
    It’s happened to countless Americans: Your mental health is teetering— and you don’t know what to do. Should you speak to your therapist? Have someone take you to the ER? Or do you need something in between? In this country, there aren’t a ton of options. Former psych ER patient Michelle opens up to Kate and Nashia about how far she had to go to access care when she was in crisis, and reporter Ann Marie Awad teaches us about the history of asylums.
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    35 min
  • Episode 7: I'm Burned Out, You're Burned Out, We're Burned Out
    May 11 2023
    The burnout in this country is real — and the strain is putting many of us in the ER. Once we get there, we’re often greeted by burned-out medical professionals. How do we make it all stop? Nurses are often accused of “compassion fatigue” for not always being “nice” to patients, but Nashia insists that’s not it — and the research backs her. Michael Leiter, co-author of “The Burnout Challenge” affirms our suspicions by telling us that it’s not so much about working on our individual coping mechanisms for unrealistic workloads, it’s about changing our workplaces themselves.
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    33 min