Do you hate the thought of working past 55 or 60? Do you hate not being able to live the life you deserve today? Do you hate not knowing what your financial future looks like? It's time to stop doing what you hate, here's your host, Mr. Harold Green.
(00:19): Hello. Hi everyone. This is Harold Green of Brightree financial group, and it is time to stop doing what you hate. How's everybody doing? Hopefully you guys are having a fantastic week. I am super excited today to be bringing the show to you, and it's going to be a part of our successful professional series. And today with me on the show, I have someone that's near and dear to me, he's a client. He's also a friend. You know, we talk with each other, we encourage each other, and it's just exciting to have people in your corner and on your team that are rooting for you every day. And so I'd like to introduce you guys to mr. Brian, Beyonce and Brian. Welcome to the show. Hi, thank you, Harold. Thank you for having me. Yeah. So Brian, I'm going to share with you guys a little bit about Brian and he's a, he's a registered nurse here in Honolulu, Hawaii, and he's going to be sharing a little bit about the profession and how he got into it.
(01:16): And we're going to talk about what he loves about it, because you can't really do something that you know, with passion that you, that you absolutely don't love. And so we're going to get into that. And so, Brian, I want you to start off by sharing with the listeners, just a little bit about your job and you know, how you found it, the, the passion or the passion for that field. And then just kinda give us a brief update on where things are in the medical profession and what you see coming down the pipe. So we're going to go kind of Q and a, but if you can just kind of share with them how you found the profession that you're in right now. Sure. Yeah. Currently I am a critical care nurse in the cardiac intensive care here in Honolulu at the Queens medical center.
(02:06): And I've been doing this for about 20 years as a critical care nurse, 25 years total in nursing, the Queens medical center has been my one and only job. I went there out of nursing school. And just to go back I did not think of nursing as my first profession. When I went off to college, I thought I'd be a business major. And you know, I found out in that first year that business was not going to be for me. And so I spoke to the college counselor at the school I was attending and you know, they asked me for my likes and dislikes and I told them it was science and math were my likes. And I had an interest in health and wellbeing. And one of the kickers
(03:00): That they asked me was where are you interested in making money? Lots of that is a good one right there. And that's a no brainer for me. I said, of course I am. And so they said, why don't you consider nursing? And I wow, really nursing and this was 25 years ago. Now I did not realize that men went into nursing back then. I'm embarrassed to say that. But today there are a lot of male nurses and so went into nursing and about five years into my nursing career, I decided I wanted to go into critical care. And I chose cardiac critical care because it is near and dear to me. And it's that passion in my family. My father had his first open heart surgery at age 48 and being in healthcare and knowing about family genetics and so forth.
(03:59): I just thought, you know what, I'm a healthy person, but this could be me. And I'm interested in knowing about cardiac and how the heart works. And so it was a passion for me and, and and my father was still with living then when I became a cardiac nurse. And he was with us for another 10 more years, but it was interesting to care for patients out of the operating room that was just having open heart surgery, looking at them as if, and I could see my father in them and also knowing that it was my life that I wanted to change. And I wanted to help these people that were in the beds that I was helping after their open heart surgery to maybe change their lifestyles and their patterns so that they could live longer, healthier and have a better life.
(04:53): And so from there, our hospital kind of changed their format, how they configured, and we became a comprehensive cardiac unit that included more the medical side or the, what you had the CCU aspect of a heart critical care. And so I've gotten to expand my professional career into both the medical aspect and the surgical side while. Okay. And I'm currently, I've, I've stepped up into our role as a charge nurse or our critical care unit. I've been doing that actively for about the last 15 years. And I am a night shift nurse. I love the night shift. It's not for everybody, but I love the crew and the team that I work with, shout out to them. And it's a passion. You, you got to love what you do going to work, because if you don't love it and you're fighting against it, right. And that just is miserable, did fight. And you're in a field
(05:59): Where you, you know, you, you can't have that attitude going in everyday. You cause you got to help save people's lives. And I think it'd be hard going into a situation where you're trying to treat treat a patient and you just can't stand your coworkers and you can't stand your boss and, you know, patient experiences, everything. Right. even, even sometimes patients are difficult. You know, I'm not going to lie
(06:26): That we all have our ways and not everybody wants to change and not everybody wants to do exactly what the doctor prescribes and you get resistance, you get pushback. And so it's going in there with an attitude of love and tolerance and, you know, we don't always have that. We're not always at the top of our game. And, and for me, I, I often have to adjust. I'll pray for that love and tolerance as I go to work that I can be there at the top of my game to help him.
(07:00): Right. So real quick, Brian, you know,
(07:03): Well, a lot of times when we interview students and you've said it on a student interview,
(07:06): Matter of fact, we did a, a couple of student interviews with your, your sons and you kind of saw how that went and you saw the questions and things of that nature in regards to, you know, the kind of passion or what is it that you want to solve in the world, or what type of impact do you want to make in the world? I'd like for you to share with the people that are listening and the students that are probably listening in. Can you just tell me a quick story of one of the most rewarding days you've ever had as a, either a charge nurse, critical care nurse, or just being a nurse in general? Like, you know, just give me a real quick, like two or three minute story about a day that happened to you. That just said, you know what? This just makes me love what I do all the more. And I know you probably have several, but just give me one. That's just so touching that you think would help benefit the the conversation
(08:00): One that comes to mind was early in my critical care career here as an, as an open heart and nurses. And, and you got to understand, I'm going to tell your listeners as a nurse, we talk about everything that comes to us and it doesn't bother us. So, you know, emotions aside, I'm just gonna like say it or what it is. Yep. So we had a patient, unfortunately, he wasn't doing well. And he was arrested numerous times and we had brought him back numerous times. And and the doctor arresting meaning going into cardiac arrest, right. Cardiac arrest. Thank you. Yeah. And we brought them back a number of times and, and he just continued to go into, into cardiac arrest. And the doctor finally said, okay, you know, he, we, we had gotten him back, but the doctor had decided that, you know, if he does this again, we're going to let him go.
(08:57): Cause it's a few tile where we're not, we're not able to help him, unfortunately, you know? And and so we did, and this patient's, you know, vital signs, they kind of, they dropped, we thought, okay, this gentleman might have a few hours to go. And his blood, just to say his blood pressure was really low in, in like the fifties and sixties. And that's, you know, that's not good for your other organs, your brain, you know, lungs, kidneys, so forth, but we thought, okay, you know, we're going to just make him comfortable in the end here. And this and this and time went by and, and he didn't deteriorate. He just kind of lingered there. And we were like, okay, you know, we're going to, we're going to support them, but we're not going to do heroic measures here. And, and one hour became two and two became four and four eight.
(09:54): And then next thing you know, it's 24 hours later and he's still with us. And, and the blood pressure is still low and not really good. And, and, and of course he's on the ventilator and can't speak to us. And, and he wasn't waking up, but lo and behold, this, this person you recovered, you know, and, and it was a miracle. And we began, and, and as he got stronger, of course, we began to support him with medicines and procedures and everything that he needed. And we thought, what a miracle that, and he woke up and he was with us for over a hundred days. Wow. But he recovered. And he went off to, to a rehab hospital after that. And from the rehab hospital, you know, he wasn't the independent self that he was when he came in, but he required living with a foster family type that could just help him.
(10:57): And he was single, he didn't have family. So he went off to live with a foster family. And and he came into the hospital about a year later needing some help. And I remember when he came on to our unit and it was like, Oh my God. I mean, like, you are a miracle in that. I've never had that happen to me again in the 20 years that I've been here. Wow, got somebody. I mean, we thought it was the right thing to do to stop helping this man, because he was continuing to keep arresting. And, you know, we didn't think that we could do anything within our power, but it was a higher power, I guess, you know, I'm going to say it was, you know, it wasn't his time. It was God helping him. And he survived and he came back in and he, you know, a year later he came back in and we got them through whatever he needed to go through. And he left the hospital to go back to living with his foster family. And since then he's passed away, but it was just a true miracle that we were able to see him survive and then able to help him and then get out, get back out there. And he had more time to live and to be a part of this world. So I would say that was probably one of the greatest stories that I remember in my nursing career.
(12:26): Yeah. Cause it doesn't happen like that every day and you don't, you know, and sometimes you lose people, right. And, and you just have to, you know, carry, carry that. And you see that every day and I'm amazed by you guys. And, you know, every time I watch a TV show where people are being saved or people are being lost. And I think about you and some of the other doctors and nurses I work with, and I just think it takes a special kind of person to be able to see that. And, you know, just kind of not put it aside, but then you just have to continue to move on and, and, and help as many people as you can. So that's, that's amazing right there. And one of the next things I want to ask you in the few minutes that we have left is let's talk about the paycheck because a lot of kids want to make a lot of money, but sometimes they just don't know what a lot of money is. And so if you can kind of give me some pay ranges from a, a person starting out right out of college, right. Into whatever unit that they're in, just kind of giving me some ranges. So we can kind of put this in perspective.
(13:29): Sure. Here, living in Hawaii and were unionized. And I know you have listeners on the mainland. So here in Hawaii, we're unionized and we have one of the highest hourly wages in the country. We're comparable to like some of the biggest inner cities like New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, you might not see these types of pay scales in the outer, but in rural or suburbs, things like that. But here a new grad starting, it takes them about two years to get to what we call job rate. Got it. Because you do need experience in the workforce and a starting new grad might be around $45 an hour. Usually you get a pay raise every six months until you hit that two year job Mark. Cause then they feel like you're the equivalent of the other nurses on your unit. So job rate I'm going to say is around $60 an hour right now.
(14:37): Okay. And it's pretty good. I can tell you being night shift, most new grads will get hired to night shift because most people with experience want to move to for their family. But when you work night shift, you get an additional $4 and 50 cents an hour pay. So if you're a job rate at like 60 or $62 an hour, somewhere in there, and then you're working night shift, that's an additional $4 and 50 cents. So roughly you might be making $66 an hour. Now for me in our union here in Hawaii, after 15 years of service, I get an additional dollar. So that takes me up to 67. And then you know, as a charge nurse, I get an additional hourly raise there too. Wow. Yeah. It's, it can be very, very lucrative to, and we're not even, we're not even talking over time yet.
(15:40): We're just talking about, you know, basically straight 40 hours a week, correct. That that's 36. So a lot of nurses here will work three 12 hour shifts and well, okay. 36 hours a week, 36 is considered full time. 36 is considered a full time. And then you, after the 36, you started getting into the OT, right? So you got four hours more of regular time. So if you pick up, but anything over 40 hours is time and a half. So it's one and a half hours, your hourly rate. Right? So becoming a nurse, this is, it can be a very lucrative thing. If, you know, you find the right place and you get into the right hospital. And so I just of want to thank you very much for bringing this to us and sharing this with us. As far as the education is concerned, I'm just going to put this out here and you can tell me, am I right or wrong?
(16:30): If you're looking to become a nurse, what's the most important thing? Is it where you went to college or is it more of just basically getting through the nursing program? Even if it's at say the university of North Texas or, you know, I've, I've had friends who who've become nurses and they started off at community college. And then they went to oninto a nursing program, which I think is two years. Right? And then from there right into a hospital or a clinic or whatnot. So what may be the quickest and fastest route for the kids, if they're considering getting into the nursing field and we have about two or three minutes, okay, real quick, you can get an associates degree and still get your state license. But a lot of hospitals today are actually requiring or wanting a bachelor's degree or higher. So you could actually get an associates degree and take the same state licensing as a bachelor's degree.
(17:28): Wow. Really matter where you go to school. However, certain schools might have a stronger influence locally with their hospitals than others. Because once you take your state license, you have the state license as the same as every other, no matter where they've graduated school. So no, it doesn't necessarily matter. But by going to certain colleges, it might open more doors for you. But if you can get a job and get experience, that's all that matters. Cause once you get experience and you begin to build your resume, you can go anywhere and you will be hired within minutes. It's a matter of getting your degree, taking your state license, passing your state license, and getting your foot in the door. That will be the hardest thing to do. Get your foot in the door. Once your foot is in the door and you need to do whatever you can to get your foot in the door.
(18:37): The most important thing is getting your foot in the door. Whether it's here in Honolulu, Hawaii, or in Omaha, Nebraska or Wichita, Kansas, or Denver, Colorado, some kids are just fixated on saying, Hey, you know, I don't want to go here. I don't want to go there. I don't want to go here. I don't want to go there. But the most important thing is going wherever they give you that opportunity? Because here in Hawaii, it seems like the hospitals are only really bringing in people who already have the talent. Right?
(19:05): Correct. That is true. And this is the same for every hospital across the nation. It just costs more money to train a new graduate, but you gotta where they're hiring. And then you can put in one or two years there and then you can write your ticket anywhere you want to go in the country. Got it. Anywhere you want to go. If it means coming back to your Hawaii, because Hawaii was where you grew up. You know, if you do two years in Nebraska or Washington state or Florida, wherever you can get a job. Lot of local kids do this. They'll go off to school on the mainland at a cheap, lower costing college, get their education, get their license in that state, go to work in that state, put in time. And then they come home and they apply to work back here in Hawaii. And the hospitals just love them because then that hospitals are not having to invest the money that a new graduate costs. Although our local hospitals do pick up new graduates, but they're much more eager to pick up experienced nurses.
(20:19): Right? And that's the most important thing there you have that initiative, Brian, beyond and of the successful professional series, stop doing what you hate. It's time to start doing what you love. And Brian, I want to thank you so much for joining me today and just sharing with the families and the students out there that are listening in. Because I think having someone who's actually in the field, you know, giving them the rundown is very helpful. So there you have it,
(20:48): Brian, I want to thank you again for being on the show. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and your knowledge. And I appreciate you sure. Love to talk. All right, folks, there, you have it until next time. One, two, three less. Get it.
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