Claire Bonaci
You're watching the Microsoft us health and life sciences, confessions of health geeks podcast, a show that offers Industry Insight from the health geeks and data freaks of the US health and life sciences industry team. I'm your host Claire Bonaci as part of our 2021 nurses week series. Today I talk with Stefan Torres, better known as nurse Stefan on social media platforms. Stefan discusses his journey as a nurse and influencer and the importance of patient education. Hi Stefan, and welcome to the podcast.
Stefan Torres
Hello. Thank you for being here.
Claire Bonaci
So I have a few questions for you for nurses week. Do you mind just telling us a little bit about yourself and your background?
Stefan Torres
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm a nurse that lives in Seattle. I'm from Philadelphia, I moved over here when I was really young. I've been in healthcare for probably about 17-18 years now. But as a nurse for about eight and some change. And you know, I've worked in a lot of different specialties, ICU, medical, surgical, you know, I've been trained all over the place pacu, cath lab, IR, emergency, of course, throughout my board certification, and this last year, I've been training, cosmetic dermatology. And so there's also all sorts of all sorts of things you could do, you know, something for everyone. So I love nursing. And then also Yeah, since I think it was about 2018, when I got started doing kind of freelance kind of health education for healthcare professionals, and the general public, using social media, social networking to kind of, you know, reach people where they're at. And, yeah, that's, it's been going great.
Claire Bonaci
Well, so what made you kind of want to do more of that education piece,
Stefan Torres
ER, was like, my happy place, and I love it so much, because it was so much patient interaction. And one of the last jobs that I had in the hospital was in the pacu and if you're familiar with it, people are waking up from anesthesia, right. And so even if I spend two, three, sometimes four hours with them, they're still in this, you know, anesthetized phase where they get up to the floor, or they get discharged. They don't remember talking to me at all. And so I lost how much of that like non stop seeing 50-60 patients a day, you know, going in and out of rooms and, and just having that communication and that chance to educate and, and, and so I was like, you know, what, I want to be able to reach a lot of people and so especially in the ER, you see kind of the revolving door of people coming in and out all the time, right. And it's usually I mean, it's, there's so many so many reasons of courses emergencies, of course, there's, you know, problems that we can avoid. But a large majority of them are behavioral changes that, you know, we can do in our life. And it's just, it's, it's to no one's fault. Really, it's, it's a, it's, it's poor health literacy, just all over the place. And, and a lot of times, it's because health education was never part of someone's life, it's not important to them, it wasn't important to their family, or their culture or anything like that. And so, but they end up with the consequences of having, you know, things like stoking out at 30, and whatnot. And so, basically, you know, seeing that kind of thing, and I was thinking, you know, what, what are we teaching patients generally, you know, when it when they come to the hospital, if they're in the ER, and they're getting discharged, you know, you're busy running around, you barely got time to educate, they're like, you know, I've just waited three hours for a CT to come back that's either told me that, you know, I have something that I wish I didn't have, or we don't know what I have, but I have something going on. And so now I'm frustrated, they don't want to hear anything they want to get home, because sometimes they'll stay there a long time. Or if they're inpatient at the hospital for you know, days upon weeks. And they're in a wheelchair, their parent or their, their, their families, they're, they're ready to wheel them out. And then we're sitting there trying to do our discharge instructions. And, you know, you're trying to teach about CHF as they're like, ready to go and get out of there. And they're like, just give me the paperwork, I'll read it at home, and they end up leaving the paperwork and forgetting and so it's, it's not the most conducive time people aren't receptive. You know, what, where we're teaching in the hospital, you know, people are sick generally, or they're in pain. And that's, that's not a good, it's not a good time to be, you know, in taking all this very, very, very important information. So I realized that and I said, Well, where can I reach people that were there all at right, and so social networking, social media has just blown up even more so in the last year or so. And it's, it's just become the place where if you want to get a message out, that's where you go. And so I decided that, you know, I wanted to take, you know, educating and not only deliver it on social media and social networking, but in a different way, because, to me, I've always thought that health education has been generally dry and Unless you're really into the topic, it's, it can be boring, you know what I mean? And, and there's better things you want to be doing with your life, you know. And so my whole goal was to try and make it engaging and entertaining. And so that's why I kind of took it upon myself to, you know, come up with storylines, and little, you know, gimmicks and gags and stuff like that, and try and be like, entertaining type of, you know, influencer out there. And then, you know, throw health education in there. And hopefully along the way, you know, someone will learn something. So that was, that was kind of a, it was kind of my motivation to do it. And it turned out to be really great. It's turned out to be really great.
Claire Bonaci
No, I think that I think that is really great. Because honestly, I mean, I turn to Dr. Google, probably more than I would want to go do a telehealth visit. So of course, I'm going to be turning to Instagram to tick tock to anything kind of on social media where I can get more information that's fast and kind of at my own pace or in in the kind of the way I want to get it. So I think that definitely makes sense. Is there anything that you were surprised by when you started doing this on social media or anything that really took you by surprise, as people reached out to you about what content they wanted to see? Or what was doing well, and what wasn't doing well?
Stefan Torres
Yeah, you know,as you're saying, you know, you use Dr. google, I mean, it's, there's a lot of people that, that don't seek medical help. And a lot of times, it has to do with psychiatric reasons, mental health reasons, mental health is just, you know, everyone's got mental health, right. It's, it's, it's a lot more effect, it affects certain people a lot more than it does others. And so, you know, there's people with, you know, that just don't want to leave the house that are afraid to go and talk about their, their, their feelings or emotions, that might not be a part of their family, that might not be part of their culture, they might not be raised that way. And so it's, it's unfortunate. And so when you can get to people where they're at, because you know, if they're staying at home, and they're, you know, they're on social media, and you can get to them in that way. And you can talk about something like anxiety, depression, postpartum mood disorders, stuff like that stuff that like, they don't feel comfortable going out and reaching out to a provider necessarily having a discussion about that, but they can learn about it and feel more comfortable with it. That's a big deal. And I think the thing that surprised me the most was kind of, you know, how much of an impact I ended up making, because for me, it was kind of, like, if I make a video and one person is happy, you know, get something from it, I'll be happy, right? Obviously, I want as many people as possible, I want to garner as much of an audience as I can try and, you know, talk to as many people as possible, but, you know, truthfully, speaking, if it was, you know, if it was just one, I'd be happy with that, and then keep doing what I was doing. But, you know, I was so surprised at how many people express gratitude and sent messages and, you know, flood flooding with, you know, emails and all that. And, you know, it's, it's funny because I, during this last year, while I was doing a lot of this cosmetic dermatology training, it was very intensive, and it took a lot of my took a lot of my time. And so I wasn't really active on social media for several months. And and I'm thinking like, you know, okay, well, I'll pop back in. And the other day, I just posted a picture for the first time since December. And I got so many messages and people saying, Oh, my God, I was so concerned with, with, with what was going on with you, where have you been, I thought something happened. And I'm, I'm thinking, you know, they're all over the country. They're, they're over in the UK and out in Tunisia and stuff. And I'm thinking, Why do these people care about me, you know, what I mean? Like, I've got close friends, I haven't talked to you for several months that don't call me up and say that they're, you know, concerned about my well being. And so, you know, it's just very interesting. But when I realized that it's just this, you know, it's, it's this kind of mutual relationship, that that's unspoken, that's kind of an unknown, almost that where I, you know, that's they, I appreciate just human beings living healthier lives. And that's why I do what I do. And so you know, if they reciprocate by having that appreciation that I'm giving that to them, or helping them with that, and that's coming from my heart. And so in turn, they end up caring about me as a person. And so it's very unique. And it's a very, it's really kind of bonkers when you think about it, but tell you the truth, you know, wouldn't have it any other way. It makes it very, very special.
Claire Bonaci
Yeah, I think you really hit on an interesting point that this was a gap that you clearly saw that there was not a lot of, you know, health care, information, education, especially on social media, you filled the gap. And then really, you were making these genuine connections with people that were honestly I'm even surprised by that. I think that's really surprising. But I think it does show that clearly this was needed. And just given this past year, where nursing professionals have really, really risen to the occasion that the pandemic, what's some advice that you would be giving them to assist with anyone to just try to be more resilient or kind of just get through it?
Stefan Torres
No, I yeah, this I mean, it's, it's it's a it's a big, big, big topic. And last year, I don't know if I mentioned to you but I did a video series with the Washington center nursing, Center for nursing. And, you know, it's like seven, eight part video series where we talked about different different ways that you know, this was a, this was in the thick of it, when we were first, you know, COVID was first kicking off, and we were all worried we didn't, you know, people were working, you know, 2436, even longer hours shifts with, you know, sleeping in the break room for a couple hours and not taking care of themselves. And so, you know, out of all the advice that I think that I that I tried to dole out during that, I'd say probably, you know, the the most important one to drive home is to advocate for yourself in any way, shape and form that you can because nurses just by nature, we have this, this nurturing that this wanting to really help help others as much as we can do whatever we can in order to help. And so what happens is, we end up sacrificing our own health, and I'm guilty of doing it at pandemic aside many times, especially, you know, when I'm doing outside work as well. And so, you know, making sure you get your rest breaks, making sure you get your lunch breaks, making sure you get your adequate breaks between shifts, making sure you're getting enough sleep, making sure you're getting mental health help, if you don't know how to get it, find someone who knows how to get it, you know, because it's it's really the only way to survive. And it's really the only way to maintain that, that that stable mind to be a prudent nurse. And in order to, you know, it's it's really on us, you know what, as whether or not we do that, and it's hard because you want to help out the team, you want to help out your facility, you want to help out the patients, you don't want to you don't want to let anyone down. But it's a disservice to yourself, it's a disservice to the patients, it's a disservice to the, to the to the unit to the hospital, if you're if you're spreading yourself so thin that you're not the nurse that you normally are.
Claire Bonaci
And especially now It's May, it's Mental Health Awareness Month. So of course, hopefully everyone can can really take those to heart. Yes, you have a last fun question for you. What act of kindness has impressed you the most during COVID?
Stefan Torres
Ah, yeah, I was thinking about that one. I mean, there's so many amazing ways that people have come together. In in so many different ways, you know, but I would have to say that the people that are out there that are volunteering their time, because the time right now is an uncertainty for us. And it has been for a while, and it's I think it will continue to be there's a lot of unknowns, no one knows. I mean, we had the what was it, you know, 15 days to flatten the curve, which is, you know, it's been a while. And so, you know, how long are we going to be wearing masks for no one can answer that question, right. And so, you know, with what we're faced with this, a lot of unknowns, and so it puts a lot of stress on us. And now on top of that we have our jobs, we have our families and we have more stressors, because now we're around our families a lot more, now we're around, you know, there's just there's, there's so much going on. And so there's not a lot of time to do your own research. And there is a lot of misinformation out there. And there's a lot of, you know, stuff that gets circulated that is just not it's stuff that people should be really mindful when they're listening to. And finding sources that you can trust, I think is very important. You know, it's it's being being spoon fed with whatever people think, you know, that someone tells them that they kind of trust, you know, it is not the best idea, you really need to again, advocate for yourself, do your own research, if you can, or find someone that you know, does it that you can rely on that, you know, because a lot of times with journals and whatnot are their, their opinion pieces. And so it's really important to find that stuff that actually has good, you know, citations and resources and documentable and demonstrable, you know, basically, facts and statistics. And, and I think the people that are out there doing that, you know, you've got these doctors and you scientists, and these researchers and whatnot, that are that are really dedicating their lives to helping out humanity. And that's what this is about, because our whole world is changing entirely everything we do from the way that you know, for from the way that we you know, travel for the way that we spend money to the way that we interact with with each other as human beings, which is what you were meant to do. So, I would say the people that are doing that for the people that can't are are people that are acting out of, you know, sincere, genuine kindness, and that to me is really special. So,
Claire Bonaci
no, I love that answer. And definitely, I think those are the unsung heroes, the people that we kind of forget about we have absolutely workers, but we kind of forget about those kinds of people that are doing the behind the scenes work.
Stefan Torres
Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot of them. I mean, there's so many of them.
Claire Bonaci
Yes, yeah, that's very, very true. Well again, thank you so much, Stefan for being part of the podcast and is there any last words that you want to tell our listeners or any plugs for any upcoming events that you have?
Stefan Torres
Um, well, let's see, I did just do a kind of a lecture speech thing. It was all about the nursing profession. It was geared towards high school students for high school career fair type thing, and that'll be going out to a lot of different high schools a lot of different facilities and hopefullya lot of different nursing schools as well. Where I basically talk about you know, what nursing is, you know, how do you get into it? What what kind of person you got to be to be a nurse that kind of thing. And I think it's really informative and and worth the watch so my website is nurse Stefan dot com and you know, on Instagram, it's at nurse dot Stefan. And so that's where you can find me and I will have links to those videos and other ones on there. So yeah, feel free to reach out you know, there's my emails on there nursestefan@gmail.com is usually the most reliable So yeah, that's that that's what I got the plug for you. And so I'm looking for the nurses week. I know a lot of amazing things are gonna happen that I'm going to be involved with. So it's coming up here shortly.
Claire Bonaci
Exactly.
Stefan Torres
if it's not going on right now, I don't know when this is gonna be aired.
Claire Bonaci
Spot on. It's going to be right at nurses week. So
Stefan Torres
wonderful. Good. Good. Good. Good.
Claire Bonaci
Thank you all for watching. Please feel free to leave us questions or comments below. And check back soon for more content from the HLS industry team.
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