Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I want to say hello to all my listeners and a special shout out to people joining us from the uk, Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and Canada. Well, I started this podcast with a bang, right? I know my first four episodes were a bit edgy, but someone needs to tackle these really heavy topics that can be difficult for many people to discuss.
Let me just say I really appreciate everyone who's written to me to share your thoughts. I'm glad you can see that I'm trying to get people energized around changes that need to be made in order to preserve, support and advance our profession of neuromonitoring. I really do appreciate all the positive feedback and encouragement that I've received from executive leaders, managers, neuromonitrists, neurologists, and other oversight professionals. I really am trying to bring this field together.
Speaking of which, I am over the moon excited to have my first guest on today. She's someone who definitely is known for bringing people together in neuromonitoring. Let's get to it. I'm Rich Vogel and this is Stimulating Stuff.
Welcome back to Stimulating Stuff. I'm Rich Vogel and my guest today is probably best known for bringing neuromonitoring to TikTok, where she creates funny videos and memes about the experience of working as a neuromonitrist. Her Stick Em posts have caught the attention of the neuromonitoring world because the sentiments resonate with the masses. I'm a huge fan of her posts, not because they're funny and true, but because she blends in educational content too. She's neuromonitoring's very own CEO of social media and queen of the meme.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: So welcome to the show. Danielle Stewart, I know everybody knows you from your Stick Em posts and we'll definitely get to that, but I definitely want to know more about you. I don't want to reduce you to your social media Persona, so. And I'm sure, sure the audience does too.
Can we start by just where in the world did you grow up?
[00:02:28] Speaker C: Absolutely.
So I grew up in South Florida, born and raised. So that's probably why, you know, Stick Em has kind of a Florida man theme with the memes and whatnot being off the wall where I get my humor.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: And were you like that as a kid too? Like, what were you like growing up, personality wise?
[00:02:49] Speaker C: Well, it was a running joke growing up that I was the devil incarnate, you know, so my family, you know, always made a joke that I was the devil child. And literally, like, I remember Christmas one Time I had an angel on my stocking and my aunt made the joke. She's like, no, no, no, that can't be Danny's. You know, she's not allowed to have an angel on her stocking. She's the devil.
But I was pretty shy and quiet as a kid.
I still kind of am a little shy sometimes. Very introverted and whatnot. Um, but I would say I've definitely come into my own as far as, you know, my personality and everything. But I've always been, you know, that trickster kind of funny person, like trying to make people laugh and whatnot. So it's definitely been like that since I was little.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Well, you and I have that devil child in, in common too, because I've. I had some issues as a kid too. Like I was the type of kid that would open up all of my Christmas presents early and then play with them and re wrap them and put them back. And my parents didn't know for like two years. I got in a lot of trouble after that.
Wow.
So that's really interesting though. You consider yourself to be an introvert and yet you have this huge social media presence, which I do.
I don't think those two are necessarily in conflict with each other. I mean, I think a lot of people can, can be like that sometimes.
So right now, obviously you're working in neuromonitoring, but According to your LinkedIn profile, you have a pretty long history of working in healthcare in general. One of your first healthcare jobs was working as a medical assistant in a gastroenterology clinic. What was that like?
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it's actually interesting. That actually was what started my career in human healthcare.
Before that I actually worked in veterinarian medicine, was a vet tech.
So it was very interesting because I actually started working out at the front desk and then worked my way to the back to be a medical assistant.
It was very stinky, I will say, but it was good. It was a great experience and kind of launched me into, I think, my passion for healthcare and getting that ball rolling on that and everything.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a really interesting transition.
I mean, not just from the veterinary world, but to the gastroenterology and ultimately into nerve conduction and neuromonitoring. For listeners who aren't aware of gastroenterology, it's the branch of medicine that focuses on the digestive system and its disorders. So if you ever need a colonoscopy, you go to a gastroenterologist, which kind of sets up the next really important question.
So you Started as a medical assistant working in gastroenterology. I assume that means you've worked with a lot of assholes. Is that how you made your way into neuromonitoring?
[00:05:53] Speaker C: Yes, actually.
And. But at least the assholes here are less stinky. You know, I already had that experience, so I'm doing well.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Okay, so after that you, you made your way into, ultimately into nerve conduction and worked as a nerve conduction technolog neurologist with a CNNT certification. How did that prepare you for neuromonitoring?
[00:06:20] Speaker C: Well, it definitely helped as far as like the anatomy and knowing where the nerves lie and run.
It certainly helped with that. I actually shout out to Dr. Mark Sword loss at in Boca.
I trained under him for my nerve conduction and we actually wrote a paper on anastomosis in the legs because, you know, during training, you know, you learn all the ins and outs of the nerves.
And I was like, well, if there's, you know, Martin Gruber in the wrist and whatnot, what makes it that there's not something in the leg?
And so, you know, just having a lot of knowledge of where the nerves run and whatnot, I think has really prepared me or did prepare me for neuromonitoring because, you know, I down on my team here, you know, I'm the self proclaimed placement queen, you know, of, you know, the stem electrodes and whatnot, and then also the electrodes for recording and everything too.
It definitely also was interesting to go from nerve conduction where, you know, the patients are awake.
So essentially it's like neuromonitoring, but the patient's not asleep.
So when you're shocking them, they're feeling it every single time. You know, I got called every single name in the book for, you know, from sadistic to all sorts of things. You know, patients are just like, I'm like, I'm sorry, I have to get this done if you want a diagnosis and whatnot.
And then, you know, the doctor would come in and do the EMG portion and whatnot. And that was interesting as well. You know, they see this, this huge, big, long needle. They're like, wait a minute. It's like, it's okay. It's only part of it going in, just the tip of it. It's all right.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: So there's probably some people who are, are listening who their world is neuromonitoring, and they've probably heard of nerve conduction before, but generally don't know the specifics of what it is or how it works. Can you Give a really just basic overview and maybe draw an analogy to like, what's different and similar between that and neuromonitoring, aside from people being awake versus under general anesthesia?
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely more diagnostic.
So essentially, if a patient goes to see a neurosurgeon and they're complaining of neck pain, you know, hand pain, weakness, all sorts of things, the neurosurgeon then sends them for the nerve conduction study to essentially confirm if, you know, their symptoms are being caused by radiculopathy versus just a neuropathy or something like that.
Because if it's just a neuropathy, you don't need surgery for that.
Whereas if it's directly related to radiculopathy, you should definitely have surgery. And who knows, the cord could be compressed and all sorts of things.
So it's definitely more focused on the diagnostic aspect of it.
And not just for neurosurgery, but with diagnosing Martin Gruber or not Martin Gruber. Geez, what am I thinking of? Oh, myasthenia gravis. Sorry. There we go. That's what it is. Myasthenia gravis.
You know, all sorts of neuromuscular diseases and whatnot.
So definitely much more diagnostic.
We also in the clinic did VEP and bears sometimes to confirm Ms.
So much more on the diagnostic side versus, you know, in the or with neuromonitoring, it's you're just kind of watching for any changes, whereas this is directly correlating to, you know, nervous system issues and kind of figuring out what's going on.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Yeah, and clearly, as you said, you get to become an expert in where the nerves are and where to place your electrodes in order to, you know, optimally perform neuromonitoring in surgery. And you get to teach people who, who are learning neuromonitoring those techniques too, which I think is. Is a real benefit to people who get to learn from somebody like you has that background.
So. So you've been working in neuromonitoring for how many years now?
[00:10:36] Speaker C: It'll be five in October.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: So.
[00:10:38] Speaker C: So that's too terribly long. But long enough, right?
[00:10:42] Speaker A: And that's long enough.
And people probably ask you about this and you probably tell them, you know, we all have different ways of telling people what it is that we do. How would your, your family, your parents, your friends, pick whomever. How would they describe what you do if we ask them?
[00:10:59] Speaker C: Well, according to my dad, he thinks I'm like a doctor now. And he calls and asks Me all sorts of, you know, medical questions and thinks I have this wide range of knowledge now. And I'm like, that I'm not a doctor. I only know, you know, specifically what I do.
But my mom likes my whole phrase of that I stab and shock people.
She likes to joke about that with people. And then I would say, you know, a lot of my friends are just like, oh, she just does some fancy shit in the or. You know, she's all brains and like, does this really crazy stuff with the nervous system.
But sometimes there's actually, I've met a few people that I'll say what I do and they're like, oh, okay, that's, you know, basically you're in the OR and just kind of watching out for us. And I'm like, yeah, okay. You actually kind of know what we do. Cool.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Yeah, that's kind of rare.
I get people who tell who. Who introduce me as like a neurosurgeon or something like that. And that's really awkward in public because they're not to backtrack that. And then they're like, oh, so you're not a neurosurgeon?
Anything that's not. That is boring.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: So, yeah, my son used to do that when he was younger. He's like, oh, my mom's a neurosurgeon. I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm not a neurosurgeon. Don't. Don't put that on me.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: So speaking of, of your son, I. I saw a recent post that you did where you spoke at your son's school for career day, which is awesome. I mean, I wish more people would do that. How. How did you describe neuromonitoring to grade school? I assume it was grade school. How did you describe it to the kids and how did they kind of, I don't know, receive.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Was a very interesting experience because I got to actually speak to quite a few classes that day.
And I spoke to my younger son's grade level as well, which is about six or seven year olds.
So first graders.
That was. I had to really, like, dumb it down for them and kind of put it in simple terms, which was slightly complicated for me. I was like, I can't. I'm trying to think of, you know, simple analogies to explain exactly what we do.
And it was actually funny. A couple of the students that were in his class, some of the neurosurgeons and orthosurgeons I work with are in his class. They're like, oh, you Work with my daddy.
And so that was interesting, but it was a lot easier with the classes of my older son, you know, like 10 year olds.
Much easier to explain, you know, what we do in the or.
And it was really cool because I came away from that whole experience feeling like, you know, super cool mom because, you know, my older son came home and he's like, oh, Emily said, you know, you're so cool and she wants to be just like you when she gets older. And I'm like, ha ha, I'm a cool mom.
It was a very cool experience.
Yeah.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: My next question is. So, so you mentioned, you mentioned that you have two kids, right? And I think you told me kind of in the lead up to this that you're a single mom and we work in this world where you have unpredictable hours, you might be on call and have to run out of the house.
How do you manage being a single mom in this kind of a work environment?
[00:14:28] Speaker C: Well, I lock them in a closet and pray. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: With a little bit of Benadryl.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Right?
Yeah, just give them Benadryl, they'll be fine.
No, thankfully I have a very good support system with my mom.
She helps me out depending on my schedule. I let her know the day before because of course we don't find out our schedule till the night before what we're doing.
If, you know, she can take them into school for me or if I can do it and then pick ups from school as well. And then, you know, the days that I'm on call, typically, thankfully it hasn't been in the middle of the night yet, but I'm waiting for that time.
Be like, hey mom, I need you to just come make sure they don't burn the house down or something.
But I think if it wasn't for her, this would be extremely difficult because I know, you know, if trying to find like a babysitter or anything like that, that would be, you know, really difficult. And I don't know how some parents who even have both parents do it sometimes just in the healthcare field in general, I think it's just with the schedule craziness and then long hours and whatnot, it's just, it's very difficult. But I, I've been able to find a really good balance with her help and everything and it's worked out well so far. Knock on wood.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Well, that's good. That's really, really nice to have that kind of support system. It's, it's actually something that I want to revisit with future guests too. To get an idea of how different parents kind of manage this world that we live in, where, you know, you have unpredictable hours and call schedules and sometimes you have to drive long distances to cover.
It is great to have that support system for you.
Recently I posted a podcast that was kind of geared toward neuromonitorists and I talked about a day in the life of what it's like going into facilities, not being accepted, having to wear rep scrubs, etc. Etc. Etc. Everybody has different experiences and sometimes those experiences vary by the day. Can you walk me through a day in your life?
[00:16:53] Speaker C: Well, we can, I guess go with a day this week because that's probably as far back as I'll be able to remember.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[00:17:01] Speaker C: But so, you know, like just this week I wake up usually 5am, get ready, head out to work, you know, kiss the kids goodbye. They're of course still sleeping, and then go ahead and head into the hospital.
This particular day I had three cases with one surgeon. Thankfully, I have a great relationship with him because we did have flip rooms. So I was the only one, you know, there that day to do neuromonitoring. And we're flipping back over our room.
So thankfully, you know, was able to get to the hospital, you know, 6:30, because the case starts about 7:30, get there, get your rep scrubs, get signed in and everything.
I think it's really important that, especially with me, like to build good relationships because then it makes it easier to get into the hospital and whatnot. I already had my cart there waiting for me because they know that I'm coming. So it makes it very easy to get set up and whatnot.
But so had the three cases. He's a pretty fast surgeon. So I was still done probably about 4:00. So between those two cases, kind of, you know, run to the bathroom real quick, go see the next patient, start the next case and whatnot. So you don't have time to really eat.
So usually bring, you know, the beef jerky and the handy dandy jar of nuts that I talk about sometimes to kind of get some sustenance during the day since you, you don't really have time otherwise sometimes.
And so done about 4 o' clock, head home with traffic and whatnot, get home about 5.
You know, thank my mom for taking care of the kids for me, you know, taking them up from school and whatnot.
Actually they're in summer break, so she's watching them all day for me now. Thank God, God bless her.
She has the Patience of a saint.
But, you know, fix the kids dinner and hang out with them as much as possible.
You know, watch a movie, read some books, play Monopoly. That's one of their favorite things to do. And play some chess. And then now that they've gotten older, they, of course, you know, want to stay up later. And I'm like, I'm ready for bed, guys. Like, I'm gonna knock out. Like, mommy can't stay up that late.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Because you have to get up and do it all again the next day, Right?
[00:19:25] Speaker C: Exactly. Yeah. I'm just like, guys, Mommy's got to get up early again tomorrow. I was like, I'm going to bed. It's nine o' clock. You know, thankfully there I have amazing kids and I'll be like, hey, just don't stay up past like 11. And they're like, okay. And they'll actually go to bed at 11 and everything. So it works out well that way. But that's generally a day in my life.
And then wake up and do it the next day.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah, some of my, some of my favorite posts that you do are in one way or another related to not eating for 12 hours. Because I think everybody, if there's one thing that resonates with, with everybody, it's that it's just going for hours and hours not eating or like, you know, sitting on the toilet, cramming peanut butter crackers in your mouth, you know?
[00:20:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Trying to be efficient for the figure for your weight loss plan. It's good to have forced fasting.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Absolutely. So you often post about things that are, I don't know, they fall into the realm of annoyances or observations.
What are maybe one or two things that you experience working in neuromonitoring that you would say are just most annoying to you?
[00:20:41] Speaker C: Well, I really hate the rep scrubs.
Those are. I call it the clown costume. It's just the absolute worst thing.
The facilities that we have that let us change into scrubs there, it's like automatically they get a plus rating for me because I just hate those rep scrubs with the red cap and everything. You just feel like you're walking target with that on. And it's like, listen, I'm here for patient care. I'm not selling anything, you know, but besides that, the only thing that I think annoys me is, you know, the long work hours. Sometimes in the work life balance that can kind of be rough. I mean, this is a very small field. You know, there's what, only 5,000 sinums, I think, and only like 2,500 that are actually working in the OR, I think is the statistic I heard recently.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Right. Because most of them have expired and people have left the field and everything. So there's. Yeah, there's far fewer Sea nims than the average website would suggest there are.
Yeah, yeah.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: But yeah, just the long hours and the work life balance sometimes can get a little rough, especially during the busy season because it seems like towards the end of the holidays, because everybody's cramming in those surgeries because they met that deductible for their insurance. And it's like, you know, in the past sometimes my son's been like, mommy, I feel like I don't see you anymore. And I'm like, I'm sorry, but you know the time of year everybody's got to get their surgery done.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: I know, I know. What about the other side of it? What are, what's something that you can name that you just love about neuromonitoring?
[00:22:19] Speaker C: Oh, God, I don't think there's just one thing.
I really love to name a few.
I really love, like the mental challenge of it.
You know, before in my other careers, I never really felt mentally challenged. Like, I got bored.
Where I feel like this, I definitely don't get bored. It's constantly changing, especially with the way we monitor different things and everything.
And it just kind of really provides that stimulation.
I mean, sometimes, you know, if you're in a really long, like 12 hour schoolie case, obviously that'll get boring sometimes because you're sitting there for 12 hours.
But I think overall just the mental, mentally challenged aspect of it is one of the best things about it.
And then I also think the social aspect of the or, I really enjoy that. Like the relationships that you build with the surgeons, with the staff, you know, your circulators, the RNAs and everything. It's. Once you develop that kind of team mentality, it's honestly awesome. Like, I've had some of the best friends come out of the OR that I've worked with and I really love that.
I guess the stabbing. No, I'm just kidding.
But I think that's, you know, those two main things are really what I love about this career overall.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: So those two things to me sound like they could be related.
So you've got this side that's a mental challenge and you're challenging yourself. You're growing, you're learning and you're building relationships with people in the or. Do you think that that happens because the people that you're Working with understand that you kind of bring a higher level of understanding of what you're doing and that you've kind of devoted yourself to the work and to the care of the patient and showing that you care about how you communicate, how you care for the patient, how the patient wakes up, things like that.
[00:24:29] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I think that over the years with just working with the different surgeons that I have, I've kind of gotten this reputation of they know that if I'm in the room, yeah, we're going to have fun, we're going to have a good time and enjoy our day.
But ultimately I'm there for the patient and I'm the patient advocate because they're asleep. And, you know, that's 100% of my focus. And I know, you know, in the past, like, I've had alerts with different surgeons and everything like that afterwards.
And, you know, I kept my cool and I was like, hey, this is what we think is going on. And afterwards, you know, the surgeon would text me and be like, thank you so much for, like keeping me calm.
You know, during the whole thing, you know, he was freaking out a little bit and he's just like, I appreciate you. You know, just kind of being like my level head at that moment and just kind of directing me in the right direction. So I think that's, you know, a big part of it, that if you bring that confidence and that knowledge base and everything, people will not only respect you, but they'll like you as well, and you'll have some really, really great relationships in or.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: I think that's great advice for anybody who's listening, that if you kind of bring yourself and your career to the next level and you learn about what you're doing and you learn how to communicate with people and interact with them and be a part of the team, that the team will accept you and you'll develop great relationships and in the hospitals that you work in. Okay, let's take a really quick break here for a word from our sponsor and we'll be right back.
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[00:27:48] Speaker A: And we're back. I am talking to to Danielle Stewart, founder of Stick Em I O N M.
Let's talk about that. Let's talk about Stick Em.
Why did you start it? So for people who aren't aware, we're going to get you some more social followers if there's any left to recruit. Tell people what it is and why you started it.
[00:28:10] Speaker C: Well, honestly, it started as a severe case of fomo.
You know, you see the means out there for nurses, anesthesia everywhere. And I'm like, wait a minute, why are there none for neuromonitoring? I mean, we have some funny stuff that happens, but now it's really turned into this huge community around the world.
You know, we have people in India, Brazil, Malaysia, Russia that have all come together. And it's really kind of taken me back a little bit, you know, because initially I started it, I was like, oh, you know, let's make some funny memes and get people to laugh and be able to send them to friends and whatnot. But you know, now everybody, it has brought everybody together and has formed this community of, you know, like, we all experience the same things because, you know, with our job, we don't really see a lot of other neuromonitoring people at the hospital or anything like that. Sometimes you're the only one at that facility for, you know, days or weeks. You know, you may never see another neuromonitoring person.
So it's really kind of developed into this community of people where, you know, you can come and vent like everything is anonymous if you want it to be.
Generally, you know, if you. We have a set little thing on Wednesdays I like to do called what the fuck Wednesday where people, you know, they send in their crazy like stories that they have or like things that they're frustrated about for the day or week, even feel good stories, you know, about helping out with peds cases and everything like that. So it's really just turned into this entirely different thing than I ever imagined.
And I'm really happy and proud that it's kind of become what it has because, you know, that ultimately was my goal, was to just make people laugh and see the brighter side of our job because it's a very serious position and it's tough. It's not an easy field to be in, you know, between the work hours and whatnot.
So I think it's just kind of developed into this whole other thing and I absolutely love what it's become.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really amazing. And I think about the. What the fuck Wednesdays.
People need to vent.
Like you said, it's a really stressful job and it's a good outlet for people, I think.
I'm curious, just speaking of socials, meta dropped thread the other day. Have you joined yet?
[00:30:58] Speaker C: I saw that actually just today. I was like, what is this?
And I looked into it. So essentially, I guess it's kind of like a Twitter, but for Instagram maybe, is the impression I got. I have not. I was debating and I'm like, maybe I should for stick em just because it, you know, it's kind of that platform of connecting communities that way. And I'm like, oh, this might be a good avenue maybe to go on for stick Em and whatnot. So we'll see. I'm going to do some more research on it, though. Have you joined it?
[00:31:28] Speaker A: I just joined it.
It's pretty similar to Twitter with the good and the bad. I get some, like, some junk in my feed that I'm like, what is this? Where did it come from? It knows me from. From Instagram, so.
But it's really easy to join if you have an Instagram account. It just ports everything over that you wanted to and to be determined whether or not I like it, so haven't really played around with it very much.
So your, your memes in particular that you've created, they have these common themes of, as I mentioned before, general observations, annoyances, feelings that you get in specific circumstances.
And I see comments on your posts sometimes that say things like, all these memes really hit home.
It seems like your posts just really resonate with people. Do you ever get feedback from people privately, outside of socials? Like people come up to you or people send you emails or something? And, and what. What types of.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, so I get a lot of messages, you know, DMS on Instagram, LinkedIn, and I kind of feel like I'm sort of everybody's best friend in a way, you know, because I, you know, and I don't mind it at all. You know, the. Sometimes they sit there and like, oh, thank you for listening. And I'm like, you know what? That's what I'm here for, ultimately.
And, you know, they, they just need somebody to talk to so they don't feel alone, you know, because maybe there's people on their team that they don't necessarily get along with or, you know, the fact that they do relate to the memes that I post and whatnot. They're like, okay, she'll get it. Like, I'll get messages sometimes of, you know, people send me things and like, I figured you'd think this is funny, you know, or I figured you could relate to this because I very much can. I think that we all get a lot of the same experiences and situations that happen and it's, you know, interesting. A lot of the stories that I get and I hear, you know, what happens in Stick Em stays in Stick Em. So I'm never gonna name names or anything like that, but.
But it's just, I think, you know, I feel like I've made a lot of friends through stickem as well.
It's not just a meme page for me either.
It's really honestly become a community. And I've met some amazing people and there's, you know, such a wide range and variety of people that are on there too.
And even with LinkedIn, you know, getting messages on there. And then also TikTok, because I post a lot of my stuff on TikTok as well.
Just people who are interested in getting into the field, reaching out and having questions.
You know, I'm a big advocate for that and so I enjoy that aspect of it too.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: That's amazing. So. So you're bringing people together, you're recruiting people to the field.
And I noticed that one of your past posts said something like, not just good for funny memes and TikToks.
Do you feel like you get the same traction with educational posts as you do with the more comedic observational posts?
[00:35:07] Speaker C: I do, I think, because I've started posting a little bit more content of educational type stuff because I of course advocate hugely on Stick Em of sexy sass.
So doing the saphenous monitoring for ex lists and whatnot.
So I did an educational video for that and people really were like, oh my God, like, I didn't even know this was out there.
And just a lot of times too, I get messages from people because we just in general, like, just posting different things of, you know, like the LAR monitoring that we do now. And somebody's like, what is that? I never heard of that. And so it really kind of helps to spread the knowledge base of, you know, the new ways to monitor like linked quadrupolar stem and everything too. Some people still don't do that. They're still doing bipolar and whatnot, which is fine. You know, I think you can switch back and forth. But I'm a huge advocate of the quadrupolar stem.
You know, people still don't know about that. So I don't know if it's just the company or them themselves or why the information is not really getting out there.
But I've gotten probably just as much of a good response about the educational content as I have, you know, the funny memes and everything as well, because they really appreciate, you know, learning about different ways to do things or better ways to do things.
So I've definitely gotten a lot of good feedback about that as well. So I'm going to try to be posting a little bit more educational content and whatnot as well.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: I think that's great. You know, I, I think about, and I have for a while that companies and societies like asm, Asset, et cetera, need to find better ways to reach people.
And you know, I always say just because you say something doesn't mean somebody heard it, you know, so the communication is like two ways and how do we reach people with important information in bite sized chunks on platforms that they use?
And I don't think, you know, a lot of groups have been able to do this. And I think that's why you have a lot of people out there that don't know that LAR is a way of monitoring recurrent laryngeal nerve, superior laryngeal nerve.
And I think in some ways what you're doing is a litmus test that a lot of people should look at and say, is there some way that we can use a similar method to reach people and to educate them in bite sized chunks and advance this field?
Because we can all post things on LinkedIn. That's not necessarily where people go. We can publish papers, people don't necessarily read them or have access to them. People don't necessarily go to websites like society websites.
So I think this is great because I think it's, in some ways it's laying the groundwork for maybe new methods that could be considered and used for communicating with people, educating them, whether it's about techniques or surgical procedures, et cetera, et cetera. So I, I think that's just really amazing that, that you're doing this and you're finding this level of success.
Speaking of memes and going back to some of the funny things.
I don't know why, but one of my favorite ones you've ever done is the one with the reps who cut the sleeves off the rep scrubs.
And I don't know why, it just seems so bro y. It seems so like reppy, you know, do you have a. Well, and let me also say that there's another one that. Oh God. I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's like, why did you stay in neuro monitoring and love it. And it says that's childhood trauma right there or something.
[00:39:11] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: And then as I said before, like anything that. That talks about going for 12 hours without eating but. But for you, do you have one thing that you look back at and say that it's like your favorite meme or your favorite video that you did?
[00:39:25] Speaker C: Oh, gosh, I've made so many. One of my. I guess it actually probably one of the earlier ones that I made and it was actually a little bit before. I remember one of the anesthesia pages posted something kind of similar, but it's Carrie from the movie Carrie. You know when she has the pig's blood all over her and on her face and whatnot. And I think it says something to the effect of like when they flip the patient over after you've taken out all your head leads and you know, this is the blood you're stripping down and everything because you know that's like the number one complaint is just like, oh, you know, neuromonitoring, making the patient bleed. I'm like, listen guys, it's the bloodletting. It's what actually fixes them. Okay? So I'm doing you a favor.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: That's funny, I didn't seen that one. But I have to go look for it.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: I think it's like almost at the bottom of the page because it's one of like the very first ones that I put out. So there's. There's a lot of them.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Okay, I'll have to go look for that.
So going back to something I was going to say a few minutes ago, but I wanted to wait to say if it. You know, you said that you've made a lot of friends with, with your posts and, and the groups that you created.
You've also made a lot of fans. So when I was at asm, for example, I remember that you had I think a happy hour there. And I remember a bunch of people saying, oh, you know, the stickum girls having a happy hour. Like they didn't even know your name, but they knew who you were and what you were doing. Or they would point and say, that's the stickum girl over there.
So you have really. Oh my God, yeah, totally. But you have a lot of people to admire you. Is there somebody in the field that you can point to that you admire?
[00:41:13] Speaker C: Oh God, there's a lot of people.
But I would say probably one of my trainers. I don't know if anybody knows the name Eugene Castro. He's been in the game for a while.
Kind of a crazy wild card.
But I think he kind of helped me become the Sean that I am today and really helped me come out of my shell in this career and whatnot. Cause you know, I feel like when I started this field and this career is kind of like this little timid little girl. And then I've kind of really come in into my own. And he certainly helped me with that, you know. Cause he's like, listen, this is one of the best jobs that you're going to get.
It's fun, you know, it's exciting. Just have a good time with it. And I think that's kind of where my mentality has come from, is definitely from him.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: That's great. It's always good to have people like that in your life and particularly at work. So a lot of people seem to gravitate toward you not just for the comedy, but for the education, for the information.
What's your go to source for information, whether that's on socials or somewhere else. How do you kind of advance your knowledge and advance your career?
[00:42:33] Speaker C: Honestly, other semens, especially through sick em and everything.
I am definitely not an expert or savant when it comes to neuromonitoring. I'm good at my job. But if you were to ask me to spit facts at you, it would take me a while.
But there's a lot of people that follow the page and are part of the community that are my go to. Like if I have a question that I don't know, I'm like, hey, you know, what would you monitor for this procedure? Or you know, what do you think about this? And honestly, that where I get a lot of my information from and it's amazing, I think because it's such a wide platform to be sharing knowledge for neuromonitoring and you know, like people will send me questions and be like, hey, can you ask, you know, what about this modality? Like if we're doing, you know, this type of craniotomy, like what type of Modalities, would you suggest? Because I'm trying to talk to a surgeon and convince him of this and whatnot, and I can pull the masses and, you know, all the feedback that we get is amazing.
And it's, you know, I think, very good that way because you are not only getting, you know, the more advanced people who have, you know, years and years and years of experience, but you have, you know, some of the people that are just starting out in neuromonitoring. And so their knowledge base isn't as wide, so they're able to easily pull this information from these more experienced and everything through the page.
And so that's, I think, definitely been really good to be able to do that.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like a form of crowdsourcing.
Speaking of, you mentioned newer people in the field.
If you could point to a particular personality trait or strength that makes someone particularly good at this work.
And this is something that we used to talk about and kind of in interviewing people like, what type of personality is. Is, you know, what we think is successful. What do you think is a particular trait or strength that someone should have in order to be successful in neuromonitoring?
[00:45:01] Speaker C: I honestly think probably the number one trait would be the ability to adapt because this is a field that is constantly changing, very unpredictable.
You need to be able to think on your feet and be quick about it.
You not only need to, you know, adapt in the way of being able to troubleshoot your case or anything like that, but the different personalities that you're going to deal with in the operating room. As far as surgeons, you know, you'll have one surgeon one day who's, you know, Mr. Happy Go Lucky, super nice guy, but he's, you know, typically kind of slow side as far as, like, pace with surgery and whatnot.
And then the next day you might have, you know, a raging control freak who, you know, doesn't like any music played. You know, everything has to be just so and so. You need to really be able to adapt to those different personalities and kind of mold your behavior to their sort of. To be able to, you know, I think essentially survive in the or.
And I think that's probably I, in my opinion, the number one personality trait is definitely to be able to adapt and do it quickly.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, super important.
I couldn't agree more. Maybe, maybe in addition to that, I would say somebody who has. I like to talk about the difference between situational awareness and situational understanding.
So not just being aware of what's going on around you, but understanding what's happening and taking it to the next level so that you can even anticipate the needs of the people around you. And, you know, the more that you understand about what's happening, the better you can be at monitoring because you understand, you know, risks and et cetera, et cetera, in surgery. So.
But that adaptation is so important.
Somebody to be able to do, as you said, work with different people, have a schedule that's unpredictable, that the need to adapt is almost like definition of what it takes to be in neuromonitoring.
So let's see, what's. What's one lesson that you think that. That this job has taught you, that you think everyone should learn at some point?
[00:47:34] Speaker C: I think honestly it.
Have fun with it and laugh no matter what.
I don't know. I'm one of those people where it's like, I try to find the humor in everything.
Even if your life is spiraling out of control, it's like you need to be able to kind of laugh about it and not take it too seriously. Because I think if you do, it'll really start to dampen your mood and just kind of send you into this spiral of, you know, negativity and whatnot. And I just think you. You can't do that in healthcare in general.
And I think a lot of people in healthcare have that kind of mentality of, you know, we have a very serious job, but we need to not take it personally, I guess is sort of what I'm saying. And try not to take it home and just laugh about it. For sure.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And you've very much created that outlet not just for yourself, but for other people who contribute to it as well. So it is so important to not take yourself too seriously and just be able to laugh it off. Sometimes, no matter how bad it gets it, it really helps to just not fall into that. That burnout that happens when you just take things too seriously. You're stressed out all the time.
You need to be able to do things like vent and just release sometimes.
So imagine somebody who's not in first grade who wants to go into neuromonitoring.
What would be some advice that you might give them for is it's somebody who's. Who's thinking about pursuing a career in neuromonitoring and they're looking for some advice to you aside from don't do it.
[00:49:33] Speaker C: Don'T do it.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So what advice would you have?
[00:49:38] Speaker C: So I would say to definitely make sure you talk to several people that are actually in the field to get different perspectives, because I think everybody sees this field and career differently. So it's good to get a lot of different opinions and mindsets about the career because not everyone is made for this life or career.
I think it takes a very special individual to do this career and do it long term.
I also think that you definitely need some childhood trauma. No, but, you know, I think that they really need to sit down and think to themselves what this career entails. A lot of the people that I talk to that have contacted me through Instagram or TikTok and everything, you know, they're not in the field yet, but they're thinking about it or they got an offer to go into a training program and everything like that. I'm very blunt. I'm like, listen, this is not an easy career. I love this career passionately, but it's definitely not something that you should take lightly.
You know, Definitely think about the different challenges you can face. If you have kids, if you plan to have kids, if you're married to somebody who's not in healthcare. I think that, you know, can place a strain on relationships too. If you have somebody who doesn't totally understand, especially our schedule, you know, like me being a single mom, not dating, but when I was, you know, trying to find somebody who understands that whole schedule thing, it's like, oh, well, I'd like to take you out for dinner on Tuesday or whatever. Like, well, I don't know if that's possible, you know, because I don't my schedule yet. I don't find out till the night before.
The case could run long. You know, it poses a lot of different challenges. And so I tell everybody that I talk to, you know, this is the cold, hard truth of it.
Think about it, make sure it's something that you want to do. You know, this career is amazing and it's interesting and it will definitely keep you interested and passionate, but it comes with the dark side as well. I guess you could say that is just prevalent with this line of work, I think, in healthcare in general.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: So true and such good advice. I mean, you really need to know what you're getting into before you do.
I think most people don't. I certainly didn't. It was just kind of trial and error and learn the way the world of neuromonitoring works over time. And as you said, adapt. And that's what makes us good.
Well, we're going to sign off here in a second. You have the microphone. You have a big following out there in the world. Is there Anything that you want to say to your followers?
[00:52:46] Speaker C: Just mostly I appreciate every single one of you and, you know, let's keep this community getting bigger and bigger and better. Excuse me, you know, because I really think that we've created something special and it turned into this amazing thing of networking and friendship. And, you know, I honestly, I wouldn't be anything without everybody that follows and laughs at my means. Yeah, I can send them out, but, you know, if they don't like it and whatnot, I wouldn't be doing it, you know, because it's not just for me.
It's mostly, you know, for everybody that follows. I, you know, I get gratification out of the fact that people message me and they say, thank you so much, I need that laugh today. Or, you know, I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way. I think that's very important and I think it's just kind of ingrained in my personality. But I just, you know, thank you to all of them because I definitely would not be stick em without them.
[00:53:56] Speaker A: Well, you've created a wonderful community. You've touched a lot of people. You help them get through your day, their days.
And I'm sure they would all like to say thank you to you too. So I'll do it on their behalf. Thank you.
[00:54:12] Speaker B: Wow, I've really enjoyed that interview. Danielle touched on so many topics that I discussed in previous episodes like unpredictable schedules, long hours, going long periods without eating, feelings of isolation, the importance of building relationships. Relationships and the importance of owning your craft. Danielle really knows how to reach people and connect with them. She's building a community so people feel like someone out there understands them so they don't feel alone. And she's able to crowdsource information and education about newer optimal techniques. I love it. A big thank you to Danielle Stewart for taking the time out of her day to join the podcast. Make sure you follow Stick em on socials. Okay, that's it for today. Thanks to all my listeners and everyone sending me questions and comments. Please keep them coming. You can send them to stimulatingstuffpodcastmail.com I'd love to hear from you. I'm Rich Vogel and that was stimulating stuff.
[00:55:17] Speaker D: The information and opinions provided in this podcast are those of the individual speakers and do not represent the opinions of their employers, affiliates or other third party individuals or organizations. Sponsorship and other advertising messages do not constitute support of or preference for specific products or services. This podcast is not designed to and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, opinion, treatment or services.
This podcast is host and all participants, including guests and sponsors collectively. Participants provide general information for entertainment purposes only. The information provided in this podcast is not a substitute for medical or professional opinion, and you should not use the information for that purpose. Participants shall not be held liable or responsible for any advice, course of treatment, diagnosis, or any other information, services or product you obtain or render. This podcast should not be used in any legal capacity whatsoever, including, but not limited to establishing a standard of care in a legal sense or as a basis for expert witness testimony. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on the podcast. Thank you for listening.
[00:56:35] Speaker C: Sam.
