Navigating Maui's ER Through Fire Aftermath & Tourist Challenges Ep. 4
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- Meet Rowan Funes - Born and raised in Maui, Hawaii, he's an Air Force Veteran who was stationed in the UK. Rowan holds a BSN from the University of Central Florida. He began his nursing career in the PCU and, after 6 years, transferred to the ED in 2020. Outside of work, Rowan is a dedicated husband and father to a 23-year-old daughter with autism. As a token of appreciation for the recognition, he's planning a celebratory BBQ with his close friends and family!
00:00 - Introduction to Rowan: ER Nurse's Journey
05:03 - The Unique Challenges of ER Nursing in Maui
10:24 - Teamwork and Dynamics in the ER
15:51 - Dealing with Major Incidents: Fires and Mass Casualties
21:03 - Managing Tourist-Related Injuries in Maui
26:42 - Operational Challenges in Maui's Sole ER
30:29 - Key Practices for Effective ER Nursing
35:00 - Navigating Stress and Unusual Situations in ER
39:52 - Lessons Learned from ER Experience
44:15 - Public Health Insights and ER Advice
Please take a moment to rate us on Spotify and Apple Podcast. We'd appreciate if you could follow us, leave a comment, activate notifications, and share our content on your social media. Your support helps us reach more people. Thank you!
Link to Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0LxFDnY...
Link to Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
If you have a healthcare co-worker who you believe is a Badass MuFKR and deserves a $1000 bonus, nominate them here www.badassmufkr.com/
A Badass MuFKR is someone you know you can rely on during a shit storm of a full moon on a Friday night. Someone who, when you see at work, you automatically know it’s gonna be a good shift because that MuFKR showed up. I want to meet them and highlight them on my platform and give them $1000 for being a Badass MuFKR. Let’s finally show the world the amazing people in our Healthcare community.
What'd you think of the episode with Rowan?! Please give us a thumbs up, download on Spotify/Apple if you plan to watch later! Links below
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0LxFDnYVxqIMLYM5eq6eCF?si=2524e960353e487d
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/badass-mufkr/id1708994973
This was such an incredible interview with Rowan! 🫶🏽 Thank you for sharing this with all of us.
I know you can't always answer our questions but i want to know, if i ask for help with suicidal thoughts, will they lock me in a physc (not sure how to spell this) ward? I have a family and i can't afford to be away from work. My mental health isn't worth making them homeless. What happens if they decide I need to go to a mental institution or something?
Braddah, mahalo for your service Rowan! Mahalo both for the conversation!
I was on Maui last weekend for an inter island conference. I was surprised to see how much the locals were still affected by the fire emotionally. We here on Oahu seemed to have moved on, but they are still so, so affected. They still need support.😢❤️
Steve you cover this with so much compassion and kindness. What a fantastic conversation.
From one ER nurse to others, I feel this in my soul ❤ love the optimism and joy that Rowan has. What a hero ❤
Unless you have an ER nurse in your life, there's no way for most people to hear these amazing stories! So thanks Steve, for shining a light on the BAMF!!
I've been following this from the beginning...Daily Prayers. I can't deal with hearing his stories right now. This was murder, plain and simple. Temps so hot that the wheels on cars melted incinerating everything. ??? No Alarm?? Water turned off"..??? Cops blocking traffic so people could not escape? "The Rock that is Black" wanted a return on their investment.
Hi Steve. The time stamp on your video is 35: 47 and I have to turn it off. You guys are talking about the wild fire. In 5 days, we'll be "celebrating" the 5th anniversary of the Camp Fire here in Paradise, CA. And it was exactly the same thing for us . . . I lost everything
Hi Rowan! It's good to know Maui has great ER nurses. Administration is key and we all hope the private equity people who are running MMMC will understand Hawaiian culture and values. It's important the Mainland investors understand this. Thanks for all you nurses do for the community!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
On Oahu at Kapiolani we got a lot of Baby Moon Hawaii vacation preemies and Make a Wish trip kids. You are so right about how lovely the locals are. So polite and kind. I could spot a tourist from a mile away. If someone was acting rude: 99% likely a tourist.
Maui holds a special place in my heart. What happened in Lahaina is so beyond heartbreaking. Thank you for having Rowan onto share his experiences working at the PCU in Maui.
Retired R.N. here. I used to work night shift at a hospital IN the Tacoma, WA hilltop area. I used to assess what type of shift I was gonna have by the number of cop cars, swat team vans, and fire trucks I counted from the exit off 1-5 to the hospital staff parking. Combine that number with full moons, weekends, and holidays... and nights got really interesting!
Sounds like TG lol
Thank you for your service 🙏
-a fellow Washingtonian (Lakewood)
I was in Maui memorial hospital for a while right after the fires. They handled it great considering all.
I appreciate nurses so very much. When i was in icu for about a month my fav nurse would braid my hair so i would look a little better when my parents visited on Sundays. I run into her sometimes at the hospital and give her a big hug. She was a "hard nose" nurse and that motivated me. I would make deals like if I walk this far i get a cup of ice. I have bad anxiety and I was freaking out when my lungs filled with fluid and she would tell me to slow my roll. A day after I got home I had a stroke like migraine and couldn't move the right side of my body. My husband was driving me to the ER and got lost. In my head I heard Beverley say slow your roll and thanks to that I was able to stay calm and think and give directions and get to help. Nurses Rule!
The biggest hospital in Colorado Springs has an entire ER psych unit, locked exit doors, dedicated nursing staff, an isolation (padded) room, specialized full ER life saving equipment that can't be used as weapons. Pretty bad ass for an ER set up. The local hospital has a couple of specialized rooms that have shutters that block off the medical equipment, have huge windows and cameras behind plexiglass, no idea if they have dedicated nursing.
I get the food thing. Any time I end up in the ER I try to order pizza for the staff, because I know that half of the time the nurses don’t get the time to eat. Food is fuel. It’s important to keep them going. Sometimes it’s the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes it’s midnight. They’ve saved my life so many times that it’s the least I can do. (Plus I am southern, so we are taught to feed everyone, lol.) I never tell them it’s from me, so it’s always fun to see people get excited because there is pizza in the break room and to hear them trying to figure out who sent it. The security staff knows my secret and helps me in exchange for their own pizza, but last time the charge nurse dragged it out of them and came and thanked me.
Regarding the travel nurses, from what I understand, they often tend to be paid more than the local nurses, hence why so many nurses are traveling these days. I was talking to some nurses over the past year about it. Someone needs to create a house swapping website or app for travel nurses, so nurses can rent out their houses or sublease their apartments to other travel nurses while they are traveling to another area. That way they can cash in on the elevated pay grade of the travel position and save money on housing at the same time.
DEDICATED PSYCH NURSE???? That’s a great idea!!!!
Hawaiʻi local people are da best! I worked at a small hospital on Oʻahu and the patients (Older Japanese folks) were awesome. I loved the people I worked with and still call them friends. Cultures brought their food together at lunchtime and in the breakroom. In SooCal, I handed the UPS driver a cold bottle of water, he asked me if I was from Hawaiʻi because of my Hi Sessions teeshirt. He was a Maui boy and his friends lost much in the fire. Thank you Rowan for all you do.
Listening to Rowan and about the community makes me miss home (Maui) so much!
All 4 episodes have been bangers so far. Excited for more!
Thank you for showing how nurses are really good people. After 40 years as a psychiatric nurse, I am now retired and relate to so much of your content. I worked mostly in North Carolina where there is no patient/nurse ratio and no state law to get breaks. I have had Type ! Diabetes for 50 years and have experienced rough times with no breaks over a 12-16 hour shift - when orange juice was my friend. The staff had to have each other's backs because we were truly in the trenches together. I have called a code (psychiatric) for a violent patient when no one came. In retrospect, I do think nurses have some special protection as I never got seriously hurt.
Hi Steve, I am absolutely blown away by the empathy and respect you’re showing to Rowan! He is a terrific gentleman who has a true vocation to his work and by the same token so are you honey! Keep on keeping on! Brilliant video, thanks and respect!🙏🏻👍🏻🤗🤩🕊! Px
My dad was an ER doctor & my niece (RN) works nights in the ER. (Her sister is a nurse but not in the hospital. Their mom is a nurse.) My parents actually met in medical school-and my sister is a radiologist-my grandmother was a nurse! Lots of other Med-related workers in the fam. So I find your stuff very familiar. Thanks!
I’ve noticed patients and family members are a lot more aggressive in the ICU these days. Recently I heard a patient’s family member flipped it and said the staff have been less helpful, less cleaning of rooms, less empathy, MDs don’t take them seriously, etc.. He thought it was due to going thru covid. It made me take stock. I definitely want to be more aware that staff and patients/visitors are not fueling each other’s bad moods.
There is so much at play, and people's fears on both sides are fueling issues, based on my observations and understanding of human nature.
It only takes one person to interrupt the downward spiral, one person willing to reclaim their humanity and extend compassion to the person opposite them.
When I teach workshops, that's the focus of my workshops, that each of us has the ability to make things better. The choice is up to us.
The biggest block I run into, is everyone's exhaustion. Who is supposed to do the [extra] work, of extending the extra compassion?
Sadly, the majority of the time, it's the person with the fewest resources who is expected to be "the better person"....which accelerates the expenditure of their limited resources (spoons, energy, compassion and patience are some of the most valuable resources).
Thank you! I had 6 patients in step down/ telemetry before Arnold implemented pt-nurse ratios here. Thank you for confirming its unmanageable load. I thought smth was wrong w me!
I like at the end.. yes, give babies Tylenol.. we do by weight.. 1 ml for 0-3 month, 2ml, 3-6.. and so on.. then also use cold packs (ice in bags) wrapped in a tea towel, and place it on their groin, under arms, and maybe just a cool bath to help.
I'm glad I have grown up in a rough beach city. Either go under the wave or curl up into a ball and let it drag you. I was caught in a rip as a 12yo and dragged out far, wave after wave over my head, just had to stay calm and try reserve my breath until I was free enough to swim to the shore. Man, that was the closest I've been to just snuffing out my life.
Same. The worst was getting pummeled by a wave I could do nothing to get out of it, even with occasionally getting footing in the sand. It broke where the surf wasn’t breaking right then and exponentially bigger than our avg 7-9 ft. that day. My face was pushed in the sand and just held there. Long enough I almost drown, that pre-black out experience. I have a scar in my cornea from the demand that was shoved in my eyelid in my right eye (I see a black dot, my “molecule” 🤣)!
I grew up in this city, home break, surf competitions held there all the time, but that wave was evil lol! Not sure where it came from or why it loved me so much. Got pulled out a different time. Exhausting, but easier to deal with. That SUCK you had a mix of both, I’m glad your wave soIt you out a little faster!
Night shift has a special connection. They have less resources, so they need to trust who they are working with , who has their back
It was day 2 of my two week vacation in Maui. First time in the ocean and as I was leaving the ocean after swimming a wave came by and took hold of me pulling me around and eventually smacking me down to the ocean floor. Luckily it was sandy and I didn’t hit any rocks. My chin hit the floor swinging my head up towards my back. I actually thought I died in that moment but am extremely grateful I had no injuries from it aside from needing to get my chin glued up. I couldn’t get it wet for 2 weeks. My neck was also sore for a few days. I learned VERY quickly you should always respect the ocean. Now I have a bit of a wave phobia and a scar on my chin but I’m grateful that’s all I walked away with. I’m from Minnesota so the ocean was not familiar to me. Apparently the waves were especially large that day too so I should have been more cautious. I walked away with a lesson learned. So scary thinking of what could have happened.
While I currently have a no travel to Florida ban in place for myself, now I have another reason - Nurses are underwater their entire shift. No thank you. Don’t want to risk that.
FL nurses underwater constantly!! No FL hospital is safe!! Straight from a FL nurse. These retirees and tourists are playing Russian roulette with their healthcare!! You definitely don’t want to get seriously sick in FL!!😢
Woo! Knew was Big beach! Earned its name! Don't mess with that shore break! When in doubt don't go out!
I helplessly watched a family member's desperate attempts to get care during the last year of her life, and I think the management style of clearing patients out as fast as possible happens in the main part of the hospital too - at least where I live.
It seemed like there was a rhythm to it. The doctor comes into the ER, and makes some promises and acts like they have all the answers, so the patient agrees to be admitted. Then they just try for the most obvious diagnosis. If that doesn't work out, they kick the patient out. The sicker my relative got, the faster she was booted.
Hopefully what happened to her was a worst case scenario. She had a lot of disadvantages. Her illness didn't show, she was very thin, maybe didn't look quite white enough, she was in pain, and her regular doctor was a control freak who was stalking her with HIPAA and contacting every doctor she saw. She literally couldn't get a second opinion to save her life.
The fire was so bad, so unimaginable that this happened in Maui. Really terrifying. Praying that things are getting better for people there.
Unfortunately what happened to your family member is just ingrained into the American medical system. It goes back to the first years of medical school "if you hear galloping, do not look for a zebra, look for a horse" this has created a type of bandaid mentality of factory farmed medicine. Physicians in America are being taught what to think not how to think which leaves them falling short in areas of diagnosing. They just are lacking in critical thinking skills.
Hi Rowan! Thank you for your service, very grateful for it though I'm across the country.
When you have a country where 1 in 4 people deals with mental health issues and there is a dearth of practicing psychiatrists and the only choice in an emergency or after office hours is the ER _and all the answering services say go to the ER_ do you wonder why you get flooded with us?
It's not fair to anyone and burdens everyone.
We need more psych practitioners. We need weekend practitioners. We need practitioners to take patience that day or within a week, not 2 months out.
Never met a traveling nurse I didn’t like!!❤❤Travelers!!❤️❤️ Psych background a definite +❤️
I love these videos! So interesting! Also, I remember those waves at Big Beach when I was in Maui, and they were intense.
I shall watch this as my 1hr cardio work out ❤
Thursdays are my new favorite day!
My favorite interview so far.
Rowan, you are awesome. :D
OMG...I worked on B2 at Stanford for a few years and then Security. Used to LOOOOVE ER calls in security. Didn't know you were at Stanford!!!
Great Podcast and awesome guest. 🤙
We call them bubbleheads, the tourists who ride down the volcano. One year, for Halloween, my coworker (who often had to drive up and down that road) decorated the front of his truck with a mangled bike, yellow rain suit and a bike helmet (hence the bubble head nickname). I would see tourists wobbling about in the early morning at the top of Haleakala, and I'm thinking, wow that guy prolly hasnt been on a bike since he was a kid! And don't get me started on the tourists who cook themselves to death, exploring steam vents on the Big Island, despite common sense and warning signs.
Need to see you in Wisconsin!
❤I want your Spam chili recipe!!!!❤🤤🤤
I brought my kiddo to the ER with the flu once. During covid. Because the Tylenol wasn't working. But! We didn't have motrin at home to alternate. He had a couple Popsicles and some motrin and he was walking around the nurses station in no time 😂
Came early....✋️😂
❤
"My daughter is nonverbal autistic, so ....."
"Oh"
This was kind of funny ngl
Definitely a BadAss, fluffy, mfer!!❤😂
To be working your normal 12hr shift and hearing people come in and say “everything is gone” 😱😰WTF??😰
I think people lost socialization skills during covid. I know I had problems during the height just dealing with non compliant people (welcome to Florida) and managed to scream at a lady in the grocery store touching alllllll the tomatoes while unmasked. It has definitely made all of us with any mental health issues regress and have more problems dealing in public or stressful situations. I have to consiously remind myself to be kind, to be nice, and everyone is just trying to get through the day.
FL nurse and ancillary staff ratio is the worst of anywhere in the entire country!! These retirees and tourists lives are totally in jeopardy!! YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SERIOUSLY SICK IN FL!!😢😢
Violence is increasing because it's getting harder and harder for lower income people. And COVID upped the the general sense if alienation considerably.
News flash ! Maui Memorial is not a HOSPITAL. Read the title on the front of your building. It is a health care facility. Different regulations and services. Maui needs to build a real HOSPITAL in Lahaina. State of the art teaching hospital. One that can pass industry standards & requirements
More people need to take first aid courses to understand the difference between urgent care and emergency care.
First