NursiConnect: Inpatient Virtual ICU Nurse

The NursiConnect podcast discusses inpatient virtual nursing. Sydney, a guest on the show, shares her experience transitioning from in-person nursing to remote nursing. She highlights the importance of networking to secure remote positions and discusses the interview process for virtual nursing. Sydney mentions that virtual nursing is a game changer and can help alleviate nurse burnout. The role of an inpatient virtual nurse includes functions such as admissions, discharges, clinical rounding, medication sign-off, skin checks, and mentoring. Sydney worked in the ICU and mainly saw respiratory and cardiac patients. Virtual nurses also assist with verifying medication drips and ventilator settings. The virtual nursing role is expanding into different specialties. Overall, Sydney believes virtual nursing provides a better work-life balance. Welcome to the NursiConnect podcast. My name is Ava Faye. I am the Chief Executive and Founder of the Remote Nurse Staffing Agency, NursiConnect. In today's episode, we'll be talking about inpatient virtual nursing. I know this is y'all's favorite, y'all love this so much. So I had to go grab me an inpatient virtual nurse, that is not me, to talk about their experience. So we do have a guest today. I'll let her introduce herself. Welcome to the show, Sydney. Hello, everybody, I am Sydney. I am so glad and so honored to be on NursiConnect. Thank you for having me, Ava. Yes, thank you for coming on, Sydney, y'all. And she's got her baby with her, three months. So if you hear a little cooing and crying, just know she got that baby on her, okay? All right, so let's get right into the episode, okay? So Sydney, can you share your nursing experience, how you got from in-person nursing to remote nursing? So let's get started. Of course, so I'll just give a little bit of background about my nursing beforehand. I've been a nurse for about two and a half years now. ICU is my background, which I really feel like that kind of helped me leverage and dip into the remote virtual world. I wouldn't say that's the only way you can get in, but I feel like I was able to kind of play off of those ICU skills that I have. I will say that getting into virtual nursing, a lot of that came from my own research and being on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram groups, things like that. And Ava is actually one of the people that inspired me on social media. I saw her posting and everything, and I connected with her and, you know, things just took off from there. Yay, yes, y'all, networking to get remote positions is a must because who you know is gonna help you get placed, okay? So you got into inpatient virtual nursing. Do you kind of remember the interview process? What was that like? The questions they asked you, things like that? I do remember slightly some of the questions they do ask. I will say it's pretty similar to what I was asked. I will say it's pretty similar to if you were, you know, in the hospital and interviewing for a floor position in terms of the skills that you have. Are you a team player? Are you able to, you know, work around change? But also they do ask, have you worked remotely before? You know, because it is a different kind of work environment and they wanna be sure that you have the space for it as well as the mental capacity, because it is very different. You just have to be able to kind of, that's just another type of nursing. You have to be able to kind of go with the flow in that. Other than that, I would say the questions were pretty standard. And I think when you do go into the interview, it's really important for you to kind of think this is nursing, nursing is the same all across the board. So just answer those questions as if you were interviewing for a floor position. The knowledge is still the same, so. Yeah, I kind of remember in my inpatient virtual nursing interview, they just asked me like, it was very technology forward. So they kept asking me things like, have you worked with Epic? Have you ever worked with Cerner? Like, you know, making sure I understood how to use those EMRs, because I do use them every single day. And sometimes I'll use Epic one hour and then I'm on Cerner the next hour, like, because that's just the way, that's just the flow of virtual nursing. But those questions did stand out to me. So I do remember that in my interview. Now, Sydney, when you started working as an inpatient virtual nurse, what did you think of the role? I know it's kind of a newer role in nursing. It's not something we were trained to do in nursing school. So how did you feel when you got into the role and when you start doing the work? I think virtual nursing is a blessing to nurses on the unit. And I wish I could, and maybe one day I will be able to experience it being on the floor and being on the other side. However, I think giving that assistance to that nurse, because we know, we worked on the floor, we know how difficult it can be, all of the things you have to do. And yeah, 12 hours is a long time, but we have multiple patients and different things you gotta put in hierarchy and all that stuff. It gets real overwhelming. So I think even simple things like admissions, that can really put a dent in your day and push you back. So, having an inpatient nurse help you with an admission, doing skin checks, that helps a lot, because you do have to have that secondary, or just that buddy to say, okay, yeah, I did check the skin. They didn't come in with any wounds or their skin looked nice or whatever. It is nice just to have that because sometimes pulling your buddy from the left and right of you isn't ideal either. If I'm running around, my neighbor's probably running around too. So I really think, yeah, virtual nursing is, it's not what I expected. And I don't think a lot of people still understand the concept of it until you're in the position. But I definitely think it's a game changer. And I think a lot of hospitals are kind of getting on it and starting to kind of adapt that, which I think they should. I feel like it will help with nurse burnout as well as just a nice collective work environment for us and them on floor. Yeah, so I can relate to that, Sydney. When I started working as a virtual nurse or inpatient virtual nurse, and for the people listening that don't know what an inpatient virtual nurse is, it's basically you're like a virtual resource nurse. So you have six main functions that you're responsible for. You do admission virtually, discharge the patient virtually, you do clinical rounding, you do medication sign-off, skin check, and you mentor the nurses on the unit. Again, all of this is fully remote. So there's cameras in patient's rooms and that's how we're able to access the patients and do the virtual care. Okay, so just to clear that up for the people that are like, what are y'all talking about? That's what we're talking about. And so when I started working virtual nursing too, I noticed I'm like, this is not only helping the patients, but the nurses. I was reading a white paper the other day about how in virtual nursing, it was saying at UTMC in a 16 month span, the virtual nurses did like 1,600 discharges, saving the bedside nurse 19 days of work. I was like, that is a lot. I know, and they didn't have to be present in the room. So when Sydney said this is a game changer, that's what she's talking about. Like the discharge, same thing for the admission. You get an admit, right? Now, all you have to do as the in-person nurse is make sure your patient is stable. And then you call the virtual nurse. Hey, I got a new admit in room 732. And you go in there and you do the whole admission virtually. It is, like Sydney said, it's gonna change the way we deliver care as nurses and how our patients receive care. Now, I haven't been on the other side. Like Sydney said, I've only been a virtual nurse doing the care and not the bedside nurse working with the virtual nurse. But we're gonna bring another guest on to talk about that because that's another layer of it. But yeah, so virtual nursing, that's what we're talking about when we start talking about that. So Sydney, do you think, let me back up, cut. Oh, right here. What type of patients did you see when you were working as an inpatient virtual nurse? Oh, so I worked in the ICU and I will say I saw very sick patients. Of course, I was in the MICU. So the medical ICU. And a lot of the patients, it would be respiratory patients and cardiac patients. So a lot of your normal ICU patients you'll see that maybe didn't do very well in surgery. Those were the type of patients that I was seeing. Okay, did they ever call you to like verify you or help titrate you, the drips or anything like that? Yes, they did. They did that as well as verifying on the, I can't think of the, the machine that they hook the patients up when they intubate them. What is this? The ventilator? Yes, okay. Restart. Restart. So they also, not only did they call us to verify and titrate some of the drips, but also the ventilator, we were supposed to just verify the ventilator settings in comparison with the vitals as well, just to make sure that they were consistent with what was ordered. See, that's nice, y'all. That is so nice to have another nurse doing that for you because like Sydney said earlier, like sometimes you have to prioritize certain tests at the bedside and sometimes you just don't get to certain things, but having the virtual nurse or having that extra person just to look at it for you. She don't have to be in the room, just to look at it and let you know what's going on with your patient. That is beautiful. Yeah, and I'll also add, Ava, that in ICU, most of the time you only have two patients, but when you have them both on ventilators or whatever, CRT or whatever, heavy dialysis, that's a lot. And somebody's life is on the line on any unit, right? But ICU is just really critical. So I think the ICU nurses probably really appreciate that just verifying those settings. That's something very small. I know they still do it, but just to have the second check, it's just safety across the board. Yeah, and it's interesting to hear your perspective because I've only been on the med surge side. So I've only seen your standard med surge patients. So to hear you talk about the ICU, it's like, OK, that's exciting because virtual nursing, it's going to get to the point where it does branch off into specialties. So mother-baby, PACU, OR, L&D. I think we had a few in the emergency room, I think. But so far, it's heavy in the high turnover areas like med surge, ICU, and the ED. So it's very exciting to hear that it's starting to branch out. That's very cool to me. So Sydney, what was your work-life balance like when you started working as an inpatient virtual nurse? How did it change? Was it good, bad? I would definitely say working remotely changed. First of all, going from nursing on the floor to working remote in general changed my life because I was working night shifts, 312s, ICU. I mean, dead tired. Yeah, you have the rest of the week to do what you want. But the mental and physical stress you go through, kind of just when you do come home, sometimes you bring work home. You don't want to do anything, whether that's spilling to your personal life. I didn't really like that. But starting to work remotely and still being able to use my nursing degree definitely changed how I feel about nursing in general. I feel like my work-life balance, now that I do have a newborn, I am so grateful for remote nursing, virtual nursing. It's changed. I can be at home with my baby all day, every day. I don't have to necessarily have to do the breakaway. I have some maternity leave, go back to work. So it's been very nice. I think you do have to be very diligent about getting out of the house and doing things. But I am a homebody, so I love it. The work-life balance is great for me. Yeah, I agree with you, Sydney. I'm grateful for the fact that there's not many professions out there that offer the 312s remote. So nursing is eaten on that aspect. It was such a game-changer after I had my daughter. She was about eight months when I started working from home. And working three days, I was like, oh my gosh, am I going to be able to do this? But then when I had the four to eight days off, I was like, oh yeah, I can have her at home and work, have family help. This is so doable. It might be a little bit challenging if you're working five days a week, trying to have your baby instead of the three. But yeah, and I also agree, it changed the way I view nursing. I've been a nurse for three years, too. So it changed the way, like I said, virtual nursing was not a part of our training in nursing school, y'all. This is still something that is being studied and developed. And I hope it gets out real fast. It's going to be a way to retain nurses. And after I stopped working on the floor, I was like, is this all nursing is? I did all this to feel this tired? I was just so discouraged. And then when they were talking about it looking for virtual nurses, I was like, I don't care what it is, let me try it, I don't know. But let me get out of there. I definitely agree with you on that. Now my eyes are wide open on what nursing can be and what I should feel like when I'm working as a nurse. And I really, really do enjoy virtual nursing. I think all nurses need to try it really seriously. I mean, I created a whole business around it. I absolutely love virtual nursing. I think it is awesome. I know you're asking me questions, but I have a question for you. Do you think that you would ever go back to the floor? Would you do PRN? See, now that's a good question because hospitals are trying out this hybrid model where you work a few shifts virtual and you work one shift at the bedside. I would definitely do that. If I knew I could work a couple shifts virtual and a shift at the bedside, I think I could survive the bedside nursing. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, I think I would survive. But for right now, with my baby being the size she is, yeah, I mean, I need this in my life. And you know what? It was the best feeling about having this job. The fact that I didn't know it existed and it just kind of walked up only at the right time in my life, it just, and that's the good thing about nursing. You can really tailor it to what you need it to be instead of the other way around. There's not a lot of professions you can do that. You can just mix and match what you want. But that is the cool thing about nursing. And so to answer your question, yeah, I might go back if they pull that out. But just straight bedside full time? Absolutely not. Never again in life. And this is going to get into our next segment. But the fact that I was making what I was making working in the hospital, working from home, I was like, oh, what's up? Y'all cannot see me in that hospital for $27, $28, $29, $30, $31 when they were offering $31. And I'm like, that's what they offer when you work in a hospital? I was like, I'm not going back. I can't go back. I agree. And being from Texas, that's about what they want to start you off unless you have like 10 plus years. Because I have nursing friends who have been nurses for many different years. I mean, longer than I've been a nurse. And they're wanting to offer you $30 an hour to slave on the floor for 12 hours. That's disrespectful. Yeah. And when I saw that, go ahead. No, no, no, go. I saw, I was looking on Glassdoor. And it was saying a nurse with eight years of experience made like $80,000 or something like that. I'm like, eight years? Almost a decade? And y'all capping them at $80,000? Oh, no. Oh, no. So I was like, oh my God. I know. And I feel like a lot of people feel like they have to do overtime. Because, and this is off the schedule, off of anything that we're supposed to be talking about. But I do want to say, I feel like people think nurses make so much money. And ideally, yes, but I feel like you either have to have the experience or you have to be traveling. And it's not right. And I feel like the schooling we go through, the testing we go through, the training we go through, I feel like everybody should be started really $40 an hour. I don't care where you are. I really do feel like you, it's a lot. And to some people who feel like they have to pick up these shifts four days a week, five days a week, you're missing out on the beauty of having three days a week job. And I know a lot of people who pick up weekly just to keep up what they have at home. And I really do hate that. I really do. But like you said, you can pay the same thing, basic pay here, working remote, virtual, versus on the floor. Yeah, you have to pay me a lot more money to get me back. And I'm going to take it every time. When I post these videos on TikTok, I'm talking about why I don't want to do bedside nursing and things like that. People, they ask about what about your nursing skills and things like that. And I just feel like I'm not being compensated accordingly. Anyway, like you said, all the training that we had to go through, the debt some of us had to take on to get to that point. And if I do decide to go back up to the floor, they'll be there when I need them. But at this time, I'm just like, I know how to be the best virtual nurse on the planet, OK? And that's what I would keep doing until I can't do it anymore. It's keeping me in nursing. I would say that virtual nursing has kept me in nursing. And that's really what inspired me to start the Staffing Agency too, because I know there's 1,000, probably millions of nurses that feel like I feel, or feel like we feel, as far as slaving on the floor. And then just, like you said, not even enjoying having a job that's three days a week, having to pick up, you know? So, yeah. Jenny, I really could talk about this all day. I know. Cut me off. I really could. Oh, OK. What were we talking about? We were talking about pay. Yes. We talked about pay a little bit. Now, do you feel like you had to take a pay cut, go up from the floor to inpatient? I did. I did. Because I did, before I started virtual nursing, virtual nursing, I was taking a local contract. So it was a little bit more pay. I was making about $50 base. And then you have the differentials on top. So I did take a pay cut. However, my mental health is at 100% better working virtually. And I feel like that is a trade you give. And I understand bills have to be paid. I get that. And I understand that 100%. But just advice to anybody, when you are interviewing, just know and just be aware. It's either going to be about the same base pay, or it's going to be a little bit less. But you're in the comfort of your own home, not having to leave, not having to. It's just going out, and it's not even a desk job, right? You go Monday through Friday. You sit down. We are on the floor, going in these rooms 1,000 times a day. Somebody's life is on the line every single day. That's enough stress in general to put somebody out of nursing. So either you can deal with that, or you take the pay cut and be at home. So? So when I decided, because I did take a little bit of a pay cut, but it's only because I was a float pool nurse. We were getting like a $3 differential. So working, but I didn't want to be in the float pool anymore. So I was going to go down to what all the other new grads were making at the time, which was about $32, $31, $32. And I was like, well, we really sum it up. It's really the same. So but I did notice a change in some of my bills. My gas bill was number one. I lived 45 minutes away from the hospital I was working at. And I was probably spending like $60 a week in gas, $70. So I cut that bill out. And then, of course, I was paying the park at the hospital. Every check, they would take the money out. That's crazy. For me to work there. Yes. So I noticed that money, or I didn't realize how much of that parking bill was taking my check. Taking my check. So I stopped paying it. And then the child care, like not having to pay for child care right now in the United States is huge because on TikTok the other day, I heard this bill say it's like the second leading lingo, the highest house bill, or the highest cost for families today is just trying to find affordable child care. And it's steady going up. So I was like, I'm glad I had to cut that bill out because if I was working on the floor, I would have to put my daughter somewhere. Because even though it's three days, I still need somebody to watch her for the three days. And they're still going to charge me, like she's going there five days a week. So yeah. So I was happy that the pay cut, it happened. But I also feel like it was a little bit of a balance for some of the expenses that I was cutting out. Would you say that's the same for you or a little different? No, I would agree for sure. Because I was driving maybe 45 minutes as well. And so now I probably put gas in my car every, I don't know, two weeks, three weeks. I don't know. Exactly. It's just that I will also mention, I don't know what car insurance you have. But anybody out there who works remote, call your car insurance. And they may lower your rate because you work from home. I got Geico. They might lower your rate. OK, I'm going to have to make a note of that. Yes, I don't know what kind of people would ask for. My mom told me this. I feel like older generation, they just, my mom told me that, so yeah. It don't hurt to ask. It doesn't. Yeah, I heard of, you can also write up your home office on your taxes. I learned about that last month. See, I need to get an actual tax person. Yeah. That's what I heard. Thank you. That's what I heard. This is what I heard. I'm going to try it out this year because I'm also running a business in the same space. So we'll see how that works. Let me know. OK, I will let you know. Let's see. And then we talked about nursing skills. Well, how do you feel the remote work has impacted your nursing skills? I share my experience a little bit. How do you feel about it? Of course. I am PRN at a local hospital. I haven't started yet. I just got hired. However, I'm already having PTSD flashbacks, heart racing. I already don't want to go and pick up shoes. But I did it just because I feel like I don't want to lose my skills. And I think that's a lot of people's fear. But also, you have to remember, these hospitals have PRN positions if you feel that way. But my primary income and my primary work is going to be remote virtual nursing. But I'm also doing that because I'm considering going back to school. So I just want those clinical hours. However, I don't know. I really don't. And I just got hired, and it's so bad. When you work from home, it's going to be tough to leave the house. It's so hard for me to even just go to the grocery store. I know it's bad, but I just love being at home all the time. But I think you gain a different kind of, I wouldn't even say a different kind of skill. I still feel like you're in the chart. You're charting. You're using your critical thinking skills. Like in the ICU, sometimes when you video into the patient, they might look like they're in distress, or maybe a piece from the ventilator is off, or something of that sort. You do get the chance to call that nurse and say, hey, can you go in the room and just check on that patient? So you still get the feel of being on the floor and being helpful. It is very different, but you're still practicing your nursing skill set. It's just in a different way. You're still charting. You're still looking at the vitals. You're doing admins. You're talking to the patients. You're still in the atmosphere. So I feel like if you're OK with that, you'll be fine. But I think a lot of people are hooked up on, oh, if you're not working on the floor, you're not a real nurse. No, I went to school. I took the NCLEX. I graduated. I am a real nurse. I'm not going to be slaved out just because of what society says. I think just do what's best for you. Exactly. And me and Audrey talked about this on the last episode, too, just knowing that you're competent, you're qualified, no matter how you decide to use your license. As long as it's active at this point, baby, because we get nurses left and right. As long as your license is active and you are working, we are proud of you. You're doing great, OK? That's hard. You're doing great. So let's see. We talked about your nursing skills. Cut. Ava, can we get you back here? Let's see. We already talked about the interview, work-life balance. OK, now we're about to get into the wrap-up, OK? OK, Sydney, what would you say the best part of being, what is the best part of being a nurse for you? Really great question. I will say I love the flexibility of nursing, which we kind of already touched on. That's unmatched. It's not a lot of careers where you can switch up every year if you want to, but still be in that career. And you know what I mean. Nursing, if I want to be an L&D nurse next year, I can. If I want to be an ICU nurse, I can. If I want to be a provider, get my NP, I can do that. You want to work virtually, you can do that. You want to work insurance, you can do that. You want to be an NFL nurse, you can do that. You have so many different options to still be able to use that degree. So I love the flexibility of nursing. I love three 12-hour shifts. I'm sorry. I love it so much. I love having a weekday off because let me tell you, before COVID, I don't know. It's always people at the grocery store during the week now. But before COVID, going to the grocery store during the week or just doing anything during the week was amazing. Everybody was at work. It was just like, it's just God sent. You can just mosey around, posey around. Now it's like, I guess everybody's remote. I don't know. But I'll say just overall, it was a flexibility for sure. I love it so much. Yeah, the three 12s, like honest to goodness, before I became a nurse, I did not know that they worked three days a week. I was just like, OK, I'm just going to do nursing. Nurses working in a hospital, it's always open. So it just didn't click with me that I could only work three days until I started working it. And I've been working three 12s for the past three years. And seven to seven, I'm not mad at it. Come on. I'm not. And then right now, I'm still doing the self-scheduling. So I try to schedule myself three days in a row. And that way, I can have like eight days off and then come back without using any type of paid time off, which is very nice, very, very nice. So yeah, I agree with you on the three 12s and the flexibility, like you said. You said you're going back to school. What are you going back to school for? So ideally, when I started at ICU, I said, I'm going to be a CRNA. You cannot tell me otherwise. Ma'am, I started looking at what you needed to even apply. I'm good. It's already been five years since I've taken chemistry. I'm not taking that again. I'm not doing it. Shout out to the SRNAs and the CRNAs out there, but just where I am in my life. And two, if I really wanted it, I would do it. But I don't think I want it that bad. I was thinking either going back for informatics or my MP. I'm back and forth between those two. But I heard the nurses in clinical informatics are making six figures. That's what I heard. That's what I heard, too. And they're doing consulting. I was just going to go whole process about it. They are getting to it, these nurses. I don't know what all is required in the training, but good luck to me. Thank you. It's like we're like the same person because I wanted to be a CRNA, too. I wanted to do ICU. But I got skirted to med-surg, and I've been stuck in med-surg for a while now. But I hit this virtual path, and I was like, oh. Come on. Might be for me. I might just stay right here. So yeah, I definitely feel you on that. I was looking at CRNA schools. It was the money for me, $300,000. And then also, you know, nursing, you can apply for programs locally. You might have to uproot your whole life and family. I didn't see that, too. Yeah. And I was like, I'm not ready for all that. The money's good, CRNA, it is. Oh, absolutely. It's very, very good. But the sacrifice, and it was the fact that the money, the money for me. Going back to school, paying that much? No, thank you. Oh, good. But like you said, shout out to all CRNA. It's what we need, y'all. We need y'all. Yes. What would you say to all the nurses listening to this podcast who aspire to work from home or to get into inpatient virtual nursing? OK, I would tell them to keep going, stay persistent, utilize all of your resources before you ask. There's nothing wrong with asking, because I feel like, you know, that one question that you pop might, you know, you can connect with someone and, you know, build relationships and connections that way, absolutely. But I feel like it's really important for us to really utilize our resources. I mean, take it as like full-time job, applying, revamping that resume 1,000. You might have to do it 1,000 times. Use ChatGPT. I'm telling you, that there alone will help you with a lot of stuff. If you have issues doing a cover letter, type, help me write a cover letter for virtual nursing position. Boom. You don't, I mean, it's so easy. Like, just utilize your resources. I'll just say that much. And then just stay persistent. And even though you see on LinkedIn, I know it shows sometimes, 100 people apply for this position. This is what I found out. 100 people may have clicked the link, but not maybe 100 people clicked the link and filled the application out. So I would say still apply and still go through with it. And the way you format your resume definitely matters. I think they call it like ATS or some kind of AI tracking. But use a basic resume. You don't need colors. You don't need cursive. You don't need super basic. You know, just to get the job done. And just connect and just, you know, just Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. I mean, there's so many different resources out there. You can do it. You can do it. Well, thank you, Sydney, for sharing your experience and being on the show today. Again, my name is Ava. I'm the Chief Executive and Founder of the Remote Nurse Staffing Agency, NursiConnect. If you're looking for a remote nursing position, go ahead and click the link in the show notes to look at the NursiConnect website. If you're an employer looking to staff remote nurses, click the link to check out the website. Now, for nurses that are interested in inpatient virtual nursing, I have created an overview or a guide that you can use to get a better understanding of the job description, what we practice as virtual nurses, kind of the pay. And I also included some hospitals that are rolling out their programs. So maybe you can apply to those if they're in your area. Again, my name is Ava Goodday. I'm the Chief Executive and Founder of the Remote Nurse Staffing Agency, NursiConnect. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you in the next one. Bye, y'all. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪