This Nurse is a Pioneer Revolutionizing the Nursing Profession - Ep. 80
Andrea Dalzell is the first registered nurse in a wheelchair to get through nursing school in New York City. Diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis at a young age, she did not allow her disability to become or define her. As an advocate and activist for the rights of people with disabilities, she's garnered various awards. Andrea was crowned Ms. Wheelchair New York 2015, and utilized her title and platform " Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Access" to promote her message and belief that people with disabilities can live a fulling life. She has recently been featured on Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, Forbes magazine, and O Magazine. She inspired the innovative addition to the Apple Watch to track pushes instead of steps for everyone who uses a wheelchair. Most recently she was awarded a million-dollar Craig H Nielson foundation visionary award from which she created the Seated Nurse to allow for people who have disabilities to get into health professions.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right nurses on fire. You guys are in for a treat because I have the one and only phenomenal Andrea Dalzell here to share her extraordinary story. She has done some amazing things, both like. It it's inspiring, but it's also a little sad that in 2020, she is still accomplishing some of the first in the country and throughout the world.
So I am going to turn it over to Andrea because she can definitely explain her story a lot better than me, but yeah, you guys are going to be blown away by the things she's accomplished. Hey girl.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:00:40] Hi girl. Thank you for having me. Of course,
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:43] I'm honored. It is my pleasure to be in the presence of a rockstar.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:00:49] I'm trying, I'm trying what I'm doing. I'm doing. Yes, yes, yes. You know, it has been a journey. I started on this nursing journey, I think before I can even remember technically, because it might not have been.
So much as a nursing per se during, but I think that wherever we are in this moment today, we've all had a journey to get here to this point. Right? So at the age of five, I was diagnosed with something called transverse myeltiis. And that left me unable to like walk around fully. And by the time I was 12 years old, I completely stopped walking and was using a wheelchair full-time and.
From 12 to now, I've had over 33 surgeries. I have had multiple hospitals stays coming up on Christmas where it's almost Christmas right now at this point in time. And Christmas is my favorite holiday because I spent six of them in a hospital or on bedrest or unable to, to enjoy or partake in festivities. So I don't care what's going on. Even during 2020 Christmas is still going to be my favorite holiday. So with that being said, moving on, like just thinking about my own journey and knowing that what I based in my own health issues kind of.
Transformed into who I was going to become. And yeah, like when I think about high school and seeing that I wanted to go to college or rebelling against not wanting to take a yellow school bus to school and wanting to take the Metro here in New York city to, but to get to school and being told that I couldn't do that.
And then. Having teachers literally say to me, like, you know, I was pompous. Like I am black, I'm a person with a disability and I'm a woman. So I need to bring down my level of expectation in life.
Naseema McElroy: [00:03:03] Oh, so that has me heated before I go to the heated side, though, I just want to acknowledge the fact that you are an optimist in the best way. And I think that that has shaped who you are, even what you said, talked about Christmas, and you spent so many Christmases in the hospital and a person can turn that into Christmas is the worst.
Day, because I didn't get to spend it at home or I had to spend an in bed, but you were like, no, it's a wonderful day , and I mean, I think that speaks to just who you are as a person. And I think people will see later on like what you've been able to accomplish. And this is just a Testament to that, but I mean, it's a shame that people, instead of seeing that light.
Turn that against you, as you need to just simmer down, stay on your lane. And I am so grateful that that's not the attitude that you took.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:03:59] I mean, maybe I just never saw it that way. Like, you know, when people say you, when someone tells you, you know, it's like , my fire or fuel to go further, it wasn't that I had.
Ammunition or I was like, I'm going to prove you wrong. It was just like, okay, fine, whatever you say, I'm still gonna do what I want to do. And, that's just the Testament to my parents. My parents were always like, are you a follower? Are you a leader? what are you? And that was a common question in my household, where on a Sunday, my breakfast, my dad will be like, are you a follower or a leader?
What are you. And if you chose to be a leader, and you're saying that you're a leader, then why are you listening to other people?
Naseema McElroy: [00:04:42] Okay, daddy. Okay, daddy, like, I love it. I love it. But that is true. Like your parents have a tremendous role in shaping who you are early on in life, and if they would have coddled you and tried to hold you down and really Focus on limitations instead of abilities, it could have really shaped you in a different direction.
So big ups to your parents for holding you accountable, to be in a leadership position for your life.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:05:10] Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of witches swarmed into saying, well, no, I want to go to college. No, I don't want to just go to a two year school. I didn't go to a two year school. I went off where City college here.
It's not the same as a community college, but either way we higher education, higher education, whichever way you want to put it, whether you started a two year or four year. I just knew that someone was saying that I would only go to a two year. So therefore I was like, well, I'm just go get this four year degree then.
And then what are you going to tell me? And leaving high school. It took a year and a half off. I had no idea that I was actually going to go to college. I didn't know. And I remember beating myself up saying everything that they told you was going to come true. So you better get to work if you want to say something different.
And that's what pushed me to , apply for school and go to school and get a biology degree. And then. Thinking to myself. I don't want to be a teacher. I love teachers. I respect teachers, but I don't want to be a teacher. I don't like doing work after being at work. So therefore that was a no. I was like, these teachers get great holidays, but they got to do too much work in my opinion to not get paid enough.
So it was like, I'm not going to go be a teacher. What am I going to do? And. Before that, you know, I was thinking I'm going to go to medical school and I'm going to be a doctor. And in auditing medical school classes, I realized that doctors treat the disease process. And that's why I had so many bumping heads with all of my own doctors, because I'm there telling them that I want to go sky diving and I want to go bungee jumping.
And I want to do things that other people do. And they're telling me no. And I'm like, well, why can't I? And then I went skydiving and then I told them, I went skydiving. They were like, well, you should be careful. And I'm like, well, I already did it.
Their interpretation of quality of life is not my interpretation of the quality of life that I want. So I knew auditing medical school classes and understanding that doctors treat the disease process, wasn't going to be okay. How I could be a doctor, like I'm not just going to learn about a disease process and just treat someone like they're the disease that they have and trying to figure out what my next moves were is what kind of led me to nursing.
It took me over a year to apply to nursing school. After I actually took the entrance exam to get into nursing school. And I don't know if that was like a personal hesitation or. Subconsciously because of the fact that I've never seen a nurse with a disability before that, I kind of like held back and it was just kind of a hopeless dream, but I scored really high on the entrance exam.
So I shouldn't have had that fear. And so wait a year. Also, my procrastination is real. So let me not just, throw out the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. No, I have really bad procrastination. Like. I'm the pro at it,
Naseema McElroy: [00:08:09] but I also don't want you to like diminish the fact that representation really matters.
So if you don't see anybody like you, there is less of a drive to want to pursue that. And that's why, what you're doing is so phenomenal.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:08:23] You're right. And, that's what I'm saying. Like, you know, I don't know if it was like a dream that maybe. Subconsciously. I didn't recognize that, you know, no one was around me.
I did notice it, but it wasn't something that was like very pointed and keeping me from applying to school, it was more along the lines of, I waited till the deadline passed and I was like, Oh, well, I got to wait for the next one and waited for the next one. And that was like, Ooh, I don't know if it's the right time yet.
And again, that could be procrastination or that could have been the totality of not knowing if. I could do it in someone else. Hadn't seen someone else, even in my own research, I didn't see anyone else. And when I finally got that acceptance to nursing school in a week later, I'm about to go into orientation and I'm telling myself, I can do this.
Yeah, I could do this. Like I know I can do it. And during orientation, I have professors coming up to me and asking me, if I understood the undertaking of nursing and that they didn't think that I would be able to be a nurse and. They didn't know if the hospitals would accept me and if they insurance would cover me and I'm like, I'm a student, what is the matter if I'm a student with a disability or not like insurance covers your students.
And they were like, well, yeah, can leave. And we'll let you know. And this was a mandatory orientation. So for me to leave, it would mean that I'm missing a mandatory orientation, which then in turn can say, well, she didn't make orientation. She'll have to come back next semester. Great. And I know that's how schools work.
So I was just like, no, I'll wait till the end of this. And then we can figure it all out together. And I don't know what that drive was. I'm going to assume it was the someone telling me no part, because I was just like, you're not about to tell me no when the ADA covers everything for education. And if you don't know that, at least I know that.
So you're not going to take me out of a program. You just accepted me too. Because of my disability.
Naseema McElroy: [00:10:20] So what I'm trying to understand is did they not know when you apply?
Andrea Dalzell: [00:10:27] No. So I was lucky that this particular nursing program only accepted based on grade. So my pre LNN score was highly.
I was above the competitive level. So that gave me a shoe and my grades were already at a 4.0 because of the fact that all my prerequisites were at a 4.0. So I was already above the competition level. I'm in higher end of the average pitch. So I'm like, my spot was guaranteed by my grades. They didn't see me until orientation.
And then that's when it was like, wait a minute. Nursing schools don't get a lot of applicants with disabilities. It's not like the whole world has a visible disability that they're going to be applying to nursing programs all over, but there's enough of us that there should be accommodations and things in place already.
And what I think I was most surprised. That was the fact that nursing is a profession that directly deals with disease processes, illnesses, disabilities. And yet they discriminate against the same thing that they're helping to encourage and provide hope and care for. And I'm like, and yet you don't know that I'm able to do this.
And other nurses are out there still looking at me like as if how is she able to do X, Y, and Z. Because the education itself is limited in what you learn in nursing school, because it's just the pass the test. Not to actually take care of a person
Naseema McElroy: [00:12:06] preach.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:12:07] Yeah. Okay. You're passing, you're passing a test.
And then when you get thrown into the nursing world, it's completely different. We all know that there's any flex world, there's real world. And then there's clinical world. There's three separate sides to nursing. And yet. I'm questioned every day. Now, even past my NCLEX, not even past two years into my nursing journey questioning, if I'm able to do the job as if I got passed through nursing school and didn't get.
Tormented outside of just learning. It was mental torment action every single day. Like, how am I going to prove that I can do this?
Naseema McElroy: [00:12:46] Let me tell you something. Nursing school is not just mental tournament for you because you were in a wheelchair. I think it's really a hazing process. It's a ridiculous, and it's not even as serious.
It is not even as serious. And so I can't understand you and what you had to go through. Only compounded what I had to go through as a black woman, being the only black person in my class, in the nursing program. I thought I was going through something. I mean, like I had to go through therapy, but they had like scheduled therapy sessions for people of color at the nursing school that I went to because it was so traumatic.
So that compounded, I could only imagine what you had to go through just to get your license.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:13:30] I was one of three in my program. We had more male students in my program and we had black students in my program. Wow. And that says something because we know that there's not a lot of male nurses either just by, just by the profession itself.
So then to have more males than there are, even for there to be a minority in the mix, it was like, what. Like remind you our class, our cohort started with like about 105 students.
Naseema McElroy: [00:14:02] Yeah. Yeah. I was one in 83
Andrea Dalzell: [00:14:05] . None of our professors. Where minorities. We had one clinical professor who happened to be Asian American.
Like that was it. Like there was no one , to go up and ask or say , what I'm like, or feel comfortable, comfort to be able to say, well, I'm going to this professor. And I forced myself because I wanted to know what these professors were thinking and how I'm like doing. And I needed to go and get that.
Information back, but at the same time, I wasn't gaining anything from doing all the talking to just listen to somebody on YouTube, and that's ended up kind of what I ended up doing. I ended up seeking help on social media and starting to document my journey through nursing school. And after nursing school on social media, because I needed help, there was no way that I was getting the help that I needed in the school setting.
So I needed to figure out somebody had to know something. And the only way to know what people know is to get to where the people are, that's on social media. So that's kind of what I did.
Naseema McElroy: [00:15:09] But you did eventually graduate from nursing school and in receiving your nursing degree, you became. The first.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:15:19] Yes.
Naseema McElroy: [00:15:21] Yes. So you are the first wheelchair bound nurse in New York, right?
Andrea Dalzell: [00:15:28] So I'm the first wheelchair using nurse using,
Using
Naseema McElroy: [00:15:31] sorry. Yeah.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:15:33] Using nurse. No. So let's talk about that, right? Because we all say it. We do it. I'm not saying that I do it, but I'm saying like, it's a term that's out there. Wheelchair bound. What does bound mean?
Think about that. Just. No one's bound to their
Naseema McElroy: [00:15:45] wheelchair. And I was trying to figure out a way to say it differently. Cause I know. Yeah. But you know, but it's real. I mean, like that's thewerfgb language that's out there. That's common language. And so, yeah, let's talk about how, yeah.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:16:00] Language determines how I'm perceived.
If you see me as someone who's bound to a device, then you're not going to see someone who's able to do something else other than the device that they're sitting on. That's it. My wheelchair allows me, mobility. My chair allows me to move around, interact, be a part of society. It's not hindering. It's not keeping me stable.
It's not keeping me into one position at all times. It's used as a mobility device. So we're users, people who use wheelchairs or wheelchair users. When you want to say bed bound, usually a patient is not getting out of bed. They're not moving. They're literally stuck there. Fine, but the bed isn't moving either.
You can't move the pad anywhere. Wheelchair can move. Right. So terminology, that's why like, whenever I'm like looking over nursing notes now, and I see wheelchair bound anywhere, I'm like, nah, we're changing this. Yeah. We changed that because the narrative that we use also influx the narrative that society uses on people with disabilities.
And again, healthcare. Actually determines how society sees people with disabilities. If we say you can't do something, you can't do it. Medical world has already deemed you capable. So then society is going to deem you incapable. So that's where my change comes in,
Naseema McElroy: [00:17:26] but that's super important because that is a direct reflection of how you're able to navigate in spaces because of the limitations that other people put on you.
And so it's super important for you to change that terminology and I'm for it. Yes. I'm a hundred percent for us. So let me give you your flowers for real. You are the first wheelchair user. In New York to become a licensed registered nurse.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:17:54] Yes.
And it is. It's weird to be a first, you know, we've had so many people in our past be first to do so many things, but you never realize the journey , in the path that's being paid as they're the first. So yes, in the first doula, I'm not the first to be a nurse with a disability in general. There are so many in so many stories that we have never even heard of, but I am the first now picking up the Baton and saying, hold up.
Why is this not national news? Why is this not nationally known? Why is this not stories that are spread around the world? Why are other nurses, shaming nurses with disabilities, not realizing that they themselves can have a disability and their career could be over in a heartbeat because they don't understand my own advocacy.
Now as a first.
Naseema McElroy: [00:18:54] but you know what? When I heard your story initially, I was like, wait, there's not other nurses in wheelchairs it's not like wheelchairs are like this new invention. Like it's a new mobility tool. Wheelchairs have been around forever. They're happy wheelchair users.
Or generations upon generations upon generations in so many other capacities. I was just mind blown that how can we, 2020 you make an, a first like that just didn't make any kinds of sense to me, but with the way that you explained it and all the barriers, I totally understand. I totally understand how somebody can be discouraged, even if that was their dream.
If somebody didn't have the tenacity as you did, what if they would've just given up and it's sad. Yeah.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:19:42] Well, look at all the TV shows that represent nurses, those just, you know, the love interest of a doctor, the hot babes hot babe, right? Not even your doctors are seeing with crutches. I mean, now we have one show, the good doctor that shows a doctor with autism and how he works through it.
But at the same time, that's not a physical disability. We had one character on Grey's anatomy become an amputee and have to learn how to work through that on a TV show. But that's a doctor, again, we're not seeing nurses with disabilities in any type of media representation. Yet you have nurses who are pregnant.
You have nurses who have disabilities and amputations who have to take their blood glucose every couple hours to make sure just in case. Right. We have all of these levels of varing disabilities, but people don't want to name that as a disability. Guess what pregnancy is? Disability. That now puts you insurance can say no to you now, because that is not considered preconceived condition, a print of a condition that you've had, even though pregnancy is not right. Like. These are all things that we don't think about, but are considered disabilities.
Hypertension is considered a disability,
Naseema McElroy: [00:20:54] but I just want to like change the narrative because. You come into the world or nursing with so much knowledge and firsthand experience that you cannot pay to get. And so to me, you, as a nurse is invaluable. Like who would it be? Not you,
Andrea Dalzell: [00:21:18] everyone. Apparently. I mean, let's talk on that, right?
It's like, yeah. So mum nursing journey pass the NCLEX. Right. And here I go, every new nurses dream trying for jobs everywhere. And I'm applying to every single job, right. I'm applying to case management positions. I'm applying to school nursing camp nursing. I'm applying to bedside nursing. And I'm keeping Italia of all of these things that I'm applying for my first job, I ended up working for a special needs camp as a, as a health director.
And I left after maybe two months because it was in a different state than where I was trained. And a lot of the safety issues that we have in New York, doesn't cross over to the state that I was working in. So I didn't feel comfortable with a lot of the things that I was doing or allowing to happen.
And I was just like, I wanted to protect my license as a new grad. So therefore it was not like I'm just going to keep going through with this, even though this position was green and I left in I ended up getting a job in case management, mind you throughout all of this, I'm still applying to work in a hospital setting or a clinic setting because my goal was to become a family, nurse practitioner.
So I want that hands-on experience from the jump so that I can say that I'm well-rounded enough to get into an FMP program and be able to say that I have now hands-on experience on this side of nursing, not just on my personal side went through case management and let me tell you how much I hated that job.
And this does not knock any case management out there, but as a person with a disability, I have dealt with case managers from day one. From day one, I know that they are up against CMS and Medicare and Medicaid. I know what they're going through, but those denials hurt me personally. So when I'm sitting there denying people with disabilities 24 hour care, because they can't justify why they would need 24 hour care, but they had advanced ALS and can't get up to go to the bathroom.
So then they're sitting in a diaper for 12 hours straight. Because their home health aid will only come in for six hours out of the day. So now you're stranded. Can't doing the asking. If family members can't come and help you, or when we have this new program where Medicaid will pay for a personal caregiver, and they're asking for more hours to help take care of that loved one because they can't go work and then take care of this loved one.
So we have this program where loved ones are paid to take care of their loved ones. And I'm like, We're saying no to them, but we're not understanding what's actually happening in that home. It might take them 30 minutes just to get their clothes off and get them into the shower. It might take them an extra 20 minutes to shower them.
You're automatically eating out an hour and just ADL care. And I'm sitting there denying hours. I'm sitting there denying care. I'm sitting there denying as a nurse. I'm like, no, as a nurse with a disability, I'm like, wow, I'm really limiting someone's life. Because we have the power to say yes or no. So I was like, no case management is not, for me.
That was the most stressful time in my life. I saw how case managers became jaded and just saying, no, this is what it is because that's the job. And I was just like, I can't
Naseema McElroy: [00:24:41] be that person. It goes against everything that nursing represents to me. That's not a cool feeling because now you become, so are you an insurance agent?
Are you a nurse?
Andrea Dalzell: [00:24:54] Exactly. You become jaded because of what the job is requiring you to, to do. And then you start questioning, well, why do they need that? Well, this is what it is. This is what we get. No, you don't need anything else. We're making those judgments, not even being in that home. And I'm like, I can't do that.
So I was still applying for acute care positions and not getting anything. I ended up getting a school nurse position and I left right away because I wanted to be a pediatric nurse. Like I want it like kids. I love kids. Then the nurse practitioner, I was definitely going to be dealing with the kids. So I was like, I want to have, pediatric experience.
And I think kids just gravitate to me a little bit more. I sit at a lower level. I don't know. I'm not overbearing to them. So pediatric rotation was my favorite in school, my clinical in school. And I loved hanging out with the kids because they looked at me as someone who was a tool versus someone who's coming to hurt them or to be afraid of I'm already on their level.
Right.
Naseema McElroy: [00:25:54] You're so much more accessible to them. Yes,
Andrea Dalzell: [00:25:57] exactly. So, you know, I loved being in that position. I'm still in that position today, but I went on 76 interviews alone. Core an acute care position, meaning bedside and/or clinical.
Naseema McElroy: [00:26:11] Let's talk about that because that is a shame I'm going to have you go into like what you've experienced, like on a patient side that has given you so much more experience than.
Nurses that have been working 20, 30 years. So why you're a gem, but I also want to talk about like, while you're doing that in the background, you're getting all these accolades from all these organizations, right. Speak to the things that you have been awarded. Let's just talk about that. let's bring it up a little bit before we take it down and break it down for the people.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:26:48] Yeah. And so I have been a disability advocate for over six years. That's longer than I've been a nurse. I have gone down to Washington DC. I've lobbied for four CMS and CRT bills, which is complex rehab technologies, which is the same devices that allow people with disabilities to live active lives. I have been given the city lieu advocate of the year award.
I have been given CUNY's emerging leader of the year. I have. Then given the women's center empowerment awards from all of CUNY, which was when I was in school. And then leading out of nursing, I was recognized with the Craig H Nielson foundation, visionary award and that award goes to recipients who are literally making a difference in their communities by way or high water to say the least.
Right. And it's to recognize And see that fight that needs to continue , without losing momentum. So I was awarded a million dollars along with that, that visionary prize to be able to start on and ensure that people with disabilities would be able to find their wa y in healthcare. So I started my own foundation called The Seated Position, allowing for people who have disabilities to get into healthcare and let's figure out what those skills are needed , to be successful. And what those accommodations look like without HR telling you what accommodations can be granted.
Naseema McElroy: [00:28:15] And you've also worked with Apple in order to change the Apple watch, too. Right.
So I was working with Apple. We launched the Apple watch commercial, which shows how the watch tracks pushes and not steps.
Instead and pushes is it's extremely important to know because your shoulders were never meant to be legs in the first place. And you gotta make sure that you're taking care of them and not over exerting your shoulders and possibly needing rotator cuff surgery. Downline. That's not fun. Anyone who's ever had that knows that surgery is not.
Easy to recover from. So to have rotator cuff surgery, for someone who uses their arms every single day, that's why I needed the Apple watch to be able to track questions. And it does now. So
you have. On one side. So it's just this weird dichotomy that's happening. And I can see like, that would lead a person to go crazy.
You know, if you weren't so resilient. So on one side, you're applying to 70 plus jobs and acute care and they're just like, nah, homie, we can't accommodate you. On another side, you went in. Awards for a millions of dollars. You're being featured globally on commercials. You're revolutionizing technology.
You're doing all of these things, but don't nobody want to give you a job.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:29:41] Yeah, right. Like, like make it make sense, make it make sense. And it doesn't because yes. And, I've said this before, like I think that's like my own internal battle too. It's like in the disability world, I'm recognized, I'm seen as this pioneer and congratulated and.
And begged to continue going and paving this path. And on the other side of it in a world where I've already gotten into in a world where I've already proven that I'm capable. And I say that because COVID happened this year and COVID was the first time that I was able to get to the bedside. Because nurses were so short-staffed that they were taking anyone. They were begging for nurses to come out of retirement to be able to help on this. We're still in this pandemic. And in March, when our governor in New York put out that call for retired nurses to come out, that was my chance to say, well, I'm going to get at the bedside finally, but I had to do that risking my disability too.
I have. An illness. And I didn't think about it at the time. And somebody recently brought it up to me and they were like, well, you were running towards COVID and wanting to help, but you didn't take your own illness into consideration. And I didn't, I didn't think, okay, well maybe I'm at a high risk community.
That wasn't my thought process. My thought processes were nurses. So short-staffed, I can only imagine the, the workload that's going on in these hospitals and. It might not have been the right time for me to be there, but it felt like the right moment to apply. And it felt like the right moment to say, at least I know I can work med surg, like nobody's business, regardless if I've already been there.
And that's just because I already had so many years of personal experience behind me. Even getting into med surge. And they had put me on a clean unit at first, they were like, yeah, you can work on this clean unit. We're only gonna send non COVID or COVID rule-out patients here first. And we had a patient come down on a vent where her vent alarms were going off.
Her current nurse was a orthopedic nurse, so wasn't very well versed on vents. Everyone else's were so full. We each had like 11 patients that night. And respiratory therapy wasn't coming to us because they were all we heard was the codes going off every couple of minutes. So we knew that they were busy and yet this one patient's vent alarms are going off and we have no body.
So we were about to push for for Oh my goodness. What is it? Yeah, code blue. She wasn't coding just yet. We were about to push for a rapid yeah. We were like, Hmm. Cause her, her alarm just going up and nobody was able to like, so they asked me like, do you want to take a look?
And I'm just like, sure. I've had, I had that experience. Personally, my, I have friends who are quadriplegics, who use vents on their everyday life. I've suctioned my friends before. So I know exactly what I'm looking for. I know what I'm listening for. I know what all those numbers mean, just because I have friends in the disability community that require this assistance.
So if their nurse stepped away for a moment, Hey, Andrea, can you just push this? Or can you do that? I've already been through this. So going into that room and I was like, Oh, her blood pressure is high. No problem. Let's just suction her real good suction, her deep. And they're like, we're suctioning and nothing was coming up.
And I was like, well, give me some saline. Let's, let's do a lavage real quick. And we did the lavage and night that stuff came out. Her blood pressures went. Right. We reset them and they went right back to normal and they're like, Oh my goodness.
Naseema McElroy: [00:33:17] She was, she was literally like drowning in her own stuff. Oh, poor baby. Oh my God.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:33:54] I fixed it. And I'm in my own head, you know, new grads in their own head, like, Oh my goodness. Right? You have this complex of that. I just do that. Yeah. I just did that. You did that in a room full of nurses that have more experience than me and looking at me, not really though, as if he was supposed to be there.
Right. So it's like, This back and forth. Okay, wait a minute. I know that I'm here. I'm doing it. I'm in COVID I'm working as I went to COVID units, I've been in step-down ICU. Like I've worked this now I've applied to a full time position in this particular hospital, knowing that I've just worked COVID, you know, that I'm able to do the job and still not being given a chance, watching the new grads that I was helping through doing, COVID be given a position.
And I'm like, wow, that's what I'm up against. I'm up against exactly what every black woman was up against in the 1960s and seventies and even eighties, right? Like that we know I've done it. You've seen me do it, but you won't hire me because I'm not good enough. Or I'm not who you want, or you see me as a liability and I'm like, this can't be real life.
To be able to approve something in the motion drastic of times that everyone is facing and then to still be told no.
Naseema McElroy: [00:35:19] So they did not give you a position?
Andrea Dalzell: [00:35:21] They didn't. And I still apply. I was applying again right after my COVID contract ended in may or the end of may, beginning of June. I started applying everywhere else to other hospital systems.
And again, that was a very rough time too, because hospitals aren't hiring anyone. Right. So everyone's listening. I probably can't. Nobody was hiring. Everybody was actually laying off because they didn't have the budget or the money. And I'm like, let's be real about something. Every major metropolitan hospital right now, it's still hiring travel nurses, still hiring nurses,
Naseema McElroy: [00:35:51] And paying them crisis, pay the pay, listen, the pay out people have been talking to mom, like for real that's California pay.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:36:03] So it's like, wait a second. I've done it. Now I've applied. I see you guys hiring all of these nurses. You might not want a full time nurse right now, but you won't even take me on a travel assignment. And now that my name is very much on Google people, right? You can Google me now. You see who,
Naseema McElroy: [00:36:25] so you can't just lie that application in like everybody else.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:36:29] Exactly. And now it's like even more of a setback. And I remember in August, Having this meant not a mental full breakdown, but just having this complex of just not knowing how much more I needed to prove, because again, in the disability world, I'm here excelling. And then in the nursing world, I'm here being stagnated, because not because I can't do the job, but because other people's perspective, I don't even stagnated, but like literally held down, down.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, literally. And I'm not, I didn't, I had to like pull back from applying to jobs because that rejection became the same trauma that I went through before Columbia COVID and having to go through that rejection over and over and over and over again, we talk about rejection as if yes, we expect rejection upon.
Yes, we do expect rejection to come, but how much rejection is allowed to come or how much rejection are we allowed to settle for? I already went through 76 before COVID. Do I need to reach a hundred. Do I need you to reach a thousand? I don't think anybody has ever went on a hundred interviews and never got accepted to one job.
Naseema McElroy: [00:37:42] Hm it's unheard of, especially for nurses, I've never been on more than two and I actually, I don't think I've ever been denied a job. You know what I'm saying? Like as a nurse, you know, like it was hard getting that first job, but there's like never a job like that. I applied to that. I just flat out didn't get, and I know the that I know went through HR.
Now, there are some jobs that, you know, you don't ever really go through the process cause they're screened by a computer, but like the jobs that are good, like that actually get to the floor. I've never not gotten a job. So like in the world of nursing, that is. Unheard of maybe in other kind of fields, it might not be as uncommon, but in nursing
Andrea Dalzell: [00:38:29] 76 and that's what they, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, I think I've applied to every single major medical center within those four States.
And yeah, and I mean, again, I live in New York city, so it's not like. Can't find a medical center with in a five mile radius. We have a lot of them there's more than 50 and I'm talking, not just hospital settings. So people were like, Oh, why don't you apply to rehab? I did. I did. I've applied to so many rehabs that when I would get called back for interview number three, and they would actually take all my credentialing, I would get a call back on Monday, right before I'm about to come in to start orientation and be told.
Or I'm supposed to come in and sign that official contract before I would get called and get told, Hey guys, we have I'm so sorry. We just got an emergency hiring freeze. B S I dunno if you guys went on a higher freeze or not that knowledge isn't public information. So you could be telling me whatever. I don't know who else was supposed to be in that room for me to call them up and say, Hey, did you go to orientation today for me to be able to prove a point.
So that leads me into saying I can't file a discrimination suit. If I don't have someone verbally telling me it's because of your wheelchair, that we're not hiring you. Because that would be blatant, but I can show you where
Naseema McElroy: [00:39:55] I've been. They can't, because then you can go to, to the ADA so they're careful about that. But I just want this to, like, I want to put out a call to the community because number one, I know I got people out there that can help you, but, but. I see your light and I see your spirit. And I just think that these denials are because you are determined, like you are in position to do far greater than just being at the bedside.
And I know you want that bedside because it's drilled into us in order to be a good nurse. You have to work med surg. You have to be at the bedside, but why I've never worked med surge by the way, but that's home. That's like. In the back of our psyche as a nurse, like you have to do this, but girl, you know, you have that experience, that personal experience trumps any hands-on clinical experience that I could get.
You know how to do it, but I know how it feels like in your heart to feel like you're not enough because you don't get to experience something, but I'm here to tell you what I know. There's millions of people that will tell you the same. You are enough and you are destined for greater.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:41:14] Oh, definitely.
Thank you for that. I know that I know that greater is definitely out there and I know people are listening. They're like, well, there's so many other things you can do. Well, I don't want to be behind the desk. Right. That's for one, I don't like desk work period. So let's just period with the T E. Okay. I wanted bedside because yeah, when you look at a nurses resume, no matter what.
They want to see experience when I become a FNP, they going to want to see that experience. Oh, what was your experience as a nurse?
Naseema McElroy: [00:41:47] I have so many colleagues. I went straight from nursing school through NP school that I never seen nobody's bed. Okay. And are phenomenal NPS. And I think you'll be a stellar NP.
Like when you were talking about being a pediatric NP. I saw your whole being light up. Like, I mean, I mean, do family because you get to do everything. And I want to see you deliver some babies girl. You are well positioned for that. Let me tell you, but you know, like I would love, I just would love to see you in that role.
And I just say, you know, Oh for it
Andrea Dalzell: [00:42:24] Peds is my heart but the reason why I did FNP is back to the disability community. Let's think about some statistics right now. Disability means that you are part of the largest and fastest growing minority in the world.
And yet doctor's office, aren't accessible, hospitals aren't accessible. People are looking at you as though you are not sexually active. They're looking at you as though you are incapable. You're not getting the care that you need when you need it. Nine times out of 10, a doctor doesn't even understand what a autonomic dysreflexia is, let alone nurses and knowing how to do, how to relieve that outside of what the textbook tells you.
Right? So there's so many things that are happening within the disability community that limits healthcare. That as an FNP, I would be able to just let me get board certified so that you can call me from California, call me from Texas, call me from wherever. And I can just hear certain things on the phone and be like, no, this is that it gets to a hospital.
No, this is that. Let me get you a prescription because other doctors aren't understanding that disability is actually limiting healthcare on their behalf. And that's where we get those case managers saying, no, you can't get that. So if I can't transition healthcare for my community, then what is my purpose?
Naseema McElroy: [00:43:46] I hear it girl, I hear it. I'm just I'm here for all of it. We need you, the world needs you and other people need you to know what's possible for them.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:44:01] Yeah, because representation, I now have become, I have now become their statue of Liberty. That symbol of hope, that symbol of wait a minute, let me rethink this because now I'm being told I can do this.
I don't have to look at teachers or hear teachers telling me that that might not be more possibility. Clearly someone is telling me that I can do it. And that it might be a little different than the normal and that's okay. Not every nurse's technique is going to be the same. Do we penalize them when their techniques are wrong?
No, unless it's literally harming a patient. That's the only time we have to do corrections, unless there's going to be some way of infection increase. That's when we start to change protocol. But if you see me and you see me doing my own technique, And then you're like, well, wait a minute. Why didn't I do that?
And I can tell you lifting a patient up in bed was easy for me because I just put the bed in Trendelenburg and pulled them up. But you're looking at me like, wait a minute. I don't have back problems. I don't stand for 12 hours, 14 hours a day. I sit down. My butt is on a nice ROHO cushion. Okay. It is airfield.
I don't hurt to sit down for 12 hours. I don't hurt to roll around for 12 hours because I'm already accustomed to that movement. You walking around for 12 hours, that's hard on your legs because you're not used to standing up for 12 hours straight, but you look at me and tell me I can't do the job. Oh,
Naseema McElroy: [00:45:32] bloop.
There it is. There it is. I'm just saying like, this is like a time when we should be encouraging like different ways. Practice it's innovative practice. The way you have to practice is innovative. And that's why I'm saying like, it's so much more like you are going to revolutionize nursing as a whole, and I'm just, I'm just here to be like,
you know what? Nobody was trying to mess with her. And now she is the face of nursing period with the T.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:46:13] Your lips to God's ears because honest to God, I really do think that nursing is far beyond the INCLAX. Yes, that might be the first step, but we all know even now, right? Even now in nursing, we all understand that anchors ain't nothing in comparison to what we're up against.
That's just like the borderline, but then. I realized, and I'm in my masters program now just for education, because I need to have something else on the, my belt. And looking at what nurses are writing all across the country. And I'm like, there is a vast difference about the knowledge that you have versus the knowledge that I had.
And we both pass the same test. So either the boards need to get a little bit stronger on what they're having people understand and learn. Or our educational structure needs to shift tremendously to come up to date with what is. Currently going on in the healthcare system,
Naseema McElroy: [00:47:10] you know what we learned in nursing school, and I don't want to kiss, but you know, it's like, I just feel like, and this is just my own little tangent, like a lot of things in nursing school.
And let me preface this by saying. I already had a master's in healthcare administration before I went to nursing school. So, you know, I came to it like, okay, like, why are we doing all of this? Just to validate our professionalism. Basically. That's what a lot of nursing is like why we have care plans and stupid stuff like that.
Like it's to validate us as a profession, like. Come on with that. Like, we all know that what we do is far superior than a lot of the roles in the hospital and that just us in everything, all our daily actions, everything that we do is paramount to. The health of each and every patient in the hospital.
Like they cannot be in the hospital without nurses, hospitals won't survive, clinics will not survive. The healthcare system will collapse without nurses. So why are we still trying so hard to validate ourselves? Right. Instead of revolutionizing care because I love nursing because it encompasses the holistic being right.
That's that's why we know that's why we're not doctors because we don't want to work on the disease process. And that's exactly the same reason why I didn't want to become a doctor. I don't want to fight your disease. Okay. I want to fix your, your whole being. I want to fix your family. I want to fix your access.
I want to fix your social structure. I want to do all of that, but your health, your individual health is the core. So why are we spending so much time validating our profession, as opposed to making sure that we're doing the holistic work and advancing health?
Andrea Dalzell: [00:49:05] I just think, because somewhere down the line we monetized the care.
Naseema McElroy: [00:49:10] Yep. And that was it. Follow the money, you
Andrea Dalzell: [00:49:16] follow the money. And we understand that as healthcare professionals, when you're sitting there and your ratios are eight to one, 10 to one, and your patients all have multiple comorbidities in, you're still giving meds for one patient three hours into shit. Right.
We understand that our value is invaluable, but at the same time is expendable because there's making, get whatever they need when they want it. These hospital systems no longer value the word nurse or the profession of nurse. They value the money that the nurse brings in because why we go from magnet status.
Now that's built upon if you have, how many BSN registered nurses. Okay, well, again, I'm in a master's program right now where everything that I've learned over the last two semesters, I've already learned in my BSN program, but the BSN program nurses that are in the master's program from other parts of the state, have no idea what we're learning, any constant clarification for certain things.
And that kinds of shows you if you're coming from a metropolitan area. Yes, you're going to be subjugated to all of the things that you're currently learning in any master's program across the nation. But if you're in the Midwest, you're not going to be doing that. If you're in a rural area, you're not going to be getting that.
You're going to be centered on care. And then when care becomes monetized, you get angry at the profession you burnt out and you win girl. We
Naseema McElroy: [00:50:46] have a long way to
Andrea Dalzell: [00:50:47] go. Yeah. Nurses in yeah. Nurses in these big metropolitan areas. I have been burnt out before they even left nursing school. Cause this is what we're learning.
Naseema McElroy: [00:51:03] It's horrible. It's horrible. But we going to change that. I just see it. I see it. Yeah.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:51:10] It's changing. You can see social media has definitely allowed for a shift. Podcasts have allowed for this shift because now you're hearing other nurses talk about their experiences and now other nurses are now feeling like they're not alone anymore.
And they have allies. And that's the whole thing. What nurses need to realize is that just like doctors, doctors have a, have a code of silence between them. Something happens. Mum's the word, but nurses are ready to throw the other nurse under the bus. Nurses are ready to say no that it's not me. I'm not doing that.
X, Y, and Z, because Y that comradery isn't built in nursing school. My comrades in nursing school. I can tell you now, any one of them that became a nurse ma comes, becomes a nurse manager within, I can call them and say, Hey, I need a job. And they'll probably hire me without a doubt, because our comradery was that tight in nursing school, we made sure that everyone was passing people who weren't passing.
We were sitting there to help them study, and I have never heard that or experienced that anywhere else besides my own peer group, even. Classes before us that we were watching, as they were going through the classes, we were like, wait a minute, you're struggling. Why don't you ask your friends to help you guys are all, Oh, they don't want to do that.
I'm like, why is this a competition? It's not, nursing is not a competition of who gives the best care or who knows the most, or who passes with an a or his feet were nurses at the end of the day. If you don't want our care to be monetized, understand that your care is what's invaluable.
Naseema McElroy: [00:52:47] That's right. I mean, but you know, nurses have a bad reputation of eating our young and all that other kind of stuff when you get into the world and nursing. So the bullying and the lateral violence and nursing is real. So that's built into it and that's some things that needs to change. And yeah, so many things, so many things we need to work on, but I'm really Motivated to see the things that you're going to be doing.
So you won this million dollar award. How do you see that impacting nursing in general or just people with disabilities.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:53:24] So I think when I started the seated position foundation. And what it's going to do is allow for those who are either born with a disability or acquired disability later on in life, access to skills, to be able to go into the profession that they want. And that's going to be with me, partnering with different tech companies, healthcare companies, or schools, and ensuring what accommodations look like. How do you implement common accommodations and making sure that skillsets can be learned. And then those particular companies that allow for those skillsets to be had in the school setting, go back and hire those same people, because we want to make sure that we have a circular rotation going on.
Not only are you giving us the skills to be able to teach. You're also now providing jobs because we know that people with disabilities , have the highest unemployment rate in the world. We are at about 75% versus the rest of the world here in the United States.
We're at 30% versus 8%. So there's a drastic difference. People are like, well, why don't you just go out and get a job? Well, we're the jobs where the accessibility. Who's going to give them the chance. Who's going to look at them and provide that accommodation. Usually you hear, Oh, accommodations are too expensive.
No, some accommodations are less than a hundred bucks. You know, I didn't need any accommodations. My accommodations were, Hey, you're going off shift. Yeah. Can you do me a favor? Come with me to the supply closet and reach the things I need on the top shelf so I can stop my cart. That was it.
That was it. Hey, you're going to shift, do you mind if you just told me so I can stock my cart real quick. And it started to become such a habit that the nurses around me loved the fact that the carts were always stocked, that they would leave the cart stocked. We would just leave them all stock.
Everyone had stock cards. It was just like, you know, just a common occurrence on the floor during COVID that we just made sure that our cards were all stocked just in case anyone needed to get into a cart. We didn't have to run back to the room. So it kind of just became a habit that was implemented because I kept asking, Hey, do you mind just let me grab all these things so I could stop my cart, go quick.
And then, because my cart would always be stopped. And if I ended up getting another cart, that cart would be stopped and then so on and so forth, and everybody just started stocking their own carts. And then that was it. Bam. Look at that teamwork.
Naseema McElroy: [00:55:45] Look at that. Look at that. Look at how you already changed the practice.
That's what I'm talking about.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:55:51] It's just, you just, you make it so that your environment is, is livable and you kind of people are like, Oh, you know, I'm going through such a hard time at work or I'm facing bullying and speak up, speak up. And if it's really to that point where you can't speak up anymore than that place, isn't for you.
And I know that that is so hard to say, trust me, I'm hearing him say that to the world, because again, 76 interviews, I've been through that rejection. I get it. But you're more likely to get a job out there than I am. So I'm telling you if it's not for you, we, we, because your title says that you can get a job anywhere and you're just too afraid to step out of that box.
Whereas I'm outside the box. And facing rejection on a regular basis, hoping and praying that someone sees me as an equal human being and gives me the shot because my title doesn't say that already.
Naseema McElroy: [00:56:49] I was just like floored, but also I just, I mean, I see it, like, I have the frustration, I have the anger, like, like for you, but at the same time, I just see all the possibility that like, like you are destined for, like, for real, for real. And so even though these are super discouraging times and. It's emotional.
It's an emotional roller coaster because it's just like, well, who do I believe? The people that think I'm awesome and doing amazing things enough to award me with a million dollars are the people who are continuously rejecting me for just wanting to work. So I don't know.
Andrea Dalzell: [00:57:33] Cool. And let's be real about something too.
Right? If I were enabled body person, a million dollars would seem like so much. But in the disability world, when wheelchairs costs $10,000 a piece where my own daily living costs me more than the average human being does, just to be able to say that I can do certain things like I need to have a car because the Metro system is not accessible to be able to pay someone, to be able to publish me onto an exam table because exam papers aren't acceptable.
Accessible. Right. So I have to pay a friend. Hey, if I pay you $30 to take off a couple of hours from work so that you can with me, like, these are things that people don't think about, Oh, you don't have a parent. My parents work at the bakery, just take off because we all have bills to pay. Right. So like, when you think about the context of money and people like to look at the, Oh, you w you got a word this, yeah, that's great.
Guess what my acolytes say that I should have been getting paid, but my acolytes don't equivalate to me saying that I can get a job easily because nurses looking at me, a nurse managers looking me automatically see the wheelchair thing bound by ability. She's, she's unable. Right. It's just the narrative.
That's already projected onto someone with a disability. So I can't hide that. The only thing I can ask for is for a mindset to shift and literally see someone with a disability as someone who has the capability. If I give them an opportunity.
Naseema McElroy: [00:59:16] Yeah. Well, I'm putting this out there. Yeah. I'm putting this out there for you.
This new year. This coming of the new year is the year of capability for you the year where things will turn around and. People will see you truly as the inspiration and the force of change for nursing and just for the world as a whole, because as you were talking about how you can improve nursing processes, I feel like you can improve how we operate and move throughout the world.
For the better and I'm claiming after you girl so we all keep my eye out and then we are going as a community. We need to come together and advocate for you. And I have people in New York that I'm going to send your way because. This should not be, this should not be. So if you're listening to this and you know that you can help a sista out, you need to do that because it's, she's not asking for a handout.
She's asking to work. She is asking to be given the experience that she feels that she needs in order to Excel as an FNP. And I know you will be a phenomenal FMP with, or without it, but I know that you should still not be denied this access. So. I'm rallying all my troops. I'm praying for you. And, but in my heart and my heart, I know like that you are destined for greatness and shame on people that don't see it because girl, you are a true phenomenon and I'm so proud.
Yeah.
Andrea Dalzell: [01:00:52] Thank you. Thank you. And so to all of your listeners, like thank you as well. Like, you know, this is bigger than me. Whatever I'm doing right now. I'm hoping that the next little girl or boy who has a disability, sees my journey and is like, I can do it too. And then we actually get to really shift mindset and narratives because it's not just about one person.
It's about a whole community that's being left behind not only in healthcare, but in general. So I think that it's time and we need to see people as human beings first and not for anything else.
Naseema McElroy: [01:01:26] Is definitely time. It's definitely time. And I thank you for being here and sharing with us, but also for all the work that you have doing that you have done and for being so resilient through all those denials, because a lot of people couldn't handle that.
But I think, like I said, it's a Testament to the person that you are and Though, not deserving. I feel like they only make you stronger. So it's going to change. It's going to turn around.
Andrea Dalzell: [01:01:57] Claiming it! 2021, here we go.
Naseema McElroy: [01:02:03] 2021 is going to be your year. So thank you again so much, Andrea, like you are a true inspiration and I can just see the light. I'm super inspired by you, but people who have been looked down on because of their abilities or people's perceived lack of abilities, they know that there's hope and they know that they can do it because you have. And so thank you for shining your light girl.
I really don't appreciate you.
Andrea Dalzell: [01:02:32] Thank you. Thank you.
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