This Nurse is Changing the Face of Nursing Research- Ep.79
Rashida Charles is a first-generation Haitian American and a first-generation college student. She is currently a Nursing Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania and her doctoral degree is fully funded. She also has a Youtube channel where she talks about all things health and nursing and shares her experiences in hopes that someone will learn from her trial and error.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right, Nurses on Fire. I am really, really honored to have my girl Rashida Charles. Join us. Hey, Rashida!
Rashida Charles: [00:00:10] Hey girl, I'm really excited to be here, thanks for having me.
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:15] Of course, of course. So Rashisa, go ahead and tell the good people a little bit about yourself.
Rashida Charles: [00:00:22] Okay, so I'm Rashida. I have a platform on YouTube called Nurse Shida.
I am a first generation Haitian American. So both my parents are from Haiti. I'm the first to go to school in my family. So it was a lot of trial and error. So my platform is really about learning from my mistakes. And in terms of my background, I'm originally from Miami. That's where all Haitians are from, but I grew up in Massachusetts in Brockton, and then.
Moved to Jersey and went to Rutgers. I started college in Massachusetts, actually at the university of Massachusetts department. And it was a great school. It just wasn't for me. I was a bio major there pre-med I transferred to Rutgers and Rutgers was like, we'll take your bio credits, but you have to start the major over.
So I started doing that and then I was like, I'm never going to graduate. So then I was taking a lot of theology courses at the time. Rutgers had these general education requirements and they just fulfilled a lot of requirements. So I picked that up, that major. I had an interest in public health, so I picked up that minor and I stayed pre-med.
So then after I left college, I did a year as an Americorp. It's kind of like the peace Corps, but in the United States, I served in Camden, New Jersey at Cooper University Hospital. And there, I got experienced kind of coordinating care. And I got to shadow a lot of different professions. So when I shadowed doctors, they were like, ah, being a doctor is not what it used to be.
Go to nursing school. I shadowed a PA, they would say, Oh, well, we don't have the autonomy that we would like in all States you should go to nursing school. And then I shadowed nurses and they were like, this is the best field ever go to nursing school. So then I being stubborn. I still applied to PA school and on, I think I applied to maybe 15 schools and then my seventh projection, I was like, okay, something's gotta give.
And I was really stubborn about not wanting a second bachelor's, getting a entry-level master's was the most expensive decision I've ever made. But I'll get there. So I was really stubborn about it. So I ended up applying to two entry-level master's in nursing programs.
I got rejected from the lowest rank one, but I was accepted into the highest ranked program, which at the time was at the university of Maryland. So I went there. I paid double intuition because I was an out of state student and it was already expensive programs. So I picked up about $100K in loans.
Well in that program. And that's another thing too. I don't think grad schools are as transparent as they could be about how much it's going to cost as undergrad was.
Naseema McElroy: [00:03:08] And I remember it changed. I remember when I started my program, like two weeks before the program, they were like, Oh yeah. So we're adding another $20,000 onto this.
Cause my school was a state school. And so they were like, yeah, we lost funding in this area. So yeah, your tuition is going to be another 20,000 and you're like already committed to this, like, especially at entry level program. Cause you can't do anything else.
Rashida Charles: [00:03:31] Exactly. And they did that. My tuition went up my second year in the program.
So thankfully, while there I ended up being granted a research assistant position in the department of global health. So there I worked part-time so they paid for about six more credits and it was decently paid as well. So that helped a little bit. And I also got exposure to research nursing and all the amazing things nurses get to do.
I was at actually going through like a little quarter life crisis because I was a tech on a neuro step down unit. It was a trauma unit too. And. It was very physically demanding and I was like, wow, is this going to be the rest of my life? And then I don't know where I got this position and my eyes just, I was just blown away by how much nurses do globally in the research field.
So then after that I was like, okay, I want to be a research nurse. So I tried to become a research nurse. And I kept getting flagged as a high risk candidate because I had research experience. So when I'll try to go to these big research institutions and get a bedside position, they would say, we see all this research experience.
Do you want to be a research nurse? And I would nightly say yes, I'm not understanding that they wanted nurses that wanted to stay at the bedside. So then I tried to get bedside positions and they were seeing the same things. So I ended up getting a job on a research heavy floor, which was good. It was a oncology hematology unit at Hopkins.
And that whole time, my mentor, who's the chair of the global health department. Maryland. She kept saying, you need to just go back and get your PhD because you have. This experience and it's going to be while before someone takes a chance on you without the PhD credentials. And I was like, I don't want to take more loans.
Wow. I just wasn't here for it. So on a whim while I was still looking for jobs, I applied to three programs and. I ended up getting into university of Pennsylvania with full funding and they pay me to be here about 3000 a month. I get health insurance and it's the number one nursing school in the world.
So in terms of building a legacy, this has been really big for me and my family. Just just even being at an Ivy league. I just finished my first semester yesterday. And just, reflecting on everything that led me here. And I'm just. Super thankful to be here. And the opportunities that I have because my family decided to come to the States, but that's been my expensive journey.
And now it just feels good to go to school and get paid to do it, even though it's not a lot. And then of course I am still working. I ended up leaving Hopkins because I'm used to Philadelphia, but I stayed in the COVID float, poor, Maryland. And COVID, I really hate this pandemic. However, it has done amazing things for my career.
My unit at Hopkins turned into a transplant unit while I was there. So I got transplant experience. And then in the float pool, I worked in the hospital setting on step-down units. And then I also worked in a isolation center. It's a hotel. It was the first of its kind. Where people can socially isolate.
They don't have anywhere else to go. And then I've worked at testing sites a couple of weeks ago when Eli- Lily put out the monoclonal antibodies for COVID. I was part of the team that gave a patient, the first patient in Maryland, the monoclonal antibodies. Yes, for COVID. And then I believe we're going to start giving the vaccine next week.
So I've been really on the front end of innovation and. I know I'm a TA. So a lot of my students, they were scared about going out into COVID and I just wanted nurses to know too that you don't have to be in the hot zone. You don't have to be around COVID patients to do your part in the pandemic, or to earn this pandemic money.
We have nurses that. Call people and tell them that they tested negative. We have nurses working from home that are just doing intakes. So there's a lot of ways to make money during this pandemic. So don't be afraid to go out there, even if you're high-risk and you can't be around the patients. There's other ways to get involved in, get to this money.
Naseema McElroy: [00:07:58] I love it, girl. So, woo. Your journey is just amazing, but it's heck a real, like once you get into healthcare and like you get on the floors and people are alike, you should just be a nurse because nursing is where it's at. But I think one area that I have yet to explore on the podcast and that you brought up was research nursing.
So I want you to dive a little bit deeper into the opportunities for nurses who are interested in research.
Rashida Charles: [00:08:27] Yeah. So currently my research is still developing. However, I just published a literature review in spectrum, a journal black men it's by, it was released by Indiana press. And that one was a, a literature review about.
At home physical activity as a intervention for African-American men in Baltimore who have hypertension. So my research interests just stay for people who are black, I'm rooting for everybody black. So that's what we're working on health equity and finding things that costs low or no money to help us get healthy.
So at home physical activity is an example and it's something that's become really big during the pandemic.
Naseema McElroy: [00:09:17] I like that, that you did that because I know one of the things that you've shared with me in another platform is that what we think of as physical activity or what is commonly known as what you can do for physical fitness?
Isn't necessarily something that's replicable for most people. And so people are more sanitary because they're like, Oh, well that's not working out. But yeah. I like what your research revealed in that area. So.
Rashida Charles: [00:09:44] Thank you. Yeah, so that's something I'm exploring because if you look up physical activity levels between races, black, people are seen as the most inactive and Hispanics are seen as the most inactive ethnic group.
And the way that it's assessed the way that the CDC assessed it was through. Looking at leisure time physical activity and the examples that they use, we're also not culturally sensitive. So one of the examples was how often do you, and it's like, when was the last time you saw a golf course in the hood?
Because I've never seen one. So just looking at that and then it's self-reported right. So I think in the United States, chronic oppression has had effects on the self esteem and the self perception of. Black people, especially low income black people. So if I am a mail carrier and I walk 10 miles a day, but you're asking me, you're telling me that because I don't go golfing I'm inactive.
I'm going to start to believe that about myself. So there's also the self perception. Component of that as well. So that's the idea that I'm exploring and hopefully can go somewhere with it because it's really serious and it just highlights racism and classism in science, because that is something that's prevalent.
Naseema McElroy: [00:11:05] It's truly, it's so prevalent. And then I think what you're doing is phenomenal because if you don't bring up these issues and if you don't research it, then it doesn't get addressed. Okay. That's why so many issues that are. Affected that affect black people predominantly like for black women fibroids, you know what I'm saying?
Like so many black women have fibroids, but it's not heavily researched. We don't know a lot about it because who's going to research it. We're only 10% of the U S population. If we don't step up and do it, nobody is going to come up to the plate for us. So I feel like, especially. If you're from an underrepresented community, like there is a lot of opportunity to, for you to affect change when it comes to research.
But also just in your role, you are doing some phenomenal things with COVID. I mean, like you are really on the front line of innovation. I mean, like you're introducing like the vaccine in a week. That's crazy. But the opportunities that you get and the exposure that you get. And you get your name in lights too, because you're, one of the first , and you're one of the first black women to do it, which is even more phenomenal.
So I'm super proud of you for what you're doing. You're just amazing Rashida.
Rashida Charles: [00:12:45] Yes. COVID like I said, has been amazing and then. We didn't even talk about the travel opportunities. They're offering someone only about $7,000 a week. Granted. You have to work 60 hours. If, if you choose the assignment, which burnout,
Naseema McElroy: [00:12:58] right? Like do the numbers, do the map.
Rashida Charles: [00:13:03] There's so much opportunity for money. And then even in research, Right. That opens a whole nother door. It's like nursing research is so new and if that's not my specialty, but I do have a friend here who her research is on how vaccine information is disseminated to the public.
So in research and in nursing research, there's so much you can do because nursing is so. Over encompass encompassing. You could be a nurse. We search and work in the lab. You can be a global health nurse research. For example, my previous employer, she would go to other countries and learn from them, but then bring them resources, like teach them how to be infectious disease nurses.
But then brings stuff here, like skin to skin. We practice that in the hospital. Now in the development world they've been doing that
Naseema McElroy: [00:13:52] that's common place.
Rashida Charles: [00:13:53] Yes. So it's like they need nurses to go out there, be in the field, publish this research and justify it, and then it gets implemented into healthcare.
I never knew how influential. Nurses weren't until I was exposed to the research world.
Naseema McElroy: [00:14:09] Yeah. I know a lot of people, nurses are so hesitant to leave the bedside, especially because when it comes to like education and it's like, well, the money is not there. The money is not. There, and it can be really, really hard work, but I think research is not only can be lucrative, it can just expose you to so many different things.
I mean, traveling the world adopting best practices, sharing best practices, but also bringing best practices back to the States. I mean, imagine the impact that you have. On your field, on your patients, on your hair. And so I really liked that and I never thought about getting a PhD and I'm going to be goofy because I always say I'm not a player hater.
So why would I need to play your hater degree?
But really it's because I'm, I'm like done with school. Like I do not like formal education and you wouldn't know it from all my degrees, but I just don't. But I love that you were able to go back to school fully funded, honey, and you get paid and you are making waves and impacting care, especially for underserved populations.
And so that is. Why you would do with that is when you do it. So when people reach out to me and say, Oh, should I get an advanced degree? And they're thinking that it's because they're going to get paid more. I really want you to know your why behind doing something. And don't just do it to taste a cheque, do it because you're going to be making an impact like Rashida is your bomb girl.
Rashida Charles: [00:15:40] Yeah. And you don't need you can be in nursing research with a BSN. You just wouldn't be able to run your own research projects so you could work. If, if what you want to do is global health research, you can work under another practitioner and go out there and make an impact as well and still publish work too.
Naseema McElroy: [00:15:57] Yeah. Yeah. So I like that you share it there. Like you don't have to have that advanced degree to even do it. So that's even. Better even better. I want to talk, like I got some questions from new grad nurses who are going into the field right now. And because of COVID, they're having a hard time finding jobs.
Like what message do you have for them?
Rashida Charles: [00:16:20] I would say move if you can. Because I know there's places when the float pool first opened in Maryland, they were taking anyone. Like if you pass your NCLEX yesterday, you could start working today. However, after the number started to slow down, they ended up calling nurses that had less than one year of experience and telling them.
That they have to move down to being a tech, which the techs are getting paid when nurses usually get paid $3 an hour and the nurses are getting paid $60 an hour and that's prior to differential. So even that isn't bad. But you would either have to move down to a tech until you reached that in one year or you would just be removed from the float pool.
But I do know that there is. Companies who they're, they really want nurses that are gonna stay like not everyone wants travelers coming in and out. So there's always an opportunity you just might have to move.
Naseema McElroy: [00:17:15] Yeah. Or look for non-traditional jobs, jobs outside the bedside. Like I like this float pool thing that you, that you talked about.
Like, I know people that are paying for a year of experience in like these Post-graduate like residency programs at these hospitals are doing. So they're paying like a couple thousand dollars just to participate in the program. I mean, getting paid $30 an hour, I mean, compared to what, like an experienced nurse might make you my frown upon it, but most people have not made that ever.
So I think that that's still an excellent opportunity and it's just until you get that one year of X. Variant. So it's not like you're sacrificing for a long period of time. I always tell this story that when I graduated from nursing school in 2009, I graduated in the middle of the recession. There wasn't any jobs.
Like I remember sitting in the auditorium, I went to university of California, San Francisco, UCSF, and, you know, that's one of the biggest research hospitals in the biggest hospitals in the world. And they were just like, Well, you don't have any jobs for you and out of a class of 83, only three people had jobs at graduation.
But I mean like now everybody I know is I mean, that was a long time ago. Right. But still like everybody I know is a well-experienced nurse. So, I mean, like, keep your head up. Don't frown on opportunities. Another thing is you don't know what kind of opportunities that you'll be exposed to. If you look at something a little bit different than what you were expecting.
I know a lot of the things that I've learned in a lot of experiences that I have gotten was because. Of things that I didn't initially want to do, but I learned so much because it pushed me out of my comfort zone. And once you get pushed out of your comfort zone, that's when you'll see the biggest growth.
So, you know, you, new grads , this is just your little Push to know, we got your back. It might be challenging. We know we all know what it's like to come out of nursing school and know where you're going to end up, but probably the first job you take is not where you're gonna be forever.
So just look at that, like that too. So
Rashida Charles: [00:19:28] it's about who, you know, because there was someone in our float pool. Who was having trouble finding jobs. And she wasn't able to work at, in the capacity of a nurse because she just graduated. And when the providers there helped her get a job at another hospital system, that was a really good hospital system as well.
So it's who, you know, and like he said, just stay steadfast. No, your steps are divinely placed. That's something that I learned. If I had things my way, then. I would maybe be a PA right now. And you know, no shade to PA is a great deal. However, you, I wouldn't be in a P a nursing PhD program. And who knows?
Maybe I wouldn't be happy because I love research. I wouldn't have even learns about. Nursing research. So just know your steps are divinely place and things are going to end up even better than you plan them to be.
Naseema McElroy: [00:20:19] Yeah. And then I want to just talk about what does nursing mean to you as being a first generation Haitian American?
Rashida Charles: [00:20:27] So nursing for me, a lot of people that I know our culture, it's like, so stereotypical, I have weighted nursing because it's a therapy type patient girls always become nurses. My roommate's a nurse as well, and she's Haitian too. Like it's a stereotype for us, however, It's just open so many doors for me.
It's really the best decision I've ever could have made. I've met amazing people, including you and nurses are out just out here doing amazing things. And to me, I think nursing is just. It's everything. Like the one question that they asked us in class one day is, is nursing STEM. You know, because we do learn the sciences, but then we also learn humanities as well.
It's, we're just all encompassing. We just learn everything. And that's how I feel about nursing. I think nursing is everywhere. You can work anywhere. You can do anything with it. It's just, it's really the best decision and the most expensive decision.
Naseema McElroy: [00:21:31] Hey, sometimes you got to pay to play. You gotta pay to play, but you know what?
And I've been there too. And I just feel like this degree has paid me multiple times over mind you. I do encourage people to take a cheaper route if they can. Don't frown on cheaper routes. If you can get there, if you're a choice. It is between going to liken a super expensive school and a more affordable school.
I would say pick the more affordable school. Cause at the end of the day, nobody really hears what school you went to. That's all about that degree at the end of the day. And I'm getting paid just as much as the person who has they, they used to have diploma nursing programs or associate nursing programs.
And I work on the floor. I get paid just as much as them because a lot of pay is based off of experience. So don't frown on those programs. But also if you are facing, like taking on some debt to go into nursing I wouldn't tell you not to do it because I feel like, like I said, it's paid me back over and over again.
And so I just encourage everybody to be a nurse because I think nursing is just a phenomenal opportunity. And I think that it lends itself to what I talk about all the time, which is financial independence, because you can get to a point in nursing without doing anything really special where you don't have to work anymore.
If, you know the steps to do so, you know, if you follow a strategy and once you get to that point, you can continue nursing for as long as you want, because you're coming to the bedside or coming into research or wherever you want. Not having to worry about a check or grant or funding or anything like that, because you're doing it from a place of this is your passion.
And not truly believe that once you're a nurse, you're always a nurse. And is there, but it's just so much opportunity to do so, so many things, and that's why I love bringing people like you on Rashida to give a different perspective on nursing and different opportunities. And yeah, I think what you're doing is amazing.
And I thank you so much for sharing your story. Where can people learn more about you?
Rashida Charles: [00:23:33] So like I mentioned before, I'm Nurse Shida on YouTube. That's where you can learn the most about me. I'll be launching my website. Early next year. I'm actually meeting with my developer this weekend. I want to create resources for people who do want to go back to school or want to go to nursing school period.
So I'm like essay templates, resume. I've had a lot of people inquire about that, that, because I didn't have the best grades, but I ended up at the best schools just because my other materials were really good. So interview tips, things like that. So that's coming, but the best place to reach me is. YouTube.
And then Instagram I'm Nurse underscore Shida on Instagram
as
Naseema McElroy: [00:24:15] well, reach out to nurse sheet. I think those resources are super invaluable. Like, man, like you said, I love it. Like you didn't have the best grades, but you ended up at the best schools. That's what matters. And let's not leave out the fact that you got a fully funded PA PhD, come on now getting paid to learn.
So how you do it, but anyway, thank you so much, Rashida. I know people will find inspiration from your story cause you inspire me. So I really appreciate you coming on the podcast.
Rashida Charles: [00:24:47] Thank you for having me.
Hey there I’m Naseema
My dream is for everyone to know that financial independence is attainable with a little intentionality. Learn how I can help you finally break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.
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