sure sure i

was terrified as i think everyone in my graduation class was but i also felt a sense of obligation to get in as quickly as possible right like they desperately needed um nurses and healthcare workers on the front lines.

So I was more than willing to jump in the deep end and just, you know, trial by fire, do whatever I can to get in as quickly as possible.

But definitely not a normal way to start off your career as a registered licensed independent nurse.

And it was really tough.

I mean, the whole time, but particularly in the beginning when we didn't really know what was going on, what science and experts knew about the virus was changing weekly.

And as you mentioned, the lack of preparedness for the pandemic was really huge.

I assume you're not going to be charitable here, but do you think they're doing anything to actually address this? Because it feels like they're just taking away from students to paper over these mistakes, but not actually addressing them in any meaningful way that'll keep the system afloat.

It's another to be able to actually meet the needs of, of what nurses are doing.

Well, exactly.

And I'll, I'll be honest, hospitals are already operating with less than the bare minimum.

Uh, nurses and healthcare workers often punch above their weight.

It's no secret that emergency room wait times are getting worse and worse throughout the entire province.

And for me, I just think that this government has its priorities completely backwards.

The way that we solve this solution is by investing in community, investing in access, investing in prevention, anything we can do to actually stop people from getting to the hospital in the first place, whether that is a health crisis they're going through or the hospital being its only, uh, choice for those patients to go to.

And, uh, perhaps this is an incendiary way of, uh, asking a question, but I imagine that in this, uh, quest to save money, uh, executives and administrators are not being cut.

When did that happen and how did you go about all that?

Man, I was a freshman in junior college and we had took care of an older gentleman's cows.

My dad was.

We fed them through the winter.

We'd work them in the spring.

And he was from Meridian, Mississippi.

He had some pastures there in Scuba, Mississippi.

Yeah.

people are getting, uh, more alarmed, maybe more engaged than they might have been in the past?

Certainly.

And, you know, I don't ever blame anyone for, um, not being as politically engaged as you and I are, Laura.

We're, we're, we're unique in that sense.

Like, we, we decide to take on, um, that responsibility and kind of, you know, burden of, uh, a lot of really bad news, um, that comes from not only the province, but around the world.

And I think it's, it's the candidates and parties responsibilities to attempt to break through that, um, and inspire people to vote.

You know, so when I was door knocking, and I've done two, um, elections.

Yeah