A nurse anesthetist loved her job for 20 years. Then she quit.

She loved her job and called it a fantastic career, and she still walked away after 20 years. Christine King, a nurse anesthetist, explains what changed: insurance deciding which procedures happen, threats from surgeons and coworkers that people hesitate to report, and stress she felt in her body until she stopped working. She also tells students choosing between nursing and medical school what to weigh first.

⏱️ Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:18 Why she walked away from a job she loved
0:49 "You really need thick skin for this job"
1:28 When patient care became a business model
2:36 When insurance decides who gets a procedure
3:41 The trauma that follows a mass shooting
4:52 Where OR violence actually comes from
5:47 The surgeon who threatened to shoot someone
6:16 The whistled insult she never forgot
6:50 Why physical threats are still not OK
7:25 Why people hesitate to report OR abuse
8:20 When the stress showed up in her body
9:53 Nursing or medical school? What to weigh
11:01 The advice she wishes she had followed
12:12 Take home messages

About this episode:
Christine King spent 20 years as a nurse anesthetist and describes it as an excellent career she genuinely loved. She traces how decisions about whether a procedure should happen shifted from medical calls to insurance calls, and how the focus of care flipped over two decades. She has worked near two mass shootings and describes the lasting trauma for the clinicians who treated those patients. In the operating room, she says, the threats come less from patients than from surgeons, administrators, and coworkers. She recounts a surgeon who threatened to shoot someone and another who whistled an insult at her. She explains why so few people report this behavior and why she sees younger physicians trained to be more respectful. She describes arthritis flares and intestinal symptoms that tracked her stress and improved after she stopped working. Looking back, she says she would have gone to medical school, and she walks students through work-life balance and the rising cost of training. Her closing advice is to speak up, call in a supervisor, and keep allies in the room.

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