Clock Out & Connect with Marc and Shantall

Marc Smith, CRNA & Shantall Cummins, CRNA
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Medicine

Two CRNAs. No filter.    Clock Out & Connect is the podcast that goes where most healthcare shows won't. Marc and Shantall work in anesthesia — one of the most high-stakes, misunderstood corners of medicine — and every episode they clock out, sit down, and get into it. Work culture, burnout, the money nobody talks about, what really happens behind the OR doors, and the life you're trying to build around all of it.  Honest conversations. Real experiences. No sugarcoating. If you're thinking it, we're talking about it.

Episodes

  1. Jun 2

    Selfish ft. Dr. Dani Williams, DNP, CRNA - Episode 04

    Send us Fan Mail Is taking care of yourself actually selfish? Or is that just what healthcare trained you to believe? Dr. Dani Williams is a CRNA and IFBB Fit Model Pro — and she trained for her Pro card while she was in anesthesia school. Not after. During. In this episode, Shantall and Marc sit down with Dani to talk about what it actually costs to put yourself first when your entire career is built around putting everyone else first. Guilt, burnout, body image, boundaries, the pressure to always be available, the money you leave on the table every time you say no. All of it. They go there. What you'll hear: • How Dani competed through CRNA school and what it actually took to pull that off • The hidden price of discipline, borrowed energy, and running on caffeine for years • Mom guilt, dad guilt, and why turning down a shift can quietly feel like failure • Why burnout doesn't look the same for everyone — and why that matters • What a self-care practice that fits your actual life looks like instead of someone else's • Off the Record: what each of them does to genuinely recharge Being "selfish" might be the thing that makes you a better provider, partner, and parent. This episode is the permission slip you didn't know you needed. If this hits home, share it. Leave a review. DM us your story. Connect with us  📧 clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com  🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect  📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast  📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast Chapters • 00:00 Cold Open: Is Self-Care Selfish? • 09:00 Welcome Back to Clock Out and Connect • 10:00 Meet Dr. Dani Williams • 13:00 What It Means to Be an IFBB Fit Model Pro • 19:00 Competing Through CRNA School • 25:00 Borrowed Energy, Caffeine, and Discipline • 35:00 Who Pays the Cost of Your Goals? • 36:00 Burnout After CRNA School • 57:00 Saying Yes, Boundaries, and Job Culture • 1:09:00 Off the Record: What Recharges You? #ClockOutAndConnect #CRNA #CRNASchool #SRNA #NurseAnesthesia #CRNALife #HealthcareBurnout #HealthcareProvider #IFBBPro #FitModel #HealthcarePodcast #NursePodcast #SelfCareForNurses #NurseBurnout #AnesthesiaLife #WomenInHealthcare #FitnessAndHealthcare #HealthcareBoundaries #ProviderBurnout #OffTheRecord ✨ Connect with us: 📧 Email: clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com 🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect 📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast 📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast 💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.

    1h 19m

  2. May 19

    They Stayed - Episode 03

    Send us Fan Mail Everyone talks about what it costs you to chase CRNA school.Nobody talks about what it costs them. The spouses who held down households alone. The parents who stopped calling because they didn’t want to add to the weight. The friends who slowly disappeared. The marriages that survived — but barely. In Episode 3, Marc and Shantall get honest about the people who didn’t sign up for anesthesia school but lived every second of it anyway. Marc opens up about what it was like being newly married to Becky while trying to survive clinicals, and how their first year of marriage became something neither of them could have planned for. Shantall goes there about being geographically separated from Adam during military training and USAGPAN — almost failing out her first semester, hitting a wall she couldn’t climb alone, and what it actually took to ask for help when everyone around her looked like they had it together. This episode doesn’t wrap itself up neatly. It talks about loneliness, resentment, guilt, jealousy, and the quiet grief of watching someone you love disappear into a version of themselves you don’t quite recognize yet. And then — it talks about what comes after. Where their marriages are now. Why strong relationships aren’t luck. What it means to keep choosing each other through school, kids, career pivots, ambition, and every season that follows. If you’ve been through it — or if someone you love is in it right now — this one is for you. Off the Record: Real talk for the person who is in the middle of it right now. Up Next: Marc and Shantall are joined by Dr. Dani Williams, DNP, CRNA and IFBB Pro card holder, for an episode called Selfish — about what it looks like to actually choose yourself in a profession that never stops asking you to give. Connect with us  📧 clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com  🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect  📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast  📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast If this hit home, share it, leave a review, or DM us your story. Chapters 00:00 Cold Open: Everyone Paid for the Yes  03:00 Welcome Back to Clock Out and Connect  04:00 What They Thought CRNA School Would Cost  07:00 Realizing This Was Harder Than Expected  12:00 When Your Spouse Feels Alone Too  17:00 Living Separate Lives While Staying Married  22:00 Communication, Distance, and Survival Mode  27:00 Almost Failing Out and Asking for Help  36:00 How School Changes Every Relationship  57:00 Off the Record: Keep Going, But Stay Human #clockoutandconnect  #CRNA #CRNASchool #SRNA #USAGPAN #NurseAnesthesia #CRNAJourney #ICUtoCRNA #HealthcarePodcast #NursePodcast #CRNAMarriage #HealthcareRelationships #Military #MilitaryNurse #SRNALife ✨ Connect with us: 📧 Email: clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com 🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect 📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast 📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast 💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.

    1h 2m

  3. May 5

    What Saying Yes Actually Cost - Episode 02

    Send us Fan Mail What does saying yes to CRNA school actually cost? Marc and Shantall unpack the real price: friendships, marriage, identity, and why they would still do it again even knowing what they know now. This episode is for current CRNA students wondering if it is worth it, ICU nurses considering the leap, and anyone who has ever had to rebuild themselves after saying yes to something that changed everything. Marc knew it was over the day a preceptor snapped a photo mid patient turn, gray sweater, aching back, exhausted. Shantall’s breaking point was the slow, heavy realization that a system asking too much shift after shift was never going to suddenly ask less. What you will hear: The exact moments they knew they had to leave the bedsideWhat CRNA school costs that nobody warns you about: time, money, and who you are outside of workThe marriage conversation, how school and training changed them as partners and what it took not to lose each other in the processUSAGPAN versus civilian programs, financial stability versus loss of freedom, and the tradeoffs they would make again or notOff the Record: substance use in anesthesia, the impaired provider no one wants to talk about and why staying silent is not an option CRNA school cost them friendships, holidays, weekends, sleep, and confidence. It cost Marc his sense of self and nearly his marriage. Shantall did not recognize herself after graduation and talks about what it took to put the pieces back together. They also break down the real world difference between USAGPAN, the military CRNA route, and civilian programs: guaranteed paycheck and benefits versus limited autonomy and personal freedom, and what you are actually trading when you choose one path over the other. Off the Record, Marc addresses substance use among anesthesia providers: who is really at risk, what it looks like when the strong one starts to slip, and why bringing it into the light can save a career or a life. Next episode (May 19): They Stayed, what this career costs the people who loved you. If this hit home: share it - leave a review - DM your story. Chapters: 00:00 Cold Open: The Moment I Knew I Had to Leave Bedside  09:33 What Saying Yes Actually Cost Us10:53 You Never Get Back to Your Life17:46 Why We Didn't Quit21:52 USAGPAN vs. Civilian: The Real Trade-Off27:18 Off the Record: The Conversation Nobody Wants to Have #ClockOutAndConnect #CRNA #CRNASchool #USAGPAN #CRNAMarriage #ICUtoCRNA #HealthcareReality #NurseAnesthesia #ImpairedProvider ✨ Connect with us: 📧 Email: clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com 🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect 📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast 📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast 💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.

    34 min

  4. Apr 21

    Two CRNAs Walk Into a Podcast… - Episode 01

    Send us Fan Mail Marc asked Shantall one question. She started answering it — and stopped. Would you do it all over again? In the first episode of Clock Out and Connect, two CRNAs sit down and do what nobody in healthcare actually does: tell the truth about how they got here and what it cost. Shantall traces her path from the Dominican Republic to South Florida, to the Army, to Iraq, through nursing school, CRNA training, and a COVID ICU she never should have been pulled into. Marc takes you from Jamaica to bedside nursing, watching his grandmother recover from a stroke, through the ICU, and into anesthesia school — with a family depending on him the whole way. They talk about how they met, why this podcast needed to exist, and the one question that doesn’t get answered — not yet. Whether you work in healthcare, love someone who does, or you’ve ever wondered what’s actually happening on the other side of that OR door — this is where we stop sugarcoating it. Chapters 0:00 Disclaimer + cold open0:20 Welcome to Clock Out and Connect1:00 Shantall’s story from the DR to the Army8:45 Marriage, moving, and finding nursing13:20 ICU life and choosing CRNA school16:45 COVID, school disruption, and making it through21:20 Marc’s story from Jamaica to nursing30:45 CRNA school, sacrifice, and big life moves37:00 How Marc and Shantall met42:20 Why this podcast exists + Off the Record intro#ClockOutAndConnect #CRNA #NurseAnesthesia #NursingPodcast #HealthcarePodcast #Anesthesia #CRNALife #NurseLife #HealthcareWorkers #BurnoutInHealthcare #WorkLifeBalance #ORLife #ICUNurse #WomenInHealthcare #MedicalPodcast ✨ Connect with us: 📧 Email: clockoutandconnectpodcast@gmail.com 🎥 YouTube: Clock Out and Connect 📸 Instagram: @clockoutandconnectpodcast 📘 Facebook: Clock Out and Connect Podcast 💬 Got a story, question, or an Off the Record submission? Send it our way.

    53 min
  • 4 Episodes

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Two CRNAs. No filter.    Clock Out & Connect is the podcast that goes where most healthcare shows won't. Marc and Shantall work in anesthesia — one of the most high-stakes, misunderstood corners of medicine — and every episode they clock out, sit down, and get into it. Work culture, burnout, the money nobody talks about, what really happens behind the OR doors, and the life you're trying to build around all of it.  Honest conversations. Real experiences. No sugarcoating. If you're thinking it, we're talking about it.

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