via youtube.com
This is one of the better videos in memory of the great man.
Archive for October, 2011
Thank you Thursday
Posted by Sean on October 6, 2011
The past 7 days, Thank You for:
Gainful employment – our economy is not easy.
Life truly is shorter than we can ever imagine, thank you for mine and my loved ones life.
Your coworkers truly do make the difference sometimes – heck all the time.
Death cannot be avoided, life shouldn’t be either.
Being stuck in traffic, not part of the auto accident that created it.
What are you thankful for this week?
Posted in opinion, words of wisdom | Tagged: thank you thursday | Leave a Comment »
Crazy nursing student habits
Posted by Sean on October 3, 2011
Crazy rituals
Maybe it’s just a nursing school / nursing student thing? Or maybe it’s just for us crazy people pursing Master’s degrees? Or maybe it’s just the school I’m attending? Who knows.
What I do know is that we love to torture ourselves.
Immediately after an exam, why do all of the students congregate and huddle into packs to dissect and discuss the questions on the exam? Yeah, the exam you literally just took.
Now, let me clarify something. In this particular program we take exams and then we always have a scheduled lecture after class (yeah – torture, I know.). Most of our classes meet once a week, so I’m just assuming that the thinking behind the lecture after an exam is just to monopolize and utilize the time allotted and scheduled. Most of my classes are scheduled and average of 2 – 4 hrs., so the exams last an hour-ish. We have a shortened lecture immediately after the exam.
So, here we are. Completely spent and drained from taking the exam. And somehow we always end up huddling to ruminate over what we just survived. We bounce our ideas and our thoughts on what the correct answer was on just about any and every question we were asked.
I think in a weird sort of way we seem to initiate these conversations to validate our performance. We think we did OK, or we try to create a pseudo-grade in our head. So we talk about the test to see if we in fact are right about our performance on the exam.
I don’t know if it’s just me. But half-way through these conversations I get panic-stricken and start losing a grip. All the answers that I thought were right, were not the answers that the majority of my classmates chose!
Oh-oh.
Maybe I failed the exam? Here I thought the whole time I did OK, heck even thought I did well, and now after the ‘huddle’ I’m paranoid I failed! What the heck! What gives here!
Ever since this ritual was discovered, I keep telling myself after every exam – “Nope. Not gonna do it this time around. I’m not gonna say a peep about the exam”.
And just like clock-work I end up with the paranoia I said I wasn’t going to participate in!
Grr.
Am I all alone here on this one?
Another post from over at Scrubs.
Posted in health, humor | Tagged: nursing school, student nurse | 4 Comments »
How are you? Are you fine?
Posted by Sean on October 2, 2011
Freaked out
Insecure
Neurotic
Emotional
Insecure
Neurotic
Emotional
Are you fine?
Posted in random | Leave a Comment »
Distance Caring?
Posted by Sean on October 2, 2011
Tele-what?
You’ve heard of distance learning, but what about distance caring?
That’s the newest concept in the world of health care these days. Telemedicine, telehealth and of course telenursing. They all seem to fall under the same umbrella definition of delivering care from a remote distance.
We nurses are no strangers to this type of care. There are nurses out there who used to deliver their care to their patients over the phone (and some still do). What has changed over the years is the avenue by which this care is delivered…for example, via this lil invention called the internet (have you heard of it?). The ‘net brought enormous technological advancements in health care delivery and health care monitoring.
Everything from Holter monitors to 24-hour pharmacies to the Electronic Medical Health Record has catapulted the way in which we provide care to patients.
We’ve leapfrogged from downloading patient data ‘after-the-fact, to real-time monitoring of an event as it happens. This real-time monitoring has now been taken to the ‘next level’.
Traditionally, patients who are being monitored by ‘telemetry’ (bare-minimum continuous ECG ) are monitored by nursing staff (as well as physicians) who are with the patient on the same unit, the same floor, heck – the same building!
Well, not anymore.
The amazing advancements in our technology have opened new doors (literally). Patients are being ‘monitored’ remotely. The nurse (or physician) is now monitoring patients and their dynamic vital signs from a distance. That distance can be as close as the next floor or as far as the next building. I read somewhere that monitoring was performed across state lines and even across coast lines! The distance threshold seems to hold no boundaries lately.
As a critical care nurse this equally excites and scares the bejeezus outta me. How awesome that would be to have the ability to possibly stop an emergent event from happening from a distance?! But, on the other hand, how horrifically scary would it be to make an error in judgment!
The possibilities are endless if you think about it. There are of course numerous adjustments and accommodations that would have to be made for every instance. Patient safety would be the priority.
I’m not sure how comfortable I would be performing those duties? As a critical care nurse we are always, always, always taught to never trust a monitor and to always, always, always (did I emphasize always enough?) check the patient first. No matter how great the technology may be, I just don’t think anything can replace your 5 senses.
Another post from over at Scrubs. Have you had any experience with this yet?
Posted in health | Tagged: nurse, technology, telehealth, telemedicine, telenursing | Leave a Comment »
