Nuggets for September 16

Yes, I'm off today, so I'm surfing again before I start the real vice...baking. Fall has come to our neck of the woods, the furnace is dead, so why not heat up the house by baking!

To the blogs we go...
Alas, here are a couple of newer blogs I've found since I was reading my sitemeter stats today. You gotta love the link love! Many, many thanks to all of you who link to this blog. I appreciate it! (Mucho, mucho, mucho...as I tell Bubba).

PerfectRN is also a second career RN like me in the Midwest (yes!) who's chronicling her adventures in her blog.

And via PerfectRN, I found Booty Nurse (what will Google do with that...whoa!) who's giving us her view from Endoscopy in rural New England. BN, I gotta tell you, I thought endoscopy was pretty cool when I saw it on my clinicals. And no, I'm not just saying that to get any brownie points from my brother-in-law, the gastroenterologist. He's the man who loves Katie Couric because of this story.

DisappearingJohn is one of my favorite ER RN bloggers. I loved this quote he found from atyourcervix. John, if you only knew how much poop (literal and figurative) there is on evenings in rehab!

Articles of note from the NY Times

ER patients often left confused after visits
This should be an interesting topic on all the other ER nurse blogs (MonkeyGirl, GuitarGirlRN, DisappearingJohn, etc.) I doubt this author actually talked to one nurse. If she did, she camoflages it well.

The strep that wasn't...a cautionary tale
This was a scary story. If you have kids, you must read this one. It really scared me.

Spit it out...the DNA testing fad
This was actually listed under the Fashion section, but it does have some health implications. Who'd a thought DNA would turn glam? Ah, yes, the CSI effect...

Death and a new nurse
Another second career nurse describes her thoughts on this subject and what happened to her.

A good cause

If you want to help military and veteran families who are in the hospital, support your local Fisher House.

A Fisher House is “a home away from home” for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. The homes are normally located within walking distance of the treatment facility or have transportation available. There are 38 Fisher Houses located on 18 military installations and nine VA medical centers. Five more houses are under construction.

We're still waiting for ours at Madison. It's on the drawing board, though.