Duude! Can she work on me?

RIIIGHT! Thanks Grumpy! I'm sharing this with the docs at work. They will be total windblown by the whole thing.

The Rehabilitator

Glam up your physiatry practice with one little device. Wind machine, comic book profile and mod outfit not included.

Might even convince more people to get invasive tests and procedures.

How to have fun at work

I am so happy now most of our inspections are over for a while. Whew!

Now, I'm back to having fun doing other random stuff. Here's a few of the fun things I've gotten to do.

1. Keep the patient who wants to get me a plant for my office from getting in trouble with security. He keeps telling security he'll just borrow (er, steal) one or two from the lobby.

No thanks, I'm allergic to tropicals, especially ones that don't belong to me.

2. BLS class. Wow, things really have changed in the last couple of years.

3. Regular rehab groups. These support groups are arranged by our psychology staff and mediated by the presenters, which could be a physician one day, physical therapist another day or recently, yours truly.

I had the interesting class: I talked about education materials (like these) available at the Hotel's web portal. I even had handouts. To make it easier for patients to find information, the occupational therapists loaned me some laptops for patients to use.

I didn't have snacks, but it was a lot of fun.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Dr. X. is back in the house and she had me researching some equipment for the home health nurse to use. If we could get it, it would be very, very cool.

I won't hold my breath, but stay tuned...

Goodies in my world

Modern technology is a very good thing. The more we work with patients with disabilities, the more I am inspired. Ordinary things can do wonders. Extraordinary things blow our minds.

I heard one of our therapists talking about interacting on Facebook. We're finding more and more of our patients are doing that. So why not engage them on Facebook and let them know about our programs? Just another fun part of my job. At least I'm learning about what can and cannot be marketed on social media.

When I'm not getting people to use Facebook, I can evaluate more and better ways to interact with our specialists at Washington. As a rehab nurse, I am thrilled to be working with patients and using these tools to make their experiences better. I can do education in person, phone and via messaging devices.

Working together with a number of disciplines is not only making the experience better for me and the patients, it also makes it better for our providers and the rest of the healthcare team.

And yes, that is a very good thing!

Nuggets for July 13

There are just too many exciting things going on outside in July. So when it gets hot, this nurse heads inside and surfs away. Here are a few of the interesting tidbits I've run into lately.

Enjoy wherever you are!

More Big Brother?
Someone is always talking about new accessibility tools in rehab. If you can't move a finger, there's a tool somewhere for you. Now, as these tools become more advanced, there are new issues. The next hacking frontier: your brain? (from www.cnn.com) talks about hacking and security for new neural tools.

Supporting nurses
As you know, a lot of nurses work to improve their practice by getting certified in their specialty. This article discusses the importance of support in nurse certification: Study Finds Work Satisfaction Tied to Certification Support (from www.nurse.com).

From the blogosphere...
I have to confess. I really love ImpactEDnurse. Those stories from the ED are just too funny. Here are a couple of my recent favorites:
What men really want in a hospital urinal
The well flocked swab

Maha at Call Bells Make Me Nervous has this great post about the q word (I'm not saying it!)

Psych Doc from Serenity Hospital has a great post about life in the clinic in Clinic Fun.