Here I go again

***Happy National Rehabilitation Week! ***

Life is distracting. Especially when you have lots of things going on at once. Teenage kid getting hormonal. People at work being uncivil. Weather being unusually warm. Such is my life in RehabLand.

I've been finding and cataloging some great articles I've run into about these subjects, so here are a few of them. Hope you enjoy! I am, since it's helping me to stay sane as I get ready for the last week of travel for this year (I hope!) I'm looking forward to more learning, sightseeing and a Philly cheese steak while I'm hanging out with a whole bunch of other rehab nurses from around the country.

It may be from July, but KevinMD never fails to deliver some compelling content from nurses. I have to say if I were going to put something together, I'd be anonymous, too. The truth hurts, but hopefully, more folks will learn from the examples given in this article.

While it's not health related, if you are a foodie, and you love fried chicken, like Dahey (it's a genetic thing) you won't want to miss this article on the best fried chicken in the US. I swear he's still alive because of it. Dahey was a regular many moons ago when he lived down the road from Hattie's first storefront.

Finally, in light of national rehab week, take it from a former rehabber himself (who I just met, along with his parents, on one of my trips recently), ASK. People in wheelchairs, in many cases, can talk and advocate for themselves. Don't be afraid to ask, or you too, might miss a golden opportunity. Thanks Charlie for reminding us.

Hope you enjoy your weekend wherever you are!

TGIF (for so many reasons)

Yes, I'm thankful it's Friday because I don't have to work on Monday. Happy long weekend to all of you fortunate enough to be able to celebrate our country's presidents Monday.

I have been doing research for another conference abstract (the story of my life lately) so I've managed to find some interesting articles, including this one on writing a good one. Some of these are even appropriate for the abstracts.  Here are a few of the ones I found below.

While I'm not looking for a job right now, I try to keep my reference list up to date. This article talks about how to ask references the right questions to get good information on candidates. While I don't actually check the references, I have interviewed people. One of the folks I interviewed provided us a list of references to check. Surprisingly, the candidate's name and phone number was on his/her list. It gave me a chuckle, as the other interviewers didn't immediately pick up on this. This got said applicant in my "Interesting Interviews Hall of Fame".

The end of this week was sad, though. One of the national folks for our program died suddenly this past weekend just as he was getting ready to watch the Super Bowl. His team won, so despite everything, there were a few smiles knowing that. He was not old and it was not expected.

We found out that one of our coworkers has a family member with cancer. What makes it worse is that it's a child. Being new at the Hotel is crazy enough, then to have your family member have cancer is just awful.

These moments remind us all to be grateful for health. It's never guaranteed.

Until next time...

Observations at work

Jo described a nurse she works with in this post over at Head Nurse. I had a good time reading the comments because it reminded me of some of the "get in to go somewhere else" folks we keep getting at our Hotel unit at Washington.

Why do the words, "Oh, I'll just go apply somewhere else" rankle me? Because they are often coming out of the mouths of the newly oriented. Really? You couldn't have done your homework which would have told you this is a unit part of a rehab hospital? You just want to whine about it and you just got here?

I digress....

What I really wanted to talk about is this article. I know this phenomena is not contained to men, but they are the main culprits. I see this in a committee I work on. The guy is "so busy" that all he can do is let that lil' ol' multiple thousands of dollars project wait because no one knows how the back end process works.

Really? Hello people! That's what the BUSINESS side folks are for. Bug them! They LOVE it because it's THEIR job. They don't want to be clinical. They want to buff the machinery of the business processes of a hospital and make it work. I need the project management fairy to come and hit him over the head with her magic Project wand.

Occasionally, you have a nurse like me who gets it (that former life helps) but even I don't know everything. That's why I defer to the experts. That's why I keep asking you to ask them to show up at our meetings. It would be nice to solve some problems instead of talk about them the whole time.

That is all. I'm celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a nice, cool beverage, which will help me forget all of this mess. Hope you enjoy your day wherever you are, margarita or not.

More later.

TGIF odds and ends

Oh, you know it's going to be an interesting day when your boss calls and asks "What the hell is going on?" Got that cleared up and it was better than I thought.  He/she isn't mad anymore, just worried that he/she will have staffing issues.

I'm a big picture career person, so that's what I'm thinking. Pleasing the boss is important, but having peace of mind and career growth is important, too. One of these days, the HR reps in the Hotel will learn how to read and use telephones. All I can do now is wait.

I found out today is the birthday of the inventor of the x-ray. Unfortunately, unlike our radiology nursing friends at Washington, no one brought donuts.


Since the lovely folks in the media department are printing my MegaConference poster, F., the designer sent me the mockup this week. As usual, she does amazing work. I can't wait until she gets it done.

I'd like to publish something one of these days, but as this article mentions, some publishers are not what they seem, so beware!

On my way out the door today, I did a little occupational therapy reinforcement (along with my unit tour guide duties). I showed one of our newer patients how to navigate the inpatient wifi on his phone.
He was up and running listening to his favorite radio stations on his phone by the time I left.

A little head bopping and a huge smile was a great way to greet the end of the workday

Hope you have a happy weekend wherever you may be.

The light bulb moment

While I was reading some articles on being productive, I ran into this one and it summed up the Hotel to a T. We have had nothing but management changes for the last four years.

I don't consider myself an older employee, but the Hotel has a wide variety (and more older) people in our area.

This part was very familiar.

When I noticed the age difference between my colleagues and me, I immediately thought, “There’s no way they’re going to respect a young girl who’s fresh out of college.” And what’s worse: I let these thoughts infiltrate my management style—I avoided confrontation with the older employees, figuring that they wouldn’t be receptive to my coaching or feedback because I was so young.

And that was my biggest—and most costly—mistake. I didn’t hold my employees accountable, and let their poor performance slide. Since I wasn’t actually managing my employees, I wasn’t doing my job as a boss: helping them succeed.

Truth or fiction version 46

You'd be surprised at some of the articles I've been reading lately.


Take a guess and see how many you get right. No prizes, but you too, can have bragging rights in your neck of the woods.

Go ahead! Get ready (or not) to entertain your friends and family. See who can get the most right. I'll post the answers 24 hours after the initial post.

Robots are running around the hospital seeing patients in rehab. Truth or fiction?

Women are getting the "Cinderall procedure" in droves?

And finally, since we have "bring your kids day", you may just want to bring a furry friend one of these days.

Stay tuned!

Hearing noises?

After reading this, you may realize that it's really nothing...or not.

I hate bugs, but bugs in body cavities...ugh! We've seen our share of maggots at the Hotel (some hospital grade, some homegrown).

I'll pass, thank you very much!

I love research

Especially when research journal authors, like these good folks at BMJ have a sense of humor about a wonderfully seasonal PICO question.

Enjoy!

Enjoy a long weekend

No, it's not a holiday, but I decided to make it one. Visited a few friends, then the weather changed some of my plans, but here I am, relaxing and now surfing the internet for fun.

I was reading an article which discussed how if James Bond were real, he would be an alcoholic with impotence. I really enjoyed this article, because scientists had to read the Ian Fleming novels and count the quantity of alcohol that 007 drank. According to the books, he even had a DUI with injuries. (Good thing he wasn't looking for car insurance!)

So after that stunning study, there was this article about the real diseases named after literary characters. I had recognized a couple of them, so it was enlightening. I also did not know that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation did a story in 2012 on favorite fictional nurses.

Finally, two articles stood out about characters. One interesting article was called "You are what you read." The last one is about fictional characters based on real people.

In light of the article "You are what you read", just remember there are some fictional characters you should not emulate.

That is all. TGIF and enjoy your weekend, wherever you are.

Nuggets for July 17

Here are a few goodies I've run across on the internet lately. Enjoy!

A little explosive
Always provocative, Rolling Stone may ignite a few opinions all over the place with their cover photo and story of a Boston Marathon bomber.

Wired up
AHA's survey of Health Care's Most Wired hospitals is out and to no surprise, the Veterans Health Administration made the list.

If you were wondering
How those folks can count all the participants in uprisings, revolutions, etc., the good folks at the BBC have an article about that very topic.

No contest
Maybe if MBAs were licensed like RNs or other healthcare personnel, they'd make the most trusted list, and not appear in an article like this one about writing their own recommendations. I'd love for my old clinical instructor, Nurse Battle Ax (a former Navy nurse) to talk to one of them.

I love the internet (or this week's Nuggets)

Which is where I ran into these articles, thanks to my favorite publications, as well as some fellow bloggers.

Hope you enjoy!

Mistakes
Frankly, since I've started working at the Hotel, I've been mistaken at odd times for a doctor, a nurse assistant, a sales person, a stripper and a random person in scrubs. I have never been offended by these descriptions because I take them at face value: the patient was delirious, delusional, demented or just plain oversexed (sorry couldn't think of a D adjective for that last one).

I ran into this KevinMD op-ed (which I highly enjoyed the angst because of the Nerdy Nurse) of this obviously almost 30 something year old woman who is mistaken for a nurse, when she has those coveted MD letters on her white coat.

All I have to say is, if you had the demented character who said you reminded him of a stripper, you'd have thanked your lucky stars he called you a nurse instead. Far worse has happened...

An innocent abroad

All I have to say is, I'm not going to say to much, or I'll have to plead the Fifth, but this is a very interesting article if you are a little technologically inclined. It's just the tip of the iceberg, and I thank my lucky stars that my only cultural barriers right now are between hospital departments.

If you only read the first two sentences...

You may very well see your own career trajectory right before your very eyes. The words that struck me:
"hospitals need to create a patient-centered culture founded in principles of compassion, service and high quality"

You got it, Sabrina. Indeed.

Points to ponder

Yes, it seems far away from nursing to talk about insider trading, but it's not really if you read this article.

Sure, those investment types are NOT supposed to take the advice of a doctor and go sell stocks, but they did. They made huge profits.

And it just reminds me what one of my old professors said eons ago. "Take a glass of water with you to every meeting. If they start to discuss insider trading or price fixing, accidentally spill said glass of water on yourself and walk out. Make sure this is recorded in the meeting minutes, or make a note to self."

Just in case the SEC and other sundry law enforcement folks come calling...

Yes, I had a Monday

Power outage, rascally equipment, surly coworkers, you name it. It was a Monday.

But I'll also probably have one of those Tuesdays (meeting day from Hell-back to back for four hours), Wednesday (hump day) and Thursday (madhouse clinic day).
.
I am so glad the folks at the BBC could find researchers willing to solve this terrible problem of Mondays, by saying it's not just Mondays.

Still makes me want to go buy a winning lottery ticket and/or look for some other random financial windfall so I can stay home when I don't want to work.

Stay tuned.

Virtually cool stuff

Every day, there's something interesting to read about. Efforts to help our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan makes sense for many reasons.

There are even games that can make a difference when we take care of patients by reducing pain when drugs can't.

We live in an interesting time and I love it!

Stay tuned for more goodies...

Nuggets : Leap year edition

You may not have seen too many of these lately, but just like February 29 coming around every four years, the nuggets have taken a leap and come back.

Here are a few items I've encountered this week out on the internet. I've been reading, but just not the kind of stuff most folks who visit would like to read. (Such is the life of a grad student!)

Sleep? Who does that?
This BBC article discusses the myth of eight hours of sleep. Interesting history.

On the subject of sleep, one WebMD article talks about the safety of sleeping pills.

Dental care
It's really hard for patients without (or with, even) insurance to get dental care due to costs. Some people are going to the ER to get dental care that prevention might have avoided.

Food safety
If it's not one crisis, it's another. Who would have thought you needed to worry about fungicide in your fresh squeezed juice?

And if you think you need to remove any of that OJ from your system, some people are trying detox diets (from WebMD). While there's little science involved, one thing is true: if you eat more fruits and vegetables, (not covered in fungicide, etc.) you just may do better than you think.

Stay tuned...we'll be back.

Sad but true

Yes, some people think makeup makes you more competent.

When they perfect a mascara that is totally sweatproof, tearproof and rubproof, I'll wear better stuff. Some days makeup lasts all of 10 minutes at the Hotel, so you have to be careful what you wear.

Stay tuned...real life happens today. Welcome to meeting-o-rama for me!

In the bus station

I read this article today about psychiatrists with a heavy heart. Pushing people through an office every 15 minutes just to give them pills and ship them out is not going to solve their problems.

How many people will have to kill themselves or be hospitalized for long periods for insurance companies to figure this out?

Just sayin'...

Changes

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."--John Lennon

Yes, the changes are all over place already this year. And as luck would have it, there are helpful articles.
I saw the Specialist in one today in RehabLand's paper talking about his next adventure as a teacher. We will miss him, because his successor at Private U. is the dreaded Hated Specialist, who many patients at the Hotel have lots of stories about. HS, hopefully, will stay at the Private U. and not visit, but time will tell.

Then the NY Times magazine has this article about death in cyberspace. This made me think...maybe I do need one of those digital legacy services to keep all my online account information together so it is not a burden to my family to track down, if my eternal reward is issued anytime soon.

Sobering thoughts barely a week into this new year...more to come.

If they asked me...

I'd tell them what I thought about renovating our end of the Hotel. Alas, Manglement always thinks they know better.

If they really do renovate, it will be more of the same, with newer stuff, and hopefully, more private rooms. I'd love to get out of the moving business.

Rare and obscure

Sometimes we really get some obscure stuff to look up on our patients. One of our nurses found a few good articles to add to the learning folder for the staff.

I recently took care of some interesting characters.

• One patient has had issues with a new ostomy. This article describes issues when surgical revision doesn't help.
• Another patient came in with a really odd tumor. He's been undergoing radiation and has been really down in the dumps.
• Finally, I'm adding to my list of oddball tumors that can show up on your spinal cord.

In addition to all this excitement, my boss told me I'll be attending a class for preceptors soon. I am both honored and stunned. While I've been told I know how to teach people well, I've always felt like I haven't really been a nurse long enough to be in the preceptor role. At Saintarama, you had to be a nurse for five years before you could precept anyone officially. (Informally, anyone RN with a BSN or 5+ years of experience could be a preceptor for a day or two.). I'm still learning a lot of skills that we don't use often.

Off I go...so much to do today. Stay tuned.