Assessments

I had lunch with a coworker today whom I normally don't see. He/she works in another part of the same building.

We were talking about the working environment because he/she is newer in our area. It was not a surprise that we noticed many of the same things.

1. Many folks on our team are territorial to the point of being hostile to others. Our boss thinks things don't need to be addressed by leadership, but they do.

It's nice to know that I wasn't the only one with that thought.

2. While the team says "Yeah team" and acts friendly, they are often not very friendly, especially if you encroach on the item in #1. I found this out when I asked a coworker about something the boss brought to me.

3. The team, besides being so territorial and in some cases, mercurial, is always competitive.

While reading this week, I found an article on befriending competition. It's not exactly my situation, but I feel like many things ring true in my dealings with my coworkers.

We both agreed, that while our jobs have their minuses, they definitely have their advantages. It would not make sense to let the mean girls (and boys) win.

Stay tuned...

I have to admit

It's really getting better all the time. My friend and her husband are coping, and it seems that the treatment he's on is helping him. Pain is still an issue. Dahey went out and stayed with him for a while in the afternoon and they had a nice chat.

The other reason it's better: it's the weekend. Hooray!

Hope you enjoy your weekend wherever you are.

Stay tuned.

Coping mechanisms

To be a nurse, you need to know how to handle the pressure of day-to-day silliness.

My methods:

1. Chocolate. Eat the dark stuff with less sugar and fiber (okay, it still has fat, but you need fiber, right?)

2. Coffee. I don't care if they tell me it will kill me this week. Last week, they said it was my best source of antioxidants.

3. Regular pedicures. Yes, you are only as happy as your feet are (said more than one old pro nurse I know!) Hot pink toes make me happy.

That is all. Enjoy your night wherever you area!

Nuggets for February 25

Yes, I'm a little behind, but I've been saving up so many goodies I've found, I thought this would be a better use of my time at this very moment, instead of getting ready for work.

Here are a few of the items I've found out on the 'net and in the blogosphere while meandering. Hope you enjoy!

Tips and tricks
Ian from impactEDnurse has a great little video about keeping air bubbles out of your IV
lines.

Not Nurse Ratched has an informal tip for you (or your patients) experiencing nausea. Not sure where it came from, but would be happy to do the research. The Hotel is full of smells, particularly on evenings.

While it's not a specific trick, this PBS segment on Dr. Atul Gawande's book, The Checklist Manifesto, talks about using checklists in hospitals and health care.

Jo has a survival guide to the night shift at her blog, Head Nurse.

Check 'em out
If you work odd hours, such as evenings, nights and weekends, you need to check out Life in the Trenches: Nursing at Night and on the Weekend. This blog is a part of Dr. Patti Hamilton of Midwestern State University's RWJF funded research project about nursing at these times of day and what happens.

We've heard a lot about the Haiti earthquake's wake lately, and one thing, you don't always hear about is how to meet the psychosocial needs of patients after disaster. Somehow, I stumbled upon this interesting CEU article called Psychiatric Emergency: Caring for Patients in Crisis.

The OMG section
Rehab is predominantly a low-tech area of nursing, because patients need to get up and running with a minimal number of devices. As an escaped techie, though, I never cease to be amazed by all the technological prodecures and devices that are on the market or will be there soon.

Liver transplants that do their job, then fade away is about a transplantation procedure, used primarily in kids, featured recently in the NY Times.

Coping
Bravo Roger! I found the Well blog article over at the NY Times which discusses life for Roger Ebert since his cancer surgery. Appearance is not everything. You might just blurt stuff out, as your wife says, but sometimes they are things we just need to hear.

Scuba diving accessible to people with disabilities? Check it out here in this article. (from www.pva.org)