RehabRN book club: Summer 16 part 2

Yes, I'm doing a better job reading my books this year; however, I'm still working on my Kara Platoni book.

I started it about the same time as The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. Once I started this one, it took over.

Personally, I like short books. While I can read quickly when I want to, I often read near the end of the day when I'm tired, so I read slowly. This book certainly fits the bill.

Some things of note:

About 85% of folks liked this book. There's always some complaints (hence the 15%) from folks, so don't be deterred. If you are looking for a comprehensive biography, this isn't it. As some folks mentioned, if you don't know the basic history of Anderson Cooper and his mother, you may need to do some research or you could get confused.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book. I always wonder about things, and while, I knew some of the story of Anderson Cooper and his mother, this book filled in the gaps. I liked the dialogue aspect of this book. Page 181 of this book talks about lessons in life that apply to nearly everyone:

"It is very easy to simply define yourself by your job, your title, your salary, but these things rarely give you long-term feelings of success and happiness."

Being present and listening are two themes that run through this book over and over. Not acting hastily is also important, too, because you'll see how it affects a lot of Gloria Vanderbilt's life. Impetuousness and lack of a solid, constant mentor, certainly defined many of her decisions.

Pros: It's short with a lot of life lessons.
Cons: It's lacking some detail. (easily found on a quick Google search)

Hope you enjoy your reading! Stay tuned for more reviews...

RehabRN book club: Summer 16 edition

The reading clubs (yes, even for adults) are back at RehabLand's library system and Bubba and I are reading away. Dahey always does (he could spend every waking minute reading if left to his own devices...) but never competes in the contest.

While my boys have methods to selecting the books they get, I don't really have one, outside of the fact that I like new books. Ones with catchy titles and authors I recognize also helps. Lately, I've taken to just picking up a book while I wait for Bubba, randomly opening the book, and reading a few pages while I wait.

If I like the book, I check it out.

The two books on my reading list right now are those kinds of books.

The first one I'm reading is Beyond the tiger mom: East-West parenting for the global age by Maya Thiagarajan. I liked it because Ms. Thiagarajan is a teacher. She's got street cred. She's not just avowing a philosophy to make us working mothers look like slackers. To top it off, she has some great ideas for interventions you can try at home with your kids.

My favorite quote in the book is not just applicable to education, it's also applicable to my job as a nurse:

"Don't worry so much about making everything "fun"...I personally believe "fun" is the wrong word to use. Learning should be challenging, meaningful, rigorous, engrossing, interesting, and satisfying." (p.132)

You could easily switch learning to work and it would still make sense.

The next book on my list right now is We have the technology: How biohackers, foodies, physicians, and scientists are transforming human perception, one sense at a time by Kara Platoni. I'm only a couple of pages into this book but it's looking promising.

More updates to come. Hope you enjoy whatever's on your reading list. Feel free to discuss.

Thank yous and sweet and silly things

First, thank you Katy Katz for featuring this blog in your list of 24 nursing blogs you need to read in 2014. 

I also want to thank our recent group of visitors from all over the globe, especially a few brave souls from Iceland. I've never been there, but Iceland's definitely on my list of places to see. I'm reading a really cool book called The Athena Doctrine: How women (and the men who think like them) will rule the future,  and it has a great story about Iceland in recent years in it.

Today was a very good day. I was busy running reports, analyzing them, and going to meetings. The nice thing was that work actually got done.

Next, I saw one of our patients today who was put on C-diff isolation. Felt like old times (and happily, it did not smell like c-diff at all). I did a little patient education for this sweet 80 something year old guy and complimented him on using his moisturizer on his hands (which is really a part of his rehab, too).

Finally, the sweet and the silly combined when I read an article about sugar free gummy bears. The best part of the article was reading the actual reviews from customers about them. Since we have some people at the Hotel who don't really believe this happens if you overindulge, I may just have to print them out and leave in our group room and our nurses' lounge.

Maybe someone will get the hint. If not, I'll just go buy a bag and leave them out.

Ah, so many sugar free candies, so little time...stay tuned!

Points to ponder about social media

I'd love to print this article out and leave it in our break rooms at the Hotel.

Nursing and the social media battlefield

I follow all of these, but not friending folks at work. I had to overcome that because people kept asking me if I didn't like them. I am selective (I don't friend everyone), but I've put everyone from work is in a separate group. My main rule: I also only discuss two things on Facebook: food and family, and I limit what I discuss on family (food is open to all!).

So if you're unhappy that you see too many recipes, photos of food, and restaurant info, sorry, but that's all I'm saying.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'll be doing laundry in the laundry room as WildDog sleeps outside it on his special rug.

More later...

Reality

Yes, it is 0430, and I'm up finishing this paper after my advisor gave me a scathing review of my draft.

I don't want to appear superficial when I've worked on this massive thing all semester...

Stay tuned.