Are we Evil?

“Why would you choose to do this job?  I know you’re killing people and hiding the bodies.”  such was the thought process of the paranoid post-op patient.  No matter what we said, what we did, the delusion was so real to them that while they got along fine with day shift, there was a lingering mistrust of the night shift because we were killing people.

Sometimes I do question the things we do, the horribly invasive things we do, breaking chests open, sticking needles in veins, catheters in any numbers of openings, slice, sew, defibrillate.

And heal.  That answers the question doesn’t it?

bonus…

It’s just too awesome not to include…

It’s Like It’s the End of the World.

Snow.

Nothing can bring such madness as this one simple word.  Even though it is just a threat of snow,  nothing on the ground and people act like it is the Blizzard to End ALL Blizzards.

Snow haunted me through nursing school.  No mater if there was 2 inches or a foot, I had to go.  Nothing says fun like a drive to school in a 1973 VW Bug at 6am when it is 24° out and windchill to 0° all while lugging my massive Med-Surg text, A&P book, plus the other assorted miscellany needed for a day of school out to the car while looking like Ralphie’s little brother due to the amount of clothes I was wearing.

There she is, the little red one with that light dusting of snow.  That little car got to everyone of my clinical dates (even the one I got pulled over before), to class everyday except the day I broke my key thanks to ice.  Nothing says fun like scraping the inside of a windshield so that I could see out.  Sure, I would have to sit there and warm it up for 30 minutes before even attempting to drive, but I drove in all sorts of nasty weather in Flagstaff.

It was never a question of going to school.  So I learned how to drive in the snow.  Learned how to pry my frozen fingers off the wheel when I got to school.  I learned how to carry the 60lbs books and other crap we were required to carry.  Nursing school taught me far more than the required information needed to become a nurse:  it taught me to deal with adversity.

It isn’t easy, just like nursing isn’t easy.  It breaks us down to build us back up.  Remember when you first stepped on a floor for clinicals?  You were freaked out, like our city in the face of a storm, but as the day went, you grew more comfortable, it grew easier and soon you found yourself thriving in the new and different environment.  Now when you step on the floor you know what needs to be done.  You know how it needs to be done.  That’s knowledge brought on by the act of nursing, the practice.  You are able to deal with the adversity that faces us everyday because you’ve been through it all.

Now I’m off to stock up on groceries, run around like crazy tracking down a heater and generally acting like an idiot – there’s snow coming!

For the Ears and the Squishy Organ Between Them

I like podcasts, but it seems like I don’t have enough time to listen to them.  Call it an inability to plan well, structure my time well, or more that I just like to listen to music when I exercise/commute.  When I do sit down to catch up, I flagellate myself to “keep up” but that doesn’t last for long.  The great thing about podcasts is the ability to learn whilst doing nothing.  Yes kids, learn.  Y’know, ingest, digest and evaluate new information to improve one’s knowledge thereby increasing our abilities.  Now there are podcasts not of that sort and are pure entertainment, which are just as good, but I like the ones that impart new information.

Here’s a short list of what I’ve been trying listening to.

Mark Crislip, “because the world needs more Mark Crislip”.  He’s an ID doc within my hospital system and is downright hysterical, but informative.  He has 2 that I really recommend in his media empire.

First, Gobbet o’ Pus.  Brief snippets about infectious diseases with a certain twisted sense of humor.

Second, Quackcast.  Yup, a dissection of alternative medicine.  He has no qualms about calling people dumbasses, especially here.

He’s my favorite right now.

Here are some other worthy contenders:

ICU Rounds.  Dr. Jeffery Guy’s series about ICU patients and what ails them.

Nursing Show Online.  by Jamie Davis the Podmedic. Nursing stuff, brief bites.

And I just found this one thanks to iTunes:  Freakonomics Radio.  Take the ideas from the book and make a podcast out of it.  Brilliant.

That’s all for now.  Happy listening!