Bureaucracy is Hurricane-Proof

Posted on September 16, 2008 by

My parents live in a rural area of Texas to the north of Houston, an area hard-hit by the fallout of Ike but not in spectacular and showy ways that rate media or government attention. Residents of several neighboring towns are without power because the company that supplied them with service was wiped out by the hurricane. They will be without electricity for weeks, probably longer. Local residents are trying to feed their families without refrigeration, and the stores don’t have it either so there’s nowhere to buy food. Local … Continue reading →

Posted in Indignancies | 5 Comments

The Nursing School Experience

Posted on September 6, 2008 by

Bravo to Phil Baumann, RN, for his blog post, An Open Letter to Some Nursing Education Faculty. To his list, I would also like to add “Appreciate your students’ previous knowledge and life experience.” As someone who attended nursing school after a successful career in the tech industry, it was disconcerting to be expected to forfeit my adulthood and life experiences and submit to being treated as though I were a naive and inexperienced 18-year-old just out of high school. I had lived in a foreign country and six different … Continue reading →

Posted in Indignancies, My Life, Nursing | 11 Comments

Apple Leaf Poultice

Posted on August 22, 2008 by

The elderly black woman’s blood pressure had been dangerously elevated. While I was checking her vitals for one of many times that shift, she looked up at me hesitantly. “If I tell you something, will you do it for me?” she asked. “What is it?” I replied. “Go out yonder,” she said, pointing at the midnight sky outside her fifth floor hospital room window, “and get some leaves offa dem apple trees. Make a poultice of ‘em, and sprinkle on some salt to pull da juice outta da leaves. Put … Continue reading →

Posted in Nursing, Parallel Universes | Leave a comment

A Growing Problem

Posted on August 6, 2008 by

An ambulance technician in Scotland, in his post Fat Chance, has finally (and beautifully) put into words some of the frustration I’ve felt so many times when working with obese patients: Morbid obesity is dangerous, hence the moniker, but in the emergency situation it’s not the ischaemic heart disease that causes the problems, nor the diabetes, cellulitis or dyspnoea. It’s just the weight. If we can’t lift you when you can’t walk, you’re not going anywhere. Bravo. It’s not that we don’t like you because you’re fat. It’s just so … Continue reading →

Posted in Nursing | 1 Comment

Insight

Posted on August 5, 2008 by

There are cameras in the patient rooms on our psych units. The images they produce are tiny, black and white, and grainy. (That’s not really by design; they’re just very old, and they aren’t broken, so there’s no reason to replace them.) They don’t show much detail — just enough to allow us to keep an eye on people who might be liable to hang themselves with a bed sheet or try to dance naked on one foot on the back of a plastic chair. No, I didn’t just randomly … Continue reading →

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HIPAA, HIPAA, Hooray for Bureaucracy!

Posted on August 2, 2008 by

We were getting a new patient on the psych unit. This person had been picked up by the police with no ID, psychotic and mute. We were informed we couldn’t admit them as J___ Doe, which was the name the police had given them, because that would reveal their gender, thereby violating their privacy. The admitting office, therefore, assigned them the name “Tangerine Doe.” What I still can’t figure out is exactly who we were trying not to reveal this person’s gender to, and why? Even if I yelled from … Continue reading →

Posted in Nursing | 2 Comments

The Whole (almost) Family

Posted on July 16, 2008 by

The Whole (almost) Family Originally uploaded by Geek2Nurse This is everybody but Ryan (my oldest) and Felicity, gathered in Galveston for Mom & Dad’s 50th anniversary. Click through to Flickr for labels telling who each person is.

Posted in My Life | Leave a comment