Fourth Degree Nurse

Charm City Chronicles

2009-08-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

Coming soon . . . .

Back after a very long pause . . .

2009-04-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, I somehow made it through the past two months in one piece. I did my five-week, full-time internship in the county hospital ER. Was also working my two part-time jobs and preparing for a move to Baltimore. As of last night, I am finished! Graduating from nursing school on May 10th.

My experience in the ER was great. I learned a lot and got to practice skills (drawing blood, starting IV's) that I didn't get to do in my regular clinicals. I also learned that people who shoot other people in Indianapolis have really bad aim---they always hit the hands, the leg, or the butt (which is probably where we get the expression to "put a cap in someone's ass"). Or maybe they don't have bad aim, maybe they just want to send a message without risking a murder sentence.

Anyway, the nurses I met and worked with there were great---smart, competent, and pleasant to spend time around. There's a spirit of teamwork and cooperation in an ER that you don't find in the other units of a hospital. (OK, maybe there's teamwork in an OR, as well, but the thought of having to stand still for the most part for hours on end holds no appeal for me.) I spent enough years working alone as a librarian, and now I'm ready to work as part of a team.

The move to Baltimore has so far entailed driving out there a month ago to interview for jobs (after hounding recruiters on the phone for weeks---despite a nursing shortage, jobs for new graduates are hard to come by this year because of the economy--new grads cost a lot to train). Got a job at my top choice hospital, in the ER! I will be working nights . . . not exactly looking forward to becoming a sort-of vampire (I'm not a "night person"), but newbies in any ER generally have to work nights. Will grin and deal with it and hope it doesn't last too long.

Two weeks later, drove out again to look for a house. Found one, made an offer, which was accepted. Flew out this past week for the home inspection. Am now in negotiations with the sellers surrounding the (few) problems found during the inspection.

If I could move whererever I wanted, Baltimore wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the list, but it's a step up from Indianapolis, so I'm excited about the move. Haven't lived on the East Coast in 23 years.

My Newfound Appreciation for Costco

2009-02-16T07:01:00.000-08:00

Over the past two years, I've been stuck with the not-so-great health insurance that IU makes available for its students to purchase at a group rate. This plan does not cover prescriptions, so I've been paying for my maintenance med out of pocket. CVS, Walgreens, and Osco all offer the generic version for about $36 a month. Last month, I learned that Costco sells the same med for $10 a month or $19 for a three-month supply! And---here's the part that makes me really feel the love for Costo---you don't have to be a member to use their pharmacy!!!

I wish I'd learned this sooner, as I could have been saving over $300 a year, but better late than never. I'm not sure I'll ever actually join Costco, but I will think about it. I've heard that they offer good deals on tires (which I will need to buy eventually) and lenses (for glasses---another big ticket item I need every so many years). And caskets, although I plan to be cremated, so I won't need one for myself. The prohibition on cremation is the one aspect of Judaism that I chose to sort of ignore when I coverted. I have no problem with the blood and guts involved in nursing, but the prospect of rotting in the ground gives me the heeby-jeebies for some reason.

I doubt that I'll ever feel the need to buy the bulk food items they sell at Costco. It's just me and Max, and besides, I tend to mostly cook variations on beans (or lentils) and rice and fresh vegetables. (It's cheap, it's healthy, and it's what I prefer.) I tend to avoid the processed kinds of "food" that you can buy at a place like Costco. But you might see me at their pharmacy!

The Latest Funny

2009-02-04T07:59:00.001-08:00

When you're holding down two jobs, a full load of classes, and raising a kid, every now and then you need something that makes you laugh. This is doing it for me right now. That's Dave from the hilarious show "Flight of the Conchords." Too bad the video doesn't give us a glimpse of his "huge VHS, 8-track, and cassette tape library" or the perishable goods.

So, what the heck am I doing in nursing school?

2009-02-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

I've had to explain this more times than I could begin to count, so I've decided to copy and paste an essay here that tells you everything you might need to know (and then some) about this mid-life career change I've undertaken. Here goes:

I grew up thinking I wanted to be a reference librarian. I liked the idea of sitting at a desk and helping anyone and everyone who came to me with an information need. As a student, I worked in library support positions for seven years. After completing the requisite schooling, I worked as a law school reference librarian for a decade. That makes a combined total of almost twenty years spent working in libraries. While I was more than competent in this work, I found it somehow less than satisfying. I realized the full weight of my discontent after giving birth to my son in 2004. At the end of my maternity leave, I returned to the library and found spending my days apart from him especially difficult. This timing coincided with the decision of whether or not to apply for tenure. (In the IU system, librarians are considered faculty.)

I set out to find a more meaningful career. I began by asking myself what I did like about being a librarian. That was easy---I enjoyed helping people find the information they needed, and I also loved teaching legal research skills to law students and graduate students, thus empowering them to be self-sufficient. So my ideal job would involve helping people as well as teaching. Then I asked myself what I disiked most about being a librarian. I did not like sitting at a desk most of the day; I wanted to be moving around and using my hands as well as my brain. Finally, I asked myself what topic had interested me most in school. The answer was physiology, which I took to fulfill a graduation requirement at UCLA. In that class, the marvelous intricacies of the human body filled me with awe, and I had thought about the material often since then.

What career involves (1) helping people and sometimes teaching them, (2) dynamic movement as well as critical thought, and (3) the study of the human body? Nursing! Over the next two years, I continued to work full time while caring for my son and taking all of the prerequisite courses for nursing school (Anatomy--complete with cadavers!, Physiology, Microbiology, Nutrition, Lifespan Development, and Statistics). I earned straight A’s in these courses, was admitted to the IU School of Nursing , and enrolled in August 2007.

My immediate goal is to graduate and find a job, ideally in an emergency room. I feel a bit of déjà vu when I daydream about emergency nursing: I picture myself waiting for people to come through the doors in need of help, just as I used to sit at a reference desk, waiting for someone to come to me with a question. But this time, the need for help will be more visceral, more readily apparent, and---I believe----inevitably more satisfying.

It is worth noting here that, while I was in law school (and yes, you do need a J.D. to be a law school reference librarian), I published an article on EMTALA, the federal law that prohibits emergency rooms from refusing to treat people who fail the “wallet biopsy” (i.e., they are unable to pay for their treatment). Partly as a result of this law, America’s emergency rooms are now the facility of first and last resort for the uninsured, the undocumented, and the impoverished. Given the nation’s current economic woes, this trend will only worsen. It is my hope that someday, given my legal training and---eventually---my experience on the front lines of health care, I can be in a position to somehow help further the goal of universal health care in our lifetime. I am moving closer to this goal one step at a time.

Watch for the upcoming post "Why I Want to Work in an ER"!!

Chillin'

2009-01-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is a surfer making his way onto a snow-covered beach, with a lighthouse in the background. Turns out there are quite a few people who've taken up surfing on Lake Superior. Year 'round. I lived in Duluth in 1996 and 1997 and commuted up the North Shore Highway (the same Highway 61 revisited by local boy Bob Dylan) daily to the courthouse in Two Harbors (and a few times a month to the one in Grand Marais). I don't remember seeing any surfers back then, but it turns out they were there. Lake Superior is the most beautiful body of water I've ever seen, and it was hard to take my eyes off of it.

According to an article in Friday's New York Times, these guys wear thick wetsuits, gloves, booties, hoods, and petroleum jelly to protect themselves. The water in that big old lake averages around 40 degrees year-round, which means it's often warmer than the air. But you wouldn't want to get wet and then expose yourself to the frigid air (thus the petroleum jelly).

I lived six blocks from the lake and would walk down there (Duluth is built on a very steep hill . . . think San Francisco but smaller and less expensive) with my dearly departed Labrador, Chamois, almost every day. She would fetch sticks for hours no matter the weather. When it was hot out (mid 70's counts as hot in Duluth---my idea of a perfect summer), I would wade in with her but only to just above my knees. It was too cold to proceed any further. Well, not without a wetsuit.

There Are Raccoons Living in My House . . . Again.

2009-01-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

I first heard them about this time last year. I'm renting a house that was built in 1890 and which has suffered through numerous renovations over the years. The raccoons live between the original (very high) ceilings and the newer (lower) ones. They make a LOT of noise.

A trapper caught three of them over the course of a couple of months last spring, then my landlady's handyman sealed up all of the openings they'd created into the house. I thought that was the end of the story . . . until today, when I heard them scurrying about overhead. It's their mating season right now, so things could get much louder soon.

Movies Whose Acclaim Completely Eludes Me

2009-01-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

In no particular order:

1. Forrest Gump: OK, the many bits of history thrown in was a novel gimmick (recently done again in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), but I was bothered by the message of the film, which seemed to be that it's honorable to be not-so-bright and accepting of whatever life hands you. And it's very bad to protest government actions---you will pay for this recklessness.

2. Little Miss Sunshine: Just plain dumb. Insultingly dumb. And a little creepy at times (e.g., when Alan Arkin was teaching his young granddaughter to dance like a stripper).

3. Jerry Maguire: OK, I will admit bias against Tom Cruise, which didn't help matters here. The underlying message of the movie isn't a bad one, i.e., it's a good idea to treat your clients well and be honest in all dealings with them. Yeah, that's all fine and good. But the annoying catchphrases and bizarre, incredible plot twists (e.g., Jerry marries single mom Dorothy because he likes hanging out with her kid??!!!) were just too much.

4. Atonement: Where to begin . . . OK, this one definitely scores high for eye candy, but I didn't buy the plot for a second. Our 'tween narrator sends the object of her crush to prison rather than let her sister pursue a love affair with him???!!! And from that point on, things only get even more depressing (e.g., the hero and heroine die horrible, lonely deaths at a young age). It might have been a good book (I don't know, as I have not read it), but why anyone would subject herself to this nonsensical gloomfest is beyond me.

5. Crash: I think the lack of sympathetic characters was a big problem for me here. Then we've got racial stereotypes, incredible plot twists (I lived in LA for a number of years and find it really difficult to believe that these folks just keep running into each other---that doesn't happen in such an enormous, sprawling city), and an overall mood of unpleasantness that left me scratching my head. This was not Oscar material.

What's up with Netflix?

2008-12-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

OK, the "very long wait" for a movie in my Netflix Q never used to last more than a week, maybe two at the most, but now the waiting periods seem to last much longer. It is possible that I've slipped in the hierarchy of subscribers. People who keep movies at home for a long time cost the company less money and are rewarded by getting the movies that have a "wait" sooner than subscribers who go through their movies quickly (and thus go through more movies in any given period). But I don't think I'm going through movies any faster now than I used to.

About a month ago, Netflix stopped selling its excess (used) DVD's. They never explicitly said this (or maybe they did, and I missed the news story), but I am guessing that they are now buying far fewer copies of each movie. This would explain the seemingly much longer waiting period for any given movie in great demand.

I liked the old system better. But I imagine they can churn more of a profit by buying far fewer copies of new (= expensive) movies. I'll have to try to view this as an opportunity to practice patience.

Seasonal Delights

2008-12-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

We're nearing the end of pomegranate season. I'm wondering why pomegranate season is so short. We can buy pretty much any fruit or vegetable at any time of the year now, thanks to the global shipping network. (Whether we *should* be consuming produce from far away is a thorny issue that I won't address here.) When it's winter here, it's summer in the southern hemisphere. Does nobody farm pomegranates in the southern hemisphere? I realize they're most popular in Asia and the Middle East, not Africa or Chile or Australia. But maybe the farmers down there could make a killing exporting them to the people who miss them nine months out of the year.

Speaking of seasonal delights, I thawed out some of the pesto I made from the basil I grew over the summer. It's wonderful to be able to taste a little bit of summer sun on a cold, dreary day.

Missing Out on Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

Being sick sucks. Being REALLY sick REALLY sucks.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

2008-11-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

This poster gives some statistics to support the argument that, the more literate the mother, the lower the risk of infant mortality. Sounds pretty reasonable, and I just love Soviet propaganda.

IU offers a course on comparative health systems, specifically those in the U.S. and Russia. The course involves a two-week trip to a city in southern Russia, Rostov-on-the-Don. The trip is expensive, but something like two-thirds of the students pay nothing, as there are some sweet scholarships available.

I'm studying nursing and am very interested in health policy. Given my background in law, I might someday be able to participate in making health policy. I speak Russian. It's a little rusty, but this program offers an 8-week course of specialized health policy Russian, so I would get to brush up and learn all the necessary terminology.

At first, this seems like a no-brainer. I should go, right? But the trip is immediately after graduation, and I'm likely to be busy packing for a move. (Not sure where yet---that subject will be addressed in future posts.) Will I feel like jetting off to the other side of the world for two weeks?

What should I do?

Mandate for a Change

2008-11-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

As Rhonda would say, "Woo hoo!!!!" Obama soundly defeated McCain. It was depressing to learn, however, while listening to Bill Moyers interviewed on "Fresh Air" today, that racism is still alive and well in the South, which is pretty solidly red on the electoral map. Only 1 in 6 white voters in Mississippi voted for Obama. So there *are* places even more backwards than Indiana. Scary.

Please please please please please . . .

2008-11-04T15:48:00.000-08:00

Indiana has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Here's hoping we break that tradition tonight.

Oh, and the sangria gum's actually pretty good.

Brush with Death . . . and Prejudice

2008-11-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

Today, for my Critical Care clinical, I spent the day in an ICU. One of my two patients was covered in white supremacist tattoos, including swastikas. I wondered how he would feel if he knew that one of his caregivers (yours truly) is Jewish. Lucky for me, he's been unconscious for some time.

And during the night, his nurse noticed that his pupils were fixed and dilated. Never a good sign. This morning, his nurse and I took him downstairs for a CT scan of his head. The radiology tech and a radiology nurse showed me a big white blob in one side of his brain (on the computer screen) and explained that this was an intracerebral hemorrhage (i.e., bleeding in the brain). Later, a radiologist read the scan and saw, in addition to the bleed, some herniation. This is when part of your brain moves to a place in the skull where it doesn't belong, usually because of increased pressure in its original location. Brain herniation is usually followed by death.

In other words, our patient would likely be already dead if not for his ventilator. The docs and a social worker set about contacting his family to get their permission to "wean" him from the vent. Word on the floor is that the patient is estranged from his wife and kids, so nobody expects them to disagree with the plan. I left before they were reached.

I've previously cared for patients who were not going to live much longer, but today's was the most immediately impending death I've encountered. It's weird, but I don't feel the overwhelming sadness I've felt with past patients. This probably has something to do with the fact that two of the prior patients with fatal diagnoses were newborn babies. It probably also has something to do with this guy's white supremacist tattoos. Does that make me a terrible nurse (in training), if I don't get that upset when an asshole dies?

Great Internet Radio Station / Election / Gum and Wine

2008-11-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

I enjoy listening to a variety of jazz here. Just press the "ecouter" button to set it up. It's from France, and their motto is "All the jazz, all the emotions." But they play nice music, anyway.

Speaking of emotions, I'm feeling a bit jittery about Tuesday's presidential election. They usually call Indiana for the Republican candidate at about 8:30 a.m. on election day, so it's somewhat shocking but definitely exciting to be a swing state this year. Here's hoping we have something to celebrate Tuesday night . . . .

To take my mind off the election, I'm trying some new gum. I bought two new Orbit flavors: Positively Pomegranate and Sangria Real (that's "royal sangria" in English). One of my fun discoveries during my two trips to Kazakhstan was the wide variety of gum flavors available there. (These flavors were also Orbit, made by an American company---Wrigley's, before Orbit was sold here). My favorite was Fresh Lemon (svyezhii lemon). I stocked up on it before returning home. Sadly, Orbit's new pomegranate flavor seriously disappoints. It's certainly sweet and fruity but doesn't taste like pomegranate. Have yet to try the sangria flavor. It scares me a little.

Speaking of wine, I've discovered a very tasty wine in a box. No, seriously. The brand is Wine Cube, and it's available at Target. I've tried three of their varieties and am happy to report that the 2007 Vintner's Red Blend is very tasty. And cheap. It's available for a limited time only, so stock up!

OK, They're Not Russian, But This Is Still the Funniest Thing on the Internet

2008-11-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

I was a Russian Studies major and have spent time in four of the republics of the former USSR (and no, nobody in Kazakhstan looks anything like Borat), including Russia. As a Slavophile, I was excited to hear that some Russians had made a response to Sarah Palin's ludicrous assertion that Alaska's proximity to Russia somehow imbues her with foreign policy experience.

Turns out the two smokin' hot guys here are not actually Russian, but they did a good job with the accents, clothes, and interior decor. The mullets are a little more questionable but still hilarious.

Some people commented that "Vlad" isn't really a Russian name. What about Putin?

Heartwarming Story on the (almost) Eve of the Election

2008-11-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Obama employs some creative, caring staffers. Or do they do this sort of thing just for the free publicity? Nah, I'm not that cynical yet.