1. 10 Aug


    An Open Letter to My Work Family

    September 9th, 2014. The very day I became a registered nurse. 

    I took a test that, in exactly 75 questions, determined I was competent enough to keep another human being alive. The relief I felt after passing NCLEX was nothing compared to the sheer terror of the responsibility I now held. 

    But then, I started my first nursing job. 

    It’s almost been a year since I started my nursing career in the ICU at St. Joseph’s Hospital and I realized very quickly just how lucky I was to be granted this extraordinary opportunity. 

    Can you imagine having a job that you actually look forward to working? A job with coworkers you are actually excited to work with? A job that doesn’t feel like a means to an end, but becomes your passion?

    Those hypothetical questions are my current reality. 

    I am surrounded by amazingly intelligent women & men that I not only respect as coworkers, but honored to call friends. I have never felt belittled for asking a simple question. I have never felt unsupported or unsafe in my practice. But most importantly, I have never felt alone. This camaraderie is everything and it is so special. 

    Although, there is one thing I love about this unit above everything else: the encouragement to learn. In an age where nursing retention is almost non-existent, we are so very lucky to have nurses with 10+, 20+, or almost 30 years experience willing to share their wisdom and knowledge that can’t be read in a textbook or taught in a classroom. It’s those moments when my stable patient takes a turn for the worse and I have a nurse with 27 years experience standing right next to me, humbly guiding me through my thought process and validating my practice. That is the foundation of nursing. 

    My first year as a nurse has been the most rewarding year of my life and I owe it all to my unit and the beautiful people I have the absolute pleasure to work with. 

    So, one year down. Here’s to many more to come. 

     

  2. 1 Dec


    Can We Talk About Tinder Really Quick?

    Men. The following is what I believe to be your thought process when choosing profile pictures. 

    Scenario One: ”Fuck yeaaaa Tinder! Bout to get me some! Lemme put up that really fucking blurry one from Rob’s party two years ago because that shit is HILARIOUS. Man, when Jake drank that bong water I thought I was going to puke from laughing so hard! LMFAO!”

    Scenario Two: “Ok dude, you know your bros are all you need but I guess you should try to round up a bitch here and there. Ok, let’s goooo wiiiithhh…..aw yeah, this one - me and my lacrosse boys out after our D3 tourney. Holy shit were we wasteddddd. OHHH and this one! Me and my boys in Vegas last year. Look at that shit! We all have the same giant guitar souvenir cups!!! Fuck yea. Fuck. yes.”

    Scenario Three: “I need a picture that encompasses me in one frame…YES, this one of me climbing the Andes and enjoying the view at sunrise. Shows I’m poignant, into fitness, and nothing of my face”

    Scenario Four: ”GOD DAMN do I love huntin’ and fishin’! If these ladies don’t see that with all the camo in my other pics, I gotta put up fishin’ pictures! Now which one do I pick….fuck it. Let’s throw three up there of indiscernible gill-bearing aquatic creatures! Aw, I remember that 30 incher!! Hell of a day, I tell yah.”

    ………

    ? Just….? I mean, blurry pictures….literally the photography equivalent to poor grammar. If you don’t care, I don’t care. LEFT. Why, for the love of all the gods, would you put ALL group photos up?? Who are you?? Are you the midget with the unibrow or the brown-haired, blue-eyed, scruffy prince? Because guess what? ALL THE SAME PEOPLE ARE PRESENT IN EVERY.SINGLE.PICTURE. Stop making me find Waldo. LEFT. What a beautiful mountain scene! I especially love the Patagonia logo on your upper left shoulder. All this picture proves is that you climbed something, somewhere, sometime & that you have legs. Crapshoot with two eyes, nose, mouth, lips…teeth. LEFT. If there was an option to upgrade to “Fish Filter” Tinder, I would do it faster than Instagram pulled Sharkeisha’s video. Fresh fish are nasty. Not to mention you’re actively murdering it in the picture *BIG SMILES NOW!*. I’m in no way vegetarian/vegan/lacto-ovo-paleo-centric, but there’s just something about fish pictures on Tinder. And that something is that I hate them. LEFT.

    I’m not here to give advice. But I am here to tell you you’re doing it wrong. 

     

  3. 19 Nov


    The obviousness of long waiting times in the emergency department  »

    Sitting in my empty ER, switching between nursing school homework and mindless browsing, I come across this article. 

    It infuriates me. 

    This isn’t an acute bout of anger. This is a pulsing, steady distaste for the audacious entitlement people believe they have to medical resources. Every so often, the rage flares up, usually relating to an article, and I spew the same “Get a primary care doctor!” or “Emergency departments are for emergencies!” on social media platforms where it falls on deaf (apathetic) ears. Why does anyone in healthcare attempt to comment on the now basically innate behavior of recklessly abusing our healthcare system? More importantly, why do I keep trying? 

    Simple: it’s personal. 

    In 1995, my mother joined an emergency department team of selfless, talented, hardworking medical professionals at St. Michael’s Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. St. Mike’s treated the vast majority of inner-city patients and did it humbly since its opening in 1941. St. Mike’s offered the community an extensive amount of resources–asthma clinic, on-site cardiac caths, the Center for Women & Infant, etc.–that the surrounding neighborhoods depended on for decades.

    At least until 2006, when the hospital was deemed financially unviable, hemorrhaging $1.09 million dollars per month, and permanently closed its doors to the public with a $100.5 million dollar deficit from the past five years alone. 

    For me, St. Michael’s hospital was not just a healthcare facility. I grew up in that emergency department. My sister and I were picked up from school, plopped in the breakroom and commandeered the television to watch what any six-year-old/eight-year-old would watch…mostly Arthur and Wishbone. Our dad would finally arrive to take us home, which, in the early years, usually consisted of him carrying me out of the department because that lounge couch was just too comfy. Over the years, my sister and I made ourselves more useful like cleaning empty beds if the department was busy, or putting together blank paper charts for the next inevitable patient. We grew up there. And none of this would be remotely remarkable had it not been for the people that worked in that ER.

    The people. The RNs. The HUCs. The doctors. The techs. Everyone. 

    This was a family. A family that worked together to attempt to clear a neverending waiting area. A family that worked the same thankless, exhausting workday. A family that provided compassionate, talented care at times to people who far from deserved it. This was my family. And on June 5, 2006, it was torn apart because of fiscal irresponsibility.

    That is why it’s personal. The apathy is staggering. I understand that there isn’t one sole cause of the knowledge deficit. I understand the article’s patient examples are absolutely not a representation of everyone that walks through an emergency room door. I even understand that my feelings on this subject may be irrational. But what I cannot understand is how we can continue to perpetuate this behavior without consequences. Consequences, that is, that fall on that abuser, not the providers. 

    I have no solutions nor do I pretend to offer one. My intention with this post is not beratement of the abusers, system, society, education–although warranted. My intention was to offer perspective of a 24-year-old female who still cries thinking about the loss of a truly inspirational group of people that deserve every award, every plaque, every trophy in the world for their work. Understand that this wasn’t just the closing of a building, but an end to an era. 

    Hold yourself accountable for your actions. 

    Emergency, as per the all-knowing Webster, is defined as an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action.
     

  4. 23 Sep

    holiclover:

    Deleted scene - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

    WHY WAS THIS DELETED

    (Source: rampallion-blog, via littlemousling)

     

  5. 23 Sep

    My insides. 

     
     

  6. 15 Sep


    Ozymandias

    I met a traveller from an antique land
    Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
    And on the pedestal these words appear –
    “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
    Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.‘ 

     

  7. 9 Sep


    Breaking Bad & My Existential Crisis.

    “WHEN IS NEXT SUNDAY” - thoughts after finishing a freshly aired episode

    “WHY SUNDAY. WHY ARE YOU HERE” - thoughts right before watching the next episdoe

    Binge-watching Breaking Bad on Netflix over a year ago was all fun and games, a simple tap of the controller and, bam, new episode.

    But…guys…it’s almost finished.

    No magic “X” button that will transport us to another 46 minutes of Walter White & co. navigating naïvely through drug-dealing waters. Three episodes stand between us and our darkest hour….a life without new Breaking Bads. Ok, obviously we’ll all survive (can’t say the same for the BB cast) but that void will be hard, if not impossible, to fill. 

    What Bryan Cranston has accomplished portraying Walter White is incredible. I mean, we all realize we’re rooting for a villain at this point, right? This idea of the “antihero” (there’s an excellent article in last week’s EW) is not new, but extremely fitting for Mr. White. Even thinking about Walt circa Season 1 to bat-shit Heisenberg circa now is dumbfounding. The irreversible psychological damage to Jesse! The sheer disregard of value of Hank’s life! That whole, you know, POISONING A CHILD PART. And yet, we catch still glimpses of Walt’s true, awkward “I have no idea what I’m doing” personality & mannerisms. Sir, you hid your pistol in the soda machine? Amateur. 

    Brilliant writing & brilliant performances solidified this series as a drama staple. Appreciating it for it’s genius is really the only thing that’s getting me through these next few weeks. Kudos to Vince Gilligan & writers for knowing when to end a very, very good thing. But it will be sorely, sorely missed. 

    In the meantime I am accepting donations of anti-anxiety medications. image

     

  8. 8 Feb

    Let’s focus on this graphic shall we: 1. Had no idea the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA is now out of print. Literally. You can no longer purchase an Encyclopedia Britannica. Good luck, future private library owners, making your library look “legitimate" 2....

    Let’s focus on this graphic shall we:

    image

    1. Had no idea the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA is now out of print. Literally. You can no longer purchase an Encyclopedia Britannica. Good luck, future private library owners, making your library look “legitimate" 

    2. Didn’t use Encarta much but just that word threw me right back to grade school, sitting on the family designated computer & being supervised while writing a paper. ("Well, MOM, if you’re going to watch me write this paper, it will be in Disney font”) 

    Truly, that figure is staggering. Something that should also be noted is that this scale is logarithmic. The exponential growth of Wikipedia is astounding. But is it? Facebook experienced the same growth. Twitter, although slow at first, experienced it as well. Information is available now, here, always. I’ll be the first to admit to suffering from immediate gratification. Are we losing our ability to sort through the blatantly incorrect material? Are we actually, literally, losing research skills to the Google search bar? When is the last time you got out a dictionary and looked up a word? For me, has to be high school. 

    Regardless of the loss of skill, is the shift in information mining an innately bad thing? 

    Simple answer: no

    One thing is obvious, there is no going back to books. It almost pains me, a former bookseller of 4.5 years, to write that. However, I grew up just on the right cusp of the technology vs. print war to get my basics down of old school, but never feel left behind with information super highway. Change is happening, right now. Authors that write articles criticizing the youth of today and chastising teachers for their apathy of “proper” researching are afraid. Those authors are insecure. It’s almost difficult to call them “authors” because their “articles” are so full of opinion, exaggerated language and unsupported facts that I could probably find the same rant on Facebook from my Uncle Mike. These “contributors” are red faces in a sea of auburn. My words of advice: follow the trends.

    futuristgerd:

    (via Internet Marketing Trends You Shouldn’t Miss — It’s All About Revenue: The Revenue Marketing Blog)  4 Mary Meeker slides not to miss!

    (via thenextweb)

     

  9. 8 Feb

    photojojo:

    You may have heard of artists turning photos into paintings, but this artist turned a painting into a photograph!

    Michael Zhang interviewed Tadao Cern on the process, and this is what he said:

    First of all, I needed a model with red hair. Than we the help of a stylist we recreated the outfit. And then after basic composition shot I took a lot of detail shots which where incorporated in the main image. It was a lot of cloning, stretching, drawing, pushing, lifting. It was almost as painting a new image looking at the reference and original painting standing next to me.

    See a video comparison between the painting and photograph.

    A Van Gogh Transformed into a Photograph

    (See the project on Behance)

    (Source: photojojo)

     

  10. 8 Feb

    modernizing:

    QR Codes Embedded into Sidewalk to provide tourist information.

    Rio De Janeiro has embedded QR codes into their sidewalks to help tourists learn more about the city and more easily get to where they are going. The codes have been embedded into the city’s traditional mosaic sidewalks in the form of black and white tiles. When the tiles are scanned with a smartphone, a local map and information is provided to the user in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Brazil plans to embed roughly 30 QR codes at beaches, vistas and various historic sites around the city, helping Rio’s two million foreign visitors each year get around.

    Technology, man. 

    (via thenextweb)