Granted, it is a USAToday article. Okay, but I will read more later when I can.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/07/ozy-nursing-shortage/8807937/
What I am paying attention to here is the nursing shortage abroad. Don't get me wrong - I want to also serve in the USA - probably the majority of my career. But I want to live abroad as well and am wondering if there are places in Sub-Saharan Africa and/or India that could work while raising a family.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
What can I learn here today?
A big shocker: I hate my job.
I work with awesome people. These people are good at what they do and they love it. They have personality, and are funny, and I get the sense that they are just good people. My work environment is safe, and I am fully aware that there are many people who would love to sit at a desk all day. I even have grown accustomed to that part and can't say that it's the worst thing anymore.
The problem is that I am absolutely passionate about everything to do with nursing and medicine and surgery and public health and disaster relief, and feel almost exactly the opposite about business cases and risk assessments and board reports.
A fun little fact: some nurses have to make business cases and board reports. Assessing a patient is a type of risk assessment. (I must point out that it's actually not the process of risk assessment that I hate - it's the fact that I am assessing risk on things that are not living beings. I understand the importance on a mental level, but it does not resonate with me.)
So, I have chosen to be miserable until such a time that I can go to nursing school. But today I am reversing that decision. I am going to choose to be as much a learner here as I am when I dig into chemistry videos or articles about nursing as a career. Every day, I will ask myself: What can I learn here today? It may be something that only helps me until I leave. Then again, it might be something that helps me in communicating with doctors, in organizing my thoughts, prioritizing, focusing. And it could very well be that one day I will need to present to a hospital board of directors.
Can I give some credit where credit is due? A dear friend points this out. Where life is unfair (and this is hardly unfair; I am being paid), there is always a reason -- there is always something we are meant to learn.
Why am I here today? What is it I'm supposed to be learning from this? How can I better live today?
I work with awesome people. These people are good at what they do and they love it. They have personality, and are funny, and I get the sense that they are just good people. My work environment is safe, and I am fully aware that there are many people who would love to sit at a desk all day. I even have grown accustomed to that part and can't say that it's the worst thing anymore.
The problem is that I am absolutely passionate about everything to do with nursing and medicine and surgery and public health and disaster relief, and feel almost exactly the opposite about business cases and risk assessments and board reports.
A fun little fact: some nurses have to make business cases and board reports. Assessing a patient is a type of risk assessment. (I must point out that it's actually not the process of risk assessment that I hate - it's the fact that I am assessing risk on things that are not living beings. I understand the importance on a mental level, but it does not resonate with me.)
So, I have chosen to be miserable until such a time that I can go to nursing school. But today I am reversing that decision. I am going to choose to be as much a learner here as I am when I dig into chemistry videos or articles about nursing as a career. Every day, I will ask myself: What can I learn here today? It may be something that only helps me until I leave. Then again, it might be something that helps me in communicating with doctors, in organizing my thoughts, prioritizing, focusing. And it could very well be that one day I will need to present to a hospital board of directors.
Can I give some credit where credit is due? A dear friend points this out. Where life is unfair (and this is hardly unfair; I am being paid), there is always a reason -- there is always something we are meant to learn.
Why am I here today? What is it I'm supposed to be learning from this? How can I better live today?
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Happy Nurses' Week!!
I have to admit that I did not know that it was nurses week but I'm glad to know now! I loved this piece in TIME: http://life.time.com/culture/national-nurses-week-time-to-say-thank-you/#1.
What should I do?
Ideas:
* As I failed to get the name of the extraordinary nurse who cared for me after the birth of Maggie, maybe I should send the nurses of the mother/baby unit something - a fruit basket? Candy? What else do you give as such gifts? Definitely with a note saying how wonderful they were. Maybe it would be better to send a note now and treats later, as I hope they are covered up in treats this week.
* Also something for Bev, who has encouraged me to shadow where she is director of nursing. I still have not followed up with her and need to do so.
What should I do?
Ideas:
* As I failed to get the name of the extraordinary nurse who cared for me after the birth of Maggie, maybe I should send the nurses of the mother/baby unit something - a fruit basket? Candy? What else do you give as such gifts? Definitely with a note saying how wonderful they were. Maybe it would be better to send a note now and treats later, as I hope they are covered up in treats this week.
* Also something for Bev, who has encouraged me to shadow where she is director of nursing. I still have not followed up with her and need to do so.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Daydream Exploration: Travel Nursing
Well, my research into this daydream -- working as a nurse in Spain -- is quite disappointing. Spain has an overabundance of nurses and there are not enough jobs. They are not in need and not giving out work permits or visas. Sheesh.
There are quite a few places I would like to live in Spain. I speak South American Spanish but do understand (and am understood by) Spanish speakers from Spain.
Mallorca is one, and there is an english-language agency there that provides in-home care. This is not really my area of interest, but one possibility.
Midwifery is another area in which there is a need. Again, not what I hope to specialize in, but ...
There are quite a few places I would like to live in Spain. I speak South American Spanish but do understand (and am understood by) Spanish speakers from Spain.
Mallorca is one, and there is an english-language agency there that provides in-home care. This is not really my area of interest, but one possibility.
Midwifery is another area in which there is a need. Again, not what I hope to specialize in, but ...
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Antibiotic Resistance
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antibiotic-resistance-is-now-rife-across-the-globe/?&WT.mc_id=SA_BS_20140502
Dire straits, y'all.
Dire straits, y'all.
Friday, May 2, 2014
MERS and Contagion?
This makes me think of Contagion, althuogh it is only one of an unfathomable number of diseases that are dangerously spreading from animals, and then slowly around the world, due to increased crowding and travel.
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0502-US-MERS.html
The following paragraph was interesting to me:
While experts do not yet know exactly how this virus is spread, CDC advises Americans to help protect themselves from respiratory illnesses by washing hands often, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, avoid touching their eyes, nose and/or mouth with unwashed hands, and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces.
Aren't all respiratory illnesses basically spread through the virus making its way to your hands through coughing or sneezing, or someone else coughing or sneezing, on a surface? And we touch our faces and eventually infect ourselves by touching a mucus membrane? How would this vary?
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0502-US-MERS.html
The following paragraph was interesting to me:
While experts do not yet know exactly how this virus is spread, CDC advises Americans to help protect themselves from respiratory illnesses by washing hands often, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, avoid touching their eyes, nose and/or mouth with unwashed hands, and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces.
Aren't all respiratory illnesses basically spread through the virus making its way to your hands through coughing or sneezing, or someone else coughing or sneezing, on a surface? And we touch our faces and eventually infect ourselves by touching a mucus membrane? How would this vary?
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