Med/Surg is Over

A friend mentioned to me the other day that Chariots of Fire plays in her mind lately when she thinks of me. I'm hearing that song today, and I'm laughing and crying at the same time. I'm the guy with mud all over the front of his shirt and a dorky smile.



The Med/Surg rotation is OVER! On to studying for the NCLEX and completing my 88 hour capstone on a Surgical Trauma unit.

Queen Bee Syndrome

 Note to self (taken from a recent lecture):

• The person who is unwilling to teach others and does not want others to succeed is termed a “queen bee,” and the activities and behaviors used to keep others from power are called the “queen bee syndrome.” 
• Unfortunately, this syndrome is more prominent in women and thus is evident in nursing, with many experts commenting that “nurses eat their young.”

Can't wait to graduate and start chewin' on some babies... oh wait, I'm gonna be the baby getting chewed on!

Lifer

I realized the other day that over the past 15 years, there have been just 3 years that I have NOT been in school (and those 15 years don't include any high school or anything like that, this is has been my own doing).

Ready to not be in school.

Priorities

Here is an amazing video I had to share.

Sex Ed, B.O. and Nutrition

Today I got to teach three different groups of 12-year-old girls about germs and hygiene after my classmates filled them in a little bit about the birds and bees and how to eat right. It was pretty fun until we got to the third group which was slightly on the loud and rowdy side.

These kids would NOT be quiet during our presentation and I pretty much had to yell. I don't know why but the teacher did not do anything to quiet them down. During my classmate's Sex Ed talk with that group we heard all kinds of interesting unsolicited comments... "My friend popped her cherry because she ran into a pole with her legs spread apart!" That's a hard one to come up with a response to. And there were some other, scarier comments that came out of no where like, "This girl I know told me her uncle raped her." Equally difficult to respond to when one is not prepared (their teacher had nothing to say either). Meanwhile, our male classmates were off in another classroom teaching Sex Ed to the 12-year-old boys and got the question, "Does it feel good to get raped?" from a member of their audience.
The school nurse told us there were 40 mental health arrests at that school last year (that's when an ambulance pulls up and takes you to the psych ward of a hospital against your will). One kid broke a paramedic's nose after punching him in the face.
At lunch time I sat down with some second graders to get a break from the older kids and a little girl immediately asked me what my favorite color was and informed me that her favorite animal was a white unicorn. I wanted to tell her, "PLEASE, don't every grow up!" (or if you do, please grow up to be the next Supreme Court Justice and not someone who has been so screwed over by adults that you want to kill yourself and/or other people).

On that happy note: 58 days till graduation!

Spring Break...

...is almost over.

Three more weeks of STRESS until our Med/Surg rotation ends. I'm hoping April will bring sings of SPRING and less anxiety!

Tomorrow marks two months till graduation!!!

Healthcare and the LGBT Community

 

We had a great talk today about the need for healthcare providers to address the sexual orientation and gender identities of their patients. Many healthcare professionals do not consider how knowing their patients' gender and sexuality background can affect the services they provide, and how many LGBT people are afraid to come out to their providers let alone seek healthcare at all. 

I found out today that lesbians have a higher rate of breast cancer than their straight counterparts. Why is this, you ask? Well, it's not because being gay makes you more prone to cancer, it's because lesbian women have higher rates of smoking, obesity and other factors that put them at greater risk for cancer than straight women. Likewise, transgender folks have higher incidence of nicotine and drug use, relationship violence and "anatomical" cancers. Consider the transgender man at risk for breast or ovarian cancer -how likely will he be to seek a breast exam or pelvic exam? How prepared are healthcare workers to provide these services in a respectful manner? I think a lack of knowledge around these issues is a major part of the problem when you put aside the whole homophobia thing (a 2004 survey found that given the option, 36% of nurses would decline to treat LGBT patients. Hey nurses! That's not very compassionate of you!!).