23-December is a drag

I said it.

I mean it.

December in the operating room is a drag.

It is not for the faint of heart. Cases, cases, cases, cases, cases, cases.

Cases.

Everyone and their family member has hit their out of pocket deductible for the year and MUST HAVE SURGERY by the end of year!!!

Honey, there isn’t enough operating room hours to accommodate this. Even if you were more pleasant about it.

Do you want to know where my holiday spirit went?

Yeah, it’s under the avalanche of surigical cases.

I saw a tee shirt that said error 404, holiday spirit not found. You bet I bought it immediately. In green. The red lettering really pops.

Hell, for healthcare as a whole December is a drag.

The hospital wards are full, full, full. There are patients stacked in the ER like kindling, waiting for a bed to open up. They have cordoned off areas of the HALLWAY as “ER cubicles” where they see patients. And the patients wait until they are well enough to go home, or a proper room opens up and the hallway patient can become a room patient. To wait again for a unit bed to open up.

Plus covid, rsv, and the flu have decided to make this year a triple threat. Again with a new variant that is rising fast in the charts.

There are also the usual big bellies, gynecological emergencies, fractures. This month has it all.

Stay safe out there. But be especially careful of wet leaves.

The OR will still be doing cases until the bitter end of the year. And into next year, trying to clear the backlog.

I’m going to have a little eggnog and put on my favorite Christmas song and try to get into the swing of things as I check my list to make sure I have all the makings for Christmas dinner. And wrap presents.

The only acceptable Christmas movie will be either Die Hard or Gremlins.

Post-it Sunday 12/17/23-put a sock in it

The gown card reads “put a sock in it!”.

Yeah, that’s an idiom. It means be quiet!

That is not the context of this post.

This post is about socks and how important they are to the OR patient.

The operating room is cold.

Well, not really; the patients are cold. It is cold to the patient who is in a gown and stripped of their underwear and their own clothes. The patients are wearing thin cotton sheaths. They are cold. We give them socks to wear and hats. These socks serve two purposes, they are non-slip and they serve to keep their feet covered.

Socks are non-slip because we don’t want patients to fall. Because the ground is hard and they might get hurt. The floor is also often gross because of the shoes that all of the healthcare workers wear. Just think of all the things that people walk through before walking on the floor of the patient room. Especially the operating room floors.

I know I have written about how I cringe every time I see a child on the floor and being picked up, without washing the child’s hands.

The socks help with both of these problems.

Okay, it’s a little bit be quiet. But I won’t tell a patient to be quiet. I will tell a surgeon to be quiet in the right context. But that is another story.

School Me Saturday 12/16/23-breaks

The end of the Fall Semester was 2 weeks and 1 day ago. Spring Semester won’t convene until January 8th.

It is time to relax.

Maybe put up some holiday decorations or meet some friends for a holiday drink.

But mostly it is time to relax.

After all, it won’t be Christmas and all of that craziness for an entire week!

Pick up a book, go for a movie.

Re-introduce yourself to yourself.

I know that returning to school as an adult carries with it import. And money, don’t forget that we are paying for this privilege. We shouldn’t let that take full advantage of the breaks.

But don’t forget the you that has grand plans for after graduation.

This slog will end. Even if it doesn’t come with a graduation, there will be an end.

I’m going to go read another book that’s been waiting for the end of the semester.

What should I choose?

Cookie Thursday 12/14/23- gingerbread

This week continues the theme of Holiday bakes. I took a poll from the OR staff on what to make- gingerbread or sugarplums. The vast majority of the votes were for gingerbread.

This was a new recipe. But I was really surprised at how well it baked up.

It reminds me that gingerbread was the first thing I ever baked for the department. Way before I even thought about Cookie Thursday is a Thing I made gingerbread for the operating room every December.

This was a really simple recipe and came together quickly. This was a snacking cake, simple, short bakes.

Prepare a 9-inch square pan. I used parchment paper to make it easy to lift out.

1 stick butter, room temperature

3/4 c sugar

1 egg, room temperature

3/4 c molasses

Cream the butter and sugar together, incorporate the egg, and beat until well combined, add in the molasses and stir until combined.

2 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbs Gingerbread spices-ginger, cloves, cinnamon. I figure these kinds of spices can be measured with your heart

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

3/4 c hot water

Stir in hot water.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 22-27 minutes, or until a toothpick comes back clean.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes, lift out using the parchment paper. Cut into desired serving sizes.

Apparently, the Chex mix is more popular than I thought and I have agreed to bring in a few bags.

Tuesday Top of Mind 12/12/23- torturing the not yet born, who will die for political points

Dear Kate Cox,

I am so sorry your state is treating you and the doomed child you carry so poorly.

And to gain nonexistent points against people like yourself.

This is wrong.

I’ve written before about expletive-deleted people who think that torturing women and children who are not meant for life out of the womb will gain them anything. Except for derision.

These political hacks who are using women and women’s rights as pawns in the sick, twisted gamesmanship game they are playing.

They forget, you see.

They forget that women are living, breathing human beings with rights, not just gestational chambers.

It is not even about the child. It is about the tax revenue that the child will bring in IF they survive to adulthood.

Or rather they want to force us back 70 years when they had ALL the power. Or every further back than that.

They want to torture the babies who are not meant for this earthly plane. And their parents.

You see the issue has always been about control. It has always been about power. They perceive a danger to their power and are desperate to keep it.

You are better than they know or can even comprehend.

You seek to preserve your fertility and they seek to control us through our fertility.

I am worth more than the theoretical contents of my womb.

Signed,

a concerned woman in North Carolina who is very sorry you are going through this

Post-it Sunday 12/10/23- ambition

The post-it reads “Ambition. Dirty word?”

We’ve all worked with the ambitious nurse who has designs on the captain’s chair.

So to speak.

The nurse who has ambitions to be something beyond “just a nurse”. And who is willing to do just about anything to become something beyond “just a nurse”.

I used to think that I didn’t have any ambition because I never aspired to nurse manager or assistant nurse manager. Or house supervisor.

I’m sure there is a Star Trek reference here.

After all, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay had ambitions to be the captain. Or the hero. Or to be anyone else than Lieutenant Barclay. This is a Star Trek Next Generation and Voyager reference.

Ha! I knew I could do one.

It isn’t bad to have ambition for higher rank. Or a higher position.

But there may not be room for a multitude of people at the top.

It is when your ambition blinds you to who you are hurting as you jockey for a higher position that is dangerous to you.

Never forget that as operating room nurses, as labor and delivery room nurses, as emergency room nurses, as cath lab nurses, as mother baby nurses, or NICU nurses the reason we work is for the patient. That is good enough for me.

My ambition is to be the best nurse I can be.

I think it is a pretty good one.

School Me Saturday 12/9/23-mutual encouragement session

On the last research assistant day of the semester that really was the week after the last paid research assistant day of the semester, I was in the RA office, working on tasks that the PhD nurse I work for had given me. One of the things that I make sure to do, especially after working until midnight the night before, getting five hours of sleep, and then driving 90 minutes to the university, is drink caffeine. A lot of it! Thank goodness the bathroom is down the hall.

On my way back to the RA office, I ran into a very nice junior nursing student.

She and I chatted on the way back to the office, as she was going to one near there.

I asked how she was doing.

She frowned and said she needed at least an 80 on her last med-surg test of the semester. To pass the course.

She turned to leave.

I stopped her and said, as reassuringly as I could, “Of course you will pass.” I smiled and gave her some test-taking strategies, including going for the first answer that pops in your head. And deep breathing is always important.

She smiled and thanked me.

I pressed on and said the first thing to do is read the question fully, decide what the answer should be without looking at the given answers, and find the one that is the closest.

She asked what class I taught. I told her that I was a PhD student and I was a few years out from teaching. She laughed and said that I would do great. Including passing all my courses.

I call that a mutual encouragement session.

I mean my PhD cohort (classmates) are great but sometimes it is good to hear encouragement from a surprising source.

Oh, and next year I will pay closer attention to the ending date of the RA. I could have saved myself nearly 3 hours of driving time.

The more you learn.

I will definitely continue talking to other nursing students. We all need some encouraging sometimes.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing 12/7/23-chex mix

The December theme of the month is Holiday baking.

And the “cookie” to start the month off with is Chex mix.

I make vats of it every year. I give it out for Christmas presents. There is always a dish of it at holiday events. I make a gluten-free version for my sister and give her bags of it.

I always start gathering my supplies at different times of the year.

I ordered, yes, ordered the Chex cereal in October! 8 boxes of it. 3 family-sized each of Rice, and Corn Chex and 2 Wheat Chex boxes. I mean, have you seen cereal prices?

I also ordered the nuts and gluten-free pretzels at the same time. I like the Planters Pistachio blend with almonds, pistachios, and cashews as I don’t really care for peanuts in the Chex mix. This is where the savings really were.

Funny thing about the butter this year. Butter prices remain astronomical, especially since I insist on using more than the standard recipe calls for. When I was at Aldi, in October, I noticed that the price of their Aldi-branded Irish butter was $2 for 8 oz. This is the CHEAPEST I’ve found a pound of butter all year.

I bought them out. I spent $30 on butter and got an entire refrigerator crisper drawer full.

No regrets.

The recipe I tweaked is

1 box each of Rice Chex, Corn Chex, and Wheat Chex, if you aren’t doing gluten free
roughly 6-8 oz of nuts
roughly 2-4 cups of pretzels
any other mix-ins you want

Magic spice mixture (all spices are approximate and subject to change, depending on your mood, double down on some, less of others, it is where this recipe is REALLY customizable)
3 sticks butter
1-2 tbs garlic powder
1-2 tbs onion powder
1 tbs Lowry’s Seasoning Salt (I tend to use less because I don’t care for it being too salty)
2-3 tbs Worcestershire powder (If you have it, if not, add more Worcestershire sauce)
6-12 shakes of Worcestershire sauce

Mix the magic spice mix over medium-low heat until melted. Pour over cereals and pretzels and mix-ins.

Bake at 225 for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.

Be nice to hospital personnel this time of year. In the US, insurance deductibles have been reached and people therefore think that surgery is *FREE* for the rest of the year. And the units are full because of respiratory illnesses. It is exhausting.

LinkedIn- let’s discuss

LinkedIn is a professional network.

This can be used for recruiting, for blog posts, for writing, for schools and universities to find you, there are scholarship groups. Your boss is probably listed on it.

The company you work for is definitely on it.

In a quick Google search about whether or not it can be considered a social media platform, there were many articles, many of them by LinkedIn itself. Some contradicted themselves, as in some said yes, it is a social media platform and some said no, it is not.

I remember when I first decided to use it as a blog post site was after I was encouraged by a nursing life coach. She explained that it was used by many different industries and many different hospital systems, in many different ways.

I am a member of a writing group through it. Also an alumni group for Queens University, and Chamberlain College of Nursing.

I get job alerts daily. I set this up in advance when I was overreacting to the call job and the absolutely shocking decrease in take-home pay that year.

If I want to become more serious about freelance writing, there is a job code for that. I’ve set aside some of the medical-type companies looking for a freelancer. I can explore those when I am done with school.

There is a lot that LinkedIn can do for you, no matter what your level of interest.

AORN is definitely on it, as are the specialty assemblies. The Clinical Nurse Educator Specialty Assembly uses it to advertise their meetings. The e-Chapter of AORN, which is the chapter I belong it, uses it to advertise their quarterly Journal club.

There are lots of ways to interact with the platform, no matter what you are looking for.

It is well worth the exploration time.

And free. Did I mention it was free?

There are a lot of different ways to use LinkedIn for your professional life. And also some ways to use it for your non-professional life.

How would you use LinkedIn as a platform to find other professionals/jobs?

Tuesday Top of Mind 12/5/23-Gap in the data

My brain is right now about finding data gaps in the nursing research. This is to aid me in my doctoral classes and I think I’ve found one. Both in the doctoral classes.

And in the current covid pandemic numbers.

What covid pandemic numbers?

You say you haven’t seen any covid pandemic numbers in months. You even didn’t know it was still a thing. Mostly because you don’t care. It has killed as many as it is going to kill and other things are more important to you.

I get it, I do. But that’s just it; we don’t know about current numbers. All we get are dribs and drabs of numbers, sometimes, if the wind is right. Otherwise, no one is reporting numbers right now.

At a glance at the current numbers here in my town, the data is lagging a bit. The last numbers are from November 3-November 16 and apparently, the covid risk is low. 11% of those who presented to the hospital with covid like symptoms got admitted, but the covid risk is low.

79% of the covid samples are from 2 dominant strains-Omicron XBB and Omicron XE. The most current variant that is in the news is BA.2.6, according to the CDC. Even that update is from 11/27/23.

That is the point.

The data are weak. When we get it at all.

There certainly is a lot more to capture our attention. Is covid a victim of the news cycle because there is something sexier to talk about that gets attention?

Yep.

Inflation, the holidays, and wars.

Lions, tigers, and bears indeed.

Oh my.