Yay!

My remaining evening tech is back.

And appalled that I’ve been doing all the evening work myself.

But she is back now and ready to work.

No longer will I have to explain, every time, what it means to do the evening work.

No longer will I have to decide to do the work myself because it is just easier and I can’t justify to myself calling someone in to stock, clean, or set up rooms.

This is a ticking clock, though.

She only agreed to do 4 of the 5 shifts until 2300.

For two schedules.

Still doing all the work on Mondays.

But this is progress.

It is hot.

Damned hot.

Way too hot to run the oven.

I had already planned to start No Heat August early this week.

But the punishing heat led me to think it is justified.

The cookie for the week is edible cookie dough.

A Girl Scout cookie Samoa inspired.

I pretreated the flour to kill any bacteria.

I am softening the butter in sunlight on the porch, which is my new favorite method.

I toasted the coconut.

Now I will put it all together.

I usually make 2 cookie doughs.

The second will be funfetti.

With sprinkles.

Because sprinkles make everything all better.

One could hope.

ALL THE SWEARS!

AORN has been cancelled.

AGAIN!

Because people can’t keep it in their masks.

Or roll up their sleeves for a shot.

Because apparently it “is owning the libs” not to exercise the right to protect others.

Please explain this to me.

I truly do no understand.

This past week my hospital system announced that the covid vaccine is mandated.

With a due date of September 15 to complete both shots.

Or risk termination.

A friend on Facebook expressed surprise that the hospital system had not yet made the shots mandatory, or made it mandatory in the spring.

I told him that that’s back when the system thought that people had a sense of community and personal responsibility to that community.

We know better now.

I track the covid vaccination status of all the surgical patients.

If they are inpatients, I schedule their tests if their case is at least 8 hours away.

If they are not vaccinated and not tested, I make note of that.

If they are not vaccinated and have a history of covid, I make a note of that.

If they are not vaccinated and positive right now, I make a note of that.

And prepare the room for a covid positive patient.

I make these notes on the board, on the case strip that belongs to that patient.

Right now we are using laminated circles with covid pending, covid positive, and not tested.

There are hearts for vaccinated: red hearts for completely vaccinated, as in 14 days since the last shot.

There are hearts for the half vaccinated: half red, half white hearts.

But tonight, for the very first time since vaccination started in mid December, every single, blessed patient was vaccinated.

All 19 of them.

I did not have enough red hearts to mark them all.

I’ve told the maker of the hearts that I need more.

Instead I wrote in the board, in large red letters, all patients have been vaccinated.

With tomorrow’s date.

And then I took a picture of it.

For posterity’s sake.

Just a little bit of hope among the surge.

Delta, delta, delta.

Yes.

The Delta surge is upon us.

A variant, such as Delta, is created when the virus is allowed to run amok.

This is the third named variant.

There is a fourth one out there already.

Delta is dangerous.

Delta is more transmissible.

You know what can slow or stop a virus from forming yet another variant?

Vaccines.

The kind you get in your arm.

I do not care what “people” have told you about side effects.

And the efficacy of the vaccine.

I only care that you care enough about your neighbors to endure a smidgen of pain/side effects in order to get this crap under control.

Because I, as a health care worker, am tired.

I still wear my mask indoors at stores.

I got my second vaccine shot in January.

Early enough in January that I was fully vaccinated at the end of January.

My husband is going back to the office where only fully vaccinated people will be allowed in.

Any bets as to how long until someone gets a breakthrough infection?

Yes, the vaccine should lessen the severity of any of the known variants.

No, I probably won’t die.

But those who are foolish enough to deny the need for vaccination can and will.

I was called in tonight.

And, just like that, the case count for my hospital doubled over the weekend.

36 hours I was away.

Our ICU is 75% covid patients, all of them unvaccinated.

I am tired of this.

Aren’t you?

The post-it note from today is ‘how do you fly? you need a happy thought and a sprinkle of pixie dust.’

These are the instructions in how to fly in Peter Pan.

You need a happy thought.

And a sprinkle of pixie dust.

I am currently involved in the training of the day shift charge.

I have not had a lot to say on here about this situation.

My mother said that if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.

Okay, my mom didn’t say that.

It is what I think is a southern mama’s truism.

Kind of like bless your heart.

The situation is tenuous at best.

And some of my coworkers read this blog.

So, the less said about that the better.

Until I completely lose it.

Stay tuned.

One of the things that they said to me is that I admired because I always think on the positive side.

And I seem to fly through the shift.

With nothing bothering me.

Not true.

However, I am way more zen than this person.

And I do not internalize stress.

Some of this can be attributed to my upbringing in Northern California, one of most chill places in the country.

Northern California is definitely where I developed my idea about conserving energy.

I think that a person is given only so much energy a day.

And you can either feed the energy and stay energetic by having positive thoughts and working hard.

Or you can sap the energy by having mean, or uncharitable thoughts, or playing the blame game.

‘This person didn’t do this, so I’m not going to do that’ kind of nonsense.

It is your choice, really.

Do you get the symbolism here?

A happy thought is a positive thought.

Which feeds the energy.

Which allows me to will the cases to be over at certain times.

Of course, a little checking in and verbal agreements with the MDs doesn’t hurt.

Where does the pixie dust come from?

Hell if I know.

I got an email on the winners of the posters for the AORN conference.

I was not chosen as a winner.

I did not think I was going to be chosen.

I have stumbled onto poster making.

For the fall to do, I will learn how to make posters that are relatable and interesting.

I was told when I started making posters that I needed to have a hook in the title.

But all the winning posters did not have a hook.

All of their titles were dry.

And factual.

The difference was that my title was not dry, although it was factual.

I will be spending a lot of time in the poster gallery when I go the conference next month.

Learning what it is that is a winning formula.

It is something to strive for.

I still think that if I’d gotten the data earlier than the day the poster was due I could have crunched the numbers and proved that the changes that we made to the immediate use steam sterilization proved to be statistically significant or not.

Oh, well.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing for Thursday July 22 is a continuation of the Red, White, and Blue theme.

I created an oatmeal cookie dough base to which I added raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

To self, must learn to mix cookie dough with stand mixer.

This dough was thick.

At the last moment I added dark chocolate slab chips.

To give the cookies even more oomph.

I popped a cookie in my mouth prior to donning my mask to enter the hospital.

Not bad.

But next time I will add peanut butter.

And re-brand the cookie as a PB&J.

I am starting August No Heat Month early on 7/22.

One of the nurses in the department is due on August 13.

And she really wants to try the edible cookie dough week.

I handed her a stack of recipes and told her the week would be early.

Be wary of the suddenly easier path.

Especially when the surgeon is tapping in a total hip prosthesis.

The surgeon saying quietly, ‘wow, that just got easier.’

And you are already on the phone with radiology, arranging for a tech to come out with the c-arm, and directing the tech in the hallway to go get the dall miles cables for the femur.

Because a suddenly easier path.

While banging on the new implant for the femur?

Means the surgeon broke the femur.

My poster is back from the printer!

Of course, I got the data I need to do a proper statistical analysis on the same day I sent it to the printer.

This leaves me in a quandary.

Do I do the statistical analysis, rework the results section, and have it reprinted?

Or do I use the data in my talking points when I am at the meet and greet?

Or do I do both and use the poster and abstract at other conferences that are coming up in the fall?

Cost could be a consideration.

It did not break the bank at $42 for the first printing.

And it came super fast.

As in ordered on Monday, got it on Thursday fast.

I will have to think on this one.

I will be writing up the abstract and submitting it to the nursing leadership group in the state for their autumn conference.

It is due next Sunday.

In other research news, the enneagram project that I’ve been working on with leadership for nearly 2 years is ready to launch.

I present it to leadership in a dry run this week or the next.

However, I think there is good data to be had.

To figure out if knowing your coworker’s enneagram will aid in communication.

I am working on a before and after questionnaire for the participants.

I will be working with the nurse scientist in the hospital system.

I am very excited about this one.

And, lastly, strictly for the clinical ladder and for the practice, I will be working on a grant request.

It is worth 7 points on the clinical ladder.

And if a clinical ladder 5 needs 38 points and I have 23 between my degrees, certification, CEUs, unit education, 7 point is nearly half of the remaining points to maintain my clinical ladder 5.

I would not need to get the grant, just apply for it.

This could be valuable knowledge for the future.

When I go back to school.