May the Fourth be with you 2025

It is Star Wars Day!

This is an unofficial geek holiday where we celebrate all that was, is, and will be Star Wars.

It is a pun that became mainstream popular after Margaret Thatcher won in 1979. But you know that fans were using it unironically before that, right?

Geeks of all kinds will wear fandom tee shirts, quaffs blue milk (not really) and speak in the particular Yoda cadence.

Even if I am watching a Marvel movie today, I will be representing Star Wars. Myself, I am wearing an R2D2 tee shirt that is R2 yelling as he tries to stop himself in one of the episodes. He is yelling EeYOOOOOW!! It was that or the polite D-0 droid.

But R2 is my favorite. Well, one of them. It is more correct to say that he was my first droid. My favorite is the AT-AT.

All good geeks know the story. Yes, all of it, including the 1978 Christmas Special. Yes, even that.

The story, at its heart like the best fiction, is the triumph of good versus evil. Of the scrappy rebellion against the much more impressively armored and supplied Empire. An asymmetric warfare if you were.

But it is so much more than that.

It is a love story.

It is lost family found.

It is found family comprised of friends.

It is the triumph of a moisture farmer against an itty bitty thermal exhaust port.

It is the recognition that the story continues after the rebellion wins.

It is a sprawling masterpiece of story telling, and a hat tip to the story never really ending.

It is a juggernaut that has launched toys and games and fan fiction and books and television shows and an entire universe that sparks recognition in us all.

Because it is as close as we get to a universal story.

I like to say that I am an all-purpose geek. In other words I am a non-denominational geek. I like it all, practical effects, CGI, no effects.

But you never forget your first fandom do you?

School Me Saturday 5/3/25- The little old lady whispering hush

Hey, who are you calling old?

Never mind.

This is your reminder that your semester journey is probably at an end, or nearly so. This is your reminder that it is time to rest.

Goodnight class

Goodnight class.

Goodnight to the students sitting on chairs.

Goodnight to the books and pens.

Goodnight to the backpack.

Goodnight to the dorm and the RA.

Goodnight to cram snacks.

Goodnight to coffee and energy drinks.

Goodnight to the advisor, see you next semester.

Goodnight class.

Rest well.

(apologies to Margaret Wise Brown)

Now that the semester is over it is time to take a breath. And remember who you are outside of the confines of your classes and syllabi.

Lift a glass with your friends (if you are of age).

Read something that isn’t class related. I am reading John Green’s “Everything is Tuberculosis”.

It will all start again soon enough. I hope that the class picking and scheduling was kind to you.

Goodnight, students everywhere.

Remember it is second star to the right and straight on until morning to reach Neverland.

FFS 5/2/25- Funding, slashing of

Well, there has been a lot of funding slashing in the government in the last 100 days.

All without congressional approval. All at the whim of the mad dictator.

Libraries, defunded. This will need congressional approval.

Vital research to keep us healthy, defunded. This will need congressional approval.

Needed aid to the poorest countries of the world, defunded.

Consumer protection bureau, defunded.

Medicaid that provides healthcare to millions of lower income Americans, not yet defunded but through the machinations of the House Republicans cutting Medicaid is the only way to do what is in the bill they presented. Basically defunded.

NPR and PBS, defunded. You bet I increased my sustaining member contribution to NPR immediately. This is basically an attack on the first amendment. But to the mad dictator is is striking back against people who tell the truth about him.

This is your reminder that 1% or less of the NPR and PBS funding comes from the government. The bulk of the rest is made up of sustaining members and fundraising. My first ask of the post- Join your local NPR and help them resist.

All of this is by executive order as the mad dictator goes around one of the branches of the government.

He is getting hung up by the third branch though. There are lawsuits, so many lawsuits, protesting his illegal actions. Two hundred and twenty to be exact.

There have been protests, nationwide protests against his administration and many of the companies who fell into line to his wishes. The latest was yesterday, 5/1/25.

Down to brass tacks this is a tantrum by a spoiled brat who doesn’t like it when people tell the truth about him and his friends. Well, I say friends.

A lot of this is distraction from the real work of dismantling the constitution that is going on at 1600 Pennsylvania.

They just hope that we aren’t paying attention.

They just hope that by torturing those who they deem lesser than themselves, of those countries they deem lesser than the US, that we are so distracted by the crap that’s going on we don’t pay attention when it counts.

My second ask of the post- Let them know, however you can, that we as American citizens ARE paying attention and that WE DON’T LIKE IT.

My third ask of the post is to ignore what you can, while paying attention. This kind of bottom feeder antics are to generate attention. Because that is what they want, attention. Don’t give it to them.

But Kate, aren’t you giving into their attention whoring with this post?

Yes, but it is a small amount of attention that hopefully spurs others to ignore their bullshit. There is a reason that I only post about political nonsense on Fridays. And healthcare nonsense on Tuesdays. I don’t want to give them the oxygen to fan their flames into a maelstrom.

But the reason that no Republican congress or president has dared to defund PBS is that no one wants to go on record as killing Big Bird.

Make them feel seen.

Make them feel shame.

Or pointing and laughing has always belittled the bully.

Best Kept Secrets of the OR #28-Holiday weeks are feast or famine

Yeah, I know that Easter/Spring Break was over a week ago. But the next holiday for the operating room will be here in less than a month. Slightly different rules but much of the same vibe.

Eh, things have been happening.

Because holiday weeks are a feast or famine situation in the OR.

On Good Friday all the doctor’s offices are closed. That means there are less phone calls and probably less add ons. Since Easter is a family holiday, much of the staff want it off as well. This is a win-win.

Unless you are in the feast portion of the holiday.

My evening tech, with whom I worked for literal YEARS, and I would nod to each other, regardless of the burgeoning schedule or the echoing schedule and say holiday.

Easter stands alone because it is not one of the drink to excess holidays. Well, not usually. There are always the exceptions. Because it is a family holiday.

The rules also extend, to a lesser extent, to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day but it is less acute then. Those days we try to get people who don’t have children to cover. At least I used to when I ran the schedule.

Feast or famine is what the OR schedule looks like.

Another variable is what week of the month the expected feast or famine days fall upon. Because the 5th week of the month is outside of the block scheduling process and you get a weird bunch of cases.

Feast means that there are more cases than time in the week. Since these weeks the OR is run on a traditionally smaller number of staff, that means there are plenty of cases for everyone. This is particular to the family holidays like Easter or Christmas when everyone wants to be off to be with their family.

Famine means that there are less cases than normal. This is usually due to the surgeons scheduling time off to be with their own families. This can be a bonanza for the people who didn’t get the golden ticket of approved PTO but really still want to be with their families. Or just want to be off. There is usually a list that is kept at the desk and, to make it fair, done on a first come first served basis.

Don’t worry, all the rules will be different for our next holiday. This is Memorial Day, which is the last Monday of May. It isn’t meant to be a drinking holiday, but it is the opening holiday for grilling. Especially here in the South.

Tuesday Top of Mind 4/29/25- The U.S. is trying to control what kind of health research is published

I know, I know, there is too much bullshit out there to focus on one thing.

I get it.

The purpose of Tuesday Top of Mind is to write about what fresh horribleness is happening in the healthcare realm.

Today, I want to write about the fact that the U.S. government is trying to control what kind of health research is published.

It is done to control what information is out there and, by extension, the U.S. population.

You see, they want to keep us dumb and to not have any avenue to question what is published.

I know that I am fairly new to nursing research but I am not new to nursing.

It is shit like this that allows them to put their knee to the neck of publishers so that the publishers will cave.

It is the bully in the room who takes control of your arm, usually bruising it, and hits you with your own hand, all the while asking “Why are you hitting yourself?” Dude, you are puppeting me and making me hit myself.

It is the bully in the room that has no intellectual curiosity and hates those of us who do.

It is the bully in the room that wants to bend all of science and academia to their will to declare the sky is green with screaming red polka dots and they’re just trying to protect you, boo.

All that they are asking about, if there is room for competing viewpoints, or does the articles get reviewed by lay people, and are the researchers transparent about who is funding them, makes me roll my eyes so hard I can see into last week. The kicker is what if the researcher got it wrong, what then?

They are definitely giving off “i’ve never read a journal article except for once and in that journal article there were no pictures so I didn’t understand it and it made my head hurt” vibes.

Yes, there are seldom pictures.

Yes, the researchers are upfront about each funding source. It is mandatory.

If the researcher came to the wrong conclusion they print a retraction. Like the retraction that the Lancet made for Andrew Wakefield about his flawed, doubly flawed, study of 12 cherry picked children that he said proved a vaccine link to autism. Bitch it did not.

Too late, that damage had already been done. We in healthcare deal with it every day.

Yes, competing viewpoints based in reality are welcome.

Oh, it’s the based in reality that you have a problem with?

I feel sorry for you.

School Me Saturday 4/26/25- Funding changes, what do we do now?

Yes, I know I have written about this before. I don’t care. It is too important. Every day research that has been in the works for I can’t even tell you, research that has already been paid for, is shriveling in the petri dishes.

Research is expensive. Proper, well structured research is expensive. You have to pay for the researcher, you have to pay for the research assistant, you have to pay any adjunct helpers who are conducting the research, you have to pay for the computer you use to write up the reports, you have to pay for the electricity that run a lot of this, you have to pay for the IRB, you have to pay for the data analysis, you have to pay for the lab time, sometimes you even have to pay to get it published (those are the predatory publishers, don’t give in to them), and if you are offering an incentive to garner participation, you have to pay each participant the incentive.

It gets expensive. Capital red letter expensive.

Oh, not only do you sometime have to pay to publish, you have to pay to present at conferences. With all of those attendant costs as well. At AORN there were several international hospitals and countries and research presented. Each of them had to pay for the conference fee, the flight, the hotel, and the food while they were in Boston. Or Orlando, or Chicago, wherever the conference is held.

Many of these are covered in grant indirect costs. These indirect costs are not well understood and is more than a line item in the grant. Not being understood, like at all, means that people overact when they see the line item.

The hammer has fallen. Nascent grants are not being approved. Existing grants are being yanked, even as the research is underway. That is what I meant when I wrote that research is shriveling in the petri dishes.

Why?

This is a very good question. Because the researchers are daring to research something that isn’t white or male. It is being stripped because of the specter of DEI.

Another not well understood concept that is being used as a bludgeoning tool.

DEI doesn’t mean what they think it means. Inigo Montoya snuck in the chat.

This, of course, has started panic at the research universities. Especially the ones who don’t have billions of dollars in endowments. But even if you have that kind of money doesn’t mean it is just sitting around in coffers, or under a dragon like Smaug.

It has been a long time since the students (hello, that’s me and my cohort), had any guidance in the matter. Probably because those doing the reaping are being mum on the matter.

No DEI is all they know how to chant. Again, it doesn’t mean what they think it means.

Yesterday we had a rare in person day on campus where the second and third years who were interested, were given a ground level “this has happened and this is how we envision going forward” talk.

We had a group discussion about how to find and secure funding. Ideas about other funding sources were floated. It was a good conversation. Remember, all of us are nascent nurse researchers.

I know I left feeling a little more hopeful about this crappy situation we find ourselves in. I hope others did too.

I offered my notes to the rest of the cohort that were not there and I hope to have the notes to them tomorrow. I just want to reflect on it some more.

I wore my “Baking is Science” tee shirt with a baking cat on it. On my husband’s recommendation that I leave the political shirts at home. I think a stronger worded tee would have been better. There is always the August in person day.

Cookie Thursday 4/24/25- applesauce egg replacement

When I first started planning this month’s theme of “That’s a good egg…substitute!”, I began, as I always do with searching for suggested egg substitutes. I hoped I would find at least 4 to round out the month.

To my shock, I found so much more than four.

There are egg substitutes for different applications, too. Some for baking, some for cooking, and some that switch hit.

I was certainly not spoiled for choice.

To recap

  1. April 3, 2025- flax egg. 1 tbs flax to 3 tbs water per egg. These cookies did not behave like I was expecting them too. They were almost too crisp with no give in the mouth feel. These cookies tasted stale, even right out of the oven. 4/10
  2. April 10, 2025- chia egg. 1 tbs chia seed to 3 tbs water per egg. I felt that this second egg substitute had a lot going for it and I was prepared to wowed. I was not wowed. But this was a fresher tasting cookie, even right out of the oven. 5/10
  3. April 17, 2025- banana and psyllium husk eggs. No idea what led me to combining the different egg substitutes but I am so glad I did. Definitely the star of the month. Soft, pliable cookie, even 4 days later when I retrieved the leftovers. 10/10
  4. April 24, 2025- applesauce egg. This one came highly recommended by some bakers I know. I was underwhelmed, especially after last week. The applesauce led to quick browning yet not quite done cookies. I understand the ease of these because most kitchens, especially those with children, have applesauce in them. But eh. 5/10.

Looking back at my prepared list of egg substitutes it appears that the month isn’t quite over yet. And so I will be continuing the theme for next month.

I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised at the breadth of choice for egg substitutes. You have the people with allergies and you have the vegans.

Everyone deserves a cookie sometimes.

Best Kept Secrets of the OR #27- Always be reading

The best kept secret of this Wednesday is that the book learning never ends with us.

Appropriate to World Book Day, no? Double that for William Shakespeare’s birthday.

Some of us go back to school.

Some of us read for pleasure.

Some of us read to keep current on new surgical advances or approaches for the surgeries we do.

Some of us read to keep current on current events.

Some of us read to justify the journal price.

Some of us read to keep up our certifications.

Some of us read ourselves to sleep.

Hi, it’s me. I’m one of the us.

I know, you’re so shocked.

But it is not only me. I, along with others, do read for all of those reasons.

And more.

One of my favorite tee shirts says it best “A day without reading is like… never mind, I have no idea.”

Keep reading.

Keep being intellectual curious.

Even if it is just the back of a box of cereal.

The books are counting on us.

After all, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.”
As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Tuesday Top of Mind 4/22/25- Sure, nothing bad has ever happened from collecting data on what is deemed as “other”

Every damned day I hesitate to open the news. It is not unlike the meme where a serious faced Captain Picard, seated behind a desk, requests “Damage Report”.

Every damned day it is something different. I understand that this is the strategy of dragging us down with overwhelming bullshit every day. After all the numbing of the population (us), is the expected result.

I know, I know, I’ve written about this before. And this is nothing that you are not aware of. Just making sure that I write it down makes me feel a little more ready to deal with the BS. This also ensures that nothing falls through the cracks because people aren’t paying attention to this nonsense because something else is on fire over there.

To explain the headline, the Health and Human Services Department secretary (like Voldemort he will not be named) wants to start a database of the Americans with autism. To curate this list, he will be using public and private insurers data bases, plus the VA and Indian Affairs, pharmacies, genomics data (DNA anyone?), and maybe even the wearable sports devices (Fitbit/Apple Watch). All this data to find the underlying cause of autism. Um, sir, that is not how you create a study.

Add in the fact that he thinks the analysis is going to take less than 5 months.

This gives me the ick.

Not only are they using databases of our private information, but there is no consent. Not only are there no consent procedures, there are no CITI procedures. CITI is the protection of human subjects in research. This is problematic. How did they get this past IRB?

As a nascent real world researcher, I can identify many, many, many problems with their proposal. And I’ve only been at this for less than 3 years.

According to the CBS News report and the Guardian article, 10-20 NIH researchers (unnamed) will be able to piece together everyone’s health records.

There are so many problems with this approach.

  1. It sees all people with autism as the same.
  2. This is a massive database of all American’s private medical records.
  3. As described this is too broad of a research question.
  4. There will be possibilities of using the data in a bad way, not described in the original research question. It is like throwing out a big net and seeing what you catch.
  5. There are no inclusion and exclusion criteria listed.
  6. We all know that they want the answer to be. This is no way to do research.

Why every American should be concerned.

  1. We’ve been here before. In 1942, Japanese Americans were put into internment camps.
  2. It starts with flawed logic that there has to be an external trigger for autism.
  3. They are looking to blame vaccination, which would put us all at risk.

I knew that the current secretary was going to be bad for America’s health. At least, as long as he is tilting at this windmill.

After all, proper research is not done by shaking a Magic 8 ball because you didn’t like the first fifty answers obtained using real research.