Tag: ‘doctors’
October 3, 2012 at 7:58 am
I got an email from a reader recently who asked a question I wasn’t entirely sure how to answer, so I decided to punt it to you guys instead. Of course, I might be stretching the meaning of the word “recently” when I refer to an email I received over two months ago. Sorry about that, dear reader! I got busy or lazy or both if that’s even possible. Here’s what she wrote:
A brief personal history: I’m typically in the mid-range of the “overweight” section of the BMI scale, I exercise regularly and eat fairly healthy, just a little too much of everything. But, my question concerns my role as a nurse practitioner in a college health setting. I occasionally see students who are at an unhealthy weight and I’m never quite sure how to approach a discussion. I tend to think most of us know if we need to lose weight, we just don’t always do what we need to do. I realize different people require different approaches, but I’m wondering what, if any, [...]
October 2, 2012 at 7:37 am
Not my actual knee. Photo by Mike Davies / by NC-ND 2.0 CC
Last month I had two projects go so spectacularly, horribly wrong at the same that I had to run. Literally run, not run away from the projects, though that would have been lovely. Too bad I have a sense of professional responsibility and a need to pay my rent.
Exercising because I’m stressed out is a new thing for me. Usually I just eat a package of Oreos because I cling to the belief that cookies can fix everything, just like duct tape. However, my body felt so physically tense that even the gross output of the Nabisco factory wouldn’t have helped me, so I went for a walk instead. After a few minutes I realized walking wasn’t enough, so I burst into a run and I ran and ran and ran. While this did not solve my work problems, I did feel like I could go back to work without having an aneurysm.
Although I’d been walking fairly regularly, I’d been avoiding running [...]
August 11, 2011 at 7:30 am
Last month Muhammad from the RN Central blog sent me an interesting infographic about what really happens during a hospital night shift (see below). He also read my FAQ before contacting me which endeared him to my heart and put him ahead of 95% of the other requests I get.
But, reading the FAQ is not necessarily a way into my text editor. I thought the infographic was rather interesting and it made me think of two of my own experiences in the hospital which you can read about below the image.
Night time staffers are fewer and less experienced
Oh, yes they are. When I was home from college for the weekend when I was two months shy of 18, I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible pain on my right side. (Long-time readers of my blog and book will know where I’m headed with this.) My mother rushed me to the hospital where I was triaged…and then sent next door to the kiddie hospital because I was totally a child, not [...]
