Nurse Sean (dot) com

I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but I added a link to Kiva in my sidebar. I wanted to take a quick moment to promote Kiva in my main blog as well. Just so you know, I’m not getting anything in return for promoting Kiva, nor was I approached to promote this program. I’m simply doing this because I think it’s flippin’ cool and deserves some link love.

Here’s a description of themselves from their website:

We Let You Loan to the Working Poor

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

So, basically, you go to the website and are presented with a list of struggling entrepreneurs from third world countries. Each one is asking for a small business loan to help them create or improve their business. They are looking to drastically improve their quality of life.

Once you have chosen who you would like to help, you then decide how much to lend toward their needs. I typically lent around $25. Once everyone’s pledges add up to the total amount needed, the loan is dispersed. Then, over time, the entrepreneur slowly pays back the loan, which goes directly back to you!

Did that make sense? If not, just check out the website for a better and more extensive description.

The absolute fun part is going through and reading these people’s stories. I love browsing through their businesses to see what they are doing for themselves. I love feeling like I’m truly making a difference in someones life–and I like that I’m doing it with a loan, rather than a pure gift.

Anyway, I hope you’ll check out Kiva and give it a go!

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One thing I miss about working a rotation with day/night eight hour shifts (as opposed to my current day/night 12 hour rotation) is that no matter what I worked, I always had my evenings off. That meant I never had to miss any of my favorite television shows!

Now, I miss A LOT of shows while I’m at work, but fortunately the hard drive on my satellite receiver records everything I could ever conceive of watching.

Today, on my first day off after a couple twelve hour shifts, I woke up at 07:30 and watched recorded televisions shows–commercial free–until 18:00 with only a pee breaks for me and my dog, and quick trips to the kitchen for food.

I could win awards for my ability to slack off.

Sinus arrhythmia: Beer does this.

I love this article! I can’t wait until I have the knowledge and experience to properly take care of a patient this sick. It takes years!

Grand Rounds 4.31: How … - Blogs - Revolution Health

Grand Rounds is up over at Dr. Val’s! Click the link above to check it out!

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This poor man was trapped in an elevator for forty-one hours while security cameras looked on! UGH!

I missed A LOT of work over the weekend. In fact, I didn’t work at all! We’re talking THREE twelve hour shifts missed by your’s truly. Thirty-Six hours of sick time taken all in one massive chunk. My manager must adore me right now…*cringe*

But today, I’m finally starting to feel better. I have no sense of smell (except for that strange, sickeningly sweet smell of infection that is stuck in my sinuses), My intercostal and abdominal muscles ache from all the coughing, and I’m a bit dizzy. However, in general, that is a vast improvement.

I find it amazing that colds always seem to come when they are needed the most. They are natures way of telling you that life is way to stressful, you’re running on empty, and you just need to stop and lie down for a couple days: preferably with season four of ER fully available for your viewing pleasure.

I left the house only once briefly. I decided that since I was missing so much work, it was only fair that I went and got a sick note (they never did ask for one). I got to the local walk in clinic and was greeted by a fresh sign stating, “We are full, please go the the nearest Emergency Room.”

I contemplated actually going to the ER. I wanted to see the look on the triage nurse’s face when I told her I had a particularly bad cold and needed a sick note for work. I didn’t have the guts though. Not to mention, the ER shares a wall with the ICU that I work in–I’m sure I would have been seen and put to work.

Today, I’m actually going to venture out of the house and visit a friend of mine for coffee. It will seem strange to actually see the light of day in it’s full glory. The fresh air may seem overwhelming, and the noise of being in public may stun me. I will let you know if I survive the onslaught of stimulation.

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Wachter’s World : Snooping At Britney’s Chart: Why Should Docs and Nurses Have Different Rules?

Should doctors and nurses be subject to different penalties for precisely the same infraction? Of course not. Are they? Sure.

Just ask Britney Spears.

Britney was hospitalized at UCLA at least twice in the past few years – once when she gave birth to her first son in 2005, and again in early 2008 for psychiatric care. Both times, dozens of UCLA staff members peeked at her medical records, despite having no clinical reason to do so.

I’m glad somebody brought this up! I have been pondering this very issue lately: particularly in light of the mentioned Britney Spears incident.

Great article!

I wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone for their kind comments regarding Change of Shift. I also want to thank many of you for your ever appreciated link love. Hopefully, I will again have the chance to host Change of Shift.

About a month ago I had a really crappy couple of days. I was in the middle of my classroom  portion of my ICU training. Interspersed throughout these classroom days was a smattering of “buddy” shifts. All in a span of forty-eight hours, during these buddy shifts, I lost three beloved expensive items.

These items were, in order: My very expensive Littman stethoscope, my very expensive and very amazing book Fast Facts for Critical Care Nurses, and My brand new iPod Touch.

I blamed this absent-mindedness on the stress of being a new orientee. However, the truth is that I had gotten into the habit of accidentally leaving things around at work–and expecting to find them right where I left them the next day–or even sometimes nicely tucked away.

This was almost the case in the ICU. My Fast Facts was quickly found in a desk drawer sporting a nice label proclaiming, “This belongs to Sean…one of the new ICU nurses.” My iPod was found as well. After giving up on finding it I heard an announcement that boomed through the entire hospital, “Could Sean, owner of a lost iPod, please call the ICU?” Apparently, the Unit clerk had found it and spent her morning going through the iPod looking for a name.

Unfortunately, my stethoscope was never found. I loved that stethoscope for no other reason than it was a present to myself following graduation from nursing school: a nice symbol of completion. I have searched and explored every nook and cranny in that ICU, and it has yet to turn up.

So, I declared it to be a sacrifice to the gods of the ICU, begging for good luck in return. Yesterday, I went out and bought a new Littman Master Cardiology. I freakin’ LOVE this new stethoscope. It’s just so gosh darn beautiful!

What do you want to bet that the next time I go to work, I will immediately find my old stethoscope? That’s just Murphy’s Law for you…

On the first day of orientation to the ICU, my manager nonchalantly mentioned that all new employees get sick about six weeks after starting–thanks to all the stress and anxiety thrust upon them. I chuckled, assuming it was a gross generalization; and of course it wouldn’t happen to me.

So, here it is, six weeks into my new job in the ICU, and I’m sick as a dog (see cold virus above). After  feeling run down and super duper stressed out all week, my body finally gave in to illlness.

I felt bad, but I had to call in sick for tomorrow, and will possibly have to on Saturday. Ugh! I would much rather have been the epitome of the perfect employee who never gets sick. Or perhaps even the do-gooder that toughs it out and goes to work suffering.

Nope! Instead, I have a date with my blanket and bed tomorrow…