eric135

Daniel Radcliffe

Here's a link to an article about Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame) working on a low-budget film in Australia.

I really thought he was older than 16. He has a pretty mature take on his career, and that he has to come up with projects as un-Harry as possible when he's not doing Harry Potter films. He also mentions that not only does he have to do some good acting, but the public has to be willing to accept him in a non-Harry role.

If he manages to do it, he won't have much company. I can really think of only one child actor -- Jodie Foster -- that has done truly well as an adult. I know there have been others, but just sitting here, she's the only one I can remember off hand.

This is one of those rare links with a picture of Radcliffe sans glasses and wild spaghetti hair.

Christmas Shows on TV

Here's a Yahoo News article listing the TV broadcasts of Christmas shows.

We're TiVo'ing A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Happy Elf, Frosty the Snowman, and I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown!.

We already own Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town on DVD.

The Christmas DVD we have played the most? Our DVD of that fireplace with the logs burning. It has two soundtracks -- one of the sounds of the fire, the other of a choir singing Christmas caroles.

AHA makes new CPR guidelines

Heart Association offers new CPR guidelines.

Old ratio 15:2. New ratio 30:2 (regardless of adult, youth or infant).

The basic idea is that the most important piece of CPR is to do the cardiac compressions. When rescuers stop compressions to check the pulse, or give 2 rescue breaths after 15 compressions, circulation is stopped and that lost ground has to be made up.

The whole thing about nurses wearing white

I almost always wear white scrubs. Every once in a while, I read articles in nursing publications or on the internet describing how helpful it is as a profession for nurses to wear white uniforms. I agree with most of the common points, that patients are having more and more difficulty identifying the many types of caregivers in the hospital.

One of the local hospitals absolutely requires RNs to wear white (all white, not just mostly white).

When all is said and done, if your patients' sole clue that you are their assigned registered nurse has anything to do with your choice of color, you are not working hard enough.

There are better reasons why patients should be able to easily identify you as their nurse:

• Most importantly, you have introduced yourself as a registered nurse, and that you have been assigned to that person for a specific time period.
• You wear an ID badge that clearly says "Registered Nurse" on it, and you wear it within 12 inches of your face (not on your belt, or your pants pocket, or on a lanyard that turns the badge around so it can't be seen). Your badge isn't overly encumbered with cute bugs, or pigs dressed as nurses, or a TeleTubby dressed as a nurse, or anything cutsie that covers your name and job description. You also don't wear it backwards just because you really hate your picture.
• Every time your patient mis-identifies you as a physician, or physician assistant, or CNA, or respiratory tech, or obviously doesn't know what you are, you say, "I'm Eric, I'm your nurse until 7am" (well, ok, use your own name, not mine). Don't say "I'm gonna take care of you," or "I'm your gal" or "I'm assigned to you." You remind them that you are a nurse.
• You sit down with the patient at the beginning of your shift with the chart and MAR in hand, and go over the plan for the next 12-hours. During that time, you answer questions, and provide patient education. You provide ongoing discharge planning. You tell your patient what the next step is in his/her hospitalization (you gotta have labs done to check your potassium level, you are going to have a colonoscopy tomorrow to see why you are bleeding rectally, you need to switch from IV morphine to PO Percocet with adequate pain control, you have a fever and we need to get rid of that, you need to see a cardiologist -- his name is Dr. So-and-So -- because your heart beat goes down to 35 beats a minute and we think that's why you are always so dizzy, yada yada yada.) Formulating and executing a Treatment Plan is very Nursey.

It shouldn't matter what you wear.

But honestly, for heaven's sake, what is up with those pins with the pigs dressed as nurses, anyway?

David Makes Europeans and Americans Dizzy (but not Japanese -- too organized)

An article about folks that get dizzy looking at art, especially Michelangelo's David.

One theory is the viewing of so much culture and art brings on a sense of anguish and insecurity, something that the patient is not used to. We have to treat them with anti-depressants.   ...

Italians were immune to the condition, according to Prof Magherini, along with the Japanese, who she said were so organised in their sightseeing that "they rarely have time for emotional attacks.

From mindhacks.com.

I think it's becaue he doesn't have the fig leaf.

Eryk Bui

I've mentioned him before. He's a Vietnamese natural bodybuilder that I find inspiring. His latest interview, from Iron Man Magazine. His website.

Happy Thanksgiving

I was working on a list of things I am truly thankful for. At first, it was a really dull and boring list -- good health, the love of friends and family, yada yada yada. So I deleted all of the bland items, and here's what's left:

• I have never known true hunger or thirst.
• I have never been in a physical fight ever. I've never had to defend myself from physical harm.
• I have never contracted an STD.
• My mother made me take a typing class in high school. I can type 104 words a minute.
• Omiting my car loan, I have less than $1000 debt.
• I have never been in a car accident.
• I have really good neighbors, and live in a good quiet neighborhood.
• My parents considered a good education to be very important, and were willing to provide a good education without me having to pay for it.
• I have never done illegal drugs.
• My first experience smoking a cigarette made me vomit.
• I hate the feeling of being intoxicated.
• I am not lonely.
• My three cats use the litterbox.
• I survived unsafe sex in the 1980's.
• My sisters are in good relationships with good husbands, and I never have to worry that they aren't in a good situation.
• My parents never fought.
• I have a hard time coming up with even one thing to put on my Amazon Wish List.
• As a child, I was allowed to read any book I wanted.
• I have a life-long companion and we really like each other and we almost never fight -- even when we have to scrimp and save, and I can be a real cheap-skate at times.
• I never feel the need to venture more than 2 miles from my home, except to go to work.
• I have never lived in a bad neighborhood.
• I have never been robbed or mugged.
• I have never been through an ugly breakup.
• I never had a thing for big/expensive cars.
• I have gotten over my addiction to fast food.
• My kidney stones pass on their own, without anyone having to go up in there and get them.
• I am easily and cheaply entertained.

Happy Thanksgiving!

XBox 360

I've been observing the XBox 360 debut. Apparently, our local gaming store ran out of them... after one hour the day they went on sale. Seems they got about 40 of them, and most were given to the pre-order customers after midnight. Putting a deposit down didn't guarrantee an XBox.

I assume there is some limitation for the number of units that can be produced. It seems to me that the seasonal debacle of "running out" of hot items to "make them more in demand" would only work if you bought the items via bidding. But since the revenue from each unit is set with the price, I don't know wny any company would think this practice of "imposed scarcity" would do anything but piss off your customers.

Gosh... just make enough of them to sell, how's that for critical business analysis? I mean, if you sell it, we will buy it.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

We ventured into the sunlight went to the movies yesterday to see the latest Harry Potter movie.

I really liked it, although I don't remember the book being that dark and scarey. This movie, like the previous Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, have moments that definitely make it a PG-13 kind of movie. Torture and killing of a CGI spider. Child drowning. Wrist slashing. A teenage boy gets killed. I think any kid that enjoys the book can handle the movie, but this movie is not a Disney film. No cute singing frogs. No funny Headless Nick. Pretty intense, but I did like it.

The actors really are growing up fast. Daniel Radcliffe looks like a young man already, and he's supposed to be 14. He acts against an 18-year-old character, and I'm pretty sure they did some camera tricks to make him look shorter than the 18-year-old. Maybe they did the same thing they did in Lord of the Rings, where the hobbits had child actors that did wide-angle shots and had other actors up on platforms. Either that, or the guys playing the 18-year-olds are 8 feet tall.

I haven't been very highly motivated lately. Not feeling well for a couple of weeks got me really lazy. And my appetite -- you would not believe what, and how much, I have been eating. And I've been having trouble going to the gym even three times a week, unlike the previous three months going every day. Sheesh.

Werk

Three Perpetual Problems have re-surfaced at work all in the past week or so. These are problems that hospitals and nursing simply have had to live with probably since the days of Florence Nightengale. Usually, they crop up here and there, sort of like a bad case of Jock Itch -- you just look down one day and say to yourself, "Oh Shit You Are Back."

• ER Throughput: There are too many patients waiting for admit beds for too long. So I attended a meeting where floor nurses were thrashed for not taking report fast enough. I almost felt myself sigh. The conflict between ER nurses and floor nurses has been with us for years and years (and years). ER calls report, and the floor nurse is busy, and this causes a delay. Sometimes (no not always) the floor nurse has tried to call back, but the ER nurse is busy (taking care of patients ... the way floor nurses take care of patients). It's the same old thing. But most of the problem is not delays in taking report. There is more of an issue with ER physicians holding patients in the ER, and not making final dispositions until 5pm (before they go home). So I'm working on yet another time study.
• Patient to nurse ratios: We're basically going from 5:1 to 6:1 on nights. Most of the time, we will stick to the 5:1 ratio, but we can go to 6:1 "as an emergency measure, until another nurse can come in." I responded that on night shift, that extra nurse is not available, either within our own ranks or through an agency. What I find interesting is that no one in administration is willing to say "our ratios are going to 6:1." It's all about "emergencies" and "stop-gap measures." As though the experienced nurses won't see through this one from the get go. It's obvious why they won't say this: it makes our hospital significantly less-than-competitive throughout the metro-Phoenix area. They know many of our nurses stay (or apply) based on our well-known ratio of 4:1 on days, and 5:1 on nights. As we go to 5:1 on days and 6:1 on nights (even though they won't admit it), some will decide to leave.
• Our Hospitalists don't want to get calls at night: I understand their dilemma. They admit 1/2 to 2/3 of our patients, and they are getting calls throughout the night. Come to find out they are working 36-hour shifts, with the 12-hour night shift right in the middle of it. I told them the charge nurses could help coordinate the calls so the non-emergent calls can be grouped, but really, there's nothing much I can do about the fact that we have a professional obligation to notify physicians of any change, even in the middle of the night. I invited the administrators to work on a change in this policy (knowing full well no administration could do this). I really think they are just being greedy, unwilling to cut the pie into smaller pieces and shortening that 36-hour shift into something more reasonable.

Yeah, it really is like a case of Jock Itch. I know I'll get rid of it... but it will be back, eventually.