Coming of Age Questions

a twenty-something's blog about life's big questions

[books-in-order]

“Bob, the Railway Dog” was a Rodent Removing, Guard Watching, Railway Traveling dog for South Australian Railways

[coaqs]

You’re a good boy, Bob <3 

[heir-to-the-diamond-throne]

[coaqs]

This person is very wise. I work as an RN in a hospital, and this is what we call “Defensive Documentation”. Your medical record is also a legal document. If you have to fight with your insurance company (assuming you’re in the US) and you need to make a case, you will need to prove that you “told ‘em so” and that they refused, and the medical record is exactly where you’ll do it.

Generalizing here, but your doctor will most likely not document any such thing, because they realize the power of what you’re doing. If you want to make sure it’s in your record, mention it to as many of your nurses as you possibly can. Find at least one, preferably one for night shift, and one for day shift, who will reliably document for you in their notes. This way, no matter when the BS goes down, there will be someone to record what you’ve been through.

Best of luck my friends. I hope this helps and finds you in good health.

[celebratingamazingwomen]

Anne Firor Scott (1921-2019) was an American historian, specialised in the history of the South, with a focus on women in history. She taught at Duke University, where she became the first female chair of the history department.

Her best known book is the 1970 The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, now considered a classic and a stepping stone in the field of Southern women’s history. She served as the president of the Organization of American Historians and of the Southern Historical Association.

[too-cool-for-facebook]

[lubefairy]

SHE IS RIGHT AND SHE SOULD SAY IT!!!

[kittyknowsthings]

YES!

[perryfellow]

“Grandpa’s Couch” (a collaboration with Martin Rosner of Hot Paper Comics)

[coaqs]

At first I thought the kids also had grandpa moustaches

[maestings]

Ok, but now what?

I graduated nursing school, I passed boards, and I am working. I’ve discovered that I don’t know what to do with free time anymore, because I went for so long without having any!

I mean it, I legit got excited that I had a whole day to go to physical therapy, get a dental cleaning and got my nails done. Why is that exciting? Because it’s oh so normal!

I need to start doing stuff on my days off. What does everyone do with their free time when they finish nursing school?

[coaqs]

I spend my days off cleaning my space, meal-prepping for work, making sure my scrubs and everything I need is clean and where I expect it to be;

Hanging out with friends, calling family I haven't seen in a while, running errands around town (buying stamps or groceries, getting gas, picking things up and dropping them off);

Engaging my hobbies, like sewing, writing, calligraphy, and baking; playing my favorite video games; and spending quality time with my pets and my partner.

I hope this helps. Congrats, new nurse!

[ultrafacts]

Hydrangea macrophylla flowers can change color depending on soil acidity. In acid soils, chemical reactions occur in the soil that make aluminium available to these plants, turning the flowers blue. In alkaline soils, these reactions cannot occur and therefore aluminium is not taken up by the plant. As a result, the flowers are pink.

(Fact Source) For more facts, follow Ultrafacts

[comicallymacabre]

I’ve always found this neat.

[psychtech-futurern]

What color do they turn in neutral soil???

[coaqs]

Mine tend to be white in neutral soil, but in NJ they typically have to be potted to avoid turning purple xD

[hilarioushumorfromouterspace]

[er-bsn-rn]

Also, about birth control

Birth control should be accessible to any person who needs it. It should be affordable, if not fully covered by insurance.

As a nursing student, I’ve learned to use the word “contraception” instead, because I feel that includes non-pharmacologic methods for preventing pregnancy.

Just because a person doesn’t take hormonal contraception doesn’t mean they are trying to get pregnant. There are other natural ways of preventing pregnancy that should not be shamed. Natural family planning isn’t just for religious families, and I feel like there’s a stigma around it.

Yes, I know. NFP is more risky and it requires paying close attention to your body and being diligent about tracking symptoms. But it can be really helpful for those who have a contraindication for taking medication.

For some reason I’m feeling this shame and stigma around certain contraceptive methods versus others and it needs to stop

[coaqs]

I’ve used NFP alongside other methods, but I wouldn’t recommend it in general unless the person I was advising is super compliant with other therapies. It takes months to learn enough about your cycle to use NFP with any degree of accuracy, and that’s on the low side, for people with highly regular cycles. Most people just don’t wait that long, or are noncompliant with other therapies or forms of birth control. And even then, by some estimates, fertility awareness is only marginally more effective than withdrawal, which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. I’m not sure I’d want anyone to risk using NFP alone if contraception is the aim. 

Honestly, if the hormones are the issue, I’d sooner recommend male condoms or a copper IUD, depending on the person’s risk for STI. If the person doesn’t have insurance, Planned Parenthood can prescribe and insert IUDs, and they won’t turn you away for your income. Many work on a sliding scale and every one I’ve been to allows you to work out a payment plan. I fully agree that birth control should be accessible, low-cost, and fully-covered to the fullest extent of my being, but being that that isn’t the case for some reason, these are the options I’d suggest. 

[er-bsn-rn]

Current RNs weigh in?

I was recently in a situation where I was going to put an NG into a patient. I did a quick assessment and asked if the patient had ever had surgery of area. Pt mentioned “yes, something with my sinuses.” Of course y'all know that patients typically don’t know terminology. My supervising RN said “it’s fine, just pick the right side.”

Well. The placement did not go well. Although the patient wasn’t very compliant, it was still very difficult. I had a bad feeling. So it was good timing when the medical resident came in, because I mentioned the surgery and sure enough we pulled up a CT scan of the head and it was obvious that we should have found that CT before proceeding.

FOUR NG attempts later, the medical resident was the one to actually listen to my concerns and assist with the procedure, rather than an RN and idk that just irked me.

The resident probably had no idea I was a student, so maybe that had something to do with it? I’m just feeling guilty because I really should have stood my ground and trusted my gut.

RNs what do you think?

[coaqs]

Hey I'm practicing under my license for almost one year. If my patient suggested surgery to ENT territory, I'd want to confirm in the EMR or with their attending. After all, it depends on who wrote the order; sometimes one specialty doesn't talk to the other, or a well-meaning resident wrote an order that doesn't make sense. You're right: what you experienced here is absolutely a contraindication to NGT placement.

As far as working with RNs as a student... I'm sorry to say this, but you really have no say. S/he is too busy, too overwhelmed, and frankly, too responsible for too many things for too many people. AND unfortunately, pride gets in the way too. I'm not gonna say "nurses eat their young" because I've really had a terrific experience with my seniors. But sometimes, you have to get other parties involved. Does that make sense?

Good luck, friend. Hope all goes well.

[donesparce]

There are three breeds of cat:

Chonk

Goblin

Yeah that looks like a cat

[donesparce]

Subcategories of breeds:

Floof

Naked

Normal

[argentinelakeduck]

[formerprincewille]

This is my favorite post

[astoldbyanurse]

[gingersanta-anirishchristmas-de]

Apologies for partially political post but for those unaware today in Ireland nurses are being forced to strike over a lack of pay restoration and staff retention. It’s freezing cold and snowing in most parts of the country but is nurses will show the same dedication to this that we do each day to our patients and their families. A level of dedication our elected officials in government no very little about. Proud to be a nurse today and everyday.

[coaqs]

Proud of our colleagues in Ireland!

[betterthanabortion]

“My body, my choice” only makes sense when someone else’s life isn’t at stake.

[fandomsandfeminism]

Fun fact: If my younger sister was in a car accident and desperately needed a blood transfusion to live, and I was the only person on Earth who could donate blood to save her, and even though donating blood is a relatively easy, safe, and quick procedure no one can force me to give blood. Yes, even to save the life of a fully grown person, it would be ILLEGAL to FORCE me to donate blood if I didn’t want to.

See, we have this concept called “bodily autonomy.” It’s this….cultural notion that a person’s control over their own body is above all important and must not be infringed upon. 

Like, we can’t even take LIFE SAVING organs from CORPSES unless the person whose corpse it is gave consent before their death. Even corpses get bodily autonomy. 

To tell people that they MUST sacrifice their bodily autonomy for 9 months against their will in an incredibly expensive, invasive, difficult process to save what YOU view as another human life (a debatable claim in the early stages of pregnancy when the VAST majority of abortions are performed) is desperately unethical. You can’t even ask people to sacrifice bodily autonomy to give up organs they aren’t using anymore after they have died. 

You’re asking people who can become pregnant to accept less bodily autonomy than we grant to dead bodies. 

[albinwonderland]

reblogging for commentary 

[generalmaluga]

But, assuming the mother wasn’t raped, the choice to HAVE a baby and risk sacrificing their “bodily autonomy” is a choice that the mother made. YOu don’t have to have sex with someone. Cases of rape aside, it isn’t ethical to say abortion is justified. The unborn baby has rights, too. 

[fandomsandfeminism]

First point: Bodily autonomy can be preserved, even if another life is dependent on it. See again the example about the blood donation. 

And here’s another point: When you say that “rape is the exception” you betray something FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN about your own argument.

Because a fetus produced from sexual assault is biologically NO DIFFERENT than a fetus produced from consensual sex. No difference at all.

If one is alive, so is the other. If one is a person, so is the other. If one has a soul, then so does the other. If one is a little blessing that happened for a reason and must be protected, then so is the other. 

When you say that “Rape is the exception” what you betray is this: It isn’t about a life. This isn’t about the little soul sitting inside some person’s womb, because if it was you wouldn’t care about HOW it got there, only that it is a little life that needs protecting.

When you say “rape is the exception” what you say is this: You are treating pregnancy as a punishment. You are PUNISHING people who have had CONSENSUAL SEX but don’t want to go through a pregnancy. People who DARED to have consensual sex without the goal of procreation in mind, and this is their “consequence.” 

And that is gross. 

[thekaraokeninja]

^ THIS. This is this this THIS THIS THIS. THIS!!!!!

[updatepls-deactivated20180722]

This is probably the strongest and well worded/supported argument for abortion that I have ever read.

[coaqs]

Studyblrs, esp in nursing and medicine, make me so irrationally angry. I hate them. I realize they exist because they're "aesthetic". But they shouldn't be tagged with either career, because they have NO relation to them whatsoever. We work really fucking hard with blood and vomit and shit. We work weekends and holidays. We're on call. We beat the crap out of ourselves. We save lives and we see some pretty traumatic stuff in the process. We crack sternums and break ribs in the hope of resuscitating people. The providers tell people when their loved ones die, and the nurses hold them until they're ready to leave.

It makes me so angry to see what I love and struggle for boiled down to highlighters and screensavers on a MacBook.

[prokopetz]

Rape is the only crime on the books for which arguing that the temptation to commit it was too clear and obvious to resist is treated as a defence. For every other crime, we call that a confession.

[prokopetz]

I’ve gotten more angry asks about this post than I have actual reblogs.

[theglowstickchronicles]

Friends. Now that I’ve got a desk-and-stare-at-computer job, I’ve been noticing that I’m getting a lot of regular old headaches (not migraines). It could be the weather, it could be that I gave up caffeinated beverages for New Years, it could be me not liking the job. Who knows! But it could definitely be the whole being in front of a computer all day 5 days a week thing, yeah? 

Are blue screen glasses worth it? 

[coaqs]

I usually use blue light limiting apps like candlelight for Mac; maybe give those a shot before you drop money on separate glasses? The apps are usually free, if your work computer will allow installation. Alternatively, tweak the brightness of the screen!