Zach Sullivan @zachthemurse - Tumblr Blog

child handling for the childless nurse

My current job has me working with children, which is kind of a weird shock after years in environments where a “young” patient is 40 years old. Here’s my impressions so far:

Birth - 1 year: Essentially a small cute animal. Handle accordingly; gently and affectionately, but relying heavily on the caregivers and with no real expectation of cooperation.

Age 1 - 2: Hates you. Hates you so much. You can smile, you can coo, you can attempt to soothe; they hate you anyway, because you’re a stranger and you’re scary and you’re touching them. There’s no winning this so just get it over with as quickly and non-traumatically as possible.

Age 3 - 5: Nervous around medical things, but possible to soothe. Easily upset, but also easily distracted from the thing that upset them. Smartphone cartoons and “who wants a sticker?!!?!?” are key management techniques.

Age 6 - 10: Really cool, actually. I did not realize kids were this cool. Around this age they tend to be fairly outgoing, and super curious and eager to learn. Absolutely do not babytalk; instead, flatter them with how grown-up they are, teach them some Fun Gross Medical Facts, and introduce potentially frightening experiences with “hey, you want to see something really cool?”

Age 11 - 14: Extremely variable. Can be very childish or very mature, or rapidly switch from one mode to the other. At this point you can almost treat them as an adult, just… a really sensitive and unpredictable adult. Do not, under any circumstances, offer stickers. (But they might grab one out of the bin anyway.)

Age 15 - 18: Basically an adult with severely limited life experience. Treat as an adult who needs a little extra education with their care. Keep parents out of the room as much as possible, unless the kid wants them there. At this point you can go ahead and offer stickers again, because they’ll probably think it’s funny. And they’ll want one. Deep down, everyone wants a sticker.

mikkeneko

This is also a pretty excellent guide to writing kids of various ages

creative-poptart

Reblogging for writing purposes

#pervocracy

Zach and Best Judy Gracie having a night in.

Commission by @trashtank

#commission #trashtank

Commission by @trashtank

#commission #trashtank

bering-strait-deactivated202005

addicts deserve compassion. addicts deserve love. addicts deserve safety and medical care and a warm place to sleep and food. being an addict doesn't make you a bad or dangerous person. addicts are some of the most violently treated and neglected members of society. it's time to change

#bering-strait

cognitivedissonance

Yes, that should read “low success rate” in the first tweet, but Twitter has no edit button ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But I’m forever done with private probation companies, for-profit treatment centers charging exorbitant rates, and AA and NA being seen as any kind of solutions to substance use disorders.

this site has one setting

jenroses

I’m laughing, but there’s a super useful corollary, which my husband calls “the Red Balloon.” He was a defense lawyer and had a fair number of drug addicts come through, and there is a thing where if you’re like, on your first offense, they’ll do a thing where you can go to treatment and if you complete it they’ll take the conviction off your record. And he would tell his clients, “Look, everyone’s going to tell you not to do drugs. They’re going to say it over and over again. And it’s like, if people tell you not to think of a white elephant, you’re going to think of a white elephant. But the trick to not thinking about a white elephant is to think of a red balloon. So you need to find your red balloon. For some people it’s yoga. For others it’s woodworking. For some people it’s scrapbooking or gardening or any of a long list of things to do. They focus on that, it’s a lot easier to succeed in ignoring the white elephant.” So yeah, “watch yourself” is one thing… but the better idea is to watch something else. (Even if it’s fanfic about werewolves fucking.)

It’s a form of productive dissociation, and is super, super helpful. It’s easy for me to get bogged down in how much pain I’m in… but some of the most painful periods of my life have also been the most productive, writing-wise, because writing is one of my red balloons.

the-weaver-of-worlds

This is why cooking calms me down; bc it requires all of my focus

#anxietyproblem

ashilesun

“Of course I’ll fucking marry you.”

#jackorowan

brittany

She’s about to cry. I can always tell when adults are about to cry.

The Florida Project (2017), dir. Sean Baker

#The Florida Project #spellman

iraffiruse

lady-feral

Damn.

mickeygifs

zachthemurse

Cameron Monaghan playing the role of Zach here.

#mickeygifs

weltenwellen

—When you love a person, there’s always a tiny part of you that’s terrified that one day you’re gonna lose them. And I think that your father’s so scared of that emotion that… he stops himself feeling anything at all. But you have to let the people you love know that you love them, even if it causes you a great deal of pain.

—Why? It sounds awful.

—Because you’re alive.

#weltenwellen