Monday Gosling Meme

Over the past few weeks I have had a Meta Picture Monday theme going on, but recently I have come across several H-i-larious Ryan Gosling memes so I figured I would switch it up for the next few weeks. 

Going to the Chapel and We're Gonna Get Married

Well I may not be the one who got married, but my two good friends Jess and Matt tied the knot today! 

As you all know Friday is a clinical day, so I pretty much had to promise my first born child to leave the floor early in order to make it to NJ for the ceremony, but it was totally worth it.

After months and months Jess and Matt exchanged vows

Dinner and dancing took place under an adorable tent

Christine and I made some new friends at Table 17 

(also most of the pictures on this post were hers to thanks!)

And we found Ryan, groomsman extraordinaire 

First dance

And we were able to snag a picture with the bride.  

How things have changed since the days at GW's Office of Community Service!!

Wishing you two all the best.  May we all find what the two of you have. 

Urban Gardening Part 2

And we go back to step 4 which is put everything into the ground.  I headed back over to Clifton Park and the place was pretty much abandoned except for the guy I met the other day. 

I was nearly done when some major storm clouds rolled in.  Thankfully my new friend and I were able to get everything into the ground before the storm hit (I am still waiting for the rain several hours later). 

I somehow estimated just right and was able to get everything to fit in my 150 square foot garden: corn, two kinds of eggplant, two kinds of beans, lettuce, herbs, a ton of different tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, jalapenos.  

 

Now all I have to do is wait (and make some trellises) . 

No Words Could Be More True

"I am beginning to see you bear the wear and tear effects 
of this accelerated program."

That was a direct quote from an email we received from one of our professors last week.  Between the crazy class/clinical schedule, STUDYING, jobs, STUDYING, practicum/volunteer placements, STUDYING, boards/school groups, oh and I mention STUDYING, I couldn't imagine why we are all looking a little haggard.

I will say it is kind of rough to be out of the house by 0600, but the patients/nursing staff at clinical make up for it.  It is nice to see the sun up by the time I am walking through the hospital doors.

1)  You have no time to ride bikes or go for a run.  2)  You find yourself eating cookies and doughnuts while studying for your exam in Diabetes.  Trust me the irony is not wasted on any of us students.

Self explanatory

Fact!  Every once in a while I get a text from a friend asking if I am alive and/or if we are in a fight because I have not talked to them in forever.  My Words with Friends keeps reminding me that people are waiting for me to make my next move yet I do find time to post here (probably one of the things that is keeping me sane). 

One day we will sleep again.  ONE DAY!  Until then bring on the coffee.

I just have to get to May 3rd.  We have a day off from clinical and the following week has NO PAPERS and/or TESTS!!  I am not sure how this happened, but I will take the mental health day and run with it go on a bike ride

Urban Gardening

Over the last few years it seems like there has been an emergence of farm to table movement with farmers markets popping up in urban areas and more individuals trying their hand at growing some produce.  I was one of the people who jumped on the bandwagon of urban gardening and decided to get a plot here in Baltimore (I had one in DC, but sadly most of the vegetables were stolen).

Step 1: prep the small raised box in front of our house and turned it into an herb garden and strawberry patch.  Pro tip put any mint in its own pot because it will start growing EVERYWHERE!!

Step 2: head over to my HUGE new garden plot and start pulling weeds and prepping for planting.  Literally the thing is four times the size of the one I had in DC and took me two hours to pull the weeds, till the land and mix in top soil.  I have the blisters to show for it.

Step 3: pour over websites and catalogs to determine what exactly I want to plant and when I need to get everything in the ground.  The SproutRobot is AMAZING and even gives you fool proof cartoon pictures.  Last time I had a garden I germinated a lot of my own plants during the winter in egg cartons, but because I only found out I got a plot a couple weeks ago I ended up picking up a bunch of things at the farmers market.

Step 4: put everything in the ground.  I am still working on step four because the plot was way larger than I remembered and I want to pick up a few more things before I start planting.  I did make a friend who is a couple plots down from me and he sent me home with some parsley from his garden which was super nice of him and super amazing for dinner!!  I think that parsley is kind of under appreciated, but that is another story. 

Meta Picture Monday

This made my heart melt a little.  

The kicker is she is using a real stethoscope.

JHU vs. NAVY

We are moving into the final push of our second term here in the accel program (4 weeks to go) and I will admit that as the weather is getting nicer, it is becoming harder to get some studying done.  With papers, tests and clinical assignments most of us are feeling like the below picture because as soon as we think we are caught up we then realize the 2,093,489 things that have to get done for next week.  No matter how hard we try, none of us seem to be able to get head.

After spending entirely way too much time in the library over the past two weeks (IPOC, Adult Health exam, Pharm in 72 hours) I decided to treat myself and went to study/watch the JHU vs. NAVY game.  It is just what the doctor nurse ordered: 1. lacrosse 2. sun and fresh air and 3. a bunch of hot guys running around the field. 

It seems like every city has their own animal statue which is painted in a variety of colors/patters depending on the neighborhood.  DC had pandas, PGH is covered with dinosaurs and the list goes on and on and on.  Maryland of course has crabs (duh!)  As you walk into the stadium you are greeted by the goalkeeper cra.

I am a little bummed that it took me this long to get to a game, but between my schedule and the number of home games, it was a little tough. But it was well worth the wait because the game was pretty decent (I always forget how much more checking is involved with the men's compared to women's lacrosse).

While I could only stay until the end of the third quarter (pharm test Monday) we did win 15-4!

Sherwood Gardens

Every spring time hundreds of people from around Baltimore come to Sherwood Gardens to see the 80,000 tulips in bloom.  The gardens, which was a part of the Guilford estate which belonged to the founder of The Baltimore Sun, originally was a pond until the land was developed in 1912 for housing.

Sherwood Gardens, as we know it today, was the hobby of John W. Sherwood who in the 1920s imported tulips from the Netherlands; today the gardens have become known as the most famous tulip garden in North America.  After his death the Guilford Association, along with some help from the City of Baltimore, take care of the tulip purchase and maintenance.  While the tulips only bloom for a short window, the garden is filled with dogwoods, magnolias and flowering cherry trees; many of the plants date back to the 18th Century.

It definitely has an Alice in Wonderland feel and I will definitely be coming back to study here (probably this weekend).

I even got to sneak in a dance video (it is very hard to convince people you are not totally crazy and to take a video of you without an entire team in matching jerseys backing you up).

Meta Picture Monday

Que to 2:15 if you please.  

The Yale Alley Cats came to our high school to perform and did a great job of said song.  

IPOCs

As nursing students we all have a love-hate relationship with IPOC's (Individual Plan of Care) - okay some people have a hate-hate relationships (pick me!).  These documents of epic proportion require students go through the entire nursing process for one of our assigned patients.  While these are NEVER used in practice they help students start thinking like nurses (the evidence also shows us that it is a great way for students to synthesize all of the classroom knowledge we have floating around up there. 

So in honor of the one that is due at 2100 tonight, and the fact that I am already 15 pages deep with a bunch of analysis to go, I present you another Ryan Gosling meme (more to come).

Elective Credits

So on top of regular classes, clinics and jobs in the hospital/community, the School of Nursing and School of Public Health offer a TON of electives.  Well I guess the PUBH classes are for all their students, but we are able to take classes without any additional charge which is AMAZING.  As if life was not busy enough I decided to pick up a class called Health and Homelessness.  The up side to the class is that it meets for two entire Saturdays, two half days and a 12 hour practicum a.k.a. totally doable with an already packed schedule.

Today was class two of four and the speakers spoke on a range of topics which included harm reduction, the housing first model, advocacy, mental health and veterans affairs.  You all know how much I love infographics, and it just so happens that three presenters used the same one in their presentation; it was just that good.

Basically the take away message it is much cheaper for the taxpayer to place people who are homeless in a house than it is to put them in a shelter, jail, etc.  A lot of old school organizations and people in the field have a hard time wrapping their head around the concept of housing first because it says that we should give everyone, including those who have serious drug and alcohol abuse problems, a house and maybe put them into housing before those who can afford to scrape together enough money for substandard housing.  While many see this as not being fair (and really it is not on many levels), it has been shown to save money which can be used by organizations to then help with vouchers, rent payments and security deposits for those who can scrape together some money for housing.  More on housing first in the weeks to come. 

Another thing that stuck with me was the concept of self-sufficiency.  For years and years our field has been telling people who are homeless that they need to be self sufficient before we can give them a house and/or ask for them to be successful.  The guy who came to speak about advocacy started off this topic by saying that he was not completely self-sufficient.  If he was he would have to be able to make his own clothes, grow his own food, etc. which would probably leave him very little if any time for work.  In fact, even the small communities who are isolated in the Appalachian Mountains rely on other community members/the outside world in order to survive.  Instead, it will be important to create a supportive community for an individual so they can get help when they get stuck.  While they will need to do many things for themselves, they should not be completely alone in the process of getting and/or maintaining stable, affordable housing.

Doing Nursng Things (Part Deux)

For our Adult Health I rotation we are in clinic Thursdays and Fridays.  A major part of this  session is not only starting to put theory into practice, but also to practice the skills we learnd in lab on real people (how scary is that).  One of the major jobs of the nurse on a unit is to keep track of orders and medications.  As a result, the students on my floor are responsible for giving medications/running IVs one day a week (there are too many of us to do it both days).

Today was my first day on the floor giving meds which meant last night I needed to research all the drugs my patient was getting: drug class, pharmokenetics, indication, contraindcations, side effects, adverse effects, thinks to keep in mind as a nurse, patient education.  All of this info was then placed on several 4x6 inch index cards which I could use for reference when quizzed by my clinical instructor. 

With my bag of meds (and let me tell you there were quite a few), IV bags and tubing I headed to my patient's room with my clinical instructor gave the PO meds, hung the IV and then GAVE MY FIRST INSULIN SHOT.  Now you might not think this is a big deal, but up until this point all we have "shot up" is a pillow.  Later on this afternoon we headed back with more meds, IV bags and I got to do a LEGIT subcutaneous injection.  Two weeks down 5 to go.

Doing Nursing Things

New students on a med-surge floor have a fairly small scope scope of practice.  Let's be honest you don't really know much and are afraid if you look at your patient wrong they might die on you (that is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the sentiment. 

As a nursing student, you own a handful of things:

• AM care - bed baths, changing sheets/towels, etc
• I/Os - you track everything that goes and everything that goes out
• Vital signs
• Getting cups of water and ice (I am a rock star here)

Week two on the floor means you start passing meds (that is tomorrow) and doing "nursing things" you have practiced on dummies in SIM.  Today I was paired with a great nurse who give me some tricks of the trade with priming IV tubing, flushing lines and hooking up lines to patients (I got to do all three).

Well Played Mother Nature

For weeks all kinds of spring memes have been popping up in my Google Reader 

a.k.a. where is the spring weather and why is it snowing?!?

This week we are getting our first string of nice days, but it feels more like summer!

Well played Mother Nature, well played.

FREE CONE DAY TOMORROW!!!

Do it for me because the only Ben and Jerry's near me DOES NOT participate in Free Cone Day :(

Meta Picture Monday

A Lovely Day for some LAX

This spring I am volunteering as a first responder with a local girls youth lacrosse team.  Spring has finally sprung here in Baltimore - 70 degrees and sunny!!!

Bike Trips to Annapolis: 2 Emily: 1

With "little" going on next week I decided to take today as a personal day and see if I could finally find the trail from Baltimore to Annapolis (sadly I had failed miserably twice last fall - once because of a thunder and lightening storm and another due to poorly labeled trails). 

Either they had put up some new signs or I was actually paying attention this time because I had little trouble finding the B&A trail.  I soon realized that despite the fairly smooth terrain, the combination of wind (and no one to draft off) and having lost 2 pints of red blood cells it would be rougher than normal.  For reference that is like losing two containers of Ben and Jerry's.  It was going to be a plug and chug ride, but the weather was super nice so no complaints here.

One of the things I loved about last summer was the fact that you always had someone to talk with on the road.  Maybe that is why I have not done any major riding since the trip - no company. 

A couple miles into the B&A trail I noticed the planet walk instillation.  There is a giant sun sculpture at the beginning and each of the planet is placed proportionally far away.  The first few planets came pretty quickly, but I actually forgot about the instillation until I saw Saturn WAY, WAY WAY down the trail (it is nice to see that Pluto is still included).  If you want to get an idea of just how much riding you would have to do, check out this awesome Bill Nye video Susan, a fellow SUS'ian sent us a few weeks ago.  Bill and I can clearly be BFFs because I have the same Bianchi (or one very similar) in my basement. 

With so much time on my hand my head of course went to all things nursing.  As I was huffing puffing away I started to come up with some nursing diagnoses which correlated to my current situation:

• Impaired gas exchange related to altered oxygen-carrying capacity of blood as evident by dyspnea upon exertion
• Fluid volume deficit related to increased fluid loss as evident by dry mucous membrane
• Ineffective airway clearance related to decreased energy/fatigue as evident by changes in depth/ rate of respiration and expiratory wheezing

The was definitely worth it once I headed over the Naval Academy Bridge and saw the familiar town (we used to use Annapolis as day getaway in undergrad because of its proximity to DC).  Seeing the male military cadets walking around in their dress uniforms doesn't hurt either.  

I was all set to lock up my bike, grab a sandwich at my favorite sandwich place and walk around for a while, but realized that while brought my heavy duty U-lock, I forgot my key.  TYPICAL.  I did, however, find a couple of colonials who very nicely kept an eye on my bike as they were greeting visitors and I ran to get lunch. 

With about 10 miles to go until I got back within city limits, I came across two bikers who clearly had a flat and no tube.  After work/this summer I am a wiz at changing them and within no time had the guy patched up and he was good to go.  On a side note, if a rider stops in the middle of the ghetto, gives you a new tube/eats a Cliff bar and gives you the wrapper so you don't blow another tire and then changes said tire at least offer to reimburse the person for the tube.  No such dice here.

New Unit, New Scrubs

Yesterday was a day filled with simulations and practicing skills we have not used since sign offs in December which meant that today was the first day on our Adult Health 1 rotation.  Seven other nursing students and I headed over to the infectious disease unit, which specializes in HIV, early this morning. Because we are over at JHH the nursing students wear white scrub tops - nothing could be worse than one of us being mistaken for a RN.  Our preceptor is great, the nurses are great, the patients are great so this should be a FANTASTIC 7 weeks!!

Stoop Storytelling

  "Everyone has a story.  What is yours?"

The Stoop Storytelling Series is a local Baltimore project which allows "7 people 7 minutes each to tell a true, personal tale on a shared theme in front of a live audience."  Since its founding in 2006, people from all over the city have come to listen to more than 450 Baltimorians share their stories.  Tonight's theme was Hopkins: A World Inside a City, III.  Six individuals, one was sick, described to the audience what life is like in the monolith on the hill.  Check out some pictures and clips from the show!!

Give Me the Quick and Dirty!

I LOVE INFOGRAPHICS!!!

I guess because it gives you a lot of really good information in simple to understand sentences and pictures.  Basically everything you need wrapped up into a nice package (hello easy health education handouts).  National Public Health Week had an infographic competition and I am proud to say that the national winner was from my alma mater (well close - it was GW's online MPH program). 
In keeping with the ROI theme, here is there infographic on the cost of obesity.  Click here to check out the whole thing!!

I Am A Bad MPH'er

Well apparently this week is National Public Health Week!

• Monday, April 1: Ensuring a Safe, Healthy Home for Your Family: Health and safety begin at home. Make prevention a fun family tradition.
  
• Tuesday, April 2: Providing a Safe Environment for Children at School: Schools are the perfect setting for improving child health. Plus, children's health is a rallying point few can ignore.
  
• Wednesday, April 3: Creating a Healthy Workplace: Wellness and safety in the workplace are good for health and for business. Let's make prevention work for us.
  
• Thursday, April 4: Protecting You While You're on the Move: Safety on the go is often in our own hands, but it's also tied to community design. Together, we can turn our streets into roads to better health.
  
• Friday, April 5: Empowering a Healthy Community: Support public health efforts that create healthy opportunities for all. Good health is a community affair.
  

Methylprednisolone

So many, many weeks ago Kelsey, a fellow reader/PGH Health Corps Alumni who gets a shout out every now and then for fun articles, posted an article describing how drugs actually get their names.  Frequently I create place holders on my blog for interesting articles I want to share, but either have no time to type them up or there are other "more pressing" things.  When I was creating the title for this post I started looking for long medication names and felt that Methylprednisolone looked pretty good.  I can report that when I pulled up this post today I knew, without hesitating, that it is a common corticosteroid drug which goes by the brand name Medrol and Solu-Medrol.  I guess some of that pharm stuff is sticking.  

Now back to the the original post topic - how drugs are named.  While you should definitely read the article, I pulled out a few interesting points:

• Companies can spend $250,000 to $2.5 million just to come up with a medicine’s name
• Drug companies strive for their drug names to be:
• A name consumers will find inspiring, comforting, authoritative, fast-acting, or personable
• Tell doctors and patients something about the drug—to evoke a mechanism of action or an emotional state or lifestyle
• Allows doctors and pharmacists to say it and write it without confusion (MAS IMPORTANTE!!!)
• Be recognized in any language around the world

Drugs will have three names:

1. chemical name: 7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one
2. A Generic name: Diazepam
3. A brand name: Valium

You probably will not see “h,” “j,” “w,” “k” and “th” in drug names any time soon because languages other than English have a hard time pronouncing them.

It is also interesting to note that the US and New Zealand the only countries IN THE WORLD which allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.  If you have some time on your hands, or having a hard time falling asleep, this article gives the pros and cons to both sides of the argument.

Bon Poisson D'avril!!

A.K.A. Happy April Fish!!

Today in the US we celebrate April Fools Day, but across the pond many countries celebrate their own version of Poisson D'Avril.  In France, people try to hook a cardboard fish on the back of an unsuspecting friend/stranger (better than being smacked in the face with a fish which is how the tradition started).  While this holiday has been around for centuries, no one knows for sure how it started.  Some say it is linked to Jesus who is often represented as a fish in early Christian times while other say that it is related to the sign of Pisces.