Be logging

I try to post when I can and, honestly, when less preferable activities beckon and I can convince myself that this is just as important an endeavor to pursue, therein pushing those other activities further towards the periphery of my schedule. There is certainly some reading that I could be doing now...but I am having a hard time getting fired up to read about renal dysfunction in the pediatric population. Go figure.

So far, this week has been far more productive than the one that preceded it. Of course, that is saying very little. The fact that I crawled out of bed for class and managed to make it to clinical at least today has already made it more productive. Anything else is gravy. Now if I could just halt the coughing fits every time I step out into the cold (and that is ALL there is here at this time of year....it was in the teens yesterday and this morning and scrub pants provide somewhat less protection than newsprint).

It is reassuring speaking to other classmates and finding that I am not alone in my ennui about the program. I am doing well enough, but there is certainly room for marked improvement if I could summon up the will to care. So long as I am passing, I have resigned myself to be happy about it. Go me! Raise a glass to minimum effort!

I had an interesting clinical experience today. A 7 yo with Cystic Fibrosis. I will be working with him tomorrow as well. I hope I get to see more then. He had a breathing test scheduled this afternoon, so he didn't put on his vest (which simulates cupping) nor take very many medications. Happily, he seems to be doing very well. It is sad that both he and his older sister are afflicted. The odds are 1 in 4 if you are a carrier. So, the parent's knew without a doubt that there was a 25% chance that he would have CF since his sister did, yet they went for it. It brings up some very interesting ethical dilemmas. The average lifespan is still under 40 for people afflicted. I don't think I could chance it. 25% is too high a failure rate.

7 days of clinical and counting. Less than 24 hours from 6 days remaining. I am pretty excited!
I got offered a job here. It is both a nice confidence boost and ultimately anticlimactic. It looks highly unlikely that we will be here come June, especially with the problems that Tia is having with the districts out here. Ultimately I will be turning them down. Still, it is good practice for the rusty interview skills. It would be a lot harder to walk away if the pay rate was better, but it isn't out here. The hospitals are definitely in collusion with one another with each hospital paying the exact same starting hourly wage and identical differentials. The only difference is a pay increase of, and I could NOT make this number up if I tried, $0.12/hr additional if you have a BSN and not just an RN and work in the Strong health Care system. That's right, a Bachelor's degree (which takes 2 additional years of schooling and two years of additional loans and two years of not earning money) will net you nearly enough money to buy a Nintendo Wii (pre-tax, not post-tax dollars) assuming you worked a full year at 40 hours a week accruing all that extra coin. I am only assuming that they set that pay increase around the time of the Great Depression when $5/week meant a car payment or something. Now, it is as close to a big FU as you can get. Anyway, if we stayed here, I would probably net about $47K-$50K including some differentials and the sign-on bonus, but it is still about $8K-$12K less than I could expect to earn out West. It is cheaper here, but not that much cheaper.

I also somehow managed to get into the nursing honor society. How that happened is still beyond me, but they evidently can't take it away from me even if I really botch up this term. Of course, I still have to decide if $95 sounds about right for a piece of resume fodder. I think I need to sleep on it. They also offer the opportunity to buy some Sigma Theta Tau bling.....up to $650 for a 14K gold Signet ring. Um, not an effing chance.

I think that about covers the spectrum of events that have occurred in the past week or so. I have 8 days until the sweet mini-release of Spring Break. Before that, I have 2 exams, a presentation, 3 more clinical days, one more extra-long, packed with BS patient write-up, and a similarly packed with BS ethics paper to complete. I will try to post when I next need to evade reality.