Florid Nightingale
Nurse PhD
- Location
- Portland, Oregon, USA
- Birthday
- February 27
- Title
- assistant professor, but some call me doctor/nurse.
- Bio
- Educator, ICU nurse and nurse scientist. Research interest: evidence-based nursing therapeutics. I've been an ICU nurse for almost 30 years now. Owned by 3 cats and a husband. Not a half bad sailor, either.
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Thank you for this. It's
a fine example of
nurses'
pragmatism: when a job
needs t…”
November 13, 2009 04:19PM - “I'm so sorry for your
family's loss, Dominica. What
an ordeal
you have been
throu…”
October 15, 2009 01:09PM - “Christopher, I was an
art student when I picked up
a
roommate's nursing
textbook.…”
October 01, 2009 12:17PM - “Many thanks for your
kind comments, everyone!
Wow!
mypsyche, hoping
for more brai…”
October 01, 2009 12:12PM - “Grif, I hope your
father's recovery is swift.
Stroke can be
so cruel. Which
side…”
September 30, 2009 11:55PM
As mentioned in a previous post, at 7:10 on a Saturday morning, I assumed the care of two Trauma Intensive Care patients. In bed #3 lay a restless, unkempt, dirty, alcohol-addicted Hispanic male, 42 years old, whose eye was kicked out by a bunch of young thugs. The contrast between him… Read full post »
Bad Menu Selections in Intensive Care
It's Saturday morning, 6:55 a.m.: Eight nurses sit around a conference table bemoaning the selection of rotten assignments on the Trauma Intensive Care Unit. Not a posh assignment among them. Everyone paired; two rooms are empty for admissions. The charge RN gives us a quick rundown that goes l… Read full post »
At 5:39, I was dreaming. At 5:40, hoping the alarm was only a remarkably realistic dream feature, I tried to resist awakening. I failed. So I crawled out of my queen-size haven and headed for the coffee pot. Waking early is actually a good thing; today I'm working in the Trauma… Read full post »
Undoubtedly you've seen the Nurse Jackie ads occupying every sidebar and banner ad on the Internet. Perhaps you've read my previous posts about the inadequacies of the popular media in representing nurses. All of those less-than-completely-truthful rearrangements of electrons notwithstand… Read full post »
Why "Scrubs" is the Best Hospital Drama on TV - Part Two
I cannot stomach television medical dramas. I cringe as gross misrepresentations of handsome doctors, submissive nurses, absent clerks, transporters and housekeepers spew forth rapid-fire from across my family room. I roll my eyes at physician omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, cackle knowing… Read full post »
Another Day in the Life of an Intensive Care Nurse
7:10 a.m. I got report on a 43 year old alcoholic, comatose from liver disease, and a 73 year old woman with emphysema and heart failure brought on by an adulthood of smoking and obesity. When she stopped smoking, she got… Read full post »
Nurse Haiku
No more white stockings.
Silly cap and starchy dress
are hard to run in.
Ignore the lobby's
shining glass, ferns, waterfalls.
Hands do the healing.
Success for Mr. Nailor?
Mr. Nailor came to me about six months ago from the senior assisted living facility where he resided. They had a large communal kitchen, a well-equipped craft room, and raised beds for gardening outside in the summer. He'd lived there independently, generally sound but for a few chronic i… Read full post »
Thank you, Mrs. Payson
It was 7:30 a.m.in the medical ICU. My shift, one that promised to be busy, was just beginning when I entered Mrs. Paysons' room. Her daughter was softly speaking to her of matters I decided were not meant for my ears. Trying not to eavesdrop, I checked alarms, verified intravenous… Read full post »
25 Things You Didn't Necessarily Want to Know
1. Cats, in chronological order: 1) Ducky, 2) Crystal (the sweetest girl ever), 3) Tillamook, a.k.a. Mookie, a.k.a. Mr. Mook, a.k.a. Mooker, a.k.a. The Mookster, 4) Elmo a.k.a. Elmer, a.k.a. Mr. Elmer, a.k.a. El-Amir, and 5) Ormont Boy a.k.a. Monte, a.k.a Del Monte., a.k.a Montego, a.k.a. Tego.… Read full post »
The Tyranny of Measurability
I mourn for the demise of nursing care. I really miss giving back massages, changing linens merely for comfort, and sitting down to talk with people. I especially miss the value placed on caring as critical to quality health care.
Since my career began, gradually, it seems quality has been… Read full post »
First, the Knitting Must Stop
A friend of mine had a baby in August. She credits me as her inspiration for studying nursing; now she's working on her PhD, studying hormonal aberrations in elite female athletes. So my baby gift had to be good. To purchase it, instead of patronizing Babies R Us or Target, I… Read full post »
In the Trauma intensive care unit, tragedy abounds. People wind up here after shooting each other in trivial disputes; they get drunk and smash their cars and bodies; heart attacks make old men plow Cadillacs into trees; feckless pedestrians get broken by careless cell phone talkers. We s… Read full post »
God Save the Olives!
Teresa and Dave's modest suburban home was reaching the age where it might be considered retro-funky instead of merely outdated, as it was when purchased 15 years ago. The silver foil striped wallpaper, looming oak-and-glass chandelier and burnt-orange tiles were long gone - even our long… Read full post »
Monday morning
My two assigned patients for the day were a developmentally disabled Latina whose lungs had failed (we thought because her brain had failed, but no one really knew) and a very lovely older woman who was too well for the ICU. I had the pleasure of saying good-bye to… Read full post »
Thank heaven for P & G!
Proctor and Gamble has funded a study, just published in the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine, on the benefits of testosterone patches for women suffering from lack of sexual desire. They had to search intensely for study participants, I am guessing, because although about 40% of… Read full post »
You've no doubt heard the statement before: U.S. health care is broken. We spend more of our GDP on health care than any other country in the world, but our outcomes are inferior. Much widely- cited top-tier medical research takes place on American soil, with American minds and American m… Read full post »
Part I
It was June 3, 1976, when my sister Joan and her husband Ted went on their very first outing as a couple after the birth of their son. Aaron had been born nine months earlier, to the great joy of all of his family. He was the first local… Read full post »
Ada and Stella
I. The blue dress
Because of her untimely death, Ada never met Stella. Eventually their lives would entwine in stories retold between daughters and mothers clearing tables after guests had gone. In truth, Stella and Ada had little in common. Ada was feminine… Read full post »
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