Happy Birthday!

Today is the first anniversary of my blog. It was exactly a year ago that I created my blog and contributed to the hundreds of minutes wasted (by me and my readers) reading and writing about completely useless stuff in my life, the world, and the universe. Let us all toast the start of another bloggy year!.

Funny Words

Every once in a while I hear a word or phrase that I really get a kick out of. Tonight's word of amusement: A-Hole. That guy's such an a-hole. Hey buddy, don't be such an a-hole! Why do you have to be an a-hole all the time? hehe. A-hole. That word killls me.

I Hate Dumbasses

I was teaching a class this morning and someone asked me something about a blood test. Considering how much background I have in lab procedures and theory, my immediate answer was, "I don't know." She gave me this dirty look like I was supposed to to know. Look lady, why the hell should I know. Don't give me that look cuz you didn't know either. I'm a nurse. I'm not a lab tech, I'm not a microbiologist, I'm not a programmer, I'm not radiologist, I'm not dietician, I'm not a phlebotomist, I'm not an administrator, and I'm not a cardiologist. My area of study is in direct patient care with an interest in informatics. I helped build a system for nurses to use because I am a nurse. If you don't know something clinical, its not my job to teach you. Maybe you should consider continuing education. Dumbass.

Movie Review

National Treasure starring Nicholas Cage:

A neat concept. Its okay. No nudity, a little bit of swearing, no excessive violence - a real family movie.

Sale!

I love when there's a good sale on snowboarding stuff. Today I went to the Arson/Orb Warehouse sale at Fantasy Gardens. Its on all weekend if you want to check it out. Last year I bought a $400+ jacket for over half off and this year I bought snowboarding pants (retail ~$250) for $130. I don't think I've paid regular price on anything that was over $100. That's Hott. Anyway, these pants are awesome. They're super-waterproof and still very breathable. Vents, cargo pockets, etc etc. I'm wearing them right now.

Half Asleep

Yesterday morning my alarm went off at 5:50am (like usual) but I didn't have to be at work until 8:30 so I hit snooze a couple of times. Just as I was about to hit it for a third time, I decided I'd just change the time of the alarm to 7:00. I go back to sleep and at 7:15 I wake up and drag myself out of bed, get ready for work, etc etc. Day goes on as usual. Last night I go to turn my alarm on and I double check what time its set for. WTF?! It was set to 10:20pm! Man, I really was drowsy yesterday morning.

Just Around the Corner

Well, Christmas is just around the corner again. I haven't started Christmas shopping yet and I doubt that I will anytime soon. Every year I say I'm going to get my shopping done early, but being November now and seeing as I haven't even started shopping, I guess I'll have to say: "next year I'll get my shopping done early."

Top Ten Wish List for Christmas 2004:
1. Half-Life 2 (but I'll probably buy this before December)
2. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Collector's Edition
3. Sweaters
4. a really nice touque
5. another 17" LCD monitor
6. black socks
7. a new bag for work
8. PS2 Network Adapter
9. a high-end universal remote control
10. Shaw HD Digital box with PVR.

Options

On the advice of Randy, I switched from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. I'm telling you now you need to try this out. Tabbed browsing is the shit. This has everything IE has, just better. Don't ask me why, but it just feels better.

Relationship Advice Isn't My Strong Point

I got a call from my friend Michele today. I was supposed to have lunch with her, but I bailed out (again) because I was supposed to help my brother move. I ended up not helping, but I had lunch with Vanessa, Steve, and Lisa instead. Anyway, a few months ago I wrote about how Michele finally met a nice guy that I approved of. Well just recently, she broke up with him. Now she says she misses him and she's all upset. I guess this is pretty normal because he wasn't a complete asshole to her or anything, she just felt it wasn't right for her. I feel for her, but she just has to be strong. She doesn't think she made a mistake so she can't turn around and get back together. THAT would be a mistake. I'm not much of an advice guy so I just told her she needs to do what she thinks is right for her. Am I wrong?

More Upgrades

Yesterday I went out and finally bought my new monitor. My old Samsung 950p 19" monitor has unofficially been retired. It's replacement is a beautiful new 17" Samsung 710T. This monitor is a thing of beauty. Digital Inputs, 12ms response time, 600:1 contrast ratio, 0.264mm pixel pitch, 1280x1024 native resolution @ 70kHz and 160 horizontal/vertical viewing angle. *drool* If this means nothing to you, then consider this: if you've been driving a 20 year-old Chevette all your life, imagine rolling down the street in a Mercedes CLK. I'm telling you, its that nice. I had the choice of this one and a 19" one, but this one was a far better monitor.

All I need now is a new processor and motherboard. oh and maybe some RAM.

Opportunity

For any RN's out there, check this out. Free season pass with 6-8hrs of volunteer time. I think I'm going to do this next year.

Update on Nothing

It's been a few days since my last post. What's happened since? Let's see... Last weekend I went to Celebrities for the first time. I had so much fun! I didn't even drink (ok, I had 2 drinks). Sunday was Jerome's baptism. Its always fun to see all the little babies. Then on Monday - back to work.

Work is getting really frustrating. Because the module that I'm working on is the one that the majority of users see, my group gets blamed for everything. 90% of the time it has nothing to do with us! Well, next week we start the training again which is a lot more fun than this support crap we've been doing.

But that's it. Not much going on. Things are going well in my personal life and my professional life. Other than winning the lottery, there's not much more I would ask for right now.

Don't think this is a threat to me

Okay, tell me who you think is wrong here:

Correspondence was sent out to all managers, educators, charge nurses, staffing clerks, and coordinators way back in March, again in May, again in September, and again in October to tell them that unless each unit has sufficient training in our new system, staffing the wards would be an issue. You have to have people that know the system (ie, have taken training and passed) on the ward at all times. If you didn't, you'd basically be S.O.L. and would have to deal with this issue internally (ie, don't expect me to cover your ass). Well, when we started training in September, out of 900 seats, we had almost 200 no-shows, and a 5% failure rate. Approx. 700 people were trained. The general attitude was "oh i don't care, i'll hardly ever use it anyway." Well, now that we're Live, we're getting calls left right and center asking for access without having taken the training. Now the attitude is "well if you don't give me a password, I'll just have to do it using someone else's" This is a breach of confidentiality, breach of authority-wide policy, unsafe practice, and poor patient care as it lacks accountibility for one's action (Nurse's Code of Ethics, RNABC Standards of Practice). We've given fair warning (over 6 months) and ample opportunity for training (900 seats=70-75% of the hospital). We will not give access without proper education. Just because I'm a pretty good driver doesn't mean I'm allowed to drive a car without a license.

Busy day at work

So today was our full GoLive with the entire hospital. Everything generally went pretty well with some minor glitches. The biggest problem we're having is that we only have about half the staff trained. We don't run classes again until the 15th so everybody is freaking out about it. Well, if they didn't skip their class the first time we would've had 70% trained - a much safer number. Another problem is no one wants to give up their old business processes. "We always did it this way." Well that way, from a bigger point of view, is unsafe and unreliable. Sorry, things have changed. If other places can manage with this computer system for 15 years, I'm sure we can too.

Today was pretty hectic. I was running all over the place doing support, troubleshooting, easing anxiety, and kicking ass. I must say, though, that I'm impressed how everyone was still pretty positive about it. I had some low expectations. Congratulations to everyone.

Happy Halloween!

Check this out: Are You Colour Blind?

Work is Fun

I forgot how tiring night shifts can be. Actually, its not the night shift that's the problem, its the recovery time. I used to work a couple of 12-hr night shifts, then switch back to a regular sleep schedule in a couple of days. I just finished 3 nights and then last night I couldn't sleep and I was up until 5:30am! *sigh* I'm getting soft.

Well the first 5 days of our GoLive have been pretty successful. A couple of minor glitches and one bigger behind-the-scenes glitch that we're working on. Nothing huge, the system just doesn't want to be told what to do. Damnit HAL, do your job! Tomorrow will be the next step. Three nursing units go Live with electronic order entry. This is my module so at least when nurses ask me something I'll probably know the answer. I get to sit in emerg when this gets turned on. I have a feeling this will be a busy busy day! The final step will be on Nov 1 when the rest of the nursing units get turned on. I'm working almost every day until Nov 5 but that's okay because I'm actually enjoying this.

Batteries and the Law of Murphy

So I'm at the mall the other day and I make the executive decision to replace the batteries for my digital camera. I haven't been able to find mine for, like, 2 months now and my camera is just sitting there. When I get home, I open the package, pull out the new batteries, reach under the chair where my charger is, pull on the cable which seems to be stuck on something, and what do I find? My old batteries! FUCK! I hate when shit like this happens! Oh well, now I have spare rechargables.

smoking

So last night on my break I went outside for a smoke. When I came back in I guess the smell of smoke was still on me. A "co-worker" told me that smoking could be fatal and I should quit. Well, I looked it up on Google and as it turns out, she was right. Holy crap, now I'm going to quit no matter what it takes - even if it kills me.

Everybody's Got a Story Part 4

Last night went well. No major glitches. Mostly just stupid stuff like, "it didn't print" which I answered, "is your printer on?" and they responded, "oh. oops." Brian and I decided that our team motto should be "Teaching the world, one dumb-ass at a time."

One of the things I noticed since taking this new job was that I didn't have any more good hospital stories. Last night I sat at Triage in the ER so here you go:

Last night there was a big accident on the Patullo Bridge so the ER was pretty busy. Some other guy walks in with his buddy and his face is all messed up. Looks like he got beat up real good. Half his face was all swollen, bloody, and pretty f$@!-ed up. But, he walked in, talked to the triage nurse clearly, and was otherwise in pretty good shape so the nurse tells him to get registered with the admitting people and wait. Oh, and the wait will be about 2 hours because of the accident. This guy was not impressed. If you saw him you'd think he needed to be seen right away, but because his injuries weren't life-threatening, he had to wait. That sux.

What else did I see last night? Let's see: multiple stab wounds, head lacerations, someone drinking bleach, lots of people that got assaulted, a guy that got hit by a car, a DOA, and a bunch of sick babies. I tell ya, emerg is pretty crazy. If you've got a cut on your pinky finger, unless its falling off go to a walk-in clinic.

Progress Means Change

Today was the day they flipped the switch. Actually, last night at midnight. Our system went Live today and so far there have been only a few little glitches. For the most part, everything is working as designed. But, because nurses don't go live until next week, there have been a few problems with access (mostly for the people in charge). I get to go to work tonight (back to night shifts: 2300-0700hrs) and help support the admissions team in the ER. I get to sit with the triage nurse to help him/her enter patients into the system the second they walk in the door. How exciting. NOT. ER is one of those places where a computer system becomes very difficult for those who aren't computer savvy or if there aren't enough computers around. Its the kind of environment where its a lot faster to just yell down the hall to the lab tech "hey! I need a stat CBC and Lytes here!" And the ER at my hospital has been used to doing things this way for years. As in however many years the ER has been open. Well tough for them. Time to join the 21st Century. Cya in a few days. I'll let you know how it went.