MODA - My Son's Band in Portland, OR

(MODA photo from myspace website)

Hopefully, I've done a proper cut and paste of the link for my son's band. HERE

I like to think my time spent enforcing piano practice when Billy was too young for a regular job, helped create his interest in music. His first 'concert' was performed in his grandparent's barn in Benton Harbor, Michigan. I'm proud of the entire band and all its members who are hard workers and enjoy music in the background of their busy lives.

Take Care on the Journey,

~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com

Pantry 309 Very Busy - Need A Logo

If you don't already get my postings for Pantry 309 by e-mail, click HERE for my most recent activity over there. Very exciting for all! I've had many great responses.

You can also click the links for all my blogs on the left-hand side of the Linda's Notebook blog.

If you can help me come up with a nice logo for Pantry 309, I'd love your suggestions.

See you at Pantry 309.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com

Let Me Be In That Number...

(Slightly edited 7-17-09)
Bureaucracy is... Allstate raising our car insurance rates because our zip code is different this renewal time - and we haven't moved an inch since we signed up with them!

Education is bureaucracy when... the microbiology lab test made me cry with frustration because I didn't ' see' the same thing in the microscope that others did; and the Nursing 250 comprehensive test over 10 chapters and 270 "big book" pages was something our instructor called 'impossible to do" - just before we took the test.

In Sociology, we're studying about bureaucracy and complex organizations.

To quote our book, "In popular usage, bureaucracy often has a negative connotation."

I'll pause while you roll on the floor with laughter!

Now I understand why it was probably not the thing to do when I entered the doors of Bohecker College and shouted, "Bring it on!"

Bear in mind, I love my instructors and professors! They are hard-working, caring, empathetic, sensitive, impassioned, creative, under-paid, men and women.

They also get frustrated, stressed out, weary, discouraged, and burned out.

Just like the rest of the world, you, me, our neighbors, family and friends who often feel the same way.

We're tired of hearing about Jon Gosselin stepping out with his 22-year-old girlfriend while ignoring the tears of his wife and eight children. We are fed up with the Florida slayings, the jet crashes, the stock market crashes and the great consumer crash of 2009!

That's why we sometimes enjoy reading about someone who can poke fun at themselves in this dysfunctional, bureaucratic society we live in

I'll poke fun at myself for not recognizing the difference between a 'segment' and a "spiral' inside a bacteria under a microscope for the lab test today. (I still think I saw a segment, but the final answer is a spiral.)

I'll poke fun at myself for thinking I had the right answer to the question of what the magnification is when it says 10X on a microscope. Nope, not 1,000, but 100. I'd love to argue that, but they said it's, 'how the question was worded'. I'm sure my notes say it should be 1,000X.

I'll poke fun at myself for thinking that Streptococcus and Staphylococcus have cell walls. Even if my reasoning is that they are gram-positive. See, I figured that gram-positive WALLS are thick, and gram-negative walls are thin. I must have messed up somewhere between all the negative and positives I bragged about understanding in my last posting.

Anyway, I 'failed' the lab quiz today. I laughed in class, but I cried on the way home. Gotta keep these things in prospective. I made 18 points instead of 25 that will be added to all the other points on September 11, 2009. (The last day of this term. That's 55 days from today, by the way! And, only two days before a planned, highly anticipated, family reunion with my sister and children in Gatlinburg, Tennessee!!!!!!!!!)

"Bring It On" and bureaucracy means:

Don't give me a gas card because I'm not part of a car-pool to Children's Hospital in Akron, Ohio, for the next two Saturdays. (You only get the $50 card if you car-pool.) Actually, I wanted to ask the the director of the school about that gas card and the Saturday thing, but a sign on his door said he was gone until next week. I went to see the person listed on the sign, but she sent me back to the director's office saying he hadn't left the building yet. By the time I got back to his office, his "out of town" sign was down, but he wasn't in his office.

Later, someone announced in class that gas cards would be in the office of the person who sent me back to the director's office, "after 1 p.m.". I went BACK to that office after 1 p.m. but there was another sign on her door indicating that she was in a meeting. No, I don't think I'm going to get that gas card, and I'm absolutely sure I won't car-pool in the back seat of a car with at least four other students because (as most of you reading this know), I HAVE REALLY BAD CLAUSTROPHOBIA. No gas cards for claustrophobics or those who won't car-pool in a bureaucratic world

"Bring It On" and bureaucracy also means: Forcing me to attend school on my Sabbath.

Surprisingly, many of you may not know that I'm a baptised member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who celebrate the Seventh-day Sabbath from sundown Friday night until sundown Saturday night. When I signed up at Bohecker College, the indications were that this was a Monday-Friday program. But, like my church, Bohecker is constantly changing the rules. I'm not committing the unpardonable sin because, as a nurse, I've worked many 'Sabbaths", and I'm working as a nurse this Saturday. So, I'm not going any further down this Sabbath path. But, is it right for the school to make it mandatory for graduation?

"Bring It On" and bureaucracy means: Paying for school uniforms (new rule) when the school already charged me $250 for two sets of whites and a lab jacket that I could have purchased for about $50 at JC Penney Outlet.

I'm a little on the fence about his one because I think we're the only nursing class at Bohecker who can wear anything to school including flip-flops, tank-tops, short-shorts and red bras under white shirts. (Okay, the rules say you can't, but instead of enforcing the rules this time, it's easier to change them.) Not that I wear a red bra under my white shirt, though. I splurged on new jeans and Alfred Drummer outfits for school.

I'm still cringing at the absence of pure whites and nurses caps, but I would get laughed out of the classroom if I told anyone. But, perhaps because of the red bras, the school has decided we will wear professional scrubs after August 1. They haven't decided on a color yet, but knowing that information ahead of time would be just too cool for those of us who don't like spending big wads of money at the last minute on something that we shouldn't be paying for in the first place.

"Bring It On" and bureaucracy means: accepting whatever answer the instructor says is the right answer.

For instance, on one test last week there was a two-part question. The second part was "Why?". (Remember those questions? They know you will miss the "why" part.) When I answered the "WHY" PRECEEDED with the word "WHY" in great big letters, I got counted off two-points because I "didn't answer the why". This week there was a "how would you fix it?" second part to a question. In even BIGGER letters than before, I wrote "FIX IT" and gave my answer. Again, I got marked off two-points, and the instructor wrote in the margin, "why?"

I took the paper to her and argued, "You didn't ask for a why. You asked for a fix-it, and I answered that."

Her response, "I wanted to know why you wrote the fix it answer".

As I commented on the elevator to another student when that instructor got on and off, "I'm mad at her. She owes me four points".

This posting may take you all weekend and most of next week to read, but I have one more "Bring It On" and bureaucracy episode to report.

Remember the humongous 10-chapter test? In preparation, I started reading and reviewing the 270 BIG pages, weeks ago. I also went out an paid over $100 for two NCLEX books that our instructor said she was actually taking the test questions from. (There is a difference between the textbook and the NCLEX books, but that information doesn't count in bureaucracy). I read every chapter in the NCLEX books pertaining to this subject, and I read every handout she gave us on the subject of child birthing, and I read all 270 boring, complicated, pages of the textbook. (An area of nursing I'm never, never going to work!)

Yes, all my classmates were complaining and frustrated with this book/test/class experience. It's the lowest form of working bureaucracy because Bohecker has acknowledged that this book may be inappropriate, and plans are to replace it next term. As a side note, this book is so heavy that if I drop it on the floor at home, my husband has to help me pick it up!

In the meantime, when we finally dragged into class with the frustrated expectation of the test heavy on our minds this morning (minutes after the lab test - no time for tears), the instructor announced we were going to play the game of Jeopardy before we took the test.

Bless her heart. (I guess.) Afterward, we realized that had we not "played' this game, few of us would have passed the test no matter how many 'dad-gum' pages we had read. I didn't need to read the textbook for all those hours, nor did I need to spend all that money on NCLEX books, nor was it necessary to read all the handouts to pass this test in the end. But that's a good example of bureaucracy.

Perhaps we have learned more than we'll ever need to know about maternity nursing, but if you know someone who needs a non-certified midwife, direct them to anyone in my class.

Okay. before you get up off the floor, I want to tell you about something I got FREE in the mail today from WalMart. A roll of free toilet paper!!!!! I really can't do without that. I only have enough TP in the garage to last for two years! At last count, we had 96 rolls of (free) TP on the Pantry 309 shelves!

So, after you have that baby that my class is going to help deliver, we'll give you enough TP to toss up into the trees of your front yard to celebrate.

Please have a nice weekend and smile when you think of me getting up at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday to drive (alone) to Akron and report for duty by 7 a.m. After working 12-hours, (7a - 7p) I'll drive two hours back home to Columbus on Saturday night.

Maybe I should sing as I pass my classmates on the highway this Saturday night, "When The Saints Go Marching In ... Let me be in that number" ... (Graduation. Get it?)

Don't get me wrong, I'm preparing for the other 'big march of the universe'! But I'm here right now. Stuck in the rush-hour traffic of human bureaucracy

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com/ and http://goldencoupons.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com

When All Else Fails....

...Go Shopping!

By the time you read this, I will have taken the dreaded Microbiology lab test and may have one more test to go for the day.

Because I've never taken a class that involved a lab, I've never used a microscope, or cultured a bacteria, or looked at a rod, or done positive staining, or known the difference between a positive stain and a negative stain, Or the difference between a gram-negative organism and a gram-positive organism.

I do know that a desmid is two-sided, and a Spirogyra looks like long strips with lines in them. (Also, used to be the name of a band, but that's not what this is.)

Anyway, I digress.

We're also having a big test on Wednesday (tomorrow) over 10 chapters in our nursing textbook. For those of us who counted the pages, that's 270 pages of different ways a baby can be born! I hope the most important thing I need to remember is that ROA or LOA are two preferred positions for the baby to pop out.

Actually, it all felt so overwhelming after school today, that I dropped the books on the floor and went shopping!

Just a quick little trip to the grocery store, but it was such a positively great rush to see the price drop from over $70 to $30 as it rang down with each coupon and store discount.

Of course, the trip was planned! I had a little list sticking out of my purse with the grocery items I wanted to buy - on sale and with coupons.

Lipton tea = 13 cents a box (for Denise)

Hamburger Helper = 50 cents a box

Quaker Granola bars - $1.00 a box

Keebler Cookies - $1.50 each (for Jim and John)

Cantaloupe = $1.25 each

Mentos - Free

There's more, but it's time to pick up the books again.

Hubby is asleep. The dog is outside barking. Books are calling!

Hey, many of my coupons will expire on July 31, so if you know of any or see any in the Sunday paper that you'd like more of, please let me know.

Run outside tonight (if it's not raining), and look up at the sky. See all those stars? I think I have more coupons than there are stars in the sky!

(flickr.com photo)

Sweet dreams,

~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com

Travel Nursing/Travel Nurse

As I near the final term of my LPN to RN transition program, I’m often asked where I plan to work when I’m a registered nurse. Do I want to start my own business, work full time for someone else, or be a travel nurse?

My first response is, “I’m never going to work the med cart again.”

Only those who have walked in my shoes understand fully what I mean by this statement. It means no longer racing against the clock for 8-12 hours without food or water while keeping patients comfortable, responding to emergencies, taking admissions, doing discharges and making rounds with doctors, while still trying to get medications delivered within the time constraints set by teams of administrators who don’t have a clue what it’s like to ‘work the cart’.

Having said all that, I look forward to becoming a member of the team to help bring modern medicine into the 21st century.

I’ve also considered being a travel nurse now that I’m older and still haven’t traveled the way I’d love to. The benefits are excellent, and the choices are unlimited. My husband agrees with me saying that it’s one way to gets some views of the country before we retire permanently.

One agency I’ve considered is called Travel Nurse Across America. Right up front, Travel Nurse Across America offers a benefits package that is hard to beat. This is what they offer right up front.

· Guaranteed Hours
· Housing is FREE, PRIVATE, Utilities Included, Furnished
· Health, Dental, Life Insurance available 1st Day
· Travel Expense Allowance or Reimbursement
· 401k Plan Available on Day One
· Tax Advantage Program for more take-home pay
· Sign-on, Completion, & Referral Bonuses
· Loyalty Program Rewards for cash bonus, paid time off, and more
· Generous Housing & Insurance Subsidies

Hubby and I have discussed making the rounds of cities where our kids live while I work a set number of weeks in the area as a travel nurse. Oldest son lives in Portland, OR. Youngest son lives in Columbia, SC, and little sister lives in Tampa, FL. I’m sure that Travel Nurse Across America would have no problem finding free housing for me near any of those cities. We could keep our home base in Ohio and have a home away from home while I worked on a 13-20 week travel assignment.

As I’ve talked to other nurses who have done travel nursing, they have shared some advice to consider before taking that step. One is to have your Hepatitis B shots and the titer results on hand along with the other licensure paperwork that the agency will help you with. I’ve taken the three-step series of Hep B shots, but I still don’t have a titer in my blood! I’m sure no hospital would accept me without showing that I have a titer to Hep B. I still need to follow up with my doctor on that. Make sure your CPR Certifications and TB results are current. That saves time should you decide to contact the travel agency.

On the flip side, travel nursing requires a nurse to be flexible and good with change. I’ve heard some stories about travel nurses not getting any orientation when they arrived at the new place to work. While travel agencies promise orientation, sometimes those things are out of their control when nurses call off and beds are full!

For sure, you don’t know the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the doctors, nor will you be informed of all the unwritten rules of the workplace. Being the new ‘nurse’ on the blog, you can’t slack off or call in sick, and you’ll be expected to get along with everyone right away.

If the advantages outweigh the risks, jump on the train. Go to this link to find how easy it is to start the process for travel nursing.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com

Speak The Truth in Love

(flickr.com photo)

No, I'm not going to preach. If you want preachin' you could have gone to church yesterday or the day before. I have 'love message' for you.

On my way to school the other day I happened to hit the #2 button on my car radio and got a little upbeat message from "Joyce". I think she's the tall, skinny, well-dressed women I've seen on TV, but even if she's not, her 5-minute speech lifted my spirits. I''ve wanted to share some of her thoughts with you all weekend. (Had to get a paper done first.)

What I heard Joyce say was to, "Speak the truth in love." And the meaing I heard was that we are ALL members of one body. Don't hurt others with fussing and complaining when you could instead think of something nice to say. Don't hurt others any more than one part of your body should hurt another part of your body.

If my foot hurts, I rub it with my hand. If something comes toward my face, my arm will shield my eyes.

I love the idea of walking and talking in love, and hope you feel loved today because of my message. Please pass it on to everyone you meet, and I think you will find yourself smiling in the mirror.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com

Posting For You - Pantry 309

A new posting at my other site is waiting for you HERE.
Read about my Pantry 309 project and how you can help.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com or http://goldencoupons.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com NEW! pantry309@yahoo.com

Freebies Link

I've posted a link on my coupon blog for lots of free things you can request online.
Click HERE (my coupon blog) or HERE (the freebies link).

Welcome to my new LPN-RN friend, Denise. Good luck, and thanks for putting Linda's Notebook on your Favorite's list.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com