Death and Humor
When I was talking to my boss yesterday she said "oh yeah, this is your first death" so I have the day off today. One of her patients died last week and she's so calm about it. But to reassure me that it's okay and that this is just the first of many to come, she told me the funniest story.
We have a nurse on our team named Brenda. One day Brenda was dialyzing a patient and intently reading a book at the same time. One of the perks of the job is that we get to read a lot of books. I guess it helps make up for the erratic hours, patient temper tantrums and dialysis machines made on Mars that defy the rules for all things mechanical.
Anyway she was deep into her book when the patient's nephrologist came to do rounds on the patient. After a few minutes the doctor said "is that a good book?" Brenda answered "yeah, and I'm just getting to the best part". The doctor said "do you mind looking at the patient for a second?". She got up to look at the patient and he was dead as a doornail. Luckily the doctori s is one of the nicer ones on the service, and didn't hang her from the highester yardarm. There was paperwork to be done and meetings about the death and so on, but from then on there is a running joke on our team about being a member of "Brenda's Book Club". So I guess I've been initiated. I am now a member of Brenda's Book Club.
The one thing I noticed about this person dying is that it was so quiet. On TV if someone dies there is a dramatic music and a woman crying hysterically to cue you that something has gone wrong. In real life they just quietly slip away right in front of your eyes.
Now for an update on the progress of my Ohio nursing license. Yesterday I got fingerprint cards in the mail. I was distressed because I already sent completed fingerprint cards to the FBI for a background check something like 3 weeks ago. I called the Bureau of Criminal Investigations to find out why I'm being asked to redo them. It turns out that the BON sends the cards automatically whenever someone applies for a license. I was just proactive and contacted the BCI myself and had them sent to me way ahead of them. I got them in really fast but not fast enough for the the BCI to have me in their database yet. She said it takes up to 4 weeks for them to be processed.
That was a relief. I was beginning to despair that I had done something wrong and had to do them over. It was illumating to find that it takes 4 weeks. I had no idea it took that long. I feel relieved knowing that I got a little jump on that and hopefully things will progress a litte faster than usual, but still slower than I ever imagined.
Peace out.
We have a nurse on our team named Brenda. One day Brenda was dialyzing a patient and intently reading a book at the same time. One of the perks of the job is that we get to read a lot of books. I guess it helps make up for the erratic hours, patient temper tantrums and dialysis machines made on Mars that defy the rules for all things mechanical.
Anyway she was deep into her book when the patient's nephrologist came to do rounds on the patient. After a few minutes the doctor said "is that a good book?" Brenda answered "yeah, and I'm just getting to the best part". The doctor said "do you mind looking at the patient for a second?". She got up to look at the patient and he was dead as a doornail. Luckily the doctori s is one of the nicer ones on the service, and didn't hang her from the highester yardarm. There was paperwork to be done and meetings about the death and so on, but from then on there is a running joke on our team about being a member of "Brenda's Book Club". So I guess I've been initiated. I am now a member of Brenda's Book Club.
The one thing I noticed about this person dying is that it was so quiet. On TV if someone dies there is a dramatic music and a woman crying hysterically to cue you that something has gone wrong. In real life they just quietly slip away right in front of your eyes.
Now for an update on the progress of my Ohio nursing license. Yesterday I got fingerprint cards in the mail. I was distressed because I already sent completed fingerprint cards to the FBI for a background check something like 3 weeks ago. I called the Bureau of Criminal Investigations to find out why I'm being asked to redo them. It turns out that the BON sends the cards automatically whenever someone applies for a license. I was just proactive and contacted the BCI myself and had them sent to me way ahead of them. I got them in really fast but not fast enough for the the BCI to have me in their database yet. She said it takes up to 4 weeks for them to be processed.
That was a relief. I was beginning to despair that I had done something wrong and had to do them over. It was illumating to find that it takes 4 weeks. I had no idea it took that long. I feel relieved knowing that I got a little jump on that and hopefully things will progress a litte faster than usual, but still slower than I ever imagined.
Peace out.