Kungakare

How can you be in 2 places at once when you're not anywhere at all?

2011-12-29T01:26:00.000-08:00

Recently received this email from the NSO.
Can A Nurse Be In Two Places At Once?

"THIS NURSE WAS EXPECTED TO PROTECT A PATIENT AND RESPOND TO A CODE.
A 92-year-old woman with heart failure, pulmonary fibrosis, anemia, and other problems came to the emergency department with viral pneumonia. Once her condition stabilized, she was transferred to the cardiac care unit (CCU).

Still in the CCU 2 days later, the patient got out of bed, even though both side rails were up, the footboard was on the bed, and the nurses had warned her to stay in bed. The nurses' notes indicated that she was confused.

The next day, reports on the patient's mental status varied. At 8:30 a.m., her physician assessed her and didn't find her condition serious enough to order restraints. At 12:30 and 2:00 p.m., the nurse documented that the patient thought she was at home. When the nurse checked her at 3:20 p.m., however, she was alert and oriented. Thirty minutes later, she was on the floor. Her right hip was fractured.

The patient underwent an open hip reduction and internal fixation and was discharged 10 days later. Using a walker, she was able to walk with assistance. After three follow-up examinations, the fracture had healed and the patient didn't have pain.

Seven months after her admission to the hospital, the patient was readmitted for numerous disorders, including sepsis, renal failure, and acute pulmonary edema. She died 9 days later. Her children sued the hospital, the physician, and the nurse for negligence regarding their mother's fall.

In court, the testimony revealed that the nurse had been assigned exclusively to this patient. However, after she had checked the patient at 3:20 p.m., a code was called on another patient. Hospital policy also required her to respond to the code, so she left her patient for 30 minutes.

A jury found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded them $555,000 in damages. Although the defendants appealed, the appeals court upheld the decision but reduced the amount to $500,000.

The lesson? Nurses are vulnerable even when they follow the rules. By adhering to the facility's policy, this nurse was drawn into a no-win situation."

WRONG ANSWER NSO! This was not a no win situation until it happened. When the nurses took the job at the hospital, they could have unionized or not, but as a group could have predicted this situation by saying, 'but if I leave a very compromised patient, even for 30 minutes, she could fall, go into a coma, or die'. Why didn't the hospital have a specific code team? Did it save the hospital money to not have a specific code specialist? As I like to say, 'easier to prevent than treat.' This could have been prevented, had the nurses questioned the policy when hired. So thanks NSO, the only advice you have for me is, 'gee, she adhered to policy, & looked what happened, poor girl.' DON'T APPEAL TO ANY POLICY THAT COMPROMISES WHAT IS IS TO REALLY BE A NURSE.

LMFAO!!!!!!

2011-09-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

OK, so let me get this straight....Out of all the incredible, death defying, compassionate, life saving things Nurses have been doing for like eons, we're gonna celbrate THE NURSE'S CAP?????
Bury the fucking caps

What it means to be Radical

2010-10-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

"Compassion is the radicalism of our time." The 14th Dalai Lama

Color Bind

2010-05-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

Check out this article regarding gowns, skin patches, and even room colors that help detect changes in patient skin color. Article suggests, for adaptive reasons, our ability to sense comparative large scale color changes, may be a useful adjunct for pulse oximetry. However, article only includes light skin tones. The article does point out that "A second technique for overcoming our clinical color handicap concerns something called ‘‘biosensor color tabs”. A clinician places these adhesive tabs at several places on the skin of the patient, and, crucially, the clinician can choose tabs from a large palette of skin-toned colors, and is thus able to find a match to the patient’s current skin tone." The article pictures either left out this 'palette', or it doesn't exist. Obviously, if a large enough palette of skin tones has not been created, this puts non white patients at a disadvantage. The earth has been taken over by Martians and they're all white.
With thanks to 'Sociological Images'.

Happy Mother's Day?

2010-05-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

Avoid passing on cancerous chemicals to your children. Pic of BPA molecule.

"In particular, the report warns about exposures to chemicals during pregnancy, when risk of damage seems to be greatest. Noting that 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, the study warns that: “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.’ ”
Radio show on this topic here.

Going Bananas

2010-05-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Unfair Trade. I will trade you a job with chemicals for sterility & deformed children.

"What could I say? There was nothing I could say. So I just sat next to Maria, held her hand, listened to her story and cried with her. I was in Costa Rica to find out about life for the workers who grow the bananas sold in Britain's shops. Bit suddenly I was one mother listening to another talking about the most precious thing in the world - her child.

Like so many local men, her husband Juan, worked on a banana plantation. During the 1980's his job was to inject a chemical called DBCP into the ground with a hand held machine to kill the worm-like parasites that attack the roots of banana plants. He prepared the chemical, carried it in an open container, and reloaded the machine from an open vat many times a day. As he worked, he breathed in DBCP. It often went on his skin.
Juan knew nothing of its hidden dangers. But the chemical companies who made it did, and the banana companies that used it did. The US manufacturers knew DBCP cause sterility in rats as early as the 1950s but suppressed the information and pressured officials to approve its use. Then in 1977 it was revealed DBCP had made thirty-five workers sterile at a factory in California. The state quickly banned its use and the US Environmental Protection Agency stopped registering any products containing DBCP. But the chemical manufacturers went on exporting it to poor countries like Costa Rica, where the banana companies continued using it on their plantations.

Day after day Juan's body absorbed the poison - slowly and silently. Only years later did it exact its toll. Itw was 16 November 1993. It should have been one of Juan and Maria's happiest days. But, Maria told me, after she has given birth to her son, the hospital staff seemed afraid to bring him to her. It had been a very difficult birth. In the end it was a caesarean.
'But now that was all over, I just wanted to see my child,' she said.

When she finally held him in her arms, she understood why it had been such a hard delivery and the staff had been reluctant to show her the baby. The boy was severely deformed. His head was four times bigger than his body. His eyes and nose were joined together. He had no proper eyelids. His skin was sickly green. Parts of his brain were missing. And it had all been caused by his father's exposure to DBCP.

Haltingly she told me - with her eyes filling up - how her baby could never sleep for more than two hours at a stretch, as his condition tortured him. Even now, years later, it makes me cry when I remember her telling me, as she gestured weakly to the room where he had lain, how she couldn't even cuddle the crying boy.

'I couldn't hold him because it seemed to mae him cry more. So I just talked to him and cried with him. It's the worse thing that can ever happen to anyone. There are no words to explain what life is like.'

When Maria and Juan went to their local doctor for advice about the cause of the deformities what could be done to help him, he fobbed them off.
'The doctor is in the pay of the company,' the local priest later told me. A few months later the baby died. Maria was far from alone. The babies of over 3,500 women in Costa Rica alone suffered birth defects, we were told. Tens of thousands of workers in Central America and Asia say they have been left sterile by DBCP."

Harriet Lamb, 'Fighting the Banana Wars and other FAIRTRADE battles', pp. 6-7
See 'The Slow Poisoning of India', a documentary about this issue.

Drill, Baby, Drill

2010-05-04T17:44:00.001-07:00

With more photos of the Gulf Coast Oil Rig Disaster at AMERICAblog.
Trace the Gulf Oil Release in graphics.
Editorial 'A Spill of Our Own'.
Last word by Bill Maher via Twitter.

"Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill baby drill' should have to report to the Gulf coast today for cleanup duty." 1:50 PM Apr 29th via web

billmaher

Bill Maher

LOL, like we needed a study on this

2010-05-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, gee, hot off the press! Interrupting Nurses increases medication errors. LOL. Give me the money used to fund the study, I could have told you this.

Pharma Over Mind

2010-04-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

This article is called 'Mind Over Meds', but might as well be called Big Pharma Over Mind.

GOSPEL HOUR

2010-04-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

A Bilingual Nervous Breakdown for all you Nurses out there!

TechnoPopNursing!

2010-04-28T04:30:00.000-07:00

Wanted: Job available for oblivious nurse to work with mad scientist intent on destroying humanity. Nurse must have no scruples, must be able to answer most questions by saying, 'but the computer says so'. Must be aware of ethical violations, but be able to roll eyes and say, 'it's the system', and continue with her work. Focus should be on having a drink with other nurses after work, not the fate of humanity. Bonus if stay on 6 months!

GOSPEL HOUR

2010-04-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

Kunga has decided to play inspirational songs for Nurses to help get u thru the day.

No Reason

2010-04-26T02:33:00.000-07:00

Kunga has decided to start a segment called 'No Reason'. Not particularly about anything, including nursing. Although draw your own conclusion. Everything is a metaphor of itself.

Affordable Wound Vac

2010-04-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

Mass Health (Welfare) doesn't cover wound vacs for home care patients, so maybe this invention can be used in the Third World country called America.

Silence

2010-04-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

Silence, they say, is the
voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
Just as doing nothing is an
act.
Let who you are ring out
& resonate
in every word & every
deed.
Yes, become who you
are.
There's no sidesteppiing
your own being
or your own responsibility.
What you do is who you
are.
You are your own
comeuppance.
You become your own
message.
You are the message.

In the Spirit of Crazy
Horse

a poem by Leonard Peltier

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah

2010-03-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

Look, I agree with many of the points made in these articles, but I am so tired of hearing Nurses WHINE about what they want. Do you really think the public, or Hollywood runs to do what you ask when they hear Nurses whine? Rarely. The author of one of these articles asks if it's worth it to Hollywood to make movies that exploit Nurses. Guess what? In a capitalist society, it is, or they wouldn't be doing it. Unless, or until Nurses themselves CREATE the television shows and movies, it ain't gonna change, so get to work. Write a great screenplay about nursing and get it made into a movie.

Playing a Game

2010-03-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

It's called The Healing Game.
And here's Van Morrison's version of The Healing Game.
Play both at the same time to make your own mix.

Nursing Note

2010-03-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

From a web of life point of view, murder is suicide
NO MORE WAR~

Then there's shit like this...

2010-03-19T00:15:00.000-07:00

Which is what I feel nurses should really be objecting to.

What do I do with this?

2010-03-18T23:49:00.000-07:00

On one hand, I hate it when nurses get all prissy, and anything that misrepresents nursing gets some kind of blooper award. Like sometimes, art is just art. Here is an article about Richard Prince, & his photos of Kate Moss modeling as a nurse. (yes, the same Kate Moss who anorexily said 'nothing tastes as good as skinny'), & his paintings. While the article tries to give Prince a modern art historical context, it seems to make a worse faux pas than the artist himself (if indeed he does). The article says, "No sponge bath for you today, Mr. Prince!", in response to nursing criticism, which I find more offensive than his artwork which is playing off of images found on pulp mag/book covers ( including 'Nympho Nurse').
The artist seems to be dealing with deeply ingrained cultural consciousness images for a long time, Marlboro Man included. And then there's the paint layering. The artist Francis Bacon got away with some of this paint layering, non prettification, so why not Prince? Nurses have gotten into the habit of criticizing anything that smacks of 'you don't 'get' our profession, so you are banned'.
But unless nurses choose the objects of their disaffection with real intelligence, incisiveness, & accuracy, once again, no one is going to take us seriously.

Nursing Note

2010-03-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

“Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.” -Dag Hammarskjold

Burn Baby Burn

2010-03-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

Listen Here to This Little Light of Mine

When I told a Quaker friend of mine that I was volunteering in Haiti, she said 'more & more power to you'. She was a friend from high school who had really helped politicize me during the Vietnam war. This is what I wrote to her in response:

"When you said 'more & more power' to me, don't you know it is you who were one of the main people who inspired me to empower myself and others? So long ago, you blew your breath, your pneuma, on a spark in me, and made it burst into flame. You took an inspired teen renegade, like myself, & showed me how to turn my intuitive inklings about injustice & war into non violent action. That spark became flame became fire, the kind of fire that warms and slashes a helpful path, not the kind of fire that destroys. Burn Baby, Burn. It is this very quality that allows me to go full circle, & give back to you now in my little flawed, but convincing way. There is not a word in our language that expresses the gratefulness I have for how you inspired me. Yours in the Struggle."

In the 1970's I had seen a young Black girl named Kali Grosvenor read this poem on TV
"This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine
I'm going to let it shine so bright
Let it shine
This little light of mine will burn so bright that
not only my people but all people will see
It burn
Burn baby burn"

Generation M

2010-03-07T03:51:00.000-08:00

I avoided the infamous John Mayer interview like the plague. Yes, his by now, well known Playboy full of faux pas interview. I read a lot of commentary about it. Mayer is this kind of 'ist', that kind of 'ism'. I had finally read so much about it without reading the original, I went to the source. Taaa-Daaa, I read The Interview. It's all been bisected, dissected, & trisected. Enough said. More than enough said. But I am intrigued by a certain 'ism' and 'ist' that I didn't see kicked around at length, and that's his Jism. He's a Masturbationist.
"So what?", you may ask. "Who cares?" you may justly point out. It concerns me because we are turning out a new generation that I call Generation M, the Masturbation Generation. A friend thought the M stood for Millennial. Oh no, I beg to differ. The M stands for Masturbatory.

"PLAYBOY: You have been very up front about your fondness for masturbation.
MAYER: It’s like a vacation—my brain gets to go free. It’s a walk in the park for my brain. Pull the shades and let your mind go without having to answer for it."

'Without having to answer for it...' Ahhhh Masturbation, sexual epiphanies without responsibility. No drunken phone calls from jilted lovers late at night. No need to make sure two people have an orgasm, just one. If you jerk off enough, you even discover you don't go blind or get hairy palms. Gratification without obligation. No strings attached. Not quite, "Look Ma, no hands!" More like, "Look Ma, only my own hands!" No other being involved, the oxymoron of a self relationship.

He goes further, describing himself as a 'self soother', with porn altered 'synaptic pathways'. He says, pornography brings an "autonomy of comfort and pleasure." Ah, worry free pleasure. "There have probably been days when I saw 300 vaginas before I got out of bed." I'm assuming here, he's referring to internet visual vaginas, not 300 women outside his door every morning just dying for a chance to beaver him.
It gets grosser.

"MAYER: Internet pornography has absolutely changed my generation’s expectations. How could you be constantly synthesizing an orgasm based on dozens of shots? You’re looking for the one photo out of 100 you swear is going to be the one you finish to, and you still don’t finish. Twenty seconds ago you thought that photo was the hottest thing you ever saw, but you throw it back and continue your shot hunt and continue to make yourself late for work. How does that not affect the psychology of having a relationship with somebody? It’s got to."

Words of Wisdom from the tired tongued tied John Mayer? Yes, I think so. Internet imagery allowing for instant satisfaction without obligation does affect relationships. It affects how we see ourselves, the clitoral 'Masters of the Universe', and how we see others, as, well, somehow unnecessary, too complicated, appendages, not part of our private world.

What does this have to do with Nursing? A lot. And I am not referring to the slew of Nurse Porn. How do you teach a generation of masturbators a practice, a profession, completely based on interrelationships, extending to another? You don't, you can't.
I remember a fellow nursing student telling me his whole goal was to get an average of 76, because if you got below 75, you could get kicked out of the nursing program. Here I was, sweating through science subjects hard for me, out of fear I might kill someone had I missed that one detail of one class that would have contained a life saving answer.

Am I condemning a whole generation? Absolutely not! We've made a trillion dollar debt, an unnecessary war filled world, pollution beyond description, that we then turn over to Generation M and say, 'here it is, all on a tarnished silver platter'. Thanks, but no thanks. And there are thousands of the upcoming generation who have taken on the responsibility we have so irresponsibly sloughed off to them.
But as a Nurse Educator, I did find it difficult to get some Nursing students to stop thinking of themselves, and pay attention to the patients and staff outside of their own little spheres. It's not about you. How do you teach a Self Gratification Generation that it's not about you? And it not being about you is the crux of nursing.

Krista Jenkins looks at the NCES survey (National Citizen Engagement Survey), and questions a lack of cognitive and political engagement in those born post 1976, whom she describes as "among the least engaged in the world", although she is careful to point out that volunteer work may be replacing more status quo routes such as voting, so we may be looking at some stylistic, not just systemic changes in civic engagement. But she insists, "Young women and men appear to be receiving the same cues about politics, elected officials, and the political process. They are also responding in much the same way - i.e., tuning out and doing little...Education does little to change the story."

Stephen Marche confronts some of Generation M's lacks in an Esquire article, making clear, "if you don't have it flaunt it." I had students like that. They kept up a good appearance (horrors if they were not pulled together in the morning), but who couldn't follow direction properly to shed some compassionate light on the subject of Nursing. Uh oh, the generation cumming, oh I mean coming, and that includes the Generation of Nurses. God & Goddess help us.

Nursing Note

2010-03-06T00:11:00.000-08:00

Even to Deconstruct becomes a New Construct.

Kunga Says 'Stop Making Art!'

2010-03-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

Art is Terroism! Not to artists, not to nurses, but to the American Government.
See documentary here. Four years of struggle led to this outcome.

Why Does it Take a Non Nurse to Say What Nuses Have Known All Along?

2010-02-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

Thank You Keith O.!

A Kodak Moment

2010-02-25T05:57:00.000-08:00

We used to say, 'Bring the War Back Home'. You can stop saying that now. The War is back home. Compare American Prison treatment to Abu Ghraib Prison treatment. By the way, do not even go there. Yes, the crimes the prisoners have done is explicated. This vid focuses on punishment in American Prisons. Don't Taze Me, Bro!

Improvements under New Health Care Plan

2010-02-24T16:36:00.001-08:00

Ambulance crews will be upgraded to better serve the poor.

Surgical Nurses' Uniforms will be redesigned.

Hospitals will be downsized.

HMOs will be expanded.

What You See is What You Get

2010-02-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

Compassionate Dissonance in Haiti

2010-02-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

"The team had to split up because the commercial flights are not running yet- flying into the Dominican Republic charter planes brought half the team onto the road right near our orphanage the first day - the next day the planes could only land on the other side of the mountain range and they came over the mountain in a bus.

Sunday morning news of an aftershock in the middle of the night that was very strong and scary. Went into the city of Leogane where the team saw very little aid amidst an area...declared as 80-90% destroyed. Almost all aid is being poured into Port-a-Prince. People are sleeping in the streets under their little sheets, petrified to go near any structure. Taking part in a humble yet faith filled church service and witnessing a mass baptism; visiting the fallen city and seeing a mass grave site in the same day, are there words for all of this?"

Nusing Note

2010-02-15T14:26:00.000-08:00

If you're not part of the problem, maybe you are the problem.

Nursing Note

2010-02-13T16:25:00.000-08:00

In an inhumane time, any humanity is timeless.

Confession 101

2010-02-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

There was once a deity whose head burst open. That sounds funny, but it is a serious story. The most serious kind of story there is, for it is a story of suffering and compassion. The only kind of story there is at the end of it all.
There was once a deity whose compassion was so great, he wanted to end all suffering. But his one face, 2 eyes, and 2 arms were not enough. They were not enough to vanquish all suffering. So his head and body burst open. Then he had 11 heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand arms, so he could encompass, see, and touch all the suffering in all the world with all of his compassion.
Today I prayed the prayer of a child. You know that feeling you have when you are a child? You think if you wish hard enough, your wish will work. Today I wished to literally have more arms grow from my body. Even just to be 3 armed, or 4 armed would be better than this.
Because I am planning to go to Haiti. And I know that what I am as one person, with 2 eyes and 2 arms is not enough.
My Confession. I did not watch any news about Haiti until 3 weeks after the earthquake. Oh, I am not a weak person. Nor am I a coward. In fact, when people ask me why I went to nursing school, I answer that it wasn't because I am serene, because I am not serene. I tell the truth. It is because I am brave. I don't flinch.
I once had a patient I didn't know very well. I had helped her a little bit with some medical problems, but I didn't know she had psychological problems. One day, out of the blue, she said to me, 'I'm hearing the voices again.' And I didn't flinch. I didn't pause. I simply said, 'and what are they telling you?'
The voices she was hearing in her head were telling her to kill herself, the most dangerous kind of hallucination. She could tell me, and I could help her because I went towards her suffering. I didn't pause. I didn't avoid.
So why did I wait to watch the news about Haiti? Because I knew. I knew what I would see. I knew what I would find there. Limitless suffering. Limitless suffering and my inability to meet that suffering as I am. One flawed human being, with only 2 eyes, and 2 arms, hardly enough to embrace so much.
I speak workable French, so I had already been translating some texts received from Haiti. Some of the hardest were from a person who needed HIV meds, and a person who needed medication for her leukemia. Because these messages were received early on, you see. And even under the best of circumstances those kinds of medications don't reach a disaster scene early on. And Haiti is not under the best of circumstances. Medical supplies and medicines are being diverted, not allowed in.
Reading those texts was like a person handing you a quickly scrawled message before entering a gas chamber. Sending out an S.O.S., to which you cannot respond. Even though they could not hear me, I said silently, 'I will pray for you and yours.' It is over.
Worse yet, the texts were a weird range, that spoke, no yelled, the unraveling of Community. Begs for food & water. Pleas for shelter. Biblical quotes. Political statements. Names without location. Broken sentences.
How do you meet suffering without drowning in it? How does one human being squeeze enough love out of their heart for humanity?
"Starting is Progressing", a quote by Kate Walsh.

ENUF SAID

2010-02-10T12:39:00.001-08:00

The only pact Pat Robertson & the U.S.Gov't have made is to keep their horny heads up their asses as Haiti dies. 666 at y'all. Compassion is anti Status Quo. GROK IT!

Read Em And Weep

2010-02-08T19:36:00.001-08:00

'Read Em And Weep' is an old expression used in poker when you have the winning hand. It's what you say as you show your winning cards to the person who just lost. Haiti has just lost. This is a list of translated text messages from Haiti post earthquake. Read a text message on the left. Notice the right column 'Verified'. 3 weeks post earthquake and most of these emergent messages have not been verified, have not been responded to. It's one thing to die in an earthquake. It's another thing to die due to obstructionist policies that delay food, water, shelter, and medical help, which are the needs most of the texts are requesting. This is genocide. And this is only a handful of the messages. A group called 'Translators in Action' has translated close to 18,000 text messages from Haiti to date. These messages and their location are then sent to groups on the ground in Haiti to assist. Most have not been responded to. Some of the people who sent these texts have already died. What is nursing doing about this purposeful genocidal delay?

Forget Everything You've Ever Learned

2010-02-08T11:01:00.001-08:00

You know how you were taught and told that it is a Nurse's responsibility to report unsafe practices? And you know how you were told you were morally and legally obligated to keep going up the food chain if there was not a response to unsafe practices? Forget all that. This nurse did what we are taught to do, and now may go to jail for it. Admittedly, Kunga does not yet have all the facts of the case, so there may be details that surface that might change the issue of this being a nurse/patient advocacy issue. However, the nurse does have the support of the ANA (American Nurses Association) and the TNA (Texas Nurses Association).
REFUSE TO BE SILENCED
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King, Jr.

NURSE PLUS SCREW IS WHAT WE DO

UPDATE "It's not whistleblowing. It's your job."

KEEP THE MOTH OUT OF THE FLAME

2010-02-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

"When you are trying to help someone, you have to have humor, self-existing humor, and you have to hold the moth in your hand, but not let it go into the flame. That's what helping others means. Ladies and gentlemen, we have so much responsibility. A long time ago, people helped one another in this way. Now people just talk, talk talk. They read books, they listen to music, but they never actually help anyone. They never use their bare hands to save a person from going crazy. We have that responsibility. Somebody has to do it. It turns out to be us. We've got to do it, and we can do it with a smile, not with a long face."
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
From "Helping Others," in GREAT EASTERN SUN: THE WISDOM OF SHAMBHALA, page 180.

Mother Bathing Child, victims of Minamata Mercury Scandal. Photo by W. Eugene Smith

Haiti is Not a Piece of Play Dough

2010-02-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

Listen to the dialogues, and media coverage about Haiti. We seem to have moved on from the infinite medical needs there (and their obstructions), to a conversation about 'Reshaping Haiti', 'Reinventing Haiti'. Oddly, these conversations are mainly held amongst Americans, not Haitians. While Kunga is not against any effort that is of short or long term benefit, I am concerned about the implication of continued domination of one sort or another in Haiti. After seeing 'Made in America' Building Plans for Haiti, that I felt did not include a broader scope of Haitian history & circumstance, I wrote this to a friend.

That seals it! I am going to Haiti as a Missionary, black shirt, white collar. A bible in one hand, a laptop in the other, & building plans rolled up under my left arm. I will rhythmically thump my bible as I sing about Jesus, and the Haitians will die dancing in what I call a 'religious crisis of transmutation' but which in reality is simply death by seizure from dehydration and starvation. I will then be hired as the Court Jester by a newly styled Haitian Papa Doc look alike installed by the American Military and Paul Bremmer, in what is called 'bringing democracy to Haiti'. I will then be famous for 'conversions', and the Gates Foundation will gladly pay me to do my post modern techno conversions in Africa and the East. Don't worry, I will send you postcards.

with props to Spike Lee

Just Do It!

2010-02-06T19:46:00.001-08:00

Quit the assumption that life is going to work your way. Quit the assumption that Status Quo is going to save you. Consider inviting obstacles, so you can show ur stuff.

Shiva's in Haiti

2010-02-01T09:31:00.001-08:00

from Dr.Cliff

Advice to a Team going to Haiti

2010-01-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

January 21, 2010
I am a nurse who was in Nola post Katrina. On the ground reports from Partners in Health and Democracy Now's Amy Goodman is that there are NOT safety issues -these are being exaggerated by the mainstream media & the military.
Be prepared for a TOTAL lack of infrastructure, which not only affects communication centralization, but affects stop signs, stop lights, how people move in a city.
Right now major issues are water, water, water. Folks can go without food a lot longer than they can without potable water. Suggested immunizations are for Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Malaria pills. Cholera a risk. Takes 2 weeks for immunizations to kick in, so if u don't already have them, just know that u may be at risk. Only drink safe water.
Main focus now is on crush injuries, trauma injuries. Folks with these issues desperately need water, pain med, & triage to nearest facility that can handle surgery/trauma issues. Check with Partners in Health, they have a surgical unit functioning at one of the damaged hospitals in Port Au Prince, BUT they need 'First Responder' help, ie, triage for major crush/trauma injuries.
Medical supplies at a great minimum. Again check with Partners in Health web site for current needed supplies, include bandages, sterile gloves, ? IV fluids, ? IVs.
You will need to make tough decisions. There will be folks still trying to dig out family members/friends from the rubble. It is likely too late. You will have to say 'no' to helping some people trying to dig out someone likely dead in order to help someone who has a better chance of living.
You will mostly survive by adrenalin, so be prepared for crash on return home. I have found post disaster crash lasts about as long as your volunteer time. If you go for 2 weeks, be prepared for 2 weeks of crash.
Other volunteers will NOT have manners like Martha Stewart. There will be volunteer mini dramas. Let them ride to focus on earthquake victims. Focus on places where largest crowds are gathered, so you can help most people at one time.
Doctors without Borders lost some of their infrastructure in Port Au Prince. Airport military in Haiti diverted their planes with medical supplies to Dominican Republic. Doctors without Borders may need help getting these supplies to folks, may be useful to help them in this task.
At some point you may just crash. Allow for that. You can't save the world. Trust your body, if you need extra rest, crying, screaming, support, allow yourself that, it will help you in long run, altho don't self indulge, mission too important.
Try to get a bead on where most people are staying. Haitians will help you with that. They are welcoming help. Support any type of post disaster structure that exists, ie groups of strangers camping together, family units still intact. Try to engage help with Haitians who are not too sick to help, local medical folks, engineers, construction workers to clear rubble, don't just rely on foreign NGOs. There are Haitians on the ground who can help you immensely. Seek them out. Haitians will connect you with who or what is functional, so really extend to locals so rescue efforts are multi cultural.
If you get evidence a group is very capably handling a problem, don't copycat efforts if not necessary. Find your valuable niche & stick to it, if it's an unfulfilled need.
Develop a sense of who or what is genuinely helping, & stick with their expertise. Disaster volunteers & NGOs do not always check their egos at the door, so don't expect that. It is tho, shocking to see impediments from the very folks assigned to help. Don't waste time fighting these impediments, simply switch focus to needs at hand. Watch out for opportunists, sad but true.
I plan to go later, when my community health skills are more needed. I welcome any contact or questions, including when you return, & may need to decompress. Stay focused. The need will make you wish you were a thousand people, but one person can only do the work of one person. Appreciate that. If you save one life, focus on that, treasure that, even tho at the same time hundreds of lives are being lost.

Why did we change?

2010-01-26T07:51:00.000-08:00

One of the saddest things to me is that Nursing has lost its ability to be dapper. Luckily Nurses from WWI were still debonair, and we can enjoy their inimitable way to dress for success. Forget about caps, I want this Nurse's hat!

Say Hail Mary Full of Grace as you kill

2010-01-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

What's wrong with this idea?
Since there is cognitive dissonance, there must be such a thing as 'heart dissonance', and this article sums it up.

"In August of 2005 Trijicon was awarded a $660 million dollar, multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 of its Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) to the U.S. Marine Corps. According to Trijicon, the ACOG is "designed to function in bright light, low light or no light conditions," and is "ideal for combat due to its high degree of discrimination, even among multiple moving targets." At the end of the scope's model number, you can read "JN8:12", which is a reference to the New Testament book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12, which reads: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (King James Version) (ABC News)"

An insult to Islam & other religions. Gee, I never knew that in the Bible, 'light of life' was a reference to Uranium.
Jesus goes Nuclear.

My Medical Kit is Bigger than your Medical Kit!

2010-01-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

Socialization and Gendered Job Segregation
'Gendered socialization, gendered job segregation, and the social construction of skill. Notice that the two photos below show an “electronic medical set” for a doctor and a nurse, with a photo of a boy and a girl, respectively.
Okay, so the jobs are gendered. But more than that, notice that the sets contain essentially the same toys: a stethoscope, pill bottle, syringe, thermometer, mirror, hot water bottle, clipboard, blood pressure thingy, and whatever that is in the bottom right corner.
So it’s more than just gendered jobs, it’s an acknowledgement that when boys and girls do the same job, it gets called something different and, more, better compensated when men do it.'
Oh, and clearly, only Caucasians need apply.

And for those nurses still bemoaning the fact we no longer wear caps, you have finally been vindicated!
Kaboodle makes a Main Street Village Doctor's Office complete with a female nurse in a cap. Oh, and clearly, only Caucasian nurses need apply.

Yay! Pretend & Play by Young Explorers
makes a bold move & drags us kicking & screaming into the 21st century.
'Pretend & Play Doctor Set is the perfect prescription for fun! With enough equipment for a whole team of young doctors to set up a practice, it can even help kids feel better about their own medical visits.'

KUNGA'S ADVICE? BOYCOTT THE BULLSHIT

The Pleasures of Parody........

2009-11-16T15:14:00.001-08:00

[Kiev, November 16. SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images]

Activists of FEMEN, a Ukrainian women movement defending women's conditions in the society, perform during their protest action on November 16, 2009 in front of Ukraine's Education Ministry in Kiev to denounce sexual harassment of students by some university professors in the country.

Where's Waldo?

2009-06-15T20:11:00.001-07:00

What's missing from this promo of a new show about work in a psychiatric hospital?... hmmmmm, that would be the skillful intelligent nurses who do that type of high stress work.
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Nursing Narcolepsy

2009-06-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it." George Carlin

BAIL OUT ON THE WAY!

2009-05-29T02:57:00.001-07:00

Sure, as nurses, we know that increased stress can decrease health. That's why I'm asking all nurses to contribute as little as a dollar a day so Society Nurse Wall Street Maven can keep her House in the Hamptons. After all, we all know, her wealth will trickle down. So keep your hands open, some of that Wall Street Bail Out money may even trickle down to you. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Kunga checking into Mental Institution

2009-05-06T02:46:00.000-07:00

I ran across this promo on You Tube entitled, 'Mr.& Ms. Nursing'. The punchline is at the end, but the first part is well worth watching. The contrast between the war footage and the nursing pageant is a beauty all its own to behold. Kunga had a sort of breakdown at the intensity of nursing navel gazing exemplified in this promo, and is now in a sanitorium recovering from the vapors of ill taste and small mindedness that characterize this Nursing filmette. The doctors are telling me that as a nurse, I don't need to pay an iota of attention to any issues grander than who wins Mr. or Ms. Nursing. Can I trust their advice?
Watch promo here.
The doctors put me in a straight jacket with a healthy shot of Haldol when I started raving about the number dead in Iraq rather than the Nursing Pageant winner.
BRING THE WARS BACK HOME, NOT THE NURSING PAGEANTS!

BECOME A CARDIAC MANIAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

Should Nurses become gun toting mamas? Knife wielding street fighters? Martial Arts Experts? Pitchfork carrying ranters? Flame throwers? Kungkare suggests arming yourself...but only in a non violent way.

WAKE UP NURSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Female teens on violence.
WHERE ARE THE NURSES ON THIS ISSSUE????!!!!! WE ARE EXPERTS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. COME OUT AND LET IT SHOW SO WE CAN PROTECT THE NEXT GENERATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rihanna and Chris Brown=LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!!!!!
FOCUS OF BELOW IS NOT PEPSI, IT IS THE NEED FOR NURSES TO WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Documenting the Genocide

2009-03-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

Just a taste of the disparities in health care.

Modern Life Explained

2009-03-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

'Life is so toxic these days, it's like mustard gas.' Wendy Stein
In alignment with the above quote, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has begun distributing the item below for both nurses and civilians. This mask should come in handy not only for those toxic days in the nursing profession, but will also protect you as the environment further declines. Kungakare supports this preventive approach to the current toxicity, since nurses know it's easier to prevent than to cure. Kungakare can now order you a mustard gas protection mask at a low rate cost, as we now have a large supply of this particular item. NOW FOR ONLY $400 GET EM WHILE THEY LAST!!!!!!!!!!!

Dont' Sweat the Small Stuff...

2009-03-05T22:48:00.001-08:00

So what if it takes nuclear waste thousands of years to lose its power to harm. All we have to do is bury it, right? Well...there's a slight problem. How do we signal to folks thousands of years in the future, 'don't dig here or you AND the planet will die'? Here's an article that outlines this minor problem. Tsk, Tsk. I was at an anti nuke plant meeting in the 70's, regarding the proposal to build a nuclear power plant=Millstone. Yes, it was built, in part with the understanding that future scientists would surely find a way to dispose of nuclear waste, a minor problem, really when you think about it. NOT! I am proposing the pic below as a universal sign for nuclear waste. Oh, what, a better idea? Oh, yeah, don't create it in the first place.

JUST THINK ABOUT IT...

2009-03-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

THE DELICIOUS DEVILISH DELECTABLE DELIGHTS OF SPREADING NURSE ACTIVISM !!!!!!!!!!!!
Activism has no shape, yet a powerful power, hard to contend with.

Nursing Note

2009-02-28T13:02:00.000-08:00

Kunga's enlightening suggestion to Nurses="Don't get injured at Work"
Yes! It is that simple! Read here and here.
Needlestick injuries are not just a nurse's problem, they can be a system problem.

GRASSROOTS NURSES REFUSE TO BE HELD DOWN ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-28T01:52:00.000-08:00

Nursing Note

2009-02-28T01:34:00.000-08:00

ALL RULES CAN BE BROKEN FOR THE SAKE OF COMPASSION
NO RULES CAN BE BROKEN FOR THE SAKE OF VIOLENCE

Coal is Not Cool, nor is it Clean

2009-02-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

You can shake, shimmy, shape, mishape, present, misrepresent, be decent, be decadent, chant, rant and recant, speak, missspeak, yell, go to hell, live in a shell, notice the world change in smell, tell or mis tell, change, rearrange, be strange, estranged, join a gang, get a bang or a bong, be right or wrong, snore or ignore, but you can't tell me anymore that coal is clean.
Go here for free online classes on Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University.
Capitol Climate Change March on Washington March 2nd.
Student activist group Power Shift '09
Watch vid of James Hansen, PhD, NASA scientist regarding climate change march on Washington.

The Roof is Caving In

2009-02-16T20:38:00.000-08:00

"Early every morning I stand in line/ Waiting to work these Kentucky coal mines/ We enter the shaft around five thirty/ With two dozen hands, cold, callused and dirty/ We'll dig through a million tons of rock and clay/ And we'll still be digging at the end of the day/ Down on our knees we confess our sins/ And pray that the roof above don't cave in..." Aaron Watson, Kentucky coal miners prayer
Study re: Health Risks in Coal Mining Communities
Bill Moyers re: Mountain Top Mining

Left= Healthy Lung////// Right= Black Coal Disease Lung

Nursing Note

2009-02-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

"What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee." Marcus Aurelius
What is not good for the nursing profession is not good for the individual nurse.

Calling All Nurses! Chevron Needs Your Help!

2009-02-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

Will you join Chevron to help save energy??? Nursing is a helping profession. We help everyone, patients, lost puppies, sick cats. Now here is our big chance. Chevron needs our help to save energy. See? They ask for everyone to help in this interactive game called 'Energyville'. Nurses, step forward and do your part! And while you're at it, watch this documentary, Justicia Now, regarding Chevron/Texaco destruction of the environment in Northern Ecuador in their quest for more oil. I am unclear if Chevron needs alternative energy allies, or nurses to quell the Ecudorian demonstrations against Chevron's destruction of their environment.
Chevron's Motto? Human Energy.
Inhumane Energy is more like it.

And What Would You Like to Drink With Your Dinner?

2009-01-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

The Privitization of Water affects the poor, and ulimately all of us, all of our generations. Nurses are taught how to assess, prevent, and treat dehydration, and water borne illnesses. What about whole populations, whole communities dying from dehydration and water borne illnesses? What is nursing going to do for them?
At this site you can learn more by watching the documentary FLOW.
At this site you can learn more about how to take ACTION.

This is information about the World Health Oragnization Water for Life program.

Where have we been? Where are we Going?

2009-01-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

Nurses go Grassroots, go Non Violent, go BIG or don't go at all!

Nursing Note

2009-01-23T19:54:00.000-08:00

"Our institutions, our legal system, our financial system, and our most cherished folkways and beliefs are all based upon the premise of continuing growth, Since physical and biological constraints make it impossible to continue such rates of growth indefinitely, it is inevitable that with the slowing down in the rates of physical growth cultural adjustments must be made." M.King Hubbert from this site.
Nurses, since we are so familiar with physical and biological constraints, what kind of cultural adjustments are you able or willing to do in light of downward spiraling?

Letter to a Discouraged Activist

2009-01-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

What you state so well is indeed the current dilemma of folks who care and are aware. The ugliness of the world as it is. Genocide of millions. What do we do in the face of this? My friends and I are all struggling with this. It can overwhelm and discourage us. To offer false hope or truisms is maniacal in the face of this genocide. I am struggling with trying not to just think, but to feel and experience that compassion is a greater force than evil. We forget that. This is not a cliche. This is deeply true. YouTube has the full speech of Martin Luther King's last speech in Memphis before he died. I encourage you to listen to all of it. It is about being a good samaritan. To paraphrase, he said, 'we ask ourselves what will happen if I help that person. Maybe they will trick or rob me. The question is really what will happen to that person if I do not help him.' King also said that 'the choice isn't between non violence and violence, the choice is between non violence and non existence.' If we have false hope in the face of current evil, we are stupid. But if we become discouraged in the face of this evil, and don't take action, we are not living up to our true lineage of those who suffered so that we may live. In his 'I Have a Dream Speech', King refers to 'creative suffering'. To me this means the suffering one can and should endure because suffering for a non violent cause is a reality, and an honor. The moral obligation of this can feel overwhelming. We are just imperfect human beings. But if you listen and read about great beings who did change the world, they were just like us and succeeded. Gandhi, King, Mother Theresa all went through creative suffering but endured in the face of the unendurable. If we lose the belief that we cannot stop the genocide that is in this world now, even more will die. We have to put on the very heavy and oversized mantle of moral responsibility and act (non violently) with the cause that inspires us the most. If we save even one life by doing this, we are victorious, because saving that one life is worth the world to that one person and their family. And when we act, when we save one of the millions about to be slaughtered, others, including the next generation are inspired also to act in the face of murderous policies. So we are also obligated to inspire. In the midst of our grief, we must act and inspire. The past 2 days I have cried deeply. Yesterday I suffered and sobbed for the unarmed black male who was murdered by BART police. I suspect I will cry grief and happiness the rest of my life, as I imperfectly try to leave the world a better place than it was when I came into it.

EXCLUSIVE! Copy of Obama's Inaugural Address

2009-01-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

OOPS! OH MY GOODNESS! This is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'I Have A Dream' speech made more than 40 years ago. Sadly, if Obama had repeated this very same speech as his inaugural address, it would still be relevant. 'The Dream' hasn't happened yet. So let's keep dreaming it and doing it until it does. Will any of us now live to see the day when this speech is outdated?

Above song 'I Have a Dream' by Common

2009-01-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

KILL! KILL! KILL!

KILL THE SACRED COWS OF NURSING

SO WE MAY HAVE A FRESH START!

Nursing Note

2009-01-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

SHEEPLE=From Wikipedia, Sheeple is a term of disparagement, a portmanteau created by combining the words "sheep" and "people." It is often used to denote persons who acquiesce to authority, and thus undermine their own human individuality. The implication of sheeple is that as a collective, people believe whatever they are told, especially if told so by authority figures, without processing it to be sure that it is an accurate representation of the real world around them. The term is generally used in a political or religious sense.
And yes, the honest answer is that I consider nurses who do not speak up about the deplorable decay of our tradition sheeple.

And then there's RAMPLE=What's that mean? I don't know. I just made it up. Let's just say it's the ram like strength it's gonna take nursing to change the profession and the system. An individualist who works for the greater good as opposed to a paycheck buy out.

Question of the Day?

2009-01-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

I ran into a nurse I know and she asked what I was up to. I told her I was a Nurse Activist. She said, "What's that?" Well, a person who works energetically to achieve change, so I would call myself a woman who works consistently and energetically to achieve nursing goals that bring the profession back from the deadly insane place it is, to a place of healthy healing. But you know, there are times, when I wonder, I mean how effective can I be if nurses themselves ask me what an activist is...for the record, I am non violent, and I hope that non violence doesn't need to be defined for nurses. Let's just leave it like this. An activist is active...Does that help???????

For those who need further instructions, this is a step by step guide.

I was in the OR one time when a nursing student asked about the patient having a total hysterectomy, "does this mean she can't give birth to any more children?"

Can we puulllleeeeeaaaasssssee rise to the challenge? Can we at least try? Thanks....

Let's Play a Game!!!!!

2009-01-11T12:17:00.000-08:00

Fun for the whole family! Kids and Adults can join in together! A Fun way to Learn! Easy to Do!
It's the Climate Change Kids Site! Brought to you by the EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) See, even ruining the planet can be Fun! Let's all join in!
Here's a hit from their site:
Sometimes little things can turn into big things. Think about brushing your teeth. If you don't brush for one day, chances are nothing bad will happen. But if you don't brush your teeth for one month, you may develop a cavity. It's the same thing with global temperatures. If temperatures rise above normal levels for a few days, it's no big deal – the Earth will stay more or less the same. But if temperatures continue to rise over a longer period of time, then the Earth may experience some problems.
Not only that, but you can befriend Ozone the Dog! Ozone the Dog? Wow, the EPA sure knows how to put a fun spin on climate change.
Face off with Ozone the dog in a game of Hangman!
How about an old fashioned game of Checkers?
See if you can beat the Ozone the dog!

But wait a minute...this can't be the same EPA that recently ruled that mountain top mining debris can be dumped into streams and valleys???!!!! No way. But it is...and they seemed so nice on that kids climate change site.

Long Forgotten but True

2009-01-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

Eminem was an LPN, a Licensed Practical Nurse, and he wrote this song telling nurses to go grassroots. You only get one shot to seize everything you ever wanted, so capture the opportunity. It only comes once in a lifetime. "You can do anything you set your mind to, man."

Nursing Note

2009-01-04T11:01:00.000-08:00

"Many of the victories of modern warfare are mediated by the media". Gideon Doron referring to the Israeli Gaza war 2009. Limited media access. Limited and controlled access of media access to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I want to share an article written by an American student living in Syria. I am posting this because I am intrigued with his comparison of Al-Jazeera reporting war news and CNN reporting war news. I am not posting this for a discussion of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. I am posting it for a discussion of how American media images of war have changed over the years. I was a young teen during Vietnam. It was part of each day to see people on all sides being murdered. I will never forget the face of the Vietnamese man the moment right before he was shot in the head. These images are part of what made me a pacifist. The control of the American military over the media regarding images of the wounded and dead in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly does not 'bring the war back home'. I wonder if bringing the war back home would make more pacifists.

Nursing Joke of the Day

2009-01-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

"Well, it's an Institute of Higher Learning, so you can't expect that much intelligence." Anonymous

The Onion has a great article on teacher therapy that works!

Realtiy versus Denialty

2008-12-30T12:19:00.001-08:00

The truth is that there is a saying, 'Nurses eat their young'. So we can pump out pleasant team effort posters as much as we want, when in reality there is a huge schism in nursing. What are we going to do about the split in Nursing.?

Nursing Note

2008-12-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

"The first duty of a revolutionary is to survive." Pat Califia

Keeping Abreast of the News...so to speak

2008-12-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

Apparently Facebook bans photographs of women breastfeeding,
Nursing mothers on facebook=porn or not?
Where do nurses fall on this issue?
We are experts on child development, obstetrics/gynecology, nutrition, so we have the right to speak out about this.
Is it Childcare? or is it Porn?
Ultimately, private websites can decide privately...
but if nurses had to go grassroots and speak out on this issue, what would you say?
She's lactating, the baby needs to eat, there's a photo....is it porn, or is it nutrition? Viva las ta tas!

Nursing Note

2008-12-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

"You stop a vampire with a wooden stake to the heart, a Werewolf with a silver bullet, but the Neo=con death cult you slay with humor, a wound they will neither survive nor understand the means to their demise."-eDiablo

Red States, Blue States, and Now Pink States!

2008-12-24T19:17:00.000-08:00

Video of Pink singing 'Dear Mr.President' here.

Kungakare Now Offering Hospital Tours!

2008-12-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

Sign up now for new rate on all hospital tours! 30% off for first time hospital tourists!
The New York Times travel section had an article regarding slum tours, which you can read here.

Unfortunately, the Times did not realize that Kungakare was one step ahead, already offering tours of its own! I sent the comment below to the Times.
As an American nurse, I was thrilled to read your travel article regarding slum tours! Previous to this, I felt isolated from my apparent comrades- in -arms in the 'Poorism Tourism' industry. Here at Kungakare, I have started niche tours very similar to the ones you describe. I am a community health nurse who has started giving tours at the hospital where I work. The public pays me to tour the rooms of homeless, poor, or simply patients who don't speak English. Prices vary according to the combined medical severity and poverty level of the patient. A homeless patient detoxing, for example, fetches less money than a non English speaking double amputee. Due to the class and/or language barrier, the patients do not ask questions, and I think they assume we are groups of nursing or medical students. At this point, my business is a cottage industry, so all profits are going back into what I like to call my 'hospital tussles', but your article did make me consider paying patients in the future. Bless you for giving those of us who are entrepreneurs in the 'poor peek' industry much needed support in a misunderstood market!

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!! NURSE IN PINK SLIP PINK SLIPPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

"this thing could spread like wildfire!"
But my fellow Pinkster has the commentary covered. Click on her name to see what she has to say about the Pink Slip the President wildfire!
More to follow.......

PINK SLIP THE PRESIDENT!

2008-10-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

concept & costumes: Melissa Kunga Silva, video & editing: Kurt Erickson, president: Shams Mirza, nurse's assistant: Wendy Stein. This video is on You Tube.

As Nurses know, to Pink Slip a President, not only means he is FIRED! Pink Slip is a term used in medicine to lock up someone in a psych ward who is a danger to others, for example a president who has killed significant numbers of people, and in fact, is planning to kill some more. He can be held in a psych ward for 72 hours against his will. So lets get to work and Pink Slip the President! We'll see if the NIH, National Institute of Health has any soundproof padded rooms ready for his stay!

Question of the Day?

2008-10-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

Are we sending Nursing Students out to a life of Institutional Servitude?

is trickery enuf to topple the imperial?

2008-10-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

VERSUS

Bail Out The Rich So The Poor Have The Freedom To Starve

2008-10-20T17:23:00.001-07:00

designed by Melissa Kunga Silva
for a good time go to Pranks.com. this design is posted October 22, 2008 under DIY Bank Hack to download for posting at ATMs and financial institutions. It is archived there under culture jamming and reality hacking.

Official USA Nurses' Flag

2008-10-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

flag design by Melissa Kunga Silva
NURSES! STAND UP! BE PROUD! SALUTE AS YOUR FLAG PASSES BY!

Nursing Note

2008-10-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Designer Marc Jacobs

Some Nurses wanna work in Plastic Surgery Only!

Nursing Joke of the Day

2008-10-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

"It's nurses week. I am proudly wearing my nurse cap tomorrow. I will post some pics later. I hope the other girls don't flake out on me and not wear their nurse caps."
Posted by Ida on May 7, 2008.

I wear my Nursing Cap too! It looks like this:

Kunga with Nurse's Cap ready to start daily hospital shift.

2008-10-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

ch ch ch ch Changes....

2008-09-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

When it is not necessary to make a change, it is necessary not to make a change.
— Lord Falkland

AND NURSES, WHEN IT IS NECESSARY TO MAKE A CHANGE, IT IS NECESSARY TO MAKE A CHANGE!
-Kungakare

And these (nurses) that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
Theyre quite aware of what theyre going through
-David Bowie (modified)

We're Not Like Other People

2008-09-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

An Insurance Agent once told me about an odd interaction with a doctor. The doctor kept being late paying his insurance premiums. His agent called him to remind him of his lateness. The answer? "I'm a doctor. Don't you know we're not like other people?"

Sure it's a story that reeks of medical arrogance and entitlement. But, I'd like to look at it from a different perspective. I am teaching nursing students. We are just beginning a new semester. I have gotten into the habit of thanking them for just walking into the hospital in the morning. And no, I don't thank them just because they are terrified at being new to nursing, and so just to walk into clinical is a personal emotional victory.

I thank them because they are not like other people. They show up each morning to converse and care for patients. I thank them because of the things we are about to witness and accomplish, just as I have thanked past nursing students. Some of the patient issues my students have dealt with in the past include things most people would do their best to avoid. A patient died of a heart attack during morning shift change, one of the most hectic times of the day. My students heard his wife fall to the hallway floor crying in grief. They talked with and reassured his roommate, who had been moved to another room. They used compassion and gentleness throughout the day towards the nursing staff who had just experienced a patient's death and kept working to care for other patients without much acknowledgement.

My nursing students have shown patience for patients with head injuries swearing at them, patients with missing parts of their skull in comas who couldn't respond to their careful care. Then there was the time we were changing the wound dressing on a patient's lower back after which he had diarrhea all over the dressing, and then as we cleaned the bed again, changed the dressing again, the patient projectile vomited on the students and the bed, and we started the process all over again for the third time.

I think it embarresses my new nursing students when I thank them for just walking into the hospital in the morning. I tell them they are extraordinary just for showing up for the party. I think of all the people who would not show up to face what my students face. I tell them they are brave. I tell them they are extraordinary. They laugh nervously. They don't believe me yet. They will. They will face the dirty trenches of illness, the highs of healing and the lows of grief. They will go home to folks who have worked in an office or on a computer all day, and not be able to explain that they changed a dressing on a wound so deep, you could almost see the bone. We're Nurses. We're not like other people.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's SimMan!

2008-09-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't want a simulated man? His heart is always beating, his breath is always breathing, he gives without taking, he never disagrees, but he's always available to you. Simulated Man, aka SimMan is a man sized manneqin used to teach nursing students. He is fully wired, and connected to a computer can simulate lung breath sounds, a heartbeat, various pulses. He never lets you down. He never talks. He never complains. He will never fail you. He treats everyone equally. When you touch him, he doesn't say ouch. When you approach him, he never asks you to leave the room. While you poke at him, he never reports you to management. He never initiates lawsuits.

There are different opinions of SimMan. On one hand, he can give students their first taste of medicine in a safe setting. On the other hand, his easy to find pulses, his breath sounds may deceive nursing students and lull them into a false simplification of how a real live honest to goodness human being responds.

But I'm not worried about SimMan. I'm worried about Sim Nurses and Sim Patients. As I walk down the hall of a hospital, with all the nurses at their med carts or watching monitors, I don't see much emotion. I don't see nurses with time to share emotions, hold hands, hold grief. Nursing is an art and a science. It's supposed to be a unique blend of heart caring and intelligent evidence. But Nursing has become simulated, robotic, rather than heartfelt.

And we have done our best to create a simulated population of patients. Rather than use the art of nursing to approach patients with time consuming open ended questions that allow their heart blood to blend with our own, we impose tasks on them with our schedule constraints, and ask yes or no questions that don't take up our precious time. Is it a Nurse? Is it a Healer? No, it's SimNurse. Is it a Patient? Is it a Human Being? No, it's SimPerson.

Nursing Note

2008-09-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

“Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.”
-Lillian Hellman

Wanted for Murder!!!

2008-09-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

The above photo is of a nurse, Molly Treatwhistle, who is wanted for killing the Perfect Nurse. In an interview held at a private location after Miss Molly had escaped from prison, she explained her actions. "The Perfect Nurse is held up as an ideal in nursing programs, to make students feel they never measure up. Nursing school made me feel that out there floating in the universe, was the Perfect Nurse, who never made a medication error, who could do 5 procedures at the same time without any mistakes, whose uniform was always clean and well ironed, and whose documentation was always done. She was the ideal for all nurses to attain. I felt this view was so unrealistic, I strangled the Perfect Nurse with catheter tubing." Any information regarding Murderer Molly's whereabouts would be greatly appreciated, as she is due for a special appreciation award by Kunga. Although Kunga does not support violent actions, we would like to acknowledge Miss Molly's brave contribution towards liberating nursing from perfectionism.

"Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!"

2008-09-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

NURSES, RECLAIM YOUR HUMANITY! BRING THE NURSING PROFESSION BACK TO LIFE AGAIN!

Here comes the Judge...

2008-09-16T08:08:00.001-07:00

Nurses are Nurses, not Judges. Nurses! Judge the system that is ensnaring you, not each other!

The illustrious Susan J. Higginsworth,RN, Registered Nurse, Founder, Professional Perfectionists, aka the PP Society.

Grand Theft Lingo

2008-09-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

I once worked with a nurse who said that when she worked in the ICU, one of their mottoes was 'keep 'em alive until 7:05'. In other words, it was a little saying expressing hope that a patient didn't die during your shift. To nurses, this probably expresses a wish to not have a patient die. To the public, it probably sounds careless.

I am just starting a new semester teaching LPNs, Licensed Practical Nurses. Part of this process involves drilling medical language and disease abbreviations into their heads to the point of unforgettability. The other part of the process involves getting them to not use that very same medical language shortcut with patients. When students start using too much technical language with a patient, they hear my voice saying, 'in English, please'. I do not at all mean nurses should 'dummy down' language for patients, as I don't feel patients are dumb. But we certainly need to translate from specialty medical language into common use language.

I was recently with a nurse telling a family who were bilingual, English and Spanish, with Spanish as their primary language, about a relative who 'had cystitis with hematuria'. The family looked confused, but significantly, like most families trying to keep up, kept nodding their heads 'yes'. I did my specialty in that moment, which is translating from English to English. "She had a bladder infection. That can give you blood in your urine. If we treat her infection and she stills has blood in her urine, we'll need to do more testing." Then there was the time a primary doctor and I were with a new diabetic patient who had a very high blood sugar, but who was resistant to going to the Emergency Room. She told us her father had been in the hospital while in a diabetic coma and it frightened her. The doctor said, "but you may go into ketoacidosis". She nodded yes. I said, "Don't worry. Go to the hospital and we can prevent you from going into a coma like your father". "Really?" she said, relieved.

Obviously, if we are teaching a patient who is a doctor or nurse, or who has a specialty in medicine, we can adjust our language. And of course, we need to establish primary language and literacy before racing for basket fulls of information. But beware. I once had to teach a PhD biology professor about pain medication for his Hospice care. I made very clear that I was not educated at his level of science, but wanted to make sure he understood his pain management, so I told him to stop me if I were over simplifying. He didn't stop me. He was great in biology, but not an expert on Methadone and Morphine.

We all learn in Nursing School to not use overly technical language with patients, but I see nurses doing it all the time, and indeed I have had to stop myself from using overly medical lingo with patients and families. I think it asks a lot of a person to use one type of shorthand with peers, but switch in an instant to another type of language with patients and families -especially when we are busy, and have many distractions. But come on nurses, admit it, the use of euphemisms in medicine increases our egos and self importance. I have the key to a secret word world and you don't.

I want to suggest some caution here. I firmly believe, I know, that the pride of a nurse can come from inner confidence, not outer obscurity. I sometimes feel there is a shroud of secrecy around nursing language and procedures. Our ability to communicate, assess, treat, and heal is enough. We don't need to use obscure language to elevate ourselves. Who we are and what we do is good enough.

More importantly, let's talk about the link between medical lingo and political doublespeak. Ultimately, both styles create a culture of insiders and outsiders, the informed and the uniformed, the powerful and the powerless. Nurses need to not only be aware of the language we are using with patients and families, we also need to be aware of the spin language used in our culture to obscure tough realities. Why? Because inaccurate language obscures accurate realities, and as both nurses and world citizens, we need to deal in the currency of accurate realities if we are to help rather than harm.

Seemingly ahead of his time, Abbie Hoffman calls attention to war spin language in a radio interview from the late 60's. He is referring to the war in Vietnam, and says, referring to an army bombing, "and it's so depersonalized that you can call it a 'protective reaction strike', you see, so people don't get upset, and they say hey somebody cut off a guy's head, cause it's all put into that kind of language, corporate image to it, to war." I am talking about the medical and political use, abuse, and misuse of language, I am not shoving Abbie Hoffman down your throat. You may or may not agree with him. Nor is this a Dem or Repub issue. Both sides use language to obscure.

I have always hated the term 'carpet bombing', which implies something soft and shaggy that you can sink your toes into, not a violent force that kills and maims human beings, with blood and bones and organs pushed out of a previously vibrant life. WMD is also a cold initialized prop word, almost as cold as its mother term 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', whose more accurate meaning is a method to devastate and destroy not one person, but whole communities, communities which took years to create, form, and build. In fact, here is a decoded list of Vietnam war euphemisms. The familiar K.I.A., 'Killed in Action' really means an indescribable amount of suffering.

Even before Hoffman, there was George Orwell's 1946 essay 'Politics and the English Language'. Yes, that same George Orwell who skewered the use of language in his novel 1984. In this essay, Orwell insists that "abstraction detracts from feeling". In fact, I think nursing use of abstract language protects us from grief. Nurses will always have to struggle with how to be effective within a maelstrom of grief, but hiding behind obscure medical language is not the healthiest or most helpful mechanism. "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity," Orwell insists.

In the larger political/cultural sphere, Orwell's critique of war speak is as relevant today as it was in 1946. "In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of the political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism., question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements."

A delightful pop culture version of this mechanism is John Carpenter's movie 'They Live', where the protagonist obtains a special pair of glasses that allows him to see the true subliminal message beneath signs and symbols. See the clip below where he can decode a seemingly innocuous billboard which is really telling him to 'Obey', a close out sale which is really telling him to 'Consume', and dollar bills, which are really telling him, 'This Is Your God'.

There is a lot of modern commentary on this subject. Read Noam Chomsky. Dr.Frank Luntz, author, is described as a 'wordsmith', as if the modern job of shaping language had replaced the ancient arduous occupation of metalsmithing. Here is one of his essays regarding how to linguistically approach the War on Terror. For more on spin speak, see this interview with a media critic about the Frontline documentary 'The Persuaders', which can be watched online here. The Bush administration called decreasing emissions standards the Clear Skies Initiative. Increasing logging was called the Healthy Forests Initiative.

You can call it medical lingo, you can call it doublespeak, you can call it political spin, or you can call it what I simply like to describe as good old gobbledygook. It takes effort to avoid, on a medical and/or world level. But avoiding obscurity of language for the sake of accuracy is really the mandate of nursing. And if all it takes is effort and awareness to remove the scrim that covers realities for our patients, families, and fellow globe dwellers, then it is not too much to ask.

Nursing Note

2008-09-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

The mocker is never taken seriously when he is most serious.
-James Joyce

Image from www.psymon.com

Nursing Support Needed!

2008-09-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of me above. I know sometimes it may seem I dress to kill, so to speak, when I go to work, but just 'cause I'm a Nurse doesn't mean I can't be feminine, right? Wrong! The other day, I was assisting a doc inserting a chest tube. While I was bending over the bed of the patient, a Nurse Manager walked by the room and saw me lo' down and ho' down, and I am now on warning! I am trying to organize a call in about this infringement of my freedom as a Nurse, and I need your help! I have the experience to do my job, and then some. My PhD thesis was on 'Nursing Uniforms: Costumes or Customized?' Please call in and say: "Yes to Dress" 1-999-999-9999. Thanks in advance. Kisses! xoxo

This Just In: Photo of Earth from Space

2008-09-10T12:30:00.000-07:00