For years I've been reading about healthcare from a top-down perspective as a pseudo-intellectual devourer of articles in Mother Jones, the Atlantic, Harper's, etc. I've formed many opinions about our country's crappy healthcare system, its failures in getting care to the people who most need it, the pattern of people avoiding seeing a doctor till they have to get to the emergency room since E.R.s are not allowed to turn away patients. I'm a big-pharm hating, single-payer-healthcare-system loving typical liberal you'd meet at a party who's read just enough and has just enough personal and anecdotal experience with the healthcare system to have opinions, but not enough, really, to justify promoting them to others to the degree that I do.
So when I decided to become a nurse and went to an open house at the MSN (Master's of Science in Nursing) program I hope, eventually, to attend, and they advised those of us without HC experience to get our Nursing Assistant Certification (NAC) and get some experience in the field before applying, I didn't realize how strange it would feel for me with my surplus of education and dilettantish knowledge of the field to be put into a place where I was taught how healthcare works from the bottom up. I'm taking the class at a local community college, many of my classmates are young, a lot speak English as a second (or third) language, so a lot of the things I'm learning are introductions to concepts such as how a hospital is set up, or what are pathogens, what is the NAC allowed to do, what can the nurse do, what may doctors do...
Because of the number of non-native speakers of English in my class, some concepts get repeated a lot, because they are expressed in an idiomatic way or they are "hard" words. Chain of Command was one of these. It was said in a way that makes me think of A.A. Milne capitalization, and repeated enough that I kept thinking of The Wire, specifically of Lt. Daniels frowning while upbraiding McNulty. I am concerned that my tendency to speak out about what I think will get me into trouble doing this job. As a case in point, I took an all-day course on HIV/AIDS and bloodborne pathogens last weekend as part of this whole certification, and in order to leave, we had to take a multiple-choice test and score 80% on it. I took the test, a few of the questions were poorly worded, so I circled an answer and wrote a comment as to why I chose the one I did, to make it clear I'd understood the material. The instructor graded my test, then told me, I'm sure to be helpful, that if I wanted to do the nursing program at her community college, I needed to "get out of the habit" of writing comments on tests, since it looks like I'm "arguing" with the questions, and it's just "not good." I've been a teacher for 10 years and have probably written over 100 tests by now--it's hard to do it well, and I appreciate student comments, since the point of tests is to make sure students have learned what you wanted them to. Huh.
Since I've told folks I want to be a nurse, most have been encouraging, and have named character/personality traits I have that will make me a good nurse. I'm looking at this drastic career change as an opportunity to be required to change things about myself I need to change: (1) I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. (2) I need to slow down my speech--I'll likely be caring for elderly patients, especially as a NAC, and if they can't understand me, that'll only increase their sense of isolation. (3) I need to move more slowly and carefully, and not multitask as much. (4) I need to get over my desire to make sure others know that I "already knew that," whatever it may be. Like, decouple the ego from the intellect. And, (5) one thing this will require from me that I'm not willing to admit should change is the oomph in my stomach I feel about waste and non-re-use. Preventing the spread of pathogens requires using all kinds of disposable equipment and double-bagging and not (gasp! ouch! ooomph!) that "perfectly good" whatever. That will be hard for me.
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Whoohoo to the whole enterprise.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should comment on 5. So many times I have been in a clinical or laboratory setting and thought, "Thank god Costsinker can't see this, it would drive her crazy!"
I've also imagined myself justifying the waste to you. ("I suppose I could use wire loops and just sterilize them with ethanol and flame between plates. I would if I had more confidence in my technique. Aaah! Or maybe that's just an excuse! Maybe I am lazy for using the disposable ones. I mean, this is lab, not the hospital, so no one will die if I don't have perfect sterile technique. I'll just have to do the experiment over. So I'm lazy. But no, the longer I take the more money I cost the taxpayers, and I am the slowest graduate student in the world already. But...but...but.)
So I will relax about that one.
Your first paragraph reminds me why I hesitate to express opinions on environmental policy and the economy. (I always feel so stupid afterwards when someone truly knowledgeable gives me the smack-down.) I even feel too barely knowledgeable about public health and health care, still, just because work is so narrow and the topics that come up at cocktail parties are so numerous. It's hard to read broadly enough to cover it all. I kind of rely on you to read up on things and tell me at least the shape of the debate. Ima have to take more responsibility for my own dilettante-hood now that you're going to have to study for A&P. :)
Yer on my Reader, now. Whoot!