The real reason why Health Care Professionals wash their hands.

Here it is!!

Brought to you from The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Clean hands=cold heart.

Turns out the cleaner you are the more likely you are to pass harsher judgment.

Augh. If I get blocked once more because I don't have the $35 to buy journal access...

I would love to look at the details of this study as to ascertain how they calculated their data... Here's what I do know. 58 undergrads (half were asked to wash their hands) ranked societal issues such as littering and pornography. Those with clean hands had harsher judgments. This was followed up by two similar studies with larger sample sizes. Both were primed with texts like. 'My hair feels clean and light. My breath is fresh ...' or My hair feels oily and heavy. My breath stinks ...' then in one study they ranked 16 societal issues while in the second study they ranked themselves against their peers.
The "clean ones" passed harsher judgment.

So maybe it's all this foaming hand-sanitizer that makes me think the girl in 305 is drug seeking.
Then again. Maybe not.

To the ScienceMobile!

Ha ha ha,
Just watched a new Futurama.where evolution is debated. Too bad this clip doesn't have the best part.
Farnsworth is debating Dr. Banjo (an orangutan) about the truth of evolution. They go through the "missing link" debate with quite a bit of humor.
"Yes, but what about the link between A and C?"
"That would be B."
"Ha! Then you've proven my point there's no link between A and B!"

This goes on at quite a bit of length. Reminds me of an interview Dawkins' had once...

Anyway. I'm getting dangerously close to getting in trouble at this point.


Reason being I found this journal in my reader this morning.
The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
I didn't even know this existed. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Actually, I'm kinda glad. I think everything deserves to be observed through a critical method of observation and validation. *Ahem*
This comes about from this 60 second psych per SciAm.
Turns out GenX is more loyal to religious ideologies than the baby boomers.
I wish I could get access to this journal. I'd love to read some of these.
I'm sure JT would might like a subscription for his birthday. ;)
Here's another I have direct interest in.
Alternative schooling strategies and the religious lives of American adolescents.

I guess being homeschooled really has no greater impact on your church attendance vs. public schooling.

I guess that's all the news for now, my computer is shutting down against my will and I'm hungry for breakfast.
Chew on this for a while and I'll be back, sometime....

Science + Marriage = Happy

Better marriage you say?

Septmeber's SciAm reviews a book in which science reviews good marriages.

I'm all for science and equations and formulas, but using science in relationships??

HELL YEAH.
(If you honestly thought I would say otherwise you may have confused me with someone else. Please check your browser and try again.)

I think people can learn a lot simply by listening to statistics and accepting the fact that in no way is their relationship special. If you meet the criteria for a high-risk marriage. You're going to get a divorce. Sorry. Look at the data. If you're having trouble communicating do some research, figure out why your communication skills are non-functional.
I'm pretty cut and dry when I communicate. I don't do this, "say one thing and hope you get my meaning." When I want something I'll use this algorithm.
"Will you please do A, while I do B? Later we can do C together."
Or
"I really appreciate how you always do A for me, can you do B as well? I just can't right now."

Being both ENTJ and a geek makes social interactions imperative and difficult! I love being around people its how I re-energize, but missing those social cues can make it awkward. I love to talk, but not really about the weekend. Maybe if we were discussing something like this. I'd listen better.

Wow, off topic a bit.
Back to marriage.
Before John and I hitched it we were very rational about things. I'm talking in high school. I was 15 and we had known each other 3 months when things started getting a little... well, several notes were written back and forth. I sat him down and told him I don't date stupid. The truth was I didn't date at all. I had never had a boyfriend (whats the point pre-16?) and didn't really want a long list. I wanted to know if he was ok marrying me because that was the end result of dating. Why put forth the effort if that wasn't your goal?
Turns out it was.
I feel like we were really married about year 3 in our dating. We were a bit older, less infatuated, and more logical with our decisions. We knew we were going to get married, we just weren't old enough.

Before we legally were married. We took some personality tests. I love personality tests. I always try to pinpoint people's Myers-Briggs so I know how to interact with them. I especially like when they know what the hell I'm talking about when I ask for it. Geek cred +2 at least.
John and I took the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Profile.
This one scales 9 personality traits.
Nervous-composed,
depressive-light-hearted
active-quiet
expressive-inhibited
sympathetic-indifferent
subjective-objective
dominate-submissive
hostile-tolerant
self-disciplined-impulsive
We did them for ourselves and then guessed at the others.
In overlapping the two here's what we had.

The red ink is John's self-assessment and the black is my assessment of John.
In this one the black is my self-assessment and the red is John's assessment of me.

Pretty good for two 20 year old kids. (I might have even been 19...)

It felt good to know that we knew each other pretty well. We try to communicate and identify why we have breakdowns in communication. Most of the time it's because we're hungry, so we eat and try again. Amazing how well this can solve a conflict. I always try to think of what my overall goal is. Is it more important to get my way or to stay happy?

Also I don't think of myself as John's Wife. That's a possessive statement. I don't think of him as MY husband. He's his own person. Instead I think of myself as his companion and he mine. I'm around to help him through his life. Neither one of us own the other. (This is my biggest issue with the "legalities" of marriage. It's techinically property ownership.) I will help him to the best of my ability, but it's all out of my will to do so, not because I have to.

Also, we're both very tolerant of each other. In fact I encourage him to talk about other women he finds attractive. I mean, lets be real people. Other people exist. Other people are pretty. We don't have to hide this fact from each other. I don't get mad when he looks at other girls or likes them. I like to talk about it. Find out why. What do you see about that person you like? What in talking with that girl do you enjoy? It helps me know more about him. I believe people need multiple companions to get through life. They can be anyone. In fact, I encouraged him to get a "school wife" in medschool. He needs someone he can talk to that knows EXACTLY what he's going through. I didn't care if this person was male or female, but I'm glad he's got a girl who can be just empathetic enough to deal with him. (You know who you are and you have my eternal gratitude. I cannot always be there for him and I am so glad you're sharing weight!)

So in all this rambling mess I mean to say.

Use science, use logic, but understand that people are crazy.

I just became WAY less productive.

Did you know there is now Netflix for the iPhone?!?!

I was so excited to learn this.
Not that I have a lot of time to watch movies or tv. It's still exciting.
Maybe that tredmill running won't be so horrible now.

I got one of my projects at work up and running. People are going to be able to nominate teamplayers and hard workers to receive a reward. I'm trying to use positive reinforcement on good behaviors to improve morale. Now that we've got our pods working again it's a lot nicer.
Yesterday was a good day. For some reason I find it a lot easier to work with male nurses. They don't get all huffy if you walk of in the middle of a conversation to do something important.
Also, they talk less. I like that.
Sadly, most of our current doctors are leaving at the end of this month. I don't know them very well, but I know them a little bit. Enough to know I'll miss them.

Good news everyone!
A long time ago I accidently took my vibrams off at my parents house while taking a shower, they were eaten by Mocha the dog.
I asked Vibram what size I had ordered explaining that I need a new pair because mine had been eaten, now they're sending me a new pair for free!!!
Ah! New shoes?!?!
Now I'll own 4 pairs of shoes!

Not a lot of science updates recently. I'm bad.
Sort of lazy. I did spend too much time looking at images and videos of cuttlefish yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-DusaSVHmM&feature=related

So awesome.
I think fish are an excellent example of how alien another terran creature can be. Its cool what can evolve in a zero gravity environment.
Sweet little Cthulus.

Speaking of which. I just began reading Lovecraft last week. Sigh. I'm hooked. What a great writing style. It's SciFi Poe. I love it.

Yay! Almost the weekend. Working 5 12hour shifts was hard in the beginning. However, now I just look back and think of all the boredom I would of had if I had not been working. I don't think I'll sign myself up for that many hours again too soon (I do have to finish the next few weeks of this madness) but the good news is once I do have some time off I'll have plenty of money to blow!

I think I'm going to use these powers for good and get that new iphone. Maybe a chair or something for my porch now that it's functional. Or perhaps I'll do what I always do and decide that there really is nothing I need in life.

My goodness, my Guinness. Is it the weekend yet?

Outside!

Yay!
I'm finally getting to use my porch!
This is the first day it hasn't been killer hot here and I'm enjoying a bit of time on my deck. I pretty much never came out here if I could help it. It was a shame because the view is great. Oak trees.
Sigh...
This is nice. Watching little cat play with leaves, listening to a bit of OK Go, and shopping for my brother's b-day present.
Too bad I have to go back to work later.
I'm supposed to be planning a baby shower for someone I don't know. I found out yesterday someone told this person it was Sunday. I didn't know this. I'm trying to ask around to figure out how to get a hold of this person if I can't I'll just have to cancel it. I really don't want to do that though... I have no way of contacting this person. I've never even met her. Not a good place.

How did this happen you say? I guess I'm the party planning committee.

Haven't gone running in a long time. I've chosen sleep over exercise. However, this morning is just so nice....

Hmmm....

Great new idea!

I think iTunes needs a feature where you put in a book title and it formulates a soundtrack around that author's writing style. I could probably setup a theme in Pandora or something but how much easier would it be if I could type in an author or book title?

What brings this up you ask?
Being halfway through The Call of Cthulhu and iTunes choosing Hanson...

MMMBop?

Ummm, no.

Sent from my iPhone

Tired...

Unit council meeting was yesterday.
I had to take notes (having recently been elected secretary) so I took Eevee (netbook) and iphone to record the meeting. Good thing too. I think I was too nervous to really listen to anything that was going on. I seriously have no memory of any of the meeting.

Except that we started in a room that was way to small, moved to another room and started 20 minutes late. Then the meeting lasted an extra hour. So I was very late to work. Oops.

The best part of the meeting is when our manager said, "Ok, on to lunch break."
Then everyone stood up. Except him, he wanted to talk about lunch breaks. Oops again.

I think what I had to say went over really well. I had some morale boosting ideas, and beginning our shifts with team meetings. Everyone liked it and we're going to go live in September.

I've got to type these notes up on an "official" document sometime this week and email them out, but I don't have the "official" document.

Meh.

Tired with a headache.

The Cost of LYING- Science edition.

Dinking around at Triage today. Had a bit of time to skim the google reader. Always a joy in my otherwise dreary life. I came across a bit of interesing news (among the bits of new zombie paraphernilia, school starting for friends, and various drug trials) the public library of science published a bit about the costs of scientific misconduct. Always one for the fun of research I looked into it. 

 

 

They brought up the example of Scott Reuben. Facinated I wikied him. (I know google is a verb, but is wiki a verb? If not, lets make it one.) Scientific American had a bit to say about him in March 2009, exposing him as a member of Pfizer's speakers bureau and having received 5 research grants. Hal Jenson, the chief academic officer of Bay State Medical (Reuben's hosptial) said red flags when up when he noted that two of Reuben's studies had never received approval by the hospital. Hmm.

 

Reuben published several, several papers on efficacy of perioperative nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug administration (like celebrex-pfizer, or vioxx- merek.) the Oh SNAP! can be found here.

 

What I found even more facinating than all this (I mean come on, faked data for lots of money? People have done-what they consider- worse things than this for money) is Scott Reuben did his residency at Mount Sinai. Remember me ranting about medschools not requring the MCAT? Ranting about how they'll accept non-science majors? Ranting about how you can become an MD based on your highschool BIO class (if it was advanced placement.) Well, maybe I didn't rant on here about it, but I know I put it on facebook and John had to hear about it... a lot.

 

Yep, same school that published that data.

 

Hmm...

My science-senses are tingling...

  

Lou Gehrig didn't die of Lou Gehrig's disease?

Lou Gehrig didn't die of Lou Gehrig's disease?
Pluto is not a planet but a "basteroid"
What's next you cruel world of contradictions?

This study looks at the possibility of similar neurological problems suffered by those with multiple traumatic brain injuries and ALS.

Stephen Hawking once visited Nantucket
while there he ran out of luck, it
was while he was there
the wheels fell off of his chair
and he had to come home in a bucket.

I know, I know I should be frowned on for mocking someone who understands so much about something I know nearly nothing. You only frown more because he's "disabled." I feel like (if he knew me) Stephen Hawking would make fun of me because... well... I'm sure he'd think of something. It'd be witty too.

Speaking of which. I am always amazed at how many people don't know who Stephen Hawking is. Nearly everytime I've brought him up around acquaintances I have to explain. It's surprising. Although, I bet they feel the same way when they bring up Kim Kardashian. (I finally looked her up) I thought she was that Desperate Housewives girl... So, who's that?

Anyway. I wonder if Rockin' Hawking's condition is a result of too many swirlies in grade school... (Or Primary, whatever the British call it...)

Ramble bamble...

Remember when I talked about this?
(This is not my blog, but it so sums up my feelings)
How much it sucks to be an adult.

It's happening again, the circle is coming around. I'm reaching the point of irritation with all the things I have to get done. I just don't wanna.
Or so that's how it was going.
I'm slowly picking up. I watched some TV with John and it really helped. The house is a mess, we have no meals for next week, the laundry needs to be done, and I haven't gone running, but I'm happier. So it's all good.

I guess that's the danger of my job. All day I have to be nice and do things for people, go out of my way, deal with high stress, and maintain a cheerful aspect even when I have no clue what's going on. Sigh, sometimes I wish I could be an aggressive, offensive, antagonistic person so people would leave me alone, but no that would go against my humanistic beliefs. I'm outgoing and like to help, it makes more sense. It also makes me really tired.

I know I need to "have time for myself," but currently most of my "me time" is devoted to John so he can focus on school. So, him taking the time to sit on the couch with me and play Star Trek trivial pursuit really made my day better. (Except he beat me, all because I mispronounced Chekov's middle name. Jerk.)

I think I have to make a big decision on this whole marathon thing. It takes a lot of time, am I really wanting to devote this much time to this? I mean, there are so many other things (not just sitting around!) that I also want/need to do. Mostly study for the CEN. I saw on a plaque at work the other day that there are only 3 CENs in our department and one is a 'high-heeled' nurse that doesn't do patient care. Hmmm. I'd like my name on that plaque...

Article for today.
I was listening to the Nature Medicine Podcast and they had a story about a bit of music written using the choir's genetic code. I tried to find a bit of music, but alas I didn't search that hard and if you listen to the 18 min podcast you'll get to hear a bit of it anyway. Quite an interesting concept especially if you think of the ethics recently brought up by the UC Berkley "freshman DNA" experiment. Sigh.

Anyway, I was going to play it to John whilst he studies.

I'm gonna go running. I think I finally found the energy for it.

Bleh...

I signed up for a lot of hours yesterday.
In fact I think I doubled my paycheck for the next 4 weeks. Booyah!

This is good. John just gave a lot of our money to UAMS and we were left with $75.
Meep.

For some reason I was incredibly depressed yesterday morning. Maybe just tired, whatever the case I was very unmotivated. It was almost a t-shirt day. Anytime I wear a t-shirt to work its a signal. I don't give a crap. Its a little warning to everyone, plus it makes me work just a bit harder to make up for my sloppy appearance.
Plus t-shirts are comfortable with scrubs.

Nothing great for Friday the 13th. Sorry. Just not interested in much right now.
I'm readjusting to John not being around. I was so used to him always being here, now that he's always gone it's a bit odd. This is why I am going to start working 5 12 hour shifts. Of course this will simply have the effect of turning me into a big pile of "don't care." It's amazing how listening to people complain all day have that effect.

It's all good, my lil cat luz me.

H1N1 and NDM1 on a triple word tile!!

Wow, that's gotta be like 70 points!

My husband and I play scrabble.
Or as he corrected me the other day, "Words with Friends."

We used to play scrabble a lot, we even had a travel scrabble board for when we would eat out at "slower" restaurants. Then we took it to the pool, it warped and finally we both downloaded the iphone app. Now we can play scr- ahem... "Words with Friends" when ever we want. However, I tend to let several days lapse between turns.

The downside to "Words with Friends" is my husband and I like to play "Medical Scrabble" and extra 50 points or so if the word is medical. Or was it 10? 50 extra points seems a bit ridiculous for xiphoid (which already rakes in the money)

So when I logged into my google reader yesterday I was greeted with the happy news that the WHO has declared the H1N1 pandemic over and terrifying emergence of NDM1.
Ugh. Can't we ever get a break?

I'm sure everyone has heard of H1N1, the "swine flu" a poorly named virus that caused global panic, the slaughtering of pigs, and a national decrease in bacon sales (don't worry my bacon chapstick is still safe!) Many people are coming down hard on the WHO for their response to H1N1. When it was happening everyone was yelling about the fact that they we're not prepared, that they were not fast enough, that people were dying, that there weren't enough vaccines, that the vaccines were not safe and we were all going to die of mercury poisoning. Ugh. There is more mercury in a can of tuna than was in that aduvant.
ANYWAY.
NOW, people are mad at the WHO because they spent to much money, caused a global panic, there are excess vaccines that need to be destroyed, and people don't feel the pandemic was "really that bad."
Seriously people?

In other news, there's a pretty scary bit of enzyme running around now. NDM1 (If you google this you get pictures of guitars.) It's coming out of India and it's a enzyme making drug resistant bacteria even more so. So much the Lancet published a bit about "The end of antibiotics" (<-this is a link to The Guardian though.)
I don't like that phrase. In fact, it scares the C.Diff outta me. We've only had penicillin since the 1920s and already these little bacteria are kicking our vestigial tails in the evolutionary race. Not good people. Take ALL of your antibiotics and wash your hands!

Simple, simple things. No wonder so many people believe other people are stupid. We're killing ourselves because we don't take the 30seconds post potty to scrub-a-dub-dub.

So, easy take home message? Get your vaccines, wash your hands, and find me on "Words with Friends!" cxJvak

MedSchool Widow

I've been replaced.
Instead of me John gets to snuggle with large books all evening. Right now he's explaining how Cipro effects the twisting and untwisting to topoisomerase. Wow, this is day two of classes. He's got a quiz tomorrow morning too.

I spent the day doing delightfully whatever I wanted. Although I can see how once it gets cold and the pool shuts down this is going to be a lot less enjoyable. I keep holding out for payday because John just wrote a check for $20,000 and it's freaking me out just a little. Mostly because all of our bills are set to autopay so I'm not quite sure when they withdraw from our account... No harsh calls from the bank just yet.

Once I get away from work for a while I really start to fall back into my "Sam" habits. I'm not so obsessed with nursing. I'm trying to come up with interesting stories or facts or whatever. Nope, nada, not much.

Hmm, just to not be lazy I'll browse my inbox.
SciAm says MRSA infections are on the decline. This is good, who needs MRSA infections? Blood related hospital acquired MRSA infections have decreased 34% in the 4 years between 2004 and 2008.
Yay, go handwashing.


Now, THIS is interesting. How to make the Elixir of Life. Wow.
Thanks to Harry Potter we all know what the Philosopher's Stone is. (Or if you never heard of the British title, The Sorcerer's Stone) Here it is on eHow. com how to make your own! Of all the things in the past to make a comeback. (I thought 80s fashion was bad enough) Alchemy?

I know, I know. It's probably just a small subset of nutjobs that would actually believe this sort of pseudoscience to be true, but it just shows you how little rationality people possess. Even for a small amount of people to think they can brew this up and "improve their aura" etc etc. Think about it. If there are flat earthers, and alchemists out there. How far have we come into the future?


While we're at it, Where's my damn flying car?!

This was a big weekend for us! Here I am, super proud of John as he finally gets his White Coat.
Here's what I learned. The White Coat Ceremony has only been around since the 90s. It was instigated to impress upon Medical Students the importance they have as students. They're not yet doctors, but they're still viewed as medical professionals by the general public. Essentially, when you wear a white coat, people don't look at your name tag, they just assume you know what you're talking about. So, don't screw it up. The longer your coat is, the farther along in your education you are. So, my tall man in a short coat looks kind of silly. Who cares?! He did it!

I got to meet a lot of people as John introduced me to his classmates. I'll be honest, it has been a long time since I've been in a group of people near my age. It was nice. Being with peers, and even better that we could all be around the same level of education. The "Welcome to Hell" party was great fun. Very loud, but great fun.

Today John is actually in class. I'm home alone until he gets out, then he'll either go to a friend's house to study or they'll all come here.

I've really got this "learning Spanish" drive right now. I've had at least one Spanish ONLY speaking patient. It's really building up my confidence in this language I've never really gotten to use.

Right now I'm navigating the "downloadable" library of audiobooks at the library. Not a great selection and it takes FOREVER to actually get the audio.
I had to put my selection on hold, wait a week, now I have to download their "reader" install, download the audiobook, and now I'm trying to load it on my ipod. An HOUR per installment? It's only an 11 hour book. It will take longer to get the book transferred than to listen to it.
Bah, not doing this again...
Well, let's hope Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Killer is worth it.

I've got to stop doing this...

Normally when I use that phase it refers to either sitting on the couch all day playing video games, or getting french fries from the cafeteria, but this time it refers to how often I speak up when I should keep quiet.

So my first unit council meeting is the 19th. So far I've got 5 different topics to present on.
1. Positive reinforcement for meeting standards of care.
2. Change of shift meetings.
3. Stroke protocols
4. Chest pain flowsheets
And now...
5. A code summary of Aug 3

As I was trying to leave work two nights ago I walked into a circus of a code. Unfortunately the two doctors who would have discharged my pts were busy as well as the charge nurse so I couldn't get rid of my pts or give report.
So I hitched up my britches and did what I could to wrap up the code.

I'm not talking bad about the nurses or doctors that I work with, they did as well as they could with the equipment they had. Unfortunately, they didn't have the equipment they needed!
I found this as an opportunity to write a strongly worded and bullet-pointed (??) email to my manager trying to get us some funding to purchase some much needed supplies.
Now he wants me to present my case to the nursing council.
(The guy lived btw.)

I'm going to be so busy. These people are going to be sick of seeing my face...

Parties and Good News!

Had a wildly successful surprise party for my Dad's 5oth birthday!
Hooray!

We sneaked down to Springfield and helped my brother and sister-in-law set up their house where my Dad thought he was having a quiet birthday dinner. Little did he know we had a luau!

Great time was had by all.
He said of all his 5o years, the last 50 were the best. It was so hard not to blog about getting ready for the party. Secrets are hard to keep. Unfortunately now that school has started it will be a while before we get the chance to get back to Springfield so... see you all at Christmas!

In other news. As we were driving back we received a great phone call.
Brett made it into UMKC Dental school! AH! Can't hardly express how happy I am for him! Now he and Micah have 3 weeks to get packed and move to KC. Wow. Don't envy you for the blitz you have to look forward to.
I don't really know a more deserving person to receive this great news. Brett's worked in the same pharmacy for..6 years(?) Has volunteered on a dental truck for the disadvantaged for 1.5 years, has been his church's youth leader for at least 3 all while taking some of the hardest classes Drury had to offer. He's worked himself silly and finally gets his goal.
Congrats Brett.
You way than more deserve it.

Now John and Brett get to kibitz together about their various programs.
John's first day of UAMS is today. Can hardly wait to hear about it.

Running injuries

Yes, we all get them.
They slow us down, ruin our times, make training impossible and simply give us the grumps.

There's nothing worse than a running injury.
Life seems to be great then all of a sudden without warning you're back to square one, hobbling along. It's shameful and frustrating.
I am suffering from a running injury.

This can't be the normal injury, oh no! This must be in a league all its own. I can't have a simple twisted ankle or IT injury. No shin-splints for me.

I have a burn.
I swear an actual burn mark (that will scar) across my chest from my sports bra.

I look like I've had reconstructive surgery.

Ridiculous...