Restaurant workers say "on the fly" and "86" on a daily basis. Others have no idea what that means. Every field has their own lingo, but the use of most of that lingo never affects anyone in a bad way. If a server says "86 the mayo," no one will be any worse off because of it.
In health care, however, it's a different story. There is a medical language that takes years of school to fully understand. Since most health care professionals have been through all of the schooling necessary to learn the lingo, it is commonplace to them and they use it in day-to-day interactions.
The problem with this is when they forget to translate what they're saying into something their patients can understand. Most health care professionals forget that this is even an issue because they have forgotten what it's like to listen to someone spout off something at them and have no idea what was just said. It's hard to go back to before they had the knowledge they do, and explain what they have to say in a manner that will make it easy for anyone to understand.
So how can we solve this problem? It's obvious that patients and doctors/pharmacists/nurses/surgeons/etc need to be able to communicate and fully understand each other. Without a full understanding, there will continue to be a high number of mistakes and misunderstanding that could majorly affect a patient's life. Even the relationship between manufacturer and patient can be difficult. Instructions on bottles often make little sense or are so dense with information that the necessary information can't even be located.
One thing I know it that health care professionals need to continually work on that most important word: care. They need to take time to listen to their patients' complaints and acknowledge their worries. The need to come up with a plan to take care of the patients' medical problems, but in doing that they must make certain the patient fully understands certain things like how they should take it, what they're taking it for, and how long they're expected to stay on it.
Imagine two people. Both are 25 years old. One has played basketball competitively for many years; the other has never seen a basketball before. One is going to fly through a basketball drill with ease while the other one will fumble around foolishly. One will leave with a great sense of accomplishment; another will leave embarrassed and discouraged. One will have known exactly what was going on during the drill; the other will still be confused and never really understand what happened during the drill.
Apply this analogy to a patient and a doctor. Can you see how a doctor's visit can be experienced in two very different ways by different people? Obviously navigating health care won't be as difficult for some people as it is for others, but that doesn't mean we can just overlook it.
A friend linked me to this video that talks about this topic. While it's a bit dated, we still face the same problems they show.
As a patient, what do YOU feel can be changed to make health care make more sense? What are some times that you feel like a complete health care klutz? Is there anyone that is a part of your care team (doctor/nurse/pharmacist/etc) that you feel can help you understand if you have problems?
If you have time, I'd really like to know your answers. As a student, I have obviously seen health care professionals go from driven young people to overworked workers in a matter of years. It's no different from other careers- people get burnt out doing what they do. But as health care professional we can't let our level of care slip because we have forgotten what it's like to really care if our message gets through. I'd love it if you can offer me some insight. Thanks!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Forcing beliefs on others
It seems like every time I watch Trading Spouses or Wife Swap, I get pretty fired up about something. They find the most ridiculous families to film for those shows.
Anyway, last night I was watching Trading Spouses. Between the two, I definitely prefer Wife Swap. They get 2 weeks for the swap and it's much more structured than Trading Spouses. By the end of Wife Swap, each family seems to have become more open minded to different cultures/people, but with Trading Spouses pretty much everyone just ended up pissed off and ready to go home.
Last night one of the families was vegan. The other family gave swamp tours in the bayou (in Louisiana) and eats a lot of meat. What bothered me so much was the vegan mom.
Don't get me wrong- I'm all about people having beliefs and defending them if anyone tries to test them, but do NOT try to force them on other people! While this woman was in Louisiana, they threw a couple of parties. At each party, she would try to talk people into becoming vegan. At the second one, she even showed an informational video about veganism (right after dinner) and sobbed through the whole thing.
That brings me to my point. Just because you have chosen to live a certain way or do things a certain way does not mean you should try to convert people. This is true for many things. In this case, it was veganism, in others it's religion or morals. There's a difference between educating people that ask and forcing your information on them. As an example, I'd never get an abortion, but I'd also never go up to someone who was getting one and tell her that she's an idiot for doing it and that she'll burn in hell for making that decision...not that I think that would/should happen to people that get abortions.
All I'm really saying is that I'm tired of people that try to make everyone else do what they have decided is right. People live separate lives and should be able to meander down their own path without someone getting in the way and trying to alter where their life is going. As soon as people on a LARGE scale get this, I think there are going to be a lot fewer problems in the world. Everyone just needs to be happy with how their life has panned out and stop worrying about changing others' lives.
Anyway, last night I was watching Trading Spouses. Between the two, I definitely prefer Wife Swap. They get 2 weeks for the swap and it's much more structured than Trading Spouses. By the end of Wife Swap, each family seems to have become more open minded to different cultures/people, but with Trading Spouses pretty much everyone just ended up pissed off and ready to go home.
Last night one of the families was vegan. The other family gave swamp tours in the bayou (in Louisiana) and eats a lot of meat. What bothered me so much was the vegan mom.
Don't get me wrong- I'm all about people having beliefs and defending them if anyone tries to test them, but do NOT try to force them on other people! While this woman was in Louisiana, they threw a couple of parties. At each party, she would try to talk people into becoming vegan. At the second one, she even showed an informational video about veganism (right after dinner) and sobbed through the whole thing.
That brings me to my point. Just because you have chosen to live a certain way or do things a certain way does not mean you should try to convert people. This is true for many things. In this case, it was veganism, in others it's religion or morals. There's a difference between educating people that ask and forcing your information on them. As an example, I'd never get an abortion, but I'd also never go up to someone who was getting one and tell her that she's an idiot for doing it and that she'll burn in hell for making that decision...not that I think that would/should happen to people that get abortions.
All I'm really saying is that I'm tired of people that try to make everyone else do what they have decided is right. People live separate lives and should be able to meander down their own path without someone getting in the way and trying to alter where their life is going. As soon as people on a LARGE scale get this, I think there are going to be a lot fewer problems in the world. Everyone just needs to be happy with how their life has panned out and stop worrying about changing others' lives.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
I need help with names!
So summer is rapidly approaching and this makes me very VERY happy! For one, school will be out! But secondly, we have just over 30 days until we can start looking for the newest member of our family!
We are getting a puppy (ish...she will be older, most likely, than how old Koopa was when we got him), and we need to figure out what we're going to name her! If you can only name dogs based on what they look like, I can give you some guidelines. We're looking for either a) a shepherd-type dog that looks similar to Koopa or b) a black lab/border collie mix. And if you think her name needs to mesh with our other animals' (or at least Koopa's) names, their names are Pumpkin, Macy, Jilly and Koopa. Here is the list we have going so far:
We are getting a puppy (ish...she will be older, most likely, than how old Koopa was when we got him), and we need to figure out what we're going to name her! If you can only name dogs based on what they look like, I can give you some guidelines. We're looking for either a) a shepherd-type dog that looks similar to Koopa or b) a black lab/border collie mix. And if you think her name needs to mesh with our other animals' (or at least Koopa's) names, their names are Pumpkin, Macy, Jilly and Koopa. Here is the list we have going so far:
- Kenzie
- Zoey
- Daisy (Mario theme...)
- Kasha (pronounced Kah-shuh)
- Ruby
- Piper
- Kya (pronounced Kie...as in pie...uh)
Monday, April 5, 2010
Need a laugh?
This post is about my dog pooing- it's not really graphic, but I thought I'd warn you anyway.
You know how most (normal) dogs go out & go right away when they need to go to the bathroom? Not my dog. Here is a glimpse into what I deal with almost every time he needs to do his business. Side note: the "bang!" is a bell next to the door that he rings when he needs to go to the bathroom.
1) Bang!
2) Look at mom (repeat 1 & 2 x 20)
3) Go outside
4) Sniff grass forever
5) Try to get the baseball from mom
6) Sniff the grass
7) STICK!
8) Chew stick
9) Lay down to chew stick (in the wet grass)
10) Chew little piece of stick ripped off as mom took away big stick
11) Eat stick
12) Sniff poop from yesterday
13) OH POOP!
14) Poop
15) Eat cockroach
16) Inside
Yep, 16 steps to get my dog to do his business and get back inside. And I laughed the entire time. Hope it made you chuckle! Happy Monday!
You know how most (normal) dogs go out & go right away when they need to go to the bathroom? Not my dog. Here is a glimpse into what I deal with almost every time he needs to do his business. Side note: the "bang!" is a bell next to the door that he rings when he needs to go to the bathroom.
1) Bang!
2) Look at mom (repeat 1 & 2 x 20)
3) Go outside
4) Sniff grass forever
5) Try to get the baseball from mom
6) Sniff the grass
7) STICK!
8) Chew stick
9) Lay down to chew stick (in the wet grass)
10) Chew little piece of stick ripped off as mom took away big stick
11) Eat stick
12) Sniff poop from yesterday
13) OH POOP!
14) Poop
15) Eat cockroach
16) Inside
Yep, 16 steps to get my dog to do his business and get back inside. And I laughed the entire time. Hope it made you chuckle! Happy Monday!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Random thoughts of the day
I realized that I rarely post a blatantly positive blog post, so I'm going to do that today by sharing a few random thoughts.
- The weather outside is AMAZING! The clouds are fluffy and white. The beautiful blue sky is visible. It's just breezy and not windy.
- The trees outside are big enough now that birds can sit in them. Know what that means? I get to listen to the sweet songs they sing.
- Koopa and the cats are absolutely loving having the windows open. They've been laying in front of them all day.
- Since I started lifting weights a couple of days ago, I've gained 3 pounds! Losing all that weight so fast was pretty scary, so gaining it back fast has eased my worries. And it's going to be awesome to have some strength back and have arms that are more filled out. Can't wait!
- This is probably the first holiday in my 23 years that will be spent family-drama free. That in itself is freakin' amazing and unbelievable.
- I ate mini corn dogs last night and didn't get sick! I'm still on a high from it. It's been so long since I've had a meat other than turkey. I have also always loved corn dogs, so being able to eat them again (slowly and in small quantities lol) has been great.
- Did I mention this weather?!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Every now and then...
....I miss going to church.
When I was little, I went to a Catholic school. We went to church on Sunday mornings and on Wednesdays. Every now and then we would also go on Friday mornings, but I can't remember why. We had a religion class as our first class of the day. I remember that I HATED it all.
I was a weird child. I LOVED learning, but I didn't ever feel like I learned anything in my religion class or in church. They just kept telling us a bunch of stories that didn't make any sense. But that's what we did- we were supposed to go to church and we had to go to religion class, so I did. As an aside, as I look back on it now I DID learn a lot from those "pointless" stories. They taught me the difference between right and wrong, and kind of taught me the types of morals I should possess.
When I moved and started public school, we still kept going to church every Sunday, but I no longer had any religion classes. There was an eye opener that year- I learned that other religions existed other than Catholicism. I know it's hard to believe, but, unfortunately, it is true. I started to doubt my upbringing at that point. Why didn't we get taught about other religions at my Catholic school? Why would they hide something like that from us? Was it because the other religions made more sense? Whatever the reason, I was not happy (and pretty freakin' embarrassed- oh yeah, that's the new girl. She thought Catholicism was the only religion.)
Shortly after I moved to OP, I started religion classes through our church. I think these were to prepare me for my Confirmation in 8th grade. I met a lot of great people through those classes. We also had a youth group that met during the week. This was the first time I had met kids my age that really believed everything they had been taught by the church and seemed to feel a connection with god. And I was jealous of these kids. I wanted to feel that closeness with god and know that everything I had been told was true. But the truth was that I felt nothing.
So I searched for a couple of years trying to find my way to god. Then the time came for me to be confirmed. I'm not sure why they choose 8th grade as the point in time a child is ready to accept Catholicism as their one and only religion for life, but they do. So I got confirmed. I mean really...what choice did I have? Sorry mom & dad, grandma & grandpa, but I'm just really not feeling this religion. I think I'm gonna switch or just not practice it anymore. Yeah...doesn't quite work that way.
I was kind of hoping that my Confirmation would be the magic switch that opened up a line of communication with god. No such luck. Nothing changed at all, except now I supposedly had a new middle name- Rose, after some random saint I chose and wrote a paper on. Well, I guess one thing did change- I felt like I owned my faith and that it was my responsibility now. So I started paying attention in church. Instead of speaking the prayers and various things we do, I listened. And I tried to understand what it all meant...why it was we were saying those things. I watched people, looking to see if they had that connection that I was looking for.
You know what I found? I heard people droning on, speaking words that they knew by heart but did not say from the heart. I saw people checking their watches, checking their texts/emails/etc, or even people staring at the ceiling as their mouths moved along with everyone else's. I heard the priest give sermons about how we needed to give more money to the church so that we could build a new church. Then after church was over, these "holy" people would avert their eyes and practically run to the safety of their cars in which they would speed out of the parking lot without any regard for the safety of others around them. Hands would fly up, curse words would escape their lips, as if nothing they had just witnessed in church had ever happened.
We were just in the presence of Jesus himself. You said you believed that, you confirmed it when you took his body and drank his blood. But it was all a lie because just like me you felt nothing and you believe none of it. You are here because you have to be. Because it's what you've always done and will always do.
These people baffled me. I went to school with a lot of people that went to my church. They were all what I considered "bad" kids. This is the point where you're going to think, "Ugh, she's such a prude." Damn right I am. Anyway, they were having sex, smoking, drinking, cursing and didn't seem to have any respect for anyone outside their social circle. Everything they did contradicted everything my moral upbringing had taught me. But these kids showed up for church every single Sunday.
Was I supposed to be fake too? Sit through church and pretend like I was touched and that I believed? Was I supposed to act like a "good" kid in front of my religion teachers and youth group and then do bad things when they weren't around? From what I'd learned about morals from my religion classes, I was not. I was supposed to act according to my morals at all times. And I did. I seriously did not say "fuck" until I was 18 years old. I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I hadn't even kissed a boy (not that kissing is a bad thing), and I was a great student.
I guess my idea of religion was something that made a group of people have integrity. They were to act the same way at all times because they were living for god. When the priest actually gave a sermon that wasn't asking for money, he would talk about things like that. So why didn't these people who came to church and acted all holy apply what they pretended to believe to their lives?
This was the point where I just got fed up with it all. I didn't want to pretend. I wanted to actually feel like I had a relationship with god. I wanted a priest (or pastor) who actually cared enough about their faith to not get sucked into a money making plan and focus only on that. I wanted to be surrounded by kids who were like me instead of ones who shunned me because I was like they should have been. I wanted role models that I could actually look to for help when I was struggling with my faith, not ones who I couldn't even trust to not run me over after church.
So I gave up Catholicism. By then my family had mostly stopped going to church because it took up too much of their schedule (a whole HOUR out of their week!), and I had been going alone. So when I quit going no one really cared. No one from church called to see where I was, and the only people that would have cared (my grandparents) were being lied to by my parents so they wouldn't know.
The hardest part was telling my family I didn't consider myself Catholic anymore. My little sister: "WHAT?!?! You were born Catholic, you just can't stop being Catholic!" Uh, it's a religion, not a skin color or something. They were very disappointed with me, but I didn't understand why. I was the one who had tried so hard to make it work for me. And even when they had stopped going to church, I would go by myself to see if I could have my breakthrough with god.
It may sound like I'm bashing Catholicism, but I'm not. The people who actually believed in it (my grade school teachers) used it to shape me into the person I am today, and I will be forever grateful for that. But my experience with religion has just made me a little wary of ANY religions at all. I think people get too focused on what they have to do per their religion instead of just feeling their way through their relationship with god.
So for the past few years I've just been working on developing my faith instead of following a religion. And it amazes me how much this confuses people. "But if you don't have a religion, how can you believe in god?" To me that's kind of like someone asking who's method I use to train my dog, me responding with, "Well really I'm just sort of winging it," and them not being able to comprehend that. Just because I don't have a set of rules to follow doesn't mean I still can't be faithful.
But the truth is that even after my "split" with the Catholic church, I still can't say that I have ever felt god's presence. Part of it, I'm sure, is that the book that most people use to prove the existence of god uses stories that are really hard to believe coming at it from a scientific point of view. I just can't rationally justify the existence of a higher power.
So, after over 1500 words, I've come back to my main point. I feel lonely. When I believed in god and was trying to feel his presence in my life, I thought I felt nothing. But now that I've practically given up that part of my life, I feel like there is a void. Does that mean that I did find my connection with god without knowing it? I don't know.
That leaves me asking myself how I find something to fill that void in my life. Do I go back to church? Can I convince myself to start believing in god again? The really sad part is that I don't have the people in my life to talk about religious issues anymore. My parents don't have time for me anymore, my grandparents still don't even know that I'm struggling with my faith (or that I'm not Catholic anymore...my wedding is going to be a HUGE shocker), and my sisters would just tell me, "It's easy. I don't see what the big deal is." The other side of me keeps asking if I really even need to find my way back to god.
Honestly, I do want to feel like I have a higher purpose in this life and feel like there's someone up there making sure the shit doesn't hit the fan, but I don't think I could ever be like those "holier than thou" people. I don't want to be the person who annoys everyone (which I'm sure I already have) by bringing up god's name and talking about having a relationship with him. I guess I just want to have a private relationship with him, if I even want that.
Faith is confusing to me because it really is a huge part of my life, but it's something that I understand so little. I'm scared of it and want to push it away just as much as I yearn for it to be a part of my life. I'll close by saying: you rock, reader, for making it this far!
When I was little, I went to a Catholic school. We went to church on Sunday mornings and on Wednesdays. Every now and then we would also go on Friday mornings, but I can't remember why. We had a religion class as our first class of the day. I remember that I HATED it all.
I was a weird child. I LOVED learning, but I didn't ever feel like I learned anything in my religion class or in church. They just kept telling us a bunch of stories that didn't make any sense. But that's what we did- we were supposed to go to church and we had to go to religion class, so I did. As an aside, as I look back on it now I DID learn a lot from those "pointless" stories. They taught me the difference between right and wrong, and kind of taught me the types of morals I should possess.
When I moved and started public school, we still kept going to church every Sunday, but I no longer had any religion classes. There was an eye opener that year- I learned that other religions existed other than Catholicism. I know it's hard to believe, but, unfortunately, it is true. I started to doubt my upbringing at that point. Why didn't we get taught about other religions at my Catholic school? Why would they hide something like that from us? Was it because the other religions made more sense? Whatever the reason, I was not happy (and pretty freakin' embarrassed- oh yeah, that's the new girl. She thought Catholicism was the only religion.)
Shortly after I moved to OP, I started religion classes through our church. I think these were to prepare me for my Confirmation in 8th grade. I met a lot of great people through those classes. We also had a youth group that met during the week. This was the first time I had met kids my age that really believed everything they had been taught by the church and seemed to feel a connection with god. And I was jealous of these kids. I wanted to feel that closeness with god and know that everything I had been told was true. But the truth was that I felt nothing.
So I searched for a couple of years trying to find my way to god. Then the time came for me to be confirmed. I'm not sure why they choose 8th grade as the point in time a child is ready to accept Catholicism as their one and only religion for life, but they do. So I got confirmed. I mean really...what choice did I have? Sorry mom & dad, grandma & grandpa, but I'm just really not feeling this religion. I think I'm gonna switch or just not practice it anymore. Yeah...doesn't quite work that way.
I was kind of hoping that my Confirmation would be the magic switch that opened up a line of communication with god. No such luck. Nothing changed at all, except now I supposedly had a new middle name- Rose, after some random saint I chose and wrote a paper on. Well, I guess one thing did change- I felt like I owned my faith and that it was my responsibility now. So I started paying attention in church. Instead of speaking the prayers and various things we do, I listened. And I tried to understand what it all meant...why it was we were saying those things. I watched people, looking to see if they had that connection that I was looking for.
You know what I found? I heard people droning on, speaking words that they knew by heart but did not say from the heart. I saw people checking their watches, checking their texts/emails/etc, or even people staring at the ceiling as their mouths moved along with everyone else's. I heard the priest give sermons about how we needed to give more money to the church so that we could build a new church. Then after church was over, these "holy" people would avert their eyes and practically run to the safety of their cars in which they would speed out of the parking lot without any regard for the safety of others around them. Hands would fly up, curse words would escape their lips, as if nothing they had just witnessed in church had ever happened.
We were just in the presence of Jesus himself. You said you believed that, you confirmed it when you took his body and drank his blood. But it was all a lie because just like me you felt nothing and you believe none of it. You are here because you have to be. Because it's what you've always done and will always do.
These people baffled me. I went to school with a lot of people that went to my church. They were all what I considered "bad" kids. This is the point where you're going to think, "Ugh, she's such a prude." Damn right I am. Anyway, they were having sex, smoking, drinking, cursing and didn't seem to have any respect for anyone outside their social circle. Everything they did contradicted everything my moral upbringing had taught me. But these kids showed up for church every single Sunday.
Was I supposed to be fake too? Sit through church and pretend like I was touched and that I believed? Was I supposed to act like a "good" kid in front of my religion teachers and youth group and then do bad things when they weren't around? From what I'd learned about morals from my religion classes, I was not. I was supposed to act according to my morals at all times. And I did. I seriously did not say "fuck" until I was 18 years old. I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I hadn't even kissed a boy (not that kissing is a bad thing), and I was a great student.
I guess my idea of religion was something that made a group of people have integrity. They were to act the same way at all times because they were living for god. When the priest actually gave a sermon that wasn't asking for money, he would talk about things like that. So why didn't these people who came to church and acted all holy apply what they pretended to believe to their lives?
This was the point where I just got fed up with it all. I didn't want to pretend. I wanted to actually feel like I had a relationship with god. I wanted a priest (or pastor) who actually cared enough about their faith to not get sucked into a money making plan and focus only on that. I wanted to be surrounded by kids who were like me instead of ones who shunned me because I was like they should have been. I wanted role models that I could actually look to for help when I was struggling with my faith, not ones who I couldn't even trust to not run me over after church.
So I gave up Catholicism. By then my family had mostly stopped going to church because it took up too much of their schedule (a whole HOUR out of their week!), and I had been going alone. So when I quit going no one really cared. No one from church called to see where I was, and the only people that would have cared (my grandparents) were being lied to by my parents so they wouldn't know.
The hardest part was telling my family I didn't consider myself Catholic anymore. My little sister: "WHAT?!?! You were born Catholic, you just can't stop being Catholic!" Uh, it's a religion, not a skin color or something. They were very disappointed with me, but I didn't understand why. I was the one who had tried so hard to make it work for me. And even when they had stopped going to church, I would go by myself to see if I could have my breakthrough with god.
It may sound like I'm bashing Catholicism, but I'm not. The people who actually believed in it (my grade school teachers) used it to shape me into the person I am today, and I will be forever grateful for that. But my experience with religion has just made me a little wary of ANY religions at all. I think people get too focused on what they have to do per their religion instead of just feeling their way through their relationship with god.
So for the past few years I've just been working on developing my faith instead of following a religion. And it amazes me how much this confuses people. "But if you don't have a religion, how can you believe in god?" To me that's kind of like someone asking who's method I use to train my dog, me responding with, "Well really I'm just sort of winging it," and them not being able to comprehend that. Just because I don't have a set of rules to follow doesn't mean I still can't be faithful.
But the truth is that even after my "split" with the Catholic church, I still can't say that I have ever felt god's presence. Part of it, I'm sure, is that the book that most people use to prove the existence of god uses stories that are really hard to believe coming at it from a scientific point of view. I just can't rationally justify the existence of a higher power.
So, after over 1500 words, I've come back to my main point. I feel lonely. When I believed in god and was trying to feel his presence in my life, I thought I felt nothing. But now that I've practically given up that part of my life, I feel like there is a void. Does that mean that I did find my connection with god without knowing it? I don't know.
That leaves me asking myself how I find something to fill that void in my life. Do I go back to church? Can I convince myself to start believing in god again? The really sad part is that I don't have the people in my life to talk about religious issues anymore. My parents don't have time for me anymore, my grandparents still don't even know that I'm struggling with my faith (or that I'm not Catholic anymore...my wedding is going to be a HUGE shocker), and my sisters would just tell me, "It's easy. I don't see what the big deal is." The other side of me keeps asking if I really even need to find my way back to god.
Honestly, I do want to feel like I have a higher purpose in this life and feel like there's someone up there making sure the shit doesn't hit the fan, but I don't think I could ever be like those "holier than thou" people. I don't want to be the person who annoys everyone (which I'm sure I already have) by bringing up god's name and talking about having a relationship with him. I guess I just want to have a private relationship with him, if I even want that.
Faith is confusing to me because it really is a huge part of my life, but it's something that I understand so little. I'm scared of it and want to push it away just as much as I yearn for it to be a part of my life. I'll close by saying: you rock, reader, for making it this far!
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