Feed it Forward

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

With the spirit of the season upon us I wanted to share

a wonderful program that I found online.

Restaurant.com

has a program running called

"Feed It Forward"

which allows you to gift up to 40 people 

with a $10.00 credit to Restaurant.com that will

allow them to buy gift certificates to a number of restaurants 

of their choice.

If you don't have 40 people to give to you can 

donate these gift certificates to

"Random Acts of Kindness"

which will distribute them to those in need.

This program runs until December 25th

go check it out and give some holiday cheer!

In the spirit of giving, 

if you would like a free $10.00 gift certificate,

leave me a comment on this post telling me

what you are grateful for this holiday season

 and I will send you one before Dec 25th!

(don't forget to include your email address)

The Martians Are Coming!

Being back in my home town of Toronto has been fun.

It's amazing how much the city has changed since I was 

last here.

The martians are coming!

Like this guy.

He wasn't here the last time I was. 

Certainly an odd choice in art

but I'm sure the Martians will feel right at home when they see him.

Public Healthcare Woe's

When people learn I was born in Canada the first thing out of their mouth is usually

"Why on Earth did you leave? Don't you get free healthcare there?"

No, we don't. 

We have public healthcare funded by tax dollars.

Yes, it's true that I a person does not have to pay for ER visits

but it also means that there is a lack of certain things you get in 

private healthcare, like customer service.

Here is a small example of what I mean,

I recently visited home and while there my grandmother 

fell and ended up in the ER.

While I was there she needed to get up and use the commode,

instead of bothering the nurse I helped her up to use it and got her back 

into bed.  It was change of shift so I let the nurse take report and come 

around to get vitals. While she was taking vitals I pointed out that the 

commode was full and that the foley bag needed emptying.

The nurse said that she would return in a moment to do both.

I waited 30 minutes and watched the foley bag get fuller,

I waited another 15 minutes before approaching the nurse 

and offered to empty both the foley and the commode if she could 

tell me where she would like me to empty it.

She got annoyed and told me she would be 

"right there"

I spent an hour there visiting with my grandmother,

the foley and commode never got emptied while I was there.

My uncle who stayed with my grandmother that night told me

he had to ask 3 more times before anyone took care of it.

Sadly, this is pretty typical

and not the first or last story I have about

public healthcare.

Pysch Test

This brings back memories of the psych tests we took.

Yes, nurses have to a pysch portion too...

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Hmmm,
What does it say when every nursing student I showed it to answered "F"?

Social Experiment

Source: jeffbridges.com via Valerie on Pinterest

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children.. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly..

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?

Got an Extension Cord?

This one is courtesy of a friend of mine.

His mom is a nurse and snapped this photo.

Hmm that's a long extension cord

Hope that Coke machine is really close to the

patients room or else everyone is going to be 

tripping on the extension cord.