The Humidity Cometh

A few weeks ago, I got a glimpse of what the summer heat and humidity may bring.  Since then, it has turned cool and decidedly less humid.  Today, however, I fear may be a pivotal change from glimpse to prolonged heat and humidity.  "It must be hot there today," you may be thinking.  No, no it's actually cloudy, cold and rainy.  The reason I suspect today may be a turning point, and not say tomorrow (when the heat is actually supposed to rise), is because rain fuels the foliage around here.  Foliage that reaches woodland proportions: the poison ivy is so large as to be confused with a large bush or tree, the poison oak reaches hundreds of feet into the air on the tree that it climbs.  Not to mention the myriad of ferns, moss and thousands of plant species I never even knew existed.  While it makes for a beautiful, lush, green landscape, it also makes for a transpirationally* dense landscape, i.e. HUMIDITY.  We're talking smack-you-in-the-face, knock-the-breath-right-outta-ya, humidity.  Not to mention the fact that there is a large-ish river running through the valley, evaporation occurring at every square inch.  Oh yeah, that's the other part, we're in a landlocked valley.  The air doesn't have a high-peaked, mountain range or tidaling, ocean to compel it to move.  That can add up to stationary, hot, humid air; ugh.  As I said earlier, I caught a glimpse of this when it was upper 80's with 80%+ humidity; apparently that's nothing compared to the middle of summer.  Great.

*Transpiration is the process by which plants take water from the soil, use it, then "exhale" it into the atomosphere.

The top 10 reasons I like my job

Good Evening All!

Much like the frequency with which my car gets driven these days, it's been two weeks since I sent out an update.  Work has been good, I feel like I'm starting to get into the groove and flow of things.  My learning curve is still steep, but navigating the hospital is no longer a huge obstacle.  Don't get me wrong, I still get lost several times a week, but hallways and routes are becoming more familiar (both through sight and smell...)  Last weekend was my first weekend of solo rounding.  It's not totally solo, cause I discuss the patients with the Doc who's on-call that weekend,  but it does mean that I see every patient we have in the hospital myself, write notes and make the orders for them.  During the work week the inpatients are split between myself and Nevin (the other PA), plus the resident if we have one on service that month.  So going in by myself over the weekend was a bit intimidating.  My time management skills were definitely put to the test.  Fortunately, it seems to have gone well because none of our patients declined, or died, over the weekend.  I consider it to be a small victory.  On that note, I would like to share the top 10 list of reasons why I like my job. Here it goes:

10) I get to follow patients progress from their initial visit with us, through surgery and months after surgery; aka continuity of care and relationship building.

9) I walk a lot during my working hours. No being chained to a desk for me.

8) I get to do inpatient, surgery and outpatient duties all in the same day.  After all, variety is the spice of life!

7) Geisinger has a great reputation, nationally and internationally.  I've set myself up for great future opportunities.

6) I'm learning how to assist with some pretty major procedures. (see my previous posting about my hand in a chest cavity, if you need a refresher ;-)

5) My team is great!

4) I get to wear exercise clothes TO work. No need to change for the gym after work

3) I get to wear scrubs and a lab coat AT work, which means very few dry cleaning expenses.

2) I don't have to deal with people's private parts.  See them, yes; deal with the medical side, no. Though we do get the occasional "code brown" (yes, people sometimes lose control of their bowels while undergoing surgery.  However it gets cleaned up by the OR nurses before the patient is moved back to their bed, so it's like it never happend...)

1) I get to sew the, sometimes gaping, wounds closed at the end of cases!

I'm going to end there for tonight.  I have more topics to write about, but they'll take me too much time right now (I had a late day today and I'm exhausted).  I hope you are all doing well.

Love,

Kristen

p.s. If you haven't already, head over to my blog (http://kristenfrey.blogspot.com) to read about the robots that roam the hospital halls.  Turns out there are at least 3 of them, not just 2 (I saw MADDIE the other day)...

TUG and ROXIE, the creepy hall roaming robots

Geisinger is on the cutting edge of health care.  Evidently this includes ways in which to distribute supplies.  I've been in several hospitals that have tube systems to deliver specimens from inpatient floors to the laboratories below (think the drive-up teller at a bank), but I've never seen automatic hall roaming robots.  Geisinger has two of these robots.  From what I understand, they deliver supplies from a central location to floors all over the hospital.  Both robots are large rectangular boxes on wheels with two large round buttons on top; one button encircled in red, one encircled in green (stop and go perhaps?).  The "oldest" of the two robots is TUG, it "rides elevators alone."  I'm serious, it literally has red tape around the top of it on all sides that says, "TUG rides elevators alone."  I have yet to test and see what happens if you try to ride an elevator with TUG.  The other is named ROXIE, it/she has no red tape, so can apparently commingle in an elevator.  The robots remind me of one of the dysfunctional, rectangular robots on the space ship from 'WALL-E.'

"How innovative," you may think; "creepy," I say.  I initially thought they were innovative, now I also feel creeped out by them.  I've pin-pointed this feeling as a combination of three sources: 1) personal interaction with the robots, 2) observation of the robots and 3) Hollywood films (specifically 'WALL-E' and the 'Terminator' films, both of which ultimately portray human kind as being controlled by machines).  For the most part interactions with either 'bot involves a person seeing them cruise down a hallway from afar, and stepping out of the way to let the 'bot pass without incident.  But sometimes, and this has happened to me more than once, an unsuspecting person will be standing in a hallway, involved in an engrossing conversation, and BAM! out of nowhere comes a loud "beep-blooping" sound followed by a disgruntled, automated female voice saying, "hallway blocked, must re-route."  Now I assume this is the robot "thinking" out loud to itself so it doesn't accidentally get backed into by an unsuspecting human, but part of me thinks that the robot is really saying, "Yo!  Stop loitering and get outta the way!  I'm on a mission people."  It's a nice warning system really, but the skeptic in me wonders how it knows there's a blockage to it's route and how far that blockage-searching technology reaches.  I've happened upon both robots as they've exiting elevators alone and opened badge-secured double doors, since we were going in the same direction I've followed behind them.  The way the 'bots move is, for lack of a better term, robotic.  Cold, calculating and "seeing" in 360 degrees.  Not to mention the "open sesame!" way in which they can get through locked doors.

They say people fear the unknown.  Since I don't know much about these robots perhaps that's the "creepiness" I feel.  Here is a sampling of the litany of questions I have: What happens if I accidentally touch/back into the robot?  Does it have a force field?  Does it have a shock probe ala R2D2?  What is it really carrying in those locked drawers?  How much does it "know" about its surroundings?  How the heck can it navigate the convoluted hallways and wings that are Geisinger Medical Center (the navigation must be as sophisticated as Google Maps)?  Can the navigation technology be turned into an app for new employees to use in order to navigate this place  (I learned today that "Abigail Geisinger Pavilion" and "Geisinger Pavilion" are in fact different, one is not short for the other)?  Perhaps I'll never know (though I do plan on trying to ride an elevator with TUG by accident, just to see).

Photo curtesy of: http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/18200000/WALL-E-wall-e-18247125-1772-1249.jpg