7-1-08 part 2

The rage tonight has to do with a woman who died on a hospital floor in Brooklyn, I think. I'm not sure of the town. Somewhere in NYC. The woman lies on the floor in the waiting room for a time and finally, a nurse shows up. Th nurse is on record kicking or nudging the body with her foot efore she realizes the woman is unresponsive. I've heard descriptions of the video and thus far, have seen snippets, but I have yet to see the entire thing.

A few points come to mindbefore I view it and I reserve the right to change my mind after viewing the whole tape. I just do.

What comes to mind:

1.) It's a city hospital E.R. High volume and large homeless population should immediately come into play. The homeless are used to sleeping on the floor.
2.) The woman is dressed in a nightgown. That would indicate that she came after or around the time she was ready for bed.
3.) She lays on the floor which is surprisingly common. Night shift, nightgown, city ER and lieing on the floor.
4.) We have no idea what she went to the hospital for in the first place, although there's discussion that it was for some unknown psychiatric reason.
5.) Way too often, people show up in the ED for dumb shit while they're high or drunk and it's not uncommon for them to fall asleep. It's more comfortable doing that while in an air conditioned waiting room than it would be on a park bench in the muggy outside air. The kicking or nudging might seem over the top but maybe not if the person stunk like an animal or maybe urine and feces.
6.) Despite the fact it's not necessarily "professional", it's basically human. Someone on the floor, semingly asleep or unconscious - it's not outside the realm of possibilities that she would get a "kick" to the legs, that is having someone use their foot to shake the person on the floor rather than bending at the knees to shake them.

Anyway, I need to see the whole clip and after I do, I can make a much more informed opinion on the whole situation. It seems like I always do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOCpOZ4txvs

Dawning of a New Age

7-1-08 - New residents. I gave the orientation speech today to a sea of new faces. The orientation is from the nursing perspective, naturally and the fresh, clean, eagerly anticipating faces stare, jot notes and wait for something pertinent. They're eager to do the work ahead. The excitement is palpable and it's refreshing, in a way. Frustrating in another. Always a round of new folk to be introduced to the same, old routine and it brings a fresh atmosphere into the mix. It's also repetitive, a little boring and unfortunately played out to some degree. After all, the APS is in a constant state of orientation at its worst and sometimes, it's just plain tiresome - even though the latter parts of what I just said are generated from within the pessimist in me. And it's that pessimist who sees a drug seeker in every anxiety-ridden kid and a personality disorder in every poor bastard who come in and really doesn't know quite how to express him or herself.

Although, now I'm not being fair to myself. I'm a bit more aware of what's going on than what those last, few sentences make it seem. I've been doing this long enough to assess who and what is before me and to admit I'm wrong when I am.

They all look so young, all the new residents. All the new docs look like kids. It really is a sign of how I'm aging. Kids in medical school actually look like kids. Seriously, when you get right down to it, that's pretty fucked up from where I sit.