Weekend On Call

About once a month I do the on call schedule for the nursing agency I contract with.  This weekend was my turn on call and it was horrific.  I spent the weekend looking at stinky butts and feet with no toes on!!

Enough said.......just wanted to get that off my chest.

Ageism and My Misconceptions

So, this week I started teaching a new online class on aging populations.  It is an extreme change for me after being so involved in pediatrics for the past 20 plus years.  However, following my return to community health I have seen a mainly an elderly population and have found I absolutely love this demographic.  Anyways, week ones topic was ageism, what is it, are we guilty of it and how do we deal with it.

First of all the students were required to take a self assessment survey to judge their baseline prejudices and knowledge of the elderly.  I took the survey myself, found not only did I hold many prejudices about the elderly but I also assumed to be true many myths and did not do as well as I thought I should....a little humbling moment for Angie.  For example, I am a huge offender of calling the elderly sweetie and honey.  Now I have to admit that on a busy day I sometimes do this if I cannot remember a patients name, but still it must stop, a person is a person (Happy Birthday Dr Seuss) and they deserve to be addressed correctly.  On first meeting I do try very hard to greet the new patient as Mr or Mrs So and So but after that all bets are off.....I will make a better effort.  

I assumed that pain was a natural symptom of aging, not so, pain is a symptom of disease and should always be assessed and evaluated.  Here I am Miss Self Righteous Pediatric Clinical Instructor preaching to my students every week that pain is what the patient says it is and all children should be assessed with the appropriate scale.  Going to do a better job on that one too!

I also incorrectly assumed that the elderly get more religious as they get older and deal with change better but apparently this is also not true.  When I think about it I am getting less enamoured with organized religion and less inclined to change my present situation because I have about as much I can handle right now so why should aging be a catalyst to liking religion or change anymore than you do when younger.

I can see how this course will challenge me on many levels but will only help me in my scope of practice.  The discussions are already lively and challenging, a good bunch of students.  Looking forward to the next 5 weeks of learning and facilitating all I can.