Nurse Conference Week

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the National Teaching Institute's Conference in Boston, hosted by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). It's an annual conference and I've never been to it before, but with the location being so close to home (read: not paying extra for travel and hotels), it seemed pretty hard to pass up. I went with several co-workers from my job and a few thousand other nurses from across the nation.

Here's the breakdown of my week:

Monday:
- 8AM "Need More Nurses: Educator and Faculty Opportunities for Critical Care Nurses and APNs" I'll share more about this in another blog post
- 10AM AACN's President Address ... this was basically a huge pep rally for nurses, glow sticks and DJ included.
- 12:30PM "Power, Persuasion of Influence: Which Skill Do You Really Need to Create Change"
- 2:15PM "Sedation Management in the ICU"
- 4PM "Beyond Tired: Experiences in Prevention and Treatment of Emotional Exhaustion in High Acuity Nurses" I'll share more about this in another blog post

... late Monday night, William started having kidney stone pains again. He was up, rolling around in bed in pain, until about 2:30AM when I finally convinced him to go to the ER. We spent the rest of the night in the ER, getting a CT scan, IV fluids, and more pain medication prescriptions. I got home technically in time to shower and make it to the conference, but I had 1.5 hours of sleep that night, and I knew that sitting in a conference all day would not go very well. Plus, I was carpooling with a few co-workers, and feeling like I couldn't get home if Will called made me uneasy. So I stayed home with Will on Tuesday.

Tuesday:
- first hand practice at home health nursing with my husband ;)

Wednesday:
- 8AM "Endocrine Emergencies: Maximizing Outcomes" This was a lot about diabetes management and some other diseases dealing with the thyroid and adrenal glands
- 9:45AM "Hepatorenal Syndrome: Issues, Answers and Management in Progressive Care" I wish I had chosen another session instead of this. I wanted to learn about liver/kidney disease, but most of this guy's talk was about starting new protocols within a hospital. Womp womp.
- 11AM I met with some old UVA co-workers for lunch! It was so nice to catch up and hear about what was going on with my old stomping grounds! It made me miss my old job and co-workers a bunch, though. .I'm so grateful to have gotten some time with them!
- 1:15PM "Early Palliative Interventions for the Critical Care Patient" I'll share more about this in another blog post
- 2:30PM I wandered around the HUGE "Expo Hall", which has hundreds of product vendors, displays, and recruiting services. You get a ton of free stuff (pens, bags, sanitizing hand gels, etc) and see lots of the latest and greatest gadgets and technology in healthcare. My co-worker calls it "Hill Billy Shopping" : )

Thursday:
- 8AM "Super High BMI: Coming Soon to a Critical Care Unit Near You" I'll share more about this in another blog post
- 10AM "Caring for the Chronic Pain Patient in the ICU"
- 11:45AM "I'll Drink to That: Caring for Patients with Alcohol-Related Critical Illness" I thought this would be about the effects of alcoholism and withdrawal. A large percentage of the patients I care for all under those two categories, so I wanted to get more details about them. It was actually about dealing with emergencies related to alternative alcohol usage... such as drinking antifreeze or mouthwash to get drunk. Not was I was hoping for, but still very interesting!

As you can see, it was a packed week. I plan to blog about a few of those topics because they can create a great dialogue about issues concerning nurses and consumers of our healthcare system. In general, a lot of presenters mentioned or discussed the changes anticipated with the Patient Safety and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), but all of those discussions were founded on various hypotheticals... because most people still don't know what will happen when those changes roll out!

Anyway, that's what my last week was all about.

Happy Memorial Day weekend! It's chilly up here, but supposed to warm up tomorrow. I'll be hanging out with patients for the holiday, and then our anniversary trip/vacation starts at 3:31PM on Thursday : )

Back At It

Sorry for the radio silence recently. It’s been a difficult winter. We have had lots going on with school for Will (by far his hardest semester), a few short family visits to VA and TX, and some rough winter weather.

I never thought I had Seasonal Affective Disorder, but this winter made me doubt that. I know this winter was especially difficult... Blizzard Nemo is not a routine occurrence around here... so it may not be the best context for my self-diagnosis. Even so, I didn’t realize how much I was craving spring weather and the opportunity to spend time outside until I felt like I deserved it. When Easter rolled around, I was more than ready to don a floral dress and celebrate new life in Jesus and in nature! But the chilliness continued. More snow. More shoveling (my sweet William regularly woke up extra early to shovel our parking area for me). More stressful commutes and cursing my low-to-the-ground Mini Cooper.

The commutes into work were wearing on me, and I didn’t even realize it. I would show up to work, grateful to be on-time(ish) and alive, but still very stressed out. I feel like it took me a solid hour to come down from the stress of the drive in. By then, I’m well into the busiest part of my day, and I would feel heavy with stress. My work days were no more stressful than usual, but my baseline stress level was so much higher from the weather that it took very little to put me “over the edge”. I would try to keep it together at work, not punishing my co-workers or patients with my attitude, but inevitably the stress would come out at home. I was short tempered and quick to despair about things. I just felt very … unlike myself.

Then... spring came :) Glorious spring. I felt lighter and lighter as the days grew brighter earlier each day. Not only am I driving on clear, non-snow-covered roads, but I can wear sunglasses and have the windows down. I listen to the news on the radio or a sermon on a CD, and I actually look forward to my commutes in the morning now. I’m so grateful for that change in heart and attitude. Learning this about myself was important, so hopefully I can anticipate this next year and be more mindful about counteracting the effects (especially for my poor, patient, sympathetic husband.)

So rather than narrating that dreary season on this blog, I thought I’d just skip it and do a few short recaps of fun things we did and what’s ahead for us! Here’s a preview of some posts to come:

- How We Handled Blizzard Nemo

- Celebrating Grandma Killmer’s 90th Birthday in Texas

- What’s Next for Will and Academia

- We Bought a New Car!

- Summer Plans (weddings, graduations, and short trips ahead!)

- Our Anniversary Trip to C’ville

- Thoughts on No Longer Being a Newlywed

I'll try to be more diligent about taking pictures this summer. I can't believe nearly a year has gone by since we've gotten married, moved up north, and started this season of our lives. I wish I had documented it better, especially via photos. So, while this is a picture-less post, I will attempt to take and incorporate more photos of our journeys.

More to come!