I Dare You to Drink the Vinegar

And so it begins. This is my journey through the dissertation process. This is my opportunity to share with you the highs and lows, the success and the failure, the sweet victories and the painful obstacles that I face.  This is August 2020, the month when I begin to lay the groundwork for the proposal that I will write. August 2020 is the month when I increase the amount of literature I read on the topic I have chosen. Here we go.  Website of Interest  Canada's Human Rights History: Eugenics Eugenics Archives Relevant Archives  New Westminster Archives Online Royal BC Museum Archives Peace, Michelle D. 

Life is fluid. Change is an inevitable in health care because of multiple factors including development of new technology (Atter, 2008), clinical practice changes (Callaly, & Minas, 2005; Piat, Sabetti, & Bloom, 2010), changing client demographics (Atter, 2008), scarce financial resources (Erwin, 2009), staff shortages, and many others. Mental health nursing in the hospital setting is a prominent area of change because of the shift from the custodial care model prevalent in the early and mid part of the 20th century, to a client-centered recovery-oriented approach that gained popularity in the latter part of the century.  This shift required a drastic paradigm shift from caring for to caring with patients and their families.  Compounded by the additional workplace stress of de-institutionalization, the result was fewer inpatient mental health beds and shorter lengths of stay (Lloyd, et al, 2009).  Unfortunately, change can be a major cause of workplace stress (Olson, 2008; Yu

Something clicked in the last couple of weeks when a friend (who is also a nurse) and I started to pick up some steam on a nursing project that we started . The project started as a fun podcast last June and has blossomed into something that seems to be growing much bigger. And by bigger, I mean a project that is taking more time and money than I originally anticipated. But, by bigger, I am also learning that many of the skills that I have learned throughout my academic endeavors, professional nursing career, and life as a parent are now converging on a moment where I realize that project management is not an abstract concept that is learned in a specialized post-secondary program. Project management is something that we have been learning our entire lives, from we began grade school.  Perhaps you are scratching your head, wondering why exactly is it useful to recognize that life is a series of projects? Because these are transferable skills. If you can manage to get through school whi

I have been a Registered Nurse for more than a decade (since 2008 to be precise). One of the ongoing challenges that I have experienced is the nursing shortage. What does this mean? In supply and demand terminology it means that the supply of Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses (in provinces that have them), and Licensed Practical Nurses (or Registered Practical Nurses if you live in Ontario) is less than the number of positions that are needed. In practical terms, this means there are not enough nurses to provide the care needed for all people in Canada utilizing the healthcare system. Only recently have I learned that the nursing shortage is not unique to the 21st century, and it is a global issue. This is clearly a huge issue. Let's take a little journey to think through this issue with a focus on Registered Nurses in Canada.   A Short Exercise in Thinking Through the Issue Background and Overview  There is a critical shortage of many health care professionals

These are difficult times, when our identities are defined by the things that we own. The relationship between people and technology is increasingly necessary to contemplate. As a nurse working in a major city a developed nation the role of computers in healthcare is paramount as not only a tool for documentation, but as a tool of enacting health care practice. What is the relationship between nursing and technology, between nursing and computers?  How is computer technology embraced and integrated within the healthcare system in a way that enhances nursing care, rather than becoming a nuisance or getting in the way of what we think nursing care looks like? Peace, Michelle D.

The feeling we have when we can share suffering with another (or many) human beings. This is a gift of being human, this is an essential part of being a nurse. As we fumble together to find the best way that we can share this suffering, we grow as human beings, we grow as professional nurses. How can we conceptualize compassion in such a way that embraces it’s importance in nursing, and, in health care? I think that an unfortunate result of an increasing push to be more evidence based there is a push for nursing to be more technical, more empirically based, and less focused on the fluffy stuff. But, isn’t what some consider the fluffy stuff the foundation of nursing care? Is nursing about curing an illness, or is it about helping people and communities organize the conditions to maximize health? And how do we do this if the focus is the micro and the individual rather than the macro and the collective? And, how do the human and non-human co-exist? Discussion Questions: 1) What does

The first time one of my children was admitted to an acute care hospital changed my perspective as a nurse, in a way that I never imagined it could change. When my third child was six months old he had a respiratory virus. We thought we were over-reacting by taking him to the hospital, but, both my partner and I are RNs and we knew, better safe than sorry because children, especially babies can decline fast. When he was first admitted to the hospital in 2014, it was to a pediatric unit in a general hospital. Clinical staff would come in to assess him, not always introducing themselves. My partner and I were often left looking at each other and wondering, was that an RN or an LPN, and what kind of assessment were they doing?  A Surreal Code Blue  As my son's condition worsened we often found ourselves sitting in the hospital room wondering, where was the nurse? As he became more lethargic and his work of breathing increased my partner (who is also an RN) replaced the oxygen saturati

The profession in North America as we know it today was borne in the time of the proliferation of the American Hospital System . Nurses were the hand-maidens of the physicians who assumed the top of the hierarchy in the system. That is our history. Accept it. Embrace it. Change it.    The nursing profession in Canada is comprised largely of women. I am a woman. And this is my story. As the thoughts spill out of my head and come together as written words this is a cathartic process through which I am attempting to gain clarity of where I am in my career. And, make no mistake, nursing is a professional career that we work hard to build. Nurses are the heart of the healthcare system, and we are the brain.  Geez Louise, I am on a roller coaster of a stretch of work. And, I feel exhausted. You may have similar sentiments if you have been an inpatient nurse for a number of years. All the days blend together, and the definition between night and day becomes a little less clear.  There are tw

 I like to write. I envision myself as an extremely talented and highly skilled observer of the world. Each day I am like a ripe fruit of some type, just bursting full of practical genius that I fervently feel needs to be shared with the masses. For example, right now (picture me tapping my index finger emphatically on an oversize antique desk as you read that).  It's only lately that I am questioning the profoundess (is that a word? I ask because Spellcheck does not seem to agree) of my written words. I'm questioning not only my smarts (take that Grammarly ) and also the desire of people that are not my spouse or children to read the life-changing writing that I produce without restraint each day. But, fortunately, sometimes I read my written gems of the past (blog or on paper) and I cannot help but think, I am one deep mother trucker, and also question, does the world does need to be repeatedly graced with the dazzling magic that is my life musings (and perhaps sometimes in t

Caring is an integral part of nursing. Caring is not a technical skill. We cannot quantify it. But, it is the foundation of all we do as nurses. That's not my idea. Seminal nursing theorists like Jean Waston  and Sister Simone Roach  crystallized ideas of caring in nursing decades ago. I think, now more than ever, we as nurses can revitalize not only our profession, but the healthcare system by embracing theories of caring.  We nurse with our hearts and our minds. In the 9 years of my nursing career I have seen how much of ourselves many nurses give when they enter into the caring relationship with their patients. I have walked the fine line between exemplary care and burning out. I think that in a profession that is centered around care it can be easy to ignore care of ourselves in our efforts to care for our patients. However, when we lose sight of ourselves and our wellness we are sacrificing both our hearts and our minds. In the last nine years of my nursing career, I have le

Thoughts that may indicate that there is room for improvement: "If they wanted to get better then they should have just done what we told them to do." "Sometimes we just need to teach them a lesson," (with respect to using a restraint intervention). Making elaborate discharge plans with many appointments for people who have unstable housing and no social supports.  Being directive rather than giving people a choice. Making treatment plan/care plan decisions without any participation with the patient/client/person being cared for and/or their family.  The focus of collaborative care planning is about medications more times than not.  The  same plan of care is tried over and over again, with an expectation that when the patient/client/person being cared for is "ready" then the success will come.  At a certain point we really have to ask ourselves: Is it the person that needs to change, or is it us?  Are we more in

“. . . For the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.”  (Peabody, 1925) Is caring a secret? It isn't a secret to nurses. I attended an interesting education session facilitated by a Spiritual Care practitioner. It was fantastic. The take-home message was, treating people like human beings is the most central feature of any health care relationship. How do you effectively build rapport? Intuitively we know this, it's the Golden Rule, treat others the way that you want to be treated. I learned this rule early in life, perhaps because I attended Catholic school. Sometimes turns in the pit of my stomach when I witness a situation of a health care provider forgets this. As nurses, I believe that caring, that being a human being, is central to our profession.  Peace, Michelle D. 

    Transformative learning theory, as proposed by Jack Mezirow (1991, 2000), is a useful framework for analyzing the significant learning experiences of adults because it recognizes the importance of the emancipatory process of critical reflection for the purpose of transformative change.  The purpose of this paper is to analyze one of my own significant learning experiences (SLE) in order to demonstrate the applicability of Meziow’s theory, strengths and limitations.  The SLE that I have chosen is my understanding of addictions.  This is significant to me because I currently work as a mental health and addictions nurse.  As I began to reflect on my transformative learning process I began to realize that my understanding of substance use has heavily influenced my meaning perspective (habits of expectation that filter perception and cognition) of addiction (Mezirow, 1991).  In this case study I will outline the key transition points of my SLE that began in my adolescence and contin