Competition

what ever happened to helping each other?

I don't understand why people sometimes feel the need to compete with each other. We are in anesthesia school together and we should be helping each other. I'm not into competition. The only person that i need to compete with is myself.

I was not surprised but totally turn off when i see how people are literally competing with each other. For instance people sometimes read from the valley anesthesia book, but they will straight up lie about it and will on occasion accidentally slip when 3 days ago they said they don't use it. Get the picture.

And this one girl in class. Wow. Seems like people don't like her much. I'm not sure why. She seems cool but the people she hangs out with all the time never told her about the valley books, and never gave her some really helpful study aids. It wasn't until she asked me for help and i mentioned to her that the Valley was a great resource and she looked at me like "what are you talking about?" and im like " didn't the people you hang out with tell you" and she's like no. Of course, she's upset at them and wants to hang with me now. Oh brother. This was a drama filled week.

I don't really trust people from that program anymore. All they want to do it compete.

Please. Who the hell has time for that?

Anyways, my love life has crashed and burned before my eyes. Major disappointments. Long distance, and no free time are the culprits. I don't know what to do. I think I'm having a quarter life crisis in the middle of anesthesia school. Since I'm closer to 25years old then 50, i cant be having a midlife crisis. So I'm having a quarter life crisis.

My books are my refuge, i start reading and all these taught s go away for the time that I'm in the library.

The AANA

We recently applied for the AANA, the American association of nurse anesthetist. I am now officially a member. I wonder when my card will be arriving.

Anyhow, i took this online survey thing that they had about stress and your overall health. Well, at first i taught it was annoying and too long. But i decided to finish it. And well, not surprisingly, I'm very stressed out. REALLY, tell me something i didn't know.

The survey asked about overall health, drug and alcohol use, exercise patterns and so on. Cool questions that i didn't think about. Anyways, at the end of the survey they give me some helpful advice. Some i already practiced and a couple i just learned so i taught i would just share with you some of their tips on coping with stress.

Thank you for your participation. The AANA is here to serve and help protect our members.

Here are 10 ways to decrease stress.
1. Talk it out
2. Exercise
3. Avoid false guilt
4. Set realistic goals and priorities
5. Avoid perfectionism
6. Maintain a sense of humor
7. Hang loose. Set aside time to relax
8. Live by the calendar, not the stopwatch
9. Avoid overindulging in drugs, alcohol, caffeine and nicotine or food.
10. Think positive

Thank you for your help and support
Terry and Tony

Anyways, peace out i have to go study

Structures that i have to remember

Gosh, i knew going into this that i had a lot of drugs and dosages to remember and their mechanism of actions and effects on the body. But geesh, i have to remember structures as well.

I don't understand how that is relevant is my future practice. can someone please explain that to me?
How is remembering the structure of thiopental or, propofol going to be relevant in my practice?

Yes knowing the different dosages is very important, and knowing how they are metabolized is important as well because i want to know how these drugs are eliminated from the body, and knowing the side effects is also relevant. That will make me a good, knowledgeable practitioner. And i do want to administer anesthesia safely and responsibly.

But i still dont understand why we need to know some of these structures.

Do they even ask these questions on the boards?

As if i don't have enough to learn and remember all ready.
Anyways, that's the structure of thiopental. Maybe seeing it often will help to memorize it.

Anyways, peace out.

Loving anesthesia

So, the first few months of this program was basically learning the basics. Now, we are really getting into what i like, the anesthetics, anesthesia and drugs. I'm loving it.

The drugs are pretty hard to remember. You have to know all these dosages and mechanism of actions of these drugs. How these drugs are metabolized, and active/nonactive metabolytes. So, its getting harder and complicated but then again seniors told us to have fun over the summer, the real anesthesia starts in the fall. And i will say it loudly "they were so right". This is not a joke.

From the first day of class in September to now, ive already learned the opiods most commonly used in anesthesia, the benzodiazepenes, the induction agents and the neuromuscular drugs. Boy, my brain is getting tried already.

We learned how to manipulate the OR table. And that wasn't that great. I dont really care for that but i have to learn it. Next up is the anesthesia machine, and i cant wait to do that. I'm excited and that's next week. WOW.

We dont learn A-line and CVP insertions until next semester. And i cant wait for that either.

Types of anesthesia include local anesthesia, regional anesthesia, general anesthesia, and dissociative anesthesia. Local anesthesia inhibits sensory perception within a specific location on the body such as the hand. Regional anesthesia numbs a larger area of the body by administering anesthesia to a cluster of nerves. Two frequently used regional anesthesia are spinal anesthesia and epidural anesthesia. General anesthesia describes unconsciousness and lack of any awareness or sensation.

I'm reading Miller's anesthesia and that book is hard as hell. Most of the time, i end up going to the Morgan and Mikhail book, that's much easier to understand.

Enough anesthesia talk. I'm getting too excited here.

Personal life is looking great. Cant hang out that much cause of school, but its looking brighter. I'm such a geek, i swear.

managing stress

This week was truly intense. One of the worse weeks so far in this program, and i learned one thing about me. I taught i knew how to managed stress, but apparently i don't.

I had 3 midterms within 2 days, and oh boy, i was up till 2AM every night studying. I'm exhausted. And i realized i managed stress poorly. It wasn't until today that i realized that i basically didnt eat that much these past few days. I would start eating then my mind would start drifting off to my midterms, and i would loose my appetite.

So, i've decided to do some research and share with you new techniques i have learned to managed stress. I mean in order for me to survive this program i need to find other means to handle my stress; not eating is not safe at all. Please feel free to share your stress management techniques.

Look around
See if there really is something you can change or control in the situation

Set realistic goals for yourself
Reduce the number of events going on in your life and you may reduce the circuit overload

Don't overwhelm yourself
by fretting about your entire workload. Handle each task as it comes, or selectively deal with matters in some priority

Learn how to best relax yourself
Meditation and breathing exercises have been proven to be very effective in controlling stress. Practice clearing your mind of disturbing thoughts.

Change the way you see your situation; seek alternative viewpoints
Stress is a reaction to events and problems, and you can lock yourself in to one way of viewing your situation. Seek an outside perspective of the situation, compare it with yours. and perhaps lessen your reaction to these conditions.

Selectively change the way you react,
but not too much at one time. Focus on one troublesome thing and manage your reactions to it/him/her

Avoid extreme reactions;
Why hate when a little dislike will do? Why generate anxiety when you can be nervous? Why rage when anger will do the job? Why be depressed when you can just be sad?

Do something for others
to help get your mind off your self

Get enough sleep
Lack of rest just aggravates stress

Work off stress
with physical activity, whether it's jogging, tennis, gardening

Avoid self-medication or escape
Alcohol and drugs can mask stress. They don't help deal with the problems

Begin to manage the effects of stress
This is a long range strategy of adapting to your situation, and the effects of stress in your life. Try to isolate and work with one "effect" at a time. Don't overwhelm yourself. for example, if you are not sleeping well, seek help on this one problem.