These tasks just don't come up all that often, if ever at all. But one that does happen almost every day at the prison is drawing blood for labs. Monday through Friday there are between 5 and 25 separate blood draws each day.
Thankfully those are almost exclusivly performed on first shift. That makes perfect sense as many of the blood draws have to be done after a minimum 8 hour fast. No food, no water. Just like in a hospital those are best performed just after waking up. The patient then only realistically has to go without food or drink for a few hours before bed, and almost immediatly follow up the blood draw with breakfast.
Happily working on second shift means that I don't have to deal with drawing blood. At least not all that often. There is one test that requires the blood to be drawn just before it is delivered to the lab. At our facility that's at 3 pm. That's firmly in second shift territory. Thankfully every time that's come up on a day I was working, there was a morning nurse doing her 12 hour shift and she was able to do it. There are also occasional surprise blood draws. For instance when an inmate has just experienced a seizure and we want to show that it wasn't in fact a seizure, we can draw blood and do a particular test. That blood has to be drawn within an hour of the non-seizure though.
For those reasons, I don't perform a lot of blood draws. While I was going through orientation, I did work for a week on first shift in the south clinic and learned their methodology. But that was back when I was new new new. New career, new job, new location. Oh, and the very last draw I did ended up with the needle stuck under a fingernail... with possible HIV and Hepatitis C implications. Needlness to say I've been a nervous nelly about blood draws ever since.
Back to last week. I was just mulling the fact that I wasn't any good at blood draws and really had no opportunity to GET good at it. So after talking about it with another nurse, I went to my supervisor and asked if sometime this spring I could be scheduled for a week or so on firsts so that I could get some much needed experience under my arm (without a needle under my nail this time!). She actually had a better idea... she could simply schedule some of the non-fasting blood draws for around 2pm. She would do that on days where the more experienced blood drawing nurses were on shift. That means I'd have an experienced nurse over my shoulder ensuring that I could ask questions, try out techniques and even have someone to step in if I screwed up.
YAY
Those days materialized this week. Out of 10 blood draws scheduled, I performed 6 of them myself. I got blood easily from 3. The other 3 were more difficult, and while I didn't end up getting blood myself I used them all as learning experiences.
Then, as if the fates themselves lined this up, I had to have blood drawn this morning. I had forgotten about it, but it's been 3 months since my last A1C, and to manage my diabetes that needs to be drawn every 3 months until the diabetes is under control. So I got another learning expereince.... fist I got to experience fasting for a blood draw again. That sucks. I got to watch a nurse who's primary job is drawing blood and she did a magnificent painless job. And lastly, I am currently experiencing just how damned annoying it is to have this cotton ball taped to the inside of my elbow. I'll have to emphasize to my own patients how important it is to push through that annoyance and leave it taped to their arm for at least a few hours.
I'm still not good at drawing blood. Let's face it, a 50% success rate is nothing to brag about. But that 50% rate is far better than I was when this was all brand new to me. And when I HAVE to draw blood, I know I have a good chance of making it happen as opposed to later apologizing to the doctor that I couldn't do it. My supervisor loved the idea so much that she's now offering it to other nurses on second shift, all of which want to get more blood draws under their own belts.
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So I've made a couple purchases. Or I WILL be making a couple purchases.
Remember my Pebble Steel? Yeah, I still love that watch. As a 'Smart Watch' it does a fine job. It's fun hearing my phone beep with a notification and having only to glance at my watch to see what it is. I also use it to look at notes that I write. I use Evernote on both the computer and the phone, and my watch can display these notes. It's perfect for making a shopping list and not having to pull out the phone to see if I need to get gatorade, milk, bread (flatbread now), or salad mix.
As a normal watch though, it's even better. At work I have a great big digital display that shows me the time in military style. It shows the seconds and the date so that I can get all the information I need to document my activities without converting to 24 hour time or watching a second hand sweep by. When I'm not at work I use a fuzzy logic time that changes only every five minutes. Instead of displaying 4:00 pm, it shows "Four O'Clock". Instead of showing 4:04 pm, it displays "Five After Four". "Half Past Four", "Quarter To Five", and "Ten After Five" are other ways it displays time. Realistically that's good enough. While I'm out and about I could really care less what time it is exactly. Instead I want to know 'about' what time it is.
And when I want to 'dress it up' I can even have it display a standard clock face with an hour and minutes hand.
Style wise, it fits right in. It's brushed stainless steel body and band are both classy and laid back at the same time.
With all the smart watches that have come out since I got mine, the biggest factor I felt I was missing was a color display. No, there aren't a lot of things I'd like to see in color, but it would be nice to have the option. But with all the Android, Apple, and other smart watches and their beautiful clear color displays, they pay for those with battery life. The watches aren't even 'on' all the time and only light up when you bring the watch up to your face. Not great for a quick glance. Even with that battery saver, they still have to be charged once a day. My watch lasts almost a week in between charges.
The biggest change though, is the screen. Instead of a two color (black and white) screen, it now has a color display. It's still an 'e-ink' or 'e-paper' type display... it just uses 64 different colors.
I think if the colors on the watch face are kept subtle, it will look really good. Being that it has a bezel of black blank screen between the display and the watch frame, I think a black background with a hint of color will work best. But it's... plastic. Ick.
I still got excited though, as I figured if this watch had any level of success it was a only a matter of time before it was offered in a 'Steel' version.
Instead of waiting to read reviews or the actual release date, I went ahead and joined their kickstarter campaign. The Pebble Time Steel will sell retail for $299. I got one for $250. The payment doesn't occur until the end of the kickstarter cmpaign which is in 8 days. The watch itself won't be delivered until July... but in July I'll have two gorgeous watches to choose from!
The other purchase I'm going to make will actually go down today. I told you how my brother R bought his Kimber 1911 awhile back. At least I think I did. Anywho, he loves his gun and is having a blast (pun intended) going out and putting metal down the range. One of his friends is trying to sell his own 1911. Where R's 1911 is from Kimber, one of the best selling 'high end' 1911 manufacturers, this one is from ATI. They buy guns made in the Philippines and sell them here in the states. They're not pretty, incredibly accurate, or even all that reliable. But they are inexpensive. A new one goes for about $450.
This guy is selling his for $500, but that includes the gun, three magazines, a holster, a clip holder, and around 250 rounds of ammo. I did some quick research and found that while ATIs aren't held up as a great gun, there aren't many complaints about them. They're built with good solid tolerances, use good standard equipment, and are just good solid basic guns. If you want to shoot competitivly... there's better guns out there. If you want to modify the gun heavily, there's better guns out there. If you want a beautiful gun... well there are a LOT of better looking options. But for a gun that's going to be taken to the range every few weeks, it's a good purchase.
So later this afternoon I'll head on down to the Sheriff's office, get my purchase permit, and then slap $500 into this guy's hand and walk away with a nice gun of my own.
Next up on the purchase list is going to have to be a gun safe. We'll now have 4 shotguns, a .22 rifle, a $1200 Kimber 1911, and a $300 ATI 1911 all under the same roof. With my neice and nephews still coming over on occasion, not to mention the possibility of burglers, we just shoulnt' have this much firepower kept in the back of a closet. Thankfully it looks like we can get a good solid basic gun safe for under $300 that will easily hold all the guns, all their accessories and all of the ammo.
Seeya later!
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