presentation

Impressions are important, especially if they will decide whether or not I will continue communicating/contacting a person. I'm referencing dating sites. If you do not have the ability or time or effort to correctly spell a one line message why would it be worth my time to pursue or respond? I am not one to be mass messaged like others, I am special and should be regarded as a unique individual and not just a copy and pasted text or thought. I know there are those with brain power out there, so use it. If you take the time, I might just take the time.

How you present yourself is also quite important. I can figure out if you have a higher level of intelligence from your profile. You do realize that almost anyone with a high level of intelligence is able to glean this type of information from what information you present in your profile?

serial killers

My mother always told me to be wary of strangers and to never pick up hitchhikers (subsequently never to hitchhike).

Does that mean that taxi drivers had negligent mothers?

Hello thesis

I am very proud of what I have accomplished with my latest experiment and subsequent paper. I have spent a lot of time and effort on this project.

finding and reading relevant literature: 2 hours
writing introduction with literature review: 2 hours
writing methods and procedure: 1 hour
designing (flawed) experiment using superlab: 6 hours
recruiting participants: 30 minutes from 4 Spanish classes
waiting for participants and running experiment: off and on for 20 hours
analyzing data with the devoted Cooper: 3 hours
writing results section: 3 hours
writing discussion: 3 hours
editing paper: 30 minutes

Hello thesis

This is what I do with my spare time....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixbb0KT4tAs&feature=related

summer sweater

In Florida at least, without objection, it is summer. It is humid, hot, and oppressive midday until the sun starts to set. I was working (serving) and three older people walked into the restaurant and I happened to be near the hostess podium and we were without a hostess so I sat them. As I was walking them to a table I had designated as good for three the one lady said, "give us your warmest table." Without blinking an eye at this odd request for the summer (since it is only mildly air-conditioned there) I told them, "The temperature is the same throughout the restaurant but here by the window you should get the sunlight to keep you warm." The other lady replied as she pulled her light sweater from her bag, "Well, we did come prepared." The first lady nodded and reached into her own bag for her light sweater. Really ladies, sweaters? In Florida? When it's at least 85 degrees out and around 80 inside, a sweater?

June 13th-August 19th

new summer plans: G.WIZ!!!!

Spanish tutorial/internship

             Patient-doctor relations are vitally important. Your doctor, especially your child’s pediatrician is the gateway to good health and happy living. Without a good relationship, such as enough visits to get in all required vaccinations and productive communication, a patient could get seriously ill. A study by Seijo, Gomez, and Freidenberg (1991) found that Hispanic patients seen by bilingual physicians had better recall and asked more questions than did Hispanic patients seen by monolingual physicians. These findings suggest that when physician and patient communicate in the same language and have similar cultures, the patient understands the information given by the physician better and participates more actively in the interaction. Thus language and cultural awareness have important implications in the utilization of health care services by Hispanics.

            My time spent at the Pediatric Children’s Clinic has shown me the truth to these findings. It is always amazing to see psychology at work. Every Friday afternoon since the beginning of February I have spent wearing mismatched scrubs, out of my element, but learning and observing. For anywhere from 2-5 hours each time I have followed around the nurse’s assistant, Mo, while he takes vitals from patients and writes down any and all relevant information about their illness or their growth. Mo taught me to properly record heart rate, respiratory rate, take temperature, weigh, get the height of, and even take the blood pressure of children from 3 days old to 18 years of age. I have interacted with patients in Spanish as well as in English, whatever their native language happens to be as marked in their charts.

            The first time I went to the clinic I had no clue what was in store for me. Very few people enjoy visits to the doctor’s office because if you go there when you are ill you are not feeling good and if you go there when you are healthy they give you shots. This is the attitude a lot of children take when waiting to see the doctor and it can be very difficult to listen to a infant’s heart when it’s beating at 160/minute and the child keeps trying to push the stethoscope away and is crying and flailing about. I feel like the young children do not differentiate between which language is spoken to them, because they are equally balanced in their bilingualism, but they are not in charge of themselves, they may not know all the problems they have or what medicines they have been taking. It is the parents who need to be able to understand their child’s doctor, in a language that they are comfortable and familiar with, which from my observation is only 2/3 of the time in English at this particular clinic on a typical Friday afternoon. The other 1/3 of parents are Spanish-speaking dominant and the doctor speaks to them in their native tongue.

            However, not all the staff is bilingual. There is a hierarchical system to the staff that works with the patients. There is the head doctor, who also runs the clinic and her name is attached to the building and business. Then there is the head nurse, who is monolingual in English. Next come the two other nurses who share the same role and then Mo who has not graduated from schooling and is not certified to administer shots or write certain prescriptions yet. Finally, at the bottom is me, no medical schooling and an unbalanced bilingual (one who acquires a second language after the first, not equally proficient). Some patients do not even see the primary doctor, since patients are divided about evenly between the head nurse and the doctor. The implications of this are that they will not be able to speak in Spanish to their “doctor” even if they are greeted at the door by the bilingual secretary, are taken to their room by a bilingual nurse’s assistant, and tell symptoms and problems to the same nurse’s assistant who is bilingual as well.

            My role, other than assisting the nurse’s assistant by taking vitals and working with patients before they see the doctor is helping the secretary whenever she needs help, such as filing or looking for charts. I have also looked up shot records using a very useful government system on the computer and attached them to patient charts.

            I have learned a lot about the medical system from the other side, the doctor’s perspective. I have also learned a lot about medicine and symptoms and illnesses and shots and children’s growth and development. I can take vitals on most patients without trouble and I can work with patients who are more finicky and don’t want to hold still. I have been able to interact with patients in English and Spanish. I have also been able to talk with the staff and especially all the time with Mo, asking him question and hearing his personal anecdotes, in Spanish. In regards to the Spanish I think this has been quite a unique opportunity. In regards to the clinical side, I feel I have gone as far as I can go and decided for sure that I don’t want to be in the medical profession. 

work

new coffee makers at work = better cappuccinos

Why did the price of our not-so-great-tasting tea go up to $2.50? I wouldn't even pay $1 for it.

challa back girl

The first time I made challah, a six braid and a 6-point star aka the Jewish star