First, the beer.

Nothing tonight, maybe some Labatt if i can find any. I think i drank it all. Tomarrow though, I'm going to Lansing with my Mom and her friends to watch the U of M vs. MSU rivalry game. They picked me up some Tap Room 21 Moe's back room Lager. I must admit this is one of my favorites. It has a very smooth creamy flavor. It's a red which means some nice flavor but not heavy like Guienness.

So, now that i got the important stuff out of the way, let's chat about what's been on my mind. This is of course nursing. My whole world revolves around nursing and the medical world. I swear i'm having nightmares of swollen lymph nodes chasing me and popping in my face. *shudders*

The other nightmare that i have is this H1N1 type A influenza. (AKA Swine Flu) The nightmare isn't that me or my kids might catch the dreaded pandemic, it's hearing about all the over blown reactions to it. School closings so that hopefully those that are sick get better with out infecting others. Parents keeping their kids home if they find out one person has it for fear that the little snotter will get it and die. To be honest I did hear about one school that closed down in an intelligent way. They picked a 3 day weekend and turned it into a 5 day weekend. Theory behind this was that those that were sick and just infected would go through the stages of illness and return with out being contagious. It was a sound theory passed on the science of illness and was only done because a vast majority of the school was abscent any way because of the flu.

Unfortuently the whole death angle on the swine flu has got a lot of parents soiling there undies. Guess what though, in any given year about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes. ( 1 CDC ) That's not just the swine flu or the bird flu it's all the varieties of the flu out there.

The flu is a very adaptive and highly contagious virus. It affects the elderly and young children the most. This is the population that has the most deaths. The thing that most people don't understand is that by young children we're mostly talking about the under 5 population. You know, the ones that aren't in school.

The most effective way to stop the transmission of the flu is proper hand washing. In nursing we actually have a test on hand washing. This is how important we feel it is.

You wash for at least 15 secounds. Count it out. It's a long time. Also one of my classmates told us that studies show the dominant thumb gets missed. So rember that when you're washing you hands after you change that dirty diaper. If you don't do it right you might be eating recycled baby food.

Ok, now that i've gone off on that tangent lets talk about why we're freaking out about this swine flu. I really can't completely blame the media. For the most part the dumb. They're a mob that spouts what ever it hears as fact.

I blame the medical community itself. We as nurses are taught to teach and promote wellness in the community. That is where the problem is, we've educated the people to a point where they know to be afraid.

We all know that nursing students and those going to be doctors go threw a period in their education where they and everyone around the is dying or has some incurable disease. We've learned so much about disease process and the signs and symptoms, we just haven't learned when to actually be worried and when it's just a normal process that will cure itself.

Well, we've currently got the average joe educated enough that when he reads a study and sees flu causes death he believes that's everyone including him. He doesn't know the language used in medical studies and misinterprets them.

It's like showing a kid a knife and saying this is really sharp, it will cut you. Then handing it to them and expecting them to use it safely. Most likely they're going to drop it and never use one at all and then hide from knives for the rest of their lives.


Ok, done rambling now.
Just remember, wash your hands.