"...by the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visable World discovered to the understanding" Robert Hooke, in Micrographia ,1665
The link below will take you to the Nikon Small World Photography Competition winners. The images are incredible! I would love to be able to take images like these--it meshes my love of microscopy and photography. I've linked an image that relates to something we talked about earlier in the semester; Henrietta Lacks and her immortal HeLa cells. The image is of HeLa cells dividing. This image was the 11th place winner in the top 20. The number one winner is a fluorescence microscopy image of the heart of an Anopheles mosquito (malaria, remember?). Take a look through the images (they take some time to load). What do you think? Makes Gram staining seem very mundane!
Nikon Small World Gallery
I've changed the link. Click on this, choose 2010, look for image 11 for HeLa cells, and browse the other winners.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Where the Rubber Meets the Road...
Hello class! My name is Thasha Chu, I am a College of the Canyons alumni, and am now a senior at the Emory University School of Nursing in Atlanta, GA. Professor Burke has invited me to share with you a couple insights I have discovered on my journey to becoming a nurse, to encourage you as you begin your own journeys.
Recently your Dean of Nursing said that nursing is when: "all the math and science comes together at a point in time when someone really needs you." When I first read this, a recent experience I had came to mind.
During my pediatric rotation I was assigned to a 12 week old infant admitted to the hospital for having "blue spells." The baby also had many other birth defects, and his mother was extremely distraught by this new development. Because I was pregnant at the time, the mother immediately felt comfortable with me, and when the rest of the care team left the room, the mother approached me. With tears in her eyes, she asked me what was going on, and asked me what the doctors and nurses were talking about. I sat with her for over an hour, explaining to her what was happening to her child.
It was at this time I realized that I was in a very unique position, I had the science and math background to enable this mother to make a more informed choice about her child's care, as well as give her the support she needed to continue to confront the huge battle she had ahead of her. If I didn't work hard while I was at COC to make anatomy, microbiology, and math second nature, there was no way Id have been able to help her, or the many other patients Ive treated over the past two years. These disciplines are the basis for every single thing you do and say while in the hospital.
The little patient I mentioned above was sent into the PACU the next day after having a cardiac arrest that night. I went to visit him two days later, and the mother said that because of her new understanding of what her son was going through, she decided to sign a Do Not Resuscitate order (what the doctors were asking her to do for quite a while). She had peace that she had done everything she could. A week later the little one passed away.
Nursing is about caring, about changing the world one life at a time. But if you don't understand why your patients are your patients, then you aren't doing everything you can to help them.
Recently your Dean of Nursing said that nursing is when: "all the math and science comes together at a point in time when someone really needs you." When I first read this, a recent experience I had came to mind.
During my pediatric rotation I was assigned to a 12 week old infant admitted to the hospital for having "blue spells." The baby also had many other birth defects, and his mother was extremely distraught by this new development. Because I was pregnant at the time, the mother immediately felt comfortable with me, and when the rest of the care team left the room, the mother approached me. With tears in her eyes, she asked me what was going on, and asked me what the doctors and nurses were talking about. I sat with her for over an hour, explaining to her what was happening to her child.
It was at this time I realized that I was in a very unique position, I had the science and math background to enable this mother to make a more informed choice about her child's care, as well as give her the support she needed to continue to confront the huge battle she had ahead of her. If I didn't work hard while I was at COC to make anatomy, microbiology, and math second nature, there was no way Id have been able to help her, or the many other patients Ive treated over the past two years. These disciplines are the basis for every single thing you do and say while in the hospital.
The little patient I mentioned above was sent into the PACU the next day after having a cardiac arrest that night. I went to visit him two days later, and the mother said that because of her new understanding of what her son was going through, she decided to sign a Do Not Resuscitate order (what the doctors were asking her to do for quite a while). She had peace that she had done everything she could. A week later the little one passed away.
Nursing is about caring, about changing the world one life at a time. But if you don't understand why your patients are your patients, then you aren't doing everything you can to help them.
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