Post-Retirement What I Read

This has been an interesting five years post retirement (2019). I have continued to renew my license and will do so in 2025. Two more years after that I will reassess. I am an Educator of Basic EKG and I feel it is appropriate to remain officially an RN. Who knows what the future holds? 

Also, I remain very up to date on any advances in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. It was my passion for 40+ years and I continue to educate myself. Of note; I recently attended the "Heart Failure Summit 2024" at UC Davis Medical Center on December 7th of this current year. I stayed the entire day and learned new stuff. It was a great show!

For my usual presentation of this Blog:

I had my customary "Underside" rhyme in mind but I decided to deviate and share with you my common daily reading sources which help me to keep well informed in my areas of medical interest. I know that the many persons finish their careers and just quit with the intellectual demands of that career. That isn't me, because I spent my career attempting to be the best informed. That is what made up for my lack of advanced degrees.

So I still read daily and weekly the following:

Journals I subscribe to (on-line): (All are free)

• American Heart Association Lifelong Learning 

• MDLinx: Journal summaries in Internal Medicine

• MDLinx: Critical Care / Hospitalist Weekly

• Practice Update: Cardiology Daily Digest, This Week in Cardiology

• https://qxmd.com/read-by-qxmd (this is really great)

• Medscape: Nursing 

• Medtronic Academy  (Medtronic.com)

• Pulmonary Hypertension Association News

The above list is what I have been reading for years before I retired.

And continue to do so.

I hope that those of you are who are still in an area of Nursing that you love

That you keep abreast of the changes going on.

And hopefully, you also occasionally

attend in person some kind of symposia that pertains to

your area of interest.

It is well worth it!

Suicidal Repercussions

 

Working in Medical ICU we experienced many intentional suicide attempts by persons primarily in the age group of  20 - 50. This is what I observed..

It hardly matters, the majority of those persons have had a tough time with their life stressors whether that is a result their own abuse or some kind of outside stressors that seem insurmountable. As an ER or ICU Nurse, the cause is not important. Our job is to prevent their death, stabilize them and hopefully discharge them to "home" neurologically intact. 

But there is always talk and speculation amongst us regarding these tragedies.

Suicidal Repercussions

I can see it both ways
When a person ends their own life,
Where survivors wish they could have intervened
A mother, a brother or wife,
Some of them may feel guilty
Thinking; perhaps somehow they failed,
But no, this wild, desperate decision you made
Is on YOU Ms.Suicide,,,,,,,ya, you bailed!

Now if you had been ninety years old with a cancer
I would not challenge you a bit, 
Heck, you would be older than most of us
Who are finished with all of your snit,
But NO! You had to do it
When you were loved and known by many,
Despite all of your crap that we dealt with
You were still worth at least a penny.

So, there you have it
Someone will arrange a remembrance for you,
We will all walk away
With a taste of sour wine and rancid chew,
Knowing there was a hint of a solution
At least to interfere with your wild decision,
Something to change your trajectory
Which may have offered you a sensible revision.

12-2-24