|
Posted
Saturday, November 27, 2004 @ 1101 PST -----
0 comments
A
kind of holiday
OK,
so in theory I have a brief breather because
it is Thanksgiving here in the US, I didn't
have students on the floor for the last two
days (ate lots and entertained, instead) and
my classes are done. Right. I have papers due,
more guests coming, and my office desperately
needs organization. "No blogging for you!"
yelled the homework Nazi.
Posted
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 @ 2335 PST
----- permalink
-----
|
So
it turns out I'm NOT too old to be drafted
I’m
on a list where the topic turned to the war
in Iraq, the potential for a draft of health
care professionals, and so forth. Unfortunately,
it did so right after the election (or perhaps
I should say, as a consequence of the election).
Flames flew – briefly – then everyone
backed off the topic. Now, I felt that what
was being discussed was worth talking about,
minus inflammatory partisan comments. I spent
some time thinking, and drafted a long comment
on the issues that were raised from the perspective
of a Registered Nurse and Wiccan Priest. Undeniably,
it is also from the perspective of a Canadian
living in the US. Some would argue that as a
non-citizen, I have no right to comment on the
actions of America and its government. However,
because of its current place in the world, America
has a profound influence and impact on the other
countries, and therefore other countries and
the individuals from those countries have an
interest in and a right to comment on American
actions. That includes the actions of whatever
administration is in place at the time. To deny
this is to deny the spirit of "no taxation
without representation".
Let
me tackle two things right off the bat. First,
the US (like many other countries) is a highly
militarized country. Maintaining the size of
the military, through voluntary enlistment or
a draft, seems pretty much a given for the next
several years. It is unsurprising, regardless
of the rational offered to cover political maneuvering,
that the Selective
Service has a standing set of plans on how
to accomplish its assigned role, and that these
plans include healthcare professionals. It is
also unsurprising that they have either chosen
or been directed to update these plans in light
of the current resource stretch placed on the
Armed Forces. Everyone is feeling the shortage
of health care professionals (particularly nurses),
and the military is no exception.
Second,
no one asked to be attacked, and that goes not
only for the US but for the other countries
involved. Your political affiliations (and everyone
else's involved) are immaterial to this. Yet
attacks have occurred, and many have died. Much
like the idea that history is not a static event
but an interconnected chain of events, like
the webs spun by the Fates. The concept of blowback
fits nicely in here. The Taliban was supported
by at least one previous US administration,
as was Saddam Hussein. Rationales were offered
that supported those actions at the time, and
consequences followed from those actions. Now
new actions are taken using new rationales.
If you don’t look for the connections,
where the threads lead, you are doomed to suffer
unintended consequences. It is more than just
leaning from history, it is paying attention
to the web that binds us all.
Do I think that the Iraq war is ill-advised?
Yes, for many reasons, some of them strictly
ideological. I’m not the only one: Brent
Scowcroft, who was the national security adviser
for Bush I, felt the invasion (still being planned
at the time) was neither wise nor necessary.
He wrote an article in The
Wall Street Journal in August 2002, in which
he said:
"There
is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist
organizations, and even less to the Sept. 11
attacks. Indeed Saddam's goals have little in
common with the terrorists who threaten us,
and there is little incentive for him to make
common cause with them."
You can hardly describe Scowcroft as some hand-wringing
liberal encouraging appeasement of a monster
in the pages of some left-leaning rag. Not to
mention the fact that future investigation bore
out his assertion. Why did Bush II and his advisors
push on with their plans? I don’t know.
I would ask them, but they don’t speak
to the likes of me, and if they did, I think
they would offer the same factually impaired
rational that has seen so much airtime on Fox.
Whatever the facts may be behind the current
situation, individual people will hold those
facts up to examine in the light of their own
beliefs, and therefore often see very different
things. Hence the conflict amongst neighbors
and colleagues seems inevitable, and unfortunately,
it can devolve into yelling, even amongst thoughtful
people.
So
for the purposes of discussion, my preference
is to approach the questions about Iraq from
the perspective of a nurse and a Wiccan priest.
Nurses have long been interested in the events
surrounding human conflict. They have protested
wars, served in wars, and everything in between,
always in light of their perception of service
to others as nurses. Personally, my perception
falls towards the side of protest: armed conflict
kills, maims, destroys, and wastes resources
that are desperately needed in other areas.
As a nurse I abhor this violence and pain. Additionally,
as a Wiccan priest I view things through the
lens of the Rede: "An it harm none, do
as ye will". I think many people spend
a lot of time obsessing about the first part
of the Rede, believing that it is an absolute
injunction against causing harm. This is, of
course, a logical impossibility - you cannot
live and avoid causing harm. For example, vegetarians
often draw a line at harming or enslaving sentient
life forms, which are for the most part vertebrate
animals. This choice intentionally attempts
to avoid placing humans in a place of superior
worth, yet there is still a bias inherent in
the choice, namely that sentience is superior
to non-sentience. But from a theological point
of view, I think that the Goddess loves all
of Her children equally, even while recognizing
that they must provide energy to each other.
The carrot you eat is no less alive than the
chicken, even if one is arguably sentient and
the other is not. Some Jains wear face masks
to avoid breathing in (and therefore harming)
insects. Yet the body is constantly harming
microbes which live in and on it, for the very
reasonable purpose of defending itself. Therefore,
since pagans take their lessons from nature,
I think it is reasonable to say that an absolute
of causing no harm to other living things is
neither intended nor desirable. What is intended,
and can be read in the Rede, is a recognition
of intention, culpability, responsibility, and
real thought. When we cause harm, whether to
feed ourselves, or to defend ourselves, or even
maliciously, we accept responsibility for our
actions, its consequences, and its larger effects
on the interconnected Web within which we live.
When we take food we have chosen into our bodies,
we give thanks for the life that is passing
to us, and will eventually pass from ourselves
to others.
The
real trick to the Rede is the second part. “Do
what ye will” does not mean “do
what you want”. This is something that
many of us have tried to explain to our monotheistic
friends, sometimes with limited success. The
Rede is derived in part from Crowley's “Love
is the Law, Love under Will”. It means
that we must know and explore our Will, our
Highest Self, and act in accordance with that
part of ourselves which is connected with the
Divine, under the influence of Divine Spirit,
which is the essence of Love. That is very difficult.
It requires careful, considered action, and
a recognition of connection and interdependence.
Ultimately, there is no “other”.
We are all one. The Rede is both an exhortation
and a command to know your own Will. Once you
know your Will, you MUST act on it. To turn
your back on your Divinity and refuse to act
is as immoral as maliciously causing harm. Which
leads me to my biggest concern with the current
US administration. What I see right now appears
to be cavalier, ill-considered, and arrogant
action, without consideration for the effects
on others our America’s ultimate connection
to the rest of the world. This is the heart
of my dispute. I hear God’s name invoked
often, but I do not see Divinity at work. I
do not see balance for the harm that is knowingly
caused. I see a need for healing.
Posted
Sunday, November 14, 2004 @ 2020 PST
----- permalink
-----
|
The
"new" NCLEX exam for nurse licensure
I’m
on a nursing list which includes several students.
Questions have come up lately about the new
NCLEX
exams, which new grads must pass before
they can register with their state
Board of Nursing as an RN. As someone who
teaches under-grads and has recently taken a
class on how they design tests like this, I
had to add $0.02. Here are some of the key points:
The
new NCLEX is a kind of self-adjusting test.
Computer adaptive testing (CAT) starts by providing
a few "middle of the road" questions,
then gives easier ones if you are doing poorly,
or harder ones if you do well. It continues
to flex the difficulty up and down until it
can zero in on your "true" ability.
Take that "true" bit with a grain
of salt - there are still plenty of measurement
issues here, including the validity of multiple-multiple
choice, and people's response to testing rather
than response based on knowledge. However, that
aside, they are surprisingly accurate for most
situations. It can only be done on tests where
the sampling pool is huge, like the NCLEX and
GRE - think of how many questions would have
to be answered by how many people to create
a statistically valid pool that ranges (reliably,
mind you) from easy to difficult.
That
said, the "score" is hidden from you.
You have no idea how hard the items are considered
to be, and therefore what final score will be
reflected. Few questions just means the test
had you pegged quickly - for better or worse.
Many questions means the test had a harder time
pinning you down. Your score is determined by
the test trying to push you to the maximum of
your ability, then just over, then drifting
back until you start getting the answers right
again. That threshold becomes your score. Keep
to mind it only reflects your ability at that
time, not only for knowledge recall, but also
problem solving, priority setting, assessment,
and judgment. Over time, your abilities change,
so even if you miss the first pass, you can
re-take it and potentially do well.
I
had to take it relatively recently (my US licenses
were based on my Canadian
boards, but CA
doesn't recognize them, so to NCLEX I went).
Even as a very experienced nurse who had also
just been back in school to get my degree, I
found it tough to say how I was doing while
writing it. I have some advice on how to approach
the exam:
1)
answer the first dozen or so questions very
carefully - how well you do at the beginning
limits how well you can do in the end
2)
in relation to item one, don't worry about time
at first - it is a timed exam, but almost no
one runs out of time, and your performance at
the beginning is what helps the most on your
score (but see #4 below)
3)
since you are forced to answer before moving
on, use your scratch pad to not only do calculations,
but also to make notes for yourself, such as
keeping track of items that are obviously false
from a list while you are trying to figure out
the best answer
4)
don't agonize if no clear answer seems to be
on the list - chose the BEST one, then move
on - getting stuck won't help you
5)
practice in advance not only tests the ease
with which you can recall knowledge, it is also
confidence building, sharpens problem solving
skills, and gets you used to the formatting
of questions
6)
as already mentioned in an earlier post, delegation
questions are a big thing, like "you are
in charge of a peds unit and an adult nurse
is floated to you, which patient would you assign
her?" then give you a list of possibilities
- I had a laugh with another experienced nurse
over that one, we agreed our preferred answer
was "send her back to adult-world",
but that wasn't an option!
As
a final note - the State Boards, which sponsor
the exam, do want you to pass, but their primary
mission is to protect the public. To this end,
they actually just bumped up the pass level
for the exam (I can't remember what month, and
I don't think it was by much, the info should
be on the website). They want the test to ensure,
to the degree possible, that the nurses entering
practice have demonstrated a minimum knowledge
and judgment at their disposal before beginning
independent practice. Your school is a better
ally - they really want you to succeed, and
their outcomes on scores are carefully tracked
by accrediting bodies. Poor pass rates are a
real problem for schools. The test doesn't try
to help you, it tries to help the safety of
the public while being fair to you. A general
rule is that if you do well in school and reasonably
well on practice exams over time, you will pass
NCLEX. So do sleep well, and ground and center
before you start writing. Best wishes to all
you new grads.
*
updated Apr 28 - internal links added *
I
have posted an
advice sheet I created for my students on how
to effectively study for and write exams.
I hope anyone who is faced with writing exams
finds it useful (and it is certainly the time
of year that many are faced with exams!)
Posted
Saturday, November 13, 2004 @ 1829 PST
----- permalink
-----
|
Peak
oil - the movie.
While
cruising the Web looking at some sites that
came up after Shara, Micaela, and I visited
the Green
Festival out here in San Francisco (cool
event, BTW, I recommend it) I found this advert:
"THE
END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse
of The American Dream" November 18 - Los
Alamos, NM at the Mesa Public Library at noon.
So
I sent a note to my sister-in-law Denise, who
lives in Los Alamos, figuring that they (our
family there) might be able to see it and tell
us what they thought, since it doesn’t
seem to be coming to SF soon. Unfortunately,
they didn’t have time. Hopefully it will
be here in SF soon, or that we can get it through
NetFlix.
It looked interesting.
I
found it through a website on Peak
Oil. Very interesting site, as is a related
one called Life
After the Oil Crash. Check them out.
Category:
news,
science,
peak oil,
environmental,
community,
A little glitch here - will have the rest of
the past items here ASAP, or a link to an archive
page. Sorry, steep learning curve!
|
![[Valid RSS]](../../images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}
