Here we go again. Perhaps to improve clarity or visibility or because of sheer boredom the look of the blog site was changed.

For some reason when that happens it affects the HTML code of previous posts. Don’t ask me why. Not only do I not know, I don’t care. Like a lot of people I want my technology to think for me.

On the up side I get to be all cranky and ask people why they are messing with something I thought I had just figured out. A couple of those posts I had spent forever (I would try to use my daughters pronunciation but I can’t figure out how to get the R’s and the accent on the V right. Plus there is that simultaneous thing with the eyes, mouth and hand on hip.) trying to get right and now it’s all goofed up again.

Cranky will only take you so far and then you have to start watching yourself in case your Google searches start with “How to make things go boom”.

So this is a test of the new look. When I look at my old posts in the edit function they look fine, but when I look at the public view some of the formatting is changed. Which is why I am using BOLD or underling some words. Some words or paragraphs became very light and hard to read. I have no clue on how that happened.

Here is a picture

duh

And lets try a graph of pointy things

And finally me trying not to kill myself on a Ducati. Very fast bike and very slow old guy - not a pretty picture

Dukati

I attended the first meeting of FMESA in Nashville, TN this past weekend. The stated purpose of the organization is;

We, the Associations that represent the medical equipment Service and Support Professionals (SSP) recognize the need to amplify a clear and unified voice. We hereby organize in fellowship to promote our profession though the advancement of standards, benchmarks, best practices and by fostering harmonious communications between the biomedical organizations and the greater medical community. Our purpose is to promote quality patient care, safety, and efficient management of medical equipment. We dedicate ourselves to work as agents of change to elevate and promote a positive image of the medical equipment service and support community.

If you speak with any technician who has been in this field for a number of years you may be greeted with a bit of skepticism or even a blurted, “Not again!”

This is not the first time it has been proposed to create a National voice. Each time those efforts have died away. I confess to being leery this time myself….yet…..

I can’t help but hope that this time the right formula has been created; this time attitudes have changed enough; this time we will coalesce as a group.

So I volunteered to be on the Board for FMESA to try and help establish a National Voice for Bmet’s. Here, in no particular order, are some of the reasons I feel it is important to do this.

• If Bmet’s don’t speak up for their profession someone else will, whether they are qualified to or not
• It is past time for our profession to stop being “The guy’s in the basement” (apologies to our women techs)
• Certification - it is not a matter of “If”, rather it is “When”. Do you want someone with no knowledge of our profession writing that law?
• There really isn’t a single voice that speaks for Bmet’s and only Bmet’s at a National level
• I heard this at the conference, “It is time for us to move from Blue collar to White collar.”
• There is a profound lack of consensus as to what Bmet’s actually do. The job description depends on where you work and what the Bmet before you did.
• Education - most curriculums are dependent on what the Instructor deems important rather then a national standard. I think everyone covers the basics, however, it would make for a more consistent outcome if everyone could agree on the core needs.

BMET’s are a major part of the health care team. A graphic I use in school to help show the relationship of Biomed to the other health care team’s looks like this -

Click on the picture for a larger view

I explain that the circle linking all of the departments together is the Biomedical Equipment Technician. Each of the departments is critical to a patients care and the Biomed is critical to the functioning of those departments.

All of those departments have people who are highly trained, certified and recognized on a national level as health care professionals, except for Bmet’s.

I think it is overdue for Bmet’s to take their rightful place on the healthcare stage and be recognized for the critical role they have in providing safe, reliable and cost effective management of patient care equipment.

I will do my best to help that happen. I hope you will to.

So it has been one of those weeks.

Conflict in the news, in school and in the family. It happens; even when we try our best to avoid it.

So what follows is my personal opinion. It does not necessarily reflect current wisdom, thoughts of trained professionals, pundits, political correctness, employers, the wife and the cat’s connection to reality. I am solely responsible for these thoughts. Ummmmm, maybe I should also blame Dad and Mom, my brothers, those ratfinks in Junior High and High school. While I am at it I should include that sociopath I reported to in the Navy and some of those ethically challenged organizations I worked for… and… and… and…

Maybe we aren’t simply one thing. Maybe we bring with us all of our experiences, good - bad - traumatic - life changing, that have occurred over our entire lives. These experiences color our expectations and perceptions. I don’t believe that process is a conscious decision. Our life experiences create the ocean in which our thoughts and feelings exist. [Maybe not the best metaphore but go with the flow.] This ocean is so present in our life that we may not even recognize or acknowledge it’s existence. Yet it effects how we react to situations in our life and sometimes those reactions are not conducive to resolving conflict.

I read in the news about a woman who was fired for an email she sent. My expectation was that it was a rant or sexually explicit, perhaps a diatribe against the organization. On reading the article I found that she was fired for using CAPITALS and the color red. It was a memo to personnel in the company reminding them of an action that needed to be completed. Her manager felt she was yelling at people and making them feel bad therefore creating a hostile environment so he fired her.

In school conflict can arise between students, faculty, and administration; you pick the combinations and permutations.

In our personal life just include everyone you know, might know, or will know in the future. Because to deny that conflict is possible will create in unrealistic expectation that will make the inevitable worse.

Why is there conflict? Why can’t everybody just get along? (Thanks Rodney, I’ve often had the same thought) I think one possiblity for conflict, simply stated, is a failure in expectation. Think about how often you might use that word. I expect you to listen; I expect you to follow my rules; I expect you to read the directions; I expect you to be on time; I expected you to understand; I expected you to read my mind and understand my needs you inconsiderit, thoughtless (&*^%&!!. Ooops, sorry - that was a memory from my past.

Another possibility is an unresolved fear which is triggered either consciously or unconciously by the other person. In fact, whenever we overreact, we can be almost certain that we are projecting or displacing an unresolved fear from the past onto a present situation. If a fear is an ongoing anxiety that has no apparent cause, realize that it is most likely a symptom of some hidden fear. If so, it may be wise to see a trained counselor to help you find and resolve the cause. Until we face and understand what is hidden inside us we cannot comprehend our reactions.

My father was unable to understand my older brothers behavior. My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but I believe it was more a case of arrested emotional development. My brothers response to situations mirror those of a 6 to 8 year old. By the time my brother was 15-16 years old my father could not tolerate his behavior. What really drove my dad nuts was the fact that my brother was extremely intelligent. I believe that in my fathers mind if a person was intelligent then inappropriate behavior was done on purpose. Consequently my brother was given frequent beatings. A memory I recovered was of me laying in bed at night holding my younger brother while listening to my older brother scream. Around the age of 16 my brother disappeared. We weren’t allowed to mention his name or ask where he was. He reappeared briefly at the age of 18, joined the service and was discharged a few months later as mentally unsuited, returned home and then was committed to a mental hospital. He ran away and disappeared again. During this time my brother was never mentioned or discussed at home.

Unresolved fear - I grew up believing, NO, knowing at a fundamental level that any conflict or disagreement would end with my losing everything. At home I could not argue with my father, because I believed implicitly, at in unconcious level, that it would result in a beating and then disappearing like my brother. When I grew older and left home I was encapable of participating in any discussion that I percieved would lead to conflict. I could not speak before groups about anything that I felt strongly about with out my throat literally closing off. After I married and we had discussions at home I would withdraw and could not respond. My wife would be terribly hurt thinking it meant I didn’t care. What was worse, I could not explain why because I didn’t know myself. I had buried those fears so deep I had no memories of the events that had caused them.

REACTIVE - When dealing with conflict it is very important to understand the meaning of this word as it relates to human interaction.

Main Entry: re·ac·tive Pronunciation: \rē-ˈak-tiv\Function: adjective

1 a: of, relating to, or marked by reaction <reactive symptoms> <a reactive process> b: capable of reacting chemically <highly reactive materials>2 a: readily responsive to a stimulus <the skin of the geriatric is less reactive than that of younger persons — Louis Tuft> b: occurring as a result of stress or emotional upset especially from factors outside the organism <reactive depression>

I cut this from an article by Copethorn McDonald I found on the web. For the complete article on the description of the brain structure visit: http://www.wisdompage.com/FlawsinMentality.html

Reactive Emotions — Reactive emotions and emotion-driven actions helped early humans to survive and reproduce in primitive circumstances. Today, however, strong human emotions distort a person’s sense of relative importance and often lead to inappropriate behavior. It works like this: The thalamus acts as a relay station for raw sensory input data. It sends this data both to the neo­cortex for detailed (but relatively slow) processing and directly to the amygdala, where it is evaluated in a crude but more immediate way. The amygdala monitors all the sensory data passing through the thalamus for threats to the person. If its hardwired programming detects a danger of some sort, it puts the brain in crisis mode.

Some of these crisis messages cause physical things to happen, such as the release of fight-or-flight hormones, the tightening of muscles, and the release of brain chemicals that heighten alertness. At the same time, a feeling is presented to consciousness — say, of fear, anger, hatred, greed, or jealousy — as determined by the amygdala’s rough-and-ready analysis of the sensory data. Sometimes, a powerful emotion leads to immedi­ate action. The person acts before the more comprehensive and sophisticated, but slower, cortical evaluation process has been com­pleted. At times, this kind of immediate, reactive behavior might save an endangered life; at other times, it results in great harm and pro­found regret. A mark of emotional intelligence, development, and maturity is the ability to delay acting until the cooled–out second opinion from the frontal lobes of the cortex has reached consciousness. Unfortunately, some people treat emotions as action imperatives and react on impulse in situation after situation. They have not learned that emotional feelings are simply messages from the limbic brain to the conscious mind, to be ignored or acted upon as other brain processes (intellect and intuition) dictate.

Me again:

When a person is trapped in a reactive state you cannot, CANNOT, reason with them. Signs of being reactive can include, but are not limited to:

• Raised voice and inability to calm down
• Screaming
• Repetitive statements
• Disconnect from reality
• Apocalyptic words: Always, Never, Hate you forever
• The calmer you try to be the more emotional their reaction
• Withdrawing, possibly to the point of stupor
• Playing the victim
• Quick to lose their temper
• Significant mood swings
• Prone to anxiety attacks
• Often overcome with sudden tearfulness
• Become flooded with unwanted feelings
• Say or do things they’re embarrassed about later

Are you aware of your emotional triggers leading to reactivity?

On the first day of school are you going to feel like you stick out like a sore thumb or perhaps you feel all alone.

NO WORRIES! There are hundreds and hundreds of people all around you

that feel exactly the same way. I can’t promise you a wacky Iris with a magic stick and weird assistants to help you understand the world. I can promise that you will have a group of talented and knowledgeable instructors who will do their best to help you get acclimated to life as a student over the next two semesters. Unlike Proffessor Iris we won’t talk to you like a pre-schooler, unless you’re weird and want us too.

Here is a really scary thought. We will treat you like an adult, whether you are coming back for a new career, tweaking an old one or coming straight from High School. Please remember that when I say “Treat you like an Adult” I am not saying, “You are on your own.” At DCTC every member of the Staff and Faculty is here to help you succeed.

Like Iris-the-Professor we are here to help you learn. Unlike the poor kitty in the field you are not alone. Use the resources available; ask your Instructor, Advisor or Student Services for help if you need it. Don’t assume nothing can be done.

We are glad you are here and we want you to succeed.

My original page, the first entry I ever made has disappeared. Is it possible some thief has stolen it away. What could it possibly have said that caused its utter disintegration? Perhaps the powers that be have decoded the hidden messages with which I communicate with my masters from Arcturus. In any case nothing will stop the imminent invasion of the Bimbos from Outer Space AHHHHH HA HA HA HA HAAA

While waiting for the invasion here is a fun little time waster

MAKE A SNOWFLAKE!

How many times have you looked at the symbol for the medical profession and wondered where it came from. If you have a classical education perhaps you wonder why we use the symbol for the God of Thieves and Prostitutes; is it perhaps a subtle political statement on the medical profession?

Caduceus or Asclepius? Here is a link which has a very good explanation and here is the legal stuff; reproduced from/according to/cited from/courtesy of/with permission from: drblayney.com

I really like borrowing from people who have lots of time to do cool stuff

Here is a recent note from President Ron Thomas. What the companies he spoke with are saying they want is EXACTLY what a Biomed Tech is.

This past summer, I had the privilege to meet with a number of business leaders throughout the metropolitan area. During our discussions, I asked the business leaders to describe the type of employees they would want to hire. While the listing below is not all inclusive or validated by a national standard, I believe it has merit and wanted to share with you what some of our business leaders say are important qualities for a new employee.

They are:

• Be flexible
• Have strong technical skills
• Be a team player
• Be reliable
• Be willing to learn
• Bring me employees who can identify opportunities
• Be able to communicate
• Be focused
• Be organized
• Give me employees who are improvers and understand the big picture

We have passed the first week of insanity and entered into the serious business of going completely nuts.
If it has been a long time since you have been in school I would like to make a suggestion that will help you to be successful.

In my opinion (translation for txt msgrs: IMHO ) there are two important ways to do well. The first is to develop good study habits. When I went back to school 16 years after graduation I was scared to death. At best I was a mediocre student in High School and I managed to get the boot from the U of MN 4 times before being drafted. I was working 60+ hours a week.

This is the technique I developed that helped me. I bought a tape recorder and taped each class session. I stopped taking notes and instead focused on what the instructor was saying and asked questions when I didn’t understand. I also highlighted sections of the book when the instructor specifically mentioned the subject. I then created my notes by listening to the tape and underlining sections that the instructor stressed. Extra work? Yes. However, what I needed to know was reinforced by the triple actions of seeing, hearing and writing.

Secondly, learning how to take a test. No matter how hard they try people creating tests will be influenced by their style and what they consider important. If your instructor created the test then understanding your instructor is important. If your instructor used a test generator then understanding how the question is written is important. In general questions are Factual, Problem solving, Multiple quess or TF.

Factual and Problem solving; you either know it or you don’t, sorry. So your best strategy is go through the test and answer every question you are absolutely sure of first. Then go back and answer the ones you are pretty sure of, etc,etc. Eventually you end up with the questions for which you have no clue. At that point, guess!, maybe you will hit the subconcious lottery and get the right answer.

Multiple guess is called that for a very good reason. You automatically have a 1 in 4 chance of being right. However, if you did the absolute minimum of studying you will recognize that at least one answer is absolutely wrong, stupid,written by a monkey or submitted by an alternate universe. That makes your guess 1 in 3. Much better odds. A little more study and you might recognize that of the 3 choices left two are very similar and one doesn’t make sense. Your odds are 1 in 2. If one of the choices is “All of the above” and one of the answers is patently wrong, then you are back to 1 in 2 odds. Multiple guess is about managing probabilities. Which, if you had only studied instead of A] shots half the night, B] Working all night to afford the text books you didn’t have time to read, C] Obsessing over the (insert girl or boy) all night who is blithly unaware of your existence, D] Raging over the absolute unfairness of the idiots on (insert reality show) and how if you were on the show she, he or it would have no chance.

True/False; if, at this point, you can’t figure the probability’s of this one, see me for statistical review 101.

Don’t show off; don’t brag; just do

Click here to learn a valuable life lesson

So I’m sitting at my desk talking about nothing with a student and Dr. Moe comes over and says her computer turned off and her room had no power.

Next thing I know MY room loses power. They say a transformer blew up. Hmmmmmmmm………….

I’m thinking that I was listening to AirAmerica and it was an attack by the RightWing NeoCon controlled Republican party that is in town

Or not……………………. In any event there is no class tonight for DC electricity students and I will see all of you on Wednesday of next week. Thats the tenth [10th] of September. In the meantime have a great weekend and find someone to scratch your back.

Welcome! As the year progresses this will be the place to look for information and updates. As winter [Yech!] approaches this will be the site to check if you aren’t sure if the school is open.

Unfortunately this site does not allow comments as in regular blogs, however I am working on something I hope will allow there to be a dialogue between, not only myself and you, but all students in the Biomed program. Since this blog is in its fledgling stages I hope to receive a lot of input over this year in how to structure it and make it work for you, the student.

Thanks and have a great first Semester
steve