Get Gimpy

Up fairly early this morning, after having spent the wee hours of last night drowning my sorrow in watching every new tivo'd thing ... SYTYCD, Law and Order, Sex and the City (the tamed down version that Perky keeps saying should be renamed Heavy Petting in the City), and My Boys.

... and remembered that I had yet to put up a post over at the Exponent II blog. So, looking at my white board, I decided to put on hold the half-dozen ideas I've been contemplating, and post on how on-line LDS interactions translate into real-world interactions. You can see my ruminations here. Interestingly enough, the photo is actually of LDS women. Initially, I was hoping to get an interesting contemporary picture of multi-racial women. But when I typed "women" into google images, the picture showed up on the second page, as part of the Women's History Initiative, affiliated with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute. Interesting also to note that 2004 saw the first Mormon Women's history class at BYU, co-taught by Jill Mulvay Derr, who I've heard speak at Miller-Eccles, and liked exceedingly.

So, got my post blogged, then headed over to work for the preceptee graduation. I thought about skipping it, but I wanted to be there to support E, and felt that since I'd already told her I would be there, I should be there. Ended up taking my crutches (that I got when I broke my ankle at my first snow-boarding attempt) along just in case. I ended up not having time to get flowers for E, but I've got a good idea for another gift that will do much better at a slightly later time. Was very glad to have brought the crutches along, as the swelling, soreness and stiffness in the demmed ankle was getting worse.

The graduation was nice. The class this time was small, just twenty preceptees for the whole hospital. In the fall, there will be seventy with six in the PICU! They showed the video set to With Arms Wide Open (good grief, could Scott Stapp be any sexier?). It's the second time I've seen it, and it still gets me a little misty. They show video clips of many patients ... critically ill, hooked up to life-support, in surgery, recovering, at clinic visits, playing in the gardens, interacting with staff doctors and nurses, etc etc.

The Chief Nursing Officer, and CEO spoke a few words.

The pain management nurse (who works hospital wide with a team) was the keynote speaker, and had a great presentation about how the preceptor program has changed and developed in the past decade. Of note, our program is so successful that it's being marketed and used across the nation.

The on-site childcare program kids came and sang for us. Image the "You Are My Sunshine" song. Except the lyrics go like this:

You are my angel, my only angel
You made me better when I get sick
YOu'll never know, nurse, how much I love you
Please don't ever change your career.

Totally brought the house down.

And then, the graduates were presented with certificates, etc. The PICU team got the most enthusiastic responses!

Afterwards, spoke with E for a few minutes, and congratulated her. Then hobbled back to my car. Called my PMD, and got an appointment for tomorrow afternoon, after which I expect to get some xrays done. Gimpy has had it ... and it's not even been 24 hours!