NSSA Speech

Hello NSSA,

My name is John. I was publicity chair this year for NSSA and I’m running for NSSA President. I’ve been in a lot of involvements in High School, a plethora in college, reached management at work, set up a charity that raised thousands of dollars in its height and I’m in good academic standing. But you already know or don’t want to know all that. You already have so much stresses in your life and I believe that you need someone that has the aura and personality to lead this board to make this club more fun! We need more representation and more involvement more than ever, but we should be able to balance that with more socials in this club! Potlucks with no agenda, meet and greets, bake sales, fun things too. I have good connections with the leadership on campus and I have great rapport with you! I hope to use this so we can have greater bonding and better events. This is your club, elect someone that will listen to you and still provide a great learning experience outside of class. Welcome to the new NSS-wAy of life.

John Alejandro

Nursing Science President 2012

Memento

The necessity in which is exemplified to require a carmax report before buying a car is imbedded into the very deep of my subconscious. In evidence gathered, apparently you are a douche, have the history of douchiness and will not give me the satisfaction of sensitivity or morale. How frustrating is it to think that I've been duped. Your outward flow of sincerity and youthful beauty actually masks of your told insides festering manipulation and immaturity. I do not believe this 100%, and if someone was in focus out to get you, they've succeeded.

A Moment of Lucidity

So this foreign exchange student is staring heavily at me in starbucks today and I decide to tell my friend about it.

"How do you know she's a fob?"

"I just know"

"But how how does it give it away?"

"You know, the dark eyeshadow with silver on top...the denim jacket with denim pants..."

"Hahaha the nonfashionable ones?"

"What is fashion?..."

"(lol)"

Newspaper entry

College Hospital in Costa Mesa is home to many psychotic patients. Psychosis is a word that describes its encapsulated individuals as having lost touch with reality. There are many, and I mean many, in the Critical Stabilization Unit. They’re admitted because they’re a danger to self, danger to others, or are gravely disabled related to a mental condition. I had one such patient who heard more voices when he drank coffee. Upon further research, the patient was actually being given decaffeinated. So I informed him that it was decaf, as what you do to psychotic patients which is to try to orient them to reality. He wouldn’t have it, he very much insists that it is making him more schizophrenic. He even offered to “test” his assumptions that if I gave him the coffee right now, he would start hearing them shout sexual . I said no that I won’t make him my guinea pig because medical professionals first do no harm. Anyway, this is why you go to nursing school.

I love it

Signs

Repetitive Music

I wrote this a while back...I sound like a Darwinian elitist...

This civilization can’t exist without the working class. There’s a pyramid in place where there’s obviously one or a few that make all of the decisions. How then does a broken public high school system that obviously systematically cranks out mindless drones of mass produced students then differentiate so widely? How do we get a forty year old Del Taco employee versus an M.D. who went through the same 14 years of school? Environment plays a monumental role in developing one’s cognitive world view of one’s self and music plays a monumental role in environment.

What kind of music do we listen to and how does that affect us? Music is a form of identity and it can provide entrance to cliques where birds of a feather flock together. Lyrics like “teach my how to dougie” in a painful over repetition could possibly not only limit the people that you hang out with, but maybe create a mental block from letting further information get in. "California girls" bring horny perverts from other countries to spend their money in tourism in California. News flash, one fifth of California is obese! The next generation will be 40% obese... Words such as “Get out my way bitch” in an astounding number of duplications within a three minute sequence would definitely have an effect on you when you’re walking behind a disabled grandmother in Albertsons. This disrespect would then lead to a degradation of morals and values that a respected community would insist upon its members. Those who don’t live up to expectations in decency? We ostracize them and hopefully downward spiral into the black abyss of the lower class. Of course not all of the individuals that make up the bottom percentile of the population lack morals. These are exactly the people that we see in the media who “deserve” to win a million dollars, or deserve that scholarship or have their life turned around by a gracious benefactor. Do you still see the message or have I completely lost you? Passive transport of the degenerates of society, but in the case that individuals end up there that don’t belong there, the media propagandizes that we should actively transport them out.

First amendment bullshit, this type of music increases our appetite for instant gratification like sex, money, and drugs instead of creating an atmosphere where we could develop our intellect. Some people welcomed this with open arms and made it a part of their day. But wait, not everyone has to develop their intellect do they? We need the working class. Hitler and Stalin couldn’t have done it better than Ludacris and Fiddy.

I'll still be that elephant

Mental Hospital @ Orange

Psych Journal #1

The day started off with excitement and a thirst for a new world and exploring different realities in College Hospital in Costa Mesa. We were oriented through hospital safety procedures for new students and some introductions. The real fun began when Erin (my partner) and I was assigned CSU which meant Critical Stabilization Unit. We didn’t know what we were up against, but we were told that this is the psychotics, schizophrenics, and hypersexuals of the group. Not to mention that the hospital already contracts combative and difficult patients from other hospitals.

It took me about an hour of observing the patients, the medical staff, and how they interacted before I finally felt comfortable to talk to them. I quickly flashed all PMAB training before my eyes, don’t get yourself caught in a corner, never be alone in a patient’s room, make sure you always have line of sight with other medical staff, and try to talk patients down when they escalate.

Some of the interventions and actions that I did on my first week were:

· Attend group discussion about drugs of abuse and psych symptoms

· Interview 5 patients as well as exchange pleasantries with others

· Learn about the daily routine of the patients, and paperwork with the staff

· Teaching on patient dealing strategies

· Look out and reorient patients who have low levels of consciousness that are in danger of falls.

· And do laundry

There were three patients that were interesting to me and here is a copy of my notes for these patients:

S.

Upon interview pt sounded normal. Appearance included shaggy hair, decrepid teeth. Behavior: interested in talking to students upon asked. Cognition: patient denies being abnormal, and doesn’t know reason of hospitalization, but is informed about length of stay. Pt. reports that she wants to go to the “village” where they would “help” her and treat her better than here. Pt. States that she wants to leave and is eager to talk to her nurse or doctor to get better. Further questioning directed from info on chart about trying to kill her mother, pt states “I don’t know. I didn’t do nothin’ to her. Then she called the cops”. Pt. was thanked for her cooperation and sent back to bed.

J.

Pt. states “I am CIA, FBI, and Secret Service” and believes that he escapes from College Hospital by table rocketship or chair rocketship to the moon. He fixes “computers in space to prevent a white out back on Earth. It is important.” Tried to orient reality by asking location, year, date, and name. Pt. knew location and name only.

J.

Pt. appears docile. Established rapport by asking him about his showers which he really liked a lot. States that “new meds weren’t working so they switched it to my old ones to receive anxiety”. Upon asking if the medication was working and if he was still anxious, pt. responded “It’s better and I feel less anxiety”.

Observations:

Patients are dependent on food, smoke breaks, and telephone breaks and staff use this as a way of controlling behavior. Staff was very patient with the patients. I particularly liked C’s and J’s style of therapeutic communication, focusing on the patient’s needs while maintaining structure. Many nonverbal cues seen such as flat affect, constant nodding, lack of eye contact, too much eye contact, pacing, word salad, tremors, catatonia, snapping fingers, and repetition of words.

Overall it was a very interesting night, however 12 hours in Psych ward was way too much to handle because of the intensity and anxiety of always having to watch your back and never really feeling secure. Had to do a couple relaxation techniques in the beginning, however throughout the day, attacks lessened. Fatigue set in after a while, but overall learned a lot of stuff.