Chetzemoka

Oh sorry, I was thinking nicotine supplements like gum and patches. In my mind, smoking and vaping are the same thing. "Don't inhale particulate matter of any kind" is an excellent rule of thumb for all humans in all situations

Hi, I'm a nurse so let me chime in here from direct experience.

those born with a biologically male body should go to the male ward in a hospital? Isn't that where they would receive the best treatment for themselves? Aren't gender pronouns useful when distinguishing between biological differences in the medical field?

NOPE! Unequivocally NOPE. We don't separate hospital wards based on gender (in the US). Your gender has absolutely zero fuck all not one thing to do with your general biology and medical care. Doesn't change or impact what we do in the least regarding your internal organs - heart, kidneys, lungs, all get approached the same.

What does change what we do is your weight which affects medication doses. And in very, very, very niche specific situations the anatomy of your genitals changes what we do. (Say, if you're having a problem urinating, the length of your urethra and any potential obstacles like a prostate will matter.)

But see, here's the things about that: We can't approach the genital anatomy of two different individuals who both identify as male with the exact same treatment plan. The exact things we do are hyperspecific to the particular anatomy of that individual person. So if we're dealing with a trans woman who didn't have bottom surgery and still has a vestigial penis, then it doesn't make any difference that she's trans. We need to approach the anatomy that is present in front of us, whatever shape and condition it's in regardless of the sociological characteristics of the person to whom the anatomy is attached.

I think part of the confusion in the general public with medical care is the assumption that everyone who identifies as the same gender as you has very similar anatomy to you. Let me tell y'all, I have seen more genitals than a Las Vegas prostitute, and there is more variation than I would ever have imagined. You can't go by a person's stated gender and know exactly what you're gonna get, even if that person is cis. The number of times you lift that gown on somebody and go, "What the fuck is going on here?!" that has nothing to do with a person being trans or not, y'all just have no idea lol.

All medical care is approached specifically toward you as an individual person. Your particular responses to medications (which we can't predict by the way - there's an absurd amount of educated trial and error involved) and your particular anatomy. And 90% of the time, the response to anatomical variations is just "Huh, that's unusual. Anyway, you can pee without any problems, right? Ok good idgaf ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

The only time your sociological characteristics come into play is when I'm talking to you about your life, providing education, trying to understand your obstacles to medical care.

Well, nicotine isn't the part of smoking that causes cancer

I know RCV is the zeitgeist, but I really think Approval Voting is better and easier for the public. I'm glad you mentioned it

Healthcare strikes are complicated. It's weird because it's not like a retail business that can safely shut down. If we shut down a hospital, it could endanger people's lives, and that's the exact opposite of what we're trying to accomplish.

So we strike with compromises. A three day strike is like a warning shot. It gets public attention and it can be extended into an indefinite strike, if needed. Just a couple years ago here in Massachusetts, there was a nursing strike that lasted almost an entire year. That was accomplished by forcing them to staff the hospital with expensive travel nurses.

It's a controversial tactic. It can prolong the strike, but it maintains the trust and support of the public, which is more intrinsic to healthcare than other businesses.

United States specific: The naming system of hospital units or some other standardized indicator of what skill level is actually practiced on that unit.

An ICU should be an ICU, not "Intensive Care Unit" at this hospital, but "Critical Care Unit" at that other hospital and the"Stepdown Unit" here is called "Progressive Care Unit" there, but "Transitional Care Unit" at that other place.

It leads to so much confusion when trying to transfer patients between facilities and/or understand what kind of care they were receiving at a previous admission at a different facility.

An adultier adult

As a nurse who also suffers from a painful chronic illness, I appreciate you. We're currently unionizing at my hospital because we've tried literally every single other thing we could think of - reporting detailed safety events, protesting assignments - and the hospital simply refuses to hire more staff. None of us want to strike, but the working conditions we're currently experiencing make it impossible for us to do the right thing for our patients. None of us want to strike, but if we do so, it's because we were left with no other option. Believe me, all we want is to be able to safely and successfully do our jobs.

Solidarity forever.

"While you're bringing corn, I already ate the polenta" is brutal

"Drip the divine"

I love that Czech has a phrase for "spill the tea" but way cooler

I almost got punched in a bar once for saying that a non-native English speaker was grinning like an idiot. Didn't occur to me he wouldn't understand the subtext on that one.

(For y'all ESL folks, it's meant to be an endearing phrase indicating a joy so strong that you can't stop yourself from smiling.)

I mean my second thought after sheer horror was that I'd definitely notice this baby aspirin is uhhh...a giant horsepill? That would seem very odd. But like on my end what am I supposed to do to verify, lick it? 😂

And we appreciate the shit out of you right back. The number of times we've had something going down and called pharmacy: "Hey I have a stat order for..." to be interrupted with: "It's already verified."

Seriously, thanks for everything you do for us.