H1N1 podcast round-up

With the H1N1 now making the rounds and a lot of misinformation or ignorance circulating about the flu and vaccines, I thought I would post some links to podcasts dealing with the flu. Do you like my grammaphone podcast symbol? No? Well, tough.

• Dos Lives, a blog of Latino life, interviewed swine flu survivors back in May and covered swine flu from the perspective of a school nurse in September [ RSS feed, May 11 + Sept 11 ].
• The latest issue of WIRED covered the vaccine controversies and they have posted a podcast on Storyboard as well [ RSS feed, episode 006 ].
• NPR has a swine flu special coverage RSS feed.
• ABC's Science covered new methods of vaccine development recently...
• and ABC's HealthReport covered flu research last spring.
• The CDC has a long list of short podcasts you can choose from that cover topics like s/s of H1N1 and anti-viral drugs.
• British Medical Journal has several podcasts covering swine flu issues.
• EMSResponder addressed emergency preparedness issues in April.
• Johns Hopkins Weekly Health New Podcast has regular updates on H1N1 in their Feedburner feed, such as October 11's coverage of vaccination best practices.
• Last but not least, Columbia virologist Vincent Racaniello's This Week in Virology has featured swine flu several times, such as "Swine flu returns," coverage of vaccine farming, and pandemic mortality and hand washing.

NCLEX exam this Monday

Gentle readers,

I have not forgotten you, nor have I failed the NCLEX exam. Yet. The orientation process at work has been so stressful and so literally tiring that I simply gave up blogging and reading my GoogleReader for the time being. At work, they tell me I'm doing well, but it doesn't feel that way. I have yet to go through a day and finish everything satisfactorily.

Also, I have made some mistakes. My worst has been with a patient who was playing games with us on a day when I didn't have time for it, and starting spitting out oral meds, then refusing everything. I eventually got the patient to agree to take crushed the very needed pills at the end of my shift and crushed some extended release pills without thinking about it. Luckily, no advserse results, but you know that was one of the days when I did not feel good after work.

Actually, for a period of about 3 weeks, I started drinking every day and probably drank more in that period than the entire year previous. Not good.

I'm sure most new nurses have the same feelings of inadequacy I do, but it has been very rough.

Anyhow, I am scheduled to take the NCLEX this Monday at the Pearson VUE office. I'm planning on holing up for a while--maybe calling in tomorrow and Friday (Do I dare?) and spending those days and the weekend in a motel or bed and breakfast. So far, I have studied about a total of 4 hours. I do not have high hopes. I find it almost impossible to combine the stressful floor orientation and the book studying, so heinous is the book studying to me. I don't know about other people, but I measure out my time in spoonfuls of anxiety, not spoonfuls of chronology. I have had very little time to study in other words. I have spent some time staring out the window, doing laundry, cleaning the house...

And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

Anyhow, if I don't pass, I'll have to stop orientation and then I'll be back in the situation I wanted originally, which was to pass the exam before taking a job. I mentioned this to the HR department at work when I went in, but they wouldn't give me a position unless I started orientation right away. Well, they got their way, and now we'll see how things go.

Wish me luck.