Medical Humor Blog
Just discovered a great new blog. Check it out: Medical Humor.
Ron
Just discovered a great new blog. Check it out: Medical Humor.
Ron
As I mentioned on my previous blog, my 15 year-old son had ACL surgery a few days ago. He was a bit nervous even though we all knew it was somewhat routine.
The surgeon came up to talk with my son and he was just great.
He said, “I just finished watching the instructional video so I’m ready to do the surgery now. I’m going to practice on that other patient over there before I get to you. And in case you’re wondering, we got the ligament from a pretty good athlete. But he was a second string guy. Nobody will miss him.”
He was great and made my son much more relaxed.
For those of you in healthcare, this type of humor doesn’t just work with kids!
Ron
If you’ve ever doubted that fun can be a treatment option, check out this article in USA Today about a prom held for a cancer patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
For one cancer patient, it was a prom to remember
Way cool.
Ron
I recently read where some health systems will refuse to hire individuals whose blood tests positive for nicotine. In other words, if someone is a smoker and they only smoke at home, not at work, they could be prevented from working in some health systems.
While I understand that organizations want a healthy workplace and healthy employees, and I am in no way promoting the nasty habit of smoking, I think this is insane.
Do we really want to start analyzing an individual’s personal habits as a prerequisite for jobs? Will this lead to testing for presence of Ben & Jerry ice cream in fat people? Will we analyze blood to find out if someone drank a beer after its born-on date? And what about all the caffeine-addicted Starbucks fans? Will they be eliminated from competing because of a buildup of latte in their blood?
Between you and me, I think we’re testing for the wrong things. There are qualities that have a far greater impact on the work environment than smoking and bad health habits.
So, to provide a fair and balanced perspective, I suggest that healthcare recruiters develop blood tests for the following:
I believe that if we begin the screening with these folks, the smoking problem will take care of itself.
Ron
OK, I realize that healthcare does not operate on a Monday through Friday schedule. Many of the administrative folks might but for everybody else, the “work week” is arbitrary. But based on a recent article in USA Today, it turns out that most people are happier on the weekends. Well, duh. But, the reasons why we’re happier have serious implications for how we can operate the rest of the week.
The article (Click Here) reported the results of a study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. Basically, we’re happier on the weekends because we have more autonomy and we’re more connected to the people around us (family, friends, etc.).
So, what’s the lesson for the work environment? To make people happier at work, we need to give them more autonomy and create opportunities for relating better with colleagues. This is where humor comes in. Humor is a great tool for bringing people together. Gathering a group of people in a conference room over lunch to discuss their most embarrassing moment creates connection and relatedness. It also creates lots-o-laughter.
See if you can make every day a weekend by adding a little humor!
Ron
Here’s a great website for healthcare humor: Placebo Journal.
You can also check out their blog: Placebo Journal Blog.
Ron
The more I work with healthcare professionals, the more I have to wonder how certain things came to be. For instance…
Why are healthcare staff so hungry? The longest I ever saw a food item last in a nursing station was rougly 27 seconds. And quite honestly, the environment is not that conducive to eating. It’s as if the nurse says, “I just replaced a catheter in room 14 and then had to clean Mrs. Johnson up after she soiled her blue pad. Hey, what’s that on the counter, sticky buns? Yummy.”
Who’s responsible for monitoring the process improvement team’s processes? When they inform me that we’re going to meet weekly for six weeks to work on reducing the time we spend in meetings, I think they need to have their flow chart examined.
Were nursing caps the original inspiration for Mr. Coffee filters? I suspect that many years ago, a nurse was leaning over the coffee peculator when her cap fell off. And the entire event was coincidentally witnessed by a German doctor named Otto Drip.
At what point do male doctors decide that gynecology is where they’re called to be? If I had gone to medical school, I would have kept that decision quiet. In fact, I would have lied by saying, “Yeah, I’m going to specialize in sports medicine…or maybe orthopedics…or possibly cardio-cranial surgery.”
Do we really want the DMV to be responsible for identifying organ donors? I can see it now. “Mr. Smith, we have that liver you need. Please have a seat and wait until your number is called.”
And here are some phrases you never hear in a hospital:
“That meal was delicious. I especially enjoyed the slice of white bread.”
“Could I have my blood drawn again?”
“This hospital gown fits me perfectly”
“Boy, that x-ray table was comfy.”
“Look how elegant that doctor’s handwriting is.”
Ron
Last week, I had the privilege of doing a series of presentations for the New Brunswick Healthcare Quality Interest Group which is part of the Canadian Regional Health Authority. My role was to show these quality professionals how to make the process of quality more fun. Yeah, I know, how could quality be any more fun than it already is?
One of the presenters was Joan Lutes who showed how her hospital created a fun way of improving employee health by sponsoring a 5K run/walk. She gave an overview of the project and then did something very interesting. She showed a funny video depicting how they created excitement among staff about the event. The theme of the video was based on Mission Impossible, complete with a disintegrating cassette recorder, and the scenes showed different people finding mysterious messages encouraging them to participate in the event.
As our audience watched Joan’s presentation, the atmosphere went from attentive to engaged to entertained. The video captured everyone’s attention and I’m sure they will remember the experience a long time from now. Not only did Joan infuse her project with fun and humor, she made our learning experience more fun as well.
That’s what it’s all about.
Ron
I had an unexpected visit to the ER last week (as if these trips are ever planned). On the first day of a motorcycle trip, a pickup truck pulled out in front of me forcing me to ride off the road into grass and gravel. I did fine through the grass but didn’t fare so well in the gravel. My Harley went one direction and my body, led by my chin, went another. After the dust cleared, I had 10 stitches in my chin and a bad case of road rash on my face.
Overall, considering the situation, I am both thankful and blessed.
It goes without saying, but I still will, that I was not in the best mood after my accident. I had faced (so to speak) a potentially fatal situation; I was now going to miss a great 5-day ride with my brother; and I had 5 hours of ER treatment to look forward to.
So, I decided to look for opportunities to laugh…or at least to chuckle, since it hurt my chin to laugh.
My first opportunity came when I asked the ER staff to make sure I didn’t look like Mickey Rourke when I healed. Unfortunately, in this particular part of SW Virginia, they didn’t know who Mickey Rourke was. So that one was just for me.
My second opportunity came when the doctor asked me how I was. I said, “I never truly embraced the wisdom in my dad’s admonition to ‘keep my chin up.’” He smiled but as we all know, ER doctors are not allowed to fully chuckle.
Then, when the nurse was washing my wound (I regret that I didn’t get complete sponge bath), I asked for the full facial, waxing, and pedicure. She laughed.
Score.
Finally, my best laugh came when I arrived at the follow-up visit with my family doctor. The receptionist looked at my mangled chin and asked, “What happened?”
I said, “I cut myself shaving.”
Now here’s the best part. She said, “Really?”
Now, that’s funny.
Ron
I had the privilege of speaking to the Arizona Health Care Association last week. This group of long-term care administrators, nurses, and staff was a lively bunch and their conference was full of humor. Three of the four keynote speakers were humorists and the fourth, Lori Porter, was hilarious even though she was not billed as a humorist.
Lori was a Certified Nursing Assistant who gave great care, fought the shortcomings of the system, and rose to the rank of a certified long-term care administrator. Her extraordinary commitment to long-term care and to nursing assistants inspired her to create the National Association of Health Care Assistants of which she is the current CEO.
Lori loves nursing assistants and long-term care residents and this comes through in everything she does. But she is also a pistol of a person. She’s direct, driven, and bubbling over with edgy humor that makes her message even more powerful.
For instance, she commented on the plight of smokers. She said, “You’re better off coming out as a transvestite than a smoker.” The audience roared.
In describing her rise to the top, she mentioned how she was not encouraged to seek the administrator position by her boss or her family. Her boss said she “wasn’t administrator material” and as she left her house for the certification exam, her mother yelled, “Don’t get your hopes up!”
Finally, Lori told about an incident that occurred early in her first position as an administrator. Someone called her to the facility in the middle of the night because two staff members were engaged in sexual activity in a vacant room. Not knowing exactly what to do, Lori walked into the room, told them to get out, and said, “If I’m not getting any, you’re not getting any.” The audience came unglued during this story and there was sustained hysterics.
As a humorist, I know that Lori is funny. But as a former healthcare professional, I also know that Lori was a dedicated staff person and administrator who was passionate about the care that was given to the people in her facilities. In my opinion, you couldn’t ask for a better combination.
Ron