Laughing Like Crazy

This month, we’re taking a look at humor and mental illness. I’m as thrilled as I can be to present David Granirer; he’s one of the rising stars in the field of therapeutic humor, and has wisdom we can all benefit from.

Mental illness is one of those subjects we all shy away from. When I was teaching, my student nurses worried more about that psych rotation than any other unit — but as any experienced nurse will tell you, mental illness isn’t confined to the mental health unit. Mentally ill patients break their arms, have heart attacks, get cancer and have babies just like everyone else — and they appreciate and benefit from therapeutic humor as well! Read more

A Hard Call to Make!

Read more

JNJ Talks to David Granirer!

David Granirer wears many hats. Counselor, comic, author, speaker, and a funny, funny guy, he is also the driving force behind Stand Up for Mental Health, an innovative program that is truly therapeutic humor in action. We’re thrilled to have David join us for this conversation!

JNJ: For those who are not already familiar with your work, can you give us a little background about what you do?

David: My project, Stand Up for Mental Health, teaches standup comedy to people with mental illness. We’ve been doing this since 2004, helping people build confidence and fight the stigma of mental illness.

In my own background, I’m a counselor and a stand up comic. I also have mental illness, I have depression, which in a way makes me the perfect person to do this work! Read more

JNJ Twitter Updates for 2009-08-31

• New blog post: Just Horsing Around http://bit.ly/yMiyX #

The #1 Reason Patients Hit The Call Light REVEALED!

Read more

Play Me Some Blues

During a urological procedure in the OR, the surgeon asked for Van Buren sounds, which are urethral dilators. The circulating nurse promptly went to the CD player and browsed through the discs, and said, “I can’t locate the Van Buren sounds. Are they a new group?”

Contributed by Carrie Ishisaka, RN, MS

Stand Up For Mental Health

Most people think you have to be nuts to do stand up comedy — but we think of it as therapy! Stand Up For Mental Health is David Granirer’s innovative, groundbreaking program.

David teaches stand up comedy to people with mental illness as a way of building their confidence and fighting public stigma, prejudice, and discrimination.

Our shows look at the lighter side of taking meds, seeing counsellors, getting diagnosed, and surviving the mental health system. We perform at conferences, treatment centers and psych wards in partnership with numerous mental health organizations. SMH performs in Prisons, on Military Bases and University and College Campuses, at Government, Corporate and Community fundraisers and Forums, and Most Importantly, for the General Public across Canada and the US.

David, who himself suffers from depression says: If you have bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health diagnoses, you’re a perfect fit for this program!

Check out the website for info on the program, links to performances, and the Cracking Up documentary!

Star Charts by Suzanne LaBarne

Horoscopes just for Nurses!

Virgo

We know an apple a way keeps the doctor away, Virgo…but even buying out the produce department of every grocery store for a thousand miles won’t keep you from running into trouble with your ‘favorite’ doc. Remember: you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. The real question is, why do you want all those flies?

Libra

Your entrepreneurial spirit takes center stage this week, Libra: custom masks to coordinate with scrubs through flu season may be the next big thing…

Scorpio

It’s going to be a great week, Scorpio! Use your therapeutic communication skills as often as possible: either you’ll gain great insight into everyone around you or they’ll find you so annoying that they leave you alone and you get some much-needed peace and quiet! Either way, you win!

Sagittarius

Trust us. Nothing you find in the hospital gift shop will convince your sweetie that you didn’t forget their special day. Make the detour on the way home and get something else: it’ll be totally worth it.

Capricorn

This is your week for unexpected gifts, Capricorn. You just have to learn to recognize them. Moments like the in-service on circumcision counseling for new parents being unexpectedly cut short? Enjoy them!

Aquarius

Carefully progress through delicate conversations early this week, Aquarius, and the remainder of the week should be smooth sailing. Be too forthright right off the bat, and headaches will follow you all the way to the weekend.

Pisces

Be open to unexpected opportunities, Pisces: that rambling patient who is intent on telling you every moment of their life history in real time may actually be a time-traveler sent back from a catastrophic future to save humanity from itself. Or, conversely, telling your NM that you think that’s the case may get you the week off!

Aries

The good luck continues for Aries this week. Share some of your cheer by telling funny stories to coworkers and colleagues: they can use the lift.

Taurus

A patient is brought in with chronically rolling eyes, which sounds horrible until you discover she’s 15. Sometimes we pathologize ‘normal’ behavior. Your exceptional good sense will help you keep perspective!

Gemini

Something strange is going on, Gemini, be ready for anything. This includes boating accidents for those of you in the land-locked Midwest, skiing difficulties in the desert, and more…Remember to take notes: writing a best selling memoir is a vital part of your retirement plan!

Cancer

Mental acrobatics are required to keep on top of everything required of you this week, Cancer: you’re the star in the Cirque du Soliel of charting! A quick wit and prophylactic doses of Tylenol make it bearable — as does the knowledge that smooth sailing awaits once this week is over.

Leo

Career planning never stops: you find yourself assessing options and planning your next five years this week, Leo. Even if nothing is changing, this is an exciting time: you’re determining your destiny!

Star Charts by Suzanne LaBarne are intended for entertainment purposes only!

Nurse Marge in Charge

Dear Nurse Marge,

I’ve been out of nursing for a while now. I meant to take a year off when my baby was born, and now that year’s stretching into a decade. You’ve been hanging in there this whole time, and so I’ve got to ask: what’s changed while I’ve been away? What surprises are in store for me?

Signed,

The Catch Up Kid

Dear Catch Up,

Let me see if I can cast my mind back ten years. Of course, I’m writing this after a surprise double, and it would take a miracle for me to remember where I parked the car ten minutes ago, much less what I was doing ten years ago!

What stands out from ten years ago? I was doing a lot of running then: running to answer the call light seventeen times a minute, running to the phone to clarify illegible orders, running to make sure all of my charting was done, running to catch the visiting child who co-opted a Geri chair and was about to race it right into an isolation room.

Is any of this coming back to you? If you’re remembering that, I want you to think about what you were wearing on your feet. Can you recall those heavy Reebok-style sneakers? Oh, we thought they were great. Support and (ha!) style, all in one.

Now, of course, the shoes are different. There’s more variety. Some of the shoes will even make your feet feel better, they certainly look more stylish (although I’m sure I’ll be laughing about that a decade from now!) and they weigh a lot less.

That’s great news, because everything else is pretty much how you remember it. The widespread adoption of text messaging and video games means that patients can now hit the call button much faster than ever before: anecdotal studies report some patients being able to summon help up to 85 times in a single minute. The handwriting’s gotten worse — who writes anymore? But many residents and doctors have really tried to help the nursing profession with that little problem by failing to record any orders at all! The new generation of visitor’s children don’t actually run around all that much — the whole exercise concept eludes them — but you still have to chase family members away from the med cabinet (It’s amazing how many look there for ’souvenirs’ of their visit to Grandma’s bedside!)

Sure, there’s been some advances in the whole

Just Horsing Around

Read more

Next Page »