RT Student Blog

Well, I've made a few changes here. As you can tell, I've changed the theme and gotten rid of my custom header. I think this looks more professional. I may abandon this altogether and go back to my own domain this summer. Also, my break is almost over. It's been great. I've been out of school for almost a month. Now, here is what I know about the upcoming semester.

1) I'll have to do some sort of community project. Not sure what that'll be but you'll hear about it here.
2) I'll have one day of class where we'll have a worksheet or quiz/test every week. This is to prepare us for the CRT and RRT exams.
3) I'll be taking PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) class for certification this semester.
4) I'll be taking the Kettering seminar in April to prepare for the exams.
5) The final checkoff will be a one on one day with the program director to watch me do all of the procedures we do.

Thats what I know. There are a lot of things I don't know but we'll worry about that later. Good luck in your semesters.

My buddy the trauma junkie (I know you've heard of him) way down there in Texas has come up with an awesome idea. He is starting a blog carnival on his blog. It's called "A Source of Inspiration". It is a great idea. You know that I've been blogging for a little while and have even hosted carnivals in the past as a way to gain readers and discover other blogs that you may not have read in the past. That being said, I'm just gonna copy and paste the particulars and rules for submissions and such.

Here are the basic guidelines:

• A Source of Inspiration does not intend to compete with Grand Rounds or Change of Shift, thus:
• If you submit a post to an upcoming issue of Grand Rounds or Change of Shift, please submit a different post to A Source of Inspiration. If you really want your post included in A Source of Inspiration but have already sent it to Grand Rounds or Change of Shift for inclusion, I can include it in A Source of Inspiration, but only after that issue of CoS or Grand Rounds has been posted.
  
• Anyone is free to contribute to A Source of Inspiration:
• --Respiratory Therapists: You're out there in the blogosphere already. Send your latest post.
• --Doctors: What are your experiences with respiratory therapists at work? What are your experiences taking care of patients with asthma, COPD, bronchitis, pneumonia, CHF, etc.? Also, feel free to share your latest news and research related to respiratory diseases or DME (durable medical equipment) for respiratory home care patients. Medicare/Medicaid, whatever. As long as it is related to respiratory care.
• --Nurses: You see all kinds of patients, and COPD is the fourth leading killer of people in the United States. Share your experience with taking care of these patients. Maybe one has touched your heart or left behind a memory that is hard to shake. Talk about working with RTs, what they're like, etc.
  
• --Patients/General public: Perhaps you have spent your whole life living with a chronic lung disease or you have just been diagnosed with asthma or chronic bronchitis or... the list is endless. You've probably been in and out of hospitals your entire life, or maybe you recently had your first hospital stay for your illness. Reach out to other patients with similar problems. Or, if you're a member of the general public, and you find the respiratory system or healthcare blogs or new articles interesting, write up a post for submission. As long as it is related to respiratory care, I'll include it.
• Anyone is free to host A Source of Inspiration, and is definitely welcome to. Just email me at js0095001 [at] gmail [dot] com.
  

Whew! That's enough for now. If you have any questions or comments, just use the comment form below this post. All comments are welcome and definitely encouraged. A lot of factors at once are going to help this work, but your input tops the list. More to follow regarding where to send submissions, carnival post dates-- that is, if you guys are interested, and topics for future issues (the first few issues will be sort-of "Anything goes").

Last but not least, here is the call for submissions:
All submissions should be sent to js0095001 {at} gmail {dot} com no later than Thursday, February 12, 2009 at midnight CST. The first issue will be published on Surviving RT School Friday, February 13th, 2009 (cause I'm risky like that...lol). Future issues will be hosted on other blogs and I will create a page in my header with more information on upcoming editions.

In the email, include the following to be added to A Source of Inspiration:

1. The e-mail subject of, "A Source of Inspiration"
   
2. The title of your post
3. A direct link to the post (e.g., http://my-rt-life.blogspot.com/2008/12/posttitle.html, instead of http://my-rt-life.blogspot.com)
4. A short description of your post
5. How you wish to be listed on the issue (e.g., Jill, Anonymous Blogger, ER Nursey, etc.)
   

(Special thanks to Kim at Emergiblog for all her support and advice, Emily, of crzegrl, flight nurse, for proofing this post, and to Robin at Survive the Journey for help with the logo.)

Ok, I tweaked the header a little and changed it up. I also added some buttons on the side there. I figured that I have quite a few places on the internet where I have profiles, so I made it easy for you guys to catch up with me. I'm also preparing for my blogging return so I started there. I hope to see you around the net.

I just got the mail today and got my "Welcome Back" letter. One of my teachers likes to send these out every semester. It is kind of to let us know whats going on the first couple of days back at school. I already knew this but she said that we will be in class from 8 to 5 on Monday and start clinicals on Wednesday. I'll definitely let you know more as it goes on.

Well, I was talking about the Peek email only device last night I did a little research. I found them on amazon.com for significantly lower than the $99.95 the company is selling them for. More specifically I found the Aqua one for $65.25. I took my change to the coinstar machine and came out with an amazon coupon for $68.23. Shipping pushed it to just past 70 bucks for the Peek so I had to spend about $4.50 for my Peek. I am excited. I have been preparing ever since. I set up my email to be able to update Twitter by sending an email. This will also update my Facebook status. I also finally figured out how to blog here from my email.

I was just reading at my friend Julie's blog about the simple email device called the Peek. Now there is a blogger named Jenn that is giving away one. It works with most of the popular email services and I definitely want one. I totally could do without a cell phone with one of these. If I don't win though, I may put this on the list of my graduation gifts to myself.

Win a Peek at jenn.nu! Participating in the Peek giveaway is as easy as citing a blog entry that links to the giveaway and to getpeek.com. For more information, see the official giveaway blog entry: Win a Peek!

Next Monday I start the last semester of the program. From what I've heard from many people it's just a review semester with a lot of clinicals. That means that I only have one semester left of this blog. I mean, after May 20th I'll no longer be an RT Student, so I can't exactly have a RT Student blog. Now I was a blogger before I was a student (you can see my old blog here). I'm even quite proud to say that I am friends with some of the more famous bloggers out there (Ted, Julie, Colleen, and Amy).

Even though I'll be a full time Respiratory Therapist I definitely plan to reconnect with the blogging world and starting a new blog. I doubt I'll make money from it like I did before. Now I just have to decide what to blog about and what the theme will be. First I need a domain name. My old one was http://willifordblog.com. Not very original, I know. I'll tell you about the idea that came to me tonight.

As a graduation present to myself, I plan to buy myself an Acer Aspire One laptop (the mini netbook that myfriend, the domestic diva uses). It has a built in webcam, an 8 inch screen, and is tiny and very, very portable. I was thinking I could take it everywhere and somehow use that as the blog theme. That's where you guys come into play. Maybe you can help come up with domain name ideas and blog themes. Leave me a comment and I'll get back to blogging about Respiratory school for the time being.