>Arizona and California

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Steve Picray

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What did Arizona do to cause such a furor? They passed a law that requires non-citizens carry papers showing their legal right to be in this country. Evidently, this was actually the law already. What is the big deal? And now people are crying “RACISM!!!” because the police are stopping Hispanic people to check their papers. These are the same people crying about racial profiling when some people wanted closer scrutiny paid to people of Middle Eastern descent. I wonder why? I mean, when is the last time a 60 year old granny blew up a building in a terrorist plot? I refer you to http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/ where you can see the worldwide death toll that has been enacted by Muslims from 9/12/01 up to today.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I am pro-immigration. I think the United States, while imperfect, is still the best place to live on earth, and I welcome those who wish to become a part of our country…LEGALLY. I know that becoming a citizen can be a long and difficult path. Nothing worth doing is easy. But these people that assume that becoming a US Citizen is a right every person should enjoy? Insane. We are a nation of laws, and part of that law is who gets to be a part of our society. People shouldn’t be able to cross our border with impunity and belly up to the trough of public assistance.
In the past day or so, I have heard people argue that we should accept these people because they are poor, they are starving, etc, and they have no other choice but to break the law and cross our border illegally. While I can understand their reasons for doing so, does it change the fact that what they are doing is wrong? What do you call a person who takes what does not belong to them? A thief. See the attached picture for a Mexican protestor’s opinion of what the United States should do to illegal immigrants.
Some of these people successfully cross the border and then start to get “entitlement-itis.” They think the world owes them. I read a news article yesterday about a school in Morgan Hill, CA (which is still part of the US, last I checked) that sent some students home for having the gall to wear shirts depicting the US flag’s colors on May 5th. That’s right, boys and girls: they wore United States colors to a United States school on a day celebrating the independence of Mexico. The principal stated that he asked them to turn their shirts inside out or go home. He told them he didn’t want any fighting between Mexican-American students celebrating Cinco de Mayo and the student who were wearing American flags. Well excuse me, but this is America, and American students should be able to wear patriotic shirts supporting our country on ANY day of the year, not just on days that are also patriotic days of other countries.
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>My Thoughts

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Steve Picray

>For the past two weeks I have worked five shifts. The week before that ended with four shifts, so I figured that in the past 18 days, I have worked 14 of them. Two of those days were spent in church (get off work at 8am, drive straight to church, drive home at noon, crash for three hours, then back to church til 7pm, then crash into bed), so those days don’t count as “days off.” One of the remaining two was spent at the birth-control-like Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (think of a building that recreates the atmosphere inside your typical Chuck-E-Cheese or an average “bounce house.” A vasectomy clinic right next door could do amazing business there. New promotion: “Get a two year membership, and get a 20% off vasectomy coupon!”

All that to say that in the past 18 days I have had one day off. Ick. Well that changes today. Sure I have to go to the hospital, and sure I’m going to clock in, but it’s just to sit in a meeting for 2.5 hours and then get some blood drawn (Hepatitis B titer, if you must know). but that’s it for the day. And I don’t have to go back to work (either job) until Thursday night. Unfortunately I skipped church last night. Kim says she tried to wake me at 3:30pm, but I wouldn’t even wake up. All I remember is waking up at 6:15 and thinking, “Oh. Guess I missed church.” What this means is that I got about five hours of sleep, which is enough for my body to think that I’m still on a night schedule. Went to bed last night, and couldn’t sleep. I finally got up and came downstairs. I caught up on a few shows that we had on our DVR from the past month (White Collar, Chuck, and Little Couple).

Sidebar: Incidentally, does anybody else think that TLC should maybe change their name from The Learning Chapnel to The Little Channel? They have The Little Couple, Little People Big World, The Little Chocolatiers, and I just saw an ad for a new one, “Our Little Life.” Really? Are dwarves that interesting? Speaking of which, my favorite line from any of those shows was from “The Little Couple (the only one we really watch). Bill (one of the main characters) is about to play golf, and a (normal sized) guy asks him, “What’s your handicap?” to which Bill replies, “Dwarfism.” ROFL! You can’t make this stuff up!

Ok, so now I’ve watched some TV, thought about exercising (I might go to the Y later, but it’s too cold to jog outside just yet….35F? No.), and I’m now typing this.

What’s going on with school? Today the kids’ spring break ends, and they go back to school. Our youngest went to school for the first time this year, and I have to confess that I got used to them being gone during the day. I love the little anklebiters, but when they’re here constantly, it wears you down. It has been refreshing to be able to spend hours alone with my wife. We golf, go to stores, movies, etc. It’s like we don’t have kids for a few hours each day.

Oh, you meant MY school? Well, I’ve thought about it and prayed about it, and at least for now I am not going to pursue any kind of degree. I am currently taking statistics and children’s literature at IUPUI. I signed up for them as prerequisites for IUPUI’s FNP program, which I have been shut out of (see prior posts). The only reason I’m finishing these two classes is that if I don’t I get a ding on my transcript, and should I ever wish to get another degree, these would be negatives. Also, my job pays tuition assistance, and if I finish the classes I get a check for $1600-ish in May or June. I hope.

I realized that I could either work like I am (maybe a little less), and pay off my debts for the next four years, or I could slog through graduate school for four years, working over full time all the while, barely paying our bills, and come out the other end with a degree, $10,000 more in student loan debt, and be no closer to paying off our debts.

So the choice seems to be: get a degree and become a FNP, or pay off our debts and go back in the ministry. I believe God has called me into the ministry, so, just as I abandoned my dream to be a Naval nurse (because it would require a committment of time that would keep me from the ministry if God paid off my debts), I am now resigned to being a staff nurse for the duration. At least that’s what I’m thinking for now. If they come up with some kind of program at work where they pay me a full time salary to go back to school, then I’ll do that, but that doesn’t seem likely.

This post seems long enough for now. Except one last thing: I took care of a patient this weekend who was a 100 year old Navy vet. He was an officer in WWII. His family told me that he’s the oldest surviving Naval officer, but I have no attribution for that. He was a very interesting man. At one point he apologized for being “so much trouble.” I told him, “Sir, you served our country. You have nothing to apologize for. I come from a Navy family, and we have to look out for each other.”

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>Still a Jaguar…for now.

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Steve Picray

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Ok, so in my last post I mentioned that I’m a Jaguar because I’m going to school at IUPUI. Well, that’s only going to be true for another month or so. Here’s why:

I applied for the Family Nurse Practitioner Program. I did this so that I could work wherever I wanted as a NP, be it a drugstore, doctor’s office, hospital, etc. I was also looking ahead to possible medical missions. I began speaking with IUPUI about the Nurse Practitioner program back in August. They knew back then I wanted to be a FNP. I handed in my application at the beginning of February.

The secretary for the nursing program emailed me in mid Feb and asked me if I would be interested in talking to the head of the Adult Nurse Practitioner program. I said, “Sure.” On Monday the 22nd, I drove to IUPUI and met with her and another instructor from the ANP program. I thought it was just an informational session, helping me to explore my options. After listening to her for 45 minutes, she finally said something that startled me. It was when I asked her for clarification that I found out that ANP wasn’t one of my options, it was my ONLY option. Evidently the head of the FNP program only wants RNs with pediatric experience (of which I have none). So I was summarily rejected. I asked the ANP head, “Just to be clear, you are saying that I can be an Adult Nurse Practitioner at IUPUI, or I can go somewhere else, is that right?” She said yes. She said I could have a week to think about what I wanted to do.

She called me a week later and I told her that after talking with a few FNP’s, I had determined that I didn’t want to go to school for the exact amount of time and pay the same amount of money to get a degree that was “less of a degree” than the FNP. See, FNP’s have what’s called a “Scope of practice” which determines what they can and can’t do. An ANP can do everything a FNP can do, except they can’t treat pregnant women or anybody under the age of 11. She tried to tell me that it wasn’t less of a degree, but in the interview I found out that both she and the other instructor were FNPs. During the interview she kept telling me all the great things about being an ANP, when she wasn’t even an ANP. I advised her that if she wanted people to get interested in the ANP program, she might want to get a ANP to talk to people.

So in calling it “less of a degree” I think I kind of burnt that bridge. What am I doing now? I’m finishing this Statistics class and my Children’s Literature class. Thankfully my hospital has a tuition assistance program so I will get fully reimbursed for taking these classes.

Now I sit back and try to figure out what I am going to do. Should I pursue the FNP at another school? Ball State and Indiana State both have attractive online FNP programs. Or should I forget about it and just stay an RN? I don’t know yet.
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>I’m a Jaguar

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Steve Picray

>I am now a Jaguar. What does this mean? It means I’m a student at IUPUI (their mascot is the Jaguars). That’s Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis. It’s a joint venture between the two schools located in Indy. Actually the classes I’m taking are both online, and I’ve only been on campus once so far (to hand in my application). When/if I graduate I can choose to join the alumni association of either Indiana University or Purdue University. So when I graduate, I can become an official “Hoosier” (which is what IU students/alumni are called). I don’t care, I’m still rooting for the Hawkeyes in the Big Ten, no matter what the diploma says.

Speaking of which, kudos to the Iowa Hawkeyes for winning the Orange Bowl and having the best season in school history. Let’s go for the Rose Bowl next year!

Why am I going to school? Well, I’m a staff nurse. The plan was to pay off our debts with my nursing income and go back into the ministry. Here I am. Five years later. Virtually no progress. After much deliberation and investigation, I found out that it would take me two years of full time school (or four years part time) to become a Family Nurse Practitioner. Hopefully this would mean I could get a job working in a doctor’s office making more money for working bankers hours (instead of overtime, nights and weekends all the time).

I don’t have my BSN which is a requirement for getting a MSN, but IUPUI has a “RN to MSN” option where I just have to get my BSN equivalency. For this I only need to take two classes: Statistics and another 300 level class. I chose “Children’s Literature.” So here I am, back in school. Hopefully for the last time.

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