Challenges

What a fantastic week and weekend!  I enjoyed spending time with my family and friends back home.  My mom, Emory, a few church friends, and me ran a half marathon on saturday!  It was my mom's first and she ran all 13.1 miles!  I couldn't be more proud of her.
When I was finishing up my last training run last week, I was reminded how marathon training relates to not just school, but also my walk with God.  When marathon training you begin with short runs that gradually get longer each week until you reach your goal just a week or so before the big race.  I think God prepares us to face things in our life we could never imagine.  This CRNA program is definitely the biggest challenge I have ever faced, but I know God has me here for a reason and He will get me through it.  He allows us to face trials and challenges in order to make us stronger and to become better Christians.  My husband and I have been facing a particular trial since we moved to Jackson.  As soon as it appears the situation is improving, something else occurs and it seems like the stress takes over again.  Through the encouragement of family, I have been reminded that it is all temporary, and God has an ultimate plan.  He will use these trials to prepare me for facing bigger ones in the future.  What an amazing God we have!
This week I am balancing studying for the pathophysiology exam and starting on our poster presentation for research.  Our poster is on the comparison of alcohol based hand rub and traditional hand washing and decreased surgical site infections.  Ultimately we found that many studies showed the two methods to be almost equal in decreasing the microbial burden, but alcohol based rubs maintained disinfection for a longer period of time.  Alcohol based hand rubs are also more time efficient, easier to use, and more cost effective, therefore resulting in better compliance by health care providers both inside and outside the operating room.  We found a great deal of information on the topic, but one of the weaknesses of our literature is the problem of surgical site infections being caused by multiple factors.  It is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of surgical site infections, especially with long hospital stays and lack of monitoring outside the OR.
On the topic of health technology, my husband has been keeping me up to date with the latest information on the release of ICD 10.  He works for a computer charting company, and has had huge success with the offices and facilities that have gone live with the software.  Unfortunately, the company has trained all of its employees on the latests updates to ICD 10 and other reimbursement, coding, and insurance changes.  It seems that government health care regulation is facing more difficulties than expected and it is affecting everyone from doctors and nurses, to computer support personnel.  Hopefully when ICD 10 is released, it will be beneficial to doctors and not put businesses under like some companies are suspecting.