The Daily Peeve / Rant

[TxZen]

My rant for the day-- cheating in Graduate school!! I don't get it. 95% of my classes are spent in group learning. There is a LOT of discussion and the professors encourage us to work with each other on any problems we might have, as long as we are not copying word for word. Example: When I work with my partner(s), they read their answer and I read mine. I add anything to mine I pick up from them in pen. The one professor loves this on my work. So why cheat? One gal has all the answers from someone who took the class previous semester and got mad when the homework assignment was changed. HAHAHA- karma much?!? There is another group of 3 who sit smugly in the back of the class. Found out they were basically copying each other's homework and assignments. Free thinkers not happening there? It just irks me to no end, especially since this is a Masters degree in TEACHING. HELLO???? You are the one who influences the children. Ok..rant over. Thank you..enjoy your cocoa.

[SteveinMN]

Good lord, just how stupid CAN these non profits be?

Tonight I picked up a newsletter of a local do-good gardening organization to see that they have selected a kind of lily for their bulb sales that will not grow in Missouri. [snip]
A Google map would show you that these idiots are 2.5 blocks from the Missouri Botanical Gardens where the world's foremost experts on bulbs for St. Louis work. And if they were unable to find Sylvia and Jason The Bulb Boy they could have used that new modern thing called the Internet

It's hard to find good free help these days...

[freshstart]

My rant for the day-- cheating in Graduate school!! It just irks me to no end, especially since this is a Masters degree in TEACHING. HELLO???? You are the one who influences the children. Ok..rant over. Thank you..enjoy your cocoa.

they should be treated like children who cheat, suspended- no discussion, happens again- expulsion. Kids are right, grown ups can do whatever they want. I bet they eat ice cream for breakfast.

[iris lilies]

It's hard to find good free help these days...

hey smart guy, these people earn salaries. They are paid. And they get U.S. Tax dollars for some of their programs.
I will be kind and assume that this one program I write about here is not gubmnt funded in any way, it is funded by sales.

One dumb act like theirs reverses decades of educational efforts by my Lily club. The public will learn not to waste money on lilies because the ones they buy from this org will all die.

Selling bulbs to the public is not their primary focus, and this is good example of an organization growing beyond their primary mission. They are doing it wrong. Mission creep is a real problem in organizations that do not earn their own money and are dependent on handouts for support.

[freshstart]

I went for my repeat brain MRI with/without contrast. Meaning I need an IV and afterward I also had to get blood drawn. I have crappy veins, so I drank 2 24oz glasses of water, plus another 12oz in the car, so 60 ozs! I think we can concede I did my share to get those veins a poppin'. Meet the nurse, she is in an outpatient part of our hospital, the ex has not worked on campus in maybe 8 yrs. She immediately says, "are you so and so's wife?" I said nope, not copping to I am his ex-wife, but I know him (cause the stories are just so fun, let's hear hers). She says, "oh, isn't he great? What a kind man. I loved working with him." Not as bad as some, where I found out they boffed. Well, apparently she focused so much on her social skills, that her IV skills, the one thing she does all day, suck. Policy is 3 sticks in 24 hrs. We're on #4, I am patient about this, I know my veins suck, I've had to put really hard IVs in patients, I do understand but when #4 fails, I say, "are there any options here (as in getting someone else entirely!)? She goes and gets tinier needles, since this is my body being poked and I am about to have IV contrast through one of her crappy IV sites, I say, "huh, when I worked here you couldn't use that gauge because contrast is too thick." "that is true." You KNEW that yet planned to use the too small needle anyway? Clearly the ex-nurse with the 60 point IQ loss has her shit more together than the actual, live, employed IV nurse! Grrr. I'm starting to resent her, I do not want some huge infiltrate of MRI contrast in my arm. She goes to get someone else, he tells her, "use the 24g needles with the holes in them, for contrast dye in children." "I can do that?" "Yes and that would be much safer than using the 24g one in your hand without holes. Where did you find these?" "I got it from the peds floor (from the hospital we are not even in)." He's pissed and tells her to take the next guy. Childs' IV with holes is in in less than 1 minute and I'm pretty sure he hasn't boffed my ex. Get MRI. Whole process took almost 3 hrs because of the first nurse.

Hobble down to get blood drawn. The lab is packed. My turn comes up just to register, the orders from neurology have 27 different tests, I counted while waiting. Since this person has to put all of these into the computer, she's not too thrilled. Then she hits the ones she doesn't know, phlebotomist helps her. Hands it back to me and I go wait. 30 mins later it is my turn, the phlebotomist looks at his printout and says, "some of these are super stat, you have to have them at the hospital lab so they get picked up right away. I will call them, you won't have to re-register." Fine. But you couldn't have mentioned this when you read the orders half an hour ago? As I increasingly wobble over to the hospital, I'm thinking, I've yelled, "STAT" many a time, I have sent labs "stat', ordered tests "stat" but now we have "Super Stat?" WTH? What's the next level up, Super Duper Stat, Run With the Wind Stat, Ah F***, We Were Too Slow, She's Dead Stat?

Get to the lab, another 30 min wait, then no one has called them about Super Stat labs, nothing is in the computer, we start over as the woman enters test 1 of 27, after 20, things are hairy, people are consulted, nobody knows what the doc wants and she only works Mondays in our city. I say the guy in the other lab knew what they are, he just couldn't do them, could you please call him? Totally ignored. They call my doc's office, the nurse will call back with the answer in 5 mins. I sat there another 45 freaking minutes, finally say I cannot physically do this anymore, please call me and I will come back when you have the information. Turn around, fall flat on my face, F word! Trying to get up like it never happened and go on my way because if I don't, I am will be shoved in the ER so fast my head will spin, I'll have to complete mounds of paperwork for falling on property. I AM NOT DOING THIS! But I have been observed by staff and a waiting room filled with people. An old man gives me a hand, and I wobble away, followed by staff, "excuse me, Miss, hello, you can't just leave. Come back please, we need to get you checked and fill out some paperwork." Making that sound like I will not spend the next 11 hours waiting in the ER. Thanks, PASS. I have a head start, the elevator closes before she can get on, but when I get off, she's standing there. I said, "look, I am serious, I am physically 100% done with today, I need to leave, I cannot sit in a chair in the ER for hours. I'll sign whatever you want but it needs to happen in the next 30 seconds or I am leaving. I have been patient, I have not complained about amateur hour at this hospital. Welp, there's my ride, I sign now or not at all." I sign something I do not read and leave.

the whole 'nurse will call back in 5 minutes and we will call you" deal? 5 mins, is 2 1/2 hrs so far, I am so glad I left! I love my hospital, I served it to the best of my ability, but why would anyone come here if it takes 3 hrs to get a 30 mins tops MRI? They've done all this "concierge" stuff, built attractive new wings, but fix the basic every day crap that will make a patient choose the competition next time and maybe every time.

[SiouzQ.]

Oh man, that sounds like a perfectly awful day...I am sorry you had to endure this! You do write a very, very compelling story though, I was on pins and needles to the end.
Hmm, the medical-industrial complex...scary stuff. I am in the middle of helping my mom through her knee replacement surgery and her stint in a rehabilitation center. Got to call her momentarily - I'm sure I will get an earful of the little things that weren't coordinated well for her today. The biggest thing I see is that they are short-staffed.

[JaneV2.0]

Today's peeve: I wish I had Freshstart's gift for narrative, dang it!

[freshstart]

The biggest thing I see is that they are short-staffed.

that is the problem everywhere, you can only get so much from an employee. Hope your mom recovers well. I don't envy you, it's hard when it's a parent and you see things that could be much better.

My mom had hers maybe 8 yrs ago, they did both but she has small bones, they only had 1 pediatric knee and the rest were adults. They put one of each in! And it was a really good surgeon but WTH? You look at her and she leans to one side, the one with the little knee, lol. You couldn't wait for Amazon Prime for the other one? Would you make this mistake with a boob job and ever practice again? You have to laugh. But it's not funny at all.

[freshstart]

Today's peeve: I wish I had Freshstart's gift for narrative, dang it!

oh no you don't, people have to read a novella and in the end there is absolutely no point to be found! I would block me, I couldn't take it.

[kib]

naw. Frankly I'm going through my own bout of doctor-itis and it's reassuring to hear someone else is having issues with medical professionals. (Sorry for your troubles, truly, but yeah, it's nice to know it's not just me.) I don't think there's a realm on earth more fraught with legally-instigated curtailing of common sense than the American medical scene. A few years ago I was admitted to the local hospital after hours and after seven tries they finally used a vein in my ankle to insert an IV, simply because the Dr. had routinely ordered a prophylactic intravenous antibiotic before he left. Couldn't wait til 5 am and a trained phlebotomist, oh no. Couldn't start me on oral meds instead, Oh No! In the morning, a new Dr. comes in and says so, I hear *you* got a bit upset last night! Hmm, imagine that. Selfie: