I can hardly believe that it is that time of year already with only five more weeks remaining until the new year! If you are like me, you find yourself spending a fair amount of time this week not only being thankful but also reflecting on all that has happened this year. For example, I am very thankful […]
Abstract:
Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill is famous for his often-repeated claim that “all politics is local.” O’Neill believed that taking care of the concerns of one’s district ensured electoral success. David Mayhew includes credit claiming—providing particularized benefits to the district, pejoratively referred to as “pork”—among the tried and true strategies incumbents use to ensure their reelection. Using the press releases of Representative Bizz Johnson (D-CA) this research examines patterns of credit-claiming activity over his twenty-year career. In particular, we examine the hypothesis that credit claiming increases during election years as Johnson sought to ensure his reelection to Congress.
Recently I attended the 2015 Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research.
It is a conference that focuses on up and coming student researchers from universities and college all over southern California, to present their work and gain vital presentation experience.
My coauthor and I presented on the topic of representation, and how it can be calculated through the use of credit claims, for example from congressional member Bizz Johnson’s office. Our theory was that the idea of political representation can be calculated through the amount of credit claims a congressional member makes within their press releases. We value these credit claims as money or benefits for a district that the congressional member insinuates they were the ones to bring in governmental money to support the district they represent. We at first hypothesized that the amount of credit claims had a significant relationship with mid-term congressional election years, as the government was under more public scrutiny during these elections. What we found was that was untrue and there was no statistically significant relationship between congressional election years and the amount of credit claims. From our results we knew there as something going on, so we ran another test. What we do notice is, that there is a statistically significant correlation with presidential election years and credit claims.
We’re almost there! It’s hard to believe that we are coming to the end of our program and the end of our med-surg content. I still feel like there is so much to learn, which is probably because there is! Going into nursing I was excited about the academic nature of the healthcare field. There is always something to learn and what we know, or think we know, is always changing. Now in the midst of nursing school my feelings of excitement have shifted a bit towards feelings of being overwhelmed. There is in fact an enormous amount of information to learn and sometimes I feel I am only retaining a very small percentage of it.
Looking back at our first semesters I do have to admit I have vastly more knowledge now than I did at the beginning of the program. The dreaded ATI tests have become smoother and I’ve gained more confidence in the clinical setting. I’ve learned so much through our clinical rotations and at this point I think I will excel the most through getting out and working in the field. I’m looking forward to public health next semester and getting to see a different side of nursing than we have seen in the acute care setting.
I’m excited to finish school and start working but it is going to be an interesting transition. I’ve been working for my current employer for five and a half years. I work part time during the semester and always work full time when I can between semesters. I enjoy my current job and love my coworkers. Sometimes I have to work really hard to remind myself why I decided to go to nursing school and make this huge transition in my career in the first place. In the end I know it will be worth it and am really proud of myself for pushing my comfort zone and doing something new but it’s not to say that it has been easy!
Come visit me at the Marine Debris/Microplastics booth on December 19th at Ledbetter Beach in Santa Barbara.
I often find myself in the situations that I now respond differently. A couple of month ago, I helped a person who was stung by the stingray on the beach. I guess the stingray hit the artery because the blood was squirting from the leg of that young boy. I immediately started acting in the way I would not have acted before the start of the nursing school. I introduced myself, asked for permission to help, sent for a life guard/extra help, got a towel and asked him to push above the wound, etc. It was weird to me that other people did not seem to know what to do. His friends even attempted to stop the bleeding by pushing below the wound (I asked him to elevate the foot and press above bleeding site. They took it literally and started pushing above, but the foot was up, so they were actually pushing below – that would not have helped to stop the bleeding!).
My friends also often ask for my advice and explanations of the health issues. I am always happy to share whatever I learned and be helpful for people around me. I do hope that I will be able to remember all of the basic things I have learned and turn this foundation into a more working and practical knowledge and experience.
I’d like to start this one strong because I have so much to say on how disappointing it truly is to not only learn about new things in media concerning youth. But the fact of processing the information, and how we as Communication majors will use our education to make a difference. I agree that today’s youth is so caught up with Jordan’s, I phones and Michael Kors etc,, I believe social media and society paly a big role but also the parents. when parents like to live up o an image so do their kids that’s were they learn it from and that’s who buys it for them first. second since our generations didn’t have a lot of those things many parents say” I want to give my kids everything I couldn’t have” they mean it not knowing the harm it causes the kids. in today’s society your not cool if you don’t have swag or have the latest. Only kids who I’ve seen with self confidence could gives a rats behind about what others think. That’s a humbled child who has had an experience in life that truly showed them that materialistic things don’t mean crap. now there’s also teenagers who work hard to provide for themselves what their parents couldn’t and they can also lose track of what is important. also if you didn’t have much growing up you can get stuck as an adult trying to make up for what you never had but nothing can feel that void at some point help is needed it becomes an obsession. Sternheimer also talks about the environment when she states that electronics can be” luring young people away from things that really matter and destroying the environment” (248)? all these devices the youth and adults buy that have battery acid and other bad things for our planet have to go somewhere and nowadays kids change gadgets like they change their bed sheets once or twice a month once the new I phone comes out they upgrade to the next and so do their parents its embaressing to see how blind our society has become I am also guilty of such madness.
As I near the end of nursing school, I feel both excited and apprehensive. I am so ready to be done with the constant stress that nursing school causes, but at the same time, it feels like I will be stepping out of a protective bubble into the real world. As a student, I felt like I could make mistakes, and not have to worry about looking too bad in front of people that matter. Now I feel like I will be expected to know how to perform my duties like a seasoned nurse even without being one in front of my workmates and supervisors.
The NCLEX is of course also weighing heavy on my mind. I know that I have to do so much more preparation to be ready for it. As of right now, if I took it, I may just get lucky and pass it, but those are not odds I am willing to take on. I want to feel fully prepared for it and plan to study intensely for it as soon as I graduate.
Despite all of this stress, I do look back on my first semester and can proudly say that yes, I am concerned about the difficulties of being a nurse, but I do feel like I will in time be a good one once I get over the new nurse hurdles. There were several times throughout my schooling that I did not know if I could honestly say that I could become a good nurse and it does give me a boost of confidence to compare my skills to the lack of skills and lack of confidence I had the first year of nursing school.
Students just finished unit 2 which was on watersheds. They found out which watershed they belonged to, learned what watersheds are, how we are connected to the watershed, and had a field trip to the Ventura Harbor. One assignment that was given to them was to trace where our local watersheds are then they needed to map what are the land uses are in the area. I lead a lesson called Earth’s water as an apple, students had to cut an apple to show how the Earth’s surface is divided and then how our land is divided up. The land was divided up in land use, fresh drinking water, and where humans can live. The students also had a small research project about the Santa Clara watershed there were 5 subjects that students researched. The subjects were invasive Arundo, macroinvertebrates, water quality, surface runoff, and endangered species Bell’s Viero. They were then to create posters for their subject and present that to the class.
Here are some of the posters from Channel Islands High School
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