Boolean Logic

I learned what Boolean Logic is!  When my nursing textbooks first came, I opened one up and read something about "Boolean Logic".  That was enough for me and I slammed the text shut, completely intimidated.  

Such a weird word to explain a simple concept.  Boolean logic is the way to put terms together in a search by using AND, OR, and NOT.  If I am looking for articles in a database and I want the articles to be about nursing faculty and mentoring, I might search nurs* faculty AND mentor* - which will bring me articles about nursing faculty/nurse faculty and mentor/mentors/mentoring.  Or all of the above.  The AND is a Boolean operator.  It creates a more precise search.  

Fun fact: the word Boolean comes from George Boole, who is considered one of the founders of the field of computer science.  Except he is from the 1800s and I don't know what kind of computers they had in the 1800s.  I thought they were limited to a slide rule.  Or an abacus.  I texted Brigham and he had never heard of him.  Brigham asked if he invented Boolean algebra.  Never heard of it.    

My topic of interest

Okay so for right now, I have chose my dissertation topic. This does not mean that I won't change my mind in the future, but for right now, here it is: 

 I am interested in researching what the characteristics are of an effective mentor in assisting an individual transitioning from a nurse to a nursing faculty member.  I am personally interested in this due to my own start as a nursing faculty member.  I had trusted mentors to assist me in the difficult conversion, which was more challenging than I had supposed.  This topic is also of interest to the nursing education community due to the current shortage of needed nursing faculty.   

And for your enjoyment, here is a picture of Josh who has captured and impaled three dead fish and is using them to terrorize his family members.  

Scrub shopping with Ellie and a cat in my office

 

So until last year, whenever anyone asked Ellie what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would say a marine biologist.  Which I found ridiculous because fish are disgusting.  Last year we were at BYU for some reason.  Can't remember why.  I suggested that we sign up for a campus tour, which we did.  We were driven around campus in go carts by these lovely girls who showed us all the neat stuff to be seen.  they gave us choice between seeing the nursing lab or another campus feature, and I was surprised when Ellie said she wanted to see the nursing lab.  I was completely blown away - it didn't look like that when I was in the nursing program there!  How many millions of dollars spent on simulation labs and equipment....I was very impressed and completely jealous as a nurse educator.  

Since that time, Ellie has changed her mind and is thinking about majoring in nursing.  Which, of course, I am secretly completely thrilled about but manage to rein in my excitement and reply offhandedly "Whatever you feel is best, Sweetie....."

This semester she is taking a CNA class at Southwest Technical College, where I used to teach.  CNA students usually have to do a number of clinical hours as students in long term care facilities, but because of Covid, it doesn't look like they will have an opportunity. I got permission from the nursing director at the nursing facility where my home health patient lives to bring Ellie along on some visits.  (I didn't tell the director that Ellie was my daughter, just that she was a CNA student looking for some clinical hours.  Oops......) 

Yesterday I made a visit to my patient and brought Ellie along in her cute red scrubs.  She was so great.  She asked my patient's wife if she could practice taking her blood pressure and the wife was more than happy to allow her.  My poor patient and his wife are so lonely - they haven't been able to leave their facility in six months and aren't allowed to get visitors either.  I think if the devil arrived at their front door they would welcome him in.  Ellie had a great bedside manner and seemed confident, even though later she said that she was nervous.  I think we have a future nurse on our hands!!!

AND this is Mittens.  Mom made me a braided rug in SUU colors, which I put under my desk at work to keep my feet warm.  Another nursing professor, Shane, came in and said that it looked like it needed a cat on it.  Which offended me.  Last week I got to my office and found a cat sleeping on my rug.  It actually purrs and breathes and comes with a cat carrier and brush.  Several times that day, faculty members and colleagues would come to my door to talk to me and I would catch them staring quizzically at Mittens - and then they wouldn't say anything!  They would just assume that it was a decoration and I have a thing for cats!  I had to take it home and give it to Josh.  It was tarnishing my reputation as a serious faculty member.  Josh loved it.  

Sunday thoughts

So that is me with various kids and mothers in the past few weeks.

We get to go to church today - and we get to go every week from now on!!  Yay!  This is going to be weird, it's been six months since we were at church every week.  Sacrament meeting is at 1:00 and the whole ward goes as long as we keep it under 150 people.  Sunday School, Young Womens, Relief Society, and Priesthood is still held virtually.  No Primary yet.  A couple weeks ago we were at the Tolmans having morning devotional.  We were singing a Primary song and my boys had no clue what the words were.  That made me sad.  I'm not sure how good a job we are doing teaching the gospel to our children.  I am afraid not good enough.  And I know I am an utter failure at teaching them the Primary songs.  I came home and made a playlist of children singing Primary songs to play on Sunday.  Maybe that will help a bit.

Things are going pretty well with work and school.  People ask me how things are with school and I never know if they are talking about my work school or my school school.  I need a word to call my school school because I feel awkward calling it my doctorate program or my PhD program.  Maybe I should just call it school school.   We are going to have start writing a topic of interest statement and I am not sure.  I am pretty sure I want to do something with nursing faculty but I'm  not sure what.  Yesterday I was reading and came up with the idea to do something with the importance of mentors as an individual makes the change from a nurse to a nurse faculty.  That's been pretty important in my own life.  People had a lot of influence on me as I made that transition - for the better and worse.  

Johnny Kelly

Melissa cant remember her last name

Jodi Price

Rachel Madsen

Marijeanne Carter

April Gray

Shane Yardley

Donna Lister

Donna De Silva

SheriDawn Nielsen

Kevin Tipton

Bree Rayburn

That's a nice list.  For better - or for worse, some of them - they have all guided me through this journey.