Sterile_Technique

Nursing student here - WE'RE ALMOST DONE!! Just a few more tests to not flunk, then its graduation time. WOO!!

...throughout the program I've firmly claimed my role as chief nerd of the class - today they talked about producing a video summary of all the photos and such we've taken and asked for a volunteer from someone who knew how to work video editing software.

Every eye in classroom zeroed in on me. OKAY FINE... but it's gonna be at least a little ridiculous.

The one that IMMEDIATELY popped into my head was Disturbed's Down with the Sickness, but that's a no-go due to the f-bombs in the chunk of it I'd want to use: profanity is not allowed in the final presentation. If there's a parody version that replaces the 'mother' and 'fucker' with something more G rated, I could probably use that.

I'm kinda blanking on other options that come with that kind of medical pun potential. Only other one I can think of is Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood', but her music is way more mellow than what I was hoping for - shooting for something that matches the chaos of nursing school. Guess I shouldn't rule it out either though - probably let the class vote on whatever options we come up with.

*the entire song doesn't need to be profanity-free, just the chunk of it I'd end up using. Don't know yet if it's gonna be one and done, or like a different song for each semester, or what; so if there's a 20-second match in an otherwise absolutely x-rated piece of music, I'm open to it!

But for now... seeking options. Any good'ns come to mind?

Grew up watching things like Freeman's Mind, and Red vs Blue (their channel is locked behind some kind of 'join' thing... wtf...), WoW Machinimas... More recently I saw Neeb's Subnautica series and it's a pretty solid step up in quality compared to what I'm otherwise familiar with. I've burned through their content, and am seeking more! ...and the Subnautica stuff looks like Neeb's only content that follows this format - the rest of their channel is 'let's play' videos. Boo.

Anyway, nursing student here! ...it's melting my brain. I don't trust my time-management skills to actually fire up any games right now - the addiction is real, and I'll fuck up my grades; but the 'itch' is also real, so I'm trying to find something to give that gaming fix, but in little short bursts so I don't one-more-level my way out of the program.

Study up, give my brain a nice 10-20 min break, then get back to it.

Not really picky on the game or genre, just looking for something in-character. YouTube is absolutely STUFFED with videos of people just playing games, but hardly any focused on delivering an actual story. Or rather, I'm sure it's there, it's just lost in a sea of low quality slop. Could also be that I just don't know the right key search term ("machinima" doesn't seem to really be a thing anymore, and I'm not sure what else to call it).

Any recommendations on picking out the gems?

Short version:

☝title, something that can be clipped onto scrubs or worn around the neck. Also easy to clean - hard surfaces that can be wiped down with alcohol, no cloth coverings or anything.

Long version:

Nursing student here. Basically I'm trying to build a stethoscope that doesn't need to be inserted into my ears.

I have some hearing loss, and currently use hearing aids, which has posed a frequent annoyance / hazard at my clinical rotations when it comes time to listen to my patient's heart and lung sounds. I can't use a normal stethoscope with the hearing aids in, cuz it shoves them way too deep into my ear canal (doesn't feel great); so I've just been popping the fuckers out and using the stethoscope normally when needed. ...but I hate doing that, cuz hospitals are disgusting - there's literal and metaphorical shit on everything, so screwing with the hearing aids mid shift is 100% introducing pathogens into my ears.

At my last clinical site, one of the nurses had a bluetooth stethoscope that seemed like the miracle solution I needed - it's basically a stethoscope bell with no tubing, and it pairs with bluetooth headphones. She let me try it out, so I paired it with my hearing aids, and... heart beats sounded like two pieces of metal clanking against eachother. Total flop, clinically useless. Fuck.

So I whine to my audiologist, and eventually we figure out that the issue is that heart and lung sounds range from 20-100 hz; and my hearing aids are designed to amplify human speech, which is about 300-3000 hz. The speakers in my hearing aids are not physically capable of playing heart and lung sounds (that clanky metal sound was just the tiny bit that overlapped with the hearing aid's range). More fuck.

So, I don't think my hearing aids are going to be part of the solution here, but I'm still seeing potential in the bluetooth stethoscopes: but instead of pairing it with bluetooth headphones, since again the ear canals are already occupied, instead pair it with a bluetooth speaker that I can clip onto my scrubs or use the kind that hangs around the neck.

Poking around the internet, there are tons of those types of bluetooth speakers, but they never seem to advertise the hertz range and I'm worried about getting a whole setup built, then running into the same issue with the new speaker not playing the sounds I need to do an actual nursing assessment. And those bluetooth stethoscopes are expensive as fuck, so if I'm going to dive in to this, I want to make sure I don't screw it up.

What do you all think? Any brands or specific products you'd lean to?

Also, bonus question: putting yourself in the patient's shoes: how would you feel if your nurse dropped in rocking a setup like this? If it's playing through normal speakers, YOU the patient would be able to hear your own heart and lung sounds during my assessment - my thought was it'd be great for patient education: "That clicking sound when you exhale is called crackles, which means there's fluid in your lungs, so..." Would that make for a decent patient experience, or be offputting or intimidating? I've been a surgical tech for like a decade, so my perspective is pretty skewed in terms of how much info is too much info.'

Thanks all!

"Weird" to be interpreted at the reader's discretion.

Looking for some cool new tunes.

I'll get the ball rolling with one of mine: Scaretale by Nightwish. That song is all over the place... it's like haunted fantasy carnival jingle metal. Love it.

Please go into lots of detail - some of us are taking notes!

Heresy, right? I've had a mechanical for the last couple of years, and while it's served me well enough, I still don't like the feel or clickety-clack compared to a membrane switch - and my current one is the Razer Blackwidow Stealth w/ rubber o-rings added to the base of each key, which I think is as non-clackety as a mechanical gets.

Anyway, the Blackwidow is starting to have issues - F5 key died months ago, and lately it's been doing this annoying thing where I press a key and it registers the downstroke, but not the release, of the Tab and D keys until I pull it from its USB port and reinsert. It's time.

...but the initial search for a replacement all I'm seeing are either mechanical or mimicking mechanical (like a membrane switch but with the big blocky keys that mechanicals use).

My favorite keyboard 'feel' 100% is an oldschool laptop style keyboard. Like the IBM T60 - flat, light to the touch, and no dead space in between the keys like you see in a lot of today's laptops (the 'island' style... not a fan).

I don't think my entire wish-list exists in a single product, but what I'm after is:

• That T60 style described above

• Programmable keys (remap / macros)

• Corded... unless cordless options have really improved in the last decade or so: I recall a noticeable delay, and constantly running out of battery.

• Extra keys specifically for binding macros like the Blackwidow

• Backlight. Low priority, and I don't give a shit about RGB (or aesthetics in general), but it is nice to be able to be able to see which key is which when the room is dark.

...is anything even kind-of like that on the market, or should I just shut up and get another mechanical?

My death cult is better than yours.