Tuesday, June 24, 2008


I am writing a book chapter on interprofessional collaboration. In health care it used to be called interdisciplinary collaboration or multidisciplinary collaboration. However, now we are calling it interprofessional collaboration. The best explanation I can find is that physicians think of interdisciplinary collaboration as collaborating within disciplines, such as internal medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, and surgery. Therefore, interprofessional collaboration includes nursing and other professions. Okay, I've got that. I assume, however, that as soon as the book is available for purchase, the terminology will again change.

However, I digress... I am writing this for some assistance. Since I am a limerick lover (is there a word for that?), I'd like to start the chapter with a limerick. I strongly suspect my editors will remove it, but it's worth a try. A while ago I held a contest on Wordcraft seeking a limerick, and I liked Richard's (which I have tweaked) the best. Others will be cheerfully accepted!

Now nursing we know's a vocation
With theory and care its foundation,
So in this great task
Is it too much to ask
That we struggle for collaboration?

I don't like "struggle," but couldn't find much else. Otherwise, I like it. I am also going to post it on Wordcraft.

Sunday, June 22, 2008


I've been reading "Great Books," by Denby, and he mentioned "academese," which is a form of communication by academics in a field. In fact, Wiktionary states that it's almost a "dialect." My very favorite example of academese can be found in nursing with Rosmarie Parse's theory of Human Becoming (click "human Becoming" on the left). I worked with Rosmarie, and she is a very nice person. However, her theory always irritated me because of it's language. For example, in that link above, get this: "The first theme, MEANING, is expressed in the first principle of the theory, which states that 'Structuring meaning multidimensionally is cocreating reality through the languaging of valuing and imaging.' This principle means that people coparticipate in creating what is real for them through self-expression in living their values in a chosen way." "Languaging?" "Cocreating reality?" Did you understand what the theory is about? Can't we be more clear? Wouldn't you think that those in academe, with advanced degrees, would prevail at communicating effectively? A certain amount of technical language is to be expected, but Parse, as do others, completely muddles things.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Cultural Competency

For the last few decades in nursing we've been writing and talking about the importance of being "culturally competent," but what does that mean? Is it the correct terminology? Can someone be culturally competent or culturally incompetent? That terminology makes it seem all or none.

If we don't use that phrase, what do we use? Is there other terminology in other professions? One suggestion I've heard is to say one is "culturally congruent." However, to me that phrase seems to have the same kind of dichotomy.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Through the Eyes of a Nurse

Through the Eyes of a Nurse
~ Gail Hannay, BSN, RN, CCRN

What a joy to behold
What challenges life brings
All to be seen
Through the eyes of a nurse.

The newborn's first cry
A gentle touch, a word of comfort,
A quiet moment, a steady push
A dying heart that won't jumpstart.

We see life from its beginning
We watch others breathe their last
Weaving scientific knowledge
With a special gift of touch.

We choose how deeply to connect
Find a surreal sense of being
Remind ourselves time and again
Of the difference we are making.

Nurses take life's experiences in
Incorporating them into our soul
Always selflessly sharing and giving
Wherever need is found.

There is not greater blessing than this
To see life
To live life
To treasure life
Through the eyes of a nurse.

From time to time, I had said I'd post limericks, poems or double dactyls. This particular poem I found in a publication I received today, and it touched upon something that Wordcrafters were talking about on our chat. A few were saying that they disliked their jobs...that the work part of life is the worst. I realize that work can be challenging and frustrating. I don't always want to rise at 6 a.m. (tomorrow, Sunday, I must rise at 5:30 a.m. to catch a flight!) or work all weekend or meet every deadline. But I love my work. I wonder if that doesn't have something to do with the poem. It is a privilege to be able to positively affect the lives of people. Nurses don't make a lot of money, but surveys show that they are highly respected by the American public.

Friday, June 13, 2008

...and it woke me up!

I am sitting at a conference, after lunch, and the talk is not that inspiring. I am nodding off, and hearing "blah, blah, blah...," wishing for a little caffeine. Then it happend. I heard, "blah, blah, blah, irregardless, blah, blah, blah." That woke me up. I sat stark upright and thought, "ow why does anyone ever use that word? What is the point of it? Regardless completely does the trick."

I remember another time I was having a heated argument with a Republican colleague who likes Bush. She favors the death penalty (which has been suspended in Illinois), and we were having a "spirited" discussion of it. Suddenly she said used the word irregardless. In my passion I said, "That's not even a real word!" What a foolish thing to say because it is a real word and it's even in the OED (albeit, "non-standard").

Why does that word irritate me so? I even wrote a limerick on it for the OEDILF:

Irregardless: An asinine word;
Yet over and over it's heard.
It's silly, inane,
And so foolish — insane!
Its meaning, regardless, is blurred.

Author's Note: Irregardless, while in the dictionaries, is really nonsensical and unnecessary since it means exactly the same as regardless.

When push comes to shove, I suppose I do have major prescriptive tendencies.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

And the war continues...

On Wordcraft z posted this interesting discussion about the prescriptivist/descriptivist war from Language Log, after which goofy posted this, which had this link within it.

Why are people prescriptivists? Why tell people they can't pronounce flaccid to rhyme with placcid? Here is Conrad Roth's reason:

I like hearing a man avoid split infinitives, even though I am fully aware
of the rule's arbitrary 1834 origin. There is a sort of stiff, pedantic
in this avoidance, or in the use of 'with whom', or in the
'flaxid', an elegance that no amount of grammatical or
historical analysis could
possibly diminish. It takes self-command to speak
and write in this manner—a
self-command I respect.

An elegance? Not to me. Perhaps to others.

But why argue about it? Why bring racism into the argument, as Kevin S. did (see Language Log's post)? If we can't have an intellectual discussion about language, respecting each others' opinions, there is no hope for our world!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Why the angst?

Recently we've had some discussions on Wordcraft about use of words (such as "anyways" or "less people" or "too nice of a person"). We are, in general, an educated bunch with higher than average intelligence and good debating abilities. Yet, tempers have flared, feelings have been hurt, and people have gotten angry. There have been comments made that we shouldn't use the words prescriptivist or descriptivist anymore because they are divisive.

I wonder why language discussions create this kind of angst. Is it insecurity about one's writing skills? I am not sure, but one thing I am sure about is that I will continue to use the prescriptivist and descriptivist terms. They are descriptive words, and I see no reason why they should be thrown out.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

A DD for Barack

Higgledy Piggledy
Democrat Candidate
B.H. Obama has
Finally won!

Next it's McCain he'll fight,
Veteran of war and a
Get this thing done!

Perhaps in the same year the Cubs will win the World Series after 100 years, and the first African-American president will be elected. Life is looking good!

P.S. Z, from Wordcraft, posted about The Bookworm, and I just love it so I added it to my Blog. I need to find a new quote now, as the Mark Twain one is from Wordcraft.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Mosey along...

Nathan Bierma has written an interesting column today about the etymology of the word mosey. Apparently there is no agreement on where it comes from (Okay, prescriptivists...don't have a cow because I ended the sentence with a preposition!). While Bierma does mention Quinion in his column, he doesn't seem to give Quinion the credit he deserves, in my opinion. Until I read the Quinion article, I didn't realize that Bierma's ideas mostly came from Quinion. I am not sure I'd call it plagiarism, but it's close. I think some writers don't realize that ideas of others need to be cited; these writers realize quotes need to be cited, but often they make the reader think that the research and synthesis is their own, when it's not. Similarly, I've always wondered how etymology.com often gets away with copying the OED. But I digress...

At any rate, there are several possibilities on the evolution of the word mosey, from English dialect to Moses. Both Quinion's and Bierma's (albeit quite similar to Quninion's) analyses are good reads, but in the end they both conclude that we don't know the evolution of this word.