Sunday, March 20, 2011

Women & The Workplace

Women & The Workplace
By: Kevin Cresswell

I just read a article titled “Here's To women & their Work – No Matter Where It Is Done” by Brenda Mac Donald (“Two Cents' Worth”) which is a freelance writer from the Halifax Municipality area, the article is in the March 14, 2011 Dartmouth (HRM East) Community Herald.

She writes about women & the work place & their stature within it & or being a stay at home mother. She does make a good point in that women are not truly treated equal to the male counterparts as they should be; especially if they can do the work just as good if not better than the male counterpart for the same job/position. What sparked her in to doing this article is something that she read in a paper on March 07, 2011 which was done by a Jennifer Kim which was published in the Chronicle Herald from the Canadian Press Article called (Child-Care “Gap” Will Hurt Economy). Now Brenda MacDonald does not know Jennifer Kim & can only go by what was printed in the article which she states “I do not know how much of her interview was edited out”.

I for myself have never had a problem working for a female or having them work with me, I treat the males & females the same & expect the same from them no matter what.

Now Brenda does make a very good/excellent point that the mothers that do stay at home to care for their children full time do have a very hard job, they normally get paid very little in a monetary value & work exceedingly long hours every day of the week with little to no time off for themselves through the week/s & or months, but they do get paid the overall best benefits anyone could ever ask for, they get constant hugs & kisses & the chance to see their child & or children grow up & get them to see the first steps & words & them smiling all them time. For me there is nothing better, Unfortunately I was the one that unfortunately had to continuously work the over time & take the shifts that were given to me to make sure we could make the ends meet every month. So for me I cherished every minute I had with my children when I could, But I do know I would rather of been the stay at home father & let my other half work instead.

Brenda also goes in to saying that “she asked a passing acquaintance what she did & she was told that 'I don't work, I'm a stay at-home mom'”, later in the day when she was thinking about it the word “JUST” even though it is a small & trivial word, tends to minimize & diminish even the most wonderful things; & I agree with her being a stay at home mom or parent is not as easy as some think it is, in actuality it can be harder than a 8 hour work day at a actual job itself.

Now the article Brenda does make reference to “Parents” but it appears to be a main focus of mothers in general, she does reference a website of www.internationalwomansday.com & March 8th in conjunction with “it is a global day celebrating the economic, political & social achievements of women past, present & future” which is a great thing in of itself; but why is it that when it comes to parenting most of the achievements are seen as being lacking from the mother & not the father of the children as well, there are not just dead beat fathers but also dead beat mothers as well, but in the news print & or media all that is usually noted is the fathers.

I agree that women & men need to be treated as one in the same whither its work in the house “ tending to our future our children” or out of the house. I say it's time that people take their blinders off from their eyes & stop walking around with their eyes wide shut & provide the respect & admiration for one & all for what it is they do no matter what it is & do not judge people from the surface that they see; man & women were created equal & have the same faults no matter how big or small they are.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Nova Scotia's Winter School Closures......


Nova Scotia's winter School Closures......

     Why is it that when there is any amount of snow that is dropped from above and remains on the ground you can almost guarantee a closure of local schools in the HRM and or even the entire province of Nova Scotia these days.

     To clear this up and make it known I am originally from Kingston Ontario; So I have seen snow and rain and high winds and even very thick fog when I was in school. I came to Nova Scotia back in late 1998 and have been here since and love it because of the atmosphere and people and culture.

  When I was growing up and attending school both public and high school it was very rare to have a snow day or school closure for almost any reason. The worst that would happen is that the buses would be pulled off or possibly delayed from getting to the school for the people that had to take them, but yet we were always required to go.

     But in Nova Scotia I have seen more than my fair share of school closures and the shut down of the entire city itself. The first year that I was here there was 1 morning that I got up to go for a walk in Downtown Dartmouth to explore the area. I walked outside and proceeded down Windmill road towards the downtown core and thought nothing of the light snow (Less than 1/2 a foot of snow) and wind that was present. By the time I got downtown I had realized that as of yet I had not seen any buses or cars or anything on the road and all the stores and shops were closed.

     I had come to find out through the new on TV that the city was shut down because of the bad weather, I could not believe that they had shut the city down because of the weather. From that time on anytime there was any bad weather as they called
it the schools and or buses would shut down till it was all cleared up; I honestly think that the definition of a snow day/city closure like in this article HERE.

     I completely agree with local radio host Rick Howe from News 95.7 that the Nova Scotia’s snow day policy should be reviewed and updated to properly reflect how it is handled when schools (Companies) are closed and or opened due to the weather, for we the people no longer in school are not the only one's suffering but the child of the future due to them not getting the proper education that they are going to need to have the proper jobs and such.

     If something is not done about this issue soon then the future could possibly look a lot grimmer than it is now due to improper education of our future society.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The average hospital visit

The average hospital visit
Well it all started about 5:00 pm on February 09 2011 at work; I got excruciating pain in my right leg, I found it hard to stand let alone even walk on the leg.

So with all the pain I ended up going to the Dartmouth General Hospital, I got there at approximately 7:00pm. I went through the Triage nurse and then off to the registration desk and then proceeded to go to the waiting room. I did not have to wait all that long (Approximately 30 minutes) before I was called in.

When I was taken in I was put in bed #4 where the very nice nurse that was on duty came in and introduced herself to me and then gave me a hospital gown to put and then checked over my leg quickly and asked me a couple of routine questions and then went to find the resident doctor on duty. Unfortunately all the doctors were busy with more important injuries.

When I finally got the chance to see the doctor it was 10:22pm thus putting me at that point almost 3.5 hours in to me being there; still not bad for being in a Emergency Room with lots of ambulances coming and going all night.

The doctor looked me over and asked me a couple of routine questions and looked my legs over, he then said that I mostly likely have an infection in my leg but could also have a blood clot as well, so he decided to put me on a blood thinner as well as antibiotics just to be safe and requested blood work to be done as well (blood work cam back as being normal), he then directed me to come back again in the morning for a Ultrasound of my bad leg. He then left and the nurse came back in again and provided me with some pills as well as the antibiotics.

She made sure that I was comfortable and that everything was setup properly for me and then started the intravenous (IV) and then left but came back every so often to make sure I was OK and not having a reaction to the intravenous I was getting. Once everything was done she asked if there was anyone she could call to come get me, I thanked her and politely said no.

I ended up getting the last bus home from the hospital, once I got home I set the alarm (Which I slept through) to get up to be back at the hospital again for 8:00am (February 10, 2011), Unfortunately I did not get back to the hospital as early as intended but I did get there (Thank you Denise) at about 9:00am. I went directly to the ultrasound room and I was done there within 30 minutes or so.

Once done with the ultrasound I then went back to the ER again and seen the triage nurse and re registered again, I was called in about 45 minutes later (10:15am); When I went in I was asked to sit and wait in another waiting room just up from the bed I was in only a matter of hours earlier.

As I am sitting there waiting I am watching patients come and go and some even left due to the length of time that they were there and not seen by anyone but the on duty nurse. Now I will say that sitting still and not moving my leg and then all of a sudden getting a twitch in it and my leg moving is very painful, this happened a couple of times so I got up and walked around a bit to try and relieve the pain but it did not help much.

As I am walking around I happen to come across a clock on the wall (And I only found that 1 clock during this visit); I then realized that it was almost 3:00pm; this puts me being there for almost 6 hours of which 5:15 worth of time I was left to sit in this waiting room in a very hard chair with no interaction from anyone other than the nurse occasionally to make sure that I am still there and have not left like some of the other patients did, mean while I keep seeing this one female doctor constantly on the go but seeing her help anyone within sight of me other than a elderly lady that came in after I did.

Now during this 5:15 of waiting in the other waiting room I had asked if I could go outside and get some fresh air to the nurse that had brought me in, she recommended that I not do that so I did not miss my turn; when she said that I was thinking to myself how is it I can miss my turn when no one that came in before me has been seen yet.

So I went outside anyways and came back in again in a couple minutes and I notified her that I was back. Approximately 40 minutes later (putting me at 6 hours of waiting now) this male doctor comes walking in (If I am correct this was the start of his shift and I think he was the one I saw come in with his bike) and walks right to the nurses station and I hear him say to the nurse “Where is this patient that has been here for 5 hours already”, he grab the chart and came over and introduced himself and then asked me some questions and looked my leg over and such; He then prescribed the antibiotics again for me as well as instructions to be off work for a couple days; Within 20 – 30 minutes of him coming over to me I was then discharged with my paperwork and the medications that I had been waiting for all day.

Now I will say that I do not hold the Doctors and or Nurses at fault for the delay in the waiting times to get seen but having to wait 5+ hours for something that only took 20 – 30 minutes to have done unsupervised while sitting in a chair is uncalled for. Something definitely should be done to eradicate these long wait times in our local hospitals throughout Canada and or any other country that this happens in; Now not only am I out of work for 2 – 3 days with a doctors note but I had to surrender a full 6+ hours of my day that I should of been at work and getting paid; Unfortunately not everyone can afford to lose a day of pay like I did while at the hospital for something that did not take long to do at all and was done by the nurse and not the doctor.