Pathologists and radiologists don’t have the luxury of spending time with actual patients so they have to render professional judgments and determinations based on indirect data (radiographs, a mashed up slice of breast tissue, etc.).
I don’t envy them; the utter detachment from patient care would make me miserable. But they do have a tough job. They get one shot at getting it right. There’s no patient follow up. They never get the opportunity to explain a missed diagnosis to a patient, to soothe things over. Once they stamp their name on the final report, there’s no turning back. They can’t afford to allow a sliver of a chance that they haven’t “covered” themselves.
There are more nurse practitioners (147,000) than there are family physicians (100,000) in the US.
These advance practice nurse professionals can write prescriptions, and it’s estimated that the average nurse practitioner writes more than 6,000 a year.
And about 70-80% of those nurses who regularly attended lunch or dinner “continuing education” events sponsored by drug companies said they were more likely to prescribe the drugs that were highlighted in the lunch.
The presenter was nurse-researcher Elissa Ladd, PhD, RN, Asst. Clinical Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, who says the possible pharma influence on nurse-prescribers has largely flown “under the radar.”
Well we decided as we were in London at the same time as Wimbledon was being played we would be stupid not to go. Ben Lee (Binga) (a friend from Wagga) was in London at the same time and told us he was going to go with some mates on Monday, so we should come along. As it was day 9 of the tournament as well as 6 of the top 10 ranked playing there were no tickets available. However, Wimbledon is probably the only major sporting tournament we can think of that you can buy tickets on the day. They sold 500 tickets to both the Centre and No. 1 court, a heap for No. 2 court as well as 5000 ground tickets. We decided at the last moment we would head out and watch the England world cup game and line up for tickets for the next day. We arrived at 4pm to be given tickets that told us we were the 1221st and 1222nd people to line up on the oval. Some of the locals had tents, airbeds, tvs and the whole kitchen sink. There were even rules such as you had to sleep there but you could leave the park for an hour at a time to go get more food and drinks. They had people on the gates checking numbers in and out to ensure nobody was cheating the system. As we were very unorganized this was just as well as all we had was a sleeping bag for the night.
It was a little bit quiet upon arrival but once we realized that England were getting flogged by Germany the reason become apparent. We went over to a TV to watch the game for a while however worked out that mood of the English supports was not very good so we decided to make ourselves scarce. There was a lake in the park so we joined Binga and his mates who were enjoying a few cold drinks and a swim so we decided it was time to get on it. It was an excellent afternoon evening of many drinks, kicking the rugby ball around and just speaking a great deal of crap. Eventually we got told that we were no longer able to kick to ball or make noise and that there would be a curfew so we needed to quieten down. After 2 bottles of rum it was a little hard to be quiet so eventually at midnight we decided to head to bed. Maureen and I volunteered 1 of our sleeping bags as Binga did not bring anything. While we were trying to go to sleep still talking much crap we received our last warning for being noisy so passed out for a few hrs sleep.
The following day at 4 am we were awoken from the sun and people camping around us starting to make noise. After a coffee and a bacon and egg roll the head started to get clear. By about 6am people were coming through the gates to line up as well to attempt to get in for a good day of tennis. After finally waiting and moving through the line for about 2 hrs we found ourselves being given wristbands for the No. 2 court (although we missed out on No. 1 tickets by about 150 people, Binga’s mates got them, however they had been in the line since 8am the day before). After another couple of hours, we picked up our tickets at the turnstills, ready for a big day of strawberry’s and cream washed down with a few Pimms and lemonade. The games were not due to start until 1200 on our court so we decided it was time for a feed and a wander to see what was there. While we were wandering we found Roger Federer warming up on a court. We were about 20 metres away from where he was as you can see by the photo’s. All in all, very cool. Finally it was time for our first game which was Venus Williams vs an Australian chick, Jamilla Groth. Our seats were about 4 back of the fence and at the side at the baselines so we were very close. Unfortunately the Australian chocked against Venus. At one stage she was going really well and looking at causing an upset. Venus really showed her true colours during the game and was very moody throughout.
Once the game was over we decided to go to what is known as Henmans Hill where they have a big screen with bars everywhere. After a few drinks we decided to head back to the court to watch Roddick vs Lu. This was meant to be a quick game for Roddick however he quickly found Lu was going to give him a run for his money. The crowd started behind Roddick however found themselves rallying behind Lu who was clearly the underdog. The game went for 5 rounds with 3 tie breaks and eventually, after about 5 hrs, Lu beat Roddick. Before the day I thought Roddick was a good bloke, however, he also showed his true colours. Where we were seating we heard Roddick have numerous rants at the ball boys and girls. On one occasion the ball boy rolled the ball and it hit Roddick’s foot. Roddick turned to him and said if he tripped and sprained his ankle he would come looking for him. He was just a spoilt brat in my books who deserved to lose. The game finally finished and we made our way out of Wimbledon, an experience which will definately go down as a highlight of the trip.
