Author Archives: theaveryspectacle

How will climate change cause moral distress?

Moral distress is the psychological experience of knowing what the right thing to do is, but being unable to act (CMA, 2020, pg. 1). It is a common experience in healthcare, as patients lives and health outcomes are shaped by complex systems that are largely incomprehensible without insider knowledge. Nurses are in a unique positionContinue reading “How will climate change cause moral distress?”

3 Ways Climate Change Will Mirror the Pandemic

Climate change is predicted to seriously impact the ability of our healthcare system to provide care, but it has been difficult to illustrate how until now. The current pandemic has created conditions that could mirror what we see as extreme weather events and a changing climate intersect with staffing shortages and mass casualty. Prioritization andContinue reading “3 Ways Climate Change Will Mirror the Pandemic”

Why Nurses Should Care About Climate Change

“Unprecedented, irreversible, crisis.” These are the words that headlines are relying on to communicate the risk that climate change is posing to humanity. Even so, it can be difficult to fathom how it will affect our everyday lives and society as a whole. How will climate change affect health care and why should nurses specificallyContinue reading “Why Nurses Should Care About Climate Change”

5 Ways Nurses Can Help the Environment

Working in healthcare, it can be daunting how much energy and waste flows through our facilities in the day-to-day provision of care. Within such large and complex systems, it is difficult to know how you, one person, can reduce your impact. This feeling of powerlessness intensifies when you consider the policies and procedures in placeContinue reading “5 Ways Nurses Can Help the Environment”

Is Public Health failing Canadians?

A triage nurse I know once stated that you could perfectly track a patient’s health outcomes if you simply collected their income when they entered the ER; Supposedly, income directly determines your health and whether you will have a positive outcome. This is an interesting concept to me, because while you hear these things fromContinue reading “Is Public Health failing Canadians?”

Healthcare is eating itself

An unexpected benefit from the forced move to digitized healthcare has been an opportunity to address carbon emissions in healthcare. Mask mandates and fear of unwittingly transferring germs into one’s mouth caused a whole new form of garbage in the use of civilian disposable medical face masks. Fast food chains and restaurants everywhere reverted backContinue reading “Healthcare is eating itself”

Why are young people so anxious?

Something struck me recently while reading the news. Somewhere under a headline about why we should not have children because of climate change and another one about how being a plant lover is destroying the environment, was yet another article concerning itself with the youth mental health crisis. Why is Gen Z so anxious andContinue reading “Why are young people so anxious?”

These boots were made for walkin’

For the final dark month of winter, I decided that my challenge should be something to keep my spirits up and get me out of my yearly funk. Enter, walking. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and if you’re lucky enough to have two functioning legs you probably do it all the time anyway. I knew thatContinue reading “These boots were made for walkin’”

Why I Journal and You Should Too

When I was a kid, I loved reading fictionalized journals and diaries and always wanted to be a little girl who journaled her days away. But I think I always liked the idea of being a journaler more than the act, I just didn’t have that much to write about. Now that I’m an adultContinue reading “Why I Journal and You Should Too”