The Phoenix Walk MS starts and ends at the SRP parking lot. Walkers should enter the Phoenix Zoo and will enjoy an early morning walk of about 3 miles with the animals. Continuing on to the Desert Botanical Garden and then back to the SRP parking lot (this is a 5 mile walk, total).

This route accommodates walkers of all ability levels and ages. You’ll gain free admission to the Phoenix Zoo for the entire day.  Electric scooters, Segways, bikes, tricycles, wagons, strollers, rollerblades and skates are allowed.

See you there!  Welcome nurses in Arizona.

The MUSS, the Crimson Club and the Arizona Chapter of the University of Utah Alumni Association has been part of donating U of U sports clothes and promotional items to Palomino Elementary School in Phoenix (15833 N 29th Street).

Utah alum and Crimson Club member John Leap connected with the school and arranged delivery of the materials. The school is using these to stress that anyone can get a college education.

What a great sight to see young kids wearing the Crimson colors and opening their mind to a college education. Go Utes!

Here’s more on the multiple sclerosis from the website:

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, unpredictable disease of the central nervous system (the brain, optic nerves, and spinal cord). It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder. This means the immune system incorrectly attacks the person’s healthy tissue.

MS can cause blurred vision, loss of balance, poor coordination, slurred speech, tremors, numbness, extreme fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, paralysis, and blindness and more. These problems may be permanent or may come and go.

Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, although individuals as young as 2 and as old as 75 have developed it. MS is not considered a fatal disease as the vast majority of people with it live a normal life-span. But they may struggle to live as productively as they desire, often facing increasing limitations.

Our next event here in Phoenix is September 25th at the Mayo Clinic.  I hope you can join us!

Corks & Chords is the 4th Annual National MS Society, Arizona Chapter wine tasting event. This year’s event will be taking place in Mayo Clinic’s beautiful reception area nestled among the foothills of scenic Scottsdale.  Stations of chef-prepared dishes paired with delicious wines from around the world and wonderfully-appointed acoustic music will tantalize guests as they browse packages in our raffle and silent auction. Guests will enjoy an inspirational program that will include an update on MS research by a Mayo Clinic Neurologist.  

For questions or additional information please contact Brandee Wessel, Development Director at (480) 968-2489 ext. 218 or via email at bwessel@aza.nmss.org.

I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of business. I watch my father who is totally passionate about helping his clients grow and I respect that. But I’d rather be in a hospital helping patients. That’s my joy!

So it’s been an interesting transition for me to work in several volunteer roles and in my father’s business Growth Nation.  He has me doing research and supporting clients primarily in the healthcare segment. It’s fun. I enjoy helping to open a door for them to see growth opportunities they may have never seen.  I really rely on Dad and his team for most of that.

This week I’ve been helping with the new website www.growthnation.com. The healthcare section and some of the other ones were mine. That was fun!  If you see anything there that needs to be changed or have some suggestions, would you let me know?  Here’s the healthcare page http://growthnation.com/who_we_help/healthcare/.

I enjoy helping out on the business side, but you know what, sometimes a nurse has just got to do nursing!

Have a great week!

This week my mother has extensive surgery on her foot. She is expected to stay in the hospital for at least a couple days until her pain is under control, and then she’ll return home to recover in a hospital bed for about 2 months, followed by physical therapy.

If there’s good news in all this it’s that I have the time right now to take care of her at home. I’ll be her home nurse for the next couple months. Mom went through something like this in 1995-6 in Michigan and had a very similar surgery in 2003-4 in Utah, and so we all know a little about what to expect.

Since the Utah operation a couple issues have developed in her foot, and now another reconstruction is called for. We have faith in the doctor’s ability to resolve those issues.

The surgery will be at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Campus, Greenbaum Surgical Specialty Hospital. This is my first experience with this hospital in downtown Scottsdale.

Good luck, Mom!

This week I enjoyed a tour of the Emergency Room and Trauma Center for Banner Health Good Samaritan Medical Center. Good Samaritan Hospital was verified as a Level I Trauma Center by the Committee on Trauma (COT) of the American College of Surgeons in 2009.

Most hospitals offer emergency services, but only a handful of hospitals in Arizona have been certified to treat the most life-threatening injuries. There are 6 certified trauma facilities in and around Phoenix.

Many thanks to Karen Watts-Edwards of Advantage Urgent Care for introducing me to the staff of Banner Health.

Emergency care services by Banner are described here: http://bit.ly/cCECWf.  The facilities in Phoenix are professionally operated and handle a significant amount of the most urgent emergencies in the Valley. I hope you never need these services, but it is reassuring to all of us that they’re there.

We flew from Salt Lake to Arizona to check Mom in to the Mayo Clinic. She was there for nearly a week and what was so impressive was the way the doctors and medical staff methodically went through diagnosing what was wrong with her. It turned out that there was a combination of medicines that Mom was taking that had set off a chain reaction that didn’t sit well with her body chemistry. The staff made a series of corrections and replacements, and within a day of the changes Mom was feeling better.

I learned from this experience that the Mayo Clinic devotes the time to understand what’s wrong with a patient so that the doctor and patient gain confidence in the solution. Thank you to the doctors and nurses who helped my Mom, who returned back home on the right track after some scary moments.

It was then that I began hoping that the Mayo Clinic would be interested in my candidacy for a nursing position upon graduation. It would be wonderful to work in that setting with those dedicated medical professionals.

I learned that the Mayo in Scottsdale is not hiring new nurses at this time, but that I should keep applying. And so I have been checking back since then and applying for nursing positions that might be applicable – even though almost all of them require one year of experience. I have experience as a CNA at the Fourth Street Clinic, but the Mayo Clinic is looking for nursing experience after graduation, which I don’t have yet.

I’m continuing to speak with others at the Mayo Clinic about the timing of a policy change.  And I’m enjoying working in healthcare elsewhere while I keep my eyes open to special opportunities for new nurses.

Stephanie Bruhnke, RN

I graduated in 2009 with a BS in nursing from the University of Utah and I moved to Arizona thinking that the nursing shortage here would open doors to one or more of the top hospitals. Unfortunately local hospitals that I hoped would consider me like the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale Healthcare and St. Joseph’s have stopped hiring new nurses. So now I’m living and working in Portland, Oregon, and loving it!  Destiny?