Friday is the day of the week falling between Thursday and Saturday. It is the sixth day in countries that adopt a Sunday-first convention. In ISO 8601, in work-based customs, and in countries adopting Monday-first conventions, it is considered the fifth day of the week.In most countries with a five-day work week, Friday is the last workday before the weekend and is, therefore, viewed as a cause for celebration or relief. In some offices, employees are allowed to wear less formal attire on Fridays, known as Casual Friday or Dress-Down Friday. In Saudi Arabia, however, Friday is the last day of the weekend and Saturday is the first workday. Moreover, in Israel, Friday is the first day of the weekend, and Sunday is the first workday. I'm just glad it's FRIDAY!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 06:49 AM EST [General]
Wednesday
The mid-day of the week is named for the Norse God, Odin. He was also known as Woden or Wotan. Unlike many of the other days of the week, this day did not correspond roughly with the Roman designation for the day. (The Roman's named Wednesday for the messenger God - Mercury - In Romanian, the day is still known as miercuri). The early Scandanavians and Germans believed that Odin was the chief God of Asgard and as such deserved to have a day of the week named for him. The Anglo-Saxons used the word, Wodnesdaeg.
Wednesday is often referred to as "hump day" because of its position as the middle day of the work week. If the work week were a hill. Then Wednesday would be the crest. It is all down hill from there. (Whether the down hill ride is a coast or a descent into a swamp is left to the individual.)
Only one holiday typically recurs yearly upon Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the official beginning of lent. It is called "Ash" Wednesday because since the 400's it has been the day upon which religious penitent's foreheads are marked with ash. It is a reminder of the mortal condition of the flesh - that we are all dust. This day is a variable date dependent on the date which easter falls.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 06:43 AM EST [General]
UGH! I woke up this morning to snow-covered ground. It looks like maybe 3 inches of the white stuff, with more predicted for this evening. Looks like it's going to be one of those days...c-r-a-z-y! Just heard on the news there's going to be a FULL MOON tonight too. Has anyone noticed how strange things get when that happens? :)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008, 08:19 AM EST [General]
E-mails Improve Patient-Surgeon Communication
-- Kevin McKeever
, HealthDay Posted: 2008-02-18 17:04:56 MONDAY, Feb. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Providing patients with e-mail access to their surgeon appears to improve communication, a new report shows.
"People who use e-mail certainly would like to have e-mail access to their physicians," concluded the authors of the study, published in the February issue of the Archives of Surgery. "Despite the many concerns, we believe that this study shows that the provision to patients of readily available e-mail access to their surgeon provides a very effective means of improving communication prior to patients undergoing elective surgery."
Although e-mail has transformed business and personal communication in the past decade, little has been published regarding its use in health care "other than dire warnings about the potential minefield of legal disasters and litigation that might accompany its use," according to background information in the article.
The study -- conducted by Dr. Peter Stalberg, of the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues -- covers 100 patients who were undergoing thyroid or parathyroid surgery. All had access to their surgeon's e-mail address through their appointment card and a Web site, but half also received an information sheet with the e-mail address and a statement that the surgeon's preferred method of communication was e-mail. The other patients received an information sheet without either the e-mail address or statement.
In all, 26 of 100 patients (26 percent) initiated additional communication with the surgeon around the time of operation. The group given the sheet with the e-mail information contacted the surgeon the most (19 of the 50 versus seven of the 50 without it). Most of the communication -- 22 of the 26 contacts -- was conducted by e-mail, regardless of whether the person had received a sheet with the e-mail information.
The other four communications were by fax (three) or phone (one).
For patients using e-mail, 18 of 22 (81 percent) were in the group provided with e-mail information, while four of the 22 (18 percent) were in the group that did not receive e-mail information on their contact sheet.
Most e-mails sent addressed one issue, with the most issues being four in one e-mail. Some of the most popular issues raised by e-mail were general information (in 21 e-mails), postoperative recovery (eight), results (five) and reassurance (four). There were no differences in patient satisfaction with communication between the two groups.
