Ethnography brainstorm

I may have more readily available resources at my fingertips since I am a nurse, and my mom is a nurse.  But here are some ideas:

ER waiting room
Nursing home
Dementia unit
Rehab facility
Hospital
School nurse's office
Dr's office
Support groups
Military medical group

Here are some people that could be profiled:
Doctor
Nurse
CNA
Patient
Therapist
Military medical staff
People with certain illnesses/ailments
Support staff at medical facilities

Here are some sample ethnographies:
http://soc.sagepub.com/content/27/4/591.abstract

My Memior

            We all have some kind of connection to health and medicine.  We have all been sick, we have all been to the doctors at some point in our lives.  Some of us may have been in the hospital at one point, and most of us have visited a hospital to see a loved one.  We can all tell a tale of at least one vivid memory regarding health and medicine.  I can tell you stories till the cows come home about my medical experiences, but this tale is unlike many others.

            I was sitting patiently, picking through my Army issued MRE (meal ready to eat) for something actually edible and awaiting my turn.  I was nervous.  I was mentally going over everything I had learned in medic school in the last 14 weeks. This was my last obstacle, trauma lanes.   All my hard work had lead up to this.  I had done astonishingly well, and if I didn’t pass this, I wouldn’t be able to claim my place as an honor graduate.  I had to do well.  I had my aid bag; I knew where everything was in it.  I had to.  I had my ever-present M16 rifle by my side.  I was decked out in full battle gear, waiting for my name to be called.

            I had heard stories from those who had gone before me, by nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen.  The moment I crossed the threshold of those double doors my senses were bombarded.  My ears were filled with booming rock music and instructors yelling.  My eyes darting from student to instructor to mock battle casualty, all set up in 8 little mock battlefield areas.  My mouth instantly dried and I started to sweat.  My heart was pumping; adrenaline was racing through my body.  But that was the point, to stress us out and push us to our limits to try to simulate a real combat situation. 

            At this point my mind was racing.  I see my casualty; I am already mentally evaluating him.  I have two battle buddies with me, and we make our way over to where he’s lying.  I do my quick “care under fire” assessment, my ABC’s. Does he have a working airway?  Yes. Is he breathing?  Yes.  Is his circulation visually compromised?  Yes.  He has no left foot.  This is definitely something that needed to be taken care of before he can be moved.  I grab the tourniquet out of his aid pouch, remembering that one should never use their own tourniquet when avoidable, you never know if you will need it yourself.  I tighten the tourniquet around his leg, two inches about the wound, just like I have practiced countless times.  I mark his forehead with a “T” and the time the tourniquet was placed.  It is now safe to move my casualty, his recovered foot, and all of his gear to cover where I can perform a more detailed assessment.

            Once we are situated in the safe area I begin to assess the casualty further.  I go back through my ABC’s making sure I haven’t missed anything.  At this point I needed to start an IV.  I know it is important to have venous access incase fluids need to be started to replace the blood he’s lost.  I start the IV in one of my battle buddies, because it is important to practice all the skills I’ve learned and manikins aren’t that receptive to needles. 

            Now it was time to do a head-to-toe assessment.  I start at the head, looking and feeling for anything abnormal.  I am looking for bruises, cuts, deformities, blood, burns, swelling.  I am feeling for tenderness, instability, crepitus.  I move down the body, checking the neck for any vein distention or tracheal deviation.  I make my way down the torso, not finding any abnormalities.  I check the arms, I find that the right forearm is unstable, and as I palpate I hear crepitus, the grinding, cracking noise of bone bits rubbing against each other.  I secure his arm with a splint from my aid bag and move on.             

            As I move around his unconscious body I am sure to take my weapon and my aid bag with me.  I know that if they are out of arms reach they are no use to me and my instructor will not hesitate to snatch them from me.  Similarly, he does not hesitate to shout and spray me and my uniform with fake blood as I work quickly to assess my patient. 

            I finally reach the tourniqueted leg and can bandage the exposed stump.  I quickly do so, and know it is time to assess my casualty’s back.  I set up my litter so I only have to turn him once, and my battle buddies leg roll him onto his side.  I quickly check his back for abnormalities and place the litter against him.  We collectively roll him and the litter back to the ground and work to fastened him it.  The litter straps get fastened at his noggin, nipples, navel, and knees.  His gear gets placed on the litter with him, and we ready to carry him out to where he will be evacuated to a hospital. 

            The three of us carry him out to a clearing and set him down.  My last task is to call for evacuation using the 9-line medevac procedure we had been taught.  I give them the pertinent information regarding the casualty and his wounds, and all that’s left to do is wait for the imaginary helicopter to come get my make-believe casualty.  A half hour after I began, some fake blood, real sweat and tears later, I am done.  I have succeeded at my task, and hope that someday when I reach the real battlefield I can be equally successful in saving lives.

My Ad - A Rhetorical Analysis

Well, lets LOOK at the ad.  This is an image of a billboard in Wyoming, most likely right off the side of the highway.  The target audience is probably commuters, but in general drivers and their passengers.  The bright green color really grabs the attention of the viewer and the texts stands out in contract with bold black font.  While the main message that the advertisers are trying to get across is smaller and at the bottom of the ad, it is implied by the witty slogan that appears in big, bold, and smack-dab in the middle of the billboard.  This witty slogan gets the point across, but is also large and simple, so it can be read interpreted quickly and easily, even by those paying attention to the road.  In the bottom right corner of the ad, the advertisers pose a challenging question, a “what are you going to do about it?” kind of question.  In the opposite bottom corner, is the sponsor’s logo.

The message the ad is trying to get across is a simple and well-known one, second hand smoke is a killer.  What people might not know is that it kills an average of 50,000 people annually, and this fact is displayed across the bottom of the billboard.  But since we are all aware of the dangers of smoking, they use a witty slogan to try and get the message across.  “’Til secondhand smoke do us part.”  By using this witty remark, they are trying to get smokers, and those subjected to second hand smoke to look at the issue in a new light.  Maybe this is an angle they have never looked at before, their happily-ever-after could be cut short by those little sticks of cancer that some people just can’t seem to get enough of.  

“Where do you draw the line?”  This challenging question proposed in the bottom right of the billboard makes the audience think.  “Where DO I draw the line?”  It makes one sit and ponder a bit.  Do we stand up to our spouses smoking in the car, in the house, or right beside us, subjecting us to their nasty habit?  Do we stand up to coworkers whose cigarette smoking is blowing into our faces?  Do we have the nerve to say something to our friends about how their life decisions impact those around them?  It’s hard to approach someone and ask them to not smoke around you, but when are we going to stand up for our own health?

The same sponsor for this ad did a series of similar ads concerning second hand smoke that you can find here.  Some of the other interesting and surprising facts and statistics on these ads include; waitresses are 50% more likely o die from cancer caused by second hand smoke, and second hand smoke contains the same chemicals used in prison executions.  

Where do you draw the line?