About Me
My name is Kim McAllister, and I’m a registered nurse in the San Francisco Bay area. I graduated in 1978 with my ADN and have been a nurse for 30 years. My experience is predominately Emergency and Critical Care, but I also worked in Psychiatry and did pediatric telephone triage.
I have finally decided to pursue my BSN through the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay BSN/LINC program, with the goal of a PhD by the time I’m sixty (gives me nine years!), and becoming a nursing instructor or nurse researcher.
I made the decision to be a nurse back in 1966 at the age of nine, having received “Cherry Ames, Student Nurse” from my great-grandmother for my birthday. Thinking back, it could have been worse. I could have received something like “Itchy Smith, Flea Detective” and my life would have taken a totally different route!
About Emergiblog
Emergiblog came about in the summer of 2005. I wanted to blog and figured I knew nursing better than anything else. I was a columnist for Nursing Jobs.org in the summer of 2007 and I served as a moderator on the Nursing Voices forum.
I write occasionally for “Advance for Nurses” (print) and am compensated for those articles.
In 2006 I started “Change of Shift”, a nursing blog carnival that runs bi-weekly and is hosted either here on Emergiblog or by other bloggers who have volunteered to host.
Thanks to The Medical Network Blog, I linked to Dr. Lei at Genetics and Public Health.
She encourages medical/health bloggers to answer the following questions recommended by The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The purpose of the questions is to give the readers of medical/health related blogs the ability to evaluate what they are reading.
The responses for Emergiblog are as follows:
1. Who runs this site?
Emergiblog is run by Kim McAllister, a registered nurse with an ADN degree and (currently) 30 years experience who has spent the last 18 years working in emergency departments.
2. Who pays for the site?
The site is provided to me through Three:Twenty Interactive, run by Shane Pike. I use WordPress as my blogging platform
Shane maintains the “look” of the site, assists me with placing advertising and acts as my consultant for internet issues/blog questions. I have total control over the content.
I, as well as my webmaster Shane, receive renumeration from contracts with specific companies arranged through Three:Twenty Interactive.
I have no financial interest in any of these companies, other than what they pay me to advertise on my site. As of this time, I have not received any gifts from any companies that advertise on Emergiblog.
As of September, 2008, I have been working with Johnson and Johnson to bring a med/healthblogger track to BlogWorldExpo09. Johnson and Johnson are sponsoring this effort. Other than a pass to BlogHer08, I have received no gifts or money from the company. The J&J widget was placed by me as a “thank you” and I was not compensated in any way, monetarily or otherwise.
3. What is the purpose of the site?
The purpose of Emergiblog is to give me a forum to discuss my experiences as a nurse in the emergency department and other topics related to nursing.
4. Where does the information come from?
It comes from my 30 years of nursing experience.
The majority of my posting is anecdotal.
All patients, staff and hospitals are either composites or have identifying information concealed or altered to allow for patient confidentiality.
If you think you recognize someone on the site, you are mistaken.
When applicable, links to information sources are given.
5. What is the basis of the information?
Please refer to question number four.
6. How is the information selected?
The postings are based on what I want to write about and what I feel will be interesting to read.
7. How current is the information?
It could be as current as my last shift or as long ago as my childhood.
8. How does the site choose links to other sites?
My links are based solely on sites I have read and found interesting.
9. What information about you does the site collect, and why?
The site collects no information about anyone other than what is recorded on the site meters.
That information is used just for my own personal interest in seeing where my readers come from and keeping track of how much traffic Emergiblog generates.
As I am the administrator of “Change of Shift”, I use email addresses to send out a notice when a new edition is up; I have also instituted a email list for BlogWorld09. To opt out of any emails, I ask that an email request be sent to me and the email is then removed.
10. How does the site manage interactions with visitors?
Hopefully they comment and I comment back! Spammers are blocked by using special software.
All opinions are welcome. Post containing profanity or harassment are removed.
