PixelRN

I wanted to take a moment today and pay tribute to a true hero, Nurse William Mann. William had wanted to be a helicopter nurse since the age of 12, when he had the chance to see the inside of Loyola University’s Lifestar helicopter.

Nurse William Mann was one of the victims of the latest medical helicopter crashes which happened in the suburbs of Chicago. It seems like there have been way too many of these types of tragedies lately, including this medical helicopter crash in my neck of the woods.

My thoughts and prayers go out to William’s family, as well as to the other victims of this crash, including paramedic Ron Battiato, pilot Delbert Waugh and Baby Kirstin Blockinger, who was being transported.

The courageous people who fly in these helicopters to transport the sick and the wounded have my deepest respect and admiration. I’m grateful that there are nurses, doctors, paramedics, EMTs, and pilots who bravely call this their job. And of course each time I hear about one of these crashes, I think of our Crzegrl, and hope that she stays safe.

(”Ghosts in the Sky,” image courtesy of Mayr’s photostream on Flickr.)

There’s been a lot of recent discussion about nursing salaries and the nursing shortage.

I wanted to chime in because (a) I love to over-simplify things, and (b) I am on the verge of becoming one of those nurses they refer to - the kind who works 2-3 years after school and then quits.

The reasons aren’t complicated. Here’s why I’ll probably end up quitting:

• The money sucks.
• It takes its toll on you physically.
• I don’t want to work nights, weekends, or holidays.

Sure there are many peripheral issues - nurses dumping on each other, lack of autonomy, lack of time and resources to get the job done right. But other than that it’s a personally rewarding, and (at times) intellectually challenging job. It feels good to help people when they are sick. I love being the voice of calm in a storm. I love working as a team and saving lives (sometimes.)

I just don’t love it enough to get over the three points that I listed above.

It’s that simple. If I became a nurse when I was 22 I might have gotten a few more good years in, but sadly, I didn’t. So if there’s any constructive advice springing from this negative view of nursing it would be this: Get ‘em in while they’re young. The earlier you start your nursing career, the later your burnout will be.

So what have I learned from all of this? First of all, here are three steps to keeping your website from getting hacked:

1. Use Google Webmaster Tools - if I had been using them they may have helped me diagnose the problem much earlier.
2. Change your password often and make it a good one! I HATE keeping track of passwords as much as the next person. But guess what I hate even more - Getting my blog hacked.
3. If you are running a self-hosted wordpress blog, you have to be diligent about updating to the latest version. Updates aren’t just about the latest bells and whistles  - they are about security.

If you know what you’re doing updating to the latest version shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. If you don’t know what you’re doing, take a minute to read the instructions on wordpress.org. It’s not that hard and if you do it once, it will be in your brain.

I never thought hackers would bother with my site in the first place.

I have a simple little wordpress blog with a modest audience. Why would someone want to hack into it? Because there are millions of “simple little wordpress blogs” out there. The hackers figure out how to break into one, and then they can break in to all of them.

Do I have second thoughts about using Wordpress?

I did at first, but then I realized that no matter what platform you use, there will be vulnerabilities. Wordpress is obviously going to be vulnerable because so many people use it. On the other hand, so many people use it because it rocks! It’s so easy to install. It’s built for blogging and yet it can also be used as a simple content management system. It’s also easy to customize for a “casual” web designer like myself, and there is a great community of theme builders behind it. I will continue to use Wordpress.

Bottom line - if you are hosting a site on your own domain, then it’s up to you to be a responsible webmaster. Use the three steps that I outlined above.

Last week I was tearing my hair out and suffering from a blogger existential crisis, this week I am triumphant. I found a problem, diagnosed it, and fixed it all by myself, and now I am that much more tech savvy. It’s a good feeling.

One thing I have had second thoughts on is whether or not I want to encourage other bloggers to host their own domain, particularly those of you who are strictly blogging for the sake of blogging, and have no use for the technical end of it. If that describes you, then I would recommend sticking with wordpress.com, or blogspot.

On the other hand, if you find all of this technical stuff kind of interesting, then I heartily recommend moving forward and using your own domain with a host. There is something so cool about having your own little place on the web that is not part of some larger system. To me it’s like the difference between owning a house on a little piece of land, and renting an apartment in a multi-level building.