On this 50th Anniversary of barcode scanning, I’ve been thinking about chewing gum, lot numbers, spinach, expiration dates, medication packaging, and the FDA. On June 26, 1974, a ten-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum was the world’s first bar-coded product scanned at a point of sale. Today, over 10 billion barcodes are scanned between sunrises […]
I’ve been thinking about Florence, pledges, harm, and help. In 1893, nursing pioneer, Lystra Gretter, passed on the light from “The Lady of the Lamp” in penning the Florence Nightingale Nurse’s Pledge. Reminiscent of the Hippocratic Oath, the pledge included a commitment: “I shall not knowingly administer any harmful drug.” While nursing is so much […]
Some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged for help. After touching the man’s eyes, Jesus asked if he now saw anything. “I see people, sort of like trees walking.” So, Jesus touched the man’s eyes a second time. When they were opened, he saw everything clearly. It took the first two decades […]
So, a pharmacist, a nurse, a healthcare consumer, and yours truly walk into a bar. I can’t help myself. I get going on how intriguing and instructive I find it that IV medications are often referred to as cocktails, whose preparation involves following recipes. For starters, adult beverages and IVs alike may be divided into […]
Each day, the sisters at St Philip’s filled the apple bowl at the front of the lunch line with exactly 52 apples—one for each student. When sister Mary Grace learned that three students were not getting their apple-a-day because three rascals were consistently copping two instead of one, she penned a piece of her mind […]
Sixty years ago, I enjoyed the popular ABC black-and-white television game show Beat the Clock. “America’s number one clock watcher” and host, Bud Collyer, gave contestants simple, fun assignments
On August 23, 2017, I received word that hospital-pharmacy icon and dear friend, Kenneth N. Barker, passed away earlier that morning. Below is a blog I wrote upon his retirement in 2009. I have made a few edits to bring it up to date.