Screaming Instructors and Broken Glasses

Yet another weekend of classes up at the academy, nothing too off the wall this time. Our first introduction to medical assessments, "a conversation with a purpose". All in all a good 3 hours we got to shake the cobwebs out of our heads after the long 20 days we had off from class.

Thank god for my study partners, we got together a couple times over the break and worked through some assessments and got some instruction from a seasoned EMT and some valuable critiques. Another round of the instructors pointing out that they "can tell who is practicing". Now if i can only convince the other group that i study with that they are lightyears ahead of some people in the class and to get over their nerves they're doing JUST fine.

YOU HEAR THAT!!! YOU"RE DOING FINE!!!

I was thrown way outside my comfort bubble yesterday when i was tasked to lead an "engine crew and a medic crew" on a conscious trauma victim drill. Our victim for this drill is one of our instructors, a wonderful guy, lots of fun but known for his acting abilities. We had heard him screaming and hollering as previous groups were treating him. So of course when i get tagged to be "crew leader" my knees start knocking like so many woodpeckers. We are sent out of the room so we can work the scenario from the top. Scene safety, BSI, the whole 9 yards. We did a good job on scene size up. Patient was on a metal ladder found down in his front yard on a fall day. We identified the possible MOI's from electrical burns through a conductive ladder, to a mere significant fall. Successfully removed the ladder, got to the patient to discover a significant back injury with loss of sensation to the body. Conducted good assessment, good scene control, i had a great group of people to work with, especially the above mentioned group of girls i practice with, very smooth atuned to the situation, better than myself i'd venture to say, i kept looking at the instructor to see if what i was doing was right, i just was not comfortable in my own skin at all. GOTTA WORK ON THIS!!!

Here's the bad part of the day. I was playing victim for one of our rotations and the students conducting my assessment took my glasses off and put then "in a safe spot". Well they got DESTROYED, not fun. I spent the rest of the time wearing my perscription sunglasses and contacts which i don't like doing on the weekends. I'm really gonna feel like a meanie asking them to at least contribute to getting me a new pair.

Oh well c'est la vie, on we move...

Riding this wednesday during the day. Hopefully i have good calls to blog about.

See you all then!