life, the universe, and donna

Awesomeness. Observations of Day 2:

- Perfect score on the first test. Phew. Was WAY more worried about it than I should have been.

- Best Acronym Ever: HEMP BC. Is part of the initial scene assessment. Apparently nobody EVER forgets that one. Ah, Vancouver, you make me proud.

For the record (because the more I write things out, the more I remember them) it stands for:
Hazards (ie, things to look out for — traffic, violence, etc.)
Environment (weather, light levels, surface, etc)
Mechanism of injury (what happened, why am I here?)
Patients (# of)
Body Substance Isolation (gloves, goggles, masks, gowns, etc)
Condition (of patient, first impressions)

- I bought a stethoscope today. It’s burgundy. I love it. The school stethoscopes kind of suck, and it’s hard enough to hear lung sounds & hear blood pressure when you’re in a class of noisy people without having shitty stethoscopes. Also, no more wiping off the earpieces with alcohol swabs and then getting the worlds worst wet willy.

- To all of the boys who’ve told me I’m heartless? Not so! I can hear my heartbeat RIGHT NOW.

- I know how to take vital signs, including blood pressure. Blood pressure is harder than it looks. So are lung sounds. Note to people: When your doctor or other health care professional is using the stethoscope, shut the fuck up. Not only do those things work basically like earplugs (so they can’t hear you very well anyway) but some sounds are still really hard to hear. Your heartbeat is easy. Lung sounds are not. (On the upside, to hear lung sounds, you have to be breathing rather than talking anyway.) Listening for the start & end of your Karotkoff sounds while taking BP is harder still.

- My blood pressure is pretty low. Low enough that my partner didn’t think he was doing it right. No, you’re fine, I’m just barely alive.

- There is SO MUCH TO MEMORIZE. Like, the entire two page list of what will put someone into the rapid transport category (load & go) leaving immediately after the primary assessment, vs someone who doesn’t need to be rushed quite so fast and can do the secondary assessment on the scene (stay & play.) (Note: It occurs to me that rather than being able to recite this list, if I simply know the basics of what’s going to constitute an “omg!” vs. a “not-so-omg”, then I’m probably ok. Hurty knee? Stay & play. Amputated knee? Load & go.)

- It’s kind of hard to stop laughing when you’re pseudo-groping your classmates.

- Hearing lung sounds is even harder when you’re in a classroom, and therefore not going under your partner’s shirt. “I hear… your bra. It sounds healthy.”

- Our instructor has wonderful patience with us, even when we’re being idiots.

- I’m becoming a better judge of character, evidently. Some initial impressions I got of a few of my classmates are accurate. Since not all of them are positive, I won’t post about them… honestly, for the most part, it seems like a pretty good group. I’d say the average age is mid-20s, so I’m just a touch on the high side.

- Faking a headache (while playing the patient in a primary assessment scenario) actually gives me a headache. Go figure.

- I have a bruise on the palm of my hand from raising & lowering stretchers yesterday. Funny.