life, the universe, and donna

First Test (skill station): Done. Passed. Got a “well done” on my review. Am very happy.

Call was for an amputation. Made a couple of minor mistakes, but at least one was a “simulation error” because I didn’t realize the sheet over her hand was intended to be a towel, vs. a visual aid. Oops. Did not lose marks for trying to apply pressure to the TOWEL instead of the stump.

Also put an ABD pad (think: diaper like absorbent dressing used for controlling hemorrhage) directly on the wound, rather than putting down a telfa (ie, non-stick) first. Not a big deal — the bleed was controlled, but that would hurt like a hoohaw when they “un-stuck” it at the hospital.

And, had to be prompted to lay the patient supine, but hey, if I’d gotten her on the stretcher (it was just a skill station, vs. a full call, so we weren’t going all the way to the stretcher) I’d have laid her supine…

Everything else went fine. Regardless of any mistakes, I passed it with flying colors. Took perfect care of the amputated limb, remembered oxygen, and despite having to sit back and pause for about 15 seconds trying to remember the best way to dress the bandages, did end up going with my original thought (ie, using a tensor bandage) which was correct. Awesome.

My whole class passed. There were a few close ones, but we did it. Awesome.

Test 2/3: The written. I think it went better than I was expecting, although in some of the post-test chatting, I realized a few questions that I thought were correct weren’t. Oops.

This started to stress me out.

But then one of my classmates mentioned that we can have THIRTY questions wrong and still pass (with 75%). Okay, that’s no problem. There were half a dozen I wasn’t sure on (but could narrow it down to two), so even if a bunch of others that I thought were right weren’t… well, there’s no way I got 30 questions wrong. Score.

Monday is the practical. IE, the hard one. Yeep. I’ll be at the JI on Saturday & Sunday.. and getting thoroughly smashed on Monday night. Whether or not I pass will depend what KIND of a drunk it is…