Diary: Week 8

Week 8 flew by and I found it really enjoyable. Moving and Handling came to an end with a more practical application of skills orientated session, so getting people out of beds and chairs in a hurry (ie about to perform chest compressions on them because they were in Cardiac Arrest) and out of tight areas like toilet cubicles

Read on to find out what else I've been upto this week including attending Court!




We've been looking at the Respiratory System this week also, understanding all the parts that make it up and identifying key land marks and concepts ahead of next week where we dive into it in some more detail. Interestingly it ties in nicely with our practical airway management skills, probably one of the first times so far where we've been able to link A&P directly with skills we've learnt so far in these early days of the course.

Also, I've found myself in court this week! Well, a mock Coroners Court - we had to give evidence on a mock scenario that we 'attended' a couple of weeks previously in our Patient Report Forms lesson. This gave me a good insight about what to expect, we've been told to expect 'when' we will attend one rather than 'if'. For those of you unfamiliar with Coroners, as a Paramedic you can be summoned by the Coroner to give a statement on what happened with your encounter with a Patient that has died whilst in, or shortly after, your care - it's unique in that it is the only court when the family can question you, the Paramedic, directly - scary stuff!

Finally we've had an indepth look in carrying out a Cardio-Vascular examination on a Patient, so Blood Pressures, Pulse Oximetry, Pulses, and listening to the four heart valve sounds separately with out Stethoscopes. Included with this was a host of things that go wrong with your circulatory system that can kill you which is always joyful... My new least favorite way to die is a AAA - Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.

Next week is our last week at Uni before Placement so we've got ALOT of hands on practical skills and use of equipment to get signed off on between now and then.