Yes this is probably a virulent outburst on this topic due to the fact that I have just completed one and I feel it has gone terribly!
But OSCE's really are a poor way of assessing the competency of a student. When I am on the road assessing a patient I feel really competent at what I am doing. I can see the patient, I can see a real not a "simulated" response and can thus manage with real equipment, not saying that I will do something actually doing in.
As a practical person, which is why I got into this job in the first place I don't respond well to the simulated make believe.
Ok that is my small rant over with, I am now going to breath. I wish all Student Paramedics, whether IHCD or university, well in any up coming exams.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
Tuesday 26 May 2009
F*ckwits & Exams
I haven't updated this in a while, so much for keeping a regular record of my progress, think I sort of lost it for a while.
I was thinking something the other day, I think probably one of the most used words in the ambulance service is the word f*ckwit. For whatever reason, members of the general public seem to be able to accomplish this. Through either sheer stupidity, carelessness, or sheer arrogance.
However, how many ambulance staff have also had f*ckwit moments, I know I have, to the extent that I have run out of fingers and toes to log those very moments.
This leads me onto exams, one of the most stressful times where you make those fatal f*ckwit mistakes that you look on in disbelief. Especially as you know you know it and just think "why!"
However despite this the exam process seems to be going well, at current no fails and quite good marks at that. Shame that what you learn in the classroom has no resemblence on what happens out on the road! Oh well!
I was thinking something the other day, I think probably one of the most used words in the ambulance service is the word f*ckwit. For whatever reason, members of the general public seem to be able to accomplish this. Through either sheer stupidity, carelessness, or sheer arrogance.
However, how many ambulance staff have also had f*ckwit moments, I know I have, to the extent that I have run out of fingers and toes to log those very moments.
This leads me onto exams, one of the most stressful times where you make those fatal f*ckwit mistakes that you look on in disbelief. Especially as you know you know it and just think "why!"
However despite this the exam process seems to be going well, at current no fails and quite good marks at that. Shame that what you learn in the classroom has no resemblence on what happens out on the road! Oh well!
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Off Days
Well it has been a long time since I posted on here. Things at work have been going from strength to strength. Recently completed my quarterly assessment to good effect. This in turn has boosted my confidence.
I am currently sat at the station computer and I just know it is going to be one of those days where everything is just going to go wrong. My brain just isn't firing on all cyclinders.
I have found it is very easy to get like this. One day you are spot on your game, all the i's dotted and all the t's crossed. Then other days, like today, you just have moments where your brain just really isn't 100% with you! Fortunately working as a dual "personned" ambulance you have your crew mate to back you up. Even if both of you are feeling a bit rubbish, the combination of the two of you seems to make up one good clinician.
Which left me to thinking of the governments plan to have alot of ambulance staff on cars. What if, like today, I am not feelin 100% and I am a solo responder on a car. How does the impact clinical effectiveness and patient care. In hospital there is a network of people, so that if one person is having an off day, they can usually be saved by another. The solo responder on the off day can have a bad day and there is no one to pick up anything missed until it could be potentially to late. This is where again government plans are going to land flat on their face, with the only ones being impacted being the registered paramedic or EMT.
I am currently sat at the station computer and I just know it is going to be one of those days where everything is just going to go wrong. My brain just isn't firing on all cyclinders.
I have found it is very easy to get like this. One day you are spot on your game, all the i's dotted and all the t's crossed. Then other days, like today, you just have moments where your brain just really isn't 100% with you! Fortunately working as a dual "personned" ambulance you have your crew mate to back you up. Even if both of you are feeling a bit rubbish, the combination of the two of you seems to make up one good clinician.
Which left me to thinking of the governments plan to have alot of ambulance staff on cars. What if, like today, I am not feelin 100% and I am a solo responder on a car. How does the impact clinical effectiveness and patient care. In hospital there is a network of people, so that if one person is having an off day, they can usually be saved by another. The solo responder on the off day can have a bad day and there is no one to pick up anything missed until it could be potentially to late. This is where again government plans are going to land flat on their face, with the only ones being impacted being the registered paramedic or EMT.
Sunday 5 October 2008
Rearwards thinking
I am on the second of four night shifts, sat on the station computer procrastinating time once more. Currently on my attending shift with the radio in front of me with trepidation waiting for the next job (will it be genuine or a complete waste of time!)
Anyway I am currently contemplating on the amount of time paramedics and technicians think about backsides. Honestly this is nothing rude, but we do. There is a constant thought when you are going to a call "is there anything on scene that is likely to hurt myself or my crew mate."
This is a very sad state of affairs. But long gone are the days when ambulance staff are seen as knights in shining armour. We are often now and inconvenience, interfering busy bodies that are getting involved into something that we are not welcome. I have witnessed this is the amount of verbal abuse that we are suffering, which is increasing on a daily basis.
As a result as a crew we are constantly watching each others backs making sure we are safe. This I have found is an essential part of the job and a vital ability in any person in the ambulance service.
Anyway I am currently contemplating on the amount of time paramedics and technicians think about backsides. Honestly this is nothing rude, but we do. There is a constant thought when you are going to a call "is there anything on scene that is likely to hurt myself or my crew mate."
This is a very sad state of affairs. But long gone are the days when ambulance staff are seen as knights in shining armour. We are often now and inconvenience, interfering busy bodies that are getting involved into something that we are not welcome. I have witnessed this is the amount of verbal abuse that we are suffering, which is increasing on a daily basis.
As a result as a crew we are constantly watching each others backs making sure we are safe. This I have found is an essential part of the job and a vital ability in any person in the ambulance service.
Saturday 4 October 2008
Saturday Nights
It had to happen a blog about Saturday night shift. Which I am still on at the moment.
The problem with Saturday night shifts is alcohol. It makes sane, ordinary people do crazy things or have crazy things happen to them. It also seems to remove the ability to make rational thought.
One patient this evening, severe assualt to the head with resulting head injuries. Where most of us would be in pain and agony and accept the treatment suggested by medical personnel, drink causes a major headache for ambulance staff, and as a trainee removes you from the comfort of a textbook answer to a solution.
So this person was seriously assaulted and was knocked unconcious now only responsive to painful stimuli. So text book treatment of this patient is commenced. Airway cleared and C-Spine immobilised, oxygen applied as making good respiratory effort for themselves. Collared and boarded and away we are about to go.
Until...
Patient now decides to get up and "wants to go home". This completely ruins all hope of textbook treatment and we are back into the land of improvisation that I have come to know and love.
So alchol not only causes the insult to have occured in the first place, but also causes a problem, as ambulance staff are increasingly unable to give the best care to patients due to alcohol.
(Hypoxia was considered as a reason for the aggitation, but the clinical impression at the time was leading towards alcohol being the protagonist.)
The problem with Saturday night shifts is alcohol. It makes sane, ordinary people do crazy things or have crazy things happen to them. It also seems to remove the ability to make rational thought.
One patient this evening, severe assualt to the head with resulting head injuries. Where most of us would be in pain and agony and accept the treatment suggested by medical personnel, drink causes a major headache for ambulance staff, and as a trainee removes you from the comfort of a textbook answer to a solution.
So this person was seriously assaulted and was knocked unconcious now only responsive to painful stimuli. So text book treatment of this patient is commenced. Airway cleared and C-Spine immobilised, oxygen applied as making good respiratory effort for themselves. Collared and boarded and away we are about to go.
Until...
Patient now decides to get up and "wants to go home". This completely ruins all hope of textbook treatment and we are back into the land of improvisation that I have come to know and love.
So alchol not only causes the insult to have occured in the first place, but also causes a problem, as ambulance staff are increasingly unable to give the best care to patients due to alcohol.
(Hypoxia was considered as a reason for the aggitation, but the clinical impression at the time was leading towards alcohol being the protagonist.)
Tuesday 23 September 2008
Spelling!
I had a rather rude and self opinionated comment about the spelling and other such things within this blog. Two things; I normally write this blog as soon as I have finished my twelve hour stint of serving the public so my mental acuity is not going to be at it's best.
The other: This is meant to be a real account of my thoughts and feelings of being on the road as a newbie, so my attention to punctuation and spelling is not going to be of as much importance than it is in my university assignments. I want to put more emphasis on writing how I am feeling than if I have dotted all of the "i's" and crossed all my "t's".
The other: This is meant to be a real account of my thoughts and feelings of being on the road as a newbie, so my attention to punctuation and spelling is not going to be of as much importance than it is in my university assignments. I want to put more emphasis on writing how I am feeling than if I have dotted all of the "i's" and crossed all my "t's".
Screwing up! The easiest way to learn
So not been posting these last few weeks; it has been a hectic time at work and I am also gettinng prepared to go back for a week at university.
One thing has come to my attention these past few weeks; making mistakes is the easiest way to learn. I don't know if it is the fact that you make the mistake and you go through it in your mind, or that you do not wish to feel as crap as you felt when you made the mistake, thus not wanting to make it again!
Either way, it is true. I have learnt more from these weeks on the road than I did with the months in training. The strive of not wanting to kill a patient seems to sharpen the mind and information seems to pass through the mystical mental barrier into the long term memory.
In a way it is strange, as I look forward to making more supervised errors to enhance my practice for the better. However, I am also putting caution on this as no one wants to be the class "dimwit"!
One thing has come to my attention these past few weeks; making mistakes is the easiest way to learn. I don't know if it is the fact that you make the mistake and you go through it in your mind, or that you do not wish to feel as crap as you felt when you made the mistake, thus not wanting to make it again!
Either way, it is true. I have learnt more from these weeks on the road than I did with the months in training. The strive of not wanting to kill a patient seems to sharpen the mind and information seems to pass through the mystical mental barrier into the long term memory.
In a way it is strange, as I look forward to making more supervised errors to enhance my practice for the better. However, I am also putting caution on this as no one wants to be the class "dimwit"!
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