Certified (but not insane)

Michelle — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:34:49 +0000

So today was the conclusion of my first aid course. I slept in this morning! My mom walks into my room a minute or two after 8am and goes “What time did you have to go to your first aid course again?” and I looked at the time and I instantly went into panic-mode in the whole “Oh no!!!!” kind of way. Luckily, my parents were planning on going out this morning so they gave me a ride and dropped me off for my lesson. Which went well, by the way! Today we learned about bleeding, how to deal with various medical conditions (diabetes, convulsions, asthma, allergies), bone and joint injuries (splints and slings!), head, spinal and pelvic injurie. Many senior attorneys says that people can also find an attorney even for a minor accident to claim compensation and you can also know how to find slip and fall attorneys serving in Highland in case of accidental injuries,how to avail DUI attorneys, how to hire injury experienced lawyers after injury, how to care for wounds, rescue carries, how to deal with burns, poisons, bites and stings and, lastly, what to do when someone is too hot or too cold. But if you have met with a fatal accident, find attorneys for construction accidents to help you out.

The lesson that my instructor drilled into our head was: Always have padding underneath your knots (for slings and splints). Why? Because the patient will get a blister and it will get infected and they will die.

It was a good day. I passed the course (yay) and got my certificate for “Standard First Aid – Health Care Provider” with my certificate for passing the CPR portion of the Coast 2 Coast First Aid Courses as well (CPR for Health Care Providers – whoot!). I’m quite pleased, it’s already in a page protector…

Also today, I’ve read for one of my classes this week, watched part of the Emmy’s (not sure why anymore – half the shows that get mentioned are only available through special channels, i.e. HBO, and I don’t get that channel and have never heard of some of the shows that get nominated) (it was a very small part of it). I also read a novel that wasn’t required for any of my classes (shocker). It’s been a while since I’ve done that… I’ve missed reading for fun (I’m a huge reader, but lately the things I’ve been reading include the newspaper and my textbooks so…).

I could totally (attempt to) save your life now

Michelle — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:13:36 +0000

So today was day 1 of 2 of my first aid course (Standard First Aid for Health Care Providers – it includes CPR for Health Care Providers) and it went stellar. The instructor is so enthusiastic (instructors are volunteer-based, according from what he said) and everyone seems pretty cool. We had to introduce ourselves at the very beginning and I was the second of the students there so I was all like “…. Hi, I’m Michelle. I’m taking this course for nursing school applications…” (my voice got considerably softer by the end, haha) and then the instructor prompts me with “And have you ever taken a first aid course before?” (Answer: Yes, in grade 10 as part of the gym requirement and in Girl Guides, whoot – but even more years ago!). Everyone seemed super nice, and the course went fairly well. The instructor tossed one of the CPR-learning dummies into the wall, head first,

But yeah, the course has been going great so far. I learned about artificial respiration, CPR (and two-rescuer CPR), basic scene management, cardiovascular disease (and what to do) and how to use an Automated External Defibrillation (AED), which was really interesting to learn (and when my instructor said that they were idiot-proof, he wasn’t lying). Most of it was review from previous knowledge, but the group of people was basically a mixture of two groups: people taking a CPR course (1 day) and people taking the Health Care Provider course (2 days). So we (HCP people) had to learn age differences for both groups, as well as slight differences in what to do for various activities. So it got a little confusing on the test when it got to the very nit-picky details regarding exact ages and such. But overall, the test was quite easy (have another test tomorrow). Definitely liking it though, despite my wrist basically refusing to work after the first round of practicing chest compressions. My left wrist just got really stiff and really warm, which sucked (to say the least).

The most useful advice given to us from the instructor was that if we find someone trying to flag down help on the side of the road to not get out of your car and instead offer to call for help from your car only (and never, ever, ever unlock your doors or open your window more than necessary). Same with finding someone unconscious on say, a train platform – report it to an official, but don’t touch them. He told us so many horror stories of people stopping to help others and then getting mugged and nearly beaten to death, and how he had a friend who tried to help an ‘unconscious’ man on a train platform and the ‘unconscious’ man stabbed him in the leg with an used syringe needle.

I was basically bursting with excitement over the day’s activities when I got home and naturally my parents asked me about the first aid course (thus far). My dad was commenting on how I’d probably get sued for helping someone that needed first aid, and I told him that in BC, there’s a ‘Good Samaritan Act’ that protects people from getting sued for performing first aid (within the realm of their abilities – provided that they don’t take money) and he just shook his head and said “That’s how the system gets more money!”. Oh, and then he asked if I had to use straws at all (ahem, in his words “for cut blood vessels to reconnect them”.). My family has all decided that my father will never be performing first aid on any of us. Because apparently he thinks it’s a-okay to use plastic drinking straws to reconnect cut blood vessels… Guess he’s never heard of applying pressure? Not sure.

Anyways… The course is going quite well, but the last/second day is tomorrow. I did get quite a bit done after I got home from the course (ate dinner, went all “wtf” at my father for asking if we use plastic drinking straws, did an online quiz for my organic chemistry class – yay?, and read a chapter in my psychology text).

Questions:

What is the most interesting thing that you’ve learned today?
What is something fun or productive that you plan on doing tomorrow?
What is a career that you really want and dream about?

Hope you all have a great Saturday and an even better Sunday!

first aid – Imaginary Sunshine

Certified (but not insane)

I could totally (attempt to) save your life now