Procedures

I had a great day today. We had a half-day procedures lab which was really fun. The first station was IV placement and blood draws. We practiced on model arms which were amusing. Like real people, all the mannequins differed in the ease of their veins, the color of their skin, and the location of the vessels. At first, it was fairly complicated; I would forget when to take off the tourniquet or have trouble advancing the catheter. But it was a decent simulation in a low-stakes environment. We then had a station on arterial sticks, which I found to be easier. Since the mannequins didn't have pulses, we would just aim at the puncture sites of all the previous sticks. We also practiced lidocaine wheals on each other (pretty much the same as a PPD).

There was a basic life support CPR session. The guidelines for CPR have changed recently (rescue breaths are no longer in the guidelines; you can do continuous chest compressions now) and I learned that the best places to have a cardiac arrest are airports (lots of AEDs) and casinos (lots of AEDs and cameras). It was good review. Lastly, we had a station on suturing, which I really enjoyed. I practiced mostly simple interrupted throws on a pig's leg. I felt a lot better about it than last year when I was fumbling with even holding a needle driver. I'm not very proficient with it yet, but I think suturing is a lot of fun.

As a whole, it was a fun, interactive, hands-on day where I got more confidence in a lot of procedural stuff I felt hesitant about. Hopefully its enough of a foundation to help me when I really need to put these skills into use.