Life of a Trainee Paramedic

We had our last 2 pre-exam days last week on Thursday and Friday, and they were a lot better than the week before.  They seemed to be a lot more relaxed and most people seemed to be more confident in what they were doing.  Before we got started on the Thursday, the lecturer dropped the bombshell that we could have one of our essay marks back.  This was a 3000 word essay, unlike the last one which was 1500, and having not done to good, I was a little nervous about this one.  Thankfully I got 65% which I was really pleased about.  If I had got that last year at Chester I would have been very happy so I had no reason not to be this time. 

We then started to go through some of the scenario’s that we are going to be doing.  The ‘Paramedic Assist’ scenario which scared the life out of everyone the week before was done with the lecturer who is actually going to be doing it for our exams and it was totally different.  Where last week we had to tell the Paramedic when we wanted them to intubate or cannulate, which we would never do, this week we did was in the title, ‘assist’!  We had a go at the ‘Medical’ and ‘Trauma’ scenario’s again, and the trauma one threw us the most.  We found one of our lecturers lying face down on some stairs and we had to figure out what to do.  Due to his awkward position, we got distracted by that and didn’t concentrate as much as we should have on actually assessing the patient, so needless to say we failed on that one but we can hopefully learn from our mistakes in that area.

On Thursday afternoon, after we had finished practising the scenario’s we had a meeting with the service education big wigs.  They wanted to get out feedback on the course and how we felt our placement was going.  There were a few issues raised by some of my colleagues but overall it went well.  However due to the range and number of jobs that some people experience on their stations, the service suggested that they may move some of us to a rural and urban station for next year.  This idea went down like a lead balloon for those of us who are happy where are are.  It’s taken time for us to build a relationship with our mentor’s and gain their trust and we don’t want to have to waste time doing this all over again.  We shall see what happens on that score!  

On Friday morning, we had our ECG test, which consisted of 12 example rhythms and we had to identify them and assess whether they were shock-able or not.  We also got the results back from our exams we took at the end of February, and thankfully I passed them.  I thought I may have failed on the written exam’s but I managed to get better marks than the actual assessments.  So hopefully I will manage to pass everything this week, and then all that is left is my portfolio which is in for the 31st May and then all Uni work will be done for the year and I can just enjoy placement.

Next month is going to be a quite busy one with a stag do, which I have just found out is going to be in Hamburg, then my parent’s 25th the weekend after and then the wedding of the stag do at the end of the month.  So I’m going to be doing the journey home a lot over the next month.  Thankfully, for the 1st time ever, my car passed it’s MOT first time, and my insurance has come down a good whack which will please my bank balance.  The next few days are filled with revision and portfolio writing and then we have the exams on Thursday, so lots to be done until then.

TP