1702: After realizing that it takes far more time to get from the music building to my room to the office than I anticipated, I sign in. Text the primary to compliment his miraculous parking job.
1710: Back to my room, get my things for class. Head to Stats for all of 20 minutes.
1730: Back to room again, to get my jacket. Head to a movie screening for my Queer Studies class.
1836: Get a text from Matt during the movie and I can feel my heart rate go up. No matter. He asks if I want dinner. I do.
1916: Back in my room again. Update this. Get my things together to go to Matt's place.
2259: After doing many strange things, including sharing a bowl of frozen yogurt and having yet another playfight with Matt, I am back in my room. Supposed to do work, will likely watch House or Trauma and read case histories for abnormal psychology. Apparently my blue long sleeved shirt is not uniform (gray or white).
2334: Watching House from last week. Not doing homework. Sleep soon.
2352: Totally checked my pager when pagers went off on House.
0108: Going to bed in fifteen minutes or so.
0236: Going to read case studies for Abnormal and going to sleep after.
0400ish: Matt arrives, I continue sleeping.
0840: Wake up, think about going to class. It's raining, and I'm sleepy, so I go back to bed with that Matt boy who I'm dating.
1010: Matt gets up to go take an exam.
1050: I finally wake up. Put my work clothes back on, take my meds, wait a few minutes, update this, and find breakfast.
1115: Sign up for Research Methods, go to Usdan, check my mail, get food, chat with a secondary and a primary and read the April fools issue of "The Justice."
1212: Mom is here, I pick up meds and things from her, go to Epstein for a talk.
1332: "Demystifying the Digital Collage" was beautiful and interesting, but the audience was entirely older white women. Got to see Mom =) Back here. Didn't have to respond to any calls from Epstein, very happy about that.
1408: Went to Usdan with Matt to buy him lunch--after all, he bought me dinner last night. Head over to office hours with my Queer Studies teaching fellow, told her about BEMCo when she asked what my jump kit was.
1520: Back at room, going to Shapiro with Matt to see some avant-garde art.
1540: We are starting to think that the avant-garde performance is telling a bunch of people that there will be art and then having nothing happen. But the performers showed up and it was very strange and they put makeup on each other in the Atrium.
1629: Back in my room, thinking about starting the paper before shift change.
1710: Back in my room after shift change. Don't know when my next shift is, sometime in April, though.
Well, it appears that I chose to quietest shift possible to blog about. I'll post a similar entry like this when I have another shift--in the meantime, I'm looking for employment, TAing the class, and possibly getting into a movie with the Corps.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Standing By
14 March, 2010. 1228.
Last night, when I went to the office to get the gear for the standby, I was well into mentally preparing myself for the night ahead. I had vomit bags in my back pockets, ready to be pulled out, two sets of gloves in my front pockets, a little notebook in my other pocket with a pen, so I could take down patient information on the go, I had a snack in my jacket, tic-tacs for if the smell of drunk partygoer vomit got too intense—I was ready for a long night of introducing myself over the music and attempting to get the minimum of information before we transport (name, age/birthday, meds, allergies. A set of vitals if we can).
Instead, I spent the next four hours sitting at a table in the lobby, bonding with the secondary, dance-attacking the primary and supervisor with said secondary and telling people that, no, they couldn’t leave their coats at the BEMCo table. We needed the space to, you know, care for patients.
Our one patient was not even that—we gave them band-aids and an alcohol swab.
My duty, as the sole female on the crew, was to periodically patrol the women’s room and make sure that no one was slumped over on the toilet/sink/floor/dividing wall. The first time I did this, I received the response of, “Hey, you’re a man—never mind.”
I’m well aware of the fact that I often appear less than female. With short hair and a uniform that still manages to be too large on me, it’s understandable. I ought to use this little talent for my own benefit—evading long women’s room lines sounds like a good plan.
Now, the reason for our lack of patients was not that people decided to be responsible and not consume a week’s worth of alcohol in one evening—no, they were just leaving and going to their rooms before they went to us. The main crew split to three calls at one point, there were more, I think. Meanwhile, the three of us sat at a table and bounced around condom balloons.
After it ended (four hours later, technically five with the time change) the three of us went to CVS to get some food and returned to our places of residence. I crashed, rather unexpectedly, after removing my completely drenched clothing. To the crew that’s still on now—I hope you are managing to stay somewhat dry.
I’m a little disappointed at our lack of people—I was hoping to get some decent experience out of this. But you know, getting paid to hang out with friends for four hours isn’t too bad.
Last night, when I went to the office to get the gear for the standby, I was well into mentally preparing myself for the night ahead. I had vomit bags in my back pockets, ready to be pulled out, two sets of gloves in my front pockets, a little notebook in my other pocket with a pen, so I could take down patient information on the go, I had a snack in my jacket, tic-tacs for if the smell of drunk partygoer vomit got too intense—I was ready for a long night of introducing myself over the music and attempting to get the minimum of information before we transport (name, age/birthday, meds, allergies. A set of vitals if we can).
Instead, I spent the next four hours sitting at a table in the lobby, bonding with the secondary, dance-attacking the primary and supervisor with said secondary and telling people that, no, they couldn’t leave their coats at the BEMCo table. We needed the space to, you know, care for patients.
Our one patient was not even that—we gave them band-aids and an alcohol swab.
My duty, as the sole female on the crew, was to periodically patrol the women’s room and make sure that no one was slumped over on the toilet/sink/floor/dividing wall. The first time I did this, I received the response of, “Hey, you’re a man—never mind.”
I’m well aware of the fact that I often appear less than female. With short hair and a uniform that still manages to be too large on me, it’s understandable. I ought to use this little talent for my own benefit—evading long women’s room lines sounds like a good plan.
Now, the reason for our lack of patients was not that people decided to be responsible and not consume a week’s worth of alcohol in one evening—no, they were just leaving and going to their rooms before they went to us. The main crew split to three calls at one point, there were more, I think. Meanwhile, the three of us sat at a table and bounced around condom balloons.
After it ended (four hours later, technically five with the time change) the three of us went to CVS to get some food and returned to our places of residence. I crashed, rather unexpectedly, after removing my completely drenched clothing. To the crew that’s still on now—I hope you are managing to stay somewhat dry.
I’m a little disappointed at our lack of people—I was hoping to get some decent experience out of this. But you know, getting paid to hang out with friends for four hours isn’t too bad.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Titles and Teaching
Dates and times, while beautifully simple and clean, give no information about the following post. From here on out, entries will have titles. Most likely alliterative titles or silly ones and clever ones.
So, that covers the "titles" part of the title. On to "teaching."
BU has been teaching the EMT class here at Brandeis since the beginning of the semester, and I have been volunteering as a TA assistant (A teaching assistant assistant? Sort of!) Basically, the class is divided into lecture and lab: lecture is, well, lecture. "This is glucose. This is how you administer it. This is when you administer it." Lab is learning how to use the skills learned in lecture as part of patient treatment and assessment. In some labs, it's very hands-on (O2, CPR, trauma, splinting, etc) and in others, it's mostly talking through a call.
As an assistant TA, I work with a lead TA, someone who has been leading lab groups for a while and knows what to do. We get a set of scenarios and talk the students through it. "You are dispatched to a 38 year old female who was in a car crash on the highway at 8 AM. Go."
It's interesting being in the teaching position so soon after having been in the student position. When the students completely didn't know what to do in their first assessment lab, I remembered what it was like on that lab--I was the kid who didn't know what the instructor wanted to know. "I don't know what you're asking--I just want to know about the pulse."
They're learning the little acronyms for things and sure enough, a few assessment labs later, they're no longer struggling to remember things like "color, temperature, condition" and "rate, rhythm, quality." It's also very reassuring for me--as someone with very little field experience, I haven't had the opportunity to do most of the things I learned about--but the lead TAs tell me that I know my material very well. My only problem TAing? Telling people when they're doing something correctly. I ought to write "COMPLIMENT SANDWICH" on my hand next time.
It's fun, I get CE hours, I'm technically getting job training.
(Also, EMT students: "Common complaints" ARE NOT THE SAME AS "pertinent negatives.")
So, that covers the "titles" part of the title. On to "teaching."
BU has been teaching the EMT class here at Brandeis since the beginning of the semester, and I have been volunteering as a TA assistant (A teaching assistant assistant? Sort of!) Basically, the class is divided into lecture and lab: lecture is, well, lecture. "This is glucose. This is how you administer it. This is when you administer it." Lab is learning how to use the skills learned in lecture as part of patient treatment and assessment. In some labs, it's very hands-on (O2, CPR, trauma, splinting, etc) and in others, it's mostly talking through a call.
As an assistant TA, I work with a lead TA, someone who has been leading lab groups for a while and knows what to do. We get a set of scenarios and talk the students through it. "You are dispatched to a 38 year old female who was in a car crash on the highway at 8 AM. Go."
It's interesting being in the teaching position so soon after having been in the student position. When the students completely didn't know what to do in their first assessment lab, I remembered what it was like on that lab--I was the kid who didn't know what the instructor wanted to know. "I don't know what you're asking--I just want to know about the pulse."
They're learning the little acronyms for things and sure enough, a few assessment labs later, they're no longer struggling to remember things like "color, temperature, condition" and "rate, rhythm, quality." It's also very reassuring for me--as someone with very little field experience, I haven't had the opportunity to do most of the things I learned about--but the lead TAs tell me that I know my material very well. My only problem TAing? Telling people when they're doing something correctly. I ought to write "COMPLIMENT SANDWICH" on my hand next time.
It's fun, I get CE hours, I'm technically getting job training.
(Also, EMT students: "Common complaints" ARE NOT THE SAME AS "pertinent negatives.")
Friday, March 5, 2010
12 February, 2010. 5:25 PM.
So, what’s a girl to do with an EMT certification? Jump into her school’s volunteer corps, of course! I competed at BU’s Yankauer Games with Brandeis (we were pretty awesome) and took my first shift on my 19th birthday. My first call came in during Music History, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss anything of consequence.
I’ve taken six shifts and six calls since November. I TA the EMT class at Brandeis (taught by BU) with other BEMCo people and the BU instructors who I was taught by. I really like what I’m doing.
I’m not really here to talk about medicine. It’ll probably end up that way at some point, but right now, I just want to talk about the experience. And I do apologize for dropping off of here for so long—long story short, some people were concerned about the fact that some secondary’s girlfriend was all of a sudden blogging about BEMCo very enthusiastically, that she was going to be an EMT, that she might not know what she was doing. I was warned on my first call, “This doesn’t go in the blog,” but other than that, it’s not an issue anymore.
I try to not to enthuse too much about this, but I’m completely smitten with volunteering here. For those 24 hours when I’m on call, I’m actually a somewhat useful member of society. I’m trying not to end up filling this post with phrases like “being a part of something bigger than me” and “feeling important,” because that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about our patients and what we’re doing for them in that moment. Some of them won’t remember us—most of them won’t. It’s not really us that they’re seeing—I’m not there as a student, as a musician, not even as a female, most of the time. I am my rank and my uniform.
Maybe it’s just from being new, but if I could be on call all the time, I would be. I feel silly when I talk about it to Matt, and I feel misunderstood when I talk about it with my family. I don’t really mind, though.
Also, not to self: I ought to start using 24 hour time on these. (Funny story though: not everyone uses 24 hour, so in class, a student asked if by “16:00-17:00” a professor meant “6:00-7:00” and the professor said in the “No, you moron” voice, “No, I mean 16:00-17:00” and some kind student explained to the first one exactly what the difference was.)
I’ve taken six shifts and six calls since November. I TA the EMT class at Brandeis (taught by BU) with other BEMCo people and the BU instructors who I was taught by. I really like what I’m doing.
I’m not really here to talk about medicine. It’ll probably end up that way at some point, but right now, I just want to talk about the experience. And I do apologize for dropping off of here for so long—long story short, some people were concerned about the fact that some secondary’s girlfriend was all of a sudden blogging about BEMCo very enthusiastically, that she was going to be an EMT, that she might not know what she was doing. I was warned on my first call, “This doesn’t go in the blog,” but other than that, it’s not an issue anymore.
I try to not to enthuse too much about this, but I’m completely smitten with volunteering here. For those 24 hours when I’m on call, I’m actually a somewhat useful member of society. I’m trying not to end up filling this post with phrases like “being a part of something bigger than me” and “feeling important,” because that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about our patients and what we’re doing for them in that moment. Some of them won’t remember us—most of them won’t. It’s not really us that they’re seeing—I’m not there as a student, as a musician, not even as a female, most of the time. I am my rank and my uniform.
Maybe it’s just from being new, but if I could be on call all the time, I would be. I feel silly when I talk about it to Matt, and I feel misunderstood when I talk about it with my family. I don’t really mind, though.
Also, not to self: I ought to start using 24 hour time on these. (Funny story though: not everyone uses 24 hour, so in class, a student asked if by “16:00-17:00” a professor meant “6:00-7:00” and the professor said in the “No, you moron” voice, “No, I mean 16:00-17:00” and some kind student explained to the first one exactly what the difference was.)
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