school scenarios....advice please!!!!

[stiches]

Thanks. I'm taking one of the part time courses that run usually every other weekend for a year, we should be done around october.

[mobey]

Thanks. I'm taking one of the part time courses that run usually every other weekend for a year, we should be done around october.

Would your instructor be out of Kindersley or Outlook by chance??

Honestly... If I know who your instructor is I can probably give you some insight.

[Quakefire]

Mobey I was waiting to see you in this thread hehe

[rock_shoes]

Thanks. I'm taking one of the part time courses that run usually every other weekend for a year, we should be done around october.

Perhaps one of the issues you're having is the fact that you're doing a part time course. Those of us who did full time PCP courses had to eat sleep and breath the content. I think that helped in a lot of ways. Do you have the opportunity to run practise scenarios between classroom days? It isn't too difficult to hammer through bookwork on your own but running practical scenarios is a whole different story. If you have the option you might want to try running scenarios with classmates and grading each other using the same methods as your instructor. Be brutal with each other and eventually you will find a call flow that works for you.

[stiches]

Nope our two main instructors come out of the P.A. area. We are completely on our own for the two weeks between classes and there is no peer/group studying in between because we each live a minimum of two and half hours from eachother, in any given direction and we all work. So the only type of scenarios that we practice at home are assessing our pets and loved ones after work and in spare time. So that raises the question; does anyone have any ideas on how I could scenario practice on my own? What I'm doing at the moment is simply trying to memorize all the assessment stuff and text book information that I feel maybe of help to a scenario. This method is working for me but just barely I'm passing the scenarios. Any suggestions?

[rock_shoes]

How receptive are local ambulance crews to you coming in and picking their brains? Maybe running a few scenarios? That might be your best bet. Particularly if any of the crew has recently completed a PCP program.

[Quakefire]

Where are you in your program?

[stiches]

We are about half way through our cardiac lectures.

[Quakefire]

Alright. Not alot changes from your respiratory scenarios to your cardiac scenarios. This is where ALS will be needed more (they never come but call anyway), do your assesment, look listen and feel, palpating can tell you alot in a chest pain case. Learn your rhythm rules and know them well, you get marks for interpreting the correct rhythym.

Really our treatments dont vary much. You want your abc's you want your vitals, and you want your full assessment just like all your scenarios. Most of your patients will get oxygen, some may get nitro. The treatment is simple, whats hard is getting into a groove where you go through everything the same way every time. It helps, you forget less.

Some tips I learned. BSI " I'm protecting myself from the patient, and the patient from me" (thats very basic but you get the idea)

Keep the head to toe idea in your brain at all times (it will really help in trauma) Airway: is he breathing is he talking Breathing: fast/slow, laboured, depth Circulation: is there a pulse, fast/slow regular/irregular strong/weak Skin lots of people forget this, temp,color, and is it dry/moist/sweating like hes on trial

Next JVD (your instructor may want you to check for pitting edema here as well), is the trachea in the center,what does his chest look like is there urticaria, swelling, paradoxical movement and so on. What do the lungs sound like. Does it hurt more when you press on the area. Is there pitting edema.

Thats the order that I used for all my cardiac scenarios, and with a little modification it fits almost everything, just get an order down. You'll think less about what you need to ask, and what you need to check and more about what you found and what that means.

On a side note, if your get a patient with subcutaneous emphysema in your practicum, or after, feel it. Not many medics find it in the field and its a weird sensation/sound

[mobey]

I wish I could offer more but really it has been covered in this thread.

If you know your stuff, and are confident, you will do good in scenarios in the end. If you lack one of those 2 things try to figure out which and fix that.