I’ve done a slew of ER clinical time, a whole bunch of ALS calls, and I have a new preceptor. I’m booked solid, scheduled for clinicals, field shifts, ER, OR, Lab and class time from now until the end of the quarter. I may have one or two days off in there.
Out of all of what’s listed above, I’m happiest about the new preceptor. If you read my “Lessons Learned” post, he was the medic on M11. After that call we talked for a while outside the ED and we really hit it off. Soon, the conversation turned into “Ya know, if you’re into it, I can to talk to our MSO and see if I can be your main preceptor.” Yeah. I was into it. I’ve ridden a couple of shift with him and the crew on M11 and it was a great move. He’s been a medic for 12 years and loves to teach. Loves to let students get in the thick of things and is still excited and interested in EMS, something that was rare with some other medics I worked with. It’s a really good thing.
We’re cranking through school. Toxicology, Environmental, OB/GYN all down and now it is all about trauma, pedis and geriatrics. PHTLS and PALS will be all I think about for the next few weeks.
We took a surprise quiz today that knocked everyone for a loop. At the end of the expected material there was an added bonus: two pages of drug calculations. Yikes. After not doing ‘em for a while it was a rude awaking. I’m digging out the drug calc worksheets and running through some problems this weekend. I won’t get caught out again.
Really, medic school is turning out to be a much better experience then I thought it would be. Everyone in the class is truly excellent. All are different, but each is a great patient care provider. I’m thrilled to work with all of them and I consider each a friend.
OK, it’s bed time now. I’m off to the ER tomorrow morning and then an OR shift on Monday Morning to try and knock out some intubations. Let’s hope everyone gets a tube and the Docs decide to NOT go with LMAs. Wishful thinking, I know.
Be safe friends.
Congrats on the new preceptor.
How many OR shifts do you have to do? I’m interested in finding out after you’ve graduated how many OR (adults) and prehospital intubations you attempted during your training. I want to compare your numbers with Harborview’s. Harborview recently increased it’s OR time to five days. The median for UW/Seattle medic students is 13 and 10 respectively.
Put those drug calc sheets near your bathroom sink and if you wander by in the middle of the night, do them.
Tim, for comparison, the UNM program required 10 OR tubes, you could get them in 1 day or 10 days, depending on the OR schedule.
A quiet week and 50 days might only yield 5 people who agree to let you do it.
Our program requires 10 tubes as well, but most medic students end up with more. We all do several OR shifts. Everyone does at least 4, while some do 5 or 6, depending on how many tubes they have at that point and their level of competency. It’s not unusual for most medics from my program to complete the class with over 20 intubations. There are several who have already met their requirements of 10 with just one visit to the OR and a few “right place, right time” ER and field shifts. As a matter of fact, while I was on my ER rotation this morning, a fellow student was at the Peds ER doing his rotation and intubated a 7 week old. (I think the “pucker factor” must have been pretty high on that one!)
wow, the medic program i went through only required a certain number of hours in the OR, we didnt have to have a special number of tubes. Matter of fact, I graduated with only 5 intubations, all from the OR. My first field intubation was after I had become a cleared medic, runnning calls on my own approx 6 months after I became an official Paramedic. To this day I bet Ive done only 10 tubes TOTAL, and Ii have been a medic for 2 1/2 years (plus 2 yrs in medic school)….it’s sad, I know!