Clinical skills

This week has so far been a very practical week. On Monday I had a lesson on Therapeutic management of violence and aggression. Basically what we did was learn what to do if we get attacked by a patient and how to avoid being attacked. We learned some fancy moves on how to loosen someone’s grip without in anyway hurting them that were quite funny. However I'm not sure I'll remember the "six steps" if a patient tries to strangle me. The coolest thing we learned was that we are most likely to be attacked by a 75 year old woman. Yesterday I had a lesson on moving and handling. The most important thing i learned was how I under no circumstance can lift a patient. I got a go at being the patient, and I could really feel the difference between the different methods used when it came to moving a patient. It really got me thinking about how careful you have to be. I still almost rammed Lorraine into the headboard of the bed when we used the slide sheets (not on purpose of course) 

At night we went to the students union to watch Scotland – Spain game. I have to say that Spain crushed us, but I still had a lot of fun. The union was filled with super enthusiastic football fans and I have to say that they got me involved as well. I was a good girl and only had two beers and left right after the game. I wish I could say the same about the people living in my hall. While making myself a night snack the one after the other started rolling in to the kitchen drunk. The best entertainment ever is Ellen with her gymnastic moves. Priceless

Today we had a lesson called clinical skills. It has been by far the most interesting lecture so far. The best part was when we learned how to take someone’s blood pressure. It’s not as easy as it looks. My blood pressure is 100 over 60, so I have quite a low blood pressure.  I need to practise more on taking other peoples blood pressure though, because according to me Lorraine does not have a pulse and Laura is barely alive. We also feed each other. We took turns on being blindfolded and then the other person was the nurse feeding us some yoghurt. It was weird being in that situation, but I now see how uncomfortable it must be if the nurse doesn’t tell you that the food is coming and what food you’re getting. We also changed sheets and learned how to properly wash our hands. 

I got to run now. We’re watching a movie in the TV room =D