Clinical Simulations

Today I got to meet the simmulated manequins in our clinical lab. There are nine of them and believe it or not they each have their very own name, personality, and voice. They can do just about anything - vomit, breath, cough, urinate, deficate. They have a pulse, can yell at you, can receive injections and IV's. They are absolutely amazing.

Today I actually learned how to use the stethecope that I was given. We performed respiration assessments and listened to different breath sounds. They were very exciting. Our manequin was able to exhibit different respiratory abnormalities, so we were able to listen to pneumonia, wheezing, rattles, a patient with decreased inspiratory volume, etc. It was interesting. Some of the sounds resembled the log ride at the local amusement park - I know weird analogy.

We also learned how to suction patients today using the Yankhauer suction. It was okay, but I can honestly say that I was very happy the manequins didn't actually have any mucus.

This first week of actual classes has been good. On Monday and Tuesday I sit in the same room for six hours and listen attentively along with 125 other students. It's not too bad since we get frequent breaks. Our classroom has been recently remodeled and it is great (for a classroom). It's wireless, has power acess at every seat, and has very comfortable seating. The whole room is state of the art.

Overall, it's been pretty good. I've felt somewhat overwhelmed at times this week. The amount of reading we have to acomplish for every class day is excessive. At times we have to read 3-9 chapters a night. One text book is a great read, the rest are mediocre. Early on this week I thought, what have I gotten myself into??? But as the week has gone on I have settled back down and feel good about everything. We'll see how I feel after the first test.

So for now, I'm reading and focusing on sims.