Another Chapter Ends

My 2 day LSCN crash course is finally over.

And by a stroke of weird luck (and many blessings from God), i managed to scrape a pass.

It was test after test, practical after practical and drama after drama. My teammates consisted of Asyik, Hoong Eng and another lady from grp 4 - which shall remain annonymous.

That woman really sucked the life out of me. She's over-bearing, a sick, act cutesy wutsey, actress in front of the teachers and likes to act chummy bunny with me. Putting her hand over my shoulder and squeezing my arm. Yucks. And acting like th usual me, i would ever so often, have the need to violently jerk my shoulder and shrug her wandering hands away.

I basically don't like you, man.

I complained relentlessly to Asyik and Hoong Eng.
They're nice people.
They're unlike me.
Hohoho.

I felt that the woman dragged the whole team down. She's slow and unsure of her work. Especially when we're the ones being tested - she made the leader looked bad. Pity i wasn't able to choose who my partners were. I would most definately have hand-picked Asyik and Hoong Eng. Heehee...

Though during the practical, i was able to have at least one of them around. You see, in megacode, you get a scenario where the teachers tell you a little history of the patient and how a patient collapses. You (or rather, me) then assumes the role of the leader and directs how the resuscitation would be initiated.From the decision to shock or not, to the administration of medication and keeps a lookout at what the other staff (we are given 2 other helpers) are doing.

Normally, in the assessment, the other helpers are not supposed to verbalize anything and expected to do their roles well. That woman gets neither right. She's ....... lets just say she irritates me. Big time.

It was also quite confusing because some teachers insisted on us performing their way (which translates to THE ONLY WAY), while others were more flexible and allowed you to rationalize your actions.. as long as you did it the correct way, safely. Asyik concludes there isn't any form of standardization in my school. Haha. How right he is....

It was funny how i freaked them out when i dropped the paddles to the defibrillator. And how i shrieked 'it's a miracle!' when the cardiac rhythm reverted to sinus rhythm from ventricular fibrillation after applying a DC shock.

I failed my megacode the first time. Hoho. And somehow, i managed to weasel my way to a passing grade the 2nd time round. I had 'super strong man' Asyik, and someone nice the 2nd time. Heehee. My team worked well.

And so, i actually owe my grades to them =)

Sadly, not everyone got certified. But it was a really valuable learning ground for all of us. Even though my team got blasted most of the way, it strengthened not only our knowledge, but the very fact that the basis of nursing revolves around teamwork.

Tomorrow, it's back to the wards in repayment for 2 absent days. Alone.