Clinical and fire

5/30/08

Yesterday was the first day of Clinical. We did a lot of sitting around—waiting for the Administrator to come do her orientation bit, waiting for the Director of Nursing to do his bit, waiting for someone to tell us the new codes for the doors (they’d been changed since our instructor had her tour), waiting for a mechanical lift to become available so we could practice on each other…kind of a boring day, but still a bit whelming. The responsibility we’re going to have, even as students, is amazing. A small mistake can turn into a huge complication really fast, and it scares me. However, when we weren’t sitting around, I was surprised to find out how much I remembered from my CNA training. Wheelchairs, assistive devices, low beds, Hoyer-type lifts, sit-to-stand lifts—I know how to safely operate all of them, and helped some of the other students learn how they work. When our instructor paired us up, she said she was trying to put an experienced person (CNA/paramedic/home health aide) with each inexperienced person. I got paired with someone who has no health care experience and I kinda went “wait, what?” because I consider myself inexperienced. Mrs. K. said, “You know a lot more than you think you do,” and I said, “Right, I have knowledge but not experience.” Mrs. K. laughed a little at that and told me I would do fine. Sure, why not. I trust her, I trust my partner (who is also my carpool buddy—she’s fantastic), I just don’t trust myself at this yet.

The big event yesterday, other than clinical, was a helicopter crash at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital. http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8395273 http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8400509 http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8402416

We came back from a break around 11 am and gathered in the lounge, and suddenly the TV was showing a giant fireball spewing black smoke, with the caption “BREAKING NEWS”. After a couple seconds I recognized the antennas (are they still called ‘antennae’ when they’re radio equipment and not insect appendages?) and dishes on the roof near the fireball, and said “Oh my God, that’s Butterworth!” A couple of my classmates said things like “are you sure?” and I WAS sure. I used to work at Butterworth, in Health Information Management (medical records), and every day on the drive to work I would look at the hospital on the skyline and wonder what each of the antennas/dishes/spheres on the roof was used for. Often, I would see an AeroMed helicopter on its way in or out of the city, and I would say a prayer for the people on board. At least once a day I would be at work and hear a helicopter coming in; I said a prayer then, too. I don’t know why, but I felt some sort of connection when I saw or heard the helicopters, like I was supposed to pay close attention. Anyway, I was pretty shaken up by this incident, even though I was 4 miles away at the time. A facility employee came in from the smoking area and was asking what all that smoke was from. When we went to lunch at about 11:35, there was still black smoke hanging over downtown, although the fire had been put out by that time. From what we saw on the TV, we were waiting to hear how many people had died in the fire. By this morning, one of the people on board the helicopter was in fair condition at the hospital, and the other had been released! I have no idea how they got out in time, but they did. I still can’t really wrap my brain around it. I hope they figure out what happened soon, but the paper said the investigation might take 6-12 months. By that time I’ll have forgotten all about it…or maybe I won’t. Again, I have a feeling I’m supposed to pay attention, but I don’t know why. Maybe I’m not supposed to know yet. Or maybe I’m just really tired, and glad it’s finally the weekend.

Off to look at lolcats,

Teenie