Today was my first placement experience with a full skill set. I spent the preceding days/hours feeling quietly confident, and then shook like a leaf as i inserted my first ever cannula on a real patient.
Tracking dirty footprints in to the exquisite unit in an exclusive retirement village we were confronted with a rather interesting scene. On the floor sits a very dignified elderly lady, stockinged feet and styled hair, looking for all the world like she had just decided to sit there, abandoning the table and chairs. All around her, on various antique seats, sit an assortment of equally dignified looking elderly residents. The kind that wear shirts and vests daily, carrying elaborately decorated canes like they are a fashion statement and not a walking aid. Laughing and joking, the group poked fun at each other, and at our patient, as she sat on the floor. A slight movement on her behalf revealed the problem as she winced in pain. Tripped over due to some overly grippy shoes and fell hard on her arthritic hip. After ascertaining that as long as she sat still she had no pain i was given the go-ahead to perform the assessment and treatment.
The paramedics were great, it is amazing the difference that encouraging paramedics can make on a placement experience. I took one look at the thready veins on our dehydrated, cold patient and had already decided that she would be too tricky for me to cannulate, but my supervisor was determined. He hunted and pressed and tapped on just about every vein in her wafer thin arms, explaining to me what he was looking for, until he found a nice big juicy one, hidden away in her antecubital fossa. I felt really comfortable, i felt safe, and i felt like he was there ready to catch me if i fell. I am very appreciative of the tolerance of our patient today, as i think it was obvious from my continued questioning of the paramedics that i was new at this, and she may have even caught on to the fact that i had never stuck a needle in a real patient before.
She winced a little as the needle went in, then said out loud to herself to stop being a sook and be quiet, and did so as I advanced the cannula and flushed the line. Personally i felt that she had every right to be sooking, and in her shoes i would not have been able to show as much grace and poise as her.
Morphine on board, we anatomically splinted her legs and gingerly moved her onto the stretcher. After a difficult exit, due to a small hallway and a large stretcher we were on our way, our now quite comfortable patient lamenting missing that afternoon's canasta game.
This kind of job may not be why many students decide to be paramedics; it isn't glamorous, no lives were saved, we barely gave any meds and certainly didn't defibrillate anyone, but i loved it. I love having the opportunity to treat patients well, to smile, to be kind, to reassure them and take their pain away.
All in all, a great shift.
