Friday, February 11, 2011

Clinical Skills?

Today was a review session for clinical skills, where the lab is full of various plastic body parts for students to practice various invasive procedures on.

I was letting Eileen have a go at cannulating my arm (ha! everyone knows that nurses are the worst patients!!) and couldn't help but observe a couple of students practicing IM injections nearby.

Student A was wearing a thick rubber arm cover, student B* was holding the needle.

Student A: Ok, so draw up your fluids and give it a go.

Student B draws up saline for injection, pinches the rubber arm section, and angles the needle almost parallel to the skin, at about 10 degrees.

Student A: Um, are you sure you are doing that right? You are supposed to do it at an angle.

Student B: Well, not a 90 degree angle.

Student A: Yah, but not like that dude.

Student B: I am pinching the skin, this is how you are supposed to do it. (As he injects 3mls into plastic arm, still with needle at approx 10 degrees from skin surface). Whatever, I don't care, I am sure that is right.

5 months people, 5 months until we hit the wards. Good times. Oh medical students, sometimes the perfect combo of arrogance and inexperience!

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*Student B is one of the top students in our anatomy class.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Annnnnd this is why PBL is such a clusterbumble. The blind leading the blind.

At least he wasn't practicing on a real person....yet.

Absentbabinski said...

Beautiful. I'm so glad I'm on a grad-entry course - you don't see much of that at all, we've all fallen on our asses enough times to know that a pinch of humility will take you a long way :)

Albinoblackbear said...

IANH--Yet...

AB--This *IS* a grad course too.

Rogue Medic said...

Tops in anatomy, but appreciating that there is no geometry class. A future rocket surgeon. ;-)

Cara said...

You mean 10 degrees isn't right? Damn.