Blog 7: Independent Component 1 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I plan on taking an Outdoor Emergency Care(OEC) Class for my 30 hours. This class focuses on the basics of first aid for the outdoors and what to do in different situations. This class is almost the equivalent to an EMT class, its just a step under an EMT class. The class description from the National Ski Patrol website is listed below. 

A sequenced, competency-based education program that prepares candidate patrollers and other outdoor rescuers without previous first aid or EMT training to handle the emergency care problems encountered in the non-urban setting. The knowledge and skills learned are oriented toward the wilderness environment, with special emphasis on ski and snowboard injuries, high-altitude and cold-weather illness, wilderness extrications, and the special equipment needed for emergency care and transportation in the outdoor environment. Students are required to participate in comprehensive lessons with skill and scenario application, complete various workbook exercises, take a final written exam, and demonstrate their skills and knowledge in final scenarios. Challenge students and course students are required to demonstrate all the skill performances and complete the same final written exam and practical scenario evaluation.

Here's a link to the class syllabus:

http://mthighskipatrol.org/index.php/13-oec/4-2013-oec-syllabus

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

Since this isn't a class that you get a grade for, I won't have a transcript so I plan on showing my certificate of certification. This is a class that you get certified for like a CPR/First Aid class or an EMT class. I;m just going to prove I did my 30 hours by showing my certification. 

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

Taking this OEC class will help me explore my topic more by giving me more knowledge on first aid and how to respond to different calls/scenarios. In this class they give you scenarios and you work with your group to get the best possible care for your "patient". This helps with understanding how responding and going on a call will feel when it comes down to that.  It will also give me a deeper understanding of how patients will feel because of the hands on experience when I get to be the "patient" for practice. When they give us the scenarios we take turns being the "patient", so we get a feel for how it would feel to have a spinal cord injury and have people assessing you and putting a cervical collar and being strapped down on to a long spine board. Lastly, it will teach me more about the different supplies ski patrollers use such as a cervical collars, splints, toboggans, traction splints, long spine boards, etc. 4.  Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your mentorship log and call it the independent component 1 log.

Practicing Skills

During the month of September in my Outdoor Emergency Care class, we have gone over some pretty interesting subjects. There has been a lot of lecturing and powerpoints in my class which is a little boring. After living through all the boring stuff we get to practice our skills at the end of our class. Some of the skills we've practiced are getting vital signs( blood pressure, pulse, and respirations), assessments, c-spining, and using different types of traction splints.
We get vital signs by using a blood pressure cuff, a stethoscope, a watch, and our handy dandy fingers. For blood pressure you put blood pressure cuff around the bicep of one arm then you blow up the cuff to about 200 and place the stethoscope right near the end of the cuff near the elbow. Once you have your stethoscope in place you release the pressure in the cuff and listen for sound and look at the gauge on the cuff at the same time. Once you hear the first sound remember the number it started at, this will be your systolic reading. Then you wait for the sound to stop and look at what number it stopped at, this will be your diastolic reading. Once you are done taking blood pressure you will have the reading as systolic/diastolic. For taking a pulse, there are many different places on the body to take the pulse. The most common place is the radial pulse also known as the pulse on your wrist. You simply take a pulse and count the beats for 15 seconds then multiply the beats you get by 4 so you can get how many beats you get in one minute. Getting someone's respirations is just counting there breaths for 15 seconds then multiplying by 4. This sounds really easy but most people in the class had a really difficult time with it. The best way to do it is put your hand on the person's back if they don't mind and then start counting because then you can feel every time there back goes up and down for a breath.
Assessments is for getting the patient's chief complaint, any pain they have, finding out their past medical history, and figuring out what the best course of action. We do this by asking A LOT of questions. During the course of an assessment, we first check to make sure the scene is safe.Then we go up to the patient and say "Hi this is Jackie with Ski Patrol, may I help you?" By saying this statement we INTRODUCE OURSELVES and GET CONSENT to help our patient. Once we get consent, we ask our patient their name, what time it is, where they are, and what did they do to get into this situation. This is the indicating factor for checking how awake and oriented they are. This also lets us know that they have an open AIRWAY, they are BREATHING, and they have CIRCULATION. Once we know this information we go into asking the patient if they have any allergies, what medications they're on, if they've been taking their medications and when was the last time they did so, when was their last oral intake, etc. Once all these questions are done we have our SAMPLE and OPQRST out of the way. Then we begin to palpate and check the body for any signs or symptoms of injury and pain. After we check the patient's body, we then begin to take standard precautions in helping relieve pain for this patient and getting them to a higher level of medical care.
C-spining is designed for patients who have a spinal injury or patients that are unconscious. You put a c-collar on them and then strap them down to a backboard and load and go.
We practiced traction splinting which is used for closed mid shaft femur fractures. These splints are designed to pull traction to the fractured are to relieve some pain. Femur fractures are really painful because your femur is the biggest bone in your body and it contains a lot of blood. You can die from a femur fracture. There are two different types of traction splints that we practiced with, the Sager splint and the Hare splint. The Sager splint is easier to use and has less straps and you only pull 10% of the person's body weight but no more than 15 pounds. With the Hare splint, you pull traction until the persons feels relief on the injured area.

This is a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope used for taking someone's blood pressure.

This is a Hare splint used for pulling traction until the person feels relief on a closed mid-shaft femur fracture. 

This is a Sager splint used for pulling 10% of a patient's body weight but no more than 15 pounds of traction on a closed mid-shaft femur fracture. 

This is a backboard with straps that you used for strapping a patient with a spinal injury or someone who is unconscious for transportation.

This is a c-collar used to stabalize the patient's neck when they have a spinal injury. 

Blog 6: Second Interview

C1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?
My mentor is David Mix and he works at Mt. Baldy Ski Lifts as a Ski Patroller.

2.  What five questions will ask them about their background?

1. What's your favorite part of your job? Why? 
2. How did you start off in this job? 
3. If you could go back and do something over in your career, what part would you do over?
4. How long have you been on Ski Patrol? How has the job changed in that amount of time?
5. How long have you been skiing?
6. What prior job experience did you have? How has it helped you currently?
7. What educational experience do you think is most important? Why? 
8. How did you get a head start in the field you are in right now? 
9. What does being a good ski patroller mean to you?
10. What important things have you done in your current position? 
11. What different experiences have you had at the different levels? 
12. Explain exactly what it is that your job includes. 

Blog 5: Project Reflection and Working EQ

The Pentagon: 
(1) Positive Statement: What positive thing happen as a result of what you have completed so far?
As of right now, I have expanded my basic anatomy knowledge to where I will become an OEC Technician which will help me when I run calls this season. I have learned things like how to take a primary and secondary assessment using mnemonics and acronyms which will help me remember everything I need to in the field. 
(2) EQ Content:  Pick a piece of research or your interview.  How has it helped you improve your understanding of your topic?
The book I am reading now: Clinical Anatomy for Dummies by David Tefera and Shereen Jegtvig has helped me expand my knowledge of the medical side of ski patrol. Specific examples of where Clinical Anatomy for Dummies has gone into significant detail is when it talks about a specific section of the body like the abdomen and it list all the arteries, veins, and blood vessels in that area and tells you what each one does. Even though I have been taking the OEC class this book goes into more detail about all the systems that my OEC class didn't cover. My OEC Class talks about the arteries, veins, and blood vessels that are in a particualr part of the body but they don't mention what they do and how they help the body function as a whole. This helps me in the long run because I know how the body works and where everything or what system the organs are. 
(3) What has worked for you so far in the senior project?
My summer mentorship has worked out pretty good because I learned some new stuff that I can apply to for this upcoming season. Also, I'm taking an Outdoor Emergency Care(OEC) class which will help me for this season because it has taught me all the basic outdoor first aid things I need to know. Even though I'm still considered a minor, my mentor might allow me to go on calls and assist the patrollers more, once I become an OEC Technician. 

This is my book for my OEC Class that I'm required to read. This book has helped me learn new acronyms and mnemonics for remembering things like assessing patients and remembering how to use certain medical supplies. 

(4) What hasn't worked so far?  
Finding research is a little tough because there isn't anything specifically on ski patrol. The closest thing I get to ski patrol is books for National Ski Patrol classes that are similar to college textbooks. The best thing I can do is look for medical books because ski patrol is basically a nurse on skis minus the facilities that nurses have access to. 

This is the book that has expanded my knowledge on all of the different systems in the body that all work together to keep the body alive and functioning.

(5) Finding Value:  

•  What is a potential question you would like to study this year?  (working EQ)
• What are the top three things to know on the medical side of ski patrol? 
•  What do you plan to do for mentorship?  If you haven't found a mentor yet, then discuss where you are currently looking and who you are talking to to find it.  
• I plan on working along side with Mt. Baldy Ski Patrol and learning as much as I can throughout the ski season. I'm also looking into doing an explorers program with the fire department or through an Emergency Medical Technician(EMT) program.