Chaperon

Yesterday I volunteered to be a chaperon for high school field trip. Nate's Anatomy class was to visit Community Hospital South and they needed adults to accompany them. I was thrilled to learn that I passed the "background check" and was considered to be an Adult. Woo hoo!!!

At first Nate was VERY against me going on this trip. I guess it went okay and I didn't embarrass him too much after it was all done.

I had a clipboard with the instructions and the names of 11 students who were randomly put in my "Group." By the way...GROUP #3 rocked it!!

Anyway...we had a short bus ride to the hospital. After some orientation and a panel discussion each group was assigned to visit 2 different areas of the hospital. I must say that I was very impressed by how professional the high school students were in the orientation and panel...actually throughout the entire day. They were quiet and respectful, asked appropriate questions, etc.

Group #3's first stop was the SIMULATION ROOM.....which I initially misread at STIMULATION ROOM. What a disappointment. The mannequin in this real-life hospital room was a scary sight. Poor guy had fallen 20 feet on his construction sight. He had a piece of metal through his face, broken clavicle, intestines hanging out, burned arm, severed toe, etc. The really cool part was that there is a control booth behind a two-way mirror and a technician runs a computer that allows the "dummy" to speak, change his vitals, etc. So as the simulation is going on the dummy can go into cardiac arrest, talk about his pain levels (actually say anything the tech wants him to), etc. Really cool. The kids also got to try their hand at inserting a breathing tube which was interesting. Some of the accidentally got the tube in his esophagus and blew up his stomach instead of hitting the trachea and his lungs. Oops....poor dummy.

Then we were off to the Emergency Room area. Once we were in place they came rushing in with a 17-year-old patient (not a dummy) that had been in a car accident because he was texting and driving. This was all simulated but it was cool. The driver's "parents" were there as well as his siblings/friends. They were crying, etc. They hooked the kid up to all the equipment, started IVs and assessed him. Eventually they decided he needed to be airlifted to higher level trauma center. So....we followed the air-evac team outside to the helipad while they placed him in the helicopter and prepared to leave.

Other groups of students had different experiences including labor/delivery, pharmacy, surgery, etc.

All in all a great experience for the kids. Some of the students have an interest in health care and some others (including Nate) have no interest whatsoever in healthcare. It was still very educational and fun.

Next, Ellen wants me to join her as a volunteer at the Post-Prom party which runs from (something like) midnight to 3am. I'm pretty sure I will be sleeping during those hours!