To set the scene, my university is based in an area with many inner city poorly achieving schools and lots of knife and gang crime. Because of this we teamed up with a local school and set about educating the children about jobs in healthcare. Hopefully this will open their eyes to some interesting jobs they may not have known about or considered.
After changing into scrub tops and listening to a talk on knife crime the excitement started. During the morning they split into groups and rotated around stations run by different people. There was BLS, ultrasound, occupational therapy and cannulation/blood taking. I got to teach the cannulation station which was awesome practice for me on the fake arms. It was also one-on-one so as well as being encouraging and fun for the kids it gave me a chance to answer lots of questions on hospitals and medical school.
The afternoon got a little more complex. We moved onto high tech simulations of emergency situations, which got all the kids very very excited. As well as this we had laprascopic surgery simulation, which even I was excited to have a play with.
During the afternoon I had to teach suturing. I'm not very good. Not only was I panicing as half the kids didn't listen and looked as if they were going to gouge each others eyes out with needles, I really don't have much skill myself. Luckily a very nice surgeon saw my struggle and sat down and taught me properly. He even went as far as teaching me a mattress stitch. I was so surprised that he didn't shout at me for holding my forceps like some kind of backwards monkey. Apparently there is such a thing as a nice surgeon.
Overall it was a really fun day for me, I just hope the kids found it as fun. I have to admit I was exhausted afterwards though... I envy their energy.
Lily xXx
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