As of the 11th of January my sister and I were given the opportunity to volunteer at Cadets to look after and assist the Badgers (younger first aid learners) every Wednesday as part of being St John's Ambulance older members of the pre-teen/teen unit. I can't wait to carry on building my communication skills with younger children and widen my understanding of St John's and first aid.
We also have a first aid duty coming up to supervise a local disco, which I look forward to as I've never applied first aid publicly before!
I've also booked several tickets for various medicine-related courses and talk for the following month so I can't wait for a busy and informative February.
And lastly, I got an e-mail a few days ago from one of the Doctors who spoke at InvestIn's Young Doctor Programme (link to my post about them here) which was such a lovely surprise! So happy that my post was actually read and liked by the course director. He even asked if this blog could be used as a reference in future talks and be linked to their social media, which of course I happily accepted! So thank you Dr Manik :)
Monday, 23 January 2017
Medical Mavericks
The Medical Mavericks Workshop at college on Tuesday the 10th of January was so much fun and a great way to start the new school year! The company came into school to set up different medical stations to let students try different tools and activities while learning various healthcare pathways.
I had the opportunity to have 2 ultrasounds: one I did myself of my heart, having to be careful to use the £2000 ultrasound machine (yikes) and have cold cold ultrasound gel up my ribs which was very entertaining and I managed to get my friend to film it for me, as it's not every day you get the chance to see your own heart in action!
The other ultrasound was done by one of the members of staff at Medical Mavericks on my wrist, where I discovered I have no more growth plates (meaning I've reached my full growth capacity at 5"5 tall😆) which was fascinating to discover, I didn't even know it was possible to tell when your bones have stopped growing!
I also had a photo of my eye taken showing "tiger stripes" which are only present with Asian heritage apparently, which was done using similar equipment to those at an opticians when they need to analyse your eye. I wonder which bit indicates my poor eye sight...
We also had the chance for other activities within the hour and a half session to draw blood from a fake arm using a needle- even though the fake veins were larger than normal it was still quite hard to do without puncturing the patient!
You could also measure blood pressure, wear eye disease goggles (such as tunnel vision), explore different career options, have an ECG printed and have several respiratory tests (I have a lung age of 1, yayyy!) [by the way apparently the photo of the tar jar is what collects in your lungs if you smoke 10 cigarettes for a year so please don't smoke].
Everything was incredible I'm so happy to have been able to partake in it so thank you to my college and Medical Mavericks
☺️
Check out Medical Mavericks (located in Wolverhampton) here
I had the opportunity to have 2 ultrasounds: one I did myself of my heart, having to be careful to use the £2000 ultrasound machine (yikes) and have cold cold ultrasound gel up my ribs which was very entertaining and I managed to get my friend to film it for me, as it's not every day you get the chance to see your own heart in action!
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| Wrist Ultrasound |
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| wrist growth plates missing |
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| Photo of my eye! |
We also had the chance for other activities within the hour and a half session to draw blood from a fake arm using a needle- even though the fake veins were larger than normal it was still quite hard to do without puncturing the patient!
You could also measure blood pressure, wear eye disease goggles (such as tunnel vision), explore different career options, have an ECG printed and have several respiratory tests (I have a lung age of 1, yayyy!) [by the way apparently the photo of the tar jar is what collects in your lungs if you smoke 10 cigarettes for a year so please don't smoke].
Everything was incredible I'm so happy to have been able to partake in it so thank you to my college and Medical Mavericks
☺️ Check out Medical Mavericks (located in Wolverhampton) here
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| The Tar Jar |
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| ECG set up |
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| ECG print |
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| Drawing Blood! |
Thursday, 5 January 2017
Debra & Care Home December Updates
Hope everyone had a lovely new year! I was a bit carried away with Christmas so here are some updates:On the 22nd of December I volunteered for Debra again except this time I took my sister along and we wrapped presents for charity! People in the shopping center would come to us to rap their Christmas gifts for a donation in return. It deemed really popular and raised over £2000 throughout the Christmas week.
I also volunteered at the care home on the 19th and 24th, where on the Monday I helped move some furniture and assisted residents around the home. On Christmas eve, I was given the task of playing the piano and singing some Christmas carols! It caused some complications of me learning the songs in a different keys and the lyrics being printed in a different order... but it was certainly an experience! At least everyone felt in the Christmas spirit. A few days ago on the 2nd of January, I also took my sister in to sing "songs that won the war", and that definitely seems to be a favourite among the residents :)
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