Today was amazing, but I’m horribly tired now. I got up at around 5am since I had to leave before 6am to get to the hospital on time. My friend, Nick, who lives in my building (and who is very nerdy and a super-keener) was knocking on my door to leave about 10 minutes earlier than I had planned- so I had to rush on my way out. We caught a bus to Central station since it was still dark and we’ve heard bad things about Redfern station (I figure this added about 25 minutes onto our trip). We met Janice at Central station and then caught a train at around 6:30am (for $6.20 one way) to Kingswood station, where our hospital is located. My shoes were hurting already (but I had come prepared with band aids, and put them on as soon as I sat down in the train). The trip took about an hour and fifteen minutes which left us about 15 minutes to walk to the hospital (which turned out to be about how long it takes)! So- two hours later we arrived at our hospital. It is in a nice area far west of the city- but the good news is that if I move out there in the 3rd and 4th years that the rent will be about half of what it is here in Sydney (and maybe even less!).
We started off with a lecture and being welcomed by a number of people and doctors- again. After that we went up to the 5th floor (which is the teaching floor of the hospital) and played an icebreaker game called “Surgical Smarties”. They separated us into 5 relay groups of about 10 people each. Each team had a pair of goggles, gloves, gowns, head things, shoe covers, a stethoscope, a urine dish, forceps and a cup full of smarties. Each person had to get dressed completely in the full surgical gear, then pick up a smartie with the forceps and carry it across the room to your next teammate. It was pretty funny.
I can’t remember all the stuff we did today- we had people talking to us about research opportunities, health and safety, fire procedures, security in the hospital… etc. and we had a tour of the hospital. They gave us ‘morning tea’(a.k.a. snacks in the morning) and the same mystery meat sausages for lunch. After lunch we got our ID tags that give us access to the entire hospital and then we were split up into our 5 groups again. We had to complete 5 stations- emergency first aid (which was very basic compared to the beach training stuff), fire stuff (we got to spray hoses and CO2 fire extinguishers to put out mini fires on the roof of the hospital- see picture), medical library orientation, patient transport and lifting, and learning how to wash your hands. There are three different ways to wash your hands and you use a different kind of soap for each one. The first one is for casual uses (we should do this about 3 times every half an hour when we are seeing patients, they say!). It takes about 15 seconds and there are specific techniques… he he he. The second way is used if you are going to be taking blood or inserting canellas…etc. This takes about 2-3 minutes and you use a more heavy duty soap. The third way is before surgery and you have to wash practically your whole arm! It takes about 4-5 minutes and you use the REALLY heavy duty soap. At the end of the session, they made us rub this stuff called “glitter bug” all over our hands and wrists. We had 15-20 seconds to wash our hands and then they took us into a dark room with UV light to see what spots we missed. It was pretty neat! Make sure to wash your thumbs and in between your fingers! Those spots are hard to get.
That was it for the day- but it went right from 8am till 5pm with really no breaks (they were even talking to us while we were eating)!
I also met a LOT of people today. I don’t remember anyone’s names, but I do know I met a lot of them!! There are SO many engineers in the program- I can’t believe it. I think it is because you don’t need to have biology as a pre req for this school. I also met an architect. There are quite a few students (even several Australians) who are in their late twenties or early thirties. I also met a guy from Ottawa today (who is in my clinical group for the rest of the year).
Janice was finished her sessions before me, but she waited for me downstairs and arranged us a ride- so we took it of course. But- it took almost as long as the train and we were sitting in traffic in a small, hot car with no AC for most of the time. The guy who drove goes to the hospital on Wednesdays from now on, and I go on Mondays- so I guess I won’t be getting rides from him anymore anyway.
Tomorrow I have my first PBL session (with my group of 7 or 8). It is a pretty light day compared to today. Friday is full of lectures and then they are sending us camping 2 hours south of Sydney for the night. You don’t have to go, but it is strongly recommended. I am still deciding.
Today is Valentine’s day and my valentine is stuck in Canada :( . He’s going over to Dad and Norma’s for dinner though- so that was nice of them to invite him!
Happy birthday Nono!
We started off with a lecture and being welcomed by a number of people and doctors- again. After that we went up to the 5th floor (which is the teaching floor of the hospital) and played an icebreaker game called “Surgical Smarties”. They separated us into 5 relay groups of about 10 people each. Each team had a pair of goggles, gloves, gowns, head things, shoe covers, a stethoscope, a urine dish, forceps and a cup full of smarties. Each person had to get dressed completely in the full surgical gear, then pick up a smartie with the forceps and carry it across the room to your next teammate. It was pretty funny.
I can’t remember all the stuff we did today- we had people talking to us about research opportunities, health and safety, fire procedures, security in the hospital… etc. and we had a tour of the hospital. They gave us ‘morning tea’(a.k.a. snacks in the morning) and the same mystery meat sausages for lunch. After lunch we got our ID tags that give us access to the entire hospital and then we were split up into our 5 groups again. We had to complete 5 stations- emergency first aid (which was very basic compared to the beach training stuff), fire stuff (we got to spray hoses and CO2 fire extinguishers to put out mini fires on the roof of the hospital- see picture), medical library orientation, patient transport and lifting, and learning how to wash your hands. There are three different ways to wash your hands and you use a different kind of soap for each one. The first one is for casual uses (we should do this about 3 times every half an hour when we are seeing patients, they say!). It takes about 15 seconds and there are specific techniques… he he he. The second way is used if you are going to be taking blood or inserting canellas…etc. This takes about 2-3 minutes and you use a more heavy duty soap. The third way is before surgery and you have to wash practically your whole arm! It takes about 4-5 minutes and you use the REALLY heavy duty soap. At the end of the session, they made us rub this stuff called “glitter bug” all over our hands and wrists. We had 15-20 seconds to wash our hands and then they took us into a dark room with UV light to see what spots we missed. It was pretty neat! Make sure to wash your thumbs and in between your fingers! Those spots are hard to get.
That was it for the day- but it went right from 8am till 5pm with really no breaks (they were even talking to us while we were eating)!
I also met a LOT of people today. I don’t remember anyone’s names, but I do know I met a lot of them!! There are SO many engineers in the program- I can’t believe it. I think it is because you don’t need to have biology as a pre req for this school. I also met an architect. There are quite a few students (even several Australians) who are in their late twenties or early thirties. I also met a guy from Ottawa today (who is in my clinical group for the rest of the year).
Janice was finished her sessions before me, but she waited for me downstairs and arranged us a ride- so we took it of course. But- it took almost as long as the train and we were sitting in traffic in a small, hot car with no AC for most of the time. The guy who drove goes to the hospital on Wednesdays from now on, and I go on Mondays- so I guess I won’t be getting rides from him anymore anyway.
Tomorrow I have my first PBL session (with my group of 7 or 8). It is a pretty light day compared to today. Friday is full of lectures and then they are sending us camping 2 hours south of Sydney for the night. You don’t have to go, but it is strongly recommended. I am still deciding.
Today is Valentine’s day and my valentine is stuck in Canada :( . He’s going over to Dad and Norma’s for dinner though- so that was nice of them to invite him!Happy birthday Nono!
1 comment:
Happy Valentine's Day Joss! It is killing me that we have to be apart today, well, actually it is killing me everyday since you left. I love your blog, thank you for keeping us up to date with all the little details! Love Brent xo
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