In a bit of a slump

4th semester is essentially half over and I'm in a bit of a slump.  These are some of the highlights:

1. Test marks consistently lower than I'm used to.  Getting the same low mark on three tests in a row and then breaking that streak, by getting a fourth mark that's 1% lower.
2. Joking with a smarter classmate about how she should fail a competency, so she knows what it feels like.  She failed the competency and so did I.  Up until that one, getting perfect, or almost perfect, was the norm.
3. Not being able to pass a High Fidelity Simulation.  It would have been nice too actually pass a simulation prior to them counting for marks.  The last simulation was a disaster.  The next one counts for marks.  If I fail the Simulation course, I'm screwed.
4. Being absolutely correct about an answer on a test and still getting it marked wrong.  It was taught wrong in class and everyone else accepted it. I guess, for a certain professor, the generally accepted fallacy is the truth.  WTF?  So much for Science and the quest for truth...  She wasn't really interested in the correct answer, which was pretty infuriating while I was talking to her about it.

Books I find most useful

I've wanted to update the list of RT books, that I like, in my sidebar. Instead of maintaining a list of all of my RT books, I'm now just going to maintain a list of the 9 that I find most useful. Getting the list down to nine was pretty hard.

I'm keeping the list in a carousel widget, which has now replaced my old list. The carousel widget only allows you to have 9 books in it.

Simulation #4

The simulation last week was pretty cool.  Something was horribly wrong.  We had to figure out what was wrong and fix it.  Being able to do that was very gratifying.  We almost got a passing mark on that one.

Thoughts about simulation

These are some things that I've learned during my High Fidelity Simulations so far:

• I'm part of a team.  If don't act like a part of the team and communicate with team members during an emergency, things go to crap really fast.
• Make sure the ties on my gown are done up well.  Having your gown fall off, onto the patient, when your doing an intubation is a pain in the ass.
• Sharp things can make me bleed.
• Don't over plan for the Sim. 
• I don't know what's going to happen. 
• I can't preplan for every eventuality. 
• Being flexible and able to adapt is worth more than "studying up for Sim" the night before.
• Communication with team members is absolutely essential.  If you're communicating well, mistakes don't get made or can be quickly corrected before they have a chance to matter.
• If you can't find something, and you're in a hurry, ask for help finding it.
• Always ask for help when you need it.  Things get done faster and better.
• Be nice to people when you're stressed and don't get upset by people who can't be nice when they're stressed.
• Hight Fidelity Simulation is reallly cool.

When doing your best, isn't good enough

People in my class are having odd reactions to their High Fidelity Simulation marks.

When we do a High Fidelity Simulation, we're being assessed at an "entry to practice standard". In other words, we're being assessed as though we are actual Respiratory Therapists, instead of Student Respiratory Therapists. Not surprisingly, we're not yet doing very well in our simulations. We're still in the last semester of our "in school" training and we haven't even begun our 8 months of clinical rotations yet. Why should we be doing well in Simulation? We shouldn't. In about 4 weeks, we should be getting decent marks for our simulations and that's kind of impressive, exciting and frightening. At this point, anyone who's expecting to do well in Simulation is being irrational and and perhaps a bit crazy.

Unfortunately, at least one person in my class might snap. Miss alwaysright is always right and never makes a mistake, at least in her mind. Even when she's wrong, she's right. She really is quite annoying and everyone just rolls their eyes when she comes up in conversation.

Miss alwaysright is just like everyone else in the High Fidelity Simulation. She's enthusiastic and trys to do her best. Just like the rest of us, her best isn't very good. How is she reacting to this? Not well. Yesterday I heard that she's accusing a person who does the evaluations, for the Simulations, as being a liar and not evaluating her simulation performances fairly. She's not making formal accusations; she's just bitching and complaining to enyone who will listen.

I'm kind of hoping that she will make a formal accusation at some point. All of the Simulations are on video.