I never knew how paramedics did their work, so today my family and I went on a 1 and a half hour car ride to Peoria, Illinois. My sister and I learned about their work during an Emergency Room simulation at Jump Simulation.
There were many stations, teaching us what a first responder/paramedic would do in their daily life. We then walked to the skills lab for our briefing about the camp.
There were twenty-four attendees there and were split into 3 groups. Our first instructor was Mr. Jeff, and he taught us how to use an Ambu-bag also called a BVM. That is a tool that breathes for the patient if they can’t by themselves. First, you put the mouth cover in the patient’s mouth and nose. After you secure it there, you will have to compress the airbag on the end of it and do it once every 6 seconds.
After 30 minutes, we moved to another station. That was in the ambulance section of the area we were in! In there, we learned all about how a defibrillator works. A defibrillator is a machine used to treat life-threatening conditions that affect the heart’s rhythm. It is a device that can print out “receipts” for the doctors as well.
Our last station before the snack break was an activity in a fake apartment. We were supposed to pretend that there was a 90-year-old man who had a stroke and needed medical attention immediately. Our instructor taught us what a first responder would do, and then she let our group do it by ourselves! That was fun and seeing everything so lifelike was cool. (by the way, the 90-year-old man was a mannequin). We successfully got him onto a stretcher and then carried him to safety.
Finally, we had our break in the middle of the time. By then it was already 10:00 and the time had flown past us! But the bad thing was that the more boring part was the second. At least, that’s what they said. In the slideshow they had prepared for us, it said we had Med. Calc., CPR, and Vital Signs.
Vital signs were all about blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, and that sort of thing. That was pretty fun because all of the group members checked each others heart rates. We also used blood pressure monitors.
Next was my personal favorite, Med. Calc. Now, this may seem like such a stupid topic, but this is very easy and useful as well. We learned about how to tell how much medicine we should give to a patient. And I really only liked it because it was the easiest of all the stations.
Finally, the last station. CPR. CPR actually stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, but most people only know the abbreviation. We learned the correct position that our hands should go in and exactly how deep to press on a full grown person. We all took turns of doing CPR on a mannequin connected to some wires. These wires were there so that our instructor could see on a monitor how deep we were pressing, and lots of other things. But the coolest thing about it was that it was in a real-life ambulance! Sure, the engine and all of the working parts inside of it were gutted, but it still was really cool seeing the inside of it!
And then we all went back to the Skills Lab, where we started off. Everyone got their own certificate and then we all packed up to go home. I learned lots of things from this camp to do in life-threatening situations, and I will definitely remember it for later in my life. I would recommend this camp to anyone who wants to learn about being a first-responder or even a paramedic. I know I will be coming back!