Nailed it

Yesterday was my test for the Level II Occupational First Aid course.



Whew!



In my test group, there was a 50% failure rate... one girl even cried in the middle of it. Talk about stressful, there were a few people whose jobs relied on their obtaining the certification. It really sucked to be a patient for those people when you knew they were missing steps, not catching onto important hints like cyanosis and arterial bleeding... One woman was so nervous that sweat was dripping from her forehead onto the Rescusi-Annie doll. I was worried she was going to slip while landmarking!



I managed to keep my cool and nailed my 4 scenarios with a 100% pass. I really enjoyed learning all that stuff, and I actually kinda liked both the nurturing aspects and the stressful nature of the job. I like connecting the dots between the presented symptoms, the mechanism of the injury, and then figuring out what I should do in response. I like prioritizing what I should do, and I really like trying to figure out what could possibly be happening with the person, much like if they were a machine or a computer program.



It makes me realize that I can easily apply some of the strengths that I have and enjoy using - thinking logically, analyzing, prioritizing, being practical - into a different field. I just don't know if I'd be able to handle the emotional side of a job like that, where you are dealing with people instead of machines.



I've always known that while I'm good at being an engineer, it's not my life's work. As an aside, I teach fitness classes because I like working with people, being social, helping people better themselves and feel good day to day.



Could a healthcare-related career be something that I might be good at? I've thought of being an RMT or a physiotherapist... what about a paramedic? Hmmm.