Type 2 Fun




I’m not sure if anyone is familiar with Type 1 and Type 2 Fun. If you’re not, it’s a classification of fun based on whether you actually enjoy what you’re doing at the time (Type 1) or only when you look back on it, seems fun with good memories (Type 2). I have invented a third category (Type 3) which was neither fun at the time or afterwards (The 138 mile Dragon Ride cycle event comes to mind 😱).

In preparation for my sabbatical as a remote GP on Unst, one of the requirements is completion of the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Course, run by BASICS (British Association for Immediate Care) https://www.basics.org.uk/

So off I went to stay in a cute Airbnb in Luton last week, for 3 days of training.

It was amazing and I recommend it to anyone who works in the pre-hospital setting. However, the last time I did anything more than an annual BLS update was in 1997 when I did an ATLS course whilst working in A&E as a junior Dr. The other attendees included anaesthetic and A&E SpRs, an experienced Dr in sports and event medicine and a previous manager of A&E in Cardiff who now works on oil rigs as the medic. And me, the middle aged GP from Dorset.  

They had all clearly done plenty of scenario training and had a lot of recent emergency care experience. 

It was a massive case of imposter syndrome ….but on the plus side I probably learnt far more than they did! Watching them work was great to show me how it should be done. 

By the third day I was feeling more confident and had learnt things like how to apply a Kendrick Traction Device and a SAM pelvic binder, how to speak on a radio when calling for help, what a Russell chest seal is, what Impact Brain Apnoea is, HOT in traumatic cardiac arrest and importantly how to approach a trauma patient in a systematic way (<C>ABCDE).


I have a new found respect for paramedics and whilst I hope I never have to use any of the skills learnt at least I feel more prepared to deal with whatever may come my way on Shetland.

My husband will testify that as an introvert, role play and scenario training is really not my cup of tea but as I’ve not stopped boring him about the course since, I think this was most definitely Type 2 fun 😂. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shetland minus one week

Image
A week before we left to travel north, in order to prepare myself for being on a Scottish Island I thought, let’s cycle The Hebridean Way.  A 220 mile bike ride over 5 days: 10 islands, 6 causeways and 2 ferries.  I checked the weather forecast - no storms predicted so we booked it all at the last minute (apparently it’s more normal to plan this trip a good few months in advance due to sparsity of accommodation) so with a lot of naivety and luck we’ve had the most incredible 5 days of cycling. We stayed in a variety of places including a hostel which turned out to be a converted old people’s home (best nights sleep all week 😂) and a wooden grass hut.  The sun shone. We ate lots of cake and had some amazing coffee. We saw plenty of wildlife, including an otter, a white tailed sea eagle and dolphins. In summary it’s quite the most beautiful place I have ever visited.  And also a very quick way to switch off from the stresses of being a GP in 2023.  As this is a m...
Read more

Cannulae and counter-traction. Preparation part 2.

Image
Only a month to go until I leave to head North 😬 As part of my preparation for the remote single handed GP sabbatical role it was recommended that having some recent A&E experience would be helpful.  Gulp.  The last time I worked in A&E was in the ‘90s as a very green SHO just 18 months out of medical school. Whilst I loved the medicine, if you’ve seen or read “This is Going to Hurt” by the talented Adam Kay you’ll have an idea of where I’m coming from. Seven consecutive 12 hour night shifts where you were the only doctor in the department serving an entire county, was the norm. You had a consultant at home on the end of a phone. At times I found it terrifying and I think it probably traumatised my younger self. So I can’t tell you how different my recent experience of shadowing a Consultant in the local A&E department has been. This took some setting up, I naively assumed I could just pitch up having got the go ahead from the Medical Director of the department. N...
Read more

Arrival and anxiety!

Image
There’s so much to say, it’s hard to know where to start. It takes 14 and a half hours overnight on a ferry to travel the distance from Aberdeen to Lerwick, Shetland. It’s a very long way. An easterly swell during the first half of the night meant I took to my bed very early and I was quickly regretting the slap up dinner we had soon after boarding. However, after a decent sleep we arrived in Lerwick at 7.30 in the morning. After wandering around for a bit as nothing was open and taking the obligatory photo of the beach featured next to Jimmy Perez’s house from the “Shetland “ crime series we grabbed a coffee and headed over to the Island of Whalsay.  Another ferry ride later and I was chatting to the current GP locum and practice manager (I probably only understood about 1/2 of what she said due to her Shetland dialect which came as a bit of a shock!) to get the low down on GP work in a remote and rural environment. The consulting room view was just incredible: We then drove to Un...
Read more