So it’s nearly the end of Term Two. I am half-way through my second year and about to finish my third placement. Where has the time gone?
This term we have been busy with assignments and soon we have our Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) slightly terrifying! We have been busy in the Clinical Simulation Unit (CSU) situated in the Health Sciences building which is a very good resource for us to practise in – without causing harm to real patients! It is well equipped with CCTV and voice recording which enables us to record and analyse our own performances.
The CSU is where we are taught practical skills and where we can practise these in a safe environment. It has a main bay which is set up like a hospital ward with patients beds, call buttons and oxygen taps! There is also an intensive care room and a room set up like a patient’s own room. These different environments allow us to practise different situations and scenarios. There is even a nurses’ station with a HUGE touch screen TV to watch recordings and presentations.
The manikins, apart from being scary, are all able to do different things including breathing, speaking, coughing, crying as well having a pulse and blood pressure, which we can test. At first I found it difficult to speak to the manikin because it’s so strange speaking to plastic but you soon get used to talking to them as if they are real patients.
During the first term, you spend a lot of time learning basic skills such as hand-washing, moving and handling, basic life support, injection techniques, etc, which is really fun, especially trying to brush a friend’s teeth and feed them cereal. Throughout the first year, you continue to have some sessions in this unit as well the continuing years.
Take a look at the health sciences website to look at any course content, find out more information about the programme and the CSU by following this link:
https://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/
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