Mandatory Training.

Although today is actually a day off for me I went into Guy's Hospital this morning for a lecture on "Mentorship". The Guy's site is closer to home than the other hospital where I actually work. (This picture is of the Colonnade at Guy's).

There are a variety of courses one is obliged to do over the year to keep up to date. Some of these; like 'Health & Safety' and 'Fire' are done as part of an online training programme. 'Moving & Handling' involves the practice of shifting people around. As that involves some familiarity with the gadgets we use these days we need to attend practical sessions for that. I'm up to date with my 'child protection' training. So I'm pretty much on track although later this year I have the joy of doing my "Advanced Paediatric Life Support" course again. Let me tell you about APLS.

Now that APLS is seriously scary! The last time I did it it was a three day course involving a relentless series of scenarios overseen by outside assessors. It's a bit like being on "Crystal Maze": you enter the room and someone gives you a brief synopsis of a child (in the form of a computerised manikin) about to be admitted; here's just one instance by way of example, 7 year old fallen from tree, no loss of consciousness but now deteriorating and you just enough time to calculate a few basic essentials like an estimated weight based on age and resuscitation drugs for that weight.... then Go! You have sole responsibility to guide your team; YOU make all the clinical decisions based on your own patient assessment. The assessors follow an algorithm and project details onto a monitor as your interventions alter the 'patients' vital signs. Head injury? Internal bleeding? Penetrating chest wound? I quickly worked out that it was the latter which required immediate treatment but it does not preclude any of the others on top of that does it? Broken leg can be temporised while we sort out the life threatening stuff. Oh yes, we have internal injuries too....oh joy!.....

I passed but even so I'm still traumatised from that last assessment!!!

Anyway today was a fairly gentle affair looking at the documenation and processes of mentoring student nurses who pass our way. We get students from Kings College and South Bank University and wider afield on a variety of courses. The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is a great learning opportunity for them and we are responsible for teaching them, helping them through this placement and assessing their competence to be registered nurses. But the bottom line is if someone isn't up to the job you have to fail them which is just as traumatic in it's own sweet way.......................