Today we spent a lot of the day in the skills lab. This is something all the nursing students have not yet done, but will be doing next semester. Skill labs are a hands on simulation of likely scenarios that practices necessary skills for a specific field. We did two skill labs, one was catheterisation and the other was wound care and maggot therapy. We got to go into a room that has an ambulance that can be used in skill labs. The ambulance looks like and has many of the same features as a real ambulance. It is realistic and allows students to practice or rehearse real scenarios they are likely to encounter. Since I am going into education I will likely not, however it is interesting and fun to imagine. The first skills lab me and my group did was putting in a catheter. I had heard of catheters before, but did not really know what it was, so everything I learned and practiced today was new to me. A catheter is a thin tube inserted into the body to drain urine. It is used when people experience urine retention caused by kidney stone issues, paralysis, tumors, or other complications. Males and females receive different catheterisations and patients should receive different sized catheters depending on the size of their body. Our instructor’s name was Blessing, she was excited to be there and teach us. She told us and it shows that she really likes teaching nursing. We practiced ensuring to keep everything sterile, even though it is not necessary in this situation it is very important to practice. I did not get any water or what would be urine in a real scenario on me, but other people did. There are some really important steps to this process like to take the water back out otherwise you would rip the urethra out when the tube is removed. Me and my friend Jackie had a female mannequin that we got to practice on. 

It is fun to imagine yourself in these scenarios even as someone who’s going into education. This might not be true for everyone in education though. Then we also got to watch as Blessing demonstrated how to put in a nasogastric tube or NG tube and gastro tube or G tube in. These tubes are used for feeding and medication administration. After that we had a lunch break before going to our next skills lab, wound care and maggot therapy. Maggot therapy is a process involving placing live maggots on an open wound to help the removal of dead or infected tissue. The maggots stay in a pouch so they are contained and not exactly directly on the skin. I would be open to that if a nurse or other medical professional wanted to, but I know other people were hesitant about it. Wound care is important and will be common for nursing. The first thing to remember is compression, which is something I may have to do working with children as well. Children are likely to get hurt, possibly getting a scrape or other minor injuries. This information is also good to know for a general understanding if something happens to you or someone you know. 

I wish we had more skills labs. I saw one room that was set up as an operating room which would be fun to experience, even though it does not apply to education. Everyone seemed to be really happy with how today went and glad to have some hands-on experience. We ended the day with a “ghost tour” which was a walking tour around Birmingham. It was an older man who is passionate about history and told stories of hangings, gangs, and more.  He was a good story teller and we were able to see various parts of the city such as Victoria square with Queen Victoria’s statue and the Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel is said to be built on top of many graves. Everything may not have been the most factual, but history can be captivating if told in the right way, which he did. This evening was also very cold, so the fact that he was able to keep our attention was impressive. As a future teacher I hope I can tell history in an exciting way to engage my students.