Happy Thursday! Today was a very memorable experience. For the first time, us students got to have the experience of a skills lab. After a year of hard work in nursing school, it felt like a reward to finally do some hands-on work. 

We started our skills lab at 9am at BCU. Their skills lab is amazing and even included a mock ambulance. We got to hold the bag that the paramedics carry to see how heavy it is due to the large amount of supplies it contains. Kudos to the paramedics who carry those heavy bags up stairs! The inside of the ambulance was made to be exactly what a real one would look like. I found it notable that inside the ambulance, there can be a camera turned on to record what is going on to ensure that the paramedics stay legally safe in the case where they think they might be wrongfully accused of something.

After taking a look at the ambulance, we split into two groups. My group first worked with Blessing, who showed us how to insert a catheter. She made sure that we had a good understanding of the overall procedure before doing any practice by watching a short video on both male and female insertion. We then broke up into small groups and practiced on either a male or female models. Blessing helped us as we moved step by step through the procedure, ensuring we all had a good understanding of what we were doing and why. One main thing I can take away from what I learned about this procedure is to always deflate the balloon before removing the catheter. If you miss this step, it will be extremely painful for the patient as you would be pulling a filled balloon that was sitting in the bladder all the way through the external urethra, which could cause injury as well. 

Our next skills lab was with Chinenye where we practiced and learned about wound and injury care. Dressing a serious wound as a nurse is a lot more complicated than throwing a bandaid on. During our lab, we practiced the step by step process that a professional should take when dressing serious wounds. This process included sanitizing our hands multiple different times with a 7-step sanitizing method, opening up the sterile dressing pack and arranging what is inside, and changing our gloves a few times too. I also thought it was interesting (and almost satisfying) to practice taking staples out of a fake wound. If you do it correctly, the staples will come out with ease and little pain for the patient. Finally, Chinenye showed us how to properly wrap up a wound. We practiced with each other after watching her demonstrations! A crazy fact I learned about wound healing is that sometimes, maggots can be used to help clean wounds. While placed in the laceration, the larvae secrete digestive enzymes, which will actually help speed up the process of healing by breaking down dead tissues.

Post-skill labs, I am taking away how important it is to follow correct sterilization procedures to ensure a sterile and safe environment for the patient. From opening up the sterile dressing packs correctly to putting on your gloves right, it all matters. It is very important to not introduce bacteria into any sort of invasive procedures, like the insertion of a catheter. 

Later on, we went to dinner and got to choose from various quick places to eat in the Bullring, which is connected to the main train station. I went to a sushi place with a few other girls, which was yummy! It was my first time going to a place where the sushi came out on a revolving belt. I tried one roll with tofu and a crunchy California roll along with little sushi tacos. We also all shared some of the mochi and a chocolate cake, which were all good!

To finish up a great day, we had a historical ghost tour. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and kept me interested in the stories about Birmingham history, some even being a bit spooky! One story we learned was about the men who were the “real” Peaky Blinders. There were some men that would go into bars and restaurants and cause violence, which one time led to the death of a police officer. There was no evidence on who exactly committed this crime other than that he had a head injury. When someone came into a clinic, he was declared as the perpetrator just because he also had a head injury, despite not having any real evidence that it was him. He also informed us that the show, Peaky Blinders, really only captures the real story with about 10% accuracy. We also heard some legends about spirits and ghosts that have supposedly been spotted in some of the buildings we stopped by on our tour, which was intriguing! It was a very cool way to end an already great day!