Quick plug for the official WMS Elective Blog for anyone interested in reading an official version of our daily activities. Only thing I have on it is the pictures. 🙂 Mainly because I’m here and collecting all the photos for the elective DVD and not being able to send many due to limited internet connectivity.
For the first time since the elective started, my brain isn’t really ready to write anything. I have this interesting collage of thoughts floating in my mind but refusing to come to any semblance of order.
I will, however, make a shout out to my cousin in Philly, already has 27″ of snow and expecting 12-22″ more. That is crazy. I’m glad we only got the little bit (about 1 inch) this morning. It made our afternoon scenarios much more interesting. Oh, I forgot to mention we were able to do two scenarios this afternoon. It was quite the learning experience. Many problem-solving skills in use to perform the packaging and extrication.
The day started out with the completion of the frostbite lecture, moving on to Poison Ivy, then to Hypothermia, Sunburns, Blisters and Avalanches. Busy morning and lots of learning. From what I was told there is a great new products out for the treatment of Poison Ivy call Zanfel. It is used to reduce the symptoms and duration through a topical application, which helps reduce the immune response. I must make note I’ve not tried it nor endorse it but would be interested in hearing from anyone who has tried it.
We also talked about sunscreens (cannot use the word sun-block anymore) and how often the SPF can be misleading due to only working for UVB but not UVA. From what we were told sunscreens with Zinc Oxide or Titanium Dioxide are the best sunscreens out. To get the best sunscreen look for something without preservatives and chemicals (like perfumes) because those are often what causes hypersensitivity to the lotions (allergies). There is some cool stuff to do about surviving an Avalanche but mainly what we learned is to really understand it we need to take another class taught in the snow.
In the afternoon we had two scenarios, one a snowboarding accident and another a chainsaw accident. The student’s “wounds” were quite realistic (sorry for the lack of pictures) and made it easy to treat the scenario as a real situation. The first scenario was ended once we packaged the patients for transport and the second required us to transport the patients up and back down the mountain to the main lodge for completion.
Both exercises were great learning experiences. The first one was somewhat simple given it was our first scenario. We had to package the patient and were done. The second scenario, however, was much more challenging because the scenario had three victims of a tree falling on them.
Each “victim” they were placed around a downed tree and had “fake” wound accordingly. We had to extricate them and prepare them for transport, which took about 30 minutes for each. We were split up into three teams so it went quickly but since we didn’t bring the litter baskets one team was split up to retrieve them and help transport two of the patients back (our teams were not big enough to transport three back). So, one patient ended up helping carry the others back. How funny.
Well, probably should get up to Sunset lodge. That is where all the guys are staying and everyone hangs out in the evenings. We are going to have more scenarios in the morning so probably need to get ready for them. Hope you enjoy the pics. It is taking to long to label them all so I’m just gonna upload them for now and let you imagine the captions.
The day started out with the completion of the frostbite lecture, moving on to Poison Ivy, then to Hypothermia, Sunburns, Blisters and Avalanches. Busy morning and lots of learning. From what I was told there is a great new products out for the treatment of Poison Ivy call Zanfel. It is used to reduce the symptoms and duration through a topical application, which helps reduce the immune response. I must make note I’ve not tried it nor endorse it but would be interested in hearing from anyone who has tried it.
We also talked about sunscreens (cannot use the word sun-block anymore) and how often the SPF can be misleading due to only working for UVB but not UVA. From what we were told sunscreens with Zinc Oxide or Titanium Dioxide are the best sunscreens out. To get the best sunscreen look for something without preservatives and chemicals (like perfumes) because those are often what causes hypersensitivity to the lotions (allergies). There is some cool stuff to do about surviving an Avalanche but mainly what we learned is to really understand it we need to take another class taught in the snow.
In the afternoon we had two scenarios, one a snowboarding accident and another a chainsaw accident. The student’s “wounds” were quite realistic (sorry for the lack of pictures) and made it easy to treat the scenario as a real situation. The first scenario was ended once we packaged the patients for transport and the second required us to transport the patients up and back down the mountain to the main lodge for completion.
Both exercises were great learning experiences. The first one was somewhat simple given it was our first scenario. We had to package the patient and were done. The second scenario, however, was much more challenging because the scenario had three victims of a tree falling on them.
Each “victim” they were placed around a downed tree and had “fake” wound accordingly. We had to extricate them and prepare them for transport, which took about 30 minutes for each. We were split up into three teams so it went quickly but since we didn’t bring the litter baskets one team was split up to retrieve them and help transport two of the patients back (our teams were not big enough to transport three back). So, one patient ended up helping carry the others back. How funny.
Well, probably should get up to Sunset lodge. That is where all the guys are staying and everyone hangs out in the evenings. We are going to have more scenarios in the morning so probably need to get ready for them. Hope you enjoy the pics. It is taking to long to label them all so I’m just gonna upload them for now and let you imagine the captions.
