Saturday, March 20, 2010

Broken bones, heart attack, and stepped on a nail...

Sounds like a pretty bad day, huh?

It was time to renew my CPR certification. I called the nearest Red Cross and scheduled for a class today. When I've taken this in the past, it has been with a bunch of other captains; today was quite different... I was the only guy in a class with 9 women.

Not the only difference - the instructor worked our butts off. First, we had to work on each other, alternating between the patient and the responder... on the floor... as dead weight. Then we added the CPR mannequins; everybody got one. That was different from past classes, too. So, you had to work all the time - no observing.

The attitude in the class was different, too. These women had no problem with moving their patient around, splinting each other, bandaging extremities... I didn't see that kind of encouraging hands-on work in previous classes.

And the tests... I had to take 5 written tests and one oral test today. Watch and follow along with a bunch of videos. One or two tests in past classes. The instructor was efficient and enthusiastic. Twice as much time, and more than twice as much learned.

Go ahead... faint... or get a nail through your foot... or break a bone... or let me hook you up to an AED. I'm ready!

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