Scott's Spiel

Maybe I’m just a trauma buff (which sounds horribly morbid and quite unwelcoming, I agree) but I would expect most 2nd year medics to know what is meant by intubation. Apparently not, as I found out the other day when a friend was stumped by the word, apparently taking it to be a typo of incubate.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d rather not be incubated when I needed intubated!

This might seem like a simple slip up and I was quick to correct him. However, it highlights a much more worrying aspect of our acute clinical knowledge.

I’d maybe be extending my ego slightly but I feel that if someone were to collapse in the middle of Morrisons (or wherever) I’d be able to assess them, assist them and maybe even take a stab at a possible differential. Ignoring the last, how many of my colleagues would be able to do so, competently if not confidently? Probably not very many and I know a few that would panic.

I feel there is a general lack of very basic acute training in the course (at least, so far). We’ve had 30 minutes, at a push, of CPR in year 1. This is examinable in our year 2 OSCE (which makes a lot of people worried!) but other than that we’ll receive nothing more till our final year when we are expected to deal with Advanced Life Support.

There is a course, Immediate Life Support, run in conjunction with the UK Resuscitation Council – which I’m trying (with minimal success) to get on – that provides an intermediate between BLS and ALS.

This, or something similar, should be taught to junior medical students at some point. Not only would it possibly save someone’s life but would also mean the medical student who’s always telling first aiders on duty what to do, actually has a clue of what they should be doing.

The beauty of it all is that whether I get to sit this course or not is completely irrelevant by St Andrew’s. They (unlike BRC) don’t recognise external courses and still wouldn’t let me take an AED course until I’d been a member for a year.

This then begs the question: if a situation arose where I was faced with using a defib or not, understanding the potential benefits and unlikely consequences, would I do so?

Honestly, I just don’t know. But if St Andrew’s aren’t happy to use me, I’m sure BRC would be!