So I have not written in a while, need to be better about this. Thankfully this semester is being a lot kinder to me then the fall was. My last nurse aide section in the fall about did me in! I was so flustered by one student, a know-it-all who has issues, but thankfully she is out of my hair. I did check and she did pass her certification exam to be a certified nurse aide--thank goodness! This spring I am teaching with my partner-in-crime so I have a section of high school girls, seniors, who are on the nurse aide track for HST (Health Science Technology) aka Med Prep, Allied Health, and many other names over the years. It is different teaching high school age kiddos and yet very much the same. They are held to the same standards as their adult counterparts, but they come to class 5 days a week for 1 1/2 hours a day instead of 3-5 hours 3 days a week. I am actually really enjoying it and I am blessed to have some pretty good students. I am getting to know my section of girls pretty well and have watched them grow and mature over the past 6 weeks that I have been their instructor. This next week I will help several of the students prepare for the state HOSA competition and some will stay behind with me. Trying to figure out something fun yet worthwhile for them to do on our 2 days the others are out-of-town. Will figure out something I am sure.
As for the rest of my courses, I am again teaching an adult nurse aide session which just completed week 6. On Monday I take these ladies to the clinical site for our orientation, man time flies! It has been a pretty good group. I started with 9, went down to 8 the 2nd day. Then lost one due to some difficulties with reading. Then 2 weeks ago one stopped showing up to class, very bizarre! But I digress. I am looking forward to clinicals, but a bit nervous too as I will have 4 16 hour days! Oye! I will get through it though and I think this group will be great! I am always so nervous when I start a clinical session, so many things can go on and go wrong but usually they are smooth sailing. I will be gearing up soon for the next session will be in the evening so I can catch those that work during the week and need to attend class in the evening or maybe it works better if they have small children. I really do enjoy what I do, I take that back I love what I do!
I also am teaching a customer service course. It is a requirement for the radiology technician students and medical assistant students and is an elective for health occupation students. It is a rather dull dry class at times but I shake it up with fun activities, silly games to make the point of the things we do in customer service like telling people no, soothing ruffled feathers, and making small talk with strangers. Customer service is the same regardless of where you work but when you add in a sick person or a person who is in pain it changes a lot of issues and so it is important that all caregivers keep these points in mind.
Finally I am teaching the introduction course for the medical assistants. We cover a variety of topics including infection control, nutrition, vital sign measurements, communication, and policies such as HIPAA. It is an interesting little class. Kind of a mishmash of topics. Last week we watched the movie And the Band Played On, which is a docudrama on the early days of HIV/AIDS. Very eye-opening for all of my students, those over 30 and those under 30. Whenever possible I seek out photos, video clips, or entire productions to help make a point and illustrate a topic beyond just lecturing. They say a picture is worth 1000 words, and I agree!
So that is just a synopsis of my spring this year. Just fun to look at what I am doing and to share with the world my antics. Now to be better about posting on here, maybe some day I will write my memoirs :) (ok probably not!)
