Tales of a Nursing Student

My A&P lab, which starts at 7:30 every Tuesday, way too early to be dissecting, poking etc., is usually interesting. It is especially when the TAs preface it with tips on how to help a fainting friend, or people who are squeamish at the sight of blood.

This morning, it was warm enough to ride my bike to campus for the first time all year! So I got to Lily in about 10 minutes as opposed to the 25-30 it usually takes me to walk there. It was great! But my tea was hotter than normal, and I completely forgot about its presence in my backpack, so when I bent over by bike to lock it up, I got soaked with nice smelling hot water. Ouch! And the Brrr. Oops.

Then I went into my lab and watched the coordinator set up lots of sharp boxes and “incinerator” boxes for biohazard materials. This was going to be exciting! Then our TAs arrived and started talking about what to do if one of us started fainting. Really? Who would really faint at the sight of blood? And it would be only the sight of blood because not everyone had to get stuck.

So we started out lab, collecting about half of the student’s blood, and then someone went down! Not all the way down to the floor, but far enough down. The excitement started. The TAs started calling for emergency personal to come and the first police man who came was on his bike. He road it to the basement of the Biology building!! The next half hour or so was spent trying to revive and stabilize the girl, until all the blood was put away and cleaned up.

It was a nice way to wake up this morning, and when I was fully awake, I realized that it wasn’t a dream. I just hope that student who fainted wasn’t a nursing student. There should be some way to test whether girls will faint at the sight of blood before they are allowed into the nursing school. =)