February Blog

During this month, I have only been able to do one thing for my mentorship, which was helping my dad at his class. My duties consisted of preparing the materials for the students, doing the administrative parts of the class, checking people in, and answering some of the students questions. In total, I had worked for nine hours this month. I will be picking the pace up on my hours starting in March.

Blog 16

How can an EMT team best execute first aid during an endurance challenge? The best way to perform first aid during an endurance challenge is to be prepared for injuries at certain locations along the course. Runners tend to burn out at specific points along an endurance challenge, such as the eighteenth mile wall in an average marathon, so it is good to find out when that breaking point is to be prepared for it. Different types of endurance challenges have certain injuries that always occur during the event, like stress fractures at Ultramarathons, and though it's expected that EMT's are prepared for everything, its also good to be ready and waiting for those particualr injuries. Depending on the number of runners and the age group of the participants, more supplies may be needed, such as bandaids for kids. I used several online articles regarding specific endurance challenge injuries to help create my second answer. The best way an EMT team can perform first aid during an endurance challenge is to be prepared for the most common innjures for that challenge.

Blog 15

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

On March 15th, Angel Flores and I will be working at a 24-hour endurance challenge. I will be assisting my mentor and his fellow EMT's at the First Aid station. I will be helping to set up the station four hours before the event, work as an EMT for the duration of the marathon, then check up on all the runners and clean up for the next two hours. In theory, I should reach the 30-hour mark with the one event. If not, I will also be assisting my mentor in his classes. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

Angel Flores will be taking pictures throughout the event. He has already agreed to take pictures of the EMT's while we are treating patients.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

The endurance challenge is the perfect place to test what I have learned throughout the senior project because I will be providing minor care to patients in a safe and ecure environment.

4.  Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your other logs and call it the independent component 2 log.

Done

Independent Component 1

LITERAL
(a) Statement saying: “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

I, Jeremy Ethridge, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component

My mentor, Robert Ethridge, helped me complete the independent component by allowing me to work with him as an EMT assistant.

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.

Independent Component 1 Log

(d) Explanation of what you completed.  

For my first four hours of mentorship on the log, I had assisted my dad in testing one of his students in a "skills practice" which included acting as a patient for the student to work on and assisting the student in cooperative EMT work. My mentor believed that it would be good for me to act as a patient and an EMT at the same time to try to see things from both sides of the emergency.
For the other twenty-eight hours, I had assisted my mentor and his team of EMT's at a Run 4 Kids marathon. Before the event, my job was to make sure that the medical bags were fully stocked up and ready for the day ahead. At the marathon, I was responsible for assisting the EMT Kyle, who works with my mentor in teaching First Aid, in care of patients with minor injuries (ex: cuts, blisters, etc.). I was also responsible for keeping the station organized and comfortable for the patients, checking in on the runners while they were running, and treating the child runners. After the event, I was told to take stock of what was missing/used from the medical bags and perform check ups on the runners.

INTERPRETIVE
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.

In these two pictures, I am assisting my mentor in one of his EMT/EMR classes. This was when I acted as a patient to test one of the student's skills to allow him to become a licensed EMT.

In this picture, I am putting the knowledge I gained from my mentorship to the test. It may not seem like much, but I am using the charismatic skills I gained to help calm the child, I used my knowledge of medical equipment to create a proper first aid kit (as seen in the bottom of the picture) and I am using the skills I gained to treat the patient's wound.

APPLIED
How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

After Mrs. Pittman and Mr. Purther helped my narrow my essential question, the independent component became much easier to complete and allowed me to better understand my topic. Because my topic has been narrowed to first aid on marathon runners, working at the Run 4 Kids marathon helped me forge the foundation of my topic.