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Firefighter Intern: Day 59 and 60
Feb. 3rd, 2019 08:41 amIt was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly where you needed to be. - Sarah Dessen
The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit. - Morihei Ueshiba
We got in and quickly got through our rig checks, and then we all went to breakfast at a local eatery, as we had a Firefighter/Paramedic on his last shift (he was hired at another bigger Fire Department), and we all wished him well. We spent the morning inventorying all of the swift water rescue gear. When I wasn't helping with that, I was ... you guessed it, washing towels! The afternoon was working on various projects and still folding towels. We watched the local varsity basketball team as community support for a short while, and then we returned to the station so I could finish the towels. *grin*
We actually had no calls until shortly after we had settled down to sleep - and then we were toned out for an elderly lady a history of anxiety and COPD with difficulty breathing. I again sat in the airway management seat and helped with the DuoNeb nebulizer treatment and then the supplementary oxygen with a nasal cannula. I did struggle a bit with the gurney and an unfamiliar hospital room, but that's just practice and repetition. I cleaned, restocked, and put Medic 483 back in service pretty much by myself, although I had to be taught that DuoNeb meds are not just Albuterol - I learn something every time. *smile*.
I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked, and we had a lot to do today. We had to hustle to pull out all of the apparatus, sweep out all of the bays, finish the rig checks, and wash Engine 481 before the crew from the Delena substation, bringing Engine 486, showed up for some training on their taskbooks. I also had to practice my gurney management with the other Intern, loading and unloading and positioning the gurney and moving it around the bay until I couldn't get it wrong.
We started at the city park boat ramp, and practice drafting water from the lake and shooting it right back into the water from the Master Stream water cannon. After an hour of backbreaking multiple evolutions and repetitions, we finally got water drafting right and in time.
Then we came back to the main station for hose movement and taking hydrants. I took the hydrant the first time as the only non-certified firefighter, and completely screwed it up. I grabbed the wrong tools, dropped the spanner wrench, didn't get tight connections, and ran out of time before I got my second gate in place. *sigh* So! I got to do it again, and I did much better. I got up in the right position on the tailboard with the right hose and the right tools for Engine 486, grabbed and pulled the hose the right way, wrapped and stood on the right hose with my hydrant spanner in the right place on the hydrant, nailed my gates and bled the hydrant correctly, and flowed water back to the Engine at a walking pace using my knees to open the gates - the way it's supposed to be done. Training, training, training.
We rested and I ate a light dinner before going to bed early - and just as I was getting ready to take a shower, we were toned out for a Traffic Accident that turned out to be nothing, and we quickly cleared. We went back to the station, I got my shower, and slept hard all night. *smile*
DuoNeb is a sterile inhalation solution containing a combination of albuterol and ipratropium. Albuterol and ipratropium are bronchodilators that relax muscles in the airways and increase air flow to the lungs. DuoNeb is used to prevent bronchospasm in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are also using other medicines to control their condition. (Ipratropium lasts longer than Albuterol.)
The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit. - Morihei Ueshiba
We got in and quickly got through our rig checks, and then we all went to breakfast at a local eatery, as we had a Firefighter/Paramedic on his last shift (he was hired at another bigger Fire Department), and we all wished him well. We spent the morning inventorying all of the swift water rescue gear. When I wasn't helping with that, I was ... you guessed it, washing towels! The afternoon was working on various projects and still folding towels. We watched the local varsity basketball team as community support for a short while, and then we returned to the station so I could finish the towels. *grin*
We actually had no calls until shortly after we had settled down to sleep - and then we were toned out for an elderly lady a history of anxiety and COPD with difficulty breathing. I again sat in the airway management seat and helped with the DuoNeb nebulizer treatment and then the supplementary oxygen with a nasal cannula. I did struggle a bit with the gurney and an unfamiliar hospital room, but that's just practice and repetition. I cleaned, restocked, and put Medic 483 back in service pretty much by myself, although I had to be taught that DuoNeb meds are not just Albuterol - I learn something every time. *smile*.
I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked, and we had a lot to do today. We had to hustle to pull out all of the apparatus, sweep out all of the bays, finish the rig checks, and wash Engine 481 before the crew from the Delena substation, bringing Engine 486, showed up for some training on their taskbooks. I also had to practice my gurney management with the other Intern, loading and unloading and positioning the gurney and moving it around the bay until I couldn't get it wrong.
We started at the city park boat ramp, and practice drafting water from the lake and shooting it right back into the water from the Master Stream water cannon. After an hour of backbreaking multiple evolutions and repetitions, we finally got water drafting right and in time.
Then we came back to the main station for hose movement and taking hydrants. I took the hydrant the first time as the only non-certified firefighter, and completely screwed it up. I grabbed the wrong tools, dropped the spanner wrench, didn't get tight connections, and ran out of time before I got my second gate in place. *sigh* So! I got to do it again, and I did much better. I got up in the right position on the tailboard with the right hose and the right tools for Engine 486, grabbed and pulled the hose the right way, wrapped and stood on the right hose with my hydrant spanner in the right place on the hydrant, nailed my gates and bled the hydrant correctly, and flowed water back to the Engine at a walking pace using my knees to open the gates - the way it's supposed to be done. Training, training, training.
We rested and I ate a light dinner before going to bed early - and just as I was getting ready to take a shower, we were toned out for a Traffic Accident that turned out to be nothing, and we quickly cleared. We went back to the station, I got my shower, and slept hard all night. *smile*
DuoNeb is a sterile inhalation solution containing a combination of albuterol and ipratropium. Albuterol and ipratropium are bronchodilators that relax muscles in the airways and increase air flow to the lungs. DuoNeb is used to prevent bronchospasm in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are also using other medicines to control their condition. (Ipratropium lasts longer than Albuterol.)
