EMT Student(s) and stress

[HelpmeHelpyou]

Thursday we had skills testing on Medical/Trauma assessments. Well for 2 weeks I studied those 2 sheets, if some of your are familiar with, it might be different in other areas. Well I could say them in my sleep verbally, I would even in practice skills testing days at school well verbalized everything even using proper terms and trust me, SOUNDING superior compared to my peers and even actually visually assessing the dummy by showing I was inspecting and palpating everything. I had those sheets memorized like I did it everyday.

Come test day, I totally choke on my Trauma assessment and Medical assessment I did awesome. I failed Trauma the first time around and had to retest and then I passed. I Failed Trauma because I totally skipped the skin color, temperature, and condition of the patient. Which would have been cool,pale and moist or diaphoretic, in which case you treat him for shock then continue to the patients transport decision and then down the sheet.

How do some of you EMT students or more skillful EMT's do this in class with all your peers watching? The instructor told me, because I was so frustrated with myself for locking up and failing the first try, forgetting not doing a complete circulation process which is a critical criteria and automatic fail if missed. He said I did very well and sounded great using medical terms saying stuff like "inspecting and palpating the posterior thorax and asculating for lungs sounds" etc.. not only verbilized but actually did it compared to most other students who just sat there and barely touched the dummies and passed. I dont get it and thats kinda frustating me to.

I just need help I guess on how to deal with a stressful class demonstration, how did some of you deal with this? and to those who can remember there first days of doing class assessments? When I got home that night, I literally woke up at 3 am and couldn't go to sleep and was so greatly beat up about failing it when I knew it, I even repeated it in bed that night to myself. I mean talking to myself laying in bed word for word, and you know what, I would have passed and should have passed. The instructor knew I knew what to do, because throughout the skills practice days, the second day we got that sheet I studied the very next day and came back on the Thursday and which case was practice day again and did awesome, because we did kinda a pretest. I continued to study until test day at home using a pillow for a patient and going over the process over and over and over. Then come test day, I lock up. I just don't get it. How do you manage these situations or learn from them, I know that is what caused me to forget and go at a blank also eating up time on the test.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the lengthy story. Its nice to talk about this to help ease this from still beating myself up about this. I refuse to let this happen to me again, I am not going to just barely get by in class, but what are some things I can do to help cope with stressful situations? Or any help you need to throw in here for me. Thank you, for your time.

 

[JPINFV]

How do some of you EMT students or more skillful EMT's do this in class with all your peers watching? The instructor told me, because I was so frustrated with myself for locking up and failing the first try, forgetting not doing a complete circulation process which is a critical criteria and automatic fail if missed. He said I did very well and sounded great using medical terms saying stuff like "inspecting and palpating the posterior thorax and asculating for lungs sounds" etc.. not only verbilized but actually did it compared to most other students who just sat there and barely touched the dummies and passed. I dont get it and thats kinda frustating me to.

Doing it in front of an audience of peers in a simulation is always difficult because it's such an artificial situation. At my med school, we use standardized patients (community members who are paid to act) for testing our exam skills and there's a handful of special situations where it's a group instead of individual students inside of the exam rooms (so far it's been communication drills, one where it was a team exam, and counseling drills. The first and last had one person up and 4-5 students in the room watching and we rotated through everyone) and there is a very palpable difference between being in the room alone with the "patient" and being in the room with a group. On the other hand, I've never felt nervous when I was an EMT working first aid at a water park when patients normally had their family and friends with them watching me. If it becomes a 'can't pass' issue, you might try asking if you can take the exam after class when it's just the proctor and you.

In terms of using medical language, either get used to explaining what the medical terms are in normal language or use basic language. In the real world, you should be talking your patient through your exam and treatment as you're doing it and you shouldn't use technical language alone. Also make sure you tell your patient what your findings are. Of course this is a bit difficult in the completely artificial world of using a manikin and a proctor.

 

[abckidsmom]

I totally experienced this same issue. We had an EMT competition team when I was a young, new EMT. We drilled, and drilled and drilled some more. We were hard on each other, never cutting slack, and immediately failed each other in practice if we missed a single word.

My extremely strict instructor was the same way.

We met at least weekly for 2-3 hours of drill, running scenarios constantly the whole time. I still rely on that experience when I have to do skills testing for whatever reason, it helped that much.

 

[CAO]

First off, breathe. Relax. Take some time away from it. If you know it, you know it. If you keep focusing on it, you're just going to keep freaking yourself out.

I don't know about others, but everyone in my class had their own hangups when it came to practical assessments. Some didn't know the material. Others might have drawn a skill they weren't too familiar with. Me? I just went too darn fast. I didn't miss things; I forgot to verbalize them. The solution I used may work for you.

I started putting a piece of tape on the leg of my pants. I made sure my instructor or whoever was evaluating me saw that it was blank, and then I scribbled down a short checklist of the things I would need to verbalize or do. BSI, Scene Safety, Number of Patients, Evaluate the Need for Back, and so on. Then I checked them off as I went.

Might be worth a shot. At the very least, it gives you something to focus on other than your nerves.

 

[WVEmt]

better get used to working under stress. nothing like working a cardiac arrest with the family of the pt watching and crying

 

[JPINFV]

better get used to working under stress. nothing like working a cardiac arrest with the family of the pt watching and crying

There's a difference between providing "care" (quotes to include scenarios and in class practical exams) being watched by bystanders and being watched by peers.

 

[Shishkabob]

I personally was more stressed during my certification testing than at any moment taking care of patients.


As bad as it sounds, I was more worried about my future of my career.

 

[Code 3]

I personally was more stressed during my certification testing than at any moment taking care of patients.


As bad as it sounds, I was more worried about my future of my career.

Agree 100%

 

[Ewok Jerky]

you passed right?

There is a difference, I'm not going to say a BIG difference though, between doing an assessment for skills checkoff and doing an assessment in real life. Learn it for the test and then you'll learn it for the street.

It's like Jazz. You can't just sit down and play Jazz, you have to learn how to play music by the rules first. Scales, chords and stuff, then you can play around with them.

Don't beat yourself up over this. Think about this. Would you ASK your patient what his skins signs were? Excuse me sir are you diaphoretic? No, you observe skins signs. For the test you have to remember to VERBALIZE it, it real life you have to remember to observe it.

Forgetting other things would be worse, like administering O2, not asking for a history, no C-Spine precautions...all things I saw from classmates in our checkoff.

 

[Aprz]

For the part you failed, it became a very simple checklist system for me which I refer to as ABC123.

(1) Airway
1: airway is open + unobstructed
(2) Breathing
1: breathing is unlabored + reg
2: consider O2
(3) Circulation
1: no severe bleeding
2: radial pulse is strong + reg
3: skin signs pink, warm, and dry

Obviously you change this to your actual findings, but do you understand what I mean and how they relate, and how this is a checklist system?

After I was introduced to ABC123, I never :censored:-up the initial assessment of the patient assessment skill ever again.

 

[EMTMama]

It's stressful, for sure. I nearly blew the entire class because I got so nervous over final scenario testing. Thankfully my instructor knew I knew my stuff and just had a severe case of performance anxiety, and gave me another chance (and she didn't have to). I had done well all semester, had very good grades - then choked at the last minute.

Everybody gets nervous, some more than others. Your instructor did too at some point!