poop beetle: We've been studying Maternity this semester 11.2004 . . . and it's been interesting seeing things from the other side. The pictures in the labor and delivery chapters would do wonders to eliminate teen pregnancy were they used in public school health classes.
The school I go to has an unusual way of teaching. It's called Problem Based Learning. We split up into groups and sit down early in the week and read a story. The story has characters, both major and minor, life-history detail, at-that-moment detail, drugs, procedures , mysterious signs and systems plus dialogue.
In the middle of the week we have lab where we practice on life sized dummies, or play with computer simulations. We spend two days practicing on the vulnerable and foolishly uninformed public out in real-world medical institutions (institutions that will remain un-named in this blog- Ha.).
And on Fridays we regroup and discuss all we learned researching the details of the Monday story. In addition, we are given the final page to the story, where sometimes they kill off a patient or two- fake patients, but still it hurts. None of us sees the point to this, the stories are not set up to show how bad judgment was at fault- it just happens. The first time, we were shocked and a little pissed. Now we're used to it and it's made Monday's more interesting betting on who will make it, and which ones will be killed off, mercilessly, by the great Gods of nursing instruction.
This semester, with Maternity, I couldn't help but notice how the tone of group talk began running towards the Moral. No other semester has been like this- Cardiovascular, Respiratory- there was little bit in Psychiatry, but it was not very heart-felt. Discussing which particular sSRI you're on and . . . how's that working out for you? - out at the medical dept. student smoker's picnic table break area- has become old hat.
What has saved us from moral despair and disparity this semester- is our instructor, Sara Clarke. . . . I'm giving you both her first and last name because I love this woman. I have a total crush on her. And if someday she googles her name and some how finds this post I don't mind in the least that she knows it. If some-day employers or people who have a say in her future and well-being google her name and see it attached to this blog- let me tell you, whatever I say that offends you should have no refection on her- she's given me plenty of bad grades.
Sara, our "facilitator" has been good at turning the focus on how freaking' insane it is to get pregnant and give birth. Not just the labor and delivery, but all the changes- this alien from outer space changes to a woman's body. Who, Who, Who knowingly signs up for hemorrhoids?
Somehow she got us to focus on the stuff- and why in the hell anyone would do this to their body, beats me . . . BUT who are we to judge? . . . and everyone got on board. Those that have children ("and I Went Through this and sure it sucked lots, but I got though it CAUSE I CARE!") and those that had no children ("It's Our FUTURE- idiot! Did I ask you to get knocked up? Nooo. But sense you did isn't your responsibility to transform into some superhuman cross between Jesus and Ralph Nadar? . . . You know it's people like you who mess with Stability and Quality of life here in America . . . you!)
Sara Clarke just focused on what was, and ain't that crazy stuff? This helped. I liked it, and it helped me like my fellow students and the word at large, a lot more.
Today, in a tiny, poorly run hospital in a small, Southern town you've never heard of, I got to hold a stranger's new-borne baby and oh-my-gawd was he gorgeous.
