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| Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, June 2021 |
My last vaccination shift was more interesting than the previous ones. Not because we were busy - oh no, in a 12-hour shift from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. there were a total of 83 customers. Someone offered a different theory this time: being aware that the Covid vaccine can make you feel a bit rough for a day or two, perhaps people are too busy in the run up to Christmas to risk any self-inflicted illness? But I think it's more likely lack of advertising of the availability of walk-in as well as booked appointments, and the terrible historical situation of parking at the hospital, even though there is designated and available free parking for the vaccination clinic. And it's partly because that day we were offering the Moderna booster, and quite a few people wanted Pfizer so went away without getting their vaccine.
Anyway, I had been ignoring the fact that a couple of my mandatory training modules were overdue. I had done all the online modules, but hadn't bothered with the in-person sessions because prior to all the vaccine booster action I had thought I might not get any more shifts. But eventually I had to confess, and was allowed time off from the vaccination shift for my resuscitation and manual handling training, because with on average only one person coming in every eight minutes I could be spared for an hour or two.
Both modules are required annually so I've done them many times before, but this year the Covid precautions have been incorporated into the resuscitation training. In reality (not the training) everyone would have to dress up in PPE with special masks for a cardiac arrest because cardiac compressions are potentially aerosol-generating procedures. The poor unconscious patient's face even has to be covered until everyone is protected and before the oxygen mask is applied. Other than that it's all pretty much the same as in previous years, with the fancy shmancy defibrillator telling you whether your compressions are the right speed and the right depth and when to stand clear while it analyses the heart rhythm and tells you whether to apply a shock or not.
So that all went well, and I came back to the vaccine clinic and the next person I vaccinated was so incredibly wound up for their first dose that we arranged to vaccinate them on the couch rather than sitting up on a chair, where they promptly fainted. The trainer who half an hour before had been assessing my abilities to carry out chest compressions and use the defibrillator gave me a wave of recognition as she turned up in response to the medical emergency call. The patient woke up before too long and was eventually transferred to the main hospital observation ward. They didn't look too bad as they left our clinic, all things considered. At least I'd managed to give them one dose of the vaccine.
There was no such excitement after my manual handling training, which contained the usual 'pick up this empty box from this trolley and put it on the floor, then pick it up again and put it back on the trolley'. The trainer was a most amusing man who tried to give the dry material a little bit of interest by incorporating a quiz, which I won (simply by participating while almost everyone else sat mute and embarrassed). The prize appeared to be an ex-library book about mental health in primary care, and despite the protests of the trainer I didn't take it away with me. He also peppered his talk with anecdotes including the one about the hoist that fell on the patient when the brakes were wrongly applied, and the one about the person who tried to remove his contact lens with tweezers.
One of the other members of the vaccination team sought me out in the afternoon specifically to ask me if I was all right after the fainting episode. This team are really nice to work with. I've booked another shift in January after all my holidays are over.
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