Month: June 2016

Blog: Preparing for the Worst

My journey towards becoming a paramedic is not without its significant doubts.  I suppose I can take comfort in knowing that many people feel similar doubts when embarking into new career/life-paths.  Kevin Hazzard’s book “A Thousand Naked Strangers” opens with several chapters of how anxious he felt at the idea of being a medic and the responsibility it entails (book review forthcoming).

My fears are certainly not unique.  I have the typical worries around imposture syndrome, whether I can hack it physically, mentally, emotionally, and whether I’m good enough to get accepted into a very competitive program.  I also have spin-off worries concerning whether I will achieve a work-life balance with a future family, what toll my experiences will have on me, whether I can leave work “at the door” when I come home, whether I will be affected by mental health issues caused by work, etc.

Heck, I even worry that I won’t be able to stomach it because I’ve never seen anything graphically bad.  The three worst things I’ve seen are: 1.) a pedestrian struck by a car that I had to then treat; 2.) that time I broke my ankle with a hairline fracture; and 3.) that time I treated a guy who put his elbow through a window in rage.  In each of the cases, there was some blood (and bone from the window), but overall the outward injuries were fairly tame.

I’ve tried to mitigate this by following medical Instagram accounts that shows graphic medical procedures and injuries.  My hope is to desensitize myself from the shock of what I see so I can bypass those initial visceral reactions.  Likewise, I chose to read Hazzard’s book to learn more about what kind of horrible things I can expect to see.

But, there are some things you can’t prepare for.  Or, worse yet, there are things you didn’t anticipate being a problem.

I came across two blog posts recently  (written by the same author on two different sites) that discusses exactly this case.  I won’t spill too many of the details as I think it’s valuable to read the posts for yourself.  But the one I want to briefly mention here is where the author discusses the impact a ringing phone can have.

Imagine what it was like for the first responders at the recent Orlando mass shooting as they worked inside the club around all the deceased victims.  Keep in mind, there were 49 victims who died that night on scene.  49 people with families who likely heard about the tragedy on the television.  49 families who might have called to make sure their loved one was “ok.”  49 families who kept calling when no one picked up.  Imagine what kind of toll that might have on a person as they walk among the bodies.

It chills me just typing this.

There are things I might experience that I’ll never be prepared for.  These are things that worry me as I lay the groundwork to change careers.

Please, go read the blog posts for yourself.

The Sounds of Silence on The Happy Medic

The Worst Things I’ve Ever Felt As A Paramedic on Uniform Stories

 

Blog: Update on Diagramming – Active Learning

Back in my post about diagramming as a study strategy, I made reference to recent studies showing the effectiveness of long-hand writing and its correlation with retention and recall.  One of the  things I love about working at a post-secondary institute is I a.) mix it up with very smart people who teach for a living; and b.) have access to a well-funded library.

I love university and college libraries!  I don’t always make adequate use of their vast resources, but when I need them, they have my back.  For instance, my institute recently negotiated access for its employees to use Lynda.com.  As a nerd who loves to learn, this made me very happy.

Part of my job involves program review and quality assurance, which is outside of my educational wheel house.  Recently, I’ve been exposed to the concept of Active Learning Strategies as a method of engaging students in the classroom.  For instance, a passive learning strategy would be for students to read a textbook and learn the definitions of key words and concepts.  An active learning strategy would have the students read the text, then take those same key words/concepts and draw them in a relationship tree to show how the various parts fit together.

If you have access, I suggest you check out “Active learning strategies: three activities to increase student involvement in learning” by Catherine Wilcoxson Ueckert and Julie Gess-Newsome in The Science Teacher journal (75.9, Dec. 2008; p47.).  There, the authors discuss, as the title says, three alternative approaches to student engagement in the science classroom.  While these approaches assume a classroom, instead of a solo learning project like what I’m encountering, I think you can still extrapolate on the learnings and apply it outside of the traditional classroom.

Stay Awesome!

Ryan

Blog: Hubris and Good Grades

I have a confession: I’m great at BSing.  The polite way of describing this is that I’m very clever.  An awesome way to describe this is I’m resourceful.  But at the end of the day, I’m good at making stuff up on the fly.  I accomplish this because I’m able to absorb a lot of facts and data in a short amount of time.  The result of this is that my output and achievements are not always reflective of the amount of effort that appears to go into a result.

This habit started in high school.  Until this point, I worked hard on my home work.  My parents were very good at instilling (and monitoring) the discipline in me to do well.  In 10th grade, I was given the option to move to an enriched mathematics course because I had performed well the year before.  However, it was the beginning of the end in terms of my mathematical achievement for one very simple reason: there were no homework checks.

You’d think this shouldn’t be a problem, but it was my Achilles’ heel.  No homework checks meant I didn’t need to do my homework every night.  My young mind had missed the connection between progressive practice and performance during assessments.  My grades slipped.  I still graduated high school with good marks; marks that gained me entry into a good Canadian university.  But my work was less perspiration and more inspiration.

I bring this all up because I had an insight last night while studying for my respiratory system test.  Until now, I’ve been progressing through the course at around two chapters* every week.  That performance, comes with a footnote:

  • I registered for the 12-week course for a January start, but I found a loophole that my time wouldn’t start until I wrote the first test. I spent 3-4 months reading the textbook at the public library and was able to get ahead by 4 or so chapters before I “started the course.”

What appeared to be a reasonably diligent pace came because I was ahead of the game.  But, because I didn’t keep pace with the rate at which I was writing tests, I eventually caught up and now I’m trying to read two  chapters per week and write those tests the following week.  In principle, this shouldn’t be an issue.  But it’s proving to be a challenge.

In a real sense, I’m becoming a victim of my success.  Thus far, I’ve done well writing tests, and so when it comes time to prioritize study time, I’m finding myself placing its priority lower than other, seemingly more pressing concerns.  My rationale is “I should be studying, but I’ve done well so far and this other thing I’m stressed about requires my attention to get on track.”  And so, the other thing (relationship time, my two jobs, my volunteer activities, and yes, relaxation) will take priority over studying.  It’s the old Important/Unimportant/Urgent/Non-Urgent matrix.  I’m letting the things  that are Urgent take priority over the things that are, arguably, more important.  This matrix could be the topic of a future article.

What does this look like?

  • Friday – “I work tonight at my other job, so let’s relax because it’s the weekend.”
  • Saturday – “I should study, but today I’ll run errands, spend time on my relationship, indulge in R&R, etc.”
  • Sunday – “I should study, but I’m squeezing more long-distance relationship time in, spending time with friends that I don’t see during the week, dreading the work week, etc.”
  • Monday – “I should start studying/reading chapters for Monday’s test, but I also have commitment x/y/z.”
  • Tuesday – “I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, so how can I squeeze more efficiency into studying?”
  • Wednesday – “How many times can I review my notes during the work day before I write my test, grab a bite to eat, then go to my night job?”
  • Thursday – never used efficiently…
  • Rinse and repeat.

Because I haven’t had to rely on a structured 7-day schedule for studying but am now 70% through the course, that lack of planning has finally caught up to me and is putting me in a crunch.  I’ll have to grind out the last three or so weeks of the course, but this unsustainable practice is a lesson in why it’s important to work hard while also working smart.

Stay Awesome,

Ryan

PS – after drafting this post, I read an excellent, short meditation on the difference between IQ and DOT (discipline, organization, and thoughtfulness).  I’m happy that I’m not the only person who wrestles with this.

Blog: Writing Tests vs. Mastery

Last week, I did something pretty awesome.  I scored 100% on my second comprehensive test for the biology course I’m taking.  Comprehensive Test 2 covered the five chapters on the nervous system, the endocrine system, the cardiovascular system, special senses, and blood.  Thus far, each of the tests I’ve written follow a predictable pattern, where the first half of the test is some version of true-false, fill in the blank, multiple choice, and matching questions, then the second half of the test is split usually between short answer and labeling a diagram.  Understanding this format allows me to structure my studying to answer these questions.  I know that the bulk of the points will be found in the diagram and short answer, so if I can memorize the structural components (from my diagramming study cards) and their functions (from my development of mental schemas), I can usually work out the rest through context, associations, etc.  With this approach, I don’t have to memorize every tiny bit of information because I can make educated guesses based on available information.  This is the same approach that is coached when you are preparing for intensive exams, like SATs and GREs.  You don’t need to know everything; you just need to know enough to eliminate the impossible and approximate the answer enough to make a choice.

On one level, this has yielded huge dividends for me in studying.  Thus far, I’ve completed two-thirds of the tests, and in 13 tests, I’ve only scored below 90 on three tests (86, 87, and 89).  Everything else has been 90% and above.  It’s a lot like the pareto 80/20 rule – I focus on the smallest batch of material that creates the greatest value.  It’s efficient – I don’t need hours upon hours of work invested into the project.

Yet, I have a huge nagging problem with this approach.  If I’m being honest, the conclusion I wrestle with is that while I’m doing great in this biology course, the only thing I can be sure of is that I’m really good at writing tests.  But, does that mean I’m gaining any level of mastery over my material?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of mastery and apprenticeship.  I intent to read Mastery by Robert Greene over the summer, and I’ve read So Good They Can’t Ignore You and Deep Work by Cal Newport, all of which tackle the concept of learning and mastery of material.  I value going beyond superficial understanding and reaching towards mastery.  In paramedicine, I see this as the bridge that allows you to adapt in the field beyond doing first aid.  You connect ideas and have a deeper understanding of the situation.  You are more adept at observation and can digest more details and facts; you can make better diagnoses because you can acquire and process more information.  At least, this is what I believe at this point.  I could be horribly off the mark.

If my goal is to be House but in an ambulance, then I feel like being good at writing tests gives me a false sense of accomplishments.  It’s too early to determine if I’m “getting it,” but it’s something I need to be mindful of.  One problem with my undergraduate and graduate experience is that I lack the discipline to do truly deep thinking and work.  I am very clever, and have thus far skated by on having a good memory for facts and connecting ideas.  But I also feel like a bit of a fraud, or more charitably, a dilettante.  Being clever won’t be enough to help save lives.  To do that, I’ll need something more than wit.