Of blood, sweat and... Fun?

Here is how I spent my Saturday evening this week: Screaming, shaking and bleeding violently from an open wound to the chest, while lying on a snow covered rock in a thin t-shirt. All in all a pretty good day.

Okay, I guess that requires a little more explanation. It all started out about a week ago with the beginning of my second Project Based Learning week. For all of us first years, the second PBL is divided into two parts: A 3-day First Aid course and a Model United Nations (Which will come later on). This week was the First Aid course. First Aid is basically the art of being able to make a productive effort towards making a medical emergency better, contrary to running around like a headless chicken. Beyond working out that scarcely sufficient definition, what I actually spent the week doing was stuff like CPR, bandaging, and learning how to approach the scene of an emergency. Especially that last part captured me. It is interesting to see how you react when you are put on the edge and the adrenaline flows. And it does! Even knowing that the staged scenarios that we faced were all fun and games, you fell the rush. Because fake or not, you are forced to work your way around solving problems right then and there, with whatever limited knowledge and utilities are at your dispense. By the end of the course, a written exam and three practical tests was the key to the official Norwegian Red Cross “12-timers foerstehjaelp” diploma.

It was very nice to get some of the basic tools that you need to handle an emergency. I was very surprised by how quickly you change your way of approaching a problem. The fact is that when you have just the basic knowledge about symptoms, situations and possible ways to assist you have a starting point. From that you can begin to work out the best possible actions and their outcome. The real life situations where benefit from First Aid skills will never be as simple as they are in a 20 question written exam paper. But knowing that a person who is about to suffer a heart attack will have pain from the chin and down the right arm, or that a person who may have to get Anastasia should not be given any water or food, can prove very valuable. Thinking back, I can see that from time to time I have been in situations where I could have used a bit of this knowledge. And even more often I have been in situations where I could end up needing First Aid. Apart from being a nice break from the regular school routine, these three days have definitely been worth the effort!

The week after the First Aid Course, RCN hosted the Serbian National First Aid Team. For them, coming here and training on our school is the preparation that hopefully will make them European champions in First Aid… Again. For us, it was a great chance to get involved with their training, and in that way also learn a bit more about what First Aid is. I joined quite a few scenarios for the exact same reasons. And I had great fun! But lying there on the ice, I could not help but observe just how important working together is. 14 highly skilled first aiders running in opposite directions are not much of a help to anyone. But by the end of the week, an experienced team of young Serbians managed to communicate, divide tasks and work together with both each other and the casualties around them. The result was that they actually took control of the situation. And that is how a combination of hypothermia and a stab wound penetrating my chest became yet another learning experience here at RCN.