school trips - Teaching On Ice

The ski trip (see previous post) gave me a rare opportunity to practice my First Aid skills and learn from on-piste paramedics (ski patrol!) before Antarctica.

As teachers we had to backmark the groups who were having lessons. With the instructor at the front this meant that we were often left with the injured. Although I never came across anything more serious that a dislocated knee cap – and thankfully ski patrol were on hand to diagnose that one – I was still able to practice simple things.

Here are three tips for trips!

• Take a medical history. Not only where it hurts, but also:
  • What sort of pain is it?
  • On a scale of 1-10 how bad is the pain?
  • What makes the pain worse/better?
  • Have you experienced anything like this before? – this was the one the ski patrol who dealt with the dislocated knee didn’t ask. It would have saved a lot of time lying in the cold snow, as apparently the girl’s other knee does it regularly.
• Check for broken bones and dislocated knees
• Reassure the patient. There seem to be two aspects to this:
  • firstly give a probable/possible diagnosis so that there is less uncertainty as to what is wrong with them.
  • Secondly somehow, somewhere find the funny side.

The one thing that it is never going to be possible to practice, due to the excellent medical care nearly always close at hand, is:

Looking after a patient for days in basic conditions until evacuation is possible.

To prepare for this I’ve been on Wilderness Medical Training’s ‘Far from Help’ course. For any teachers going on World Challenge or similar activities I thoroughly recommend this two/three day training event.

Not only is it interesting and useful, but it really boosts your confidence. On a practical side it allows you to buy antibiotics and strong painkillers which you can administer outside of the UK, when you're far from help.

What are your views on First Aid? Is a little knowledge a dangerous thing? How much training is necessary for a theatre trip? … A ski trip? … A World Challenge? If you're a First Aider, how have you used your training?

The ski trip to America with 94 students was exhausting, amazing, and included:

• Planet Hollywood, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty
• shopping in New York
• five days of skiing
• cinema, bowling, disco, quiz night and a Ben & Jerry’s evening.

There were problems:

• many tears, due to friends, boyfriends, homesickness, illness and injury
• the odd twisted knee
• sixth formers pulling ski instructors
• and, most impressively, myself and two students managing to fall off a chair lift!

Overall though, I had great fun, I really enjoyed making the trip a success and my impression of the students at Oxted School has been raised even higher.

Struggling through to the Easter holidays I know how they felt. I’m being crushed by pack ice (marking), battered by icebergs (lengthy meetings) and slowed by strong flows of children distracted by the odd snow flurry. It's curious that snow in Antarctica is an educational tool, but snow in England is an educational travesty.

Last weekend I blew myself clear of the pressure with St Patrick’s Day celebrations, including lots of live sport spectating (London's Head of the River rowing race and London Irish vs Wasps Rugby League) and a fancy dress party.

Now though, just two days into the week, the sea of work seems to be freezing over again. Bring on Easter and a skiing trip to Stowe … with 94 kids in tow!