When we arrived at Scarborough Hospital we met our IMPs’ teachers and children from Hackness School. IMPs stands for Injury Minimisation Programme for Schools. First we went to the Accident and Emergency department and sat in the children’s waiting area where we talked about how the nurses have to decide which people have urgent and less urgent problems. Next we went to the resuscitation room where one of the boys put a thumb clip on which measured the amount of oxygen in his blood and a girl wore special patches on her neck and wrists that showed how much blood was being pumped around her body. Before we entered and left the room we had to use hand gel so that we did not carry any germs with us.
Then we went to a lecture theatre in another part of the hospital where we watched five different scenarios with health and safety issues – choking, road safety, burns and scalds, electrocution and falling on glass – and how to deal with them. After that they fitted a plaster cast to our fingers (even Mrs Rowe had hers done!) – and whilst that was drying we looked at some X-rays of badly broken bones; the motor bike driver’s was the worst.
Next we went to the room where we learnt resuscitation using a dummy which we called Mrs Green. First we had a drink and biscuit and then we learnt about DRS ABC – Danger, Response, Shout, Airway, Breathing and CPR. We had to do 30 chest compressions followed by 2 breaths. Then we were shown how to put someone into the recovery position. I paired up with Leon and we tried hard not to get the giggles.
Sadly the morning came to an end so we went back to school after a fantastic morning on our IMPs trip.
Gabriel Hodgson