WEEK 2

DAY 1

3 Police officers (1 man, 2 woman) come in for health screenings. Chris let me take the lead and go through adminesting all of the tests and then presenting and going though the results with them. All went smoothly with the only slighlt hiccup being the blood analysis machine with measures cholesterol and blood golucose ran out of power so new batters had to be find to replace to old ones. This meant i had to repick and take a second sample from one of the woman officers as the first sample had coagulated thereby making it useless.  little occures like this remind me that while I may be much better at taking blood more practice is always helpful.  furthermore, what i also learnt was that potrol officers don’t have protected breaks and some times go a whole shift which can be around 10 hours without eating. which as they said themselves not paraticallt health or easy to create a health and regular eating patternts. This is also why many officers espeacially those on night shifts turn to fast food to keep them going.

Day 2

Today was my first ever session taking health screenings completely by myself and while ben (while runs the lab) was nearby if i needed help i was pretty much completely unsupervised. I felt nervous but ready and while the 2 police officers (both males) weren’t as chatty as i hoped they might be,  some of this maybe down to me needed to develop my conversation skills with clients.  I felt overall it was a successfully session. I was able to complete all the required tests quickly and fairly effectively, althouth when it came to testing the blood to measure cholesterol and blood glocose i pressed a wrong button on the machine and was unaware how  to adjust it back to the correct setting. Thankfully i knew there was a second decive availibale and where it was so was able to grab that and continue on the rest of the session with litte destruction occurring. Once completing all the tests, taking on what i had learnt from chirs giving feed and from information i already knew i felt i was successfully able to cover sufficient strant to the point feedback that told them what they wanted to know. Ben commented that my session didn’t last as long as Chris did which was good because it meant and from what he had seen that i hadn’t spend ages completing the tests or given feed back which can become boring and to much information to take in.

Some things i did go away and research after this session was the norm data for total, HDL and LDL cholesterol in addision to blood glocose and how much each is affected after eating or while being fasted.  While the norm data from total and HDL cholestol along with blood glocose are shown in the booklet the results are written down in which helps when given back feedback, i wanted to research the norms myself to help me remember them and not having to relie so much on the booklet.

Additionally in reflection back to the overall aim and objectives that was agreed for this placement ( refer to placement over view page) it seems could have set more ambitious targets.  While I’m always develop on the objectives which involves techquie as that comes with practise I’ve now meet my overall aim to be able to take health screenings by myself.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-magazine/medical/ask-the-experts/new-cholesterol-guidelines

https://www.benecol.co.uk/cholesterol/understanding-your-number

  Day 3

4 health screenings completed (all male officers)

learnt that when you open a new pot of  blood sample strips the blood anyaislc machine has to have a new memonry tab put into that links to the excat  set of strips, other wise it will come up with test error and not give any results. This happened on the 1st offier I took blood from meaning I had to prick him again and get another blood sample but now i know for next time so it shouldn’t happen again.

 

Day 4

Second session of health screenings competed on my own has two male officers can in (30 and 33). May have been because they were a bit chatter but I felt my conversations skills were sighly better these session then the previous one I did on my own.

 

Day 5

A total of 8 police officers were health screened during the session. Chris let me take the lead on all of them saying he was conftiable with me doing them all while he popped in and out of the room. While all the tests went smoothly exapct on the last pair of officers I for some reason though i’ve tested both the men’s blood pressurers when really i’d only done one, thankfully Chris was in the room at the time so remined me. Felt a little embarrassed but everyone just larghed about  it with chris saying it was down to it being the last pair of the day and been done much later in the day then usually so that got rid of the embarrassment. Today I learnt at lot more about the inside of what the police have to deal with and how they feel about it from both small things such everyone can laugh at to very serious and sad topics . Two of the 8 police officers who came in said they had spent a boring 6 hour on cell watch for someone who has taken drugs and was suspected to have more hiden inside of him so the had to wait until he went to the loo to find out. They also mentioned that these sort of jobs are not advertised in the job description and is they were less people would want to join which is an interesting thought and one which I supect is true. On the other side, 2 offerices talked to me about a girl not much older then myself who they’d been sent to last week when she  tried to commit suicide off the hoe. She survied but shattered her legs and pelvis. We got into a deep dissucion after that about how sad it is that people feel it is the only option and why there is more put there to help these people, especially when for this girl the orthorites knew she was high risk yet failed to act on it.  Overall all i can say that will i was happy with how everything went it was the conversations i has with the officers that really made me reflect on my life and how lucky I am. I also hope that girl from the help get the help she needs because being so young she has her whole life ahead of her.

 

OVERALL REFLECTIONS

• While some of the jobs the police do can they can joke about with, people forgot about the very serious  jobs they get sent to which can’t be joked about and must take an emotional toll on even on those who have been doing the job for years are more use to it.
• I’ve decided to carry on helping out with the health screenings as there are plently more that need doing and i’ve found i enjoy doing these health screenings. They’ve also helped me be pushed out of my comfort zone a bit more and helped improve my overall confidence

 

THINGS TO WORK/IMPROVE ON

• Contining to work on conversation skills with clients

 

REFERANCES

https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-magazine/medical/ask-the-experts/new-cholesterol-guidelines

https://www.benecol.co.uk/cholesterol/understanding-your-number