Perfecting The Pen Grip

Okay, I want you to try to remember the first time you had to hold a pen properly. Was it easy? I just remember my teacher showing me how to hold a pen or pencil for a few weeks and then it was free reign on how you personally wanted to hold it. Today, I felt like I was learning all over again. Imagine holding your pen or pencil with a bend in both your thumb and index finger, have your middle finger on the side of the pen or pencil extended as a support', and your ring finger extended to be a fulcrum for your modified pen grip. Keep your fingers together and pivot on the occlusal surface, incisor edge, or anterior surface of your anterior teeth. Sounds pretty simple, right? Try it, it ain't so easy.. The best part about learning this, is that its a hands-on learning environment, and that is one of my strong points.

Mark, out.

2nd Monday=?

The average college student, by second week, is usually oriented for his/her classes and ready for anything. Well, for that to happen, we all must prepare the day before. I had all my modules set in my folder for the week and was feeling truly confident that this week would start without the hicups. I arrived to school half hour early and what do I do? I forget my folder, and the best part is my Professor says to me, "I better put a note by your name that you forget your modules for class." Didn't I feel quite sheepish :S.
Anyway, today was a fun day because we were able to practice preparing our operatives for patients, and water and suction on each other. We all sucked a few cheeks with our HVE while mastering our mad skills, but no blood was shed, so that's a plus.
Its so interesting how most of us have been through this in our experience in real clinical settings, but we get all worked up, because we all want the Coveted (A) on our transcripts. If we don't pass things off right the first time, it lowers our chances, and we all know that. We get all nervous and tend forget little things, and most of this is a no brainer. You could only imagine 15 people sweating over how to put on face masks, washing hands, and putting gloves on correctly. Seems like you couldn't really mess that up, but its possible. I know, I did the first day.
  I feel the hardest part of this whole pre-patient preparation is knowing that the barriers are so redundant and wasteful. I don't make the regulations, but I would like to meet those that do, in any field for that matter. Studies, a lot of the time disagree with 1980 regulations, so change couldn't hurt.

Mark out.

Water and Air

 So let's just say that water and front teeth don't mix at times. Spatter all over your lab coat and the typodont seem to be in these days. As you can probably guess, I made a bit of a mess practicing with the water/air syringe, High Volume Evacuator, and Saliva Ejector. You never really think about how you do things until you're in a room full of people that are doing the same thing. I never would've guessed rinsing teeth and evacuating water from the oral cavity would be so stressful. You're always wondering if you are as good as your fellow students next to you or not. I know they say not to compare, but let's be honest with ourselves, we do all the time whether we like it or not.
 The exciting part is that we get to do practical exercises clinic, so it keeps me excited about learning every time I have clinic. I can't wait to have a real patient! Crappy part is that it's still a few months away, and tons of PE's (Practical Examination). It will be worth the wait.
 Right after my class mates and I finished observing our PE of Personal Protection, we returned to our units (operatives) to practice. Well I didn't even get passed the first step without messing up. First, you're suppose to put eye wear, mask then wash your hands and glove up. Well, I decided to wash my hands first. That was an unthoughtful mistake on my part, but that is why we do these things and then get tested on them later.
 To finish off the class we had to watch this video of Personal Protection and let's just say, they need to update the video. It was VHS quality, and the actress was dressed like the 80's. The sad part about watching this, is that 80% of the class didn't even live in the era that it was made, I was one of the few that were. Anyway, the safety video did cover what we needed to learn, so it fulfilled its purpose and finished out a great day at lab.

Mark out.

First Day

 As I prepared my materials and books last night for the first day, I felt pretty confident that today would be easy going. However, I quickly realized that I wasn't prepared with the essentials. I didn't bring all of my modules today, nor did I have a pen. There have only been a few times that I have ever felt so unprepared for first day, and I can add today to the list.
  The upside was how fast I was able to catch on. The software, Eaglesoft, is pretty easy to navigate and use. I will say the speed of the network sucks though, and Patterson dental could take some notes from Dentrix on efficiency. When you have 16 people all trying to make appointment, it sure does throttle down the network.
  I do have to say, that whoever designed our operative's cupboards, they forgot the length of our instruments. I can't believe someone would actually build cupboards that don't open up enough to get put the instrument trays without pulling them out on an angle. Maybe they bought them pre-owned...hmm. Anyway, today was quite the long day, with 4 hours of Clinical Lab and 4 hours of Radiology lab. I was fighting to stay awake in radiology when we did powerpoint presentation, but once we were in the radiological part of clinic, staying awake wasn't much of a problem.
 It was quite fortunate that I didn't mess anything up for first day, just forgot some of the essentials.

Mark out.

CPR Certification Experience

 So I'm a few days late on posting my experience for the challenging CPR course, get over it!
 The best part about my 2 hour experience on Friday, the female instructor that made fun of herself. I mean she even cracked a few fat jokes about herself. It's great to see there are a few overweight people that can have a sense of humor about it.
 The darkest part of the course was not the written part, but the part where I crushed the infant mannequin with my overpowering two-finger chest compressions. They say to break the ribs for less resistance, but I'm pretty sure I would have crushed the poor infant. My colleagues had a good laugh while I was apologizing for breaking the mannequin. Thinking back on it produces a chuckle or two from me.
 I'm grateful for this experience though, because I learned a few things that could save a life, especially since my wife and I raise 5 kids. I also have this little card that says I'm certified for CPR in the Health professions and that means I can go forward and develop into a great dental hygienist.One step closer to making money and not spending it.

Mark out.

Orientation

 I'm officially kicking off the Dental Hygiene Experience today. I spent my morning being introduced, instructed, and given my tools to start the dental hygiene program here at Weber State University. I'm excited and overwhelmed all at the same time, and finding moments of uncertainty in my stomach. Nevertheless, it's going to be another step forward toward my end goal and the beginning of the end for my college experience.

As my journey starts, you will be able to follow my progression and development on this blog. I hope this blog will allow my fellow students, friends, and family to see my progress and bring inspiration to those that read it.

Please feel free to comment and leave quotes of inspiration and motivation, they will be appreciated.
Mark out.