For the first time in I’m not sure how long (I suppose I could check, but I won’t) I skipped blogging for two weeks and am late this week (I almost skipped it actually). But I decided I’d take time out to blog and when I realized what my last post was about, I figured it would be a good segue for this post.

Yes, I’m still running the race. I’ve hit some marks along the way, but still a ways to go.

For one, I’m now at over 800 hours of work in the Emergency Department proper. I’m closing in on my goal of 1000 and expect to hit that by May 1st. I’m excited. That said, during my study time with one of my classmates who is also applying for PA School, I realized that the number I had remembered for the number of average hours for most applicants to my top schools of choice was a lot higher than I had remembered. So instead of beating the average, I’ll come in below it. Alas, that can’t be helped. But I’m going into this later in life and so who knows how that will impact things. Also, I’m hoping that my hours in the ED will count more heavily than some candidates who may have had jobs with less involved contact.

Another goal post I’ve hit along the way is finally getting my “Red Badge”. Simply put, in the ED I work in there’s two colors of badges, blue and red. Blue is the basic, call it “entry level” badge. You get it when you’re hired. Red means you can work traumas without supervision from another tech. I had actually qualified, except for a written test, over a month ago, it’s just a matter of scheduling to take the written test and finally things lined up last night. As a result of passing this, it means I can be assigned to what’s known as the A-Zone without needing another red-badged tech with me. And sure enough, right after passing the test, I got my first assignment as a lone tech in the A-zone.

Now I’d love to regal you of stories about how in my short 4 hour shift I had some amazing trauma come in that I played a key role in. The reality is more mundane. It was a pretty quiet shift as shifts go. Ironically, so far my hardest shift so far was probably last Tuesday, where I ended up doing compressions on two different patients, assisting putting in a Blakemore tubing and more. It was one of my busiest shifts and I had already extended it from 4 hours to 8+ (staying until after 3:00 AM Wednesday morning) and almost stayed until 7:00 AM. From reports afterwards, things didn’t get any better. Not entirely sure what was going on that day that made so many people need the ED, but it was a busy time.

I’m starting to see the end of this part of the trip. I have about 5-6 more weeks of school and I will be quite glad when this semester is done. That said, now I have to pop-off and take an open-book online quiz for BioChem.