THOSE body parts.

Yesterday, in lab, we learned how to clean body parts... yes, THOSE body parts...

It was wonderfully awkward, to say the least. We started off the class by watching a 'how-to' video that used real actors. I hope they paid those people good money because nothing, not a thing, was left to the imagination. Then, after viewing those lovely educational videos, the instructors let us practice our new-learned skills on the dummies in class.

Our class isn't a typical classroom - it's a modified multi-bed 'hospital' room with about 10 beds along the edges with table and chairs in the middle. So the idea is for us to learn, then go do.

The dummies, as high-tech as they are, have a few issues. First, not everything is realistic. For example, the mouth doesn't close and the fingers don't flex (but it can vomit!). And secondly, the mannequins are gender-neutral. This means that certain 'parts' are removable and exchangeable. This caused the biggest problem.

At one station, we had to turn our dummy /patient to a side-lying position. As my group and I turned it over, we must have jarred him (or it?) too hard cause the 'he-part' fell right off, onto the floor. It fell through the incontinence brief and gown, clattered to the ground and rolled under the next bed.

At another bed, the same thing happened! We lifted up the gown of our patient and viola! Nothing there - just a wide gaping hole where something gender-specific should have been. We searched for this missing body part - it's sorta necessary to know if you are dealing with a he or she. After a few minutes, we found it under the stretcher. It was a he. It was hilarious trying to reattach it...

Yesterday was a good day.

D.