Thursday, August 7, 2008

Decisions.... decisions....

One of my units for this semester is chronic illness and the main assignment is a creative project which relates a) to my clinical placement area (paediatrics) b) to a particular chronic illness and c) to the 4 principles of chronicity care - diversity, empowerment, mutual relationships and collaborative decision making. I have to present this project to my clinical placement and then write a rationale for it.
I can't make a decision about what I want to do and I have to present my initial ideas at next week's tutorial which is worth 10% of my mark. I either want to do a play pack for diabetes - a teddy/doll with a blood sugar monitor and syringe so that the kids can pretend to take the dolls/teddys glucose levels and practice injecting him with insulin. I'll do a picture book to go with it a well. Or I will do a doll and have a set of lungs drawn/sewn on and relate it to cystic fibrosis. I think I've got a pretend stethoscope around somewhere so it would be about chest physio and listening to chest sounds. Which one do you think I should go with?

To practice I had a few bits of felt laying around the place so Charlotte and I made a doll for practice tonight. Definitely not good sewing but it's really hard to sew neatly when the 2 year old is in charge of the pedal!! I'm just grateful we got a half decent looking doll and I haven't lost any fingers! She didn't want a face on the doll and like I said the sewing is pretty dodgy but she seems to like her.



Oh and on the knitting front I've cast on for Mr Greenjeans in the navy superwash and I'm very much liking how it's coming out. I'll have to put it away tomorrow and start on the Ravelympics list but it was definitely a good choice of yarn and a great match with the pattern.

1 comment:

Trudi said...

Both topics sound really good. I remember the paeds diabetic educator was very approachable, her name was Di something and last I heard she was still there. You could have a chat to her about your idea.

If I remember correctly a lot of CF cases are diagnosed early. The kids would perhaps be already well used to the physio etc at the age where they would be exposed to your project. The kids I remember coming in for the first time with a diabetic episode and diagnosis would be a good age for your package. I think kids learning to give injections to dolls is a great idea.

I remember my first injection I had to give to another student, I put the needle in and instantly pulled it out - I didn't want to hurt her, lol. I had to give the injecion again so I passed that part of the prac lesson.