Intimidating Intubation

Today was the most enjoyable time I've had to date in Clinical Skills lab. Our regular classroom is under construction for expansion, so we met in the OMM lab, which was divided into three stations. The entire lab was devoted to oxygen delivery. We covered tube placement and appropriate amounts of oxygen administration, respiratory treatments, and the kicker - intubation.
Intubation is always a last resort, but we will all inevitably be required to perform them on rotations - especially in rural locations. After a brief lecture and demonstration, we tried our luck on the models.

 Aaron hoping he's inserting the tube into the trachea rather than the esophagus. Vocal folds are hard to see!

Brooke and Jennifer receiving instruction from one of the physicians at the station. The hands-on experience and guidance we have is amazing.

 Did he get it right? One way to tell - inflate those lungs!

John and Ahmad were really excited about the experience.

The aspect I had the most difficulty with was obtaining an adequate line of sight of the vocal folds without hitting the teeth with the instrument. We were told that each broken tooth costs the doctor $2000 and our models teeth "clicked" if they were hit with too much force. Let me just say that by the sound of my model's mouth, I racked up quite a bill. Be happy we get to practice on the models before we practice on the general population...

I'm hoping we have more hands-on labs similar to this one in the near future. It reminds us that the clinical setting is not too far away!