Summer is coming!

I'm currently in my second year of cegep in Pre-Hospital Emergency Care at cegep Ahuntsic in Montreal. For this summer, I am aiming to get a job in either a vacation camp as a Healthcare Manager or in a circus as a head coach. The vacation camp would give me the opportunity to apply all the procedures and medical knowledge that I have learned so far. The circus school would give me a permanent position within this school and would allow me to have fun. However, I was already experienced in this domain, and I wanted to change.

Choice 1 : Apply to the circus school.

Choice 2 : Apply to the vacation camp.

Apply to the circus school.

I chose to apply for the circus school. However, I soon realized that I wanted a new experience. Therefore, I contacted the HR to remove my candidature.

Choice 1 : Apply to the vacation camp.

Apply to the vacation camp.

I chose to apply to the summer camp. I was very glad of my decision since it would allow me to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people. The job however seemed really stressful. I was going to be in-charge of the health of around 300 to 400 children without counting the staff. Around 100 employees were working day and night in this camp.

Choice 1 : Vacation camp.

Vacation camp.

After only a couple days, I realized that working there is way harder than expected. We were supposed to be two health care managers, and my colleague left after the second week. I had to work sixteen hours a day and seven days a week, so I could keep up with the work. This was very exhausting. The thing that made me the maddest about was that the lifeguards were paid higher than me. They were doing 6 hours a day 5 days a week, and they had less formation than me. I tried to contact my HR about it, and they told me they couldn't do much. I was left with two choices, either I would resign or continue to work like it was fair.

Choice 1 : Resign.

Choice 2 : Continue to work.

Resign.

I decided to resign. Since an already passed month, and I was totally exhausted already, I decided to spend the summer with my friends and wait until Cegep starts again.

Choice 1 : Going back to college.

Continue to work.

Even tho the situation was unfair, I decided to stay. I couldn't leave all those people behind me. There was no one to take care of them. The summer was already almost done anyway. A couple weeks left I was saying to myself! During my lunch, I was called by an animator because he fell on a kid, and he was nervous about it. I arrived there with my emergency backpack readily for anything. I assessed the situation with a couple tests in order to determine if my patient had any disabilities caused by the trauma. Results were that the kid was most likely experiencing a spine injury, which I can't determine the severity without the proper equipment. During that time, my boss also came to see what was going on. I explained everything to her, and she decided that we should not call the ambulance. It is to be noted that my boss has less experience and formations than me. I tried everything to explain to her that it was not a good idea, and that the kid could be paralyzed if he does a false move, but nothing worked. I was left to two choices;

Choice 1 : Listen to my boss.

Choice 2 : Call an ambulance.

Listen to my boss.

I listen to my boss. I let her take care of the child since I did not want to get involved with the situation anymore since I was considering it as a medical misconduct. I carefully noted everything in the report, so I won't be accused of malpractice. The patient's case was getting worse after they stood up. My boss did not want to call an ambulance, so I used our database to find the child's parent's phone number, so I could explain to them what happened, and ask them what they wanted. They immediately asked to call an ambulance. Good thing, because the patient had an important injury on their L4.

Choice 1 : Summer is finally over.

Call an ambulance.

I decided to call an ambulance on my own, so the patient could be transported to the hospital safely without risking causing further damages to their spinal cord. Good thing, because the patient had an important injury on their L4. My boss was mad at me, however when we had the results from the test at the hospital, she immediately tried to reject her fault.

Choice 1 : Summer is finally over.

Summer is finally over.

Even if it were a very exhausting experience, I'm already missing the camp. I met a lot of very nice people, and made a bunch of new friends. It was very intense, but now I became an expert in pediatric approach and traumatic evaluation. I also dealt with very funny situations. I was in my office doing paperwork and a teenager came in because a squirrel has bitten them. The funnier thing is that I had to call their parents with her and explain to them the situation. We laughed for a while. I also had less funny situation where a parent complained about me because I refused to call an ambulance for their child. The kid received something in their eye and their vision was blurred from that eye. Overall, this experience allowed me to learn things that I would have never learnt. Am I going there again? Hell no. However, I keep good memories from it.

Choice 1 : Going back to college.

Going back to college.

I barely had time to prepare for the college. Summer finished, before I had the time to realise. I had my schedule to do, preparatory homework to do, my residences to fill, etc. I was very scared about it since everyone was saying that the third session was one of the hardest. Turns out, it wasn't so bad. After spending an entire summer working pretty much 24/7 for $85/day is harder comparatively to a 40 hours of classes' session.

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