Day 2: Mini-Med School
Welcome back. Yesterday you observed. Today you act.
A patient comes in. You took their vitals — now what? You read the imaging. You close the wound. You start CPR. You understand the body well enough to know what's where. Today is the doing.
4 stations. 4 skills. About 12 minutes at each. Same rotation as yesterday. If you finish a station early, the Operation table is open as a side activity.
Pair up at every station. Take turns. You take home two things today: a 🩹 CPR keychain (Station 1) and your 🧵 suture kit (Station 3).
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation keeps oxygen moving to the brain when someone's heart has stopped. 30 chest compressions, then 2 rescue breaths. Repeat. Don't stop until help arrives or the person wakes up.
Today you're practicing on adult and infant manikins. The CPR keychain mask at your station is yours to take home — it's the barrier between you and a real patient's mouth, the same kind EMTs and first responders carry.
📹 Watch the technique
- Adult CPR manikin
- Infant CPR manikin
- Disposable face shield barriers
- CPR keychain mask (one per student — yours to take home)
- Kneel beside the manikin. Place the heel of one hand in the center of the chest, between the nipples.
- Place your other hand on top. Interlock your fingers. Lock your elbows.
- Push hard and fast — about 2 inches deep, at a rate of 100–120 per minute. Tip: the beat of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees is exactly the right tempo.
- Do 30 compressions. Watch for the manikin's click — it tells you when you're deep enough.
- Take the rescue mask out of your CPR keychain. Place it over the manikin's mouth and nose.
- Tilt the manikin's head back (chin up) to open the airway.
- Pinch the nose closed. Give 2 slow breaths — about 1 second each. The chest should rise visibly.
- Swap roles with your partner. Try infant manikin if there's time (two fingers, gentler breaths).
Radiologists are doctors who read images — X-rays, CT scans, MRIs. They look for what's there, what's missing, and what's out of place. Today you're going to do the same thing with real-anatomy plastic X-rays.
Bones show up bright white on X-rays because they absorb the radiation. Air shows up black. Everything in between is gray.
📹 Watch the technique
- 18 plastic X-ray sheets (skull, ribs, hands, hips, legs, feet, etc.)
- Bone label cards
- Full skeleton reference chart
Spread the X-rays out face-up. As a team:
- Sort the X-rays by body part — head, torso, arms, hands, hips, legs, feet.
- Lay them out in the rough shape of a full human body, head at top.
- Compare to the reference chart. Did you get them in the right spots?
Some of these X-rays show normal bones. Some show something unusual — a fracture, a missing tooth, an old injury that healed.
Pick up each X-ray and look closely:
- Are the bones continuous, or is there a line/break across one?
- Are both sides of the body symmetric?
- Is anything missing that should be there?
Pick the most interesting X-ray and show it to your group. Explain what you see.
Sutures are how surgeons close wounds. A simple interrupted stitch — one knot per stitch — is the foundation. Every surgeon, ER physician, and many PAs and nurse practitioners learn this technique.
You get to keep this kit. Most of the practice will happen at home — today is the introduction.
📹 Watch the technique
- Silicone suture practice pad (with pre-cut "wounds")
- Needle driver (the clamping tool)
- Tissue forceps (the tweezers)
- Suture scissors
- Practice needle & thread
- Open your kit. Lay the pad flat. Find one of the pre-cut "wounds."
- Grip the needle in the needle driver, about 1/3 of the way from the blunt end. Lock the clamp.
- Use the forceps to gently hold one edge of the wound. Don't pull hard.
- Push the needle through one side of the wound, about 1/4 inch from the edge. The needle's curve does the work — let it follow its arc.
- Bring the needle up through the other side, same distance from the edge.
- Pull the thread through, leaving a 2-inch tail on the first side.
- Tie a square knot (right over left, left over right). Snip the ends.
If you've got time, try a second stitch. Pack your kit before rotating — cap the needle, zip the case shut, take it with you.
Before you can diagnose, treat, or operate on a body, you have to know what's inside it. Medical students spend their first year learning anatomy — every bone, muscle, organ, and how they fit together.
You have a 14-inch model with 60 pieces. Skeleton first, then muscles, then organs. Pairs: work with one partner per kit.
- Interactive Human Body kit (60 pieces per kit)
- Assembly cards / instruction sheet
- Lay out all the pieces. Group them: skeleton (white), muscles (red), organs (pink/yellow).
- Build the skeleton first — start with the spine, attach the rib cage, then arms and legs.
- Add the muscles, then the organs. Refer to the assembly cards.
When time is called, leave your build on the table for the next group to take over. Don't disassemble — they'll keep going.
Finish a station early? Need a breather? The Operation game is on a side table — surgeon's tweezers, buzzer, real anatomy parts. Goes great with a friend. Drop in, take a turn, head back to your rotation when the signal goes off.
Real clinicians spend years training for what you just got a taste of. The fact that you tried — that's how every medical career starts.
Tomorrow we trade the stethoscope for a magnifying glass. Same skills — careful observation, working under pressure, communicating with a team — different case to crack.
Surgeons (4 years undergrad + 4 med school + 5–7 year residency) · Surgical Technologists (1–2 year certificate or Associate's) · Radiologic Technologists (2 year degree) · Radiologists (4+4+4-year residency) · Paramedics & First Responders (1–2 year certificate) · Anatomists / Med School Faculty (PhD)
The take-home suture kit is real. Practice on bananas, oranges, or chicken at home. People who go to med school often start exactly this way.
