Rusty Skills

[EX121]

So this past weekend I went to a big conference and attended lots of training events most related to Survival & Medical skills. I haven't been a working EMT for several years but was still confident on my basic skills. However I realized that I was more than rusty on several. Even if you do practice a full patient assesment but simulate taking vital signs, those skills can get overlooked.
I hadn't taken a BP by palpation in several years and couldn't explain how to do it to another student.
so I'm taking a hard look at others skills that I may not have practiced in awhile.

Knowledge doesn't weigh anything, and I usuallly have it with me.

[Rmplstlskn]

Yeah, medical is one of those skills that does get rusty as it is so detailed and exact... Like a post I did elsewhere, sometimes it is overwhelming the skills that get RUSTY, yet finding the time to shine up the skills is so fleeting as other things are getting rusrty too... LOL!

[Grand58742]

Land nav, especially without the aid of electronic devices. There's another bread and butter skill that will perish over time.

[jimmycthemd]

Yeah, land nav. is one I REALLY need to brush up on. Used to be pretty good between hunting/souts as a kid, military and bow hunting in the rockies. But I've been pretty domesticated the last couple of decades. Need to get some topos and dig out the compas and start practicing (never had a GPS...old habits die hard). A nice cheap excuse to get back out into the woods. Wife unit likes walking around the subdivision...doesn't understand why I get bored. Need some woods time badly :-)

[EX121]

I get lots of pretty good nav practice being in Search & Rescue, but somehow overlooked the hands-on medical stuff. For land nav I find just taking a map with me and doing dead rekoning by keep track of the terrain is very helpful. If you get good at reading the contours, etc, you almost don't need a compass for short distances during the day.

[qrprat77]

Same thing is true of Morse code. If I think I'm going to go a stretch without using it, I will actually listen to tapes of it just to keep in practice.
Fortunately, Morse code is a skill that usually rapidly builds if I do have to "reaquire" it .

[Lowdown3]

..._._ ..._._ ..._._

;)

[qrprat77]

.... .. .... ..
IDK why you are signing off though.

[hua man]

Caveman cooking. Most take their vittles out to the woods. Same with cookware. Take one (1) store bought food item and go camping. Make some bread-on a-stick. Skewer cook your fish. Hand catch some crawdads and cook or use as bait. Forage for dinner. Do this during less-than-prime forage days.

Many believe that they could go to the wild places and live well. With a truckload of gear and food anyone can. But the reality of it, can YOU go right now, and come back in a week and still be in top shape? Most think of cooking fish and imagine trout or bass, maybe catfish, but the truth may be bream (bluegill, pumpkinseed, sunfish) if you're lucky. Foraging? Too late for greens, too early for most fruits. Sanitation? By day three, you'll smell so bad, the flies would stay away.

Just think on it.