Touchy-Feely

Last night at my EMT class we learned about moving and lifting patients. At the end of the lecture, there was a bit of time for some hands-on practice. The instructor asked everyone to come to the front of the classroom and randomly picked a "patient" and had him lie down.

Then, he asked what the first thing you should do before thinking about moving a patient.

"Stabilize the head," a boy said.

"Good," said the instructor, "now that's your job."

Then he randomly picked out three students and told them to kneel next to the patient on one side.

When he asked one of them to put a hand on the patient's shoulder and hip, the student replied that he didn't want to touch him.

"This is a touchy-feely class. You have to know how to appropriately touch someone to help them."

I thought it was funny that the student objected in the first place.

There are a lot of cute young guys in my class. Many of them act like little teenage boys still. I suppose that's what they are, still. I'm just so used to working with responsible adult men, all of whom are older than 23. It's amazing how different guys between the ages of 18-21 are from guys over 22 in terms of maturity. Something I'll have to get used to.