During our Wilderness Advanced First Aid training, we have undergone dozens of mock scenarios to allow us to practice some of the practical skills we learned during our lessons. Some of them have been mild, such as helping a patient with heat exhaustion or dehydration, but we also had some incredibly intense scenarios such as a mass lightning strike or an eyeball bulging out of the skull. Our group has been relatively goofy so far, but these harder and more stressful scenarios have pulled each and every one of us out of our jokes and into game mode. I think the best of our leadership skills have come out at this time. For me, the thought of potentially helping a person through an incredible serious injury has pulled out the best leadership in me, and I find myself taking control in my small group during these more difficult scenarios. Mostly, I have noticed my ability to stay calm even through the blood and screaming. This may be due to my number one Gallup leadership strengths, adaptability. I have been putting a ton of trust in my natural instincts instead of overthinking the notes we have received, and this has allowed me to remain calm and confident in even the most challenging and overwhelming scenarios. WAFA is all about doing the best you can with the materials and knowledge that you have, and that requires a significant amount of flexibility and resilience. In my last post, I mentioned that the leadership games made me feel a bit quiet and ignored, but all of that has flown out the window during the WAFA scenarios. I am not sure why this has happened, maybe because there is a lot more riding on these scenarios than the simple rope games and I thrive in overly stressful situations (hence why I was a waitress all throughout high school). Also, I have felt that the information given has been just enough to allow me to be self-assured in all of the actions and steps I am performing. I think I need to trust my ability to adapt to diverse situations and rely on the knowledge that I know I have. Anxiety too often floods my emotions and allows me to doubt myself, especially when I am in a room with other incredibly intelligent people. But, I don’t want to allow myself to feel minimized and I want to embrace my ability to adapt and trust that I have the knowledge I need to succeed.
WAFA Chaos
