During our HPA1 Course this past summer, Clare and the rest of the class were on a brief break. Clare was walking by 12th and Locust when she saw a man fall off his scooter. After stopping the cars, another witness and Clare tried to talk to the man to see if he was conscious. The man had a bleeding laceration on his head and bleeding from the nose and mouth.

Clare had her Lab kit in her backpack and was able to retrieve sterile gloves. She used these, along with the cloth brought by a bystander, to stop the bleeding on his forehead. While this was occurring, a security guard called 911. Clare and other bystanders facilitated calling the man's family as the ambulance came to take him to the hospital. Clare returned to class visibly shaken by the experience, but immediately recounted the event to me. She wanted to debrief to determine if other actions should have been a priority.

We discussed the ABCs, a concept yet unfamiliar to our students at this stage of their education. To my knowledge, Clare had no EMS training before nursing school, but even if she had, stopping to assist in an emergency was innate, and the need to debrief was clearly topmost on her mind. Clare wanted to be a better nurse from the very beginning. I look forward to monitoring her progress in our program and to her joining the ranks next May. Clare displayed an innate desire not only to help in an emergency but to immediately learn from the experience to improve her practice.