Re: Re: volunteering

["Sandy Bolinger" <bolinger@bigsky.net>]

I've been to several rides in the past couple of years where all
pulse-takers have this nifty pulse-taking device...they simply press it on
the horses girth area and it shows the heart rate...Jan Stevens uses them at
her ride and I'm going to try to get them for mine...

----- Original Message -----
From: <Onefarmgirl@aol.com>
To: <bolinger@bigsky.net>; <ridecamp@endurance.net>; <rides2far@juno.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 11:23 AM
Subject: RC: Re: volunteering


> I fear that behind these enjoyable stories is a real issue for our growing
> sport, so hang with me as I ramble along here.   As someone who has spent
> years teaching nursing students how to palpate and/or ausculate a
heartbeat
> or pulse, I'm here to tell ya, it's not intuitive, and for some folks it
can
> be quite difficult to learn.  In addition, until one has a fair bit of
> experience, it's a skill that deteriorates under stress.    In the
endurance
> world,  when attempting to listen to the heartbeat, you have to add in the
> variables of a working horses' respiratory noise, high ambient noise in
the
> vet check, and almost always poor quality stethoscopes.    When attempting
to
> palpate, you have to consider the horse may be restless, stamping, pouring
> sweat, etc.
>
> Of course many volunteers at rides are highly experienced, but hey, many
are
> also draftees from the previous day  :-).     I'm sure ride management
does
> their best to assign tasks to those best suited to the job.   But get
real -
> we know volunteers get pressed into service with very little prep!
>
> This is not a big deal in situations where there is not a keen
competition.
> But increasingly, riders are counting seconds at that pulse check.   Many
> times they have invested hours and hours and hours into training that they
> want to have pay off in rapid pulse drops.   For the rider, then,  it's an
> incredible frustration to stand helplessly while someone fumbles and
fiddles
> and stares at their watch, while the competition gets cleared through the
> check.   Meanwhile, some hapless volunteer, good-heartedly lending a hand,
is
> feeling the eyes burning into the back of their neck and noting the
tapping
> toes, and feels the pressure to say something...... just say a number.....
> anything to get out of the squeeze.
>
> Given the realities of assigning volunteers and all, I don't know a
perfect
> solution, but I do have two suggestions.    First, whenever possible,
anyone
> who is going to be doing pulse checks during the ride should do them as
> horses vet in.   Doing twenty or thirty checks should help lock-in/refresh
> the skill.   Secondly (and I think more importantly) someone has to stress
to
> the volunteers that it is COMMON to have problems with some horses.   They
> really need to have it reinforced that the thing to do when they can't get
a
> pulse is to ask for help!    Not to get too deeply into the psycho-babble
> here, but people have to get permission to admit it when they need a hand.
> Otherwise, as two of our most illustrious members have demonstrated, they
> just fib  :-)
>
> Just my 2 cents - anybody else have ideas about how to minimize this
problem?
>
> pat farmer
>
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
> Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>