Hacker News Reader

Comment by siva7 | Hacker News Reader

Operating at such a low volume introduces other problems similiar like surgeons doing too few procedures and therefore not gaining enough routine

View on HN

A reason why I have been avoiding restaurant foods here in India due to covid - it's not because of covid per se, but due to possible other cuts being done due to lower volumes and I just can't rely on quality of food.

Yeah. I am a SAR medic and due to rolling lockdowns, was only able to get to sea for training about 10% of the norm last year (4 times vs ~40 in 2019). The same is true for clinical placements (0 vs 4), classroom training (2 vs ~50), etc.

They're all perishable skills and it's left me rusty on everything from boat handling to nav to CPR (BLS is an extremely perishable skill - used to do BLS refreshers every two weeks). On call outs, I can the difference in all the crew - even those on the job for decades. Things just aren't as smooth.

I can't wait to get vaccinated and back into training. Otherwise, I worry we're going to start making mistakes.

What is BLS?

BLS = Basic Life Support

https://cpr.heart.org/en/cpr-courses-and-kits/healthcare-pro...

From the linked page:

What does this course teach?

High-quality CPR for adults, children, and infants

The AHA Chain of Survival, specifically the BLS components

Important early use of an AED [Automated External Defibrillator]

Effective ventilations using a barrier device

Importance of teams in multirescuer resuscitation and performance as an effective team member during multirescuer CPR

Relief of foreign-body airway obstruction (choking) for adults and infants

Sorry - Basic Life Support. It's the certification all medical practitioners must keep as a prerequisite for working with patients, and covers CPR, advanced airway management, defibrillation, and the chain of survival. Most countries issue two-year certifications, but every frontline service I ever worked with have monthly or fortnightly refresher training.

Agreed. This is an under-appreciated impact of widespread, long-term lockdowns. It disrupts basically everything in both obvious and non-obvious ways ranging from subtle to severe.

I've been reading some concerning analyses by supply chain experts documenting the increasing stresses and failures in supply chains throughout the economy. Basically, you can't change this much, this fast, across so many interlinked systems and not cause significant unexpected failures.

Is this just an assumption? It's an interesting thought, I'm curious if there's some sort of data to back it up.

I personally don't know about the not enough routine/repetition step, but the FAA did have a recommendation for pilots to reduce the use of autopilots due to similar reasoning.

https://nbaa.org/aircraft-operations/safety/faa-recommends-p...

That is from 2013 (not saying it’s invalid advice, just that it’s not related to current flying schedules).

Children of the Magenta Line is a great presentation on automation dependence and quite funny at moments. https://youtu.be/5ESJH1NLMLs

(The GPS flight plan track is standardized to be drawn in magenta.)

+1 for Children of the Magenta Line. Seminal work.

There is a variety of anticipated risks linked to the reduced activity during the pandemic and its effects on air travel as a whole. However, this kind of oversight might not be equally managed everywhere in the world

https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/review_of...

Also their equipment sitting idle

Reply on news.ycombinator.com