Whitney England

Professor Giddings

EDU-1400

7/18/19

Simulation Experience

For my 48-hour simulation experience, I restrained my right arm which is also my

dominant arm. I had a very difficult time with this activity because you do not actually realize

how hard it is to have any sort of limitation until you are without it. I first started out with

waking up and getting ready to go to work. It was hard to get ready in the morning because I

was limited on how much I could move my arm to get dressed, do my hair, makeup etc… When I

got in my car, I always shift with my right hand which I was unable to do. It was frustrating

because I had to lean over with my left had to change my car from park to drive. I currently

work at a hospital as a Medical Assistant, so you can only imagine that we are very busy and use

all of our body parts on a daily basis to complete our daily tasks. When I go to work, I am at

work for 10 hours and it is nonstop busy. In the morning, we start out with ordering tests for

patients which includes a lot of typing and clicking on a computer and with my arm restrained, it

makes it a very difficult task to try and type. We also complete EKG’s on our patients which

consists of us placing electrodes on a person’s body, and then attaching clips to the electrodes.

With having that limitation, it was hard to take the electrodes off of the paper and to place

them in the correct spot on the patient with only one arm that is available to use. The cords on

the EKG machine also get very tangled, very easily and it is hard to have to try and untangle

them with only using one hand instead of two. I felt that patients would look at me like I was
crazy and did not know what I was doing because it took more time to complete and they could

tell that I was frustrated. I noticed that I would get flustered and I started to become anxious,

and my face would start to turn red in embarrassment. Besides just doing EKG’s, we scribe for

the physicians that are in our office which basically means we type all of their notes for them

while they are talking to the patient. Sometimes we are able to sit in the room, but sometimes

you have to stand. When I would sit, I could just place the laptop on my lap and could type with

one hand. When I had to stand, I found it difficult to try and hold it and type at the same time. I

ended up just trying to remember everything that was being said, and I would finish the note

when I could sit down. That was my beginning of the day and my work experience for the 48

hours. On the second day, after I was off, I was invited to go swimming with some friends. It is

very hard to swim with only one arm available, and if you’ve tried it, it almost is impossible to

do without sinking. I was frustrated because I saw my friends doing something that I have done

my whole life and something that came so easy for me, become not so easy and difficult to do.

I usually like simulation experiences because you can learn so much from them and it is

a hands-on learning time, however this simulation showed me only a few of the frustrations

that people with disabilities experience on a daily basis. I know that I was extremely frustrated

with just doing simple tasks that I do every day, and knowing that it was just a 48-hour

simulation to us, but is an everyday struggle with people with real disabilities really shows you

just how hard it is. Depending on the disability, whether you were born with it, or developed it

at a later age, you have to be able to learn how to adapt to your surroundings, and simple tasks

might become not so simple anymore. I liked this simulation, but at the same time I feel like it is

a difficult thing to assign to people without disabilities because it does not necessarily portray
accuracy in the day of the life of a person with a disability. Emily Ladau had stated “It may make

a person more aware of another person’s experiences, but it doesn’t dig deep to the root of the

discrimination against the people with minority identities. Instead, it’s more likely to evoke

empathy or pity than true acceptance.” I agree with what she said because I feel that it is

something that is too hard to recreate, especially if you do not have a disability. It’s hard to act

as if you have a disability for a certain amount of time and when you have the ability to quit at

any time which makes it hard to get accuracy in the experience.