A day in the life of a YPAG group by Rachael and Lottie

By Mike Bell,

We are from the Bristol YPAG (Young Persons Advisory Group).  the group is led by Mike Bell and Tracy Bingham. We thought about why we should write a blog and we came up with the following:

  • Lottie and Rachael

    Lottie and Rachael

    to let others know what we do and what research we do,

  • to give ideas to other YPAG groups,
  • for newcomers to see what we are all about,
  • And finally to have an account of all the fun we have.

At the end of each blog post we will rate the day out of ten. This way we can give you a feel of how the day went. We hope you enjoy our blog.

Lottie and Rachael.

On Tuesday 28th July the Bristol YPAG group met for a full day of giving opinions, trying out bed sheets, learning about new things and discussing antibiotics. The plan of the day was full with a breaks for snacks and lunch. We had three different subjects (all related to health of course) and we started the day off with infections and antibiotics.

The first researchers we had visit us were Harriet and Christie. They came to talk to us about our experiences with antibiotics and visiting our GP. Whilst getting information from us for their research we also had a laugh about some of the stories we’ve had from visiting doctors, particularly the school nurse! We then went on to talk about the pain P1070529 scale, testing it out with previous infections we can remember.

After lunch we went down stairs to a room containing two hospital beds and lots of other hospital equipment. The lady that was part of this study was called Paula and she explained to us that she was working with the “silky study.” She explain that the “silky study” was a study of whether silk bed sheets and pillowcases were beneficial to hospital patients with serious burns. We were going evaluate low friction silk bed sheets and give our opinions on how to improve them. We did this by comparing one of the beds which had silk sheets on to the other which had normal sheets on. We found that the silk sheets were slippery but we thought a major aspect of the patient being comfortable would be how hot or cold they were. We learnt a lot about how they dress serious burns and also assessed one of their booklets promoting the study to patients with the burns. It was an interactive exercise which made really interesting and fun. I think we all enjoyed the topic as well as giving advice to Paula.

P1070602After completing the Silky Study, we had Martyn teach us about manual handling with patients. We now all know how to control a hospital bed, and use other equipment such as slide sheets and a hoverjack! (Look it up ;)) Martyn taught us so much about how to care correctly for patients, very beneficial for those of us who are looking into the path of medical careers! Thanks Martyn!

To conclude, we both felt the day went extremely well. We both agreed the best part of the day was the manual handling exercises but we also enjoyed all other aspects of the day. The day also taught us many new things, which is after all one of the reasons we come to YPAG. We rated the day 9 out of 10, due to the interaction in the exercises.

Thank you to Mike and Tracey who never fail to keep the day flowing and to all the researchers who came in on the day, we hope to hear from you in the future!

TO BE CONTINUED………………….