Surgery in a nutshell

Tomorrow begins a new rotation. The 6 weeks of surgery flew by!! I must admit, that despite all of the horrible things that I heard about Surgery, it actually wasn't bad at all. I was fortunate to have some really great residents, cool interns, and pretty nice attendings. The hours still suck though. And my body still hasn't gotten acclimated to normal sleep schedule ( I woke up between 4 and 5 all weekend. smh.) Being at my location, I didn't get to see too many surgeries but I did see a fare number of appendectomies, choles, 1 parathyroid case, hernias, exploratory laps, EGD, a fair share of debridements (the worst being this lady with a sacral wound all the way down to the bone and covereing the majority of the center of her butt....so sad. These nursing homes I tell ya.....), and oh, the one case of the guy who swallowed freaking razor blades!!! What the heck?! I think that was probably the most unexpected case lol. He broke them up into pieces and swallowed them because he claimed that someone was going to get him. Yeah......ok.

Most of the time we rounded on the floors. I can say that I actually like seeing and talking to patients. It's cool. People have a lot to say, and for some reason, many of them like opening up to me about things, which I don't mind. I paid close attention to the different ways that each resident and attending interacted with the patient and the staff, taking note of things that I would and wouldn't do in the future.

Will do: 1) Write please and thank you's in orders, and verbalize those words when interacting with nurses and other staff. They appreciate it (Max taught me this). 2) Teach students things whenever I can, while asking questions in a non pimping manner, to aid in teaching (All of the residents were pretty good at this, as well as some of the attendings). 3) Pay close attention to the notes, orders, etc put in on the patient. Being thorough is beneficial in the management of patients (Dr. Cohen). 4) Be a cool resident that jokes, but teaches and doesn't hold students around just for the fun of it. (All) 5) Put yourself in the patient's shoes. How would you feel in their situation? How about if this person was your family member.

Won't : 1) Constantly cut off patients when they are trying to speak. Let them talk. You can find out a lot more that way. 2) Be half way out the door when the patient is still talking.



All in all, it wasn't that bad. The OR isn't for me, nor is surgery. But I do appreciate the experience and have an even greater respect for surgeons and all that they do. I came in thinking that all that they did was surgery, but they really do have to manage patients as well. Same for anesthesia. I thought that they never spoke to the patient, yet they do. I'm learning:)

Next up: Internal medicine. This should be interesting. I hate the smell of the IM floors........