#14: Operative experience
This month has been really great in terms of getting operative experience. Every Tuesday and Friday as I mentioned I am the assistant for minor cases for this one relatively young and intense attending surgeon who specializes in surgical oncology. The cases are usually excisions of melanomas/other skin lesions and excisional biopsies of breast masses. As I mentioned before, my job is to prepare the patient for the procedure by setting up a sterile field before my attending arrives in the room. The first week that I worked with him I was running around the hospital discharging patients and I would get a page from the procedure room saying the patient was ready and I'd drop everything and go running over to the room to start the preparations only to find my attending show up 2 minutes later so obviously the patient would not be prepped for him.
Outside while we were scrubbing for the case he said to me, "Stephen, you don't have to hang out here in the procedure room all day but you need to figure out a way to get the patient prepped before I show up." That would have been fine, but he then added: "You are acting more like a medical student and I need a MD." Well that really made me mad because all I was doing all day was busting my butt for the service getting patients discharged (and doing a decent job at that!) I would run over as soon as I was notified and this was the thanks I get! All I said was "OK."
In the subsequent weeks I figured out how to beat my attending over to the room and prep the patient and in return my attending has been giving me tips on technique and whatnot. I've worked with several attendings and this particular one is really gifted in technique. He's not overly fast with his hands but he's very deliberate and does things exactly the same way every time and in the end our cases end up taking much less time than the other attendings. I don't think I'd like to be like my attending in terms of personality, but I'd definitely want to be much like him in terms of technique.
Last call night: Monday, August 21st.
Amount of sleep last call night: 90 minutes.
Currently reading: The Sunday Paper.
Currently watching: Gray's Anatomy.
Next call night: Friday, August 25st.
Outside while we were scrubbing for the case he said to me, "Stephen, you don't have to hang out here in the procedure room all day but you need to figure out a way to get the patient prepped before I show up." That would have been fine, but he then added: "You are acting more like a medical student and I need a MD." Well that really made me mad because all I was doing all day was busting my butt for the service getting patients discharged (and doing a decent job at that!) I would run over as soon as I was notified and this was the thanks I get! All I said was "OK."
In the subsequent weeks I figured out how to beat my attending over to the room and prep the patient and in return my attending has been giving me tips on technique and whatnot. I've worked with several attendings and this particular one is really gifted in technique. He's not overly fast with his hands but he's very deliberate and does things exactly the same way every time and in the end our cases end up taking much less time than the other attendings. I don't think I'd like to be like my attending in terms of personality, but I'd definitely want to be much like him in terms of technique.
Last call night: Monday, August 21st.
Amount of sleep last call night: 90 minutes.
Currently reading: The Sunday Paper.
Currently watching: Gray's Anatomy.
Next call night: Friday, August 25st.
posted by Stephen Maturin @ 8/26/2006 05:08:00 PM
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