As a student in the OR, how much you are able to do really varies from surgeon to surgeon. Sometimes you get to stand there for 4 hours and hold a retractor for a grand total of 5 of those 240 minutes. And then other times you get to reach inside of a chest and hold back a beating heart with your hand, careful to somehow give the surgeon a good view and yet still allow the heart to do its job. As you get more experience you become more adapt, more comfortable with handling yourself. Perhaps the first time you ask the scrub nurse for an instrument you kind of squeak out, "pick-ups.....please?" as if she/he may not actually give it to you. I've been through all the stages, and this past week I passed through yet another. Was the first time I asked for a blade myself. These stages aren't official or anything, but I just felt I've reached another level to 1) feel comfortable enough to ask for a blade myself, 2) for the Surgeon to allow me to ask for a blade and 3) for the Surgeon to hold/retract while I use the blade. Granted we were working on a dead foot so I couldn't have done any damage, but still, it felt nice.
Working in burns these past two weeks I became familiar with that feeling of dread you get when the OR table drapes have shifted and you feel your leg get splashed and then proceed to slowly soak your pant leg down to your shoe.
I really enjoyed working in burns. I'm sad to leave. I'm going to a Psych rotation next. We'll see how it goes. I fear I'm gonna have so much free time I'm not gonna know what to do with myself.
Hasta!
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