When going to the hospital to observe different surgeries I would out lot about of surprising and interesting things about surgeons. Since I was observing my uncle who I know as a jokester, I was a little surprised to see how he acted at work. He was so focused and seemed to have no time to joke at all. Right when I arrived we got straight to work. His whole day was filled with various surgeries. The first thing that stood out to me was the on call room. I thought they these were only used in movies or TV shows. I couldn’t imagine having to sleep for a few hours and then going back to surgeries. I guess that is just the life of a surgeon.
Another thing that I found very interesting was the fact that I barley saw my uncle communicate with his patients. Sometimes he would go in and brief them on the surgery but most of the time he would just report to the room where the surgery took place and after the patient was already under anesthetic. Never once did I see my uncle ask how the patient was feeling or if they were okay after. All of the emotional aspects were up to the nurses.
At times while I was in the gallery my uncle would turn the microphone on so that I could here the conversation. I found it a but surprising that they were all just holding on normal conversations. My uncle was talking to one of the surgical nurses about the cruise he is going on in the summer. The reason that this surprised me so much was because here is a woman with her hip cut open with her life in his hands and he is talking about a cruise. I just don’t know if I could be that calm during a surgery.
One of the questions that came up while observing different surgeries is why they need so many nurses. Half of the time a lot of them were just standing around. I found it odd that he needed so many people in the exam room. I also want to know if the surgical nurses have to go through more training then non-surgical nurses since they are not just performing basic tasks. Overall I still have many questions and am still fascinated with this line of work.
Thanks for you thoughts here, Taylor. I'm also now curious about the lack of emotion on the surgeon's part--is it a way of detaching from what's at stake in the room at the time? I also think it's interesting how you're seeing a difference in duties between the nurses and the surgeons, and this may be interesting enough to explore further. And also, how do the nurses and surgeons interact with each other? Good start here!
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