This is it! The first major rotation in clerkship. One of the so called BIG 4 in the hospital – SURGERY. Also known as the field I aim to belong in someday.
Now the surgery rotation was a very very big change from the previous rotations. Imagine, June we had the electives, mine was toxic then benign – call time: 8:00am. In July we were in the community, benignest of the benign – call time: no specific time.
Then came August. Surgery. Call time: 6:00 am. In an instant, poof! Gone were the rest days.
We were oriented in the department 1 week prior to the first day. Our clerks monitor then advised us to shadow the current clerks to get a grasp of the skills in surgery. I shadowed for half a day in the emergency room. There, we were expected to take the history of the patients and do the suturing and other skills needed. The hospital had 3 minor operating rooms in the emergency room and 1 decontamination room. Mostly, we were using 1 of the operating room and the decontamination room for dirty cases. This sets the surgery ER aside from the other ER areas, where we are in charge of 3 different areas. The current clerks were so enthusiastic in orienting us that it made us think that the area was so toxic as they were so excited to get out hahaha. Anyway, I’ll discuss more on the ER on another post. That afternoon I went to the ward for the tasks there. Upstairs, the clerks were mostly in charge of the vital signs monitoring, change of dressing(COD), and assisting in the operating room. One of the clerks asked if we wanted to help her in the COD of one of the patients. Of course we said yes. And that was when I learned how to do post-mold.
July 31 came and we were handed the list of patients we were to adopt.
Onward and upward to August 1!
techiefoodiedok 