I just completed my surgery rotation at Woodhull hospital. I have to say it has been my favorite so far. It was no surprise to me that I enjoyed the OR as much as I did. The intricacies of the human body, its organs and how it functions has always captivated me and to see those inner-workings up close was fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the laparoscopic surgeries as they seemed to afford the best vantage point to appreciate anatomy.

I began the first week of my rotation with a cohort of 9 other medical students, two days later they had finished their rotation and I would learn that another group of students would not be starting again for two weeks. At first, I was terrified. I had purposefully asked for this surgical site because the idea of surgery hours during my clinical year seemed daunting. Little did I know that that gap between groups of medical students would be the best part of my rotation. Because I was the only student I got to scrub on any surgery that interested me, I was asked to accompany on every consult and I got to do many more procedures that I otherwise would have. I was also able to form a collegiate relationship with the residents and benefitted from extra instruction from the attendings as I was the only student to teach. It is true that I worked long hard hours and consequently worked late into the night when I got home on assignments for school or prepping for the next day’s surgeries, but looking back I would not have changed a thing.

The chief resident was an excellent teacher and told me something that I will carry with me through my practice (hopefully as a surgical PA). The most important part of surgery is knowing how best to optimize a patient for surgery and how to appropriately manage patients post-operatively. He told me that managing patients post-op is what they spend most of their time as residents doing, and while the 5 W’s is good to know for my boards I should try and understand complications besides atelectasis can happen POD 1. He told me this not to belittle the importance of what happens in the OR, but as a way of ensuring I got the most out of my rotation and I am very grateful for that.

Another skill I got to practice a lot was note writing. One attending in particular would ask you to see that patient initially and write the note. He would then see that patient with me and tell me what the plan should be. The note I wrote was the note he used so I needed to make sure that it was thorough and yet succinct. This format forced me to write notes and to further develop my own style of note writing and patient interviewing. My assessment still needs work as does my plan, but this rotation did a lot for the overall structure of my note.

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