10 Things I Learned During My Surgery Rotation

#1 Don’t poke the “panther”

• Panther is another term for the pancreas. If at all possible, just leave it alone. Nothing good can come from disturbing it.

#2 “Make the patient NPO and call a surgeon”

• This is a quote that one of the attending’s repeated over and over. She said if we were to only learn one thing- this would be it. They have to be NPO to go to surgery, so do that first. If you think they need surgery, they likely do, so give them a call as soon as possible.

#3 The best way to avoid surgical complications…is to not have surgery.

• One thing that I realized on this rotation, is that I hope I never have to have surgery. There is no such thing as a “simple” procedure. They all have risks of bleeding, infection, and damage to surrounding structures. All of which I saw happen, even when surgeries were done “without any complication”.

#4 A little kindness can go a long way.

• Surgery is tough. Medicine is tough. Working in the hospital, regardless of position, is tough. Be kind to anyone you come across. Pick up a pen if someone drops it, hold the elevator for a little longer than normal, go get a warm blanket instead of a cold one for patients. We need to lift each other up, not try and keep people down. Most importantly- be humble. You are NOT better than anyone else in the hospital, so stop acting like it.

#5 Sunlight is important

• After working 2 months straight…from 5am-5pm…in the middle of winter, I started to realize how much I missed seeing the sun. Pro tip: if you have your surgery in the winter, go stalk up on some vitamin D. Or go get one of those fancy lights from Amazon.

#6 Eat, sleep, sit, and pee- whenever you can.

• All of the above are luxuries. You may not have the time to do any of these things on a busy day, so take advantage of it when you can. The good news is, even though you don’t get much sleep, you are so tired when you get home that you crash regardless of anything that you needed to get done.

#7 Always check the color of the drainage.

• This is like the one job of a medical student. Know how much comes out of your patient’s drains overnight. And you best know the color of it. You might as well not show up if you don’t check the drainage.

#8 Leave your wedding ring (or any other jewelry) at home- or buy a silicone alternative for the month.

• Unless of course, searching through a pile of dirty scrubs for an hour sounds like fun to you. Learn from my mistake. You change in and out of scrubs so often (and you are so tired/rushed) it is easy to lose the things that you find most dear. I have a Qalo ring, but I stopped even wearing that because it was just another thing to worry about.

#9 Laziness can be lethal.

• Do your job. Don’t make excuses. Don’t cut corners. Treat patients and co-workers the way you would hope your family members or best friends would be treated. You came into medicine to help people, so be sure your laziness does not hurt them. You not only do a disservice to your patients and colleagues, but to yourself as well.

#10 I love family medicine even more than I did already.

• After 8 long weeks, I can confidently say I am meant to be a family medicine physician. I have missed building deep connections with people. I have missed being able to give them time to talk. I missed learning more about their stories, rather than just their complications. I have an extreme respect for surgeons, but I have no idea how they are able to live a balanced life. I look forward to being able to still have time for the other things that I enjoy as a family doctor.

PS: If you are a medical student reading this-- I would HIGHLY recommend trying to take your internal medicine rotation before surgery. The majority of the surgery shelf is medicine. I also loved using Online MedEd and found it super helpful. Their flash cards are great for when you have downtime. UWorld is obviously always a must. I also found the NBMEs to be helpful since there are not that many surgery questions. A lot of people rave about Pestana's, but I really just enjoyed doing the questions in the back of the book, rather than reading it front to back.

Good luck with surgery! I for one am just SO thrilled that it is over. It is a right of passage, and is very challenging. But you can do it!