— By Olivia Baker, Senior —
Olivia is assisting with surgeries at MD Anderson Cancer Center this summer, which involves handling surgery instruments and putting patients at ease before, during and after a procedure.
This summer I am working in the OR at MD Anderson Cancer Center. The experience is the most rewarding in my life so far. Here’s a glimpse of the operating room.
In the morning I go to the patients room in pre-op to interview them and answer any questions they may have. I also get to talk with the family and assure them that we will take the absolute best care of their family member. Some patients are ready to go with no fear while other patients have tears streaming down their face. This has given me the opportunity to hold so many hands and engage in conversation to find some similarities between the patient and myself to completely distract and calm the patient just in time for surgery. I then help the anesthesiologist to bring the patient back into the operating room.
Once we are in the OR, depending on the surgery, we may do an epidural or a nerve block to help with postoperative pain in which I am able to help the anesthesia staff with holding the patient and handing them equipment while also talking to the patient and making sure they are doing well. After, the patient is positioned and put to sleep for the procedure. I then insert the foley, a sterile scrub to the area where the surgeon will be operating, assist with airway intubation, positioning of the patient, and monitoring the patient.
During the procedure I watch the surgery, monitor vital signs, stand with the nurse anesthetist to help them, gather supplies and open them onto the sterile field, document, and sometimes even scrub in to hand equipment to the surgeons.
Then finally the patient is woken up and taken to their recovery room!
Being in the OR is so much more than I thought it would ever be. Aside from all of the amazing surgeries I see daily, two major things motivate me to come to work each day. The first is the people I work with. At MD Anderson the people on your unit really become like family. They make this externship so much fun and have made me feel so welcome from the start. On a few weekends a month I play tennis with my mentor and some other people from the OR and I have gotten close to people from the OR even outside of work! The second, and most important, is the difference I get to make in each of our patient’s lives. One of my recent patients was celebrating his birthday on the day he was having surgery. The reason for his surgery was to remove his colostomy bag because he was finally in remission from colon cancer. He told me there was no better hospital in the world all because of the health care professionals at MD Anderson and although he was having surgery, this was his best birthday to date.