Surgical Reflection

I have always been interested in the surgery aspect of the medical field, so when I found out we would be observing surgical operations I could not have been more excited. Michelle, who sets everything up, saw that I was on 5 North and thought it would be perfect to put me with the neurology team for the day. This added to my excitement because she did not have a lot of surgeries scheduled that entailed really open incisions and both of the operations I was able to watch did. The two surgeries scheduled for the day were an L4 to L5 microdiscectomy and a left frontal stereotactic brain biopsy. The first surgery was the L4 to L5 microdiscectomy. After I had changed into my surgical scrubs and had the appropriate attire, I entered the room and the patient had already been sedated. The surgical team was now moving the client onto the operating table in a position called the jackknife, which means the patient is lying on his/her stomach and is bent from the hips so they are lifted and the head and legs are low. I noticed the patient had SCDs on to keep the venous return and avoid DVTs. The patient was then covered with drapes except for the part on the back that the surgeon was going to …show more content…
I realized the circulating nurse is kind of like the team captain and makes sure the correct procedure is being done on the correct patient, keeps track of who all is in the room, keeps supplies stocked, charts, and gets anything the surgeon requests. The scrub nurse is the surgeon’s right hand man and hands him whatever tool it is he asks for. The CRNA kind of stands in her own area and watches the machines to make sure the patient’s vitals are okay. For the second procedure, there were extra people in the room as well including a nurse, who was very good at explaining things to me, and a physician’s assistant. This was a really great experience and it definitely has me thinking about what area I want to pursue a career