Once again, we were reshuffled. You know what? I’m thinking of a new word to describe what my college does to us: rerererererereshushushuffle. Haha. Whatever. So yeah, basically, majority of the people in my section are strangers to me. Likewise in my group. On the other hand, I know two people in my group.
Just a side note, in our registration form, the original schedule for my hospital duty is from Wednesday to Friday, that’s why when I learned that it was misprinted last Monday, it got me really annoyed. It turned out I have Saturday classes (my hospital duty is from Thursday to Saturday). My rest days are Wednesdays and Sundays. It sucks, right?
So, our first assignment for this semester is in the Operating Room. Luckily for us, we are assigned in a tertiary private hospital. That means, we could get more sophisticated cases that need millions of instruments. Yesterday, when we got in school, some of the girls in my group were in school uniform, some were wearing their duty uniform and the others were wearing their OR/DR suit. Most of the males were wearing black leather shoes (including me), others were wearing white. We were at a lost. It was really funny. When our CI arrived, it was finally cleared to us. We have to wear our school uniform and once we get inside the OR, that’s the only time we are allowed to wear our OR/DR suit.
Our CI turns out to be good. She’s not scary at all, sometimes, she even throws jokes at us. We were given a tour around the hospital, and once we were inside the OR, she gave us most of the information that we need to know. She taught us how to scrub our hands and arms (the faucets were amazing, they were knee operated, haha), wear sterile gowns, closed gloving, serving gowns and gloves to surgeons. She also introduced to us the strange instruments used in the OR. Two instruments almost look the same, but when you look at them properly, you’ll find out that they are different. It’s crazy. Plus the names are not easy to remember, in my opinion. She also taught us how to serve these instruments to the surgeon. She taught us other things too, but I guess, I’ll stop here.
So today… our CI told us that some of us would already take in the fray. Guess who was the lucky guy who took part in the fray? Meh. LOL. I was the scrub nurse (well, the assistant of the scrub nurse, or whatever). Since the case was a major one (cholecystectomy or the removal of gall bladder), I had a partner (circulating nurse) but what my partner does is very different from what I do. My tasks were to give whatever the surgeons need (e.g. instruments), make sure the instruments don’t fall, and help in holding retractors (which is very tiring especially if you have to hold it for long periods of time, plus, you’re standing from the start ’till the end). I think I did many things soo wrongly, but my CI said for a first timer, I did great. Yay? At first, I was not so anxious, but when I started to do things so wrongly, I got terrified. Good thing, the surgeons have a long patience. I wasn’t shouted. LOL. The surgery took around 2.5 hours. Yeah, I was standing for 2.5 hours, actually, more than that because after the operation, I still had to clean the instruments that the surgeons used. I think I washed more than 50 instruments. LOL. Overall, it was fun and crazy and I can’t wait to get a new case… basta hindi lang ako masigawan. Haha.
Doctor's Orders