On the final day of rotations at the hospital we are at, I had the opportunity to observe a shoulder replacement surgery which as a high school student is difficult to get invited into.
I was at the pre-operation department which is where patients go about two hours before their surgery to get prepared to go under anesthesia and get operated on. There, patients are provided with surgical gowns, undergo final tests to confirm their readiness for surgery, and receive medications to prepare their bodies to undergo anesthesia.
I had been helping a nurse with a patient who was about to get shoulder replacement surgery done. I helped him get dressed and took his vital signs and the nurses gave the patient his appropriate medications. Once the patient was ready to go into surgery, the anesthesiologist administered a nerve block on the patient’s shoulder in which the patient’s shoulder was numbed to ensure he wouldn’t feel pain during the operation. Since this occurred outside of the operating room (OR) the anesthesiologist allowed me to watch him administer the nerve block. I closely followed the anesthesiologist’s work, asking appropriate questions throughout the procedures, and to my excitement, he invited me to watch the surgery. With permission from the lead orthopedic surgeon, the patient, and the patient’s family, I was allowed into the OR.
Having previously observed surgeries in India, I immediately noticed differences between OR practices in the United States and India. One significant difference was the number of medical personnel in the room. In this surgery, only the orthopedic surgeon, anesthesiologist, surgical nurse, two surgical technicians, and a physician assistant were present. This was far fewer compared to surgeries I observed in India, which were typically crowded with medical staff. Additionally, since this was an orthopedic surgery, an implant sales representative was also present, which is someone who assists the orthopedic surgeon on the different types of metal implants that would be best for the patient.
Another key difference was the minimally invasive nature of the procedure. The surgeon made the smallest incision possible, exposing very little of the patient’s body. This stood in sharp contrast to the orthopedic surgeries I had observed in India, where the exposed surgical area was far larger which revealed more of the internal anatomy.
Even though this wasn’t one of the longest or most complex surgeries I’ve observed (the surgery lasted only 30 minutes!), it was definitely an important moment for me. This taught me how surgeries are conducted in the United States and gave me a clear understand of what practicing here might look like the in the future.
