Dewey+Jarvis

= = toc =Rotator Cuff Surgery=

**Goals:**
I had 3 primary goals when for this project:
 * 1) To shadow a surgeon through 3 rotator cuff surgeries.
 * 2) Observe his typical day at the hospital outside of the Operating Room.
 * 3) To write a good paper about the experience.

I set out to learn about every day surgeon work, treatment of patients, and hospital standards. The OR is a mysterious place, and only those who work in the surgical field know what happens on a regular basis. I have always wanted to know what surgeons go through every day. Is the room always bloody and gory? Is the surgery so disturbing that I would faint if i watched an operation? Do doctors really talk about their social lives while operating (as seen in Grey's Anatomy)? In doing this project i hoped to gain a better understanding of not only the delicacy, resiliency, and complexity of the human body ; but also the hospital standards, and the happenings of OR. I also expected to discover extent of the training surgeons must have in their knowledge of the body and operations; and their steady, precise hands.

**Discoveries:**
Aside from discovering loads of information about the rotator cuff, I learned a lot about surgeons and hospital procedures. In visiting the surgery I learned about hospital standards. Routines such as 3min 30sec hand washing and pre-surgery checklists showed me the priority they put on the well being of their patients. Touching back on my Grey's Anatomy question, the doctors are clean and serious in the OR only speaking about the task at hand. On a more personal note though, I discovered that I could handle watching an operation without fainting. I was surprised with the roughness of the surgeon during the open surgery, I had previously thought surgeons were always delicate. Dr. O'Keeffe would yank on the tendons and bones with surprising force, i was amazed with the stress that the old patient's body could withstand. I was also shocked to learn that surgeons are more than just people with steady hands; they are people who know how to talk to patients and who show true expertise in their field. Watching Dr. O'Keeffe calm the nerves of his patients along with demonstrating his endless knowledge of the Rotator Cuff Complex made me appreciate surgeons in a whole new way; they are people who put massive amounts of time into mastering their field. From this experience I will take away a completely new understanding of surgeons; an appreciation of their job, people skills, knowledge.

**Challenges:**
Because the project was a shadowing job there weren't any real difficulties for me. Some who shadow surgeons have a difficult time actually watching the surgery because of the blood and flesh, but that did not faze me. The only real difficulty that I experienced in the process was putting on shoe covers and getting an acceptable amount of hours. The standard boot covers issued by the hospital were much too small for my feet, and there is only so much time you can spend watching surgeries and sitting hanging out in a hospital.

**Solutions:**

 * 1) **Boot Problem:** I had to use full sized surgeon boots and even then it was hard to get them on and off. The process took a combined total of 15 minutes!
 * 2) **Time Problem:** I had to overcome this problem with research and communication. I filled the first few hours sending emails to Dr. O'Keeffe to organize the day, planning through his son Mike, and doing research on the area he would be operating on.

**Looking Back:**
If i could do this project again i would look into finding ways to take pictures in the hospital. When putting together my photo journal i used a lot of time searching for relevant images on Google. It would have been better if i had pictures from my experience.

**5 Tips:**
1. Make sure that you plan out all 15 hours of your work project so that you don't have to worry about it later.  2. The photo journal isn't as easy as it sounds, give yourself a solid amount of time to work on it.  3. Make installments in your paper rather than trying to write it all on the weekend or night before it is due. This will give you some time to proof read.  4. Make sure that you can communicate with the supervisor of your work project, there is nothing worse than being unable to contact the person your shadowing.  5. Have options. Don't rely on one idea, have a back up plan if your original plan doesn't pull through.