Overall, I enjoyed surgery rotation at NY Presbyterian at Flushing Queens. Each and every staff, nurse, surgeon, and resident were very helpful, willing to teach, and generally pleasant. I enjoyed observing and assisting in the operating room. At the beginning of my rotation, I spoke to the chief resident who assigns the cases that I would really like to be exposed to every surgery type the hospital offers. My main interests are GI and ENT. On the downside, the hours I spent in the hospital were at least 12 hours a day, which left me mentally and physically drained by the end of my shift. Despite that, the next day, I would get up at 4 am happy to start all over again and try my best to do a better job than the day before. I was essentially trying to prove myself, that I could do better.

This rotation was important for me because it cemented my choice of never going into surgery. I loved everything about this last rotation, but there are some specialties that are not for me, and I recognize that surgery is not for me.

I wanted to be able to do surgical knots and suturing at this site. A couple of surgeons and residents were patient enough to teach me, and I also spent time practicing on my own. I did some surgical knots with one hand and closed a surgical wound in my last weeks of the rotation.

When it comes to presenting a post-op patient, talking to the patient and reading the last notes are not enough. It was essential to personally gather information from the nurse in case there were any major or minor events in the last 12 hours or 24 hours. It was also important to evaluate the patient’s ins and outs (drinking or IV fluids and urine outputs), and know every subjective detail from the patient (if they had nausea, vomiting, how much pain, flatus, bowel movement, etc.) The patient’s vitals are important too, if the patient is febrile, did it coincide with tachycardia or hypoxia; all kinds of details are important to report.

I was surprised to learn from myself that I really liked surgery. I am not an early bird but for surgery I was in the hospital at 5am seeing my patient and getting ready for rounds at 6am. One of my most memorable experiences was when the surgeon taught me how to make an incision with a blade scalpel in a parathyroidectomy.

One of the colorectal surgeons who I spent the most time with taught me to do a digital rectal exam and how to report my findings correctly. Since I spent two afternoons doing sigmoidoscopies and colonoscopies, I became more confident doing the DRE.

The main difference in this rotation from others was the huge number of hours I spent in the hospital. There would be days where I neglected eating or sleeping. However, I believe that if I stayed longer at this rotation, I could be able to find other ways to be more efficient. This is relevant to my PA career because I know that at the beginning of my first job, I would want to learn everything and do a great job. At the beginning my presentations lacked some essential information, so the next day I would come to the hospital even earlier than usual to gather that information. Once I understood what was needed to present my patients, I didn’t have to come to the hospital that early.

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