I can't believe I'm already about to start the 2nd week of my 4th rotation (Emergency Medicine)! My previous rotations were two family medicine rotations and surgery. A lot of students, including myself, are nervous for their surgery rotation. I actually really liked my surgery rotation, except for the early hours (I had to wake up at 4:15AM every weekday morning). During my surgery rotation, I was able to scrub in on many surgeries (laparoscopic appendectomies, lap cholecystectomies, bowel resections, gastric bypasses, lipoma excisions, etc.), suture lap port sites, and maneuver the camera during laparoscopic surgeries. It was a great experience! Here are some tips and things you can do to prepare for your surgery rotation:
1. Brush up on your suture skills. // Practice simple interrupted subcuticular and running subcuticular sutures since those are most likely the types you will use to close lap port sites. Make sure to practice suturing while wearing gloves to mimic the real thing!
2. Practice tying surgical knots. // Make sure you can tie one-handed and two-handed surgical knots. Again, wear gloves while practicing! I used
this video to learn two-handed knot tying and
this video to learn one-handed knot tying. You can start out by practicing with shoe strings and then move on to sutures. You just need to tie the shoe string or suture to something stationary.
