I finished my surgery rotation a few weeks ago and really loved both of the specialties that I had the chance to rotate on. (my transplant surgery post is here) While with the cardiothoracic surgeons I was able to not only see amazing surgeries and meet many patients, I also had a great experience talking with the cardiac anesthesiologists and watch them work through each case. There was a lot to learn, and I didn't learn as much as I'd like to since I only had three weeks there and I had my shelf exam looming over me the last week, but I still had an incredible three weeks. I am very interested to learn more if I have some free time...
We started the day with surgeries that began at 7:00 a.m. The surgeries usually lasted until the afternoon. Sometimes we would have another surgery after that. I enjoyed following the patients after surgery the most, especially while they were in the ICU and learning a bit more about all of the machines and medicines they needed. I followed some patients each week and typically had the chance to follow them from surgery until they left the hospital, it was really awesome to see patients that had open heart surgery one day walking up and down the halls the next day! After surgeries and rounding on patients, I usually went home around 5:30-6:30 p.m.