The Role of a Medical Student in a Surgical Team - Essay Example

'The Role of a Medical Student in a Surgical Team' is a great example of a paper on surgery and rehabilitation. 
In normal practice, while medical students are undertaking their courses they are required to go for exposure or practical lessons at an actual health facility whereby they will be able to practice whatever they learnt in the classroom. Dent and Harden (2013) stated that these practices are aimed at assessing the level of knowledge for the students and even their accuracy in applying what was taught in the classroom, which means that students’ performance during the practical is computed to the overall grade for the entire course.

I have personally also undertaken my medical practice as part of my course requirement in a local hospital where I was lucky to get an opportunity as an attaché or medical student. As part of giving me a wide exposure on all the key departments and functions within a hospital, I was assigned in a rational manner to different doctors working in different departments and the most memorable experience I got was when I was assigned to the surgery department.

While in this department, I was allowed to participate in minor roles during surgeries so that I can gain practical knowledge of how surgeries are performed. In all the surgeries that I attended, two particular surgeons always prayed before beginning any surgical procedure, one of whom was a Hindu while the other was a Christian. While conducting their prayers I noted that the other surgeons, as well as nurses, respected their privacy and this reminded me that hospitals are made of people with diverse cultural backgrounds. Therefore, to co-exist peacefully with other practitioners I will have to learn how to be tolerant and respectful to different cultures as well as religion (Hebert, 2009).

During surgeries, I was assigned to minor functions such as assisting the surgeons to dress-up while preparing to perform an operation and this included assisting them to put on gloves, surgical coats, and caps. Afterwards, I would be required to stand behind the surgeons as I watch them perform the surgical procedure and provide them with different surgical equipment that they require to carry on with the surgery (Skinner, 2000). During one of the surgeries that involved removing a bullet from the back of a man who had been shot, the senior surgeon placed me on the spot by requesting me to clean up the wound and go ahead with making small incisions to enable the retrieval of the bullet that had gone deep into the flesh.

Generally, while participating in the surgical operations I learnt that it is crucial for all the participating surgeons and nurses to be very attentive, keen on details, and accurate. This is because it is a delicate process of which a simple mistake such as using the wrong blade or cutting too deep or shallow on the flesh can cause great complications to the patient, which according to Kirk (2010) have the potential of endangering a patient’s life. Therefore, it is necessary to develop extreme confidence in the skills that one has in order to ensure that a surgery process goes on smoothly and the patient is able to recover his/ her full health (Sherris, and Kern, 2004).