Today was the last day of the hospital. We got there at our normal times. Today we just shadowed Thomas around for one last time on the normal day. We gave Thomas and Mrs. Scanlon the cards we made them and they were very appreciative. We said goodbye to all the other friends we made at the hospital and thanked them for this wonderful experience. To celebrate the last day, we went to Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville on the way home from the hospital. Mrs. Scanlon treated us to lunch and we thanked her for this wonderful experience. I am so blessed to have gotten the opportunity to see such an amazing opportunity.
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Today, we had yet again normal hours volunteering at the hospital. Thomas had plans for us to see the robot that does surgeries at the hospital. The machine is worth over a million dollars. They call the machine (model called da Vinci Xi) chester. The machine has a lot of benefit in surgeries. The patient has less recovery time and it allows the surgeon to be way more precise. It took Thomas a good 15 minutes to set up the machine. He was explaining what he was doing as he set it up. Then he let each of us play with the machine. There is a "game" which is basically a simulation that lets people practice using the machine. It give you a score at the end and I got 75 which is really good. After we used the machine we went to the gift shop because we had not been there yet. We started talking to a lady and she was saying how awesome it was we got the opportunity to do this. After our day we went to lunch at Brew bakers again. It was delicious. Today we had our normal work hours at the hospital. When we arrived Thomas took us to the BIOMED offices. It is a large room where all the biomedical engineers work. There are about 10 desk areas, and the room is filled with a bunch of different types of wires and machines. It is where all the biomeds do their desk work. The whole day, we hung around and made friends with the biomedical engineers. They were all super nice and taught us a lot about the hospital and engineering. We even got to watch them fix some of the surgeons instruments. It was super cool to be able to people do exactly what I want to do. On our day off we are getting gifts for the people that have gone out of their way for us. For Mrs. Scanlon, we are getting her a 50 dollar bone fish grill gift card and a 20 dollar sephora gift card.
For Thomas, we picked up a card and a 100 dollar gift card to brew bakers, his favorite restaurant. Some questions I have thought of are:
What is the best part about your job? Thomas said that he likes helping people. What is the worst part about your job? "Sometimes I never get a minute to sit down. I always have to go go go." How long did it take you to learn how to do the checks on all these types of machines? It took me a while. Since I have been working here for a long time it has gotten easier. However, I am always learning something new. Do you plan to make more ideas with patents in the future? "It is somewhat hard to get a patent. However, if possible I would like to" I plan to ask him these questions and blog the answers in a future post. Also, I am thinking of investing in more scrubs because washing the one pair that I own every day is a hassle. I have also been thinking of some questions for myself: Do I want to minor in biomedical engineering at tech or is my heart in computer science? I really like the medical field, so I think that I want to do biomedical engineering. Would I want to have a double minor in German? Would a German minor be useful? I think that If I have the opportunity I would like to do a minor in German. Are the hours that go along with being a biomedical engineer good for me? The hours are less hectic that a surgeon, so I will still have time to myself. Today was another hectic day for Thomas. He had a lot of calls to the OR to fix things and a lot of machines to check. So, when he picked us up from the cafeteria at our usual time, he said, "I am gonna try to get each of you guys into a surgery today". We were all so excited and it was what we were waiting for! We went to see David who is the director of all of the surgeries. He found 3 surgeries that were about to begin. He asked all of us, "Who here has the strongest stomach"? We all raised our hands. So, instead of choosing for us, he wrote down the surgery room numbers all down on a piece of paper. Serena got to see a left clavicle surgery which is when they repair the collar bone. Ryan got to see an appendix removal surgery. I got to see liver tumor removal surgery. I walked into the room and David introduced me to the nurses and CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologist). They were prepping for the surgery. The CRNA called me over, and he was so nice. He told me all about working in the OR. Then they wheeled the patient in. They transferred him from the transport bed to the surgeon table. The physician checked him and gave the clear to start the surgery. Then, the CRNA, Kyle, started giving the patient medicine. The surgeon came in and began the surgery. They explained to me that they were going to try to not cut the patient all the way open. However, they did not know if they would be able to just use the video camera view because the liver bleeds a lot. They ended up cutting the patient open, and the surgeon called me over a and showed me all of the patients organs. The surgery was scheduled to be over 4 hours, and I only was able to stay for two and a half hours. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. After are long and exciting day, Mrs. Scanlon took us to Brewbakers for lunch. Today was one of the hardest days to wake up to leave for the hospital. Ryan, Serena, and I were still tired from yesterdays trip really early. We left at the normal time today. We were planning on spending a little less time with Thomas today because Mrs. Molly wanted to show us how to get packages the remaining time. Like usual, we got to the hospital with enough time to get a Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuit. Thomas picked us up, and he said, "before we do the usual routine of traveling to different surgeries to fix the equipment and calibrating/doing equipment checks, I want to show you guys how the surgeon tools are cleaned. The sterilization process happens on another floor than the OR. Thomas explained that there is two whole separate elevators from the OR. One elevator is the sterile elevator. The other elevator is the dirty elevator. So, dirty equipment can only go down the dirty equipment. Equipment that is clean and ready to be used must go up the clean elevator. We went down the dirty elevator, and we saw the machines and washers that clean the equipment. Thomas said that first the equipment goes through a long wash to get all of the dirty particles off of the instrument. Then, he says that the instrument is put under extremely high heat for a long time to sterilize the instrument. Thomas also told us that some ORs have mini sterilization machines in case someone drops an instrument they can sterilize it quickly to use it on the same person. After Thomas explained the sterilization process, we did our usual routine. Each day we learn more and more about the equipment. When we were finished with Thomas, Mrs. Molly took us to the loading doc. Mrs. Scanlon is a sales rep; so, she sells instruments and machines from Johnson and Johnson to the hospital. She explained to us how to mark that you have received a package in a notebook. She said that in future days she might have us come and get a package for her. Today was a really informative day of how the hospital works. Today, we woke up a little bit earlier than usual. We wanted to arrive at the hospital early so we would have time to take some pictures and explore different parts. We left the house at 5:00 this morning. When we got to the hospital around 6:15 we had about 45 minutes to look around. In this time, we weren't having to rush around or get anywhere fast. So, we were able to study how the hospital was laid out. In just that short amount of time, I felt like I knew the hospital really well. Thomas came to pick us up from the cafeteria like usual. He said, "Today, I have an important task for you guys." He explained that the hospital has been crazy today. He said He has gotten so many calls into surgery to fix equipment which is the most important thing he does in his job. However, Surgeon Harding needed a camera head equipment because he wanted to record the surgery he was doing that afternoon in order to educate others on his trip to Africa. Also, he was live streaming it to a college. So, Thomas took us to the machine storage room that we had been in many times before. He went to a empty table and put out the machine head camera equipment he had. He also gave us a laptop. He said our job was to set up the camera and connect it to the laptop. Thomas then left to go help in another surgery. We began to set up the video set equipment. We had to plug a USB port into the computer and go to a certain program on the computer. Then we could see the video from the headset! The focus of the camera was blurry, so we adjusted it. Also, we turned on the headlight to make sure the light bulb worked. We adjusted the location of the camera so that what the surgeon is looking at the camera would be at the right angle to record. Thomas came in and checked our work. He said it looked great and that Surgeon Harding would be very thankful we got it to work. For the rest of the day, we traveled around the OR and helped Thomas fix machines, We left at are usual time 1. It was a great day. On my day off I have begin to think about some questions to ask Thomas. Some questions I have thought of are: What is the best part about your job? What is the worst part about your job? How long did it take you to learn how to do the checks on all these types of machines? Do you plan to make more ideas with patents in the furture? I plan to ask him these questions and blog the answers in a future post. Also, I am thinking of investing in more scrubs because washing the one pair that I own every day is a hassle. I have also been thinking of some questions for myself: Do I want to minor in biomedical engineering at tech or is my heart in computer science? Would I want to have a double minor in German? Would a German minor be useful? Are the hours that go along with being a biomedical engineer good for me? I am very grateful that I have gotten the chance to experience what it is like to be a biomedical engineer. It is so impact for me because I can decide if it is something that I think I actually want to do before college. I can't wait for my next day. Today was the third day of the internship. As usual, we worked from 7a.m. - 3p.m.. We met Thomas in the cafeteria, and today he took us back to the OR. When we arrived in the OR section of the hospital, we put our masks, googles, and hair nets back on. Thomas then took us to each room they were doing surgery in. The OR rooms have windows on the doors so we watched the surgery through the window. He explained that the OR hospital hallways are divided in to surgery category. The first hallway has bone and smaller surgery, like eye surgery. Then the next hallway has brain and heart surgery. The last hallway has knee replacement and hip replacement type surgery. After Thomas explained this, we walked down all the hallways and looked in to the window of the surgeries. When we were watching the heart surgery, the safety inspector of the hospital came to talk to us. He asked us where we were from, and explained what they were doing in the heart surgery. He explained that the surgeon was removing a vein from the patients leg, and in order to put the vein around the heart to fix the issue that the heart was not getting enough blood. Next, we walked passed brain, neck, and hip replacement surgeries. Mrs. Scanlon was in the hip replacement OR room. Since she is a rep, her job is to sell medical equipment from her company to the hospital. So, she goes into the surgery to explain how the device works and to sell the product. Mrs. Scanlon took Ryan, Serena, and I in one by one to view the surgery from inside the room for a few minutes. Watching surgery happen that close was amazing to me. It was so incredible that the surgeon was that confident in himself. After we met up with Mrs. Scanlon for a little while, Thomas took us to an empty OR room. There he showed us all about the anesthesia machine. He explained that the hospital had just updated all of their machines, so this machine was brand new. He said that he tells the doctors that there is a series of test they must do before they use the machine. While there is a manual pump that breaths for the patient if the automatic one fails, it is always best for the machine to be checked to prevent other issues like leaks. He said that the anesthesiologist or CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) works the machine to keep the patient asleep. The anesthesiologist usually tells the patient to count down from 10 and then they wake up in the recovery room. He says that that job is very high risk because there is a small range of dosage that the patient is allowed to have. After the awesome day of work we had, we stooped at Mrs. Scanlons favorite sushi place on the way home for lunch. Today was the most enriching day of the internship yet. |
Author: Ali AdamsI am a senior at Freedom High School. I will be attending Virginia Tech for Engineering in the fall. Archives |