This past month I completed my Surgery rotation at NYPQ Hospital, where I got to rotate through the General Surgery, Urology, and Neurosurgery services. While on General Surgery, I was assigned to the Green Team, which is the team that handles all emergent general surgery cases. These cases included anything from appendectomies for appendicitis, the surgical and non-surgical management of bowel obstructions, and most frequently cholecystectomies for acute cholecystitis. Each morning I would present one patient that I was following throughout their hospital course to my team during morning rounds, which gave me great exposure as to how rounding with a large team is, alongside interns, residents, chief residents and surgical PAs. The team of residents and PAs were also extremely knowledgeable and eager to teach, and I therefore learned a lot of important and valuable lessons that will benefit me moving forward.

After morning rounds, I was assigned to various surgeries where I got to learn surgical skills from brilliant attending surgeons alongside residents. These surgeries consisted of cases from different General Surgery teams, including emergent general surgery, colorectal surgery, breast surgery, and trauma surgery. Although each surgery has one resident officially first-assisting the attending surgeon, I was able to get very hands on during the procedures and build on both my surgical skills and medical knowledge. The attendings and residents always took the time to explain complex things to me, include me in their discussions, and many also offered me the opportunity to practice suturing. Aside from suturing incisions, I got to hold laparoscopic tools and place screws in for rib plating. Above all, my experience with General Surgery was amazing because of my preceptors, Sherry and Laura, who are both General Surgery PAs. They took the time every morning to give me constructive feedback on my presentations, made sure I was assigned to an adequate number and range of surgeries during the day, and always made sure to inform me about surgeries in areas I was most interested in so that I could get more exposure with those types of cases. For instance, after telling my preceptors that I enjoyed the breast and hernia cases the most, they made sure to get me in to multiple breast and hernia cases throughout the week. Additionally, they also taught me how to be more comfortable presenting H&Ps and gave me great pointers on writing focused and extensive H&Ps that highlighted the most important information.

After the first two weeks I switched from General Surgery to Urology, where I got to spend 1 week with the Urology team, which is all PA run. I actually loved working on a specialty surgery service, especially at this hospital, because the PAs had so much autonomy. The PAs worked very closely with the attending urologists, who demonstrated complete respect and trust toward the PAs. The PAs themselves also taught me a ton of information that is relevant to almost all specialties, such as signs, symptoms, workup, and management of sepsis and septic shock and UTIs. I also got to spend a lot of time in the OR with the chief urology resident, who was always eager to teach me and get me more involved in procedures. On my last day in Urology I got to first-assist two circumcisions and scrub into a robotic adrenalectomy, which were great experiences. Then during my last week I was with the Neurosurgery team, which I absolutely loved. This service too is totally PA-run, and since there were no residents, I along with one of the PAs got to scrub into and assist the Neurosurgery cases. I especially loved scrubbing into a brain tumor resection and complex spinal surgery that included an L2 fracture repair, epidural tumor resection, and laminectomy. Overall, I had a really great experience rotating in General Surgery as well as the specialty surgery services, and hope to get more OR experience in the future!