The last day of our summer internship was spend in a operation room for me! Although we heard from Dr. Chen that there will be a PAD surgery this morning, it was canceled when we inquired about it. Since our morning was originally scheduled for that, we end up having some time on our own. Like mentioned before, due to the rotations I choose, I did not have a chance to see any live operation throughout this internship. With the unexpected free time, we asked Dr. Ding (the neurosurgeon from Nicole's rotation) if we can join him in the operation room and he graciously allowed. It was an eye-opening experience for me. I scrubbed myself in for the first time, changed into scrubs for the first time, and stepped into a real operation room for the first time! I was worried in the beginning since I did not know anything about the surgery procedure and the fact that we have not covered neurology in class did not help either. However, I was able to pass without any major disturbance to the surgery and even managed to learn many things through the experience. Although we can only observe, I learned many things from Dr. Ding. Not only did I get to see a surgery right in front of me, I was able to see how a slight negligence from another doctor (the patient's back pain was probably due to some loose screws from previous spondylolisthesis treatment) can have enormous effect on the patient's life. Also, I was able to observe how different departments, from surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and even biomedical equipment companies work together in one operation.
As the day draw to a close, we all commented on how we could not believe that four weeks can fly by so fast. This trip was truly an eye-opening experience for all of us. We have learned in this four weeks so much that it is impossible to list all of them here. It not only taught us many clinical knowledge that can only be learned during actual practice and not from the textbooks, it also taught us what it means to be a physician: the responsibility and all the hard work behind the title, and of course, the sense of pride and fulfillment that can only come when you know that what you do each day helps improve and sometimes even save another human being's life and does really make a difference in this world. I will never forget the past four weeks I spend in Taipei Hospital and all the wonderful doctors, nurses, and staffs who mentored us, helped us, and without whom we will genuinely be lost in our exploration. I would also like to say a special thank you to the TIHTC staff (Annie, Yuyu, Jessica, and Angie) and Superintendent Lin for all the hospitality and kindness they have shown us and for making this collaboration possible. I sincerely hope that this collaboration will continue to grow and future classes can also have the chance to experience all the wonders and treasures we found this summer.
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