Surgeons perform different types of surgeries on a daily basis and the rate of difficulty differs from one another as well. Some surgeons perform an operation that could take only about an hour and a half of the clock while some surgical operators do 24 hours of surgery, although this is not the average lengthy surgery since some surgeries could undergo for hundreds of hours or days with rests in between the surgeries.
It is no wonder that surgery regardless of the number of hours spent on them, every surgical operation is equally daunting and tense because performing surgery on a person is a heavy responsibility since their lives are entrusted to the hands of a professional.
Surgeons have to constantly deal with the pressure every single time, and it is only normal for every person to take some time to relax or take a short break from a stressful situation to allow oneself to recover rather than burning out, although some people are just pure workaholics.
But for surgeons, what do they do after performing an intense surgery? Do they still have time to recuperate from the number of exhausting surgeries?
How Can A Surgeon Work for More than 24 Hours Straight?
Do you ever wonder how can surgeons work more than a regular person could? Sure teenagers can stay up late until the wee hours of the day but surgeons can withstand more than any other people could.
Like it was previously mentioned in the introduction, surgery does not only take an hour to finish but it could go over for a day or more with rests in between before continuation.
Since every surgical operation is performed by surgical teams, surgeons are still given the chance to rest easy for a brief moment since they will always be backed up by their surgical team members. If a surgical team has to perform a very intense surgery, some of the members can take a short break however, there are times when the lead surgeon has to stay in operating a patient.
Another factor as to why surgeons are able to be the nocturnal creatures that they are is because they drink coffee at work, perhaps not just a cup but more than that just so they could stay awake and alert for when an emergency comes. Hospital environments are very unpredictable since unfortunate events or patient visits could be very sudden and unexpected. No one will ever know whether an accident could occur any moment which is why surgeons have to prepare for any situation, critical or not, they will have to make themselves available.
Post-Surgery Activities of Surgeons
Once surgeons had finished their surgical operation on their patients, the patient will be prepped for post-surgery care by the rest of the surgical team and the patient will be transferred from the operation table to the bed so that the patient could recover inside PACU or a room called Post Anesthesia Care Unit. Whilst the patient is being brought to the room, the surgeon will then talk to relatives of the patients in order to update them about the current situation of the patient. If the patient does not have a relative for the surgeon to inform about their condition, then they could still inform an indirect relationship of the patient about their condition.
After informing the patient’s kin or relative, surgeons will head to their surgical team members and thank them for their cooperation and for doing a great job in the surgery.
Another activity that every surgeon does after surgery is to scrub themselves and remove their gloves and surgical gown to get rid of bacteria or other substances that clung onto their scrubs and gloves during the surgery. At some times, if the surgery was very intense, surgeons head to the bathroom to change their clothes to refreshen themselves after the long hours of a surgical operation. Surgeons also go to laboratories if they found something inside the patient’s body such as a tumor for the purposes of further research regarding the findings that could have anything to do with their condition or disease.
Once the surgeons have fully freshened themselves up, they do some paperwork in their office regarding the patient they just operated on in order to document the condition of the patient. After that or probably at the same time, surgeons eat and drink some snacks, then they will proceed to the next surgery if there is one in their queue. Some surgeons even mentioned that they go out for a smoke to ease themselves after their previous surgery and for the next one.
Some surgeons do not really have the time to relax inside the medical establishments since they are not only assigned to one patient each day. Although some surgeons could still hang out or just sit at the lounge or their offices alone or with their colleagues just so they could catch their breaths and prepare themselves for the next surgery they will perform.
The Bottomline
After long hours that could melt to days inside the medical establishments, surgeons still go to work like they usually do. We should understand that a surgeon’s job is not easy since they carry a huge baggage of responsibility of saving and curing people on their hands. They are constantly anxious about a patient’s condition since they are afraid that they could have done an error, even if it is a minor error, which could possibly make things go awry.
They do not have a lot of vacations or a day off from work since they are always at the beck and call once a patient comes in a hospital who is in need of surgery while the other surgeons are unavailable.
Surgeons have to be considered as one of the world’s heroes since they have sacrificed so much such as their sleep all for the safety of their patients and for giving them another opportunity to live their lives through their dexterity in medicine and surgical operations.
Sources:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2006/08/how-do-surgeons-work-for-26-hours-straight.html
https://www.quora.com/What-do-surgeons-do-after-they-finish-a-surgery
https://www.choc.org/programs-services/surgery/before-during-and-after-surgery/