Tales from the operating room: opportunities for holistic nursing practice.

摘要

At a dinner party with close friends last week, I was surprised to hear their son (a first year medical student at a large, urban university) talking about his recent experience in an operating room (OR) of the university hospital. Still taking his general science courses, he has not had any experience with patients, assessment, manual skills, or any clinical time as yet. In the first year, each student has the opportunity to observe in a variety of clinical areas of practice. My friend's son-we shall call him John-was scheduled for an introductory day in the OR. Surprisingly, he was asked to scrub in, and after the surgeon drew a line with a felt tipped pen down the patient's side, John was handed the scalpel and told to cut. "Just follow the line I drew," said the surgeon. When the cut was not deep enough, the surgeon then put his hand over John's and retraced, pressing harder to cut through to the right depth.