My Surgery Rotation: The First Week

The first week was incredibly tough and involved crying every night. My surgery preceptor (I’ll call him Dr. B) is full of questions—and never the easy, unforgettable questions, but rather the piece together everything you know about anatomy, physiology of the body, medicine, and surgical procedures to come up with an answer. First, my mind goes blank when I’m put on the spot. Second, why can’t he ask some easy questions just for the sake of boosting my confidence? Third, it feels even harder when a close friend in the same rotation at a different location doesn’t get asked any questions and is having a seemingly easy time at her rotation.

My saving grace? After piecing together a few clues (a picture depicting Jesus Christ guiding the hand of the surgeon in the office and a daughter whose husband is attending Utah State) I figured out that he is a member of my church. He attends a different congregation, so I had never seen him before, but at least I knew that he should be a nice person. And he is. His intention is to teach his students how to think outside of textbooks and he has done that. He has always been a great teacher when I have been wrong and he never made comments that made me feel dumb (though I definitely feel like I didn’t know anything, hence the crying). I definitely feel like it was a tender mercy to be with Dr. B, because there were five other students vying for the same spot since he is such a good mentor.