5 Things I Learned as a Surgical Patient During My Clerkship Year

To say that my psychiatry clerkship did not go as planned would be an understatement. What I thought was just a sick day turned into an ED visit, which extended into a three-week long hospital stay with multiple surgeries and a wound vac.

This was exactly half-way through my clerkship year, and I was starting to realize that surgery was the field for me. However, my hospital stay was my first exposure to the field of general surgery, and there were times during this experience where I feared it would steal my desire for this career. Instead, my experience gave me an invaluable perspective on what patients and families wanted from their surgical team, and this left me feeling inspired. I learned tangible ways to contribute to patient-centered care, and I brought these things to the wards when I started back on my clerkships.

So for the medical students, residents, pre-meds… or honestly anyone involved in the surgical care of a patient, here are 5 things that I appreciated/wanted as a patient that you can do to help.

1. Hold the patient’s hand as they undergo anesthesia or any bedside procedure

The OR is a terrifying place for the patient. Although we are desensitized as members of healthcare, the concept of entrusting a stranger to make decisions about your body is unnerving and leaves you feeling powerless. I felt this way as I sat on the cold metal table with everyone bustling around me. But when the anesthesiologist grabbed my hand, it felt like he was acknowledging the fear of the situation. I can vividly remember the comfort brought by squeezing his hand as I drifted off to sleep.

And this isn’t limited to the OR. Once back on clerkships I held people’s hands during bone marrow biopsies, epidurals, spinal taps, NG tube placements, wound dressing changes… literally anything that is painful for the patient. It was always met with a grateful smile.

2. Walk the hallway or do incentive spirometry with your post-op patients

As a patient in significant pain and on a lot of narcotics, it is HARD to find the motivation to get out of bed. I was lucky to have family and friends visit who encouraged me to walk and use my spirometer, but many of our patients don’t have this kind of support system. This is the perfect job for the medical student as it contributes to patient care, and it relieves the stress of the overworked/understaffed nurses and residents. Even on days that I couldn’t go on long walks with patients, I would spend 5 minutes in between cases doing spirometry with them. Of course, check in with your team first to make sure this is okay, as some patients are not cleared to walk around the hall.

3. Check-In with your patients in the afternoon

Patients rely on the updates from their team during morning rounds, but the afternoon and evening is often empty as teams are charting or operating. Especially when a question from morning rounds goes unaddressed, that afternoon silence can often feel like neglect. This silence changed for me after my second surgery. The surgeon would come in every single afternoon, squat by my bedside, and just chat with me for 5 minutes. This second opportunity to ask questions and advocate for myself made a huge difference in the level of care I felt like I was receiving.

Even if you’re not the attending, you can still provide this extra layer of care by stopping by the patient’s room in the afternoon to ask if they have any questions you can relay to the team.

4. Advocate for your patient when they’re in pain

In health care, we deal with so many people in pain that it can feel like the norm, but we forget how debilitating and consuming that pain is for the patient. I spent several days fruitlessly self- advocating for a better pain regiment when I was in the hospital, but consistently felt like I wasn’t being heard.

As a medical student, you can be another voice for your patient’s pain by suggesting a switch in pain management during your presentation in morning rounds. This brings the issue to your team’s attention from an “objective” source, and also presents a learning opportunity.

5. Don’t be scared to admit to the patient how much it sucks

As a patient, I became extremely frustrated when terrible experiences like NG tube insertions or wound vac changes were prefaced/summarized as “uncomfortable”. Minimizing the pain of these experiences by describing them as uncomfortable felt very invalidating. Just once, I would have loved if someone told me “This will hurt like hell”.

Although this phrasing is not everyone’s style, you can demonstrate awareness for the patient’s experience by avoiding the word uncomfortable when describing something objectively painful.

There are myriad lessons I took from my time as a surgical patient, but these are a handful of action items that anyone can implement which truly contribute to patient-centered care. These practices have given me great insight as to what kind of surgeon I want to be, and through them, even the darkest parts of my journey have become a source of light for others. I share this article with you today in hopes that this light can extend beyond my own reach.

Gianna is a medical student who aims to build a culture of person-centered care within the field of surgery.

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The opinions expressed in the article is not affiliated with any institution, company or product. The article should not be interpreted as medical advice.