As a breast surgeon, operating is part of what I do. But, if you have never had the need to have surgery (and I hope you keep it that way), you may wonder what happens inside an operating theatre? How does the day run? Who makes sure that all the equipment is ready? How are the patients prepared?
Well, this episode is a snippet of what happens behind the scenes of an operating day. If you want to learn more about what I get up to on an operating day, then this episode is for you.
As a summary, my day looks like this:
- Wake up, make sure I eat a healthy breakfast. Of course coffee is a given.
- Drive to work, with a bit more coffee from my trusted and very battered flask (I need to get a new one).
- Arrive at work, go to theatre complex, change into scrubs.
- See patients on the ward, make sure they are consented and the correct site is marked. Answer any last minute questions.
- Team briefing.
- Operate.
- Lunch in between patients.
- More operating.
- End the day with a cup of tea and biscuit.
Of course, this is a slight simplification of what ACTUALLY happens. In fact, so many things happen in the background to prepare for the day. This preparation can take a few days depending on various complexities that can be related either to the patient or equipment. We also need to make sure that enough team members of the necessary skill mix are available to help on the day. Things we don’t really think about, but are just so important and necessary.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Let me know if you would like me to do more of these behind the scenes type of episodes and I may do some more if it proves helpful.
Can you help out?
If you are enjoying the My Breast My Health podcast and find it useful, I would be really grateful if you could leave a rating and review. This will help me produce more content and bring value to more people.
You can do this by clicking on Apple Podcast, scroll down to the bottom, rate with the stars and then select ‘Write a Review’. Do let me know which episodes you found useful and what you loved about them.
If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, then do subscribe to the podcast. You can do it at Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts and other podcast apps that take your fancy.
A year ago almost to the day, I recorded an episode taking you behind the scenes in a hospital. I describe the challenges and the changes we had to make in order to continue to run a breast cancer service for our patients. If you want to check out the episode, listen here.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LISTENING
