Surgeons : The Health Of Society

In the “Surgeon as Priest,” Richard Selzer dives into the religious and scientific aspects of being a surgeon. He explores and divides the certain aspects of “healing” into five parts, each section demonstrating the different perspectives on healing (spiritually & scientifically) that eventually builds the metaphorical bridge between surgeon and priest. With the use of figurative language and other rhetorical devises, he connects each section of his essay to show his transformation from a scientific healer to a spiritual healer.

The ABC television drama “Grey's Anatomy” written by Shonda Rhimes and produced by Ann Kindberg, is a popular medical drama about a group of surgeons who work at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in Seattle, Washington. The show focuses mostly around the main character, Meredith Grey, who is at first is a surgical resident and soon becomes a general surgeon, her background story, relationships with others, and her life as a surgeon. The storyline, big-time surgeries/medical cases, intense scenes, and romantic chemistry between the characters make “Grey’s Anatomy” a successful medical show.

There are many reasons to become a surgical technologist, and numerous information reasons why I want to take this course. Taking this class made me see a whole other side of the profession then when I was doing my research. I have learned so much about the changes in medicine and about surgical technology itself that it’s hard for me to put in all in one paper. Through the course of this paper I will go over my own reasons to take the course, things that I personally learned over the last eight weeks, what my plans for the future are, and the different qualities that are needed in the field.

The role of the nurse anesthetist gradually developed as the demand increased for individuals who were highly and meticulously trained in anesthesia administration in an era where knowledge of germs, antisepsis and surgical interventions was emerging. During the 1800s, medical students were often responsible in the administration of anesthesia under the direct supervision of surgeons but the increased mortality rates in intraoperative patients suggested the need to reevaluate who would provide anesthesia. As a result of negative patient outcomes, surgeons turned to nurses, who served to be an adequate and reliable replacement. This trend proved to be catalytic in the movement of the nurse anesthetist.

Within the last 10 years, the “Baby Boomer” generation is aging, and surgeries have become safer overtime, job opportunities for Surgical Technologists are expected to grow between 2012 and 2022 (“Association of Surgical Technologist”, 2011). As advancements in surgical technology are made, Surgical Technologist students will have to continue to grow through education on the use and sterilization of newer instruments, such as robotic tools. Surgical technologists mainly work within the OR of hospitals, but one report states that

It was not until the development of safe blood transfusions and antibiotics such as penicillin in the early 1940s that surgery became relatively safe.” (R Cooter, 1993, L Davis, 1955, J Duffin, H Ellis, 2001, J Le Fanu, 1999, S H Greenblatt, 1997, R Holmes, 2002, L Klenerman, 2002, C Lawrence, 1992, T Treasure, 2003, R Porter, 1997, F G Slaughter,

(History of Nurse Anesthesia Practice. 2010, May), (Koch, E., Downey, P., Kelly, J. W., & Wilson, W. 2001).

Unfortunately, this practice caused more problems for the patients, such as death. During the Civil War, anesthesia, a drug used to numb the body was introduced to make procedures manageable for the patient and the doctor. Due to the

Although these surgeson were trying to avoid posing of system the surgical tools they used were made with Mercury a highly toxic element; this was also a case of trial and error during the time to better the doctors knowledge. With the case of trial and error brought about many medical theories. Some of these doctors professed that these different theories were helpful like the acid/alkaline theory, others like, the Four Humor Theory of Medicine, was thought to be ludicrous.(Chachoua,2013) These ideas of the different theories shed the spectrum of formal knowledge the doctors knew to the informal knowledge. With this whole era of lacking knowledge slowly progressed into knowing more throughout the later

While taking in each detail of the surgery, I witnessed the specialized skills required to make the incision and insert the tube through the patient’s chest. The physician’s success in carrying out the skills reminded me of the techniques I had mastered for my microbiology thesis. I found the missing link between my fascination with surgery and my thesis research: patient-centered care. I was awestruck by the physician’s ability to maintain focus on the chest tube insertion while simultaneously providing emotional support to the patient throughout the surgery. Witnessing the procedure instilled a deep desire to develop the physician’s abilities to deliver life-saving, patient-centered care.

Surgery was always considered a somewhat brutal specialty by many at the time and its development was always limited by pain and infectious complications. Abdominal surgery was almost always fatal, and even cases that seemed fairly accessible to surgeons were often failures. [7] In 1812 an article described the catastrophic failure of surgeons to treat meningoceles showing that most children undergoing the procedure died of septic complications. It was later in 1846 that Henry Biglow published an article based on the work of William Morton describing the groundbreaking use of inhaled anesthesia and its use in transforming the surgical field. [8]

The field of medicine has been constantly progressing through the centuries with surgery, as one of its most fundamental structure of medicine. Cutting people open to find the harm and relieving them of it. But as the field of surgery progress over time; the surgical environment has developed a gender sphere that makes it difficult for women to become surgeons. The glass ceiling is a political metaphor that exists to explain the gender disadvantages within disciplined jobs (The Glass Ceiling Effect*). Women today, regardless of their qualifications face an obstacle that “appear[s] to be a distinctively gender phenomenon” (1) in any highly disciplined jobs, especially in the field of surgery.

Grey’s Anatomy has a realistic feel. The series indicates actual circumstances. For instance the main setting takes place in a hospital were surgeons spend the majority of their time. Throughout all thirteen seasons you are watching doctors treat and diagnose patients. Doctors are going through the steps of running tests, coming up with treatments plans and performing all kinds of surgeries from an Appendectomy to a heart transplant. The television series shows when running tests or the doctors common knowledge with medicine doesn’t seem to work or treat the patient properly they research the symptom’s, the causes, and why something would work for one patient and not another then they find the best way to treat each patient just as you would see or experience if you were an actual patient being seen in your town hospital. The viewer can get a sense of what it takes to become a surgeon. Starting fresh out of medical

In the late 18th century some doctors noticed that being dirty and lacking sanitation increased the rate of infection. It would take 50 years for true progress to start being made in the antisepsis technology as a result of Louis Pasteur’s development of the germ theory. Following this Lister invented a carbolic acid spray, which would be sprayed on wounds and pumped into the air surrounding an operation. Following this many layers of bandages were put on the wounds. Carbolic Acid and simply washing one’s hands was the extent of antiseptics and sterilization at the time of Joseph Lister (“Antiseptics”). Next, antiseptics and sterilization have improved greatly since the times of Joseph Lister. Antibiotics have been developed that can combat infection from within the body, and surgeries and operation have also become safer due to enhanced hygiene. A much larger arsenal of antiseptics have additionally been developed such as hydrogen peroxide, boric acid, iodine, and formaldehyde. Using heat to disinfect materials has also become extremely popular and can be used to sterilize a wide variety of materials

Apart from being one of most interesting settings in the nursing field, day surgery unwraps the full experience for nursing students to learn and also develop repetitive knowledge on what to expect before, during , and after each surgery, as well as the roles of each nurse within those parameters. Being inside the surgery room was an amazing experience because you get to see different operations performed by different health care professionals. Every surgeon does the sugary differently, meaning that same procedure is performed but adding or subtracting essential steps that makes each surgeon unique. Nurses also play an essential role in each surgery but their imperative duty is less than surgeons, but as equal