I recently had the opportunity to observe a CABG x5 on pump. It was a great experience and really makes you appreciate why our post surg pts experience the pain they do.. Anyway, just prior to surgery I was introduced to the surgical team and it was explained that I was a final year physio student who’d been on a 5 week prac in ICU.
After we all gowned up, the anaesthetist kindly explained what he was doing throughout the procedure. Whilst the surgeons were preparing, he turned to the obs monitor and explained about the ECGs, CVP and other obs. Then he asked me what I thought the red numbers might represent (they read 90/60 from memory). Of course I said BP. He seemed somewhat impressed that I recognised this.. He then proceeded to ask me how I thought this could be monitored, as the pt wasn’t wearing a BP cuff. When I replied via his arterial line, the anaesthetist seemed really surprised that I might know this. Having been in ICU for 5 weeks where EVERY pt has an art line, it would be poor form if I couldn’t recognise this basic attachment. Anyway, he had finished explaining his role and a theatre nurse started going through exactly what would happen during the procedure. She commenced by explaining that the heart had four chambers..
I am really grateful that I had this opportunity to observe surgery. The surgeons went out of their way to make sure I could see every little thing that was happening and all the support staff were really kind - It was really helpful knowing the relationship between the length of incision in the pt’s leg and its relevance to the number of grafts required of the saphenous vein; I also now understand the cardiopulmonary bypass system. The whole experience was really interesting and I did in fact learn a lot. However, I was a little alarmed by how little the team expected me to know. It made me feel that they really had very little understanding of the role/ knowledge of physios. Perhaps for them it isn’t particularly necessary.. I guess they don’t meet many physios in theatre!
What I have learnt from this experience is that we all need to be flying the flag for our profession!! It’s important to remember that our interactions with other members of the team impacts how physiotherapy is considered. I will now also make a greater effort to understand the roles and knowledge of the other members of the MDT for two main reasons. Firstly, if we aren’t aware of their scope of practice we may under utilise or inappropriately refer patients and secondly I would like to make sure that I don’t under estimate/ under value other (soon to be) health professionals!
2 comments:
Good on you Amber! I agree that it does sometimes feel like doctors don't think we know that much, but this might be partly because we don't demonstrate our knowledge. When i was on my ortho inpatients prac, the physios would always go to the meetings to discuss the patients with the attendings, residents and interns. I was told by my supervisor that she could only remember one time when a physio spoke, saying she would like to try treating a patient that the doctors were struggling with, and they were only too ready to let her. We should be more confident in ourselves that we are an important part of the mutidiscplinary team.
Good job. We really need to promote our profession not only to the general public, but also to other health professionals. For my last pracs, the physios are quite active in the team meetings and other health professionals usually consult us prior to discharge of patients. It just goes to show how big our role is.
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