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For my Job Shadow, I mentored Dr. Ahmad Hasan. Dr. Ahmad Hasan works at the Detroit Medical Center in Michigan. He is a Resident Orthopedic Surgeon, who saves lives and improves futures daily. He showed me his place of work and showed me what he does on the daily.
Job Shadow Log
Job Shadow Log
Due to HIPPA I wasn't able to take pictures of anything except myself. I also will not be able to say any type of information that could possibly reveal any information about anybody's identity.
I shadowed at the Detroit Medical Center: Main Campus. Here is a picture of one of the many buildings in the hospital.
I shadowed at the Detroit Medical Center: Main Campus. Here is a picture of one of the many buildings in the hospital.
December 28th, 2024: 20 Hours
What I experienced:
I first entered the hospital at 12:57 PM, and I waited for the Doctor to receive me. When he picked me up, he first took me to the Orthopedic Resident room. He told me about the first patient, who was going through reconstructive hip surgery. The patient was in the operating room, but I did not enter the OR at all this day.
Next, while he was continuing with patient history and computer work, he got paged for a consult. He called the number on the pager, and he was sent the documents regarding the patient.
He got paged two more times in the next few minutes. We went to the first patient, who was in severe pain due to the nature of his previous surgery in a different hospital. The doctor checked up with him and the doctor decided to hold off on making any decisions until he checked up with some more things.
We had a few more minutes until some documents were sent and some tests were run before the doctor could go for the next consult. The doctor got me some scrubs (which were incredibly comfortable) and we took a prayer break. Soon after, we went back to the Ortho Resident room. I changed, and the Doctor ordered some tests and documents for the three patients.
3:29 after changing into the scrubs
in the orthopedic room
5:32 after praying Maghrib
The doctor also told me about another previous patient. The patient had a fractured hip bone where the proximal head of the femur and hip connect. The doctor told me about how it was damaged by drawing and by showing me with a 3D printed hip bone and femur. The patient was in extreme pain and the doctor showed me the method they used to relieve a lot of the pain. The femur had a small hole drilled transversely and a wire was pulled through it. The wire was then connected to a weight that pulled the femur away from the hip. It relieved a lot of the pressure, although he was still in a great deal of pain, and he needed pain killers.
Soon after, one of the paged patient's was ready for the test. We went to the x-ray room where the patient was being x-rayed. The patient had some lower leg problems because of previous surgery (they screwed up) and the doctor needed to see the extent of the issue.
After we left the room, the doctor wrote some notes about what the patient should do. He planned a surgery for the patient and told the patient that they should stay at the hospital while waiting for the surgery in two or three days. The patient and their spouse decided to go home and come back because of previous experience with lower leg pain.
After this we went back to the patient that the doctor was waiting for more information on. He decided to send him back to another hospital. Before he did that though we cleaned and dressed the patient's infected surgery. I helped the patient on their side and held him there while the doctor was cleaning the wound. The patient was in pain, but the doctor was quick to clean and bandage the wound. The patient thanked me after. We also told the nurse to give him a sandwich because he was hungry.
We then went back to the Resident Room and ordered some food. Then a call came that the next patient was ready to be treated.
The next patient had a broken wrist. The head of the ulna was fractured. The doctor brought a bunch of things that we needed to use. He got some numbing agent and the wraps to build a cast. The doctor first inserted a needle and administered the numbing agent. He then waited a few minutes for it to get to work.
IMG_2156.mov
12:39 after post-op rounds
I did some stuff really quick for the doctor, like grabbing his keycard and bringing some documents while we waited. The doctor then allowed me to help with the process. He got the cast ready by soaking it in warm water then squeezing the excess out. He put some dry bandages on the patient's arm and pushed the bone back into the right place (which looked incredibly painful). I was holding the woman's arm up while he was wrapping the cast.
After helping the woman, we picked up the food from the front. We met the security guards who were pretty funny. We went back to the Resident room. We ate, and the doctor was still busy recording patient history while eating.
To finish off the day we did post-op rounds. Post-op rounds (Post-Operation Rounds) are when the doctors meet with all of the patients at the end of the day. We met with many patients and asked how they were, what they needed, etc. A lot of them were asleep so we generally reconvened with the nurses and asked them about stuff.
After this I don't really remember much, but we got ready for bed at some point. I went to sleep in the Resident Orthopedic Bedroom, which was inside the room we were in. I went to sleep at 12:54 AM. The doctor was still up working on more patient history.
IMG_2162.movI woke up around 6:30. The doctor was already up working on the computer. He told me there was one page in the night around 3 which he woke up, treated, and went back to sleep. I sat with him until 7:30. I met the rest of the surgeons and residents, went with them on Pre-op rounds (like post-op but we met a LOT more people and talked with them more), and sat with them in the preoperative room. Then, at 9:12 AM, unfortunately, it was time to leave.
12:54 about to go to sleep
6:35 AM after waking up
9:12 AM leaving the hospital
Key takeaways:
This was my general experience at the hospital, but it is missing a lot of parts. We did so much, and we were so busy (me learning and him doing his job and teaching), that this is just an overview of what we did.
I learned and experienced so much, while it was just a chill day for him. There was only one surgery, and the day was uneventful (for him). Yet, I felt like it was a defining day for me. These experiences deepened my knowledge so much, and it showed me that this is something I want to do in my future.
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