A Day With Jackson

2/11/11

Yesterday, I took advantage of the day off by putting some hours in with Jackson in the morning. Jackson invited me to come see what he goes through on a typical day in oral surgery. When I arrived, I was given a task immediately. Jackson asked me to help him get a few wheel chairs to transport patients after their surgeries. After that Jackson introduced me to the staff of the oral surgery department. I was also introduced to another task, filing patient records. It wasn’t long till Jackson called upon me to witness a surgery he would be assisting in. I was impressed with Jackson’s poise during the procedure. He seemed confident and knew what he was doing. His duty was to hold the patient’s mouth open with a special instrument while sucking blood from the incisions the doctor made. Despite that, Jackson was calm and performed his job with relative ease. The procedure was a simple wisdom teeth extraction. It lasted approximately five minutes. Everything went by fast and it was a bit overwhelming because there were so many people in the small operating room. There were two nurses along with Jackson assisting Dr. Escobar. I, as big as I am, was limited to a small corner of the room, and it was difficult to see what was going on.

I was able to witness a longer surgery of a patient that needed several disoriented teeth removed as well as his wisdom teeth. I was able to maneuver around more freely and see more during this surgery. Jackson was unable to assist in this surgery but we were welcome to watch. It seemed routine for Dr. Escobar as he was joking around and carrying casual conversations during the operation. In between surgeries I would “shadow” Jackson as he seated patients, took their x-rays, processed them, and took blood pressures. He was urging me to try it myself but I needed to familiarize myself more with how things worked. Jackson carried these tasks out without making errors. I aspire to be more like him in my placement.

Overall, I found it to be a very eventful day. The change of pace allowed me to put in perspective how operations are carried out. Although oral surgery and orthopedics are separate departments, they both function within the clinic’s system which draws similarities. It was interesting to see Jackson’s day. However, I didn’t develop much of an interest in oral surgery. Nonetheless it was a good experience. I look forward to him visiting me.