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| DRSS Junior, Rachael Stowe, completed her internship experience in Cincinnati at multiple hospitals |
This past week I completed my
internship at multiple hospitals and medical practices in Cincinnati. As many
people know, STEM’s internship requirement differentiates it from many other
schools and their graduation requirements. The internship program at STEM is
known for providing students with real experience in their field of choice
before they graduate. Opportunities like this may even help some students
decide what they want to pursue in college, which can be valuable information
to have going into senior year.
Three of the five days I spent at my
internship were "OR" days, or days where I arrived and got the chance to watch
surgeries from inside the OR. Two of the days were OB/GYN surgeries and the third day was general surgery.
What amazed me most was how every single person in the
OR plays a very specific and very crucial role in the surgery. Even though not
everyone touches the patient, they are just as important.
The other thing that
amazed me about surgery was the robotic surgeries I got to see on one of my OR
days. These surgeries were interesting because they were done completely
robotically. The robot arms are connected to the patient through ports in the
stomach and then certain instruments are attached to allow the surgeon to cut
and repair tissue.
The surgeon never touches the robotic arms, instead they sit
at large stations across the room and use finger holds with sensors to guide
the robot on where to go. I learned that this approach can be better than laparoscopic
surgery because laparoscopic cameras can only give a 2D image of the patient
which can make it difficult to maneuver. The robot’s camera actually creates a
3D for the surgeon to look at which helps with perspective in the operating
field.
The other two days of my
internship, I interned at an OB/GYN practice. While I loved surgery, these days
were my favorite because they allowed me to interact more with the patients and
learn about a wide variety of conditions. This experience also gave me the
chance to learn under a NP (Nurse Practitioner) which is one of the career
fields I am extremely interested in. After this experience, I know that I would
like to have a job where patient care is readily involved, as this was the most
engaging part of the experience for me.
I was incredibly fortunate to
have the opportunity to intern at the locations I did because of the many
restrictions that can be placed on medical internships due to patient privacy
rights. Connections I had to individuals who worked at these locations allowed
me to have the full enriching experience I had.
