Chapter 127
The growth of a nurse can sometimes be even more difficult than that of a doctor.
To outsiders, isn’t it just about taking care of patients? Giving injections, infusing fluids, what’s so difficult about that?
This is a case of being separated by a whole different profession.
Only insiders can appreciate the intricacies, while outsiders only see the spectacle.
Firstly, there are many types of nurses. Their divisions of labor also vary greatly.
Such as ward nurses, operating room nurses, outpatient nurses, and so on.
The well-known tasks of nurses include dispensing medications, administering injections, infusions, and drawing blood. In reality, more advanced nurse practitioners provide the most professional nutritional and recovery advice to patients after surgery.
In many developed countries abroad, the status of advanced nurses is even comparable to doctors.
For example, a patient who has just undergone a major surgery, survives the operation but is extremely weak. The doctor is very worried about postoperative complications and believes that even if the patient recovers, the period of recovery will be extremely long, at least over half a year.
Then this patient’s family being wealthy, spends $1 million to hire an advanced nurse to take care of him.
This nursing fee even far surpasses the medical costs by ten times.
This advanced nurse first understands all aspects of the patient’s condition, including physical health, surgeries undergone, underlying diseases, serious medical history, personal preferences, etc. Then, she develops a highly professional postoperative recovery plan for the patient.
It includes nutrition, daily activities, professional rehabilitation training, and psychological counseling.
Two months later, not only did the patient survive, but he also recovered his health, and his physical condition was even better than before he fell ill.
When he went for a follow-up visit, the attending physician was so amazed, he exclaimed “Oh my god!” three times.
This is the capability of advanced nurses abroad.
Doctors treat illnesses; nurses are responsible for helping patients recover.
Operating room nurses focus their advanced studies around surgeries.
For beginners, they generally start as circulating nurses, or nurses observing from beneath the operating table. Then, as they progress, they become scrub nurses. The highest level is the surgical instrument nurse.
Many director-level surgeons have a dedicated surgical team.
The instrument nurses are fixed.
And for one complex major surgery, there might be more than one instrument nurse.
Zhou Can chose to train Qiao Yu partially because they work in great harmony, and also because he liked her personally. Her integrity, ambition, and diligence are all excellent qualities.
Zhou Can finds it worthwhile to train her over the long term.
…
After Jin Mingxi opened the surgical wound, Zhou Can could already see the cecum.
Having located the cecum, he could continue along the mesocolon to find the appendix.
Everything was still going smoothly.
“Teacher, I found the appendix, it’s quite swollen. However, it’s not abscessed.”
If it were abscessed, it would generally require draining pus first, and surgery to remove the appendix could only be carried out about three months later.
Today’s appendectomy, Dr. Xu had already approved him for.
The difficulty was ordinary, with no particularly complex complications, which is why he dared to let Zhou Can perform it.
“Good, next carefully separate the appendix from the surrounding omental intestines, sequentially freeing the appendicular artery and the base of the appendix, ligation of both the appendicular artery and the appendiceal remnant, cutting the mesoappendix, then removing the appendix.”
If it were a laparoscopic surgery, typically a ligation clip would be used to secure the artery and the appendiceal remnant.
However, many doctors still prefer suture ligation.
Modern methods might be more convenient, but traditional surgical methods are safer and more reliable.
Traditional surgical methods have undergone many years of clinical practice and are confirmed safe before being handed down from generation to generation.
Zhou Can had watched Dr. Xu perform appendectomy surgeries.
More than just one.
Now, doing it himself for the first time, he realized that watching and doing were two different things.
Finding the appendix had gone smoothly.
But the subsequent steps proved very challenging for him.
His skill level was fine, and he clearly knew the surgical methods, but when he actually performed the operation, he found himself making missteps and felt incredibly tense throughout the process.
While separating the appendix from the surrounding omental intestines, his palms were all sweaty.
There were even a couple times when his hands trembled.
He had to immediately stop, then take a deep breath, regain composure, and only after easing his inner tension did he dare to continue.
…
The duration of this surgery far exceeded the normal time for an appendectomy.
However, no one rushed him.
During the training of new doctors, the vast majority of veteran colleagues are extraordinarily tolerant toward newcomers as everyone understands the challenges newcomers face.
As long as the newcomers don’t cause medical incidents by their own mistakes, whether they are slower or their work isn’t as neat, senior doctors generally won’t say much.
They might just help point out shortcomings and ways for improvement.
After struggling, it took nearly forty minutes for Zhou Can to completely separate the appendix from the surrounding omental intestines.
[Separation Experience Points +1.]
[First successful separation of intestinal tissue, reward: Separation Experience Points +100.]
Another huge surprise.
After strenuous efforts, the rewards were quite substantial.
This time separating intestinal tissue, compared to separating a rat’s intestines, was completely different.
If you accidentally damage a rat’s intestines, it’s not a big deal.
Just be more careful next time.
However, the psychological cost of separating a patient’s intestinal tissue is too high. The pressure is like two mountains bearing down simultaneously. There can’t be the slightest mistake. If you accidentally rupture the patient’s normal intestines or damage other abdominal organs, the consequences could be catastrophic.