In January I completed my third year surgical rotation. This was, by far, my favorite rotation! We work with different surgeons every day and get to see so many different procedures, techniques, and approaches to podiatric practice.

My goals going into this rotation were simple: to get comfortable being in an operating room, and to not break sterile. Prior to this month I had never been in the OR and it was really intimidating at first. One of the most important aspects of being in the OR is the separation of sterile vs non sterile items, and one of the most common “rookie” mistakes is to touch that isn’t sterile when you are scrubbed. But, after this month I can say that I know my way around pretty much any OR, and I didn’t break sterile once! Woohoo!

I also got to see some pretty awesome procedures. My personal favorite ones to be a part of were an Achilles tendon repair and a subtalar joint fusion! The Achilles tendon repair was a speed bridge technique, you can watch a video of that here. You can watch a subtalar joint fusion here.