Who benefits from sketching in the operating room?
It can be useful for med students scrubbing in for the first time, residents/fellows learning the procedure, all the way up to seasoned staff (see below). It is something that I will continue to do throughout my career.
Earlier in the year, I registered for an Introduction to Drawing course through the local art school. The course consisted of twelve 3-hour classes that took place on Saturday mornings and I planned to miss out on the days that I was on-call at the hospital.
The first class was intended to loosen us up. We drew enormous, larger-than-life self-portraits using bright color pastels. I felt like I was in grade school again. I think the point was to do something that, absurd as it was, got us out of the idea that art had to be perfect. We learned to embrace our mistakes, learn from them and just draw over them with another color.
Surgery has always intrigued me. When I was twelve years old, I read a poignant and (darkly) humorous memoir of a neurosurgeon entitled, “When the Air Hits Your Brain”. I realized that there was something very different about surgery, compared to all of the other careers out there. It was the concept of form and function of the human body that drew me to surgery. The idea that certain diseases were due to an anatomical abnormalities that affected the bodies function and that this could be “fixed” was very appealing. Years later, I learned of the difference that surgery could make in peoples’ lives.
After three years of undergraduate studies, four years of medical school, five years of a surgical sub-specialty residency and now, a pediatric surgical sub-specialty fellowship, I have found a new passion in drawing.
ART of SURGERY 