Clinical Rotation Report: Cedar Sinai Medical Center
By Yitzi Mandelbaum
The clinical rotation program is to teach you the many different ways which the hospital operates when it comes to disinfection, instrument and sterilization. This will summarize my own experience during the four weeks that I had been in the hospital. This will be explained to you per week instead of giving you a general summarization. You will have a better understanding of what to expect if you go though the same clinical rotation. Well!! Here we go.
My clinical rotation had a rough start at the beginning stages (My instructor had a car problem and was late in introducing me to the facility.) The department where I am situated is located in the basement in the central processing department. This particular department is responsible to make sure that the instruments are accounted, packaged, and sterilized. This got rolling pretty fast once I was introduced to the department. We started out a bit slow but later on in the day things pick up pace. We started off learning how to setup the instruments and place them in the trays for sterilization. There are two steps before you can begin or end a case. One of the individual, who works for an agency, had a rule of thumb, “a case is never finished till all instruments are accounted for before & after a case. A case is finish once the patient goes home with his family”. This is something he said we should always remember. Let me explain the two steps.
The 1st step is the process of disinfection also called “decontamination”. This process is a bit different then your daily routine which involves picking up the instruments from various floors and then bringing them down for decontamination. It was interesting to experience this process for you learn how to get around the hospital and at the same time you learn how the instruments get washed & disinfected.
The 2nd step in this process is to get familiar with the sterilization process. It seems like a pretty simple process since most of the work is computerized. The hardest part of the process is organization of products before & after its sterilized. It’s a matter of getting all those products organized & cataloged for the many cases that are performed during the day.
The most interesting part during this month, was the central processing departmental meeting. The CEO had initiated the meeting stating that the surgeons are upset with how central processing had been handling their products. He stated that the qualities of care are absent due to these issues since the surgeons can not perform their duties. He went on to stress the problems and what we can do correct those issues.
The most pleasant part during this clinical rotation was the July 4th weekend. It was nice to break away from all that studying & hard work during these past few months. My family went to a hotel in San Diego and took my kids to Sea World. It was nice way to say thank you for all your support during these past few months. This trip also celebrated the end of the first half of the training program.
This experience has shown me that the process is more complex then you realize. These individuals do play an integrated part when you are in the operating room. It will be appreciated knowing that all the care and time these individuals took which results in patient care. More people should go through clinical rotation to gain an understanding what goes on behind closed doors. Many thanks for the staff & training instructors at the hospital for their hard work in ensuring that the patient is properly handled.
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