Can I talk about assisting in surgery?

[goldy490]

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This may be me being dumb or neurotic but...

I'm doing my gap year working in a transplant center and this weekend I was invited to assist in an organ procurement. For those who are unfamiliar, that is when you surgically remove the organs from a brain dead donor to be transplanted. I was scrubbed and did basic assist (hold hemostats, skin flaps, etc.), and it was an amazing experience that I want to talk about in secondaries, interviews, and so on. Do you think it's too morbid to discuss? Could the doctor get in trouble? etc.

Thanks for the help!

 

[deleted407021]

I've done the same thing with live patients and it was very cool. But I believe this is an ethical grey area, so perhaps best to not mention your direct involvement, not being licensed and trained and all.

 

[mimelim]

This may be me being dumb or neurotic but...

I'm doing my gap year working in a transplant center and this weekend I was invited to assist in an organ procurement. For those who are unfamiliar, that is when you surgically remove the organs from a brain dead donor to be transplanted. I was scrubbed and did basic assist (hold hemostats, skin flaps, etc.), and it was an amazing experience that I want to talk about in secondaries, interviews, and so on. Do you think it's too morbid to discuss? Could the doctor get in trouble? etc.

Thanks for the help!

If you were an employee of a program and all your paperwork was in order (meaning you were allowed/supposed to be there), then it is perfectly fine to talk about it. If it was a, "Hey John, I know you are supposed to be filing stuff, but you want to tag along with me, you should." by one of the surgeons, then it should absolutely not be in your application. To be honest, an easy way to answer this is, did you have malpractice coverage when you did it? If no, then you probably shouldn't have been doing that and you shouldn't be mentioning it to others.

Also, realize that while this may have been a cool experience, if I'm reading your application, I want to hear about your interactions with patients at a transplant center and how that impacted you more than doing surgery on a dead person.

 

[goldy490]

Thanks for the quick response! I was definitely allowed to be there, but yea probably best that I focus on meaningful contact with living patients. Appreciate it!