Hypothetically... Could any doctor just go in the OR?

[IR3A4]

So I'm on my medicine rotation right now and one of my patients required surgery with a surgeon I got to work with on my surgery rotation. I never saw this type of surgery so I decided to scrub in even though I'm on Medicine atm.

I mainly did this because I have zero plans to go into surgery but I still find it fun/cool. Now as a med student it was zero issue for me to just to do that, but let's say I was an attending and my friend was the surgeon what's stopping me from going "ey yo, lemme check that out?"

Outside time constraints ofc.

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[operaman]

Really up to surgeon’s discretion. If you have privileges at that hospital and the surgeon is ok with you being there then no issues.

There might be issues with assisting and whatnot if you aren’t specifically granted those privileges.

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

Really up to surgeon’s discretion. If you have privileges at that hospital and the surgeon is ok with you being there then no issues.

There might be issues with assisting and whatnot if you aren’t specifically granted those privileges.

I was going to say exactly this, but I'm also no surgeon like operman haha.

While I personally never heard of this happening, but as OP said - med students are in the OR all the time up to the surgeon's discretion so no reason that wouldn't necessarily be true for an attending.

I'd say the main thing may be their intentions, though. I could see there perhaps being some issues there. The OR isnt a playground.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Sure, you can absolutely do this if you have the time and the surgeon is ok with it. If you frequently work with the surgeon it actually might not be a bad idea to get a better understanding of the procedures you’re asking for

 

[IR3A4]

Sure, you can absolutely do this if you have the time and the surgeon is ok with it. If you frequently work with the surgeon it actually might not be a bad idea to get a better understanding of the procedures you’re asking for

This is actually what I was thinking. I'm on my ICU rotation and there are some procedures that occur quite often, and while the surgeon stays on board the intensivist is still the primary and it wouldn't hurt to have more hands-on knowledge of those procedures.

 

[GoSpursGo]

This is actually what I was thinking. I'm on my ICU rotation and there are some procedures that occur quite often, and while the surgeon stays on board the intensivist is still the primary and it wouldn't hurt to have more hands-on knowledge of those procedures.

Another field where it is relevant is oncology, where the local control surgery is so critically important to ultimate patient outcomes. Particularly in an academic setting, I can’t imagine that a surgeon would have a problem with a colleague wanting to learn more about their procedures

 

[aldol16]

Anybody with credentials at the hospital could theoretically walk into their operating rooms. The main barrier is obviously HIPAA which, in theory, prevents just anybody who is not involved in the treatment of the patient from walking into their procedure. But this isn't enforced in that setting and really if you wanted to walk into a surgery that your friend was doing to observe and your friend was okay with it, that wouldn't be a problem. You could probably even scrub in. How much you would be able to do would depend on your privileges at the hospital and the surgeon.

 

[Wordead]

I've had my sleep medicine physicians and neurologists join me in the OR. They scrubbed but did not touch the patient.

 

[LunaOri]

When I worked at a small rural hospital, the Obs, FMs, and surgeons helped each other in the OR all the time.

 

[Smurfette]

I've never seen surgery "assist" privileges for MD/DO individuals, but midlevels and others do require those privileges.
Rural hospitals often have FPs helping surgeons in the OR for complex cases.
Even in bigger cities, as long as the primary person has privileges for a given procedure, the exact specialty or privileges of an MD assistant doesn't seem to matter. I'm a general surgeon, but if I got asked to help out neurosurgery or ortho, no one is going to kick me out because I don't have those privileges. However, I can't book and perform those procedures myself. I realize that as a general surgeon, I'm not the best example as I have some of the broadest privileges out there that overlap with a lot of other fields, but I also know if I have ortho come in to help me for something completely unrelated to ortho, no one is going to kick them out either.

 

[EthylMethylMan]

My non-surgical service collaborates with a few different surgical specialty services. It's not uncommon for the surgeons to have us to pop in towards the end of a shared patient's operation. We get to formulate a plan with the surgical team right then and there. It's nice, since they're really busy, and it can be hard to get a hold of them for more than a few minutes otherwise. We also get to directly see how the surgery went, which is nice.

 

[DOVinciRobot]

I’ve had medicine doctors come into the OR to see what pathology we found and collaborate on plans moving forward while doing cases. I’ve never seen one assist, but don’t see why someone couldn’t if they wanted to be present and see how the procedure went.

Honestly it would probably be beneficial if the non-surgical specialties occasionally watched some procedures they commonly ask for. Sometimes you can’t really develop the healthy respect for the complications that can come from even basic bread and butter procedures until you’ve seen the procedure performed.

 

[akwho]

I've had PT's, OT's, ortho floor nurses, PM&R docs and other's come observe us doing a total knee and total hip replacement. I think it's very helpful for them, mostly for patient counseling reasons during the rehabilitation after and would highly recommend it to anyone who is involved in the care of a total joint patient. We always watch the newbies to make sure they don't hit the floor during bone cuts.

Any doctor could theoretically assist, but they wouldn't be helpful and would just slow us down. I'd rather do the surgery with my usual assistants since it's better for the patient. That kind of relegates the doctor to an observing role.

 

[Candidate2017]

Now as a med student it was zero issue for me to just to do that, but let's say I was an attending and my friend was the surgeon what's stopping me from going "ey yo, lemme check that out?"

You're free to play OR tourist once you finish up on your 20+ patients, notes, answer pages, fill out paperwork, respond to messages from patients/families/staff, follow up issues dropped by staff, attend meetings, etc. By then, you may be saying, "Ey yo lemme check that out."

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

You're free to play OR tourist once you finish up on your 20+ patients, notes, answer pages, fill out paperwork, respond to messages from patients/families/staff, follow up issues dropped by staff, attend meetings, etc. By then, you may be saying, "Ey yo lemme check that out."

Probably why OP mentioned "outside time constraints" lol

 

[WheezyBaby]

I've had my sleep medicine physicians and neurologists join me in the OR. They scrubbed but did not touch the patient.

Yeah, I can't imagine assisting in any capacity as an attending without privileges explicitly delineating your ability to do so. Begging for the world's largest headache