Greg's experience thru week 2

First let me start off by saying all of the preceptors that I have had have been wonderful. They have been more than willing to impart any skill/knowledge that they have gained over their vast career. We have some perfusionist that have been practicing for more than 25 years. Going into this I was a little scared about the pace of things thinking that I wouldn't be able to grasp it all. The pace seems to be a lot more manageable. What Ed said was right, "Hurry up and wait". The surgeons have been great in allowing us to watch and has welcomed us into their ORs with open arms. I have seen several different types of surgeries thus far and enjoy the variety in the cases. For me there have been a couple of draw backs, sometimes I feel like the preceptors think this is my very first day at school. They don't think the knowledge base that we have received is enough to take on some challenges (I guess they have to trust me first), which has been a little hard for me. My recommendations to any future students would be, to make the connections between the didactic and clinical things as soon as possible, and put all of the effort you can into the lab scenarios (even if you already passed one), because this will help with the important foundations that are needed for CPB. Good Luck --Gregory Kitchen