Think like a surgeon. Prepare like a surgeon.

In the journey of surgical residency, time is a precious commodity for refining one's craft. Mastery of surgical independence necessitates a comprehensive blend of technical skills, non-technical skills, and sound judgement. Showing up to the operating room prepared extends beyond familiarity with patients and procedural steps. It encompasses a deep knowledge of nuances such as suture selection, specific cannula usage, and precise cardioplegia dosages. Surgical efficiency is not about how fast you are moving but the ability to eliminate unnecessary steps and movements.

Both anecdotally and previous studies have shown that hands on opportunities are more likely to be given when you can mimic what your staff surgeon is doing without prompting. No small step can go unnoticed, including whether or not your surgeon is using a 4-0 BB needle, or a 4-0 RB.

At the University of Alberta, our cardiac surgeons expect this level of preparedness and prior to each case we either sit down or send a message detailing our surgical plan for the case, regardless of whether or not we are the primary surgeon. We finally decided to put our scraps of paper into a formalized notebook. Use this tool as your ally in preparing for cardiac surgical rotations, enabling you to seize intraoperative opportunities and refine your craft with every case.

Take a look inside:

Our surgical case log includes 300 pages, 2 pages per surgical case. We've included templates for CABG, aortic/aortic valve, mitral valve, combined cases, endovascular (TAVI/TEVAR), and ECLS.

As mentioned, each case comes with a 2-page template. Whether all of the fields are filled out each case is up to you. Provided is an example of a template for a CABG. Certain fields may not be necessary.

As with any preoperative planning important information regarding the patient should be noted which includes pertinent patient clinical history and preoperative investigations. Use the right hand side to comment on any potential pitfalls and the diagram to record the results of the coronary angiogram. The left side of the first page are all the nuances of the case; what is the cannulation strategy, what is the myocardial protection strategy, and when appropriate what is the brain protection strategy.

As alluded to earlier, you will look like a rockstar and a pro with your staff if you remember their preferences without prompting. Soon enough, you'll be the surgeon and it won't be enough to tell the nurse you want a 4-0 Prolene, they will want to know what kind of needle you prefer.

The second page is meant to be more of an opportunity for reflection postoperatively; what your role was in the case, areas where you felt you could improve and most importantly, the learning points from that particular case.

Where to buy:

The case logs come in both hardcover and softcover format. They come in blue, green, and red. They can be found on the LuluBookstore (links included below). Search for either cardiac surgical case planning or by author (Abigail White, Devin O'Brien).

Price is $40.00 for the hardcover and $30.00 for the softcover.

Link:

https://www.lulu.com/shop?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwuJ2xBhA3EiwAMVjkVKNdGt2wu8zs7vHDHnonpwruawAg7D-0VFEWbi2-XCazkcDuzFu2ZxoCB6gQAvD_BwE

We hope you will find these case logs as useful as we have and are always looking for feedback and suggestions.