Real-Life Decision Making
For surgical technicians, quick decisions have to be made constantly. Surgical
technician Ron Johnson says that decision making can often be a decision of
priority and can mean the difference between life and death.
A patient has been seriously injured in a car accident. The ambulance is
bringing him in. All you know is what the ambulance attendant has radioed
in.
You have set up the room for a basic trauma. However, within minutes the
patient is wheeled into the operating room. You realize that this is more
serious than you and the doctors had thought. This patient has a number of
injuries that will rely upon the attendance of four teams of surgeons.
The patient was parked off the side of the highway doing some repair work
underneath his semi-trailer. A motorist ran into the back end of the trailer.
That caused it to come off the jacks and fall to the ground, crushing the
patient.
There is a team of neurosurgeons for the head trauma, cardiovascular surgeons
for the chest trauma, general surgeons for the abdominal trauma
and orthopedic surgeons for the bone fractures.
You, however, are not prepared with the proper supplies needed, since you
did not anticipate the extent of this accident. Suddenly you are inundated
with supplies and instruments being set on your tables and surgeons standing
in line to be gowned and gloved to start this surgery.
Johnson says in instances such as this you "literally have no time to think,
just do, and pray you do it right."
Doctors are calling for supplies faster than you can pass it to them. After
a few minutes, you have been able to memorize where all of the different supplies
are located, and you can grab what you need in an instant.
Time is important. You know that the faster you give the doctors what they
need, the faster the next procedure can be done. You want to do it quickly,
but you also want to do it right.
What do you do?