E-mail cascades

As I thumb through the dense mechanisms of fatty acid metabolism, I keep thinking about a biochemical cascade, a process where a stimulus triggers a series of events. In lecture we have something similar, but it is a question cascade, where one question triggers a whole cascade of questions. And in my experience as a coordinator of OR Assist, I have experienced e-mail cascades, where I have to send one e-mail, then another e-mail, then another e-mail, and on and on...

We finally had our first class for OR Assist: Clinical Experience today. After a month of planning, e-mailing and coordinating- we got all the participants in one room and put the information out in the open. I presented a short presentation and was surprised when in the middle of the presentation, a classmate said, "thank you for putting this together." After this, the class erupted in a round of applause. Definitely, did not expect that, but really appreciated it.

As one of the coordinators of this new elective, which pairs medical students have completed the OR Skills elective with surgeon faculty mentors, I have been part of surgeon recruitment team and coordinating logistics. Last month was recruitment season, our efforts were poured into e-mailing and contacting surgeons to generate a growing list of surgeons to ensure that every student can be paired with a mentor.

The purpose of this innovative elective is two-fold: provides students exposure to the OR in the their pre-clinical years and to provide a longitudinal mentoring opportunity for students. I am looking forward to participating in OR Assist (outside a coordinator role).

As I continue to explore the different fields in medicine, I know surgery is on my list (along with 10 other things) and participating in OR Assist will help me develop a better understanding of a career in surgery. That is the goal, at least.

So far, we have received a positive response from most surgeons and students. We cast a wide net in recruiting to represent surgeons from all sub-specialities and to enlist all the help we can get.

The next step will be matching (we allowed medical students to rank their top three choices- which was a hot topic of discussion among participants and made for a longer meeting). Next week, will be yet another e-mail cascade on top of the biochemical cascades that need to be reviewed for our final.

Photograph by Harras Z