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What does a typical work day of being an orthopedic surgeon look like?
a high school student considering following the path of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. #surgery #doctor #medicine #orthopedic #surgery #premed
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Rachel’s Answer
A typical week would include two days of clinic and three days of operating. At least one of those days would include taking ER call in case any injured patients came to the emergency room and needed an injury to be fixed. In the morning, prior to clinic or the OR, you would round on your hospitalized patients and make sure they were doing well. If it is a clinic day, you would then report to your office and see patients prior to operating on them or after operating on them.
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Joe’s Answer
Hi Danna!
I am a registered nurse and I have worked primarily with physicians and providers for 10+ years. Part of my job required me to learn a lot about what they do. Every orthopedic surgeon may do things slightly different but here is an example of a typical day.
1. Round on patients who are under you care who are in the hospital. *If the surgeon does not have any patient’s in the hospital rounding does not occur
a. Rounding means:
i. Reviewing or looking at lab and test results (if ordered), find out how the patient did with physical therapy, occupational therapy by looking at the notes from those therapist.
ii. Talking with the patient to see how the patient feels along with questions about pain control, concerns or just how they feel in general (subjective).
iii. Observing how the patient is doing, what is actually observed (objective)
iv. Doing a physical assessment to evaluate: the wound or incision (dry, bleeding or drainage, signs of infection), physical mobility or limitations, circulation, sensation or feeling. (assessment) *this is just one example and each patient may require a slightly different assessment based on the injury or wound. (assessment)
v. Make a plan for your patient, order tests, studies or treatments if needed. Enter new orders as needed for care, example: you may want a chest x-ray completed to see if the patient’s report of shortness of breath is related to something else going on (example pneumonia).
vi. Create a daily progress note that contains at least these 4 areas: subjective findings, objective findings, assessment findings, and the plan. **This type of progress note is sometimes called a” S.O.A.P” note (S-subjective, O-objective, A-assessment, P-plan). **There are a couple different type notes but this is one common basic note type.
2. After rounding on patients, most surgeons will 1) either go to their clinic or see patients who are scheduled to be seen in advance or 2) go and perform scheduled or emergent unscheduled surgeries or 3) perform new consultations that were ordered by other physicians or providers. *Consultation: this is when another physician or provider asked you to evaluate and/or treat a patient that has a known or suspected condition that you treat or care for is part of you orthopedic specialty practice. Example, an orthopedic surgeon might receive a consult to see a patient in the emergency room for a broken bone. The emergency physicians or providers call an orthopedic for any orthopedic related injury that needs a specialist or requires care and decisions they are qualified to make.
3. On-call duties, pretty much all orthopedic surgeons take turns being on call for either the night hours (5pm-6am) or in many cases for an entire 24 hour period or sometimes for a certain number of days. That means when the orthopedic finishes there daily rounds, surgeries/procedures, and treating and seeing patients in the clinic, they may have to answer calls:
a. Calls from patients who need to talk help or advice after hours (they could be paged or called directly)
b. Calls for after-hours consults, example: an orthopedic surgeon might be called to the emergency room for a patient with orthopedic injuries that need to be evaluation and/or treated right away.
This is a general description of a sample day in the life of an orthopedic surgeon. They work long and difficult hours between following their patients in the hospital, doing surgeries and/or procedures, taking consults and occasionally taking on call duties.
Danna, I hope this is helpful to you!
I am a registered nurse and I have worked primarily with physicians and providers for 10+ years. Part of my job required me to learn a lot about what they do. Every orthopedic surgeon may do things slightly different but here is an example of a typical day.
1. Round on patients who are under you care who are in the hospital. *If the surgeon does not have any patient’s in the hospital rounding does not occur
a. Rounding means:
i. Reviewing or looking at lab and test results (if ordered), find out how the patient did with physical therapy, occupational therapy by looking at the notes from those therapist.
ii. Talking with the patient to see how the patient feels along with questions about pain control, concerns or just how they feel in general (subjective).
iii. Observing how the patient is doing, what is actually observed (objective)
iv. Doing a physical assessment to evaluate: the wound or incision (dry, bleeding or drainage, signs of infection), physical mobility or limitations, circulation, sensation or feeling. (assessment) *this is just one example and each patient may require a slightly different assessment based on the injury or wound. (assessment)
v. Make a plan for your patient, order tests, studies or treatments if needed. Enter new orders as needed for care, example: you may want a chest x-ray completed to see if the patient’s report of shortness of breath is related to something else going on (example pneumonia).
vi. Create a daily progress note that contains at least these 4 areas: subjective findings, objective findings, assessment findings, and the plan. **This type of progress note is sometimes called a” S.O.A.P” note (S-subjective, O-objective, A-assessment, P-plan). **There are a couple different type notes but this is one common basic note type.
2. After rounding on patients, most surgeons will 1) either go to their clinic or see patients who are scheduled to be seen in advance or 2) go and perform scheduled or emergent unscheduled surgeries or 3) perform new consultations that were ordered by other physicians or providers. *Consultation: this is when another physician or provider asked you to evaluate and/or treat a patient that has a known or suspected condition that you treat or care for is part of you orthopedic specialty practice. Example, an orthopedic surgeon might receive a consult to see a patient in the emergency room for a broken bone. The emergency physicians or providers call an orthopedic for any orthopedic related injury that needs a specialist or requires care and decisions they are qualified to make.
3. On-call duties, pretty much all orthopedic surgeons take turns being on call for either the night hours (5pm-6am) or in many cases for an entire 24 hour period or sometimes for a certain number of days. That means when the orthopedic finishes there daily rounds, surgeries/procedures, and treating and seeing patients in the clinic, they may have to answer calls:
a. Calls from patients who need to talk help or advice after hours (they could be paged or called directly)
b. Calls for after-hours consults, example: an orthopedic surgeon might be called to the emergency room for a patient with orthopedic injuries that need to be evaluation and/or treated right away.
This is a general description of a sample day in the life of an orthopedic surgeon. They work long and difficult hours between following their patients in the hospital, doing surgeries and/or procedures, taking consults and occasionally taking on call duties.
Danna, I hope this is helpful to you!
Updated
Richard’s Answer
Clinic: See patients in an outpatient setting before surgery. Follow up with them after to look for any complications or to maker further recommendations such as physical therapy.
OR: Performing surgery including arthroscopy, joint replacement, ORIF fractures, & spine.
Call: Accepting calls from Emergency room which may require admitting the patient or performing emergency procedures in the setting of trauma.
OR: Performing surgery including arthroscopy, joint replacement, ORIF fractures, & spine.
Call: Accepting calls from Emergency room which may require admitting the patient or performing emergency procedures in the setting of trauma.