Case Technician
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center - Baton Rouge
About this Experience
When
July 2025 - Present
Responsibilities
- Locate and collect instrument sets for surgeries scheduled for the day
- Stock the operating rooms with supplies
- Clean up and turn over the operating rooms after surgery
- Bring items to and from the laboratory, including limbs and swabs
- Scrubbing in to surgeries to hold laparoscopic cameras or retractors
- Train new Case Techs
What I Learned
I have learned about all the different types of instruments used during surgeries and how each surgeon will perform the same surgery in their own unique way. I have been able to scrub into surgeries and ask questions about what the doctor is seeing and how it influences the next steps. After building a rapport with doctors, I am asked for by name to scrub in and assist in surgeries.
Learning on the Job
My position as a case technician in the main operating rooms has allowed me to gain a variety of learning opportunities and experiences. Recently, I was asked to help with a bedside amputation. Another case tech, two nurses, and I transported the case cart and all the necessary supplies needed up to the patient’s ICU room. It was a tiny room filled with machines that the four of us had to maneuver around to set up a sterile field and a clear pathway. After about 30 minutes, we completed setting up and waited for the residents to “scrub” in. Due to my level of training and limited space, my role was to lift the stomach for the nerve block placement and to package the limb for transport to the lab. Even with my limited role in this experience, I was part of a team that had to adapt quickly and communicate effectively to ensure the procedure ran smoothly in a different environment. This is one of the many experiences I have had during my gap year that has shown me what medicine is all about: adapting to challenging situations to provide care to patients in their time of need.