A while back, I was scheduled for a case that I knew would take forever. Then I when I got there in the morning I found out that what I thought was the case was only about two-thirds of what we were going to be doing. Holy smokes. I knew I was in for it: eight hours, no bathroom, no food, full concentration.
That’s a long day. I can do it and have done it many times, but it leaves my whipped out for the rest of the day and maybe even into the following day. My brain takes a major hit from the full-on concentration.
One secret I’ve discovered over the years is the if I get any break at all, anything, I’m fine. If I can get out of the room for two minutes during the whole eight-hour marathon, I can survive. It isn’t because I’ll have to pee (surprising, but that’s hardly an issue in surgery) it’s because my brain needs a change. That five-minute break changes everything for me.
Thankfully that day, I got one. The surgeon I was working with asked me to break scrub and run to his office for something we needed for the case, and he’d forgot to bring. I was all too happy to be a gopher.
In the September issue of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholar’s Newsletter I’ll show you what to do in those five minutes to get your brain back on track and ready to rock. It doesn’t matter if you’re in surgery, a long lecture, or a study session. When your brain feels like it’s going to ooze out of your ears, we can fix that.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
But only until tomorrow night. Then that issue goes into the vault with all the other back issues.
