Anaesthesia posting Reflective Report

Through this posting, I’ve experienced the crucial role patient safety in anaesthesia.
There are many different medications to prepare especially during operation and any one of
them given can cause a drastic effect on the patient and most of all, most of it looks the
same. I’ve observed the doctors labelling the medication as soon as they have drawn it into
a syringe to minimize that. Also, they've also make sure to label all their IV lines to make
sure they do not administer the medication to the wrong line. I’ve also reflected on the
importance of going through the checklist at every point and do not assume as it is always
better to be more careful than not. In one of the operation I’ve observed, the anesthetist
specialist was about to start induction when she asked the MO if the GA monitor was
checked, in which, it was not. It was then that they've found out that the tube was not
connected.

During this week, I’ve observed the induction and maintenance phase of a 13 year
old girl going for a left craniotomy. During the preparation when the patient was still awake
and lying on the operation table, the surgical teams together with the nursing staff were at
one corner laughing extremely loudly (not just casual light banter) even after being told to
lower down. I understand that it good to keep a light atmosphere in the OT, however, in this
case, there was a lack of empathy and professionalism towards this patient and lack of
respect towards their colleague. Aside from this, there were multiple issues faced by the
anaesthesia and surgical team along the way while preparing the patient which left me
questioning the patient safety and professionalism displayed by them (even though the
patient is under anaesthesia at this point). I’ve reflected the scene multiple times and
wondered if I was being too critical and condemning their actions just because I have not
lived through it and that maybe I would also do the same in the future. But even so, are we
supposed to just accept it because most will end up doing so at a point? Or should we try
our best to prevent this behavior if we can, at least among our colleagues?