Tag Archives: church

theatre

I was challenged about the way I live my life as I was standing in the operating theatre observing some laparoscopic surgery.

There are so many analogies you can pull from this setting, so I’ll try and do my best with what I’ve got.

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First, the fact that there are only very few people allowed in the operating theatre at the time.

The head surgeon is there directing the operation and making the incisions, removing the parts that shouldn’t be there, and making sure the body is in good shape. The assisting surgeon is standing to his/her side and learning the craft, and making themselves available to do what’s needed, to manipulate the camera and put things into view, or to hold on to things while the head surgeon is doing something else.

Anaesthetics make sure that the patient is under enough sedation and/or anaesthesia and work with the team to manipulate the bed and check the vital signs of the patient on the operating table.

The scrub nurse is scrubbed up and gowned, and stays within the sterile field handing instruments to the surgeons and making sure everything is going smoothly, and communication is flowing between all the members of the team. They’re also in charge of doing the count, making sure things aren’t left behind and everything used, every resource is accounted for.

Theatre nurses float around the periphery moving things that aren’t in the sterile field, interacting with other staff on the outside and making sure that the preparations are ready for the sterile field.

Med students stand to the side, or even scrub up and get to observe first hand what is happening to further their development as practitioners.

Everybody has their role, and there is no wasted space.

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It may be a huge stretch to think of this as a Church, but that’s how it came to me. Every person has their part. Whether you’re in the “sterile” field or not, you still play an important role to the functioning of the Church. And most importantly for me, there are a lot of protocols in place, and policies that need to be adhered to. There’s paperwork. There’s team time-out sessions where they check that it’s the Right Patient, Right Procedure, Right Site.

Sometimes I get frustrated with paperwork and policies, and even political agenda, but it’s all for the wellbeing of the patient.

It’s all for Kingdom work.

Back in the blogging game.

It feels like I’ve lived a year in the last 2 months. Just sitting here now writing this post, I’ve only been back in the country for about two months (since my return from the epic 6 week trip that I may not have blogged about at all (but will get to), and a few too many things have happened.

In terms of Church, this year has seen the official launch of the name “Thyme Court Christian Fellowship“, and the website as well as a restructuring of the connect groups, several early outings/events and a recent conference over the last weekend. We’ve had an Australia Day Sundowner, a Beach BBQ, Opening Dinner and the launch of the video testimony ministry. March 2-5 saw us heading down south 150km to Camp Logue Brook in Harvey for our first ever annual (hopefully) young adults conference called “IMPACT”. It was a great chance for us to spend time together and reflect upon what it means to be an impact in the places God has put us. We had the director of redmeetsblue share his testimony about putting God first in his business, and heard great messages from Hien one of our board members, and I even got a chance to share a bit about on-campus ministry and how God has used it to mold my faith.

SMA in 2012 has been an exciting time, as (by default) I’ve been placed in the position of President. It’s a humbling experience, realising that things don’t always come together exactly as you plan, but God works through it all anyway and it still turns out the way He intends. Part of the role also includes attending the CMDFWA (Christian Medical Dental Fellowship of Western Australia – SMA for graduates in the workforce) meetings, and it’s been encouraging to see the willingness of doctors and dentists who have been there before, to invest right back into the future of SMA. I’ve had the chance to head over to Canberra for the annual Vision conference for student leaders on campus, get connected to my counter-parts in the other states and getting a bigger picture of what it means to be involved with on-campus ministry, and how that extends to what God can really do in our industry. Also had the awesome privilege of running a leader’s retreat for a few of the committee members in Guilderton, where we ran through the direction and vision for the year with a study on Jonah, and got on the same page in terms of what SMA would be doing this year. We also had our first event on Tuesday night, the SMA Sundowner, and it was really a great opportunity to sow the vision into the attendees and provide a venue for networking and the beginnings of mentor relationships. Not everything went according to plan, as anticipated, but praise God that all of the 75 attendees got the most that they could out of the event. And just quietly, this year is the 20th anniversary of the start of SMA… so something big may be in the pipeline.

Medicine is incredible. There’s not much to say except that each subsequent year of Medicine is better than the last. I just finished a 6 week General Medicine term at Joondalup, and as a friend of mine put it best, we seem to be learning a lot through osmosis. Concepts that were so hard to define in 4th year suddenly click in 5th. Complicated treatment schedules make sense in light of the patient’s complete medical picture. And best of all, somehow my marks are reflecting it – Praise GOD. Straight 5 out of 6s (which in the Medicine work unfortunately doesn’t equate to 83.33%, but 75%). And now just starting an Oncology term at Royal Perth Hospital which will definitely be challenging, but will be a great opportunity to improve my history skills, get a better understanding of the concepts surrounding cancer, and get used to the hustle and bustle of our hospital in the city centre.

I am well and truly broken in this year, but definitely not broken down.