Seeing other ways of how to practice your profession is a very useful thing.
Although many doctors in Zurich university hospital did not understand why i am coming for a week observer-ship, i bet even some think it is stupid although none said so, but comparing between what i have seen always in our hospital and what I've seen here was quite a useful experience for me.
I got to know why this is one of the best departments of neurosurgery, the secret is simple but also difficult to achieve. lets see what i have learned through my week here ;
1- Time Concept : Everyone without exception respect the time , patients and medical team altogether, the day is divided in a way that you don't leave a space for lost time , from 7:30 am to 17:30 every job is known , each mission is precised.
2- Team work : in order to be effective as they are here you have to be an element of a team that all move together as one movement and trust each other, multi-specialty meeting to discuss everything that matters. Also i had the chance to see the Trauma team in one of the emergency cases , and i know it may seem common sense but i was amazed how fast and organized the whole team was, everyone knew what to do and when to do it , the process of saving a patient life and primary assessment was one of the shortest that i ever saw in my life. Although i was a part of the catastrophe unit in an organization.
3- Means : well i have to mention that money can bring happiness , having all the means under your hand change completely the medical practice efficiency , instead of wasting your time finding a spot for ur patient to do a CT scan or an MRI, here everything pass smoothly. from the available elevators to the operation simulation equipment , all is there !
4- Documentation : the thing that all European doctors are complaining from , however , i find it quite useful. everything should be documented the whole time . This allows other team members to know what you did with the patients and follow up afterword , it also allow to minimize the error factor and improve the failures later on.
5- Explaining to the patient : this might have a cultural aspect , but Swiss patients need to understand all the details of their treatment and disease , and doctors provide this with extreme patience and professionalism. some doctors stays with the patient over an hour to answer all the questions and make sure that they are comfortable with the treatment plan.
6- Finally , the team is a huge mixture of nationalities , races , religions and gender , however they keep good relationship between them and you can feel the positive harmony.
