Submitted by Grace Nourse on the 2024 Winter HLTH program in Rome, Italy…
Week one of shadowing in Istituti Fisioterapici Ospitalieri – IFO is complete! I had the opportunity to shadow in the orthopedic oncology department here. This hospital specializes in cancer so every department is oncology based. That alone is different from what I have been exposed to in the U.S. but a lot of aspects remained the same. Right from the beginning of day one I noticed a shift in the pace of daily life. The doctors are much more lax and timing is not as precise. Also, healthcare is free here so a lot more departments were filled with people because appointments do not have to be scheduled in advance. I was lucky enough to get to observe an operation consisting of a tumor resection from the right wrist and then a piece of fibula was going to be placed in the wrist afterwards for stabilization. I have never been in an operating room before so everything I saw was new to me, but again, everything seemed so much more laid back. Many doctors floated in and out to observe the surgery and almost every physician in the room had their phone on them. It was also interesting to see how cohesive all of the surgeons worked together especially during a surgery of this caliber. On a different day I observed smaller procedures and more patient appointments. During this time I noticed how paper dependent this country still is. The patient is expected to come in with hard copies of scans such as an X-ray or MRI and then they are handed a paper prescription to bring to the pharmacy. The process in general is the same as what we do in the United States. It was just shocking to not see every doctor constantly charting on a computer or IPad. I am looking forward to my next week and observing new doctors in the Endocrinology department. (Submitted on January 14, 2024)
