Elkhorn students receive unique tour of OR

Dr. John Tinker, professor and chairman of the UNMC Department of Anesthesiology, talked about the key role played by anesthesiologists in the operating room. Dr. Tinker was one of the organizers of the event.

A group of 70 sixth-grade students from Elkhorn Ridge Middle School had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour the new operating rooms in the Hixson-Lied Center for Clinical Excellence on Nov. 8 and learn first-hand from the experts on what actually happens in the operating room.

The students heard from a group of about 18 health care professionals from UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center. The health professionals included organ transplant surgeons, anesthesiologists, a neurosurgeon, a minimally invasive surgeon, a clinical perfusionist, an OB/GYN physician, an orthopaedic surgeon, operating room and emergency room nurses, a trauma surgeon, a pharmacist, a respiratory therapist, a cardiac surgeon, a physician assistant and two graduate students.

The unique visit to the OR provided the students with an incredible opportunity to see health care at work and possibly inspire some of the students to consider a health care career.

Dr. Matt Mormino, orthopaedic surgery, shows the students how he uses the tools of his trade.

Because the operating rooms are in final construction stage and won’t be open for a couple months, the students had unprecedented access to areas of the OR that are not usually accessible to others because they are constantly in use.

The tour was the brainchild of two UNMC anesthesiologists who have children in the Elkhorn School District – Nancy Rogic, M.D., assistant professor, and John Tinker, M.D., professor and chairman of the department of anesthesiology.

“We wanted to do something that the students would remember,” Dr. Rogic said. “The timing was perfect. With the new operating rooms not open yet, it gave us the opportunity to do some things that we normally couldn’t do. Best of all, everyone that I asked to help out and talk to the students stepped up – that’s what really made this a special event.”

The students broke into groups and rotated through several different operating rooms as well as the new emergency room. They learned how anesthesiologists put patients to sleep, saw a human brain and heart and learned how they work, watched a pregnant woman get an ultrasound, and listened to a space-suit clad orthopaedic surgeon as he demonstrated some of the tools of his trade.

Dr. Mohammad Quader, lead heart transplant surgeon at The Nebraska Medical Center and associate professor of cardio-thoracic surgery at UNMC, shows the Elkhorn students a model of the human heart. Dr. Nancy Rogic, UNMC anesthesiologist and organizer of the tour, looks on with her daughter, Mary Greufe, at her side. Mary is a second grade student at Skyline Elementary School in Elkhorn.

In many of the operating rooms, the students were given the chance to perform hands-on activities, such as practicing with the da Vinci robotic surgical system. In each room, the students interacted with health professionals, who provided unique insights into their profession. At the end of the two and one-half hour tour, the students ate pizza in the Lower Storz Pavilion in Clarkson Tower and heard from students, a pharmacist and other health professionals.

The tour generated considerable media coverage with KETV (Ch. 7), KPTM (Ch. 42), the Douglas County Post Gazette and KFAB-AM (1110) all providing coverage.

“This was much more than just a day off of school and free pizza,” Dr. Tinker said. “The students are going to look back at this as an amazing experience. It could be a defining moment in their lives.”