• Question: is you job a little gross

    Asked by 661artc46 to Andrew, Lizzie, Nick, Sonia on 16 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Elizabeth Kapasa

      Elizabeth Kapasa answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Hmm I don’t think so. I work in a clean environment so everything is pretty clean! I guess if you’re squeamish about seeing surgery then maybe but that’s not something engineers normally do.

    • Photo: Nicholas Hitchins

      Nicholas Hitchins answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Well personally I don’t think so but then I am not bothered by surgery or anything like that. Generally though I spend most of the time in the office with only a bit of time in the laboratory. I have had quite an active role in surgery before when I was working on certain surgical devices, however that isn’t always the case. There are engineers I work with who don’t like going anywhere near surgery and they tend to just work on devices from the office and no spend any time visiting hospitals. In medical engineering it is very easy to avoid visiting products in use and letting those who are interested in that sort of stuff to go out on the surgical visits.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      It depends on your perspective. The operating theatre is a very clean environment. We change out of ordinary clothes in to ‘theatre scrubs’ more commonly known as pajamas. Prior the surgical procedure any who work at or near the operating field need to further dressed in sterile gowns. Must not touch these sterile areas since because that will introduce bacteria in the sterile area.

      You will need to get use to the red bits but there is not much of it and beed to follow sterile procedure. Organs look pretty much like the ones found medical test books. For the uninitiated it can be intimidating and many people including the doctors faint at their first sight of blood. After a while its just another working environment. You will need to get use to it otherwise you cannot do your job correctly.

    • Photo: Andrew Phillips

      Andrew Phillips answered on 19 Jun 2015:

      There are bits that could be considered gross. I think it depends on if you’re squeamish or not! I find that I tend to think about the technical detail of it all so find it interesting. The surgery in orthopaedics can be a bit brutal. I’ve observed surgery to try and understand specific problems, which convinced me I’m better as an engineer than a surgeon!

      Some of the images of blast injuries that I’ve seen could be considered gross (one person fainted in a presentation given by a military surgeon) but I think it’s important that as engineers we see them, so we can appreciate what we are dealing with, and what we are trying to prevent, or mitigate.

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