Central Lines for Medical Students, Interns, & Residents

Placing central lines can be a pretty stressful part of medical school, internship, and residency… especially early on. Well, I’ve collected a bunch of videos and PDF files that you might find useful as you prepare for putting lines in yourself.

Let me know what you think of it.

Actually, it’s kind of interesting… in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he explores several success stories – the likes of Bill Gates, the Beatles, etc. Gladwell charts the course of the successful. And you might be shocked at some of his findings… like the fact that birth month has a huge impact on success in Canadian hockey leagues. It makes sense. These young boys that are born after the cut off date for starting end up starting the league a little older (albeit only 11 months). They have had time to refine their skills, mature a tad more, etc.

Upon entering the league a slight cut above the other players, they are then shunted into better instruction, all-star teams, and more positive attention. Better coaching and playing against better players means getting better and better. The cycle continues.

In a way, this is not unlike medical and surgical training. If you enter your internship (perceived to be) ahead of the others, the attendings begin to talk about you in a favorable way… they give you more responsibility… they pay a little more attention to you… they expect a little more out of you… and you respond in a way that is expected… You get better and better.

Why did I just blab on about all of that? Well, I am Wordy Boy and I want to tell you to practice. Practice, practice, practice. Tying knots will be mundane by the time your training is over, but in the beginning it can be pretty stressful… especially when anesthesia is huffing and puffing, the OR nurses are tapping their feet, and the surgeon just started rounds without you. Trust me on this. Click the video link below and you’ll be taken to a surgery knot tying page full of goodies.