(KNSI) – CentraCare St. Cloud Hospital once again threw open the doors to its surgical unit to the community, pulling back the curtain on what life is like in the ward.
The open house took place Thursday and is a decades-old tradition. Registered Nurse Paige Nelson helped plan the event. She says it is as gratifying for the staff as it is for those attending. She joked, “It’s just fun seeing everybody gets so excited about what we do because a lot of times, we’re the behind-the-scenes or the forgotten ones in surgery because everyone’s sleeping!”
Nelson says seven teams plan the event, which dates back about 30 years. It’s meant for all ages and features everything from a demonstration of how robots assist with knee replacements to a look at how medical equipment is calibrated and maintained.
She adds that they have looked to up the ante in recent years. “I think we have more in-depth rooms, like we actually have cow and pig organs on display where we’ve never done that before. Last year, we had a cadaver leg to show a ligament procedure.”
The animal parts come from a local farm. The leg from a medical vendor.
Many attendees experienced the open house for the first time. They weren’t alone. It was a first for some of the staff, too. That includes orthopedics physician director Dr. Patrick Osborn. He came away impressed with how it allows employees to show expertise and passion for their work. He says both are necessary to be great in medicine.
“If you can’t relate to patients, if you can’t get them on board with how you’re going to take care of them if they don’t trust you because you can’t relate to them, then you may be the greatest technical surgeon in the world, but you’re not going to have that next level of care.”
Osborn also noticed the community support on display. He says the tradition is unique to this area and shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Osborn thinks it could potentially benefit the new medical school, slated to open in 2025. “I would definitely show this to prospective medical students who are thinking about coming to the new campus. Because this shows a heck of a lot of excitement in what we do here, how much this community is engaged in this hospital and in CentraCare, and that may tip a really good candidate over into picking the new medical school branch here.”
The med school is a collaboration between CentraCare and the University of Minnesota.
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