<p>For my senior project I want to observe a surgery. Is there a way I should go about doing this? How could I? Is it legal?</p>
<p>You'd have to get in contact with some surgeons in your area. I'd recommend Ortho as it's usually not life threatening, and usually will not expose parts of people's bodies they don't want exposed. </p>
<p>I had an internship last fall and saw tons of them, but I spent lots of time in the office before getting to watch a surgery.</p>
<p>Ask and you may receive.</p>
<p>Because of the HIPAA regulations, you may find it difficult to shadow and observe a surgery these days. My recommendation is connections, connections, connections. If you know a doctor or knows someone that knows a surgeon, that's your best chance of getting to witness a surgery. Your chances of being allowed inside the OR in the U.S. are low,but not 0.</p>
<p>Some teaching hospitals have observation rooms above the OR with glass panels in the OR ceilings and speaker systems so you can have a bird's eye view and hear everything that is going on without being in the OR.</p>
<p>I was a part of a several week program where we met once a week and shadowed doctors. One of our visits, I was lucky to observe an operation. Unluckily, it was just on a toe. haha so I definitely say you should get into contact with a local hospital. but i'm not sure how willing they'd be to just let you sit in on one operation without doing some sort of program/shadowing/time committing thing.</p>
<p>I just started by asking to shadow an orthopedic surgeon a few days in his office. At the end of the last day I was scheduled to shadow him I was planning to ask him if I could watch a surgery. Before I could even think about aksing him, he asked me if I would be interested in seeing a surgery. So now I am scheduled to see a few (the first is just arthoscopic so he knows that I can handle it) in the next few months. His office assistant said it is difficult to see surgerys with all of the regulations, but it can be done. Before you can be allowed to go in the OR you have to be tested for TB.
So, it would be best to possibly contact a surgeon to them a few times and then ask to see a surgery. I hope that this helped. If you have any questions, just ask.</p>
<p>I agree with needing a personal relationship with a doctor to make this happen. When our DD1 expressed an interest in medicine (which didn't stick, BTW), a doctor friend arranged for us to see a morning of surgeries in various ORs. There was open heart, neck, facial, abdominal, but the most challenging (be careful what you wish for!) was knee replacement; it made us both squeamish. The docs were in space suits because the power tools make it really messy (plus they combat infection). We were always behind the anesthesia equipment, well out of the way, but mostly had good views. It was a tremendous experience, so go for it.</p>