Lefthandedness

[Guest DancingDoc]

First off... are any of you lefthanded? If so or if you know doctors who are, do you find it any harder to learn to do certain things (especially if learning from someone who is right-handed)? What about for those of you aiming for surgery? Just curious (I'm a south paw myself )

[Guest docbil]

hahaha...

 

I am also a left paw.

 

I am definitely not going into surgery .. so it doesn't matter.

 

There are doctors that are left handed... so it is definitely do-able. Don't worry about that, just try not to trip on anything.

[Guest satsumargirl]

I know there is at least one left-handed person in my class.

We were learning to do sutures earlier this year and the doctor didn`t seem to have a problem showing the student how to do it the other way.

 

Of course, we weren`t in a hurry as there was no real patient waiting for us to be finished.

[Guest strider2004]

You should be ambidextrous when it comes to sutures anyway.

[Guest opiedog]

I've worked with tons of Dr's and surgeons that are left handed. They do juuussstt fine. I'm left handed too, and found it very useful at times, especially in the OR.

 

Many left handed persons are able to use both hands well, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you are learning something from a right handed person who can't adapt, just sit directly opposite them. Mirroring what they do works well.

 

And always remember that everyone is born right handed, only the gifted overcome it:)

[Guest summervirus]

I've also worked with a number of left handed surgeons. Most people learn to tie with either hand anyway.

 

One resident told me that being left handed was actually to his advantage. The reason is because when you're the first assist in a surgery and you're trying to learn, you usually stand on the other side of the patient from the surgeon him/herself. When you're left handed, everything is mirror image which makes things easier to learn and more intuitive (at least so he claimed). The biggest difficulty is using clamps or scissors and trying to work them with your non-dominant hand. (Try imagining using a pair of lefty-scissors if you're right handed). But, I think that most left-handed people are able to adjust quite quickly anyway.

[Guest aneliz]

I am lefthanded... and I am going into a surgical specialty. I don't find it a disadvantage at all... in fact it may be a bit of an advantage. I (like most left handed people) have learned over the years to do things with my right hand too... (out of necessity). Rare is the lefty-sissors when you needed them at school... also rare is the lefty can opener. In contrast, right handed people generally do not learn to do anything with their left hand...

 

In surgery, you are EXPECTED to learn to do most things with BOTH hands (tie nots, cut with sissors, etc). Us lefties have a bit of a head start on the righties that can't make their left hands do anything...