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With Mod 1 final exams over in October, many of my classmates began a well-deserved weeklong break from school.  As a first-year Health Care MBA, however, I prepared for the first step in earning the “health care” part of my degree:  Immersion Week.  I, like most of my fellow Health Care MBA’s, came to Owen specifically for the health care specialization and had been hearing about Immersion Week and its purpose—experiencing the clinical side of health care before starting our education on the business side—for months.  I had signed up for my clinical rotations, sent in my scrub sizes, picked up my Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) badge, and was ready to go.

One of the most anticipated (and for some, scary) parts of the week was the operating room rotations.  I arrived at VUMC bright and early on my assigned day, suited up in hospital scrubs, cap, mask, and booties, and was ushered through an OR door.  Soon, I was standing a few feet away from two plastic surgeons as they tried to save a motorcycle accident victim’s leg from amputation by repairing blood vessels and applying skin grafts.  Fortunately I’m not squeamish because the injuries were severe enough that the nurses seemed concerned I might faint just looking at the leg before the surgery even began.  I walked out afterwards never wanting to ride a motorcycle, but before going under anesthesia the patient insisted that he would be back on his soon.