What if the dr. liked to perform open heart surgery to Pearl Jam but that type of music put the nurses assisting him on edge?
Or maybe they are allowed music but are only given a few selections like: jazz, classical or soothing tunes. Who would make the rules?
Have you ever heard of this?
Do doctors really listen to music while operating?
Yes.
I don’t see why anyone else would make the decision for them. What’s soothing to one person can be irritating to another. Music that sounds loud and discordant to you might be just the thing to put me in a mood for work or thinking. If music helped my surgeon work, I’d rather let him/her decide what music would make for the best working conditions.
The surgeons I know usually play music that the patient likes (or the music they assume the patient likes).
I work for a group of orthopaedic surgeons. A couple of them don’t want any music, but most have a small collection of their favorite CDs to listen to.
My opthalmologist played Dark Side of the Moon while slicing my eyeballs open.
I remember having a cyst behind my ear removed and the surgeons talked…and talked…and talked…about who was
doing who and all kinds of stuff.
I’ve videotaped many surgical procedures and they most certainly do listen to their favorite music.
The following anecdote may be too racy for the sensitive or very young.
One time the surgeons were commenting on a very attractive patient having knee surgery. One remarked that they had three holes drilled in her and they could each take a hole. Doctors aren’t the saints you think they are.
The gynos I worked with were the worst.
Doctor’s make the rules, and they are the boss in the operating room. A lot do listen to music during surgeries, unless maybe a hospital had a policy against it. If a nurse really didn’t like it and spoke up, the doctor would probably turn it off. No big deal.
I’ve job shadowed a plastic surgeon and a general surgeon, and they both listened to music during surgeries (classical and techno stuff, respectively). You’d be surprised how casual the conversation is, from talking about seemingly pointless topics to making jokes about the operation/patient. Remember, a lot of procedures are very routine and they probably get bored sometimes just like you do at your job.
Many docs listen to music, particularly for easy cases. Some surgeons prefer complete silence. All docs turn the music off as soon as something goes wrong or gets complicated, though.
I wonder if Weird Al’s “Like a Surgeon” was popular in ORs for a while.
Oh how the nurses laugh!
My SO works in Theatres in the Orthopaedic Unit. He finds that although some of the old school surgeons may play the rank card and insist on their own favourites, many of the younger generation surgeons agree that they are at the mercy of the nurses who have control over the CDs. You can’t change the CD when you are all gowned up. 
He says the only exception to this is the surgeons who don’t want any music at all.
In Canada the doctor calls the shots. But the anesthetist changes the CDs. One who didn’t listen to the surgeon would probably regret it.
Blimey! Are they performing sense of humour bypasses now?
Oh, I do hope that these surgeons aren’t the tap-a-rhythm type.
Might work if you were getting a spinal tap, though…
I do a fair amount of surgical assisting, Sqwerticus. Some of the surgeons think nothing of, say, listening to a full afternoon of Scottish bagpipe music or… (shudder) Peter Frampton. I’m sure I’d rather be at the mercy of the nurses, who, in these parts, usually settle for bad country and western music.
I was having a routine colonoscopy a few months ago, and I swear I heard the beginning notes of ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ just as I was going under.
:eek:
There is another sort of C&W?
[quote]
Originally posted by Indefatigable
**Music that sounds loud and discordant to you might be just the thing to put me in a mood for work or thinking. **
or cutting people open?