Issaquah High School Robotics Team enjoys the ultimate field trip
Providence Swedish has nine da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical systems between its Issaquah and First Hill campuses.The award-winning Issaquah High school team got to see and test drive the robot with a plastic patient abdomen and dexterity games.
Swedish Issaquah Operating Room (OR) staff invited the Issaquah High School robotics team to visit one of their three robotic-assisted surgical suites Aug. 24, where 11 STEM students and a professional mentor enjoyed a unique opportunity to don scrubs before learning about and test driving a robotic-assisted surgical system.
The Intuitive da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical system features advanced instrumentation – along with real-time, 3D, high-definition, color video images and four robotic-assisted arms – to enhance the ability of surgeons and OR teams to perform the most precise minimally invasive surgeries. Providence Swedish has nine da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical systems between its Issaquah and First Hill campuses.
“It was exciting for the robotics students to see and test drive the robot with a plastic patient abdomen and dexterity games. Although robotics are part of many industries, a surgical robot is not one that you often get to observe,” said Swedish Issaquah Specialty Charge Nurse Jennifer Hitch, RN. “The robotic-assisted surgery team and two reps from Intuitive were happy to help arrange this ‘ultimate field trip’ opportunity for these aspiring STEM students.”
Hitch added, “In the OR, we work as a synchronized team to achieve the very best patient outcomes. Team members know their individual roles, how each interacts with others, and we debrief after every surgery. The robotics team is analogous. They’ve worked as a high-functioning team to win competitions.”
The Issaquah High School team recently took first place in the district (Washington, Oregon and Alaska) robotics competition and went on to the world competition, where they built an industrial-sized robot using limited resources and tight parameters to play field games against robots constructed by students from high schools around the world.
About Providence Swedish
Providence Swedish has served the Puget Sound region since the first Providence hospital opened in Seattle in 1877 and the first Swedish hospital opened in 1910. The two organizations affiliated in 2012 and today comprise the largest health care delivery system in Western Washington, with 22,000 caregivers, eight hospitals and 244 clinics throughout Western Washington – from Everett to Centralia. A not-for-profit family of organizations, Providence Swedish provides more than $545 million in community benefit in the Puget Sound region each year. The health system offers a comprehensive range of services and specialty and subspecialty care in a number of clinical areas, including cancer, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care. For more information, visit providence.org/swedish.
