Marlot Kuiper

164 Connective Routines grab a sandwich, I’ll be right back, I haven’t had breakfast yet.” Or, when I was shadowing orthopaedic surgeon dr. Frederiks, he stopped at the vending machine on our way to the surgery department at 7.30am to pull out a ‘Snelle Jelle’ (a sugar bomb cookie). He didn’t have breakfast – two little children at home that had to get dressed and ready to go to school, and the Snelle Jelle turned out to be the only food he would take that day. It all went quite well, until his hand started to shake during the sixth knee scope of that day. I also learned that hardly anyone in the surgery department drinks coffee with less than one or two sugars in it. It will allow them to get through the day, even if they haven’t eaten much. As there were no demarcated breaks to take any lunch, I had to develop routines to make sure I would eat and drink enough throughout the day, in order not to faint. In the final intermezzo of this dissertation about routines, I’ll explain these and other routines I developed in conducting ethnographic research in the surgery department.