Scrubbing in' is the act of cleaning your hands and arms with antiseptic prior to a surgical procedure. A neurosurgeon, whose career typically spans 30 years, and performs 300 surgeries annually, scrubs in for 10 minutes before every surgery, making it a grand total of 1,500 hours in front of a scrub sink. That, inarguably gives the surgeon the cleanest set of hands in the family, but it also offers him space and time for introspection as he stares at himself in the mirror, literally and metaphorically wearing a mask.

When you are a resident doctor, responsible for ensuring that there are no glitches, scrubbing in gives you the time to ponder over whether you have all the answers to questions about the patient's history that the chief surgeon might put to you during the operation: what does he do; is he a smoker; does he drink; does the name on the MRI match the patient who is inside the room; is he as old as the scan mentions he is; details of his symptoms. The answers may sometimes alter decision-making on the operating table.