Nicole F. Yeshtokin, D.O., Sentara Surgery Specialist, discusses her area of focus, approach to patient care, and explains how her service in the Air Force helps her as a Surgeon.
My name is Nicole. Yes, token, and I'm a general surgeon at Center for a Surgery Specialists in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Uh, my primary focus in general surgery is performing traditional as well as minimally invasive surgery for a variety of abdominal conditions ranging from acid reflux surgery, UH, two hernias to colon cancer as well as colon cancer screening. I also prefer from emergency surgeries for trauma, bleeding, bowel blockages, appendicitis and gallbladder or disease. In addition to this, I provide surgical options for breast cancer in a variety of benign breast conditions as well as skin cancer. For as long as I can recall, I've always wanted to become a surgeon. I loved medicine, medical shows, um, and still enjoy watching other people operate, even on TV. So as I got older, I always sought out opportunities to be around any kind of surgeon that was willing to take me on. I watched live surgery at a major, uh, teaching institution where I grew up and volunteered in the hospital and doctor's offices in various capacities and as a high school student, Uh, this gave me the opportunity to, um meet other doctors and joined them in on medical conferences. So ever since I was young, I really wanted to be a part of that, uh, team dynamic and always found the operating room not only fascinating, but very welcoming. My goal is a general surgeon is to create a team with the patient myself and the staff that will assist in their care. I want patients to understand that there are different options, surgical and nonsurgical and support them. And through this decision making process, I want them to be confident that they are receiving access to high quality care locally and that this care is going to be tailored to their individual needs. I was looking to build a community practice with other general surgeons who have the same philosophy in providing care that I do and also are interested in building a legacy of providing excellent care in a trusted community of providers. And I was able to find this in Elizabeth City when I was deployed in Iraq. I really, um, gained a lot of value and insight as a surgeon from listening to other team members. It didn't matter what their role was. Uh, everybody's input was really valuable into making sure that the patient was able to make it through the surgery. So when I transitioned to the civilian side of medicine, I always kept that in mind and really try to practice that philosophy where everybody's input value is valuable and people have different perspective that can really aid in improving patient outcome.
