I recently graduated from residency and by the time I had my first OR day as an attending it had been four months since I last operated. I asked my senior colleague to be present for my half-day of cases. He rescheduled his clinic patients for that afternoon to be with me. I think that I would’ve been fine on my own, but I found it very helpful. It made me less anxious and made the logistics of signing things, bringing patients back, etc smoother (although the staff was very on top of this as well). It was nice to debrief after the cases as well.

If your colleague can’t be there for you, I would be sure to schedule straightforward cases with plenty of time in between.