Anesthesiologist Requirements

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I have just decided to change gears from CRNA to being a dr. of anesthesiology instead. My med school advisers are a bit sketchy on the details and I was hoping some here could set me straight.

I was under the impression that after my medical school I could apply for residency and specialize in anesthesiology then. My adviser today told me that I have to go to med school for 3 years, residency for 1 year, then a masters in anesthesiology. This has me very confused as I thought I would go to med school for the norm of 4 years, residency for 3-9 years depending on my specialty and if I chose anesthesiology as my residency I would be an attending anesthesiologist at the end of my residency with no further schooling unless I chose too.

Any info on which is more accurate? I was also told by my adviser that anesthesiologist positions are very competitive and near impossible to get into.

Med school -4 years
Preliminary medicine/surgery or transitional year - 1
Anesthesia residency - 3 years
Fellowship (optional) 1-2yrs extra

Also consider that your background may not have allowed you the premed pre-reqs: Intro biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and english. This may require a 1-2 year post bacc

Then you have to take the MCAT to gain entrance into medical school

Hope this helps

Originally Posted by SuperHiro

Med school -4 years
Preliminary medicine/surgery or transitional year - 1
Anesthesia residency - 3 years
Fellowship (optional) 1-2yrs extra

Also consider that your background may not have allowed you the premed pre-reqs: Intro biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and english. This may require a 1-2 year post bacc

Then you have to take the MCAT to gain entrance into medical school

Hope this helps

That does help, thank you. The is much closer to what I had found researching on my own. The adviser got me very confused with his time lines and info. Now I know where to come to get the real advisers!

Anesthesiology is not "near impossible". They let me in.

In case you didn't know, your pre med advisor is a moron. Don't trust another thing he/she tells you. The premed forum here is very active.
Some medical students select themselves out, but US allopathic medical school grads have >90% success matching into an anesthesia residency. DO and Caribbean students are probably significantly worse.
Good luck.

Never listen to pre-med advisors.
Pre-med requirements:
1 yr bio +lab
1yr gen chem + lab
1 yr Ochem + lab
1 yr physics +lab
+/- Biochem, physio, english, and biostats, which are medical school dependant. Check out the AAMC webpage and buy an MSAR (medical school admission requirements book).

MCAT: score at least 31-32 nowadays I think.
Apply broadly (20+ schools)

Medical school:
MS1 &2 : mostly lecture and classroom basic physio, anatomy, cell bio, biochem, biostats, and pathophysiology
USLME Step I: try to get as high a score as possible
MS3: clerkships
MS4: electives, sub-internship, apply
USMLE step II

Apply for residency. previously outlined in other posts.

Good luck.
SDN pre-allopathic forum, while neurotic, is very informative about applications, pre-reqs, and interviews.

I know a number of people that were CRNAs and became Anesthesiologists.
It will take time, but plenty have done it.

Anesthesiologists play an important role in the treatment of surgical patients as they provide them with pain relief before, during and after surgery. Education needed to become an anesthesiologist, includes four years of undergraduate schooling, four years in medical school and internship and anesthesiology residency lasting up to eight years. Sub-specialization can be done through a fellowship of 1 to 3 years.

Originally Posted by Lincoln Brown

Anesthesiologists play an important role in the treatment of surgical patients as they provide them with pain relief before, during and after surgery. Education needed to become an anesthesiologist, includes four years of undergraduate schooling, four years in medical school and internship and anesthesiology residency lasting up to eight years. Sub-specialization can be done through a fellowship of 1 to 3 years.

hiuh? anesthesia residency lasting up to 8 years?? are you kidding me in what country? in the US anesthesia residency is 3 years. like the person above posted, 1 year for internship and 3 years for residency. Fellowships are 1 year for the most part, if it combines another fellowship like critical care or a research track it might be 2 years...

please don't post incorrect information and confuse other less informed members of the forum.

Originally Posted by Bertelman

Anesthesiology is not "near impossible". They let me in.

yeah, congratulations on choosing the harder but *IMHO* better route. unlike what most people think, physicians in anesthesiology (and any field, as a matter of fact) or not more intelligent than CRNAs or any other kind of nurse as a group. the difference is actually the blood/sweat/tears you are willing to dedicate to becoming the TOP of your field. don't know you, but proud of you.

Originally Posted by IlDestriero

... DO ...students are probably significantly worse...

Not true.

Source: Personal Experience.

Originally Posted by netrunner

yeah, congratulations on choosing the harder but *IMHO* better route. unlike what most people think, physicians in anesthesiology (and any field, as a matter of fact) or not more intelligent than CRNAs or any other kind of nurse as a group. the difference is actually the blood/sweat/tears you are willing to dedicate to becoming the TOP of your field. don't know you, but proud of you.

Interesting that you say this. I was asking a CRNA a few things related to her practice (things about physiology and such) and she had to google a fair amount of it. This happens with most nurses I interact with, now that I think about it. Ill ask a nurse a question about something such as heart function an she'll immediately grab a handbook of some sorts. I've never seen a physician do that.

On another note, I was comparing a nurse anesthetist text to a anesthesiology text the other day and roughly the first half of it was dedicated to covering very basic science that the physician learns more extensively in medical school. Didn't even compare to Rang and Dale's.

Nursing is not equal to Medicine. I wish the lay public was more aware of that; I feel like we wouldn't have this problem then.

Originally Posted by ajleyva

Interesting that you say this. I was asking a CRNA a few things related to her practice (things about physiology and such) and she had to google a fair amount of it. This happens with most nurses I interact with, now that I think about it. Ill ask a nurse a question about something such as heart function an she'll immediately grab a handbook of some sorts. I've never seen a physician do that.

On another note, I was comparing a nurse anesthetist text to a anesthesiology text the other day and roughly the first half of it was dedicated to covering very basic science that the physician learns more extensively in medical school. Didn't even compare to Rang and Dale's.

Nursing is not equal to Medicine. I wish the lay public was more aware of that; I feel like we wouldn't have this problem then.

One's level of intelligence does not directly correlate to how much knowledge one possesses on a given topic, hence the other person's statement that physicians are not necessarily more intelligent than nurses, pharmacists, or any other profession for that matter. A nurse having to look up information does not mean that he or she is less intelligent; instead, it should clue you into the differences between nursing and medical education (which it obviously has if you compared the textbooks and noted the differences). If nurses and physicians possessed all the same textbook knowledge, what would be the need for two very different professions? Granted, CRNAs generally perform the same job as the anesthesiologist, but they typically work under an attending - of course, this may differ in hard-to-staff regions of the US. While their knowledge may not be as thorough as the physician's, they are trained well enough to do the job within their scope of practice and can always defer to the physician when necessary.

The general public seems to be very much aware of the differences between nursing and medicine, at least in my experience. I've never heard of a patient wanting to see the nurse for a surgical procedure. Perhaps you're unaware of the differences if you're expecting nurses to know all that physicians know in regards to medicine.