Advice from academic attendings here....

[amyl]

after three years in pp doing my own cases I'm going into academics and supervising. I'll do livers on my own but otherwise supervising residents or crnas. Any of you experienced academic anes have any advice for me? Thanks in advance

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[nimbus]

after three years in pp doing my own cases I'm going into academics and supervising. I'll do livers on my own but otherwise supervising residents or crnas. Any of you experienced academic anes have any advice for me? Thanks in advance

Why will you be doing livers solo? They are great learning cases for residents.

 

[amyl]

They do livers elsewhere I guess. Two attendings do livers... It's moonlighting.

 

[RK.md]

What made you switch? I'm considering going straight into academics after fellowship, but I always like to hear from attendings who switched from private practice into academics why they made the jump.

 

[deleted682700]

Job security is an illusion. Working full time jobs in anesthesia is like putting all your eggs in one basket and hope that your employer will play nice. May work in academia.
Private practice you need to work at least 2 different jobs. The advantage is in this bAd economy, you can have a life and be able to set the number of days and hours, calls you want to work. Remember there is no commitment despite what your contract says.

 

[aneftp]

Academic jobs in general are easier than private jobs.

However just like VA hospitals. Not all academics jobs behave the same. Some VA hospitals work "relatively" harder than other VA hospitals. So it's all relative in academics as well.

A lot of academic hospitals are requiring more and more clinical work. So some who join academics from private world may see a lot of favoritism as well Some peeps get more non clinical than others.

There are other commitments as well such as meetings and preparing for lectures. Make sure there is some guaranteed non clinical time to prepare for lectures.

 

[deleted682700]

Supervising residents and crnas is an art on to itself. I don't think you can do that easily after practicing independently in pp. micromanage too much and you will bring the worst productivity. Don't and someone will get you into trouble and u will be responsible. You will have it figure out the resident that knows from those that don't.

 

[amyl]

I'm switching because I like big cases, I think I'll like teaching, and i care about the future of the specialty I've dedicated my life too. In pp I've run across some people I'm ashamed are part of my specialty and I want to have a hand in turning out better anesthesiologists. Admin in pp stinks.... A bunch of c plus business students running things and completely mess everything up and don't really care about patients. The cmo actually said no dr should expect any more respect than the privilege of taking the best care of patients. The hospital is poor and poorly run and takes horrid care of patients... I tried to bring this to their attention and all they wanted to know is what can we do to get you to sign this contract for another year. lots of the Drs here really stink -- Lots are sexist. There should be three malpractice suits that I know of that were definitely gross negligence but they weren't sued.

 

[IlDestriero]

That's one of the things I certainly considered when looking for jobs Amyl. It was one of the reasons that I didn't do local moonlighting at a rural hospital when I was in the navy. If the surgeons are great, your job is easier, if they are stupid and arrogant hacks, your job is 10 times harder and there will be bad outcomes. I asked about surgeon quality all the time during my interviews. The surgeons where I am now are great with rare exception and many are phenomenal. It makes doing very complex cases much more reasonable. They have a plan, a back up plan and know what they're getting into.
Several of the rural surgeons at the Podunk place near where I used to live were openly described as hacks and assassins. I didn't need the money and I didn't want the headaches.

 

[deleted682700]

Yes rural places can attract these losers. They will not get a job anywhere else. Yes, pp is shady and shameful. Outrageous profit and greed is bringing a bad name and the general public will loose faith in all of us. We used to have a wonderful gifted and fast laparoscopic surgeon that the admin got rid off. He went to kaiser and doing extremely well. Hospitals are run by bafoons who want to show numbers, and then get promoted by screwing patients, nurses and doctors. No ethics here. I hope there is a govt take over of all health care period. This private profit motive over patient health is going to end badly.

 

[deleted171991]

Why will you be doing livers solo? They are great learning cases for residents.

I concur. Even if they do livers elsewhere, too, they are just way too good learning cases to be wasted. One can never do enough of them during residency (even if I personally hated setting up for them).

Dumb trainees...

 

[Twiggidy]

The OP makes valid points (wanting to teach, bad admin, etc) but serious, in pp you are a highly paid resident. You have to answer to the hospital's beckoning call or your contract will be up for grabs, especially in highly sought after markets. I'm also getting the feeling that these big corporations that are taking over small practices want the most work out of the fewest people, so in that sense pp can be very exhausting. Academic practices tend to be huge which lightens the call burden and the residents can typically do deal with the usual anesthesia scut. Not saying there isn't politics in academics, there definitely is and you still have to play nice, but in pp the politics are insane. Remember, in the end, no matter where we practice, we're still a service industry.

 

[kazuma]

Sorry to hear your experience in PP wasn't great. FWIW, many of the problems in PP that have been discussed here are also problems in some academic centers (terrible surgeons, nasty administrators etc). I wish we had C business students as administrators, instead we have C- nurses with absolutely no business experience that have infiltrated all levels of administration. While it's true that Tx Tech had many issues, it goes to show that it's not impossible for an AMC to take over an academic center.


I hope you have a better experience in academics.

 

[narcusprince]

AmyL I will give you call!