Are all anesthesiologists control freaks?

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propadope

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Just wondering if everyone has similar personality traits. Is being a control freak a good thing? Does this trait spill into your personal life or only in 'work mode'?

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Yea, we all have the exact same personality traits, favorite foods, hobbies, and bathroom tendencies. Man you're good!
 
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Ha, I am the complete opposite of a control freak.
This

and this:
Only for things that matter. And most things don't matter. So I guess not.

With experience you learn where the pitfalls are and that's where you take control. The rest of the time is doesn't matter.
 
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Is being a control freak a good thing?

The people you supervise hate it. They don't enjoy working with you and thus their performance is lower. In that sense it is not a good thing.

The surgeons think highly of you for looking busy even if it's on petty stuff. In that sense it is good for PR.

Overall, it is good for show, but not for patient outcomes.
 
This

and this:


With experience you learn where the pitfalls are and that's where you take control. The rest of the time is doesn't matter.

I agree. I think a lot of "control" is rooted in insecurity, be it with jobs, relationships, or whatever. Don't get me wrong, as you say, you need to know when you need control. Knowing when you don't is just as important.
 
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Overall, it is good for show, but not for patient outcomes.

It can be if you work by yourself, or if those that work under you are on the same page. I was told recently by the SRNAs here that I am the most particular staff to work with, in that I ensure that the workspace is clean and clear of extraneous drugs/equipment, with lines not wrapped in knots and locked off in multiple places. If there is a complicated case that requires multiple infusions, the pumps are set up my way, so that I can tell at a quick glance what is infusing, without having to wait as the drug/dose scrolls by on the display. It has nothing to do with insecurity, and more to do with the fact that I can react faster when I know where everything is, and what's going on. I can be thrown in the room, and still do the case, but there will be small delays when reaching for syringes, adjusting pumps, setting up new lines/devices that were not stocked, etc. This is what I classify as being a control freak at work.
 
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It can be if you work by yourself, or if those that work under you are on the same page. I was told recently by the SRNAs here that I am the most particular staff to work with, in that I ensure that the workspace is clean and clear of extraneous drugs/equipment, with lines not wrapped in knots and locked off in multiple places. If there is a complicated case that requires multiple infusions, the pumps are set up my way, so that I can tell at a quick glance what is infusing, without having to wait as the drug/dose scrolls by on the display. It has nothing to do with insecurity, and more to do with the fact that I can react faster when I know where everything is, and what's going on. I can be thrown in the room, and still do the case, but there will be small delays when reaching for syringes, adjusting pumps, setting up new lines/devices that were not stocked, etc. This is what I classify as being a control freak at work.

You like things your way and your way is the best.

We all get it.
 
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Overall, it is good for show, but not for patient outcomes.

That's a pretty bold opinion that you have absolutely no way of factually backing-up.

I was told recently by the SRNAs here that I am the most particular staff to work with...

(1) That's the kind of thing they say to someone they don't like to work with.
(2) Just so we're clear, it wasn't a compliment.
 
That's a pretty bold opinion that you have absolutely no way of factually backing-up.

I'm almost finished writing my NIH grant proposal for a RCT in order to get hard data to back the statement.
 
I am a control freak in the OR. But being in the military you learn you have little control of things outside the OR.
 
It can be if you work by yourself, or if those that work under you are on the same page. I was told recently by the SRNAs here that I am the most particular staff to work with, in that I ensure that the workspace is clean and clear of extraneous drugs/equipment, with lines not wrapped in knots and locked off in multiple places. If there is a complicated case that requires multiple infusions, the pumps are set up my way, so that I can tell at a quick glance what is infusing, without having to wait as the drug/dose scrolls by on the display. It has nothing to do with insecurity, and more to do with the fact that I can react faster when I know where everything is, and what's going on. I can be thrown in the room, and still do the case, but there will be small delays when reaching for syringes, adjusting pumps, setting up new lines/devices that were not stocked, etc. This is what I classify as being a control freak at work.

I would like to think I can walk into any case regardless of how things are set up and ordered and complete it assuming a competent plan being carried out. I don't think not wanting knots in IV lines and having a reasonably clean space is a "control freak". That's a job standard. You've hinted at several other high maintenance things that may classify you as one though.
 
I am a control freak about what time I am leaving the hospital.. Thats it.
 
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I would like to think I can walk into any case regardless of how things are set up and ordered and complete it assuming a competent plan being carried out. I don't think not wanting knots in IV lines and having a reasonably clean space is a "control freak". That's a job standard. You've hinted at several other high maintenance things that may classify you as one though.

We're all supposed to be able to walk into any case and take over. It's just easier when you started it, and set it up yourself. That's the part that I am trying to emphasize as control. I like planning the case and setting things up myself (which is good, because we don't have techs that will do that for us), I like knowing where my drugs are, and that all of my lines actually work. To see the workspaces of some of the folk I work with, you wouldn't think its job standard. Regularly, when I go in to see if any help is needed, or to give a break, I see preops and other papers strewn across the anesthesia cart, a host of empty syringes and unattached needles lying everywhere, IVs tangled up together, etc. These are the same people that overhead page for emergent help during a case, because they didn't bother to check their cart between cases and see that they don't have anymore laryngoscope blades, or roc, or whatever else they need right at that second.
 
It's just easier when you started it, and set it up yourself. That's the part that I am trying to emphasize as control. I like planning the case and setting things up myself (which is good, because we don't have techs that will do that for us), I like knowing where my drugs are, and that all of my lines actually work.

Control freak kind of implies that you are supervising.

Can you be a thought of as a control freak when you work alone? I don't think so. That would be more properly characterized as being OCD or anal, which I think is your situation.
 
Control freak kind of implies that you are supervising.

Can you be a thought of as a control freak when you work alone? I don't think so. That would be more properly characterized as being OCD or anal, which I think is your situation.
I want to include OCD and perfectionism in this discussion as well. Also do these traits spill over into personal life?
 
I want to include OCD and perfectionism in this discussion as well. Also do these traits spill over into personal life?
I think you may as well be asking our favorite colors. :)

At home, one side of my office has a desk. Right now about 98% of its surface area is occupied by, among other things, and in no particular order, a laptop computer, printer, a few journals, books, mail, a drill press, an unused monitor, some batteries, a hat, last year's taxes, some canned air, a can of carburetor cleaner, and a drink I'm consuming as I read SDN.

Six feet away is a workbench with two reloading presses where I assemble ammunition, ie explosives I intend to set off in the chamber of a rifle pressed up against my face. That area looks like my anesthesia cart - orderly.

I'm an uptight anal OCD perfectionist with no sense of humor or tolerance for distractions when it matters, the rest of the time I suppose I'm kind of a lazy slob. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do when my kids all move out and I can't order them to clean the house. Hire a maid, I guess. But the maid won't touch the workbench.
 
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I'm a freak..........I like the girls with the boom. I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom.
 
Your job as a supervising attending is to make sure your subordinates carry out the anesthetic plan you devised.

Your job is not to have all 3 or 4 rooms of yours set up exactly as you want it.

The more you force your subordinates to focus on your room setup and peculiarities, the less they are able to focus on the relevant matters of the case.

I think we can all agree that we perform in the OR best when the cart/machine are the way we want them to be.

But your subordinates are the ones sitting on the stool during the case, not you.

My opinion is that control-freak supervising anesthesiologists are the ones with worse outcomes compared to the anesthesiologists who allow their subordinates to practice within their own comfort and workspace.
 
OK, so I'm more OCD than control freak. For the record, I don't cover multiple rooms, so I don't have subordinates. Either I do my own cases, or I am the fireman, with the CRNAs doing their own thing, and me just there to help things move along and deal with problems as they arise.
 
When I was a resident, I learned the most from the most particular/control freak attending. He had a rationale for everything which made what he did make sense.

Other attending may have been "easier" to work with but I did not learn as much from them.

Some residents or SRNAs are not going to do well no matter who supervises them. They just will feel better on days they get an attending that doesn't care much about teaching them.
 
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