For me, the hardest transition was college to med school.
Are you worried about the effects of health care reform on the future of Anesthesiology? (Over worked, under paid?)
For me, the hardest transition was college to med school.
hey there...
1. what do anesthesiologists think about pharmacists?
2. Do anesthesiologists know more about the drugs they use than a pharmacist in a clinical setting?
For me, the hardest transition was college to med school.
hi, could you elaborate on why you thought so?
p.s. great thread, thank you for your answers
Sure. I was an engineering major, which is very different from the type of learning in med school. Engineering = no memorization, all analytical/conceptual. Med school = all memorization, little analytical/conceptual. It took me a while to get used to that.
So did your engineering background influence your specialty choice? Is anesthesia a good choice for analytical/conceptually-minded people?
Anesthesia is an intermediate competitiveness field. I went to an average med school, and had average stats. I matched into a respectable (if not big name) program.
Thanks for taking the time to create a really helpful thread!
P.S. After having surgery and coming home today with a pain free shoulder after a repeated nerve block, my appreciation for anesthesiologists just increased 1000 points. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and experiences.
If you don't want to comment on this it's cool, I just didn't know if you read this or not...
But is health care reform going to impact the practice of anesthesiology?
Are you worried about the effects of health care reform on the future of Anesthesiology? (Over worked, under paid?)
Sure. I was an engineering major, which is very different from the type of learning in med school. Engineering = no memorization, all analytical/conceptual. Med school = all memorization, little analytical/conceptual. It took me a while to get used to that.
Yes. It was 8 years ago, so I don't remember the actual questions that came up.Did your engineering background ever come up during interviews for med schools?
Yes, although I can't know for sure.Do you think it helped you in any way during the application process?
Would you say going through engineering in undergrad (the coursework, the tests, etc.) was worth the trouble?
Thanks for all the answers, very helpful to all those considering the field I'm sure. It's also very reassuring to hear yet another person who is satisfied and happy with his specialty choice. I will be starting my intern year in a couple of weeks and am very stoked.
How much did you enjoy your cardiac rotations? As a med student I shadowed a few during my rotations and they seemed fairly intense compared to other subspecialties.
PS: I also did biomedical engineering as my undergrad, loved it, and am pretty sure that it contributes to the specialty choice. Several of my friends going into anesthesiology also had engineering backgrounds. Must be the combination of analytical process, physiology, and all the technology and tools we play with in the OR.
I consider myself to have an engineer's mind (very analytical/theoretical/conceptual). Are Gas and Rads the main specialties that would be a good fit for such a mindset? I like coming up with my own creative solutions rather than following some pre-defined algorithm for treatment.
Err in terms of creativity, Anesthesia ranks low on the list comparatively. I don't say that out of experience but physician surveys of specialties. There is a website (I think buffalo.edu domain) that has the surveys and which allows you to compare these things.
Thanks for all the answers, very helpful to all those considering the field I'm sure. It's also very reassuring to hear yet another person who is satisfied and happy with his specialty choice. I will be starting my intern year in a couple of weeks and am very stoked.
How much did you enjoy your cardiac rotations? As a med student I shadowed a few during my rotations and they seemed fairly intense compared to other subspecialties.
PS: I also did biomedical engineering as my undergrad, loved it, and am pretty sure that it contributes to the specialty choice. Several of my friends going into anesthesiology also had engineering backgrounds. Must be the combination of analytical process, physiology, and all the technology and tools we play with in the OR.
I consider myself to have an engineer's mind (very analytical/theoretical/conceptual). Are Gas and Rads the main specialties that would be a good fit for such a mindset? I like coming up with my own creative solutions rather than following some pre-defined algorithm for treatment.
At what point did you notice you developed a quirky sense of humor?
In terms of the doctors you have bumped into, which specialty do you feel is more likely to crack a joke?
I've been shadowing a few doctors, and they always end up asking me what specialty I'm interested in. I answer anesthesia and they always reply "wow thats a really stressful residency, are you sure?" So here I am asking you, is it really that stressful? On both your work and lifestyle?
Well its not typically too bad in terms of hours (most are 60-70 hours). Its closer to 80 when we're in the ICU. It is true that anesthesia can be stressful. The OR is a high stress environment, an when things go bad in anesthesia, they can get very bad (unexpected difficult airway, cardiac arrest, etc). It's definitely not as "laid back" as its reputation. There also can be production pressure (high turnover rooms, etc). I don't think its extremely stressful as far as residencies go, just more than the typical perception.
Do you intend to use your BME experience in any tangible way while in medicine?
I might be asking the wrong person for this question because you're still a resident but for those attendings around you, are they always stressed? The doctor I spoke to said that anesthesia doctors tend to have a ton of stress even after residency because of the chances of malpractice combined with other day duties.
Discovery fit and health has been airing old episodes of Trauma: Life in the ER (the best medical show ever). I recently caught an episode where they took an abdomen straight to the OR, and when they started to open, blood came pouring out. The surgeon/surgical resident kicked it into high gear and cut the patient from to top bottom and started tossing bowel out in a hurry looking for the bleed. I think they found and repaired it, but my daughter made me turn it off, so I'm not sure .
Anyhow, bringing it back to this thread, in situations like that where there's an internal bleed that's not going well, what is the anesthesiologist's management? Are you frantically pushing meds to maintain BP, infusing blood, etc, or does your pace not change much as you wait for them to repair the injury. Of course I'm sure you can't give me blanket answers, I'm just curious if everyone gets into high gear in these scenarios or just the surgeons.
In those situations (hemorrhagic shock), we will resuscitate with volume quickly. Hopefully, there are blood products in the room, and there is adequate IV access. Also, having a rapid infuser (Level 1, Belmont) is helpful. There is a good deal of recent evidence that giving plasma and platelets early in the course of trauma resuscitation improves outcomes. But if you are waiting on the blood products to arrive, we would give IV fluids. Pressors are not the ideal way to correct BP in that situation. It's important not to over-correct the BP, since this would exacerbate bleeding. And yes, our pace changes very much. If we "wait for them to repair the injury", the patient will not survive.
And all of these things are being done at the discretion of the anesthesiologist and independent of what the surgeon is doing? If so, that's hot.