How mentally taxing is anesthesia?

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I'm just curious how mentally exhausting Anesthesia is. I'm finishing my second year of med school and am starting to weigh pro's and con's of fields I am interested in. I know people in EM always talk about how an hour there is like 1.5 hours in other fields. Also I'm sure that surgery requires a lot of mental focus and is pretty exhausting after doing it all day. So how does anesthesia fare? I'm sure doing dosing and induction can be tiring but how about when the pt is under and everything is going well. Do you have to be really focused or are you able to chill out since there is only one thing to worry about? 55-60 hrs a week as an attending seems like a lot but I know that how tiring those hours are plays an even bigger role. I'm just trying to get an honest account of what things are like for you. Thanks!

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It's so easy a nurse can do it!

Although the Soduku and crossword puzzles can sometimes become very challenging.

:)

I think it depends on several factors. For eg, what stage or level of training you're at. You have to be more vigilant as a CA1 since everything is new but if you've been an attending for like 10 years then it's probably a lot easier.

Another factor is what sort of case you're doing. Cardio thoracic, lung transplant, etc. are going to be very different than a cataracts case.

Also, what's the patient like? Is the patient ASA-1 or ASA-4? What's the Mallampati class? Planned procedure or not?

And so on.
 
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It is neither mentally exhausting or challenging. It is more tricky. THe more cunning you are the better an anesthesiologist you will be. NOr sure how to explain it further. 10 mins in a stable case feels like a ****ing eternity though. I can vouch for that.
 
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Anesthesiology is a combination of pattern recognition and critical thinking combined with planning for worst case scenarios at all times. Is it mentally taxing? I don't think so. It keeps me on my toes and keeps my mind nimble. It involves a lot of thinking but I find that interesting more than tiring.

In an ASA 1 gallbladder, you might find yourself pondering what your gameplan is if your OR experiences a power or fresh gas failure. I'll sometimes during a busy day try to imagine what my gameplan would be with a mass casualty event that brought lots of emergency trauma patients to the OR in a short duration of time. We did at one point have a mass shooting in our town (the ones you see on CNN for 2+ hours) that necessitated bringing multiple patients to the OR in the middle of a busy weekday and it was a good lesson in disaster planning.
 
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Another factor is what sort of case you're doing. Cardio thoracic, lung transplant, etc. are going to be very different than a cataracts case.
Absolutely. Not only there is no bypass machine to crash on, but the patient is awake and complaining.
 
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Anesthesiology is a combination of pattern recognition and critical thinking combined with planning for worst case scenarios at all times.

This, plus looking at the monitor pretty much nonstop. Less taxing than primary care. More taxing than doing hernias all day.
 
Anesthesia is not as taxing as dealing with all the egos in the OR. In a great workplace and OR team, time almost flies.
 
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Is it taxing...?

Yes. It can be very exhausting. It depends on your particular situation and group practice. The bottom line is that if you love what you do, things become much more palatable.
 
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Is anesthesia mentally taxing. Not really, you just have to always be on guard for the worst possible situations. We are natural pessimists always planning for what happens if the block fails, spinal fails, worst case scenarios. Watch out for this kind of thinking outside the operating room. Anesthesia residency can be physically and mentally taxing given the work loads and working with new attendings. Could I see myself doing anything else absolutely not. I love my career.
 
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I see some people get all excited about minor bullshrimp, some people are relaxed even in OR code situations. I don't think it's very taxing for the most part, but it all depends on who you are.
 
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Don't listen to them... it is very easy and relaxing, actually you leave work feeling relaxed an rejuvenated.
I highly recommend it as a hobby as well.
 
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It becomes more taxing over the week as you progress from the Monday to the Friday NY Times crossword puzzle.

And weekend calls are a b****!
 
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It's like driving a car. Asa4 patients is like driving in losangeles or NYC. On call is like driving u haul along the highway non stop for 24 hrs. Do u get tired after? Do u feel exhausted mentally and physically when u have a cranky psychopath as your boss driving with you?
And after you get used to it for a few years, oatsama and shillary will come along and change the rules and they make it harder with all kinds of pot holes to navigate on the highway.
Good luck
 
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The provision of anesthesia becomes easier after a finite period of time; this will vary with the individual. By far, the most taxing aspect of anesthesiology is dealing with all the difficult personalities: surgeons, CRNAs, nursing staff, etc. I've always said: Anesthesia is easy. Dealing with everyone associated with anesthesia is the hard part.
 
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It's easy if you know what you're doing. It gets easier after you've done it for a while. I quite enjoy it. I can't believe I get paid for some of the fun stuff that I do!! I have zero stress. The only taxing is what Obama is doing to us, taking half of what we earn.
 
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Don't listen to them... it is very easy and relaxing, actually you leave work feeling relaxed an rejuvenated.
I highly recommend it as a hobby as well.

Anesthesia is getting less taxing - as our incomes go down, the taxes get less and less!
 
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It's easy if you know what you're doing. It gets easier after you've done it for a while. I quite enjoy it. I can't believe I get paid for some of the fun stuff that I do!! I have zero stress. The only taxing is what Obama is doing to us, taking half of what we earn.

Time to test this guy's urine.
 
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If you are a nervous nelly, it's probably much more mentally taxing. Nervous nelly's shouldn't go into anesthesia. If you're an ice man, it's all good, and you'll love this job. Learning anesthesia can be stressful, but it's still fun.

Surgeons gotta do surgeries, some of which can be, or become, very stressful and taxing. Then, afterward, you have to go round, or go see patients in a clinic, and if you are a general surgeon, stick you finger up everyone's hairy turd cutter. Uh, no thanks.
 
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It's easy if you know what you're doing. It gets easier after you've done it for a while.
That's it exactly - it's easy because you guys are good at it - not that it is easy to do. Not to be indelicate, but it is like a heavy equipment operator - they make it seem so smooth and natural and simple, that it is deceptive about how difficult it is when you get your chance at it.
 
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That's it exactly - it's easy because you guys are good at it - not that it is easy to do. Not to be indelicate, but it is like a heavy equipment operator - they make it seem so smooth and natural and simple, that it is deceptive about how difficult it is when you get your chance at it.

Technical skills get easy with time. The ability to remain cool under pressure doesn't. You either have it or you don't. I have colleagues that have been doing this 20 years that still make everyone in the room feel worse when a bad situation is going down. I try to be the one that gets the best out of everybody else by having them not be fearful of me screaming at them for anything they do.
 
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Technical skills get easy with time. The ability to remain cool under pressure doesn't. You either have it or you don't. I have colleagues that have been doing this 20 years that still make everyone in the room feel worse when a bad situation is going down. I try to be the one that gets the best out of everybody else by having them not be fearful of me screaming at them for anything they do.
^^^This. The ones that don't have it are painful to work with. The ability to shift into high gear at a moments notice is especially important as well.
 
As a new grad, it is important to me to sit my own cases start to finish (and even see complicated patients or epidurals pod #1) rather than starting 3-4 rooms and then running around doing pre-ops interrupted by the occasional sprint to a room.
To be fair, we didn't do any supervision in residency...
 
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