No offense but, besides the lifestyle and hate for clinics, there is no way the bright ones will ever go into anesthesia again. If anything drives me nuts it's playing second fiddle to less intelligent surgeons and administrators. I went into critical care to feel smart again.
I hate that the NRMP publishes only the average scores, but not the standard deviations. So all the statistically-challenged can argue how they know people with scores of 300+ who went into some not-so-hot specialty. I call the latter phenomenon the Bernie Sanders syndrome (of tweenagers). There is much emotion and little thinking at that age, no offense. That's why people don't really fall in love after the age of 30, once their fontanelles close.
Not like in your teens or tweens.You saying I can't fall in love again? That makes me sad...
I used to feel bad because of this. But now I realize that it's actually good when somebody challenges a career-defining decision the way the "doom and gloomers" do it. I wish somebody had actually done this with me, instead of painting the rosy pink picture almost 10 years ago. I would have still chosen anesthesia, but going through that process, and debate and inner fight, would have made me not regret even a bad outcome.
I used to feel bad because of this. But now I realize that it's actually good when somebody challenges a career-defining decision the way the "doom and gloomers" do it. I wish somebody had actually done this with me, instead of painting the rosy pink picture almost 10 years ago. I would have still chosen anesthesia, but going through that process, and debate and inner fight, would have made me not regret even a bad outcome.
When I went into CCM, I had to defend my decision from interviewers who wanted to know why this attending would eat **** for a year in a subspecialty that he doesn't really need, that won't necessarily further his career. And I needed to convince myself, too. So I looked at myself and said to myself: the one thing where I always ran circles around many is medical knowledge. What I enjoy most in medicine is not actually saving people's lives, it's being thanked for it. And so on. This is how I arrived to CCM, one of the worst rotations of my anesthesia residency, the one I swore never to practice again after my CA-2 month. And now, less than 2 months before graduation, it was the best decision of my life. I have just watched the latest episode of Gray's soap opera and I completely understood the moment where Edwards' musician friend says that the studio is his place, it's where he feels the most like himself, and Edwards says that the OR is hers, and how even the smell of disinfectant makes her feel good. The ICU is that place for me. And I still enjoy going to work, despite all the things I don't like in critical care, many of which you can read about in this very section.
So y'all should say Thank You to all the doom and gloomers, because they/we make it easy to live with your decision afterwards. Whatever will happen to anesthesia in the next 25 years, you will only have pleasant surprises. You know why you chose this specialty, despite all the gloom and hate and whine. You know what you love about it, why you put up with everything, why there wasn't a better choice for you. We made you do your homework about it, instead of just telling you how awesome it all is, and what rock stars we anesthesia attendings are, like most dinguses let their students and observers believe. We actually made you pay attention to the truth, to what's outside of the Matrix.
So please say Thank You, the same way I do to all those who have given me sincere advice, even if wrong, even if disagreeing. The intention matters a lot, and the intentions here are good... Except for Consigliere's.
Worst-case scenario...anesthesiologists are paid $200k to do the work they do now?
That probably sounds absolutely terrible to the older physicians who were used to earning much more in private practice, but for those of us about to enter residency now and who have never experienced the golden era of medicine, the perspective has changed.
I think we can both agree on that point.
I had exactly the same concern. I was expecting CCM to be very litigious. It's actually less, because of what you said: the bad stuff has already happened. People are actually very grateful for everything you do to save their loved ones, and they tend to understand when it doesn't work out, as long as you keep them in the loop. People only expect bad surprises from an ICU hospitalization, while it's completely the opposite for the bread and butter elective surgery.
I used to feel bad because of this. But now I realize that it's actually good when somebody challenges a career-defining decision the way the "doom and gloomers" do it. I wish somebody had actually done this with me, instead of painting the rosy pink picture almost 10 years ago. I would have still chosen anesthesia, but going through that process, and debate and inner fight, would have made me not regret even a bad outcome.
When I went into CCM, I had to defend my decision from interviewers who wanted to know why this attending would eat **** for a year in a subspecialty that he doesn't really need, that won't necessarily further his career. And I needed to convince myself, too. So I looked at myself and said to myself: the one thing where I always ran circles around many is medical knowledge. What I enjoy most in medicine is not actually saving people's lives, it's being thanked for it. And so on. This is how I arrived to CCM, one of the worst rotations of my anesthesia residency, the one I swore never to practice again after my CA-2 month. And now, less than 2 months before graduation, it was one of the best decisions of my life. I have just watched the latest episode of Gray's soap opera and I completely understood the moment where Edwards' musician friend says that the studio is his place, it's where he feels the most like himself, and Edwards says that the OR is hers, and how even the smell of disinfectant makes her feel good. The ICU is that place for me. And I still enjoy going to work, despite all the things I don't like in critical care, many of which you can read about in this very section.
So y'all should say Thank You to all the doom and gloomers, because they/we make it easy to live with your decision afterwards. Whatever will happen to anesthesia in the next 25 years, you will only have pleasant surprises. You know why you chose this specialty, despite all the gloom and hate and whine. You know what you love about it, why you put up with everything, why there wasn't a better choice for you. We made you do your homework about it, instead of just telling you how awesome it all is, and what rock stars we anesthesia attendings are, like most dinguses let their students and observers believe. We actually made you pay attention to the truth, to what's outside of the Matrix.
So please say Thank You, the same way I do to all those who give me sincere advice, even if wrong, even if disagreeing. The intention matters a lot, and the intentions here are good... Except for @Consigliere's.
