pizzatown
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2020
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 3
I love anesthesiology. I think there are so many opportunities for this field to grow and I love being what I consider a generalist who is pushed to know a lot about a huge scope of medical topics.
I chose anesthesiology over IM because I want to go into crit care, get to use my hands, hate clinic, don't care much for continuity or having patients thank me for what I did, and like the science behind medicine.
But 2 things are starting to slowly eat away at me...
1. Not a popular opinion with a lot of residents I have talked to, but I like taking ownership of my patients and having responsibility when they are under my care to make the right call. I want to go into CCM and stay in academics so I can take care of the sickest of the sick, but naively, I've just come to realize that when people told me in medical school that "anesthesiology runs the SICU/TSICU/CVICU" that it didn't actually mean the unit was completely closed and that we were the primary team. I don't like the idea of having gone through medical school, residency, and then a fellowship to finally become an attending who gets his plans overridden by a surgical team. If I can't even treat my patients the way I think is best then what was the point? I didn't sign up to become a glorified babysitter and I wish that our ICUs styled like those in Europe.
2. My institution has a wonderful culture and some of the nicest OR techs, nurses, PACU staff, surgery residents/fellows I have had the pleasure to work with. I am grateful to be here, but even with what I am sure is an unusual level of collegiality, there is a level of disrespect towards anesthesia that bothers me more than I want it to. Surgeons whining about anesthesia delaying cases, blaming late starts on us, nurses addressing anesthesia differently in the OR and PACUs, surgeons "jokingly" putting anesthesiology down as a specialty in front of awake patients, and of course surgeons telling us how to manage fluids, vitals, and our anesthetic. Both my anesthesia rotations were at our children's hospital where everyone was amazingly nice and respectful. Maybe I wasn't exposed to just how much **** you have to deal with as an anesthesiologist.
Could I be happy in any other specialty? Probably not. I thought seriously about doing surgery in medical school, but I think the manual tedium, doing the same types of cases for the rest of my life, clinic, and the hours would make me nuts.
Obviously, I wish I had the opportunity to have considered these things before I moved across the country and committed myself to this. I get the vibe that these are problems that are unfortunately inherent in the specialty.
Are these things that should make me consider leaving? Maybe I should have grit my teeth through an IM residency and done MICU instead...?
I chose anesthesiology over IM because I want to go into crit care, get to use my hands, hate clinic, don't care much for continuity or having patients thank me for what I did, and like the science behind medicine.
But 2 things are starting to slowly eat away at me...
1. Not a popular opinion with a lot of residents I have talked to, but I like taking ownership of my patients and having responsibility when they are under my care to make the right call. I want to go into CCM and stay in academics so I can take care of the sickest of the sick, but naively, I've just come to realize that when people told me in medical school that "anesthesiology runs the SICU/TSICU/CVICU" that it didn't actually mean the unit was completely closed and that we were the primary team. I don't like the idea of having gone through medical school, residency, and then a fellowship to finally become an attending who gets his plans overridden by a surgical team. If I can't even treat my patients the way I think is best then what was the point? I didn't sign up to become a glorified babysitter and I wish that our ICUs styled like those in Europe.
2. My institution has a wonderful culture and some of the nicest OR techs, nurses, PACU staff, surgery residents/fellows I have had the pleasure to work with. I am grateful to be here, but even with what I am sure is an unusual level of collegiality, there is a level of disrespect towards anesthesia that bothers me more than I want it to. Surgeons whining about anesthesia delaying cases, blaming late starts on us, nurses addressing anesthesia differently in the OR and PACUs, surgeons "jokingly" putting anesthesiology down as a specialty in front of awake patients, and of course surgeons telling us how to manage fluids, vitals, and our anesthetic. Both my anesthesia rotations were at our children's hospital where everyone was amazingly nice and respectful. Maybe I wasn't exposed to just how much **** you have to deal with as an anesthesiologist.
Could I be happy in any other specialty? Probably not. I thought seriously about doing surgery in medical school, but I think the manual tedium, doing the same types of cases for the rest of my life, clinic, and the hours would make me nuts.
Obviously, I wish I had the opportunity to have considered these things before I moved across the country and committed myself to this. I get the vibe that these are problems that are unfortunately inherent in the specialty.
Are these things that should make me consider leaving? Maybe I should have grit my teeth through an IM residency and done MICU instead...?