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Just curious to know what kind of hours are worked as a resident and board certified anesthesiologist?
Typical Anesthesia Schedule
- Thread starter Pietrantonio
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See typical day post above.
I tried to post his quote here, but yours went there? Sorry.
Here it is courtesy of Narc:
An Anesthesiologist's typical Day through the Eyes of a Surgeon:
7:10- Roll out of bed, splash water on my face, head to work.
7:29- Arrive in time at the OR for my 7:30 cases. Determine each patient needs further lab work. I tell the surgeons we are delayed because patients were late arriving to hospital.
7:37- I'm hungry. Breakfast time.
8:42- I cut my breakfast short after 1 hour to make sure my 2 cases are now going. Stick my head in each room, patients asleep. From the door I hear beeping so I assume they both are alive, flash the thumbs up sign and leave.
8:44- Time to make rounds. I need to check on the RN.I.L.F.'s on 3W, 4E, 5C, and ICU.
10:06- "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP." FUQQ!! Rounds cut short due to pager going off, AGAIN! "Dammit, that's the third time this thing has gone off this month! What am I, the friggin hospitalist?"
10:11- Man, I'm hungry. It's been over an hour and a half since my last food break. I head to the doctor's lounge to grab a coke, some donuts, watch CNBC, and check emails.
11:03- Cut my donut break short to check on my cases. Both rooms are empty. I find out my next case is already in progress in a different room. Pulse Ox is beeping. Patient is alive. I flash the thumbs up from the door and leave.
11:06- Family members ask how the surgery is going. I tell them he is fine. They tell me it's a she. "Whatever. She's doing fine. Gotta run."
11:11- Surgeon wants to know if he can add on an emergency appendectomy. All 3 anesthesiologists already have 1 case in progress each that are being supervised, but we can do it first thing in the morning. Surgeon gets pissed. I tell him to tell the hospital to not be so cheap and give anesthesia more money.
11:13- I head off to finish my "floor rounds." (wink, wink)
11:46- Need to grab a quick lunch before I starve to death!
12:49- I cut lunch short after only an hour so that me and my colleagues can have our daily battle over who gets the short straw and has to stay. Once again we all walk out on the new guy.
12:52- Walking to doctor's parking lot. Feeling stressed. This is now the THIRD day in a row I've had to stay past 11:30am. Will bring this up at the next group meeting.
12:56- Driving away in my Bentley. Surgeon waves to me on his way to clinic. I flash him the finger.
I tried to post his quote here, but yours went there? Sorry.
Here it is courtesy of Narc:
An Anesthesiologist's typical Day through the Eyes of a Surgeon:
7:10- Roll out of bed, splash water on my face, head to work.
7:29- Arrive in time at the OR for my 7:30 cases. Determine each patient needs further lab work. I tell the surgeons we are delayed because patients were late arriving to hospital.
7:37- I'm hungry. Breakfast time.
8:42- I cut my breakfast short after 1 hour to make sure my 2 cases are now going. Stick my head in each room, patients asleep. From the door I hear beeping so I assume they both are alive, flash the thumbs up sign and leave.
8:44- Time to make rounds. I need to check on the RN.I.L.F.'s on 3W, 4E, 5C, and ICU.
10:06- "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP." FUQQ!! Rounds cut short due to pager going off, AGAIN! "Dammit, that's the third time this thing has gone off this month! What am I, the friggin hospitalist?"
10:11- Man, I'm hungry. It's been over an hour and a half since my last food break. I head to the doctor's lounge to grab a coke, some donuts, watch CNBC, and check emails.
11:03- Cut my donut break short to check on my cases. Both rooms are empty. I find out my next case is already in progress in a different room. Pulse Ox is beeping. Patient is alive. I flash the thumbs up from the door and leave.
11:06- Family members ask how the surgery is going. I tell them he is fine. They tell me it's a she. "Whatever. She's doing fine. Gotta run."
11:11- Surgeon wants to know if he can add on an emergency appendectomy. All 3 anesthesiologists already have 1 case in progress each that are being supervised, but we can do it first thing in the morning. Surgeon gets pissed. I tell him to tell the hospital to not be so cheap and give anesthesia more money.
11:13- I head off to finish my "floor rounds." (wink, wink)
11:46- Need to grab a quick lunch before I starve to death!
12:49- I cut lunch short after only an hour so that me and my colleagues can have our daily battle over who gets the short straw and has to stay. Once again we all walk out on the new guy.
12:52- Walking to doctor's parking lot. Feeling stressed. This is now the THIRD day in a row I've had to stay past 11:30am. Will bring this up at the next group meeting.
12:56- Driving away in my Bentley. Surgeon waves to me on his way to clinic. I flash him the finger.
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It varies from institution to institution but the typical day for me is as follows:
5:40am- Wake up, shower, coffee, and off to work.
6:10am- Arrive in the OR, notice the room is a complete S-hole because the techs suck. Go to stockroom and refill my room with all the essentials.
6:15-700am- Setup room and review my anything new that comes up about my patients (ie. see their am labs, progress notes if available.)
7:15am- Meet patient, go over the preop eval again. Make sure nothing is new. Airway exam, lungs, cardiac, ect.
7:30am - In the room and inducing.
7:30-1300. - One to six cases.
1300-1330- Grab lunch.
1330- Back in cases.
1600-1800- Finish my day. Maybe do a couple preops for the next day.
Resident salary - Roughly 50K a year, averages out to about 3-4 dollars an hours over the entire year. FML
Now, the benefit I have over other specialties is this: I go home and have absolutely "0" chance of someone calling and complaining over the phone to me. If I am not on call, I don't exist in the eyes of the hospital.
5:40am- Wake up, shower, coffee, and off to work.
6:10am- Arrive in the OR, notice the room is a complete S-hole because the techs suck. Go to stockroom and refill my room with all the essentials.
6:15-700am- Setup room and review my anything new that comes up about my patients (ie. see their am labs, progress notes if available.)
7:15am- Meet patient, go over the preop eval again. Make sure nothing is new. Airway exam, lungs, cardiac, ect.
7:30am - In the room and inducing.
7:30-1300. - One to six cases.
1300-1330- Grab lunch.
1330- Back in cases.
1600-1800- Finish my day. Maybe do a couple preops for the next day.
Resident salary - Roughly 50K a year, averages out to about 3-4 dollars an hours over the entire year. FML
Now, the benefit I have over other specialties is this: I go home and have absolutely "0" chance of someone calling and complaining over the phone to me. If I am not on call, I don't exist in the eyes of the hospital.
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Thank you! I appreciate the insight. Currently I am a Respiratory Therapist, but I've always had my sights on Anesthesiology. Why am I an RT is a long story, but currently I am highly considering medical school and accomplishing my dream of becoming an Anesthesiologist.
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5:40am- Wake up, shower, coffee, and off to work.
6:10am- Arrive in the OR.
Do u live INSIDE the hospital?
D712
I was impressed by this as well. I tried to keep my residency "Alarm to OR" time to a bare minimum (living close, shaving the night before, eat some **** in the car, etc), and I don't think I got it quite down to 30 minutes.
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Yeah, i timed today's commute to the med school, where I work (anesthesia dept HOLLA) and don't just drive back and forth with a stop watch, and it took 35 mins. Unless it's 5am and I'm doing 85 entire way, that's the best I can do. I'd be so much happier with a 15 min door to door but such is expansive nature of Florida.
D712
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Here's my schedule, I am a CA-1 20 days into my residency so it takes me a little longer to do stuff than most.
The night before, I spend about 30min looking up my pt's for the next morning, with the beauty of EMR I know everything about the pt before I even meet them.
4:15am: wake up, drink coffee, shower, throw on a t-shirt and shorts, leave my place at 5:15am
5:30am arrive to the OR set up the room, stock the room with what i'll need for the day, draw up drugs for my first two cases or more depending on the cases.
6:15am see if the first pt is in pre-op, they're not, so i go double check everything in the room. Go to the lounge/bathroom.
6:30am: go check on the pt, pt is down stairs but they're still changing or in the bathroom.
6:45am They're finally out, I quickly run through some important things I noticed on their History, ask them about previous surgeries, do my quick exam and tell them what the plan is for their surgery.
7am: start filling out my anesthesia record and other billing sheets.
7:15am: surgical resident finally sees the pt, gets the consent.
7:35am: We're now 5min late for our 7:30 start, the surgical resident and I are sitting by the pt, waiting for the surgeon to show his/her face in the OR.
7:45am: the surgeon gets here and we're in the room.
7:45 to 13:00: stuck in the room doing cases, maybe if i am lucky the PACU guy gives me a 10-15min AM break.
between 11:30-14:00: I get a 30min lunch break.
Ended cases anywhere between 15:00 and 17:00.
Do 1 or 2 pre-ops for the next day, do the 2 to 4 post-ops from the previous day, and go home.
The night before, I spend about 30min looking up my pt's for the next morning, with the beauty of EMR I know everything about the pt before I even meet them.
4:15am: wake up, drink coffee, shower, throw on a t-shirt and shorts, leave my place at 5:15am
5:30am arrive to the OR set up the room, stock the room with what i'll need for the day, draw up drugs for my first two cases or more depending on the cases.
6:15am see if the first pt is in pre-op, they're not, so i go double check everything in the room. Go to the lounge/bathroom.
6:30am: go check on the pt, pt is down stairs but they're still changing or in the bathroom.
6:45am They're finally out, I quickly run through some important things I noticed on their History, ask them about previous surgeries, do my quick exam and tell them what the plan is for their surgery.
7am: start filling out my anesthesia record and other billing sheets.
7:15am: surgical resident finally sees the pt, gets the consent.
7:35am: We're now 5min late for our 7:30 start, the surgical resident and I are sitting by the pt, waiting for the surgeon to show his/her face in the OR.
7:45am: the surgeon gets here and we're in the room.
7:45 to 13:00: stuck in the room doing cases, maybe if i am lucky the PACU guy gives me a 10-15min AM break.
between 11:30-14:00: I get a 30min lunch break.
Ended cases anywhere between 15:00 and 17:00.
Do 1 or 2 pre-ops for the next day, do the 2 to 4 post-ops from the previous day, and go home.
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2 hrs!!! You have to work on that.
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So how does it work with Anesthesia residents and CRNA's? I did an OR rotation with a CRNA and the anesthesiologist came in a few times to make sure things were going well.
How do the two specialties blend together? Also, as an Anesthesiologist, how many days per week do you spend at the hospital?
Thank you so far for the responses! Appreciate it!!
How do the two specialties blend together? Also, as an Anesthesiologist, how many days per week do you spend at the hospital?
Thank you so far for the responses! Appreciate it!!
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I work in an ACT practice where we supervise about 90% of the time and sit our own cases about 10% of the time. All out-of-OR stuff is done by the MDs solo, because it makes no sense to supervise if you have to be 1:1 with a CRNA anyway. Our anesthetists aren't allowed to do any spinals, epidurals, blocks, invasive lines (arterial or venous), induce general anesthesia, or do any difficult airway stuff. Here's my average day:
5:30-wake up
6:15-in OR, read up on my patients for the day (usually about 8-15 pts for the day if I have 2-4 rooms)
7:00-pts start showing up. preops, preop blocks, help with difficult access, etc
7:30-start my rooms, running from one to another. help start my partners rooms if they get stuck somewhere.
8:00 until 10 am-6pm (depending on where I am in the schedule)-do it all over again, while also running around doing blocks, labor epidurals, giving a break to the MD sitting his own room, doing outfield procedures (cath lab, GI lab, bone marrow bx, cardioversions, occasionally placing lines in ICU), rounding on indwelling epidurals/peripheral nerve catheters, etc. Then I go home!
Some days I'm only there until 9 or 10 in the morning (or get called the night before and told not to come in at all if the schedule is really light and I'm the early out). Other days I'm there until 6 or 7 pm and on backup call from home overnight.
On call days I come in at 1-2 pm and stay until 7 am. Sometimes never see the call room, other times go to bed at 8 pm and never leave the call room. Most days, I work until 10 or 11 pm and do random case and a few labor epidurals after that.
On days when I sit my own rooms, I am totally isolated from the chaos and chill on the stool with no distractions. Very relaxing.
On average I work one weekend a month; either saturday call, friday/sunday call (saturday and sunday are 24 hours in-house), or backup for the whole weekend. Our group takes 14 weeks of vacation/year, and with "random days off", you usually get another 10-15 weekdays off in addition to that.
I love it.
5:30-wake up
6:15-in OR, read up on my patients for the day (usually about 8-15 pts for the day if I have 2-4 rooms)
7:00-pts start showing up. preops, preop blocks, help with difficult access, etc
7:30-start my rooms, running from one to another. help start my partners rooms if they get stuck somewhere.
8:00 until 10 am-6pm (depending on where I am in the schedule)-do it all over again, while also running around doing blocks, labor epidurals, giving a break to the MD sitting his own room, doing outfield procedures (cath lab, GI lab, bone marrow bx, cardioversions, occasionally placing lines in ICU), rounding on indwelling epidurals/peripheral nerve catheters, etc. Then I go home!
Some days I'm only there until 9 or 10 in the morning (or get called the night before and told not to come in at all if the schedule is really light and I'm the early out). Other days I'm there until 6 or 7 pm and on backup call from home overnight.
On call days I come in at 1-2 pm and stay until 7 am. Sometimes never see the call room, other times go to bed at 8 pm and never leave the call room. Most days, I work until 10 or 11 pm and do random case and a few labor epidurals after that.
On days when I sit my own rooms, I am totally isolated from the chaos and chill on the stool with no distractions. Very relaxing.
On average I work one weekend a month; either saturday call, friday/sunday call (saturday and sunday are 24 hours in-house), or backup for the whole weekend. Our group takes 14 weeks of vacation/year, and with "random days off", you usually get another 10-15 weekdays off in addition to that.
I love it.
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Awesome! By the way. Are you with the University of Minnesota- Minneapolis? I grew up in Buffalo, MN.
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a lot of that time is out of my hands. just sit around and wait. I am only a CA-1 so i have no say what goes on. and i have to be there early to show that i am ready, that's how my attendings like it. I tell the surgical residents to page their attendings but they don't like to talk to them. As long as it's not an anesthesia delay I don't care, neither do my attendings. Ohh and we don't cancel anything here, not good for business.
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B-Bone - you have what I'm looking for..all in good time!
CJ
CJ
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Can you explain what all supervising entails? Are you essentially watching what they do without doing many procedures yourself?
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Other than all that stuff, I don't really do any procedures
Supervising means I evaluate the patient's medical history/labs/imaging/etc, consider the proposed procedure, examine the patient, decide on an anesthetic plan, and implement it. I do all the procedures. I am there for induction, emergence, and critical portions of the case. Sometimes I am in the room for the entire case (kids, really sick people, hearts,etc). Other times, I swing by to check on things every now and again. I make sure I physically sign the chart in the room about every half hour. This can be pretty tricky when you have 4 rooms or even three busy ones, but I usually make do. In the PACU, I evaluate and treat patients for a variety of issues and see every patient and write a note before they leave (damned JCAHO!).
Peoplle always make such a big deal about supervising CRNAs being a "sellout" move. I think about it like every other area of medicine. You come up with a treatment plan and utilize nurses to implement it. Just like IM,EM, peds, FP, surgery, and every other medical specialty. The only difference is, I am way way more involved in actuallly delivering the care plan than most specialties. For example, internists write a lot of orders, but how often do they actually give meds, start IV's or check vital signs?
I used to get really frustrated as a resident in the ICU, because I would have a sick patient who needed intervention, but as a physician, I was not "supposed to" push drugs, hang meds, etc. Nurses would sometimes freak out on me for jumping in to start an IV (rather than wait for the IV team), mix up a phenylephrine gtt for a hypotensive pt (rather than wait a half hour for pharmacy to tube one up), or god forbid push some drugs in an urgent/emergent situation ("but who ever will chart those drugs, doctor?").
Anyway, I guess there are anesthesia practices out there where docs hang out in the lounge, signing charts for anesthetists and never meeting a patient or "doing" anything, but I wouldn't touch one of those with a ten foot pole. You do have some say in the job you pick. Pick a good one.
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Other than all that stuff, I don't really do any procedures
Supervising means I evaluate the patient's medical history/labs/imaging/etc, consider the proposed procedure, examine the patient, decide on an anesthetic plan, and implement it. I do all the procedures. I am there for induction, emergence, and critical portions of the case. Sometimes I am in the room for the entire case (kids, really sick people, hearts,etc). Other times, I swing by to check on things every now and again. I make sure I physically sign the chart in the room about every half hour. This can be pretty tricky when you have 4 rooms or even three busy ones, but I usually make do. In the PACU, I evaluate and treat patients for a variety of issues and see every patient and write a note before they leave (damned JCAHO!).
Peoplle always make such a big deal about supervising CRNAs being a "sellout" move. I think about it like every other area of medicine. You come up with a treatment plan and utilize nurses to implement it. Just like IM,EM, peds, FP, surgery, and every other medical specialty. The only difference is, I am way way more involved in actuallly delivering the care plan than most specialties. For example, internists write a lot of orders, but how often do they actually give meds, start IV's or check vital signs?
I used to get really frustrated as a resident in the ICU, because I would have a sick patient who needed intervention, but as a physician, I was not "supposed to" push drugs, hang meds, etc. Nurses would sometimes freak out on me for jumping in to start an IV (rather than wait for the IV team), mix up a phenylephrine gtt for a hypotensive pt (rather than wait a half hour for pharmacy to tube one up), or god forbid push some drugs in an urgent/emergent situation ("but who ever will chart those drugs, doctor?").
Anyway, I guess there are anesthesia practices out there where docs hang out in the lounge, signing charts for anesthetists and never meeting a patient or "doing" anything, but I wouldn't touch one of those with a ten foot pole. You do have some say in the job you pick. Pick a good one.
This is ideal. Including keeping a reign on procedures. This seems like the way the attendings in my hospital (which is hybrid academic/PP) manage their days. They stay very busy, but I'll tell you, they are respected as a general rule. And, they seem professionally satisfied.
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funniest thing i have ever read!!!! hilarious
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Do u live INSIDE the hospital?
D712
No, I live very close by. Also, I drive about 85-90mph the entire time....No joke.
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More power to you. Traffic tickets much?
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B-Bone, 14 weeks of vacation a year?!?! How is it possible to make a living when your working less than 3/4 of a year?!
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I looked at 2 jobs with 12 weeks of vacation. They're out there. As you'd expect, the pay was around $50k lower than other jobs where people were taking 6-8 weeks.
I think 8 is the sweet spot myself. Plenty of time off and plenty of money to take those nice trips.
I think 8 is the sweet spot myself. Plenty of time off and plenty of money to take those nice trips.
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14 weeks is down from last year's 16. We picked up a new surgery center and didn't hire anyone new, so we have to "deal with" only having 14 weeks. The old guys even like to buy vacay off the young guys so some dudes take 18-20 weeks. everybody's still pulling down 550-650, though, so we make do.
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Expect my CV in ~ 8-9 years... I only expect $600K/year starting with 15 weeks vacation, and not to work more that 35 hours a week... working in MD only model, hand picking my cases...
(kidding, kidding... about everything except maybe for looking for my CV, sounds like a sweet gig!)
I currently average about 46 hours a week with 8 weeks vacation per year. End up taking overnight call once or twice a month (off the following day) and working 1 or 2 weekend day shifts per month. Any individual week can vary from about 40 hours to 55+, but it all averages out. Any individual day can be from only 1-2 hours of work to 12-16 hours of work.
Extremely variable hours and shifts, but in the end it averages under 50 hours per week with plenty of vacation and plenty of weekends off.
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B-bone, when I'm working for you guys, I'll let you buy some of my vacation for a 20% discount, but only because you sound like a classy guy.
buying/selling vacation is very common in PP. Our current rate is 10K per week, although some people try to negotiate a little higher or lower at times.
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Is that rare? Are you a partner in the group?
