Stressed out at work?

its a real stressful job.. in general.. time pressures.. sick patients.. tough cases.. working with people you dont know that well.. patients who are not truthful about their medical history.. lack of understanding on the part of everyone in what you do. and of course the just sheer nature of what you do? you can theoretically kill any of the patients you encounter and watch them die in front of your eyes .. cant say that for most of the other specialties..so yes its stressful... thats why there are so many addictied anesthesiologists.. doing drugs.. drinking vodka at work.. divorced.. depressed.. etc etc etc.. something a lot of people dont look at when they are choosing this specialty

Stress occurs at any level of your training or your practice. You need to force yourself to step away and take time for yourself on a regular basis. What we as physicians tend to do is have tunnelvision 24/7 especially as residents without realizing the physical and mental toll that it will create.

As a resident, you are going through some of the most grueling times you will endure in your life. It does get better. My worst day in private practice was a chip shot compared to my residency days. Even this week after a 35 hour work day starting at 0600 with two lumbar lami's, an ACDF, then followed by a 4 hour thoracotomy, a 10 hour Stanford A dissection repair, and culminating in a 6 hour three level 360 fusion the next morning, I looked back and realized that it all happened so fast and so smoothly because it was nothing compared to the endless days of residency. I knew I could go home and sleep, have another beautiful weekend off, AND would be drawing a very hefty paycheck.

You need to create a manageable free time schedule that includes regular exercise, vacations, and fun time on top of a consistent reading schedule. It can be done and a lot more easily than you might think.

m3unsure said:

This all seems to make me not want to keep going with this.
I guess time will tell.
Hopefully, you are somewhat joking.

Click to expand...

Im not joking.. not even remotely joking.. Just think about what other docs have equal amounts of stress?

Hang in there. Experience helps with the stress as you are better able to see the big picture. Those ASA 5E's become easier when you know no matter how good you are you can't save them all, just do your best. My big stressors are still the stat C/S. Sure she was 400 lbs but at 23 and otherwise healthy nobody looks kindly on losing the airway then Mom +/- baby. That's the one that gets my adrenals going.

Otherwise it sounds to me like you may need some balance in your life. I've got my wife and God and work is just an aside beside that. No matter how bad my day is I can come home happy to a woman who loves me and the knowledge that I have done the best that I could do and treated everyone well.

May be a little touchy feely but works for me. It's when work and study is all you have, your world seems to shrink and things of minor importance seem to become more important than they are. Get out into the sun. Go for a hike and take some joy from Gods good green earth. Go out with some true friends. Take a weekend and leave the books behind and just leave the city and stay at a B&B and sleep and read a novel.

You'll come back with a new attitude. And if not, finish your residency and move into something more suitable. Look at pain, or research, or become the uber pre-op guy, or...

Just my 2 Canadian cents.

Of course it's stressful. Look at what we are doing. Pushing drugs that could kill patients, keeping them alive with tubes/machines, and dealing with a host of issues all of which have the potential to do much harm, sometimes quite quickly. Now that doesn't mean I'm walking around the hospital jittery and nervous all day. The more you do it, the more comfortable you get, but things still happen. You just have to learn to work with the stress. Keep your cool the best you can, keep yourself thinking clearly, and don't get tunnel vision - don't focus on one thing. Entertain other possibilities of what the problem is. Remember, when things happen, it's all you. No one else in the room has a clue.

I can sit here and lecture you only so much, but experience helps. In residency, take care of as many sick patients as you can. If you see complications, talk about them. Pay attention at your M&M's. Think what you would do in that situation. Remember, it's someone else's license all the way until last day of CA-3 year.

I think the most stressful adjustment for me was becoming an attending, but that has gotten better. Stress is inherent in being an anesthesiologist, but the more you see and do, the more you'll adjust. If you can't deal with stress, do something else.

to basically render a patient unconscious, stop thier breathing and paralize a patient while you allow someone else (a surgeon; glorified butcher) cut them up...is something amazing along with highly stressful.

I remember when I first began residency I was stressed out like Im sure many were. I remember waking up because my wife would give me a hugg in the middle of the night and i would push her aside still half asleep telling her "I have to intubate I have to intubate!"

She got tired of hearing this esp after wanting to cuddle...so she used to respond "stick the TUBE up your butt!"

Anesthesia is very stressful career. Its only now after entering my last year of residency do I feel I am beginning to appreciate anesthesia. Im sure after a few more years I will think once again that I am just begining to appreciate anesthesia as an art.

Just the other day I was thrown into a room...sick patient, surgeon after opening the belly kept repeating...ive never seen anything like this before...and patient base deficit close to -11 and hemodynamically unstable.
I managed the case relatively well and remember the feeling after the case and walking down the halls..."kicked a.zz"

Relying less on attendings, running my own show within the OR at least on my side of the drapes is a sense of accomplishment, pride, challenge, etc which I think overcomes the stress which is inevitible

I think the bottom line is make it a game. Just like a rock climber...feels stress but something about that adrenaline rush (HIGH NE, CORTISOL) is somewhat pleasant in a different perspective.

Im currently creating a website in this same manner. To be great a what we do...collectively. Hope this helps! Rock on
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