A couple of newbie questions

[SxRx]

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Hello all,

I'm considering a few different specialties (I'm an M2) and gas is one of them. I have some questions.

1) (kinda silly question....but) In a practice life time of a anesthesiologist what is the average number of patients who actually die because of negligence of an anesthesiologist? I'm sure there's been some sort of a study or a survey on this topic. I wanted to get some feedbacks from physicians in the field.

2) I've heard that M2 year's pharm grade is looked at during the residency application process. Although I just got my pharm shelf score of 700 (95 percentile) I think I'm going to end up with a B in pharm. How much of an issue is this if I decide to go gas later?

3) Lastly, do most people feel the need to do a fellowship after residency in order to be competitive for the job market at a metropolitan areas like NYC, LA etc or is finishing a general gas residency considered sufficient for most people?

Thanks!

 

[neuroride]

1. Hopefully 0, doubt that there is a study to explore this

2. No, your overall grades is what they look at with boards mixed in. No specific areas are looked at.

3. Don't know about fellowship and the bigger metros.

 

[bigeyedfish]

1. No one knows the answer to this question. It is very rare. You'll find that people are tough and there aren't many mistakes you can't recover from. Major, inexcusable, life ending mistakes like giving protamine on bypass for example certainly have occurred, but are extremely rare. I try to be aware of the more high risk things and double and triple check before I give them. Off the top of my head potassium, insulin and anything to do with anticoagulation can be high risk maneuvers. And never underestimate the airway. Better to over prepare than under.

2. With a B in pharm, I doubt you'll be getting into any residency...... Actually I would sweat it if I were you.

3. A fellowship will make you more competitive in any market but it's impossible to predict what the job market will be like when you will be getting out in 6 years. In general, do a fellowship in anesthesia because you plan on doing certain types of cases in your practice and want to have the most knowledge and experience you can in that area so that hopefully you don't end up like your first question.

 

[SxRx]

Yeah, I didn't think individual course grades would matter in any specialty. But, I read in 2 books that anesthesiology looks at pharm and physio grades specifically. So I was just wondering what people thought.
thanks!