Anesthesia Elective During TYP, Yes or No?

Started by anestheticman
Physicians and veterinarians: Turn your expertise into action! Explore CDC’s Epidemiology Elective Program and Epidemic Intelligence Service today.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor

Do a month of anesthesia as an intern and attempt to get a leg up on CA-1 year?

  • Yes, do a block of anesthesia and/or research in anesthesia

    Votes: 6 50.0%

  • No, you worked hard for a transitional year to relax and lay by the pool

    Votes: 6 50.0%
  • Total voters
    12
A

anestheticman

Full Member
Verified Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I can do one month of anesthesia during my transitional year program, at my home hospital or a nearby university program of my choice... or even in another state if I take some time to set things up.

Is this a good idea in general or sort of just up to me?

Is there any advantage to doing extra well on the AKT that I will take when I get to my program?

My gut instinct is to honestly take it easy for these two elective months and do dermatology or radiology... as well as to not take the time and effort to set up an away rotation and attempt to impress anyone or network during my intern year. However, maybe I am making the wrong decision.

Also, what is the general consensus on a research project (something small that would most likely not result in a publication) in anesthesia during the intern year if the program allows for time to do this?

Please let me know what you did if you had the chance to do an elective in your given intern year program and/or a block of research for 4 weeks. Thank you!
 
If you have a choice between a month in the OR v. medicine wards, by all means do the anesthesia.

If you have a choice between a month of anesthesia at an outside institution for which you will never work again v. sitting on your couch at home "learning" radiology, you should choose the latter and Netflix Sopranos, Lost and a half dozen movies.

Unless you are at your own institution, I don't think you'll learn enough clinically in one month to make much difference in the long run. If you're truly interested in getting ahead, schedule the rads rotation in late spring and spend your time reading Baby Miller.
 
Find out from your categorical program how soon you're expected to be flying on your own. I just had a bit of a rude awakening from mine saying we're expected to be running a room solo within 2-3 weeks at the hospital I'm starting at. I can't imagine doing that without having had a month of anesthesia in my intern year to brush off the cobwebs.

Now, if i knew I was going to be paired for six weeks no matter what, I may have considered doing something else like radiology for that month.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Anesthesia elective during internship is completely useless except for one purpose: To get outta the hospital before lunch and go to the beach. Which was exactly the reason I did it, and for that I have no regrets.

If you expect to learn anything, you'll be disappointed.

And hey, you will totally be able to sit in an OR by yourself between induction and extubation in 2-3 weeks, at least for short periods of time. Doing an extra month in internship won't help you with that.
 
Agree w/above

I did a 2 week anesthesia elective and I didn't get much outta it. There is no anesthesia residency @ my hospital so it was just me and the PP dudes. They didn't let me do much of anything aside from intubate the ladies w/no teeth
 
You must log in or register to reply here.