exactly how scary is anaesthesia?

[copacetic]

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exactly how scary is anesthesia. i mean, i guess initially when the **** hits the fan and when you know nothing you'll crap your pants, but is it like EM where it can get pretty hairy, but there are predefined protocols that you follow. i.e. where your main goal is to stabilize the patient. i tend to be a slow methodical thinker and i am wondering if this will bar me from considering anesthesia.

 

[urge]

You cannot be slow in this business.

 

[videolectures]

slow and methodical is perfectly fine when your at home studying Miller, Barash,etc. And what your studying slowly and methodically is the standard of care when the "shyt hits the fan". The more you know hopefully the more you prevent the fan from being hit by too much...shyt. Better to smell the smoke before the fire than to be putting out fires...(or smell like shyt)

dont exclude yourself from an awesome field of anesthesia

 

[skypilot]

I don't think you have to be fast like playing ping pong with the best Chinese player. 😉 But you have to know exactly what to do at each particular moment without dwelling on it.

And the way you get fast is by practicing and drilling on possible emergent situations. If you know where all the tools are before you need them that will give you a few extra seconds as well.

That is my take on speed in Anesthesia speaking as an intern.

 

[copacetic]

thanks thats encouraging. heres the thing right, i have a friend who is now in ems. he like me is a slow methodical thinker, and he said he was scared ****less when he first started doing ems cause he figured that when emergencies hit he wouldn't know what to do. after doing ems for awhile now he said that they taught him everything he needs to know, and that there are protocols you follow, so its really not that hard. is gas like that? i tend to overanalyze things. also, i have an interest in internal medicine (i've been shadowing and doing research in cardiology for 3 years now) and so far internal medicine seems like a good combination of thinking and doing. what are your thoughts on internal medicine (i.e. is it a fast pace field where you make spot on decisions - besides running code if a patient goes into arrest right in front of you since thats pretty much a given at some point in your career)

 

[Jeff05]

there are few "protocols" that we follow when bad things are happening. one must quickly diagnose and adjust therapies/interventions in a fluid fashion.

there are people that are good at that. and there are those that fold under the pressure and become completely ineffective.