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[SolidWater]

My 3rd year rotation schedule doesn't include a block in Anesthesiology, but I have recently grown more interested in this area of medicine. What would you recommend that I do learn more about the subject and meet more people in the field?

I understand that I would likely need a LOR from an anesthesiologist, if not multiple letters. Could that be attained during my 4th year? Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

Yes you can get all LoR 4th year. Easily.

Talk to your advisor or dean. They should be assisting you in getting that exposure.

Worst case scenario you might be able to do some days/weeks of anesthesiology during surgery rotation.

 

[Low Flow]

Just try and schedule your anesthesia rotation for early fourth year (June or July). This should be just enough time to ask for a LoR and get it in your ERAS before September 15th (when programs receive applications). You can also try and schedule a sub-I in the July-August range and get a LoR from that as well. You should be fine with just 1 letter from an anesthesiologist (given other parts of app are sufficient), but more wouldn't hurt I suppose.

As mentioned above, when you're on your surgery rotation, try and sneak into the OR before surgery starts and hang out with anesthesia. I was able to do this on most cases. They're usually happy to let you mask ventilate, intubate, set everything up (given that they don't have their own student). Besides, the attending surgeon doesn't show up until the patient is prepped/draped anyway, so you have a good 10 minutes to chill with anesthesia at that time.

 

[psychbender]

If there is an anesthesiology residency at one of your core rotation sites, you could also look into an early fourth year rotation in something like the SICU (if anesthesia-run) or the Pain clinic. Either may also be able to allow you to get a LOR from an anesthesiologist, and it can show more interest in the field. With Pain, you may even have the time to be able to get to the OR and get some airways on the first cases of the day (particularly if the Pain attendings also do OR anesthesia), then go to clinic.