Just Finished 4th yr rotation, I need help please!!

[k7blaze]

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Hey everyone,
I just finished my month of anesthesia hoping to love it and am left feeling really anxious! I like the acute care, the procedures, the lack of medicine scut, the ability to have a life and a job but I have a major hang up. I am having hard time picturing myself behind an OR curtain looking at monitors for the rest of my life. Please let me know if any of u guys had this problem and how u dealt with it. I want to be sure this is just stupid of me. My backup is ER but I don't think I could handle shift work. I also think the program I am at kinda sucks as far as anesthesia goes. Any responses are appreciated! thanks guys 🙂

 

[moonlight2000]

I am in my anesth rotation right now and I feel like this is not what I want for the rest of my life! I don't know what to do anymore....it's not like I have a back-up specialty lined up. Now I am thinking, I'll just suck it up and do general surg or try to apply for a month of orthopaedic to see if I like it or not. All in all, anesth is not what I thought it was gonna be...damn, I'm in trouble!!!! somebody help me!!

 

[UTSouthwestern]

If you want something more frenetic and challenging, ask to sit in on a cardiac case.

 

[starlight1]

I just started my anesthesia month and am feeling the same way. I don't love it like I thought I would. Psych is looking better and better every day....

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Anesthesiology is not for everyone. Unfortunately, you can't experience all of the types of anesthesiology and the wide variety of environments that it is practiced in, in a medical student rotation. For my residency and now private practice setting, I have been through 14 different hospitals, each with a different atmosphere and different charisma.

While some of you may not be enjoying your experience in an academic center or associated private hospital, you may enjoy it tremendously at a Children's Medical Center or smaller private practice setting.

If you are not attracted to the basics and job description of anesthesiology, then you should probably move on. Good luck.

 

[chicamedica]

wow, i'm feeling the exact opposite. . .i'm doing CCM now and we get to interact with anesthesia a lot, and i just get more and more inspired each day that i'm choosing the perfect field for me.

Today my patient got taken to the OR for a mitral valve replacement after like 20 days of recuperating from a code resuscitation (by anes btw) during a botched MV repair attempt, and there was this excitement in the air, partly cause we've all been anticipating this surgery for a couple weeks now, and it hopefully is gonna get him off the vent and home soon, and it just feels like this big event. . .

During my MS3 anes rotation all the surgeries felt like big exciting events, even when i wasn't scrubbed in on the surg side. Actually it felt more exciting on the anes side.

wow. . .i really am gung ho about anesthesia huh. . .

besides, when the pulse ox beeper starts going down or . . .worse. . .stops beeping altogether. . .those monitors aren't quite that boring. . .

 

[jetproppilot]

wow, i'm feeling the exact opposite. . .i'm doing CCM now and we get to interact with anesthesia a lot, and i just get more and more inspired each day that i'm choosing the perfect field for me.

Today my patient got taken to the OR for a mitral valve replacement after like 20 days of recuperating from a code resuscitation (by anes btw) during a botched MV repair attempt, and there was this excitement in the air, partly cause we've all been anticipating this surgery for a couple weeks now, and it hopefully is gonna get him off the vent and home soon, and it just feels like this big event. . .

During my MS3 anes rotation all the surgeries felt like big exciting events, even when i wasn't scrubbed in on the surg side. Actually it felt more exciting on the anes side.

wow. . .i really am gung ho about anesthesia huh. . .

besides, when the pulse ox beeper starts going down or . . .worse. . .stops beeping altogether. . .those monitors aren't quite that boring. . .

This post shows the med students perilous quest for what choice to make....based on the false premise that happiness comes from endless stressful stimulation at work.
Pick whatever you want...cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesia, whatever....
There is not a doctor on earth that preys on endless sympathetic stimulation. Doing so would lead to burn out in five years or less.

Do you think a cardiac surgeon yearns for endless difficult cases, incessant life threatening clinical decisions, constant need for unanticipated intervention/procedures?
Quite the contrary. A cardiac surgeon/anesthesiologist/neurosurgeon/pediatrician yearns for things to go the way the textbook describes...no more, no less...and to go home to the family for some down time at the end of the day.
Keep in mind when choosing a specialty that stressful/difficult cases are the exception, not the norm, in the real world. And thats what you really want.

 

[starlight1]

i hear you all. it is just so difficult to figure out what you want to be when you grow up 🙂 esp with these time constraints.

 

[VolatileAgent]

i know what you mean, but it is much different being a medical student essentially watching the anesthesiologist do the case than it is being the resident/attending doing the case. as a student, you may get to start some IVs or drop a tube, but you are still standing around for the most part waiting to be told what to do. my first week in july i was really overwhelmed by the difference as i stepped into the role of the resident expected to be responsible for the case. now i'd done intubations and started IVs as a med student just like everyone else, but i had not to that point been responsible for the incredible organization and thought that goes into running a case from planning to finish. it is a totally different experience, incredibly challenging, and rewarding from when you pick up the patient in pre-op to when you drop them off and give report to the PACU nurse.

i agree with utsw that you should perhaps try to sit in on more challenging cases as a med student, but i also think you should ask your resident or attending if you can step into the role of a "resident for a day" and pretty much take over running an entire case (with direct supervision, of course). start by reviewing the patient's history and working up an anesthetic plan, talking to the patient and reviewing consent, starting the IV, taking them to the OR, etc. see if they'll let you run the whole case, induce, maintenance, charting, extubation, everything. you may be surprised at how demanding it is when you are in the driver's seat. this may give you a vastly different perspective of the profession than you now have, even on a bread and butter case. i loved the field as a medical student, but i was absolutely blown away my first day in the OR as a resident at how challenging and rewarding it is. i hope you can get the same experience while still a student.

 

[VentdependenT]

Go sit in on a MAC case with an anxious jittery obese pt. Ask to do everything. N'joy!

 

[chicamedica]

This post shows the med students perilous quest for what choice to make....based on the false premise that happiness comes from endless stressful stimulation at work.
Pick whatever you want...cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesia, whatever....
There is not a doctor on earth that preys on endless sympathetic stimulation. Doing so would lead to burn out in five years or less.

Do you think a cardiac surgeon yearns for endless difficult cases, incessant life threatening clinical decisions, constant need for unanticipated intervention/procedures?
Quite the contrary. A cardiac surgeon/anesthesiologist/neurosurgeon/pediatrician yearns for things to go the way the textbook describes...no more, no less...and to go home to the family for some down time at the end of the day.
Keep in mind when choosing a specialty that stressful/difficult cases are the exception, not the norm, in the real world. And thats what you really want.

actually i totally agree with you. The "down time" (which isn't really down time but making sure everything is functioning smoothly) and the ability to focus totally on one patient at a time is another aspect that totally draws me to the field. . .I hope i didn't come across as suggesting that i actually WANT the monitors to not be boring. I was just presenting that to the above discouraged med students.