FFP, I really appreciate your posts. You say things how they are and you don't sugar coat anything. Thank you for giving me and all the other medical students a realistic view of anesthesiology and it's future. If you were a medical student today, would you choose general surgery over anesthesiology? Why or why not?
For most of us looking into gas, even if we are above average applicants, ENT, Uro, and PRS are a long shot. General surgery is very close to anesthesia in competitiveness and I feel that if I picked surgery over gas, GS is where I would likely end up. No matter how bad gas gets in the future, it's hard to imagine it getting any worse than GS from my perspective. What's your take? Also, would you really choose FM today over gas? All the FM physicians I know are miserable while all the gas docs I know love what they do.
I would be very interested to get yours and the other posters perspectives on what are better alternatives for med students with average to above average applications for gas (step 1 in the 230s). I honestly feel like I would be happier doing anesthesia for 100K per year than pretty much anything else regardless of the money. I've tried very hard to talk myself out of gas but have not been able to (trust me, I'm still trying). I will graduate with 110k in student loans and I'm single so maybe that's the reason making 100k doesn't scare me much. Anyway, what is your take on the above questions and advice for other med students in the same boat as I? Anyone else's advice is also greatly appreciated.
I am the first to admit that my perspective may be skewed by my limited personal experience. So take everything I (and everybody else you don't know) say with a grain of salt. I am just trying to think out loud when posting here. (And we all know I am not Nobel material.)
To be honest, I can only imagine a surgeon's lifestyle. But I don't think anesthesia is far behind, and it's rapidly catching up nowadays, especially with the periop physician/PSH delirium. The difference is how they are treated and, in the future, the money they'll make (or the money we won't). I see everyday private surgeons surviving without being swallowed by the big hospitals they have privileges in. Even general surgeons. One doesn't have to be expert in a lot of things, like in anesthesia. You can be the hernia expert, or the breast expert, or the lap chole expert. If really good at it, that's 75% of what you do, and former patients will refer the future ones, no sweat. Some will even pay out of pocket for the privilege. Imagine the same in anesthesia; even when you get requests from patients, nobody who matters really gives a damn. The only thing that matters is if one of the surgical overlords decides that s/he wants you and only you in his/her room. Like that happens a lot anyway. And it will increase your employee salary sooooo much.
You are a valet. You might think you are a physician, one of the two captains of the OR ship, but that's only in court. In real life, keeping surgeons happy matters way more than keeping anesthesia "providers" happy. Actually the former is YOUR job.
On topic:
If you know you love Lady Anesthesia so much, go for it. My negative advice is for the doubters, for people deciding which residency to go into, which courtesan to climb in bed with. But if you're in love, you're in love, and who am I to say that she is old, ugly and missing all her teeth?
I don't know how miserable FM docs who can run their own cash-based private practice in small communities are. We only know the big city/metropolitan area ones. I look at Pamela Wible and I wonder.
