To those who have completed 2 or more residencies: I am a CA-1 who is a little different than your usual CA1s. I have completed an Internal Medicine residency and have been out practicing for a few years. I have now chosen to go back to residency. While I love anesthesiology, certain attendings seem to make the residency malignant/painful and seem to treat residents with little or no respect. While I am not complaining I am simply looking for comments/ suggestions to survive this aspect of residency. Please help.
nontraditional resident
- Thread starter Gassy1234
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I had the same experience. Some are probably somewhat threatened by you.....and some probably think that you think you are somehow better than them. Many attendings in academia are insecure because many of them are not very strong clinically and many of them have major ego issues and need constant reaffirmation.
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Hang in there-- it's rough-- especially the 1st 6 months. Whenever you come from being an expert in one specialty and being at the top of the ladder it's a big blow to come down to the bottom rung as a CA-1 and get yelled at for not taping the ETT right, the way you intubate, the way you put in lines, not being fast enough, etc. etc.-- and anesthesia is unique in that the learning curve is SO steep the first six months- nothing prepares you for the logistics of performing an anesthetic, the anesthesia machine, the surgeons, so many people to deal with to make a case run smoothly from start to finish. Particularly hard when you come from a specialty that was focused on details, taking your time, and lots of discussion about things (as I did in pediatrics).
Now that I've substantiated how you're feeling, I wish I had better advice. But all I can say is go with the flow and tune out the rude malignant people. They suck. They probably are intimidated by you. Just keep thinking in your head how well-prepared you are to take care of your patients from a medicine standpoint and work on showing everyone how proficient you are at using that knowledge to perform a good anesthetic. In the end, if you show humility and a willingness to learn, you'll come out on top. When they yell at you about stupid stuff, just nod and smile or say ok and move on- I used to get argumentative but quickly realized that didn't help. Be nice to the nurses, treat your attendings/fellows like they have something to offer you, and get through the end of January and you'll be golden. Many people have been there. 😳
Now that I've substantiated how you're feeling, I wish I had better advice. But all I can say is go with the flow and tune out the rude malignant people. They suck. They probably are intimidated by you. Just keep thinking in your head how well-prepared you are to take care of your patients from a medicine standpoint and work on showing everyone how proficient you are at using that knowledge to perform a good anesthetic. In the end, if you show humility and a willingness to learn, you'll come out on top. When they yell at you about stupid stuff, just nod and smile or say ok and move on- I used to get argumentative but quickly realized that didn't help. Be nice to the nurses, treat your attendings/fellows like they have something to offer you, and get through the end of January and you'll be golden. Many people have been there. 😳
