Tenesma said:
i think most people who go into anesthesia have at one point contemplated surgery because they like being in the OR - at least until they found out that they could stay in the OR doing anesthesia instead.... I don't know if many have surgeon-envy, but you never really hear of anesthesia-residents switching to surgery..... it is often the other way around!
MS4 here going into anesthesiology. I loved surgery, really enjoyed the gung-ho attitude of putting the patient first using procedural stuff. It wasn't so much enjoying the OR, but enjoying working in environments where you had nearly everything healthcare had to offer at your disposal.
But surgery and anesthesiology are quite different in terms of mindset. My surgery friends aren't real big on physiology and pharmacology. Medical details sometimes seem "beneath" them. Also, if they can't figure it out in about 2 minutes, it seeems to be glossed over.
Then again, they'd quickly point out, and rightly so, that my anatomy knowledge is quite inferior (I would say different) to theirs, as was my overall procedural experience. I'd say that their procedures are mostly just cutting and sewing, with little deep thinking.
Anesthesiology seems to get real complicated real quickly if you delve into any details. For instance, just how much IV fluid is a good amount? What is a "good" blood pressure? How "deep" should you keep a patient? I didn't find many parallels in surgery.
A way I look at it harks back to first year. Were you more excited about the cadaver lab, or the physiology lab? Of course this all changes third year, but coming out of 2nd I remember being curious about specialties and realizing this was an interesting (but weak) predictor of anesthesiology (or CCM) vs surgery.
