Quality Time with Patients ?

[JohnnyOU]

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Hi all,

I'd like to get a better idea of how much time you are able to spend with the patients. (not including unconscience time)

There are many things I like about this specialty and I've read the faqs and googled etc..but still don't have a clear concept of how much one-on-one chatting time you get with a patient.

More is better imo and I was hoping for some feedback from you experts. 🙂

Thank you,
Johnny

 

[fastosprintini]

Hi all,

I'd like to get a better idea of how much time you are able to spend with the patients. (not including unconscience time)

There are many things I like about this specialty and I've read the faqs and googled etc..but still don't have a clear concept of how much one-on-one chatting time you get with a patient.

More is better imo and I was hoping for some feedback from you experts. 🙂

Thank you,
Johnny

well, depends how you define quality time, it is certainly different for an anesthesiologist than for a primary care physician..
i try to establish a bond with the patient during the (admittedly often short) preop interview, i try to alleviate their fears, explain what will be going on and that i'll be taking care of them.
certainly much different than a discussion in my painpractice, but rewarding neverthless.
however, quality time is apparent when a difficult patient is managed well, a difficult airway is established or a life is saved and in the end the patient is safely awake or at least in the icu and stable...
you see, that definition of success are different here than in internal medicine...
fasto

 

[Noyac]

Quality time is subjective. I spend less than 5 minutes pre-op'ing the vast majority of pts but I can generally establish a very good rapport with the pt in this amount of time. Others take longer and thats fine. i think it has a lot to do with your personality. Do people view you as trustworthy? Do they feel comfortable in your care? Those are questions that you need to figure out about yourself.

 

[Gator05]

I'd say anesthesia offers some of the best "quality time" of any specialty.

On any busy medical/surgical service, most of us end up approaching the patient with an agenda. "What's wrong? What's going on? Why is this happening? What am I gonna do about it?" It's an interview, and sometimes seems more like an inquest. The patient has lots they want to say, and we have lots of things to do. Not a good combo. It stinks for both of us.

Local/MAC cases offer TONS of time to sit and chat with patients. Heck, a good block will get you a 2 hour conversation about whatever they want to talk about. No agenda. Nothing you need from them. We just see to it that they're safe and comfortable. It's true quality time. (I use the word "just" loosely!)

Post-ops? They're awesome. You walk into a room where nobody expects to see you. "Hi, I'm Dr. XYZ, and I just want to make sure you're doing ok." Some of these folks act like you've given them a winning lotto ticket. You're not the foot doc, the heart doc, the lung or kidney or anything else; you're there to see how they're doing. Hard to explain, but very cool feeling. (An attending kept mentioning this to me while I was a med student, but I didn't get it until I post-op'd my first pt.)

I'll go yet one step further; some of my fellow residents and attendings are the most compassionate people I've met. You really are taking care of someone during an incredibly vulverable time.

 

[JohnnyOU]

Thank you for the feedback guys.
Very helpful.

🙂

 

[SleepIsGood]

..

I'll go yet one step further; some of my fellow residents and attendings are the most compassionate people I've met. ...

This is what really drew me into Anesthesia. The compassionate people. sure, Anesthesiologists make a heck of a lot of money, but it's not their only driving force. As a med student on numerous occassions I've seen anesthesiologists truly watch out for students and patients in the OR.

Surgeons will obviously disagree. However, I always saw anesthesiologists as the doctors that made sure everything was running smoothly. The surgeon is in there doing his job of X, Y, Z. I see Anesthesiologists as having a great bird's eye view of EVERYTHING in the OR--being true patient advocates.

 

[JohnnyOU]

Surgeons will obviously disagree. However, I always saw anesthesiologists as the doctors that made sure everything was running smoothly. The surgeon is in there doing his job of X, Y, Z. I see Anesthesiologists as having a great bird's eye view of EVERYTHING in the OR--being true patient advocates.

I've seen a few remarks here and there about some kind of anesthesiologists vs. surgeons bitterness. Is this one of those "my d*ck's bigger than yours" type of stupid things?

Surgeons mad cuz there's someone in the room who can tell them what to do under certain circumstances? Or can they?

 

[The_Sensei]

I've seen a few remarks here and there about some kind of anesthesiologists vs. surgeons bitterness. Is this one of those "my d*ck's bigger than yours" type of stupid things?

Surgeons mad cuz there's someone in the room who can tell them what to do under certain circumstances? Or can they?

Yes, yes, and absolutely. 👍

 

[SleepIsGood]

I've seen a few remarks here and there about some kind of anesthesiologists vs. surgeons bitterness. Is this one of those "my d*ck's bigger than yours" type of stupid things?

Surgeons mad cuz there's someone in the room who can tell them what to do under certain circumstances? Or can they?

JohnnyOU

I suppose there is a lot of bickering that goes on. Personally, I feel that anesthesiologists and surgeons should get along. We both have a symbiotic relationship.....we both need each other. Moreover, we both help each other when stuff goes wrong (atleast we should).