Skip Intro said:
i think others feel the field is not only boring but, but you aren't really the attending on any of these patients and you don't directly fix the patients.
[rant]
Well, I once had the "balls" and the "audacity" (as an attending surgeon put it, who happened to be eavesdropping over the curtain on my conversation with my anesthesia attending [watch out for those surgeons, folks, they have BIG ears]) to insinuate that the surgeon's job, during the surgery, was to "take care of the problem" and the anesthesiologist's job was to "take care of the patient."
This biznitch blew a gasket. And, we got into a full-blown argument - yes, yours truly and an attending surgeon - in the middle of her doing a breast biopsy. My anesthesia attending just laughed... at both of us, actually. But, I think I did a pretty good job of defending my position.
I gotta admit that sometimes I
really hate the territorial bullsh*t that occurs in the OR... you know, the "
my patient" crap like the surgeon (or anyone else) actually "owns" the person and/or their problem. Give me a break. Point is, when I'm an anesthesiology attending (and I
will be an anesthesiology attending in about 4.5 years), I have just as much responsibility for keeping the patient alive during the procedure as the surgeon does. If the surgeon f*cks up, my rear-end will be standing in court right next to them as the wild finger-pointing and attempted blame-shifting starts. (I've only been in the OR as in an "anesthesia" capacity for three months as a student, and you can't believe some of the silly - no, utterly asinine - things the surgeon will say trying to blame the anesthesiologist when something goes wrong... them: "you didn't paralyze the patient", us:"umm... usually we do
not keep the patient paralyzed since you're operating on the spine", them: "well, I can't operate - the patient is moving - make them deeper", us:"ummm... isn't that going to screw-up your EMG? are you sure you want me to do that?", them:"well, do something!!", etc., etc.)
So, you know what? When I'm an attending and I don't want to do a case, I will say to the surgeon (in so many words), "you're an idiot if you think you're going to operate on this sick patient." I will then write my note. And, you know what else? That surgery will not get done at that time unless someone else is willing to put their own ass on the line.
In the end, this means only one thing: I
am the attending, and
yes, it is
my patient too.
[/rant]
-Skip