Surgery and Anesthesia

[undecided05]

For those that were considering either surgery or anesthesia, what exactly was it that made you choose gas? By the way, I'm not looking for people to just trash surgery. Thanks in advance.

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[BassDominator]

I choose anesthesia largely because I find surgery fascinating.... but I enjoy being on the other side of the drape much better.

 

[apma77]

anesthesia has alot less malignant personalities, better hours and better pay and o ya...i dont get a HARD-ON when i hold a scalpel...those were my reasons to choose anesthesia

 

[Skrubz]

much like bassdominator, i found myself enjoying my surgery rotation a lot more than i thought i would and preferred being in the OR over the wards and especially the clinic. anesthesia lets me be in the OR almost all the time and lets me avoid most of clinic (even surgery clinic was incredibly painful).

yes, the physiology and pharmacology aspects of anesthesia are fun and all, but i also liked the procedural, hands-on aspect of anesthesia in addition to the thinking and decision-making aspects. and overall the anesthesia attendings and residents seem more relaxed and seem to have more fun than the surgeons.

one of the things i really appreciated about surgery, though, was the fact that their craft has the potential of really curing someone. much of internal medicine seems more like management and control of disease, with not as many opportunities to actually cure the disease process. don't get me wrong, i like thinking and postulating about a problem, but i like being able to further utilize all that thinking and actually do something about the problem even better.

 

[undecided05]

I definately agree abou the better hours with gas. While, IMO surgery has more malignant personalities as a whole, I still find it a rarity. As for getting the hard on with a scalpel... I only get a semi.

 

[chillindrdude]

i was deciding between gen surgery and gas. i chose anesthesiology, because i enjoy critical care. i like treating sick patients, because its an acute management. i loath anything to do with primary care or clinic because i don't wanna be bogged down with chronic management and patient compliance issues. i chose anesthesiology because it gives me a life outside of medicine. i want to be able to see my kids grow up. i love the fact that i'm the last line of defense in a hospital during a code. it seems like, when all else fails..."page anesthesia". and all this, i get the side benefits of not having to deal with malignant personalities. and the pay isn't too shabby either

 

[apma77]

ya those "very nice" surgical attendings arent so nice anymore when you are a resident and no longer a med student...so take your surgery rotation with a grain of salt. Life as a resident in surgery is very diff than being a med student on a surgical rotation.

In anesthesia we dont need to demean and demoralize people in order to train them well..that is a long and on going traidtion in surgery..esp general surgery