USAF anesthesiology

[tomplatz]

Anyone know anything about Air Force anesthesiology? WHMC's site is down. I was sold on surgery for the longest time but am now thinking hard about gas. Just wondering what folks thought.

Thanks.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[tomplatz]

Anyone? Anyone? Please!

 

[mitchconnie]

tomplatz,

Sorry no one seems to be responding about anesthesia. I'll take a crack since I work with them every day in the OR.

Anesthesia training is obviously totally dependent on surgical volume. You may have read some of my other posts regarding the dismal surgical volume at almost all military medical centers these days. I can't imagine training in anesthesia at a military facility. Where are you going to do do those big, ugly CT, trauma and Vascular cases? Thay barely exist in the USAF. WHMC is by far the closest thing to a real hospital in the USAF, but it is a shell of what it used to be--basically converted to a massive outpatient clinic. I think a lot of the volume may shift to BAMC which has a new facility.

The upside is that they need anesthesiologists BADLY. Since the civilian anesthesia market picked up a few years ago, every anesthesiologist that could get out of the AF has. I am assuming that there are a lot of deferments since the only training program is WHMC and they are trying to train as many as possible. I would aggressively seek civilian deferment for residency, pay back your time, moonlight like crazy to keep up your skills while on active-duty, then bail out for that cushy $500,000 a year civilian job.

 

[tomplatz]

thanks for the info. i can't find any data on competitiveness of USAF gas but if they need them badly, that's probably a good sign.

the down side is all my adt's are scheduled with surgery, which I was certain I wanted to do until this last 2 months. arghh. not enough time before graduation to get all this stuff done.

thanks.

 

[Fiend]

Military hospitals are seeing less volume and doing more outpatient care than before (probably with the exception of Walter Reed).
But, if things are the same at Willy World as they were when I was there 4 years ago, the metro area of San Antonio splits up trauma call between UT San Antonio, BAMC, and WIlford Hall. So, you'll see trauma there. I think the Anesthesia residency is combined Willy World and BAMC, so you will get a good experience by surgical case volume (i.e. CT surgery).
I would contact the program director at Wilford Hall and speak with them.
Also, if you are a third year, try to change your surgery rotations to anesthesia.
And, if Wilford Hall is in that much decline, why are the surgery residents hopping all the time and busy as slaves?