Wanting to switch from PGY-3 Psych

Started by will96
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will96

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Hi all,

I'm a third year psych resident and for the past year and half I've really been disliking it. During med school I was between psych and anesthesia because of the emphasis on pharmacology. I think I really made the wrong choice. I miss the acuity, physiology, and OR environment of anesthesia. During med school my mentors in both psych and anesthesia recommended I go into psych because the lifestyle is so much better, but in retrospect this doesn't actually matter to me and I wish I went with my gut. I'm not that passionate about mental health and the lack of acuity/physiology/procedures in psych makes it feel boring and unfulfilling to me.

From my understanding one of the issues switching from psych is that our intern year often doesn't fulfill the intern year year requirements for anesthesia. However I have a ton of elective time (around 9 months) my fourth year and could knock out a ton of requirements if need be. Hopefully that would be an acceptable way to match into a CA-1. Also I was a pretty competitive applicant when I applied for residency and my evals and board scores have been really good as a resident. One of the great things about my current program is that it's incredibly flexible so if I want to pursue this I would be able to pick up shifts with anesthesiologists to get letters of rec and start making connections starting now.

Has anyone heard of switching at this stage in psych or other categorical fields? Overall I'm still not sure what to do. I'm 30 and the idea of doing psych for 30+ years doesn't excite me at all. But the opportunity cost of doing another 3-4 years of residency and delaying my life seems kind of crazy too.

Any advice/guidance would be great. Thanks!
 
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You have one life to live. To be stuck in a miserable marriage /job for 30 years. But finish psych residency first since that gives you a fallback

Get out sooner than later. Divorce yourself from psych. You will have glow up after quitting psych
 
Do not make impetuous decisions. The opportunities in psych as an attending are vastly better than the opportunities for anesthesia. When I say opportunities I mean varied practice settings. Psych is booming.

You say lifestyle doesnt matter to you but it will trust me.

You can have a practice from home for gods sake. Doesnt get better than that.
 
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will96 said:
Hi all,

I'm a third year psych resident and for the past year and half I've really been disliking it. During med school I was between psych and anesthesia because of the emphasis on pharmacology. I think I really made the wrong choice. I miss the acuity, physiology, and OR environment of anesthesia. During med school my mentors in both psych and anesthesia recommended I go into psych because the lifestyle is so much better, but in retrospect this doesn't actually matter to me and I wish I went with my gut. I'm not that passionate about mental health and the lack of acuity/physiology/procedures in psych makes it feel boring and unfulfilling to me.

From my understanding one of the issues switching from psych is that our intern year often doesn't fulfill the intern year year requirements for anesthesia. However I have a ton of elective time (around 9 months) my fourth year and could knock out a ton of requirements if need be. Hopefully that would be an acceptable way to match into a CA-1. Also I was a pretty competitive applicant when I applied for residency (step 2 259) and my evals and board scores (comlex level 3 685) have been really good as a resident. One of the great things about my current program is that it's incredibly flexible so if I want to pursue this I would be able to pick up shifts with anesthesiologists to get letters of rec and start making connections starting now.

Has anyone heard of switching at this stage in psych or other categorical fields? Overall I'm still not sure what to do. I'm 30 and the idea of doing psych for 30+ years doesn't excite me at all. But the opportunity cost of doing another 3-4 years of residency and delaying my life seems kind of crazy too.

Any advice/guidance would be great. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Would be very challenging,
will96 said:
Hi all,

I'm a third year psych resident and for the past year and half I've really been disliking it. During med school I was between psych and anesthesia because of the emphasis on pharmacology. I think I really made the wrong choice. I miss the acuity, physiology, and OR environment of anesthesia. During med school my mentors in both psych and anesthesia recommended I go into psych because the lifestyle is so much better, but in retrospect this doesn't actually matter to me and I wish I went with my gut. I'm not that passionate about mental health and the lack of acuity/physiology/procedures in psych makes it feel boring and unfulfilling to me.

From my understanding one of the issues switching from psych is that our intern year often doesn't fulfill the intern year year requirements for anesthesia. However I have a ton of elective time (around 9 months) my fourth year and could knock out a ton of requirements if need be. Hopefully that would be an acceptable way to match into a CA-1. Also I was a pretty competitive applicant when I applied for residency (step 2 259) and my evals and board scores (comlex level 3 685) have been really good as a resident. One of the great things about my current program is that it's incredibly flexible so if I want to pursue this I would be able to pick up shifts with anesthesiologists to get letters of rec and start making connections starting now.

Has anyone heard of switching at this stage in psych or other categorical fields? Overall I'm still not sure what to do. I'm 30 and the idea of doing psych for 30+ years doesn't excite me at all. But the opportunity cost of doing another 3-4 years of residency and delaying my life seems kind of crazy too.

Any advice/guidance would be great. Thanks!
Click to expand...
5 years after graduation.. lifestyle is immensely important.

Anesthesia is pretty routine stuff after awhile unless you're doing cutting edge cardiac, major trauma, etc

Stick with psych
 
It used to be that programs only get stipends for 5 years of residency- is this still the case? If so several years of your anesthesia residency will be unfunded and an issue from the program that accepts you. Are you interested in pain? Do you miss procedures?
Don’t fall for the grass is always greener - being up all night was no biggie in my 30-40s… now at 50 it’s not so fun
 
Thanks for the responses everyone. I know lifestyle is important in the long run but my understanding is you can scale back anesthesia to meet your needs as your life changes. I did pain rotations and I don't view it too differently from psych to be honest. A ton of mental health in that population with little acuity and physiology. The procedures I enjoyed, so maybe it is the best compromise.

As for funding and logistics of making it happen, that's what I need more clarity on. I think if I had to repeat intern year I wouldn't do it, but if I could get credit from my psych intern year + fulfilling any additional requirements my fourth year, then I could work as an attending for a year and save up some money, then start CA-1 summer 2028.

As an aside, I don't have any debt and have decent savings for a resident due to some risky options plays that really paid off (crazy, I know). So not facing a ton of financial pressure as it stands.
 
I am a busy anesthesia pain doctor. I have been practicing pain exclusively since fellowship. You just have to be a nice person and talk to people in their consults and stay problem focused. Maybe once a week (at the most) do I have a patient that is tearful and I have to get into the psych aspect of pain. But still that is only 15 minutes a week. It is mostly your back hurts, let’s try a rfa. Your feet burn, let’s try a different medication. It is better than that sounds. Make plenty of money, have autonomy, no nights/weekends/call. You only have one life to live. Age comes for us all. Do not spend 4 years of your life doing an anesthesia residency when you don’t have to to get out of psych.
 
BobBarker said:
I am a busy anesthesia pain doctor. I have been practicing pain exclusively since fellowship. You just have to be a nice person and talk to people in their consults and stay problem focused. Maybe once a week (at the most) do I have a patient that is tearful and I have to get into the psych aspect of pain. But still that is only 15 minutes a week. It is mostly your back hurts, let’s try a rfa. Your feet burn, let’s try a different medication. It is better than that sounds. Make plenty of money, have autonomy, no nights/weekends/call. You only have one life to live. Age comes for us all. Do not spend 4 years of your life doing an anesthesia residency when you don’t have to to get out of psych.
Click to expand...
That makes sense. The pain doc I was working with got a lot of referrals from psych, could have just been his population. What you're describing does sound like a nice setup.
 
Gator7 said:
Don’t do it man. I love what I do, but at some point it’s just a job. You’re so close to being done! Focus on finding joy outside of the hospital.
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and set up online only psych consults. Anesthesia ya gotta be in the prison for 8-12 hours
 
At a minimum, finish the Psych residency.

Look, “acuity” sounds exciting, but after a few years, there’s something to be said for boring/reliable that happens at decent hours, with time to study the situation and make a measured/thoughtful decision, rather than having to act in a 10 second to 1 minute window.

All I’m really saying is that, honestly, Anesthesia will eventually seem “boring”, as well, but just in different ways. After you do anything 100 or a thousand times, the adrenaline rush wears off, and what you are left with, is, “Do I want to be doing this on MY OWN terms (hours/schedules/patients/setting), or do I want to be doing it on someone/something else’s (hospital/surgeon’s/acuity of the patient’s issue)??

It’d be great if everyone could really say that their career is their “true calling” in life, but as you get older, there’s other things (hobbies/family/causes/etc) that are JUST as important, and having a “career” that allows time for those, IS important. Don’t expect your career to be “what defines you” or fulfills you, forever.

There are 8 billion people on this Earth. Not everyone gets to be a musician/actor/CEO, or even the exact “medical specialty”, they want. If you want to continue to pursue another specialty, that’s fine, and give it a try, but remember, you’ve already “hit the lottery”. You can have a great life, make great money, make a real difference in people’s lives, AND have a lifestyle/salary that gives you time to fulfill yourself in OTHER ways, as well.
 
If u do 4 yeses training. How does the pgy clock for funding for residents switching residences. You can’t be a resident forever? Because it impacts how much funding each hospital gets per trainee?

Can someone clarify this for me
 
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aneftp said:
If u do 4 yeses training. How does the pgy clock for funding for residents switching residences. You can’t be a resident forever? Because it impacts how much funding each hospital gets per trainee?

Can someone clarify this for me
Click to expand...
So from my understanding medicare pays for 2 buckets for residents, direct graduate medical education and indirect medical education. DGME, which covers salary and benefits, is cut to 50% after you complete 1 residency. IME covers what residents bill on patients care, which is is still paid at 100%. So overall the hospital should still make a lot of money off a resident regardless if DGME is paid at 50 or 100% due to revenue generated. I think the funding issue is overblown and not a big deal unless its a really small community hospital with razor thin margins.
 
will96 said:
So from my understanding medicare pays for 2 buckets for residents, direct graduate medical education and indirect medical education. DGME, which covers salary and benefits, is cut to 50% after you complete 1 residency. IME covers what residents bill on patients care, which is is still paid at 100%. So overall the hospital should still make a lot of money off a resident regardless if DGME is paid at 50 or 100% due to revenue generated. I think the funding issue is overblown and not a big deal unless its a really small community hospital with razor thin margins.
Click to expand...

I can tell you the funding thing is not overblown, especially in a competitive specialty/program. This gets watched very carefully because every department has meet their budgets these days. 50% payment doesn't cover the cost of a resident salary and benefits. If you make come really good connections at your current program it is possible to overcome the funding issue, but it is definitely a factor.
 
Residency sucks. In every specialty.

But psych is one of a few specialties that can be sustained with cash pay patients (one of my med school friends charges $900 for an initial 90 min visit…via tele health). You can set up a low overhead private practice. Tele psych is everywhere. It’s sounds like a pretty good deal.
 
ucladoc2b said:
Residency sucks. In every specialty.

But psych is one of a few specialties that can be sustained with cash pay patients (one of my med school friends charges $900 for an initial 90 min visit…via tele health). You can set up a low overhead private practice. Tele psych is everywhere. It’s sounds like a pretty good deal.
Click to expand...


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ucladoc2b said:
Residency sucks. In every specialty.

But psych is one of a few specialties that can be sustained with cash pay patients (one of my med school friends charges $900 for an initial 90 min visit…via tele health). You can set up a low overhead private practice. Tele psych is everywhere. It’s sounds like a pretty good deal.
Click to expand...


Exactly this. Anesthesia was fun for me in residency, but now after 15 years in PP it's just a daily grind. Do I love what I do...not really, but I don't hate it either. You can have a great life and make good money in psych and have total control over your own schedule.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll trust what you all are saying and attribute it to grass is greener in my mind. I'll try for pain fellowship. Is it too late to apply? I have a pretty strong application for it but need a week or so to get all my materials in order.
 
will96 said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll trust what you all are saying and attribute it to grass is greener in my mind. I'll try for pain fellowship. Is it too late to apply? I have a pretty strong application for it but need a week or so to get all my materials in order.
Click to expand...
Many pain fellowships are very procedure heavy and an anesthesiologist will arrive to the fellowship with a skill set that you simply will not have. Many fellowship PDs will not gamble on a psych trained resident as a fellow, as it may be 10 months into the fellowship before they know how to drive a needle for the procedures. Meanwhile, an anesthesiology resident from a good program will have that skillset upon arrival, day one. The difference can be difficult to fathom if you are not familiar with it.
I do not know how many psych residents get accepted into anesthesiology based pain fellowships each year, but my guess is that you can count the number on one hand, even if you have had a couple of skill saw accidents in the past.
So, you may say you have a competitive application based upon a few scores that may have turned some heads a few years ago, but you will have to overcome a huge gap in procedural skills for a PD to take a flyer on you. I am sorry if this is the first you are hearing of this. My suggestion is to find an academic multidisciplinary pain fellowship that has a history of taking a psych resident in the recent past and see if they may consider you.
For procedure heavy fellowships, your colleagues will be learning to install spinal cord stimulators, doing vertebroplasties, and performing unique surgical interventions while you will be learning what a Tuohy needle looks like. One year of fellowship is not enough to overcome the gap in knowledge and skills that will exist, in my opinion.
 
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BobBarker said:
Pain fellowships filled only about 60% of their spots last year. Someone will take him.
Click to expand...
The job market is still so good for anesthesia that it's harder than ever for graduating residents to pay the opportunity cost to do any fellowship.

That's a $half-million expense to be someone's bitch for yet another year ...

Unless you've got your heart set on peds or hearts or escaping the OR to pain or the ICU, it's hard to not just go start living the dream. For all the griping we do on this board, it's still easy to find a generalist anesthesia job with plenty of time off, tolerable if not enjoyable work, and a great paycheck.
 
NPJR said:
Do not make impetuous decisions. The opportunities in psych as an attending are vastly better than the opportunities for anesthesia. When I say opportunities I mean varied practice settings. Psych is booming.

You say lifestyle doesnt matter to you but it will trust me.

You can have a practice from home for gods sake. Doesnt get better than that.
Click to expand...

Ok but you will never make anesthesia money.
As an anesthesiologist would YOU take a 30-40% pay-cut for more varied work opp. or to WFH?
 
will96 said:
Hi all,

I'm a third year psych resident and for the past year and half I've really been disliking it. During med school I was between psych and anesthesia because of the emphasis on pharmacology. I think I really made the wrong choice. I miss the acuity, physiology, and OR environment of anesthesia. During med school my mentors in both psych and anesthesia recommended I go into psych because the lifestyle is so much better, but in retrospect this doesn't actually matter to me and I wish I went with my gut. I'm not that passionate about mental health and the lack of acuity/physiology/procedures in psych makes it feel boring and unfulfilling to me.

From my understanding one of the issues switching from psych is that our intern year often doesn't fulfill the intern year year requirements for anesthesia. However I have a ton of elective time (around 9 months) my fourth year and could knock out a ton of requirements if need be. Hopefully that would be an acceptable way to match into a CA-1. Also I was a pretty competitive applicant when I applied for residency (step 2 259) and my evals and board scores (comlex level 3 685) have been really good as a resident. One of the great things about my current program is that it's incredibly flexible so if I want to pursue this I would be able to pick up shifts with anesthesiologists to get letters of rec and start making connections starting now.

Has anyone heard of switching at this stage in psych or other categorical fields? Overall I'm still not sure what to do. I'm 30 and the idea of doing psych for 30+ years doesn't excite me at all. But the opportunity cost of doing another 3-4 years of residency and delaying my life seems kind of crazy too.

Any advice/guidance would be great. Thanks!
Click to expand...
People do switch, but the biggest hurdle is not competitiveness, it is logistics and willingness to essentially reset training. Anesthesia programs will want you to meet their clinical base year requirements, so you need to talk directly with programs about whether your current rotations and elective time can realistically bridge that gap. If you are seriously considering it, start doing anesthesia electives now, get letters, and confirm what credit you would or would not receive before making a decision. The harder question is whether you dislike psych enough to justify adding years of training, because the process is doable but only worth it if you are sure the day to day work in anesthesia is what you actually want long term.
 
It's not about the money for me, as I said I have ton of savings from risking it all on meme stock options. If it was about the money I would just stay in psych. It's pretty easy to find an inpatient job W2 paying 300k where you leave by 12, then stack virtual jobs in the afternoon to bring in another 200-400 while staying within the 40 hr work week. If you go on the psych forum there are some doing this making 7 figures working less than 50 hrs a week.

I'm applying for pain this cycle. It's late but a ton of positions go unfilled now so hopefully I can SOAP at the very least. I think you all are right that my priorities will change over time and pain is the best compromise. I'll let you all know how it turns out!
 
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Gern Blansten said:
Many pain fellowships are very procedure heavy and an anesthesiologist will arrive to the fellowship with a skill set that you simply will not have. Many fellowship PDs will not gamble on a psych trained resident as a fellow, as it may be 10 months into the fellowship before they know how to drive a needle for the procedures. Meanwhile, an anesthesiology resident from a good program will have that skillset upon arrival, day one. The difference can be difficult to fathom if you are not familiar with it.
I do not know how many psych residents get accepted into anesthesiology based pain fellowships each year, but my guess is that you can count the number on one hand, even if you have had a couple of skill saw accidents in the past.
So, you may say you have a competitive application based upon a few scores that may have turned some heads a few years ago, but you will have to overcome a huge gap in procedural skills for a PD to take a flyer on you. I am sorry if this is the first you are hearing of this. My suggestion is to find an academic multidisciplinary pain fellowship that has a history of taking a psych resident in the recent past and see if they may consider you.
For procedure heavy fellowships, your colleagues will be learning to install spinal cord stimulators, doing vertebroplasties, and performing unique surgical interventions while you will be learning what a Tuohy needle looks like. One year of fellowship is not enough to overcome the gap in knowledge and skills that will exist, in my opinion.
Click to expand...


Pain fellowships are empty. You jsit have to have a pulse to match. Doesn’t matter what primary specialty
 
Doc mu said:
Yeah, the only reason you make so much in investments is the extra high salary itself doc
Click to expand...


Very true. So funny. How people forget that. “Yeha my job sucks I make more in my investments.” Yeha no **** Sherlock but you wouldn’t have all that money to invest if you didn’t have a high paying job in the first place lol
 
sevo00 said:
Very true. So funny. How people forget that. “Yeha my job sucks I make more in my investments.” Yeha no **** Sherlock but you wouldn’t have all that money to invest if you didn’t have a high paying job in the first place lol
Click to expand...
Yuuup.

“All the data I’ve seen in all of personal finance suggests that it’s your income that is building wealth, not how much you can cut your spending,” Nick said.

Don’t take that the wrong way; saving is still a major aspect of a healthy financial life.

But if you’re looking to level up on the wealth ladder, your best chance is by increasing your income rather than trying to save more.

“You can only cut spending so far,” Nick said. “…With your income, there is, in theory, no limit.”

“Ultimately, this data demonstrates that as income increases, so does wealth. This is one of the strongest relationships in all of personal finance. It’s so strong that the least wealthy high earners have about four times more wealth than the wealthiest low earners. This illustrates a fundamental truth about getting rich—it all comes back to your income. Your income today is the foundation of your wealth tomorrow.”
 
will96 said:
It's not about the money for me, as I said I have ton of savings from risking it all on meme stock options. If it was about the money I would just stay in psych. It's pretty easy to find an inpatient job W2 paying 300k where you leave by 12, then stack virtual jobs in the afternoon to bring in another 200-400 while staying within the 40 hr work week. If you go on the psych forum there are some doing this making 7 figures working less than 50 hrs a week.

I'm applying for pain this cycle. It's late but a ton of positions go unfilled now so hopefully I can SOAP at the very least. I think you all are right that my priorities will change over time and pain is the best compromise. I'll let you all know how it turns out!
Click to expand...
NICE
 
Doc mu said:
Which are 2/2 the extra high salary lol same difference
Click to expand...
Nah. Plenty of people making a ton of money and saving none of it, barely able to pay the bills every month. Doesn't matter how much money you make if you're spending it all. Yes the high salary allows you to save more, but the salary by itself isn't going to cut it.
 
Doc mu said:
Yeah, the only reason you make so much in investments is the extra high salary itself doc
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter how I got there, the reality is that an extra 200K doing high risk-low to medium reward stuff is not gonna change my lifestyle one iota over the next 10 years.

My larger point is our salary is not commensurate with the risk we take daily.
 
NPJR said:
Doesn't matter how I got there, the reality is that an extra 200K doing high risk-low to medium reward stuff is not gonna change my lifestyle one iota over the next 10 years.

My larger point is our salary is not commensurate with the risk we take daily.
Click to expand...

I get that anesth is relatively higher risk than psych but if you look at the data, blood curdling complications are EXTREMELY rare plus how come you still feel stressed doing this as a seasoned attending? dont you reach a point where you've seen it all and everything becomes a boring routine?

Come on man, of the specialties in the salary range of anesthesiology, it is one of the best in terms of stress/complications (barring very few exceptions)
 
Last edited:
sloh said:
Yuuup.

“All the data I’ve seen in all of personal finance suggests that it’s your income that is building wealth, not how much you can cut your spending,” Nick said.

Don’t take that the wrong way; saving is still a major aspect of a healthy financial life.

But if you’re looking to level up on the wealth ladder, your best chance is by increasing your income rather than trying to save more.

“You can only cut spending so far,” Nick said. “…With your income, there is, in theory, no limit.”

“Ultimately, this data demonstrates that as income increases, so does wealth. This is one of the strongest relationships in all of personal finance. It’s so strong that the least wealthy high earners have about four times more wealth than the wealthiest low earners. This illustrates a fundamental truth about getting rich—it all comes back to your income. Your income today is the foundation of your wealth tomorrow.”
Click to expand...
Only few of us will pass "ladder or level 4" unless we scale up our income massively thru other means.

Nick Maggiulli is probably the only personal finance "guru" who places more emphasis on increasing your income rather than saving. All the other personal finance gurus are always screaming about SAVING.

That is why I always have issues when some here would overplay how good engineers have it because they start making money in their early to mid 20s. You can't save that much when you are making 65-80k/yr.
 
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Doc mu said:
I get that anesth is relatively higher risk than psych but if you look at the data, blood curdling complications are EXTREMELY rare plus how come you still feel stressed doing this as a seasoned attending? dont you reach a point where you've seen it all and everything becomes a boring routine?

Come on man, of the specialties in the salary range of anesthesiology, it is one of the best in terms of stress/complications (barring very few exceptions)
Click to expand...
Do you work in this field?
 
Splenda88 said:
Only few of us will pass "ladder or level 4" unless we scale up our income massively thru other means.

Nick Maggiulli is probably the only personal finance "guru" who places more emphasis on increasing your income rather than saving. All the other personal finance gurus are always screaming about SAVING.

That is why I always have issues when some here would overplay how good engineers have it because they start making money in their early to mid 20s. You can't save that much when you are making 65-80k/yr.
Click to expand...
Yep haha, all about marketability and addressable audience. While increasing income is mathematically superior for building wealth, "saving" is a more "sellable" product.

Anyone can save. Advice to "stop buying lattes" or "cancel subscriptions" applies to 100% of an audience regardless of their job, education, or location. Saving also offers a "quick win" that feels actionable tonight, whereas increasing income often takes years of specialized training or risk. Telling someone to "save 10%" feels like a manageable task, while telling someone they need to "earn $300k more" can feel overwhelming or impossible for those in fixed-salary roles.
 
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Doc mu said:
I get that anesth is relatively higher risk than psych but if you look at the data, blood curdling complications are EXTREMELY rare plus how come you still feel stressed doing this as a seasoned attending? dont you reach a point where you've seen it all and everything becomes a boring routine?

Come on man, of the specialties in the salary range of anesthesiology, it is one of the best in terms of stress/complications (barring very few exceptions)
Click to expand...
Thing is, we are dealing with complications that are more than just our own. Surgeons mucking about, sticking trochars into the IVC, tearing holes in the aorta or iliac arteries, pulling too hard on the uterus during a c-sectioncausing massive retroperitoneal bleeding that doesn't go noticed to hours later so you're playing catch-up on a bleeding-to-death new mom who is in shock + DIC while the "surgeon" can't figure out where the bleeding is, or the surgeon forgets to put a clamp on the distal end of a fem-pop graft so when he unclamps the proximal end, you lose about 2L of blood in under 2 minutes, or the airway that looked super easy and turns out to be shockingly difficult, or when a NAT kid comes in with life-threatening injuries, or when you have a crna/AA who fails to call for help early enough in crisis so you walk into chaos. The list goes on and on. Any one of those individual things is rare, but the cumulation of badness that can and does happen in our work is substantial. I've barely scratched the surface but those were just a few things that immediately came to mind.
 
Doc mu said:
I get that anesth is relatively higher risk than psych but if you look at the data, blood curdling complications are EXTREMELY rare plus how come you still feel stressed doing this as a seasoned attending? dont you reach a point where you've seen it all and everything becomes a boring routine?

Come on man, of the specialties in the salary range of anesthesiology, it is one of the best in terms of stress/complications (barring very few exceptions)
Click to expand...

Doc mu said:
No but am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Spoken like someone who has no idea what they are talking about.

Heavy call burden. Procedures on extremely sick patients. Surgical complications are not infrequent.
 
abolt18 said:
Thing is, we are dealing with complications that are more than just our own. Surgeons mucking about, sticking trochars into the IVC, tearing holes in the aorta or iliac arteries, pulling too hard on the uterus during a c-sectioncausing massive retroperitoneal bleeding that doesn't go noticed to hours later so you're playing catch-up on a bleeding-to-death new mom who is in shock + DIC while the "surgeon" can't figure out where the bleeding is, or the surgeon forgets to put a clamp on the distal end of a fem-pop graft so when he unclamps the proximal end, you lose about 2L of blood in under 2 minutes, or the airway that looked super easy and turns out to be shockingly difficult, or when a NAT kid comes in with life-threatening injuries, or when you have a crna/AA who fails to call for help early enough in crisis so you walk into chaos. The list goes on and on. Any one of those individual things is rare, but the cumulation of badness that can and does happen in our work is substantial. I've barely scratched the surface but those were just a few things that immediately came to mind.
Click to expand...

Good point, I hadn-t thought about that and it does sound horrific but would you say the job is still stressful even after acquiring many years of experience

I mean, you must have been through surgeons nicking arteries and getting non-ideal for anesthesia pts for many years now plus you get an extra 200k in the bank for it
 
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Nearly all anesthesiologists to resign from Auburn hospital
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coffeebythelake
coffeebythelake