Hi EMDOC. I am a 3rd year med student and I just finished my Anesthesia rotation about 2 months ago. I had no interest in this specialty before hand, but I also did not know what the specialty intailed and I had like most 3rd years had no idea what I wanted to do. I also can't speak for everyone else's motivation, just my own (So keep that in mind). Anyway, the month before I did a surgery rotation and loved it, but I learned that I don't exactly have the fine manual dexterity and the patience to be looking at one area of the body for up to 8 hours (Aren't Whipples fun?), but I really liked procedure medicine. I also found in General Internal Medicine that the procedures are mostly done by specialist and most of the time is spent planning a course of treatment for the patient and relying to heavily on labs, hence the term "mental masturbation". My month of Anesthesia was spent in Johnstown, PA at a Level I trauma center. The philosophy of the program (Not a residency program) was to get the students exposed to the most procedures, so I only stayed through the whole surgery in a few cases. Usually, I would go in and intubate the patient and leave and go into the next room to do the same. But, in the mornings, we would also get to put in IVs for all of the outpatients and start the Heart cases. The heart cases allowed me to put in Arterial lines, Intubate patients, Use fiberoptics, and put in central lines and swan-ganz catheters. In addition, on some non-heart patients I would do the Spinal Anesthesias. The only procedure that I was not allowed to perform was an Epidural (Probably for obvious malpractice reasons). Anyway, so in answering your question I like the procedural side of the specialty. However, it is also important to keep in mind that there is opportunity for sub-specialty in areas like Critical Care (Which is what I would ultimately like to do) and Pain Management (Which is in high demand). It is true that the pay is great and the hours are very good (Most of the Anesthesiologist where I was were in at 6 in the morning and out by 4 in the afternoon, if not sooner). This is probably why the specialty is getting more competitive every year and is also why other specialties like Optho, Rads, and Derm are so competitive. I hope this was able to answer some of your questions. Good luck with Boards!
Seth
