What happened to gas in the 90s

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shahenshah

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I keep hearing about how bad gas was during the 90s..what happened then and what are the chances of it happening again? what makes Today different from those 'bad' years?

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well said! nothing else has changed
 
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hmm yeah but is there an explanation for what happened? I mean the money has certainly changed but why? again I really have no clue as to what happened in the 90s except that it was bad and the money was bad..can someone please elaborate..
 
I didn't read the articles, but there is NO mention of CRNA's in the abstract. AND, the abstract said that supply data was culled from ASA and AMA sources, neither of which (as far as I know) include CRNA data.

As I said, I didn't read the whole article. But IF it does not take into account CRNA gas providers, it's not a very usefull measure of the need for MDA's in the future. For god's sake, at one of our local outpatient surgery centers, there were something like 2 MDAs and 12 CRNA's on staff.

Judd
 
Gas in the mid-90's got pretty ugly. The Wall Street journal published this article about this UCSF grad that could not get a job. He was making 60K/year doing locums on weekends and holidays. Supposedly there was actually one recent grad that was living out of his car.

At that time you could practically walk into any residency program in the country. I remember one guy had his hotel, fllight and meal allowance paid just to get him to interview at this top 20 program in California. They then offered him a free weekend "revisit" at a nearby spa/hotel. :laugh:
 
juddson:

read page 6 of first link - it addresses your concern directly... i agree, it helps to read the whole article first...
 
thank you all for the reply and the links were excellent..again I know it was bad and money/job availability were major issues..but my question is 'why' did this happen..the articles did an excellent job in highlighting some of the reasons but does anyone have any other reasons?..I guess the reason for my query is to know if history might repeat..I'm sure there will be new issues in the future, but have the old issues(whatever they may be) really been taken care of?
 
Originally posted by BigSkyDreams


The main thrust for the drop off in the 1990's had to do with the false perception, supported and promoted by the media, that there were not any jobs in gas.


Although some of the media did highlight the job difficulties, perception was reality in many cases. If you talk to the residents that graduated at the time. It indeed was very difficult to find a job.

Radiology went through the same thing although the major down point in the job market was a few years later. There was a time where almost every radiology resident did fellowships and many did 2 fellowships to be competitive in the market. There were incredibly long partnership tracks and people starting at 100-120k. People were taking jobs in North Dakota, rural Missouri and were happy to get them.
 
Originally posted by Goober
Gas in the mid-90's got pretty ugly

Wasn't just the mid 90's. When I graduated in 1998 I can remember looking @ the unfilled positions list available in Anesthesia & was stunned. Multiple open spots @ every top program around except for one or two in desirable locations (Seattle, San Francisco). You could literally walk off the street into a job @ MGH. The lack of "consumer confidence" in Anesthesia was palpable among prospective medical students at the time
 
I have heard about this NY Times article (mentioned above by Goober) on multiple occasions . In fact, I have tried to retrieve the article from Lexis-Nexis but failed.

If anyone has access to this article, please be so kind as to post a link to it or cut and paste it directly into a post.

Thanks

PS - Dr Oliver, I have a direct question for you. Are you saying that at some point in the 1990's, UCSF had one or two match positions that went unfilled...or that in one or two desirable locations like San Francisco, the programs always filled even when many other programs like MGH couldn't?
 
Originally posted by Tenesma
juddson:

read page 6 of first link - it addresses your concern directly... i agree, it helps to read the whole article first...

yes, as I said, I did not read it. I wondered whether it included CRNA stuff.

Judd
 
Originally posted by MDEntropy
PS - Dr Oliver, I have a direct question for you. Are you saying that at some point in the 1990's, UCSF had one or two match position that went unfilled...or that in one or two desirable locations like San Francisco, the programs always filled even when many other programs like MGH couldn't?

I meant that the only places that were filling of the major programs were based on location, location, location. I can remember looking @ the scramble list that year of different specialties & there were dozens of spots at the top anesthesia programs open. If I remember correctly I think it was MGH or the Brigham that had more then half a dozen unfilled positions which just floored me. I wish those scramble lists were still available for you see what it was like back then when I was doing my clinicals 1995-1998. All you heard from the anesthesia residents & attendings was how threatened the specialty was..... yada yada yada. Students pay attention to these trends going on around them & adjust their interests accordingly. At that point in time, believe it or not, anesthesia & radiology were just not that "hot" & were MUCH less competative then now (especially radiology)
 
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