Everything is based on perspective. Is anesthesia easy to get into? For some yes, for some no. Crappy programs get less of the best applicants.
Remember, what you believe is YOUR reality, irrelevant of facts. I've never felt subserviant to surgeons. The surgeons need anesthesia because the patient needs anesthesia. I have no problem adjusting the bed for the surgeons. I always let them know when I begin to move it and I ask them to tell me when it is in good position for them and the patient. I do this with the attitude that I am helping to provide the surgeon with improved ability to help the patient.
If your mindset and attitude is in the best interest of the patient it shows. If you respect yourself it shows. If you think you don't get any respect, you won't.
I have only had to defend myself to surgeons a couple of times, and when I did THEY shut up. My approach has always been to be quiet until I have proven my skills. From there I will initiate conversations with residents or attending surgeons, usually from the inquisitive angle about what they are doing, or why they are doing that. I am interested in what they do, not pretending to be, and it shows.
I now have surgical attendings that I converse with easily during a case or even in the physicians lounge. The other day one of the ENTs told me I ran a case at attending level. I had a pedi-CT surgeon tell me good job at the end of a stage 1 Norwood that I did on a neonate. Surgery residents like working with me. Nurses like working with me. Am I boasting as a CA-2? No, I am enjoying reaping what I sow. Training myself to have a positive mindset is an ongoing process. In the beginning it is difficult, but it gets significantly easier as you get back ten fold what you give. Try saying thank you to people and be sincere when you say it. Make a conscious effort to smile when you walk down the hall.
When you do, you'll be surprised to find that people you never talked to are smiling back at you and will bend over backwards to help you.
What most people see as disadvantages in Anesthesiology I see as advantages. Always remember, or at least learn, statistics can never tell the whole story. I would recommend to anyone going into residency to choose a specialty that you enjoy the subject matter. Enjoy and be curious about what you must read for that specialty. You get more out of residency that way. Residency has taught me, among many things, that all specialties have vast amounts of information pertaining to them regardless of type of specialty.
I NEVER bad mouth different specialties. I may have negative opinions on individuals from varying specialties, but I respect EVERY specialty. It has taken me a long time in my life to appreciate that people are different and that doesn't make them better or worse. I'm glad there are people that hate anesthesiology and those who love OB.
Thanks for trolling here, for without your snide posts and thread I would not have thought about posting this
Why don't you think about things from this perspective: Anesthesiology must be easy to get into because there are so many spots available that they actually take people that make less than, but within 1 standard deviation of the national mean of USMLE step 1. Which really is easy to do since medical schools (US) probably only accept college students above the mean or better on the MCAT. And if you think about it, you really only have to be mediocre to even get into college to sit for the MCAT. So, if you just took the MCAT but are not admitted to medical school in a US MD program you're probably just mediocre until you prove otherwise. Don't get me wrong, college is nice and all. I had a great time, but anyone can get in. Have you seen some of the people you are competing with for grades? It's pretty awesome you are getting A's in classes with people who made less than 1000 on their SAT or less than 19 on ACT. It should be simple to smoke classes in medical school when you compete with people on the same, or God-forbid higher, level as yourself. From there it is cruise control to passing all USMLE convincingly and landing a prized "competitive" residency so you don't have to deal with feeling like less of a doctor like us poor anesthesiologists.
This is all simple provided you are not mediocre, of course