women in anesthesiology

[daisygirl425]

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need some advice please!
any advice from women anesthesiologists regarding having kids and juggling family while still practicing anesthesiology. I've been given a lot of mixed advice from people but surprisingly haven't really come across any women anesthesiologists on my rotaion. I looked in the FAQ section and searched the forum and didn't really find what I was looking for. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Noyac]

need some advice please!
any advice from women anesthesiologists regarding having kids and juggling family while still practicing anesthesiology. I've been given a lot of mixed advice from people but surprisingly haven't really come across any women anesthesiologists on my rotaion. I looked in the FAQ section and searched the forum and didn't really find what I was looking for. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

There are all kinds of oportunities out there for women in anesthesia. I was just offered a job today that would fit perfectly for a woman with a family. It was 24 weeks a year at a surgery center. Some groups are too busy however to have women that will be taking all kinds of time off for child bearing and raising but those groups can be avoided. If the search button works, you might want to give it a shot. This topic has been discussed rather heatedly.

 

[jennyboo]

It's kind of a funny question to ask on this forum, because... as far as I can remember... there doesn't appear (currently) to be a female resident, fellow, or anesthesiologist posting regularly here. Mostly guys, and most of them say what Noyac just said ("most groups don't want women taking all sorts of time off"). So you may find more at mommd.com.

But... most women in anesthesiology say that it's a great field for women. Bend-over-backwards "family friendly" opportunities will be unusual in any field of medicine, not just anesthesiology, and they require looking around and making some compromises. But it's not impossible, and during my residency interviews one woman even pointed out to me that it is indeed possible (though not necessarily easy) to mix academics and family as well as private practice and family.

 

[seattledoc]

In Family Practice, there are a few people that do "share positions", as in 2 people do one job. They have one patient panel that they take care of together. The tricky part is the follow-up on labs, phone calls from patients seen yesterday by the other doctor, etc. They had to be more meticulous with follow-up than most of us in the group. Basically each doctor works 50% of the time. The benefits usually are axed but that's the price they pay I guess.

It would be even easier to set this up in anesthesia since there is alot less follow-up and labs that need to be tracked down. Basically, as long as the group liked both docs and they knew that one would always be there...why wouldn't they like you? If one woman had to take off a couple of months after having a baby, the other person could pick up the slack and work full-time (shudder) for a couple of months. And the group could save a heap on benefits if they didn't give them to you as a part-timer.

 

[lvspro]

Hi
Spoke to a anes woman about a month ago. She does OP surg centers in the area, makes good $$, and is usually home by 2-3:00, no call. Seems like a good schedule if the kids are in school... if they're still babies, then that's a whole different ball-o-wax.