You are making a great decision!

[PiPhiDoc]

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I was giving some applicants to our program a tour yesterday and I was just reminded of how difficult the decision process was for me, and how GLAD I am now as an R-3/CA-2 that I chose anesthesiology.
I LOVE my job. I feel like I make a significant difference in the lives of patients every day. I'm doing my subspecialty rotations this year and I feel like a kid in a candy store -- every new rotation makes me think I want to do a fellowship in it!
So best of luck to all of you -- you are making a great choice.

 

[chillindrdude]

at what program, may i ask, are you at?

 

[timtye78]

Gas rocks, and it is hard not to brag about anesthesiology when around other specialty residents!

 

[apma77]

i agree wholeheartedly.....im very glad i went into anesthesia (im pgy-2 now) and truely enjoy it
ofcourse i can also pursue my outside interests other than medicine and spend time with the family

 

[Skip Intro]

Man, I have fond memories of the Pi Phi's at my undergrad school. They had an r=0.99 for hotness/niceness.

🙂

-Skip

 

[PiPhiDoc]

I'm an R-3/CA-2 (whatever) at the University of Washington.

 

[CambieMD]

Gas rocks, and it is hard not to brag about anesthesiology when around other specialty residents!

I am on the verge of escaping from FP. I find it hard to believe that more med
students have no interest in gas. There are very few specialties im medicine where you fix a problem (or prevent one) and move on to the next patient.
I have worked moonlighting as a house officer. I never met an anesthesiologist who didn't like his/her job.

Nothing is perfect in life, but anesthesia comes close.

CambieMD

 

[Disciple]

Man, I have fond memories of the Pi Phi's at my undergrad school. They had an r=0.99 for hotness/niceness.

🙂

-Skip

Really?



We used to call them Pi Beta Fatties.






Just kidding.

 

[cak]

I am on the verge of escaping from FP. I find it hard to believe that more med
students have no interest in gas. There are very few specialties im medicine where you fix a problem (or prevent one) and move on to the next patient.
I have worked moonlighting as a house officer. I never met an anesthesiologist who didn't like his/her job.

Nothing is perfect in life, but anesthesia comes close.

CambieMD

I agree. I have also never met an anesthesiologist who didn't like his/her job, and I must say that after the year I've had so far and all the unhappy people I've had to work with, I am really looking forward to my CA-1 year.

 

[powermd]

I agree. I have also never met an anesthesiologist who didn't like his/her job, and I must say that after the year I've had so far and all the unhappy people I've had to work with, I am really looking forward to my CA-1 year.

Amen to that! I feel so bad for the categorical IM residents at my program. I try to influence the M3/M4s in the right direction whenever possible, but some are just incorrigible in their desire to become IM slaves. One of the PGY3s occasionally says if he could go back to his M3 year, he would have chosen anesthesiology, and if he could go back to his fourth year of college, he wouldn't have gone into medicine!

 

[Skip Intro]

Really?

We used to call them Pi Beta Fatties.

Just kidding.

Oh yeah, I'm serious. No fat girls at my alma mater. Of course, there were some sororities that clearly had hotter chicks on the whole, but they were also usually the uber-bitchy little daddy's girl types. The Pi Phi's were nice, one of the more attractive cliques on campus, and definitely had strong turn outs when we had mixers. Plus, I dated two of them during college. So, I'm a little biased. 😀

-Skip

 

[Tollway]

Oh yeah, I'm serious. No fat girls at my alma mater. Of course, there were some sororities that clearly had hotter chicks on the whole, but they were also usually the uber-bitchy little daddy's girl types. The Pi Phi's were nice, one of the more attractive cliques on campus, and definitely had strong turn outs when we had mixers. Plus, I dated two of them during college. So, I'm a little biased. 😀

-Skip

I love going to work everyday. I am SOOOO happy I chose anesthesia and my program. I couldn't live in one more year of internal medicine. Thank God the intern year is behind us. ANesthesia rocks!!!

 

[brains]

Well I feel like a horses patoot. I just posted a question that all of this answers. I guess that's what I get for not looking around.

 

[powermd]

Well I feel like a horses patoot. I just posted a question that all of this answers. I guess that's what I get for not looking around.

Anesthesia is a great field for someone with the right goals. If you love quickly building rapport and trust with a patient, love procedural, acute care medicine, and enjoy spending your days in the OR, anesthesia will make you very happy. If you love clinic, following patients and their illnesses over time, or have an aversion to life and death situations that call for quick decisionmaking, or if you dislike the OR environment, anesthesia will not be a good match for you. It's probably not a good idea to worry a lot about specialty choice prior to your third year of medical school. Particularly where anesthesia is concerned. You need to know a lot about other specialties before you can reliably assert a serious interest in anesthesia.

 

[TysonCook]

I was wondering if anyone might be able to further comment on their thoughts of the field in 10-20 years and pathways to further MDA ground. I'm very interested in the field, but having spent almost an entire month in the OR, I've yet to see a MDA (seriously).

Today I asked who was running gas (as there was 2 people and I was thinking that one was a MDA), the reply was one was a CRNA, and the other was a CRNA student. With CRNA's training CRNA's, what is the incentive for having an MDA around at all? (isn't the CRNA really supervising the CRNA?)
Both surgeons then commented that the CRNA's where better than the MDA's anyway, and that the MDA's are on their way out (they don't ever see them either).

This is somewhat freaking me out of MDA as I'm starting to rule in and rule out job possiblities as a third year. What will be the ground for MDA's in 20 years if that is what I go into?

This is not a MDA vs. CRNA thread, just a thread about what are the possibilities for MDA's since it seems that the "average cases" are now the realm of the CRNA's.

 

[obadya00]

I was wondering if anyone might be able to further comment on their thoughts of the field in 10-20 years and pathways to further MDA ground. I'm very interested in the field, but having spent almost an entire month in the OR, I've yet to see a MDA (seriously).

Today I asked who was running gas (as there was 2 people and I was thinking that one was a MDA), the reply was one was a CRNA, and the other was a CRNA student. With CRNA's training CRNA's, what is the incentive for having an MDA around at all? (isn't the CRNA really supervising the CRNA?)
Both surgeons then commented that the CRNA's where better than the MDA's anyway, and that the MDA's are on their way out (they don't ever see them either).

This is somewhat freaking me out of MDA as I'm starting to rule in and rule out job possiblities as a third year. What will be the ground for MDA's in 20 years if that is what I go into?

This is not a MDA vs. CRNA thread, just a thread about what are the possibilities for MDA's since it seems that the "average cases" are now the realm of the CRNA's.

is it necessary to completely turn this nice thread into a crna vs. mda thread.
i can read and concluded that this thread's subject relates to how nice it is to be a mda. where in the title does it suggest that it wants to be added to the numerous threads of crna vs. mda, which ultimately get locked. have some love 😍 and make your own crna vs. mda thread and leave this one alone.

frustrated lurker

 

[Tenesma]

hi tyson

I am surprised to read your posting... since this is a public forum, i copied your posting and sent it to my old friend bill hurford (he is the chair at UC) just so that he knows what the medical students perceptions are.

Anesthesia will be good for a very long time - CRNAs will always be involved with anesthetic cases. But on the whole the role of peri-operative physician will continue to be important especially as we do more surgeries on sicker patients - all requiring a more educated physician....

If you enjoy pharm/physiology/OR setting/procedures then consider anesthesia, as it is a great field! and very rewarding in many ways...

 

[Amma]

I am also a third year who just completed an anesthesia rotation. I honestly thought it was an amazing specialty - but had similar experiences with all the CRNAs. I am going to try another rotation during year 4 at another hospital to hopefully gain a different perspective... but i have ot say that i felt the same way as the previous poster.
but otherwise i would pick anesthesia in a second! it was a lot of fun 🙂

 

[TysonCook]

Yeah, I really don't want to make this a CRNA vs MDA thing. I was just wondering as I've been looking for MDA's at my rotation site to ask them questions but I was never able to even find one.

The reason for my OP is that other fields have lost ground to other specialites (e.g. IR vs cards, CT surg to Cards, etc), so I'm not really looking at the CRNA issue, as much as ground that is traditionally gas, that is going to specialty X? Or even if Gas is picking up ground from other specialties and getting more proceedures?

I'm still seriously considering gas as a job, I just wanted to get a feel from other practicing physicians that there will be a field in 20 years (as opposed to OB/Gyns who freely tell you not to go into their field).

Thanks for copying this to the chair at UC, as I'm sure I'll be stopping by his office to query him more in person. As I stated before, I think that it is a great field, and would love to go into it, but as you can tell I'm just a little nervous as we only match once 🙂

As to my prior question, what other areas of gas are more MDA involved vs loosing ground to other fields? or gaining?

Thanks again from a third year!

 

[CambieMD]

hi tyson

I am surprised to read your posting... since this is a public forum, i copied your posting and sent it to my old friend bill hurford (he is the chair at UC) just so that he knows what the medical students perceptions are.

Anesthesia will be good for a very long time - CRNAs will always be involved with anesthetic cases. But on the whole the role of peri-operative physician will continue to be important especially as we do more surgeries on sicker patients - all requiring a more educated physician....

If you enjoy pharm/physiology/OR setting/procedures then consider anesthesia, as it is a great field! and very rewarding in many ways...[/QUOTE]


I hope that this thread in not hijacked by the CRNA/ MDA debate. At the turn of the century the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic began to train nurse anesthestists. They have been around for close to a century if not longer. They play their role in the OR.

The presence of CRNAs should not discourage a med student from pursuing a career in anesthesia.

I switched to anesthesia because I like being in the OR, pharmacology, physiology and short intense contact with patients.

Let's get back to the original topic of this thread.

CambieMD