Anesthesia Elective: Part III
I've never once looked back on my decision to go into Anesthesiology and it's truly a job that I enjoy getting out of bed for.
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I've never once looked back on my decision to go into Anesthesiology and it's truly a job that I enjoy getting out of bed for. 〰️
You’ve made it all the way to your senior year! Now you’re trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your life. You kinda liked anesthesia but also liked surgery and emergency medicine and maybe even critical care. Either way you’ve found yourself back on the anesthesia elective.
You already know I’m going to make you do most of the work in the OR for the day, while setting you up for success along the way. Your fourth year rotations will be the time to start thinking about moments you’ve had with attendings that would stand out in a letter of recommendation for residency applications.
Once you’re done showing off your skills and we have some down time, I share with you some of my favorite things about anesthesia: work-life balance, geographic flexibility, self-tailored career.
Our schedule is quite predictable - mornings start early but you can generally be done with your day in the mid-afternoon. The evening, overnight, and weekend call shifts are usually spread out amongst a big enough department that it doesn’t consume your life. Charting is done in real-time so there are few instances when you bring work home with you.
Anesthesiologists have great flexibility to move around the country. Since we do not carry our own patients, hospitals usually sign a contract with an anesthesia group for their services as a whole. This makes it easy for individual to switch groups if they were moving to a different part of the country or just wanted a change of scenery.
Anesthesia jobs range from office-based anesthesia to ambulatory surgical centers and ultimately hospital-based anesthesia care. You can decide what kind of job you want! There are also multiple fellowships that allow you to focus on a subspeciality. You also can take on leadership roles in the hospital, medical school, and even as consultants outside of the hospital. And if you decide you want to dial back your clinical duties, there is a market for part time and locum anesthesiologists.
I've never once looked back on my decision to go into Anesthesiology and it's truly a job that I enjoy getting out of bed for. As a medical student reading this, that's all you really want in life.
