Rotation #9: Anesthesiology

It was so good to finally be able to experience Anesthesiology!! Afterall, this is the field that my husband has chosen to pursue!! Though my husband's current placement is not with a teaching program and it may not have been completely reflective of what is to come, he still received some good experience. The thing that I enjoyed the most about this particular rotation is that he came home happy and excited to talk about what he did that day at the hospital. He was so excited to try new things, practice those that he was still learning, and just get somewhat of a feel of what he will be doing for the rest of his life.

Here's what my husband had to say about the rotation . . .

This was a 2 week rotation with no call. This is one rotation where it could be as difficult or as easy as you wanted it to be. It was not uncommon for several of my classmates to be in at 7:00 and leave by 10:00 (or not show up at all). It was a bit unique and a bit of a disappointment in that there was no real oversight or guidance to the rotation. There was no “checking-in” in the morning and you were responsible for your own education on this rotation. A typical day for me began between 6 and 7 a.m. where you would either check in on the 3rd floor and participate/watch line placements for cardiac procedures (central venous lines, radial arterial lines) or I would go straight to the second floor and begin cases with the anesthesiologists. Cases would usually start at 7:15 every morning. There are a total of 28 OR’s at the hospital I'm currently placed with “routine” surgeries (gallbladders, colon resections, breast biopsies, etc.) taking place mainly on the second floor and orthopedic and cardiac cases occurring mainly on the third floor. During my rotation I mainly hung out on the second floor. This was because I would have more interaction with the anesthesiologists and I would be able to intubate more (shorter procedures and quicker turn-around-time than cardiac or orthopedic surgeries). My day would usually only last until around 2-3 at the latest because the majority of cases were done by then. After that I would go study or head home. During my time I would interact with the anesthesiologists mainly with intubation as they had to be present for every one. However, after that I wouldn’t get much of a chance to be with them as they were each monitoring 3-6 rooms. The exception to this was with bypass surgeries where I had anesthesiologists walk me through several transesophogeal echo’s and discuss a large number of topics with me. The majority of my interaction was with the CRNA’s. Being as how the hospital does not have an anesthesiology residency program and the anesthesia is provided by a private practice firm with a lot of CRNA’s employed I did spend a lot of time with them. As I want to go into anesthesiology I felt that I did learn a lot from the CRNA’s as well as the anesthesiologists during my two weeks on the rotation. Overall, the majority of my classmates did not enjoy the rotation. A few of the anesthesiologists are a little tough to be around and some of them don’t like to teach at all. However, if you put the time in and show some interest there are a few that will take you under their wing and help you learn a lot.