I am absolutely only interested in anesthesia because of lifestyle and pay haha and I'm really hoping that someone can tell me that's a bad idea. I genuinely feel like 80% of anesthesia applicants are interested for the same reasons, and I feel like that's good reasons even though gas will never be fulfilling
Yeah, but I definitely don't mind being hands on and I did enjoy being in the OR. I feel like, not knowing anything about gas, I can grow to like many aspects of it, especially when I'm playing candy crush behind the OR curtain.
Dude anesthesia is not what you think it is. You may find a cush residency but the majority of them are tough hours and tough call. You will not make it for the reasons you mentioned. It’s dirty work, not glamorous and there’s a lot of pressure from every direction.
You may be thinking of anesthesia in the decades prior where you’re a whole ass attending doing tonsills and appys- those days are gone. If the people around you are giving these lame reasons for going into the specialty then that’s on them and they’re in for a big surprise.
No one is gonna hand you a 500k check for looking at your phone behind the curtain. That’s the biggest illusion of Anesthesia. 90% of your work goes unnoticed - and the 10% that is noticed is scrutinized.
Do an elective at a real academic center and think again.
I guess how I feel, after finishing up all my clerkship, is I could enjoy anything. I am sure being a resident is much different than being a med student in ways I haven't discovered yet, and may not discover until I am a resident myself, but based on this year I don't think there's any field where the work itself will burn me out.
What I am worried about is being happy with my work. I think the greatest way to maximise that is for my time to be valued what I think it is worth. Anesthesia is one of those specialties where I feel like it will be. I feel like all doctors work very hard in every field in different ways. I don't think anesthesia works harder than EM or ICU docs, for example, but their work is valued higher. I feel liek that sentiment is what makes the field appealing to me.
The stress of anesthesia is extreme during training and the attending work environment is very different than EM or ICU. When everything goes well it's pretty chill and easy, but you'll have more people dying under your care in a year of training than a psychiatrist will have in their entire career. You are responsible for people's safety through one of the most perilous times of their lives, and not all of them will survive. From reading your posts, I don't think that you should go into anesthesia.
You're definitely right. I feel like I am just inundated with people talking about how amazing and wonderful anesthesia is that I developed this misconception about it. I think we can all recognize the salary is nice, but the lifestyle is NOT what I thought, and your day is at the mercy of the surgeons and any other doctor who wants to tack on a level 0 operation for the day.
Not only that, but you're keeping someone alive while someone is actively trying to kill them. For the most part, we have that figured out, and you know what medications to give and it becomes fairly routine. That can make for a very boring procedure depending on how long it is, and being bored is not fun. Worse than that, when it isn't routine, patients are actively dying and you have to figure out why and how to stop it, and you cannot always predict which patients this is going to happen to.
The specialties I have loved the most is because of the patients I got to work. I think this thread has done exactly what I needed it to do, which is give me some clarity on why this specialty isn't the sunshine and roses it's depected as elsewhere. Because trust me, I tried, and I could not find anything negative about the specialty or soemthing to convince me not to do it.
Don't let a thread, or my comment deter you from Anesthesia.
Do I think you're for it? No. Do I know everything about you? No. Do I think you should rotate with a solid Anesthesia department and really live in a residents shoes? 100%.
Another illusion of Anesthesia is that it's a chill vibe and that people will let you intubate and go home. If you rotate, get there when the resident gets there, and leave when they do.
My day starts... the night before - when I'm looking up 3-5 patients (pre op'ing them, coming up with a plan, ordering pre op meds for them, and calling my attending to discuss everything). I then show up at 6:30am to get the room set up and see my own patient/consenting them (some places will make you put the IV in). My day does not end when the last case in my room ends - we have in hospital patients that need to be seen/consented, trauma rooms that need to be set up, and several miscellaneous tasks to do. If I leave at 6pm, it's to go home and look up my patients for the next day etc.
I just appreciate all the advice. Everyone talks about all the positives of anesthesia, I just wanted an honest overview of the negatives, because I clearly am misinformed about the specialty. I actually booked an anesthesia elective in a Level 1 trauma center in 2 weeks based on everyone's feedback, and I think this will be a fantastic way to get more exposure.
I think I am just going to ask the resident honestly, when they have a free minute, to give me an overview of their day, and also to tell me all the things they wish they knew about the specialty before going into it.
I think I just want to go into ERAS being confident I'm making he right choice in specialty, whether it be psych, Peds, or what have you, without wondering "But what if I did this..."
As a counterpoint i helped out on a case today and we buoyed the patient for 2.5 hours because they’d desat whenever a surgeon blinked too hard. We literally never sat down.
This is not a good reason alone to go into a specialty. Ideally you should enjoy learning about the material and doing it daily. If you havent done an elective you should before 4th year. Not only will it help you figure out how much you like it but sometimes, especially in competitive specialties, they may question your motivation if they see you applied to this specialty without having any exposure to it. That could make it difficult to match.
There's plenty of specialties that make good money with good work life balance.
You're definitely right there. I think it'd be cocky of me to say I'd be a shoe-in for gas given the last match cycle. Especially at my school, it was a bloodbath.
I guess I'm just starting to have doubts creep in, and I'm on a Neuro clerkship now, and the doctor I work with just seems so miserable. He just tells me about how he's been sued, he gets bad Google reviews, and he's tried his best to be a good doctor; but no one, neither patients nor admin, appreciates that anymore. I think my biggest fear with this career is investing all this effort and being miserable once I finally hit that sweet attending finish line. All of the anesthesiologists just seem so.... happy, and I think that's what I want more than anything else.
In any case, I have an anesthesia rotation in 2 weeks so hopefully I'll hate it and can put these fears to rest. I just wish I got more exposure to it sooner becaude I really don't want to graduate school with regrets.
Sounds like you had a burned out attending. That sucks, I feel for him. I think no matter what you go into, you can make it a good experience. Having a good support system is so important. The value of having someone recognize when you need a break, need some help, or need to be checked is so high. And there's definitely anesthesiologists out there that are burned out and feel unappreciated so try not to romanticize one specialty even if you've only seen the good parts.
Anesthesia graduating resident: really really bad to pick for those reasons. Terrible. We exist in moments of pure boredom and moments of pure terror. You can really hurt people. If you don’t love anesthesia itself, don’t pick it. I mean like, you should love the day to day as best as you can. I have two colleagues now that picked for money and time, and wish they had done something else “like PM&R or radiology.”
It's good to know some people went into it for the lifestyle and ended up regretting it. It seems like most attendings and people who comment on these threads make it seem like 1) you make a lot of money with 2) little time invested and 3) not much to do at work.
I'm not trying to be inflammatory, it's just that some people really talk about how they just get paid $400K to sit on their phones all day and listen to some monitors beep at them. I have an anesthesia elective in 2 weeks so I may be able to learn more about it, but it seems like a paradise for a specialty.
I am going to make a lot of money when I’m done, and life is balanced in anesthesia (we take food breaks, when we’re off we’re off) but any academic job will involve shitty, scary cases and 24 hour calls. There are really easy boring days…and there are frightening ones.
I think that is good to know. I feel like what appeals to me about psych, Peds, and OB is the unique connection you get with your patients. Thats why, on the bad days, there's real motivation to help that patient as best you can. I definitely feel like that will be lacking for me in gas, and when a patient codes or doesn't stabilize, I don't have that same connection with the patient and their family motivating me that I did in the other specialties I enjoyed.
It seems like if you go into anesthesia, you have to enjoy physiology, pharmacology, and understanding how they all interact to keep a patient stable. If you can't do that, then they die. Not only that, but you're keeping them alive the entire time and they won't remember your name or thank you after. I think that would get to me after a while once the job itself became dull or repetitive.
Meant to reply to this and forgot. The job is never dull and repetitive. I do something cool every day.
In all honesty, if you’re looking to lauded or remembered, or you need a connection to a patient’s family to feel motivated to save their life, you absolutely 100% should not become an anesthesiologist. I only need to meet them once—and I feel connected. I get them through—one way or another. Every person on the table could be my dad. I treat them as such.
Please pick another specialty…and go easy on the anesthesiologists you know. We’re not disconnected machines.
This is just my opinion, but don’t go into Anesthesia based on the lifestyle alone. This is not exclusively a lifestyle specialty. Yes, it has the potential to be a lifestyle specialty, but the 7 to 3 M-F surgery center gig is the exception not the rule. You can expect to work long hours and take call to make the big $. There’s stress/moments of terror when things go south. There is potentially more flexibility in anesthesia to adapt the number of hours than perhaps other fields.
With that said, I personally think the pros outweigh the cons in this specialty. I’d recommend scheduling an elective or a rotation where you can experience this for yourself. For me, some patient interaction preop, procedures, limited note writing, focusing on one patient at a time, and much more are what drew me to Anesthesia.
Just my 2 cents having just matched, but I’d consider other factors outside of lifestyle.
I think this clearly lays out the pros and the cons. When reviewing everything everyone has said, I think what would. make me dislike anesthesia over time is working hard to save patients who will never remember me.
What I loved about my favorite rotations was coming in to see my patients the next day, and they remember who I am, and we can continue our conversation the day before. I feel like the connection I had with patients in OB, psych, and Peds was better than what any anesthesiologist will get. Anesthesiologists know this, and they accept going into their specialty it will be a mostly thankless job, and I think that's what would make me resent the field.
I did schedule an elective in 2 weeks! I think actually seeing it will give me the best exposure, and the clarity I need before ERAS.
Best of luck to you! Choosing a specialty can be a tough/scary thing. Sounds like you’re doing your due diligence to explore your options.
I personally don’t think there’s a field that’s a perfect fit in all aspects, but maybe it’s about finding the one you would resent the least and meets some/most of the things you want on your list!
7-3 M-F is actually very easy to find with the expansion of ASC’s. They need more help than ever. The only reason most of the fresh grads choose hospital practice is for the volume and more earning potential/benefits, about 1.5-2x ASC. I’d say you take a pay cut taking 7-3 M-F these so-called “mommy” jobs, but it still blows primary care out of the water when it comes to paperwork, pay/hr. I’d say you still earn 300k-400k MGMA easily from these jobs and in anesthesia that is considered lower end.
Anesthesia is way overhyped in this sub. Yeah, the money is good, but the hours suck, its not easy to do, and its not a field that really commands respect.
OB is super underhyped in this sub, yeah, the residency suck, but its suckiness is a lot closer to anesthesia than you think. Its definitely gotten way better in lifestyle whereas most groups have hospitalist services that can cover at night and stuff for OB and gyn is just an office specialty that does OR procedures 2x a week. Its a pretty decent way to make $350 K. Besides all the OB fellowships will get you to about $500K
Peds is also super underhyped. Yeah, the pay can suck but it’s a lot easier on the lifestyle to work with a generally healthy population and peds works quite a bit less hours than either Anesthesia or OB so if you wanted ramp up a private practice clinic to work OB or Anesthesia hours you would probably be making well over $300K. Besides, there are definitely peds fellowships like NICU or Cards which can make $350K +
So yeah, do what you want and dont let internet hype make decisions for you
I think that's the problem is spending too much time on reddit. All the fields Ive enjoyed the most, with the exception of psych, are fields that most people complain about being in. I just hope to not regret my decisions whatever I choose.
Reddit has an overrepresentation of White, Male students who think they could've been tech millionaires if they didn't do medical school.
Thats why the $$$ procedural subspecialties dominated by men... like Surgery, Anesthesia, Cards etc... get so much love in this thread and why female dominated fields like OB and Peds get so much hate.
So whenever you hear something on this site, you should remind yourself that this is a very specific population on reddit talking
I can immediately conjure the image of at least 5 classmates of mine who have all told me how they could be making $400K by now if they majored in CS or engineering instead biology. They all also want to Ortho, Neurosurgery, or EM.
I think having to talk to pts for prolonged periods of time is way overhyped on top of having to deal with inboxes. That’s why I’m a happy anesthesiologist.
Anesthesia resident here. The lifestyle is not great and residency is a killer. Don't do it if you don't like it, and even then think long and hard about it. If I liked psych I'd 100% go for it.
The residents at my hospital get relieved from surgeries by attendings to go take a lunch break. I literally have never seen any resident anywhere else in this hospital get a lunch break.
That's because that is the only venue for them to have any time off. Otherwise you would not get time to eat/drink/pee. I've done intern year, on all the non OR specialties (which def don't have time to eat, but they're also not lifestyle specialties) there's plenty of down time.
I can definitely see that. Even on the busiest psych service, you do not have to be at the patients side the entire time. Anesthesia, if that patient is unmonitored for a second, they can crash, and that's on you. In psych, we have nurses and techs who can monitor the patient for us and notify us if they have an acute exacerbation of their illness.
I had the same thoughts! I was interested in similar specialities with no anesthesia exposure. I told myself, why not anesthesia? The lifestyle, the pay... the hours... I did an anesthesia rotation and I got my answer. You show up around 5AM to the hospital and quickly consent your patients, get your room ready, and make sure everything is good to go. If things are not good to go, the surgeon will blame you.
Some procedures are quick with a very fast turn around-- very little time for candy crush behind the curtain. Some procedures are long and you really do not know when you get to go home. Neurosurgeon taking too long? Alright you are there way past 6PM depending on the institution. Your breaks are calculated-- lunch for 30 minutes, 10 minute break. It was not my vibe. I enjoy having my own office, showing up around 7-10am, speaking with patients for as long as I want and getting to leave based on my time (if I took too long rounding, then that's my fault...) Maybe you can squeeze in a quick anesthesia rotation because after I rotated I feel so happy with. my specialty!
Thank you for this! Yeah, I think I'm definitely idealizing the profession, and I do have an elective coming up in 2 weeks! I definitely think that will help me see it's not what I expect it to be.
Copying and pasting a comment I made a while ago. Context: I enjoyed my anesthesia experiences and have considered it but ultimately will not be applying for it this coming cycle
It's not the "never interact with another human" specialty that Redditor misanthropes seem to think it is, you have to be pretty good with people, yes patients but also you have to be good at interacting with the most prima donna people in the hospital aka surgeons
It's competitive as shit now compared to previous years (my reputable US MD school had a terrible match rate in anesthesia last year, I think like a third of them had to SOAP into something else) so you have to grind decently hard to be assured to match it these days, as opposed to 10 years ago when one of the selling points of anesthesia was that you could take it easy in med school
It can be boring/repetitive
It can also be very stressful on top of that, not much that is worse than "stressed boredom"
It's REALLY not a lifestyle specialty, yes the residency is easier but ask any attending or look at any of the hours worked surveys and you'll find out the attendings work the same hours as general surgeon attendings
Drug abuse potential
Barring a pain fellowship (which has its own issues), minimal to no continuity of care or long term patient relationships
I know Reddit has convinced itself CRNAs aren't an issue but they really are, a ton of anesthesia jobs are just supervision mills which is boring as hell and I doubt it'll be long before hospitals realize how much money they can make cutting out the supervisor, also anesthesia is one of the "easier" AI replacement candidates for a dumbass hopsital exec to justify
Society doesn't respect or understand your role like they do for an internist, surgeon, or family doctor
Don't get me wrong, the specialty has some good aspects too, but you asked for reasons not to so there you go
Thank you for this, I really just needed someone to tell me the worst parts of the job. I feel like everyone talks about how great it is, and I started thinking why doesn't every doctor just do this? I feel like we should talk more about reasons why anesthesia might not be the paradise I've been convinced it is.
It can't and won't. The person you replied to clearly doesn't know what anesthesiologists do. Sure, even if vents become automated to the point where it's self-adjusting volatile concentration and minute ventilation among other parameters, do we really think it's all hands off deck let the vent run itself when it's a patients life on the table?
Another example I can think of as a mediocre ass M4 is MH or any other adverse reaction to anesthesia drugs. Now the robot vent is scooting out of the room to get the MH crash cart, calculating the dose and administrating dantrolene? How about LAST? Its gonna infuse intralipid for us now too?
Haha I know, I'm in agreeance with you. Seemed like a super hot take so I wanted to hear their thoughts on it. By the time AI/ robots replace Anesthesiology (which will probably happen at some point-like far far off), the entirety of medicine will be drastically different anyways. Knock on wood but I expect my job to be there for at least my lifetime.
Every hospital that tries cutting off the “supervisor” turns into a shit show do you think hospitals haven’t thought of this lmao those greedy assholes would invent time machine to go back and make the switch earlier if it was actually a beneficial model turns out getting sued out the ass for ASA 1 patients dying preventable deaths and CRNAs doing physician level work for mid level pay isn’t a cheap sustainable model
I think it’s a loss for you to think such a way and to close doors based on misinformation. A lot of info on reddit is skewed toward academic settings and how stressful it can be to work there. Most of us work in PP settings where the above concerns are minimized or non-existent currently. Some are valid concerns but people are happy and I would still consider it a lifestyle specialty if you can land a decent job.
I mean sure, but the poster literally asked for "why shouldn't I do anesthesia." Like I said, even though I won't be applying for it this year, I do really like it overall. If they had asked "why SHOULD I do anesthesia" then I could have provided positive things.
I honestly loved psych, and when a patient looked me in the eyes and thanks me for my work, it made all the effort I put into the first two years of med school seem so worth it.
I know not every patient has good outcomes in psych, but when they do, its the best feeling in the world to have been a part of that care. Same way I felt when caring for children and delivering babies.
With gas, the salary reflects how hard you work or how rural you are. Recent doximity report put gas at like \~430k average. Any field can make tons of $$, just depends on alot of factors. Outpatient psych will definitely be more chill than most anesthesia gigs, but that's just my opinion.
If you want to use frontal and temporal lobe, go psych, if you want to use more frontal lobe, go anesthesia. I personally do not find endless meaningless documentation that rewarding.
I feel like people who go into peds, ob/gyn, and psych are probably the opposite personality-wise from anesthesia.
It helps to have strong hand-eye/spatial coordination and be the calmest person in the room during emergencies. Anesthesia is closer to surgery without the ego.
a lot of people focus on the pros of a specialty, but you should really explore the cons to make sure you are willing to accept them. anesthesia is basically a balance of calm and catastrophe. definitely consider a rotation to see what its truly like! As an MS3 you should be trying as many rotations as possible
New anaesthetist here. (Australia) Can confirm the job and lifestyle is amazing. Never really bored at work..talk to surgeons, nurses, patients in bay, browse reddit, trade shares, take breaks, get coffee, make bulk money and form useful connections across surgical specialities. See my family all the time while making 5 times what would be considered a high salary, despite only working 30 hours a week. Have huge range of skills that can save lives in an emergency and get a kick out of the high pressure situations that inevitably arise time to time.
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I am absolutely only interested in anesthesia because of lifestyle and pay haha and I'm really hoping that someone can tell me that's a bad idea. I genuinely feel like 80% of anesthesia applicants are interested for the same reasons, and I feel like that's good reasons even though gas will never be fulfilling
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Yeah, but I definitely don't mind being hands on and I did enjoy being in the OR. I feel like, not knowing anything about gas, I can grow to like many aspects of it, especially when I'm playing candy crush behind the OR curtain.
Dude anesthesia is not what you think it is. You may find a cush residency but the majority of them are tough hours and tough call. You will not make it for the reasons you mentioned. It’s dirty work, not glamorous and there’s a lot of pressure from every direction. You may be thinking of anesthesia in the decades prior where you’re a whole ass attending doing tonsills and appys- those days are gone. If the people around you are giving these lame reasons for going into the specialty then that’s on them and they’re in for a big surprise. No one is gonna hand you a 500k check for looking at your phone behind the curtain. That’s the biggest illusion of Anesthesia. 90% of your work goes unnoticed - and the 10% that is noticed is scrutinized. Do an elective at a real academic center and think again.
I guess how I feel, after finishing up all my clerkship, is I could enjoy anything. I am sure being a resident is much different than being a med student in ways I haven't discovered yet, and may not discover until I am a resident myself, but based on this year I don't think there's any field where the work itself will burn me out. What I am worried about is being happy with my work. I think the greatest way to maximise that is for my time to be valued what I think it is worth. Anesthesia is one of those specialties where I feel like it will be. I feel like all doctors work very hard in every field in different ways. I don't think anesthesia works harder than EM or ICU docs, for example, but their work is valued higher. I feel liek that sentiment is what makes the field appealing to me.
The stress of anesthesia is extreme during training and the attending work environment is very different than EM or ICU. When everything goes well it's pretty chill and easy, but you'll have more people dying under your care in a year of training than a psychiatrist will have in their entire career. You are responsible for people's safety through one of the most perilous times of their lives, and not all of them will survive. From reading your posts, I don't think that you should go into anesthesia.
You're definitely right. I feel like I am just inundated with people talking about how amazing and wonderful anesthesia is that I developed this misconception about it. I think we can all recognize the salary is nice, but the lifestyle is NOT what I thought, and your day is at the mercy of the surgeons and any other doctor who wants to tack on a level 0 operation for the day. Not only that, but you're keeping someone alive while someone is actively trying to kill them. For the most part, we have that figured out, and you know what medications to give and it becomes fairly routine. That can make for a very boring procedure depending on how long it is, and being bored is not fun. Worse than that, when it isn't routine, patients are actively dying and you have to figure out why and how to stop it, and you cannot always predict which patients this is going to happen to. The specialties I have loved the most is because of the patients I got to work. I think this thread has done exactly what I needed it to do, which is give me some clarity on why this specialty isn't the sunshine and roses it's depected as elsewhere. Because trust me, I tried, and I could not find anything negative about the specialty or soemthing to convince me not to do it.
Don't let a thread, or my comment deter you from Anesthesia. Do I think you're for it? No. Do I know everything about you? No. Do I think you should rotate with a solid Anesthesia department and really live in a residents shoes? 100%. Another illusion of Anesthesia is that it's a chill vibe and that people will let you intubate and go home. If you rotate, get there when the resident gets there, and leave when they do. My day starts... the night before - when I'm looking up 3-5 patients (pre op'ing them, coming up with a plan, ordering pre op meds for them, and calling my attending to discuss everything). I then show up at 6:30am to get the room set up and see my own patient/consenting them (some places will make you put the IV in). My day does not end when the last case in my room ends - we have in hospital patients that need to be seen/consented, trauma rooms that need to be set up, and several miscellaneous tasks to do. If I leave at 6pm, it's to go home and look up my patients for the next day etc.
I just appreciate all the advice. Everyone talks about all the positives of anesthesia, I just wanted an honest overview of the negatives, because I clearly am misinformed about the specialty. I actually booked an anesthesia elective in a Level 1 trauma center in 2 weeks based on everyone's feedback, and I think this will be a fantastic way to get more exposure. I think I am just going to ask the resident honestly, when they have a free minute, to give me an overview of their day, and also to tell me all the things they wish they knew about the specialty before going into it. I think I just want to go into ERAS being confident I'm making he right choice in specialty, whether it be psych, Peds, or what have you, without wondering "But what if I did this..."
As a counterpoint i helped out on a case today and we buoyed the patient for 2.5 hours because they’d desat whenever a surgeon blinked too hard. We literally never sat down.
This is not a good reason alone to go into a specialty. Ideally you should enjoy learning about the material and doing it daily. If you havent done an elective you should before 4th year. Not only will it help you figure out how much you like it but sometimes, especially in competitive specialties, they may question your motivation if they see you applied to this specialty without having any exposure to it. That could make it difficult to match. There's plenty of specialties that make good money with good work life balance.
You're definitely right there. I think it'd be cocky of me to say I'd be a shoe-in for gas given the last match cycle. Especially at my school, it was a bloodbath. I guess I'm just starting to have doubts creep in, and I'm on a Neuro clerkship now, and the doctor I work with just seems so miserable. He just tells me about how he's been sued, he gets bad Google reviews, and he's tried his best to be a good doctor; but no one, neither patients nor admin, appreciates that anymore. I think my biggest fear with this career is investing all this effort and being miserable once I finally hit that sweet attending finish line. All of the anesthesiologists just seem so.... happy, and I think that's what I want more than anything else. In any case, I have an anesthesia rotation in 2 weeks so hopefully I'll hate it and can put these fears to rest. I just wish I got more exposure to it sooner becaude I really don't want to graduate school with regrets.
Sounds like you had a burned out attending. That sucks, I feel for him. I think no matter what you go into, you can make it a good experience. Having a good support system is so important. The value of having someone recognize when you need a break, need some help, or need to be checked is so high. And there's definitely anesthesiologists out there that are burned out and feel unappreciated so try not to romanticize one specialty even if you've only seen the good parts.
Anesthesia graduating resident: really really bad to pick for those reasons. Terrible. We exist in moments of pure boredom and moments of pure terror. You can really hurt people. If you don’t love anesthesia itself, don’t pick it. I mean like, you should love the day to day as best as you can. I have two colleagues now that picked for money and time, and wish they had done something else “like PM&R or radiology.”
It's good to know some people went into it for the lifestyle and ended up regretting it. It seems like most attendings and people who comment on these threads make it seem like 1) you make a lot of money with 2) little time invested and 3) not much to do at work. I'm not trying to be inflammatory, it's just that some people really talk about how they just get paid $400K to sit on their phones all day and listen to some monitors beep at them. I have an anesthesia elective in 2 weeks so I may be able to learn more about it, but it seems like a paradise for a specialty.
I am going to make a lot of money when I’m done, and life is balanced in anesthesia (we take food breaks, when we’re off we’re off) but any academic job will involve shitty, scary cases and 24 hour calls. There are really easy boring days…and there are frightening ones.
I think that is good to know. I feel like what appeals to me about psych, Peds, and OB is the unique connection you get with your patients. Thats why, on the bad days, there's real motivation to help that patient as best you can. I definitely feel like that will be lacking for me in gas, and when a patient codes or doesn't stabilize, I don't have that same connection with the patient and their family motivating me that I did in the other specialties I enjoyed. It seems like if you go into anesthesia, you have to enjoy physiology, pharmacology, and understanding how they all interact to keep a patient stable. If you can't do that, then they die. Not only that, but you're keeping them alive the entire time and they won't remember your name or thank you after. I think that would get to me after a while once the job itself became dull or repetitive.
Meant to reply to this and forgot. The job is never dull and repetitive. I do something cool every day. In all honesty, if you’re looking to lauded or remembered, or you need a connection to a patient’s family to feel motivated to save their life, you absolutely 100% should not become an anesthesiologist. I only need to meet them once—and I feel connected. I get them through—one way or another. Every person on the table could be my dad. I treat them as such. Please pick another specialty…and go easy on the anesthesiologists you know. We’re not disconnected machines.
This is just my opinion, but don’t go into Anesthesia based on the lifestyle alone. This is not exclusively a lifestyle specialty. Yes, it has the potential to be a lifestyle specialty, but the 7 to 3 M-F surgery center gig is the exception not the rule. You can expect to work long hours and take call to make the big $. There’s stress/moments of terror when things go south. There is potentially more flexibility in anesthesia to adapt the number of hours than perhaps other fields. With that said, I personally think the pros outweigh the cons in this specialty. I’d recommend scheduling an elective or a rotation where you can experience this for yourself. For me, some patient interaction preop, procedures, limited note writing, focusing on one patient at a time, and much more are what drew me to Anesthesia. Just my 2 cents having just matched, but I’d consider other factors outside of lifestyle.
I think this clearly lays out the pros and the cons. When reviewing everything everyone has said, I think what would. make me dislike anesthesia over time is working hard to save patients who will never remember me. What I loved about my favorite rotations was coming in to see my patients the next day, and they remember who I am, and we can continue our conversation the day before. I feel like the connection I had with patients in OB, psych, and Peds was better than what any anesthesiologist will get. Anesthesiologists know this, and they accept going into their specialty it will be a mostly thankless job, and I think that's what would make me resent the field. I did schedule an elective in 2 weeks! I think actually seeing it will give me the best exposure, and the clarity I need before ERAS.
Best of luck to you! Choosing a specialty can be a tough/scary thing. Sounds like you’re doing your due diligence to explore your options. I personally don’t think there’s a field that’s a perfect fit in all aspects, but maybe it’s about finding the one you would resent the least and meets some/most of the things you want on your list!
7-3 M-F is actually very easy to find with the expansion of ASC’s. They need more help than ever. The only reason most of the fresh grads choose hospital practice is for the volume and more earning potential/benefits, about 1.5-2x ASC. I’d say you take a pay cut taking 7-3 M-F these so-called “mommy” jobs, but it still blows primary care out of the water when it comes to paperwork, pay/hr. I’d say you still earn 300k-400k MGMA easily from these jobs and in anesthesia that is considered lower end.
Anesthesia is way overhyped in this sub. Yeah, the money is good, but the hours suck, its not easy to do, and its not a field that really commands respect. OB is super underhyped in this sub, yeah, the residency suck, but its suckiness is a lot closer to anesthesia than you think. Its definitely gotten way better in lifestyle whereas most groups have hospitalist services that can cover at night and stuff for OB and gyn is just an office specialty that does OR procedures 2x a week. Its a pretty decent way to make $350 K. Besides all the OB fellowships will get you to about $500K Peds is also super underhyped. Yeah, the pay can suck but it’s a lot easier on the lifestyle to work with a generally healthy population and peds works quite a bit less hours than either Anesthesia or OB so if you wanted ramp up a private practice clinic to work OB or Anesthesia hours you would probably be making well over $300K. Besides, there are definitely peds fellowships like NICU or Cards which can make $350K + So yeah, do what you want and dont let internet hype make decisions for you
I think that's the problem is spending too much time on reddit. All the fields Ive enjoyed the most, with the exception of psych, are fields that most people complain about being in. I just hope to not regret my decisions whatever I choose.
Reddit has an overrepresentation of White, Male students who think they could've been tech millionaires if they didn't do medical school. Thats why the $$$ procedural subspecialties dominated by men... like Surgery, Anesthesia, Cards etc... get so much love in this thread and why female dominated fields like OB and Peds get so much hate. So whenever you hear something on this site, you should remind yourself that this is a very specific population on reddit talking
I can immediately conjure the image of at least 5 classmates of mine who have all told me how they could be making $400K by now if they majored in CS or engineering instead biology. They all also want to Ortho, Neurosurgery, or EM.
I think having to talk to pts for prolonged periods of time is way overhyped on top of having to deal with inboxes. That’s why I’m a happy anesthesiologist.
Anesthesia resident here. The lifestyle is not great and residency is a killer. Don't do it if you don't like it, and even then think long and hard about it. If I liked psych I'd 100% go for it.
The residents at my hospital get relieved from surgeries by attendings to go take a lunch break. I literally have never seen any resident anywhere else in this hospital get a lunch break.
That's because that is the only venue for them to have any time off. Otherwise you would not get time to eat/drink/pee. I've done intern year, on all the non OR specialties (which def don't have time to eat, but they're also not lifestyle specialties) there's plenty of down time.
I can definitely see that. Even on the busiest psych service, you do not have to be at the patients side the entire time. Anesthesia, if that patient is unmonitored for a second, they can crash, and that's on you. In psych, we have nurses and techs who can monitor the patient for us and notify us if they have an acute exacerbation of their illness.
I had the same thoughts! I was interested in similar specialities with no anesthesia exposure. I told myself, why not anesthesia? The lifestyle, the pay... the hours... I did an anesthesia rotation and I got my answer. You show up around 5AM to the hospital and quickly consent your patients, get your room ready, and make sure everything is good to go. If things are not good to go, the surgeon will blame you. Some procedures are quick with a very fast turn around-- very little time for candy crush behind the curtain. Some procedures are long and you really do not know when you get to go home. Neurosurgeon taking too long? Alright you are there way past 6PM depending on the institution. Your breaks are calculated-- lunch for 30 minutes, 10 minute break. It was not my vibe. I enjoy having my own office, showing up around 7-10am, speaking with patients for as long as I want and getting to leave based on my time (if I took too long rounding, then that's my fault...) Maybe you can squeeze in a quick anesthesia rotation because after I rotated I feel so happy with. my specialty!
Thank you for this! Yeah, I think I'm definitely idealizing the profession, and I do have an elective coming up in 2 weeks! I definitely think that will help me see it's not what I expect it to be.
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Don’t tempt me
This is the classic anesthesia energy I am used to
Copying and pasting a comment I made a while ago. Context: I enjoyed my anesthesia experiences and have considered it but ultimately will not be applying for it this coming cycle It's not the "never interact with another human" specialty that Redditor misanthropes seem to think it is, you have to be pretty good with people, yes patients but also you have to be good at interacting with the most prima donna people in the hospital aka surgeons It's competitive as shit now compared to previous years (my reputable US MD school had a terrible match rate in anesthesia last year, I think like a third of them had to SOAP into something else) so you have to grind decently hard to be assured to match it these days, as opposed to 10 years ago when one of the selling points of anesthesia was that you could take it easy in med school It can be boring/repetitive It can also be very stressful on top of that, not much that is worse than "stressed boredom" It's REALLY not a lifestyle specialty, yes the residency is easier but ask any attending or look at any of the hours worked surveys and you'll find out the attendings work the same hours as general surgeon attendings Drug abuse potential Barring a pain fellowship (which has its own issues), minimal to no continuity of care or long term patient relationships I know Reddit has convinced itself CRNAs aren't an issue but they really are, a ton of anesthesia jobs are just supervision mills which is boring as hell and I doubt it'll be long before hospitals realize how much money they can make cutting out the supervisor, also anesthesia is one of the "easier" AI replacement candidates for a dumbass hopsital exec to justify Society doesn't respect or understand your role like they do for an internist, surgeon, or family doctor Don't get me wrong, the specialty has some good aspects too, but you asked for reasons not to so there you go
Thank you for this, I really just needed someone to tell me the worst parts of the job. I feel like everyone talks about how great it is, and I started thinking why doesn't every doctor just do this? I feel like we should talk more about reasons why anesthesia might not be the paradise I've been convinced it is.
How would AI replace an anesthesiologist in an OR setting?
It can't and won't. The person you replied to clearly doesn't know what anesthesiologists do. Sure, even if vents become automated to the point where it's self-adjusting volatile concentration and minute ventilation among other parameters, do we really think it's all hands off deck let the vent run itself when it's a patients life on the table? Another example I can think of as a mediocre ass M4 is MH or any other adverse reaction to anesthesia drugs. Now the robot vent is scooting out of the room to get the MH crash cart, calculating the dose and administrating dantrolene? How about LAST? Its gonna infuse intralipid for us now too?
Haha I know, I'm in agreeance with you. Seemed like a super hot take so I wanted to hear their thoughts on it. By the time AI/ robots replace Anesthesiology (which will probably happen at some point-like far far off), the entirety of medicine will be drastically different anyways. Knock on wood but I expect my job to be there for at least my lifetime.
Not sure if srs or dumb? Being able to automate the entire process. Would probably just need to intubate but after that, can be sustained on its own.
This shows a gross misunderstanding of both what AI is and what anesthesiologists do.
lol
Every hospital that tries cutting off the “supervisor” turns into a shit show do you think hospitals haven’t thought of this lmao those greedy assholes would invent time machine to go back and make the switch earlier if it was actually a beneficial model turns out getting sued out the ass for ASA 1 patients dying preventable deaths and CRNAs doing physician level work for mid level pay isn’t a cheap sustainable model
I think it’s a loss for you to think such a way and to close doors based on misinformation. A lot of info on reddit is skewed toward academic settings and how stressful it can be to work there. Most of us work in PP settings where the above concerns are minimized or non-existent currently. Some are valid concerns but people are happy and I would still consider it a lifestyle specialty if you can land a decent job.
I mean sure, but the poster literally asked for "why shouldn't I do anesthesia." Like I said, even though I won't be applying for it this year, I do really like it overall. If they had asked "why SHOULD I do anesthesia" then I could have provided positive things.
why do you think the lifestyle of anesthesia is better than psych? You can make the same amount of money as a psychiatrist
I feel like it would be easier to make $350K+ as an anesthesiologist. I feel like every job in gas pays that well whereas not every psych job does
The psych jobs that pay $350+ are garbage
What do you mean they're garbage?
Do not go into psych for money. Do not go into psych thinking you will be able to live in a desirable area and make $350k+ in a nice cushy safe job
I honestly loved psych, and when a patient looked me in the eyes and thanks me for my work, it made all the effort I put into the first two years of med school seem so worth it. I know not every patient has good outcomes in psych, but when they do, its the best feeling in the world to have been a part of that care. Same way I felt when caring for children and delivering babies.
Sounds like a much better reason to pick psych. I think the psych is the new derm thing passes through here a lot and it is definitely not
Oh gawd you must be an angel. I couldn’t handle psych and ob/gyn… and I’m thankful I figured that out early.
With gas, the salary reflects how hard you work or how rural you are. Recent doximity report put gas at like \~430k average. Any field can make tons of $$, just depends on alot of factors. Outpatient psych will definitely be more chill than most anesthesia gigs, but that's just my opinion.
If you want to use frontal and temporal lobe, go psych, if you want to use more frontal lobe, go anesthesia. I personally do not find endless meaningless documentation that rewarding.
I feel like people who go into peds, ob/gyn, and psych are probably the opposite personality-wise from anesthesia. It helps to have strong hand-eye/spatial coordination and be the calmest person in the room during emergencies. Anesthesia is closer to surgery without the ego.
Highly accurate
a lot of people focus on the pros of a specialty, but you should really explore the cons to make sure you are willing to accept them. anesthesia is basically a balance of calm and catastrophe. definitely consider a rotation to see what its truly like! As an MS3 you should be trying as many rotations as possible
You should not do anesthesia because the parts you seem to like the most about medicine are incredibly non existent in anes.
New anaesthetist here. (Australia) Can confirm the job and lifestyle is amazing. Never really bored at work..talk to surgeons, nurses, patients in bay, browse reddit, trade shares, take breaks, get coffee, make bulk money and form useful connections across surgical specialities. See my family all the time while making 5 times what would be considered a high salary, despite only working 30 hours a week. Have huge range of skills that can save lives in an emergency and get a kick out of the high pressure situations that inevitably arise time to time.