I just wanted to know if you could tell me about a typical day being an anesthesiologist? Hours per day? Certain tasks you do? Any information you can give will be helpful! Thanks!
2007-08-31 10:50:16 · 3 answers · asked by allison e 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
1. Wake up WAY too early, but don't drink coffee. You might not get a bathroom break and can't risk having a full bladder.
2. Set up your tiny bit of OR real estate (we get a space about 4x4 feet in which to work). Draw up drugs, get intubation supplies ready, make sure suction works, turn on monitors, check anesthesia machine.
3. See patients pre-op, evaluate for anesthesia - review history, medications, EKG, labs, examine airway.
4. Make sure the surgeon is in the hospital, and hasn't gotten lost on the wards or in the cafeteria.
5. Attach monitors, induce anesthesia, manage airway, keep patient alive, prepare for eventual emergence.
6. Engage in conversation/banter with nurses and surgeon. Do not fall for surgeon's time estimate of "5 more minutes" until you see the incision actually being closed. Assure surgeon that patient is paralyzed when he's trying to close the belly.
7. Get patient breathing, comfortable enough with narcotics (but not so comfortable that they stop breathing or fail to start), wake patient up, extubate, transfer to recovery room.
8. Repeat from step 3 until cases are done.
If you're lucky, you might get to do spinals or epidurals, arterial lines or central lines, or maybe a nerve block. If you're unlucky, the patients will weigh over 300 pounds and have impossible airways and ugly teeth.
Sometimes emergencies come in and completely screw up the schedule, but provide for an interesting few hours.
A typical day might be 6 hours on a light day, or more than 24 if you're on call. You could do one long case, or 8 quick ones. You could go to OB and do epidurals. You could work with orthopedic surgeons, general surgeons, urologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, ENT docs, dentists, neurosurgeons, gynecologists or plastic surgeons.
Every day is different. That's part of the fun.
Hope that helps!
2007-09-03 03:59:00 · answer #1 · answered by Pangolin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Anesthesiologist are most likely to commit suicide and abuse drugs among all health care workers. Sums up the story for me!!
2007-09-01 15:58:51 · answer #2 · answered by IndianIMG 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
You need to talk to Pangolin.
2007-08-31 18:08:14 · answer #3 · answered by Lady Geologist 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋