When I was making the incredibly difficult decision of which medical specialty I would dedicate myself to, I’d tell others I was thinking about anesthesiology.
The naysayers would frequently question me about it. “Really?” they would ask. “Isn’t that boring?”
Thankfully, I didn’t let the doubters phase me and I decided to pursue it anyway. And today, with a lot of experience under my belt, I’m here to tell you unequivocally, that no, anesthesiology is not boring!
The truth is, anesthesiology is no more “boring” than any other specialty.
Sure, like any field, there are “boring” moments. Or perhaps, more correctly, there are moments that lack excitement. The maintenance phase of a laparoscopy appendectomy in a healthy 30-something doesn’t require the totality of my medical school and residency training to navigate.
Yet, this is no different than any other specialty in medicine. Isn’t it boring for the OB/GYN to close a Pfannensteil incision at the end of a C-section? Or mundane for the orthopedist to hammer in the seventh knee replacement of the day? It’s certainly not thrilling for the hospitalist to admit another overnight patient with an uncomplicated COPD exacerbation.
Outside of medicine, the same is true. The investment banker’s heart isn’t racing when he double-checks the profit and loss spreadsheets he prepares. And the PhD researcher isn’t wide-eyed and lost for words as they pipette their samples for gel electrophoresis.
A Day in My Life as an Anesthesiologist
The story I’m about to tell should dispel the farcical notion that a career in anesthesiology is boring. I’m telling it to both prevent medical students from eschewing the field because of a false pretense, but also, to let them know it’s not the relaxing cake walk that a lay person may think it is.
A Workday Journal Entry as an Anesthesiologist
6:30 a.m.
I start this particular day at 6:30 a.m., like most others. It actually started yesterday at 4 p.m., as I made all of the staffing assignments for today. That required balancing the personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and interpersonal dynamics of my own 42 staff members, trying to maximize fluidity and minimize complaints and conflicts from surgeons, nurses, CRNAs, and fellow anesthesiologists.
And of course, in the depths of winter illnesses, a call out forces me to rearrange my grid, but I get everything tucked into its place. I start my three cases uneventfully, and as the time passes, I liaise with the nursing leadership to open up some more operating rooms and start chipping away at the long list of add-on cases.
10 a.m.
I chug a coffee and get ready for my 10 a.m. meeting. This requires me to give a presentation on antibiotic stewardship, and how we can utilize more appropriate antibiotics to minimize surgical site infections. I give my 15-minute PowerPoint while a colleague holds my phone, and then it’s back to the big board to make the 27 lunch assignments.
After everyone’s lunch relief is posted on the board, I get a phone call from a colleague. She’s placing a spinal and one of her other rooms needs an arterial line placed. As placing a-lines brings me true joy, I head upstairs to the neurointerventional lab and prep the patient’s wrist for one.
The phone rings again as I’m about to stick.
It’s my colleague. “Joe is struggling with hypotension in cath lab seven. Can you drop the a-line and go check it out?” she asks.
I agree with her triage, and head to the hypotensive patient.
The monitor reads —/— for blood pressure. Not good. We give some pressors, and can muster a 60/40. Now we’re moving from dilute epinephrine to code-dose epi, and I go around the bed to place an a-line in this patient who is on the verge of coding. The a-line goes in and our first reading is 40/30.
Now I’m running a code. Intubate the patient. Start compressions. Give another round of epi. Draw a blood gas. After a couple minutes of CPR, we achieve ROSC, my colleague arrives, and I head back down to the ORs.
Time to start a couple more cases.
I induce anesthesia for a hysterectomy and a thyroidectomy while fielding phone calls from the labor floor regarding parturients who need epidurals. Another call comes in: they need emergency craniotomy for a woman in her 40s with a dysfunctional VP shunt. I’m left to quickly assemble a team, crunch some numbers to see if any ORs need to be held up, and regrettably inform one of my teams it’s going to be a while before I can get them a lunch break.
3:30 p.m.
Things cool off by 3:30 p.m., and I sign out my own cases and the entirety of the OR schedule to a colleague, as I need to report to a call shift downtown. My role that night takes place at a special obstetric unit for patients giving birth that need immediate interventions. I place epidurals or spinals for vaginal deliveries and C-sections before the neonatologists sweep these fragile babies away.
6 p.m.
I arrive at 6 p.m., and get a phone call at 6:03 p.m. for a C-section. Luckily, it goes smoothly.
8 p.m.
I’m back in my call room by 8 p.m., ready to answer some emails. On the docket is seeing if our group wants to pick up cardiac anesthesia calls at another health system, the back-and-forth of our own group’s contract negotiations with our hospital, and finding a colleague who can prepare a morbidity and mortality presentation for our conference next week.
11 p.m.
I close my laptop, and, by the grace of God , have undisturbed slumber from 11 p.m. till morning.
A nice “boring” night of sleep.
The Bottom Line
The moral of the story is: an anesthesiologist’s day is as demanding and exciting as any other doctor’s.
My day involved so much more than putting tubes in airways and blood vessels. I had to manage multiple teams of people, and walk the fine line between advocating for my staff (i.e., not giving into unreasonable demands of any surgeons) while getting as many surgical cases completed in the allotted time as possible.
I presented my quality improvement project to the hospital by day, and worked on ways to advance our group’s educational components by night. I got to wear the hat of a part-owner (partner) of my corporation, had a chance to chemically take a patient back from the throes of death, and hold a new mother’s hand as she delivered her baby, battling emotions of fear, hope, and uncertainty.
Anesthesiology may not be boring. But is it for you?
What can you do to see what a day in the life of your possible chosen field is like? Spend time with doctors in that field. Get to see what a real day in the life is like, as opposed to determining if you like the pathology or science in a given field.
You may love proton physics, but if meeting with 15 cancer patients per day to plan radiation therapies is too emotionally taxing, then radiation oncology might not be for you. You might absolutely love anatomy, but if you hate the pace or vibe of the operating room, don’t be a surgeon! Spend time in the actual venues, developing a clearer picture of how different physicians get through the day, and your choices will become easier.
Best of luck choosing a medical specialty, and if you need extra assistance, download our FREE Medical Specialties Breakdown with side-by-side comparisons for average salary, exam scores, and more!
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