Today’s inane image of the day:
I do not typically set New Year’s resolutions, but 2021 was a big year of growth and change and I wanted to continue the momentum. This exercise was mostly one in reflection of the challenges I overcame in 2021 [pandemic aside] in order to look toward setting goals to strive for in 2022.
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The elephant in the room around here is that I’m an ICU doctor that hasn’t been posting much about the pandemic to this channel. In this video, I share some of my thoughts on why I’ve been holding back.
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Some people join YouTube and create videos because they think it’s a “get rich quick” option. I can tell you that I *won’t* be quitting my day job as a doctor to do this full-time. Nor did I start this channel with the purpose of making money; I just really wanted a creative outlet. That being said… it doesn’t *hurt* to potentially have another revenue source…
In this video, I go over EXACTLY how much money I’m making from YouTube with 1.2k subscribers and 20 videos. It might surprise you.
Today’s inane image of the day:
I NEVER treat myself… so it was a bit out of character when I decided one random Saturday evening that I was ready to pull the trigger on a Vlogging camera. I’ve been recording all of my YouTube videos using my iPhone 11 pro and while it has been working for me, I CRINGE every single time I am editing these videos because of how grainy the video often is and how flat the audio is. It totally makes listening to myself more painful that it already is!
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I am frequently asked by medical students whether the specialty of anesthesiology will have a future. I am asked if CRNAs/AAs will take all of our jobs. I am asked if robots or artificial intelligence will replace us. I am asked if the job market is saturated [thus pushing salaries down]. While I do not have a crystal ball, I *do* have a lot of opinions on this topic.
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Did you know that anesthesiologists can also get extra fellowship training to work as ICU doctors [also known as “intensivists”]? In this video, I share with you why the marriage of anesthesia and critical care makes sense.
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Back in January 2021, I posted about my plans for studying for the ABA Applied Exam [a.k.a. anesthesia oral boards, the-scariest-board-exam-ever, etc]. They were really involved and intense and lofty plans. Like any human, I did not actually follow through on all of them, but hey, all that matters is that I passed [cue applause, firework emojis]. Now, I figured it was a good time to impart all of my wisdom on you as you embark on your journey of tackling this beast of an exam.
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While true that an anesthesiologist, CRNA [certified registered nurse anesthetist], and CAA [certified anesthesiologist assistant – generally shortened to AA, which is the designation I will use for this entry] all provide anesthesia to patients, the pathways to get to each profession and the actual practice are different. I think all three paths can definitely provide a fulfilling career and should all be considered for anyone that might have an early interest in the practice of anesthesia.
I want to note that I did not know I’d be pursuing anesthesia when I entered medical school, so I didn’t consider the CRNA/AA route. I did briefly consider PA school as a backup plan to MD/DO if I didn’t get in, but I didn’t need to go down that path. Anyway, let’s dive in.
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Back in May 2015, I wrote a blog entry entitled, “Don’t go into medicine for the money” where I crunch some numbers to counter the claim that doctors are all part of the 1%. Sure, there are doctors that are doing really well out there. And yes, the salary of a doctor out of residency is quite nice. But these things do not take into account the current status of crippling debt that many medical students take on. Becoming a doctor is a challenging road, especially if an individual is coming from a lower socioeconomic status which requires taking on more and more debt. Furthermore, doctors just don’t get a lot of education on managing finances, even when the average medical student graduate has OVER $200,000 IN DEBT.
Anyway, I decided to revisit this question of whether becoming a doctor is worth it financially and make a YouTube video on it. This time, I made different assumptions… specifically, I decided to look at whether I’m better off financially as a physician rather than an engineer. For those of you that are just getting to know me, I graduated with my Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. All of my friends went off to start their engineering jobs with real salaries and the ability to start saving money for life things – a car, a house, vacations, retirement – while I went off to medical school and residency and saved barely any money while also working ridiculous hours, exposing myself to occupational hazards [let’s not forget that I was an ICU fellow at the peak of our COVID surge and continue to care for COVID patients to this day], and letting the “best years of my life” go to waste.
Here’s the spreadsheet to check out my assumptions and conclusions: http://bit.ly/doctorfinances.
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Night shift is a different beast altogether. My shifts are 14 hours long – technically I’m on service from 1700 – 0700, but there is a lot of preparation that goes into this shift. I spend hours prior to going into the hospital looking over my patients and sometimes pre-writing my notes in order to get a good understanding of what happened during the course of the patient’s ICU stay. Maybe it’s because I’m a new attending, but I also feel like if I get to know my patients better, they receive better care.
Anyway, in my video, I go over some of my strong feelings surrounding how tough working night shifts can be on the body as well as take you with me on a shift for you to get a glimpse into what a night shift in the ICU looks like for an attending.
Keep reading if you want to see an hourly breakdown of what my night shift schedule looks like.
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