There’s a stereotype that anesthesiologists are hiding behind the drapes trading stocks or doing sudoku puzzles, but that’s certainly not the reality of my job! I think it’s so important to share what the reality of the job is like and one reality of being an anesthesiologist is that it can be physically and mentally exhausting. Here are some of the reasons that contribute to this:
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We receive feedback in numerous areas of our life. When training to become a physician, there are a lot of different timepoints where structured feedback is given. Sometimes that feedback is negative or critical. It never feels good to be the recipient of this type of feedback, but it is inevitable… none of us are perfect.
I recently received written feedback from my residents and while there were certainly positive comments, all I could do was focus on the negatives. I’d almost say I perseverated on the negatives. So I thought I’d do something productive with it… figure out the best ways to deal with this type of feedback when it comes and share it with all of you. Here’s what I came up with:
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In a previous post/YouTube video, I discuss why I stayed in academic medicine. But with anything in life, where there are benefits, there are downsides. As a medical student, I remember reading and hearing about how academic medicine jobs included a lot of promotion pressures [to apply for professorship; which is why everyone is hustling/stressed to do research] and lower pay. This sounded like a terrible deal, so I never considered staying in academic medicine beyond residency [I knew I wanted training at an academic environment, but it didn’t seem like a good long-term career fit]. Fast-forward over a decade later and here I am… in academic medicine [cue: face-palm emoji]. So even though I heard about the potential downsides of an academic medicine job, I decided it was still a good fit for me.
The 4 downsides of being an academic physician that I go over in the video are:
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I went to an anesthesia resident conference recently and was approached by students who had come across my blog or watched my YouTube videos. It reminded me that maybe some of the content I put out there is useful and inspired me to record this video. Here are the 6 pieces of advice for those pursuing a career in medicine:
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During a talk I gave recently to an anesthesia department about social media for use by medical professionals, I used the example of typing into Google: “Are anesthesiologists…” and allowing the predictive text to fill in the rest. The FIRST response on Google is: “Are anesthesiologists doctors?” which I used as a demonstration that we [as anesthesiologists] need to do a better job with letting the public know our role in the surgical team.
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Although the gender gap in medical schools has recently closed, women physicians still face challenges. I’m frequently asked what the relevance of my work in @amwadoctors is… and well, here are a couple reasons we still have work to do on gender equity:
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I have dreamed of becoming a doctor since I was a young girl. But nothing prepared me for the realities of the profession [of note, I’m a first-generation college graduate and no one in my family practices medicine]. If you are pre-medical and plan on embarking on the journey to becoming a physician, I ask that you consider these 5 reasons NOT to become one:
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Match day was one of the happiest days of my life. It isn’t that way for everyone, so I think it’s important to respect that and support our colleagues when we can. But for those of you that have matched into a residency program (congratulations!) and now know where you’re going to be for the next few years, this video is for you.
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I was recently asked by a premed whether she should pursue PA school or medical school, so I was inspired to make a video about it!
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I was inspired by a question I was asked during a medical school interview: “What do you regret most?” At the time [over TEN years ago now… whew, I’m getting old], I answered that I regretted going to an early college. Looking back, there are a couple of things that I may have regretted at one point or another:
1. Going to an early college
2. Being in a long distance relationship
3. Throwing away my 20’s [to become a doctor]
But over time, my perspective on these things has changed. Watch the video to learn more about why! I’d love to hear how you’d respond to this interview question on YouTube!