Expert: Dr Ian Jackson - please note UK based - 1/24/2009

Question
Hello Dr. Jackson

I'm in high school and I'm considering a career in anesthesiology but honestly i don't know anyone personally who is an anesthesiologist so i was wondering if you could give me a description of the job in your own words, like what exactly do you do everyday, how would you describe the feeling you have when your at work (by that i mean when your working is it stressing, hectic, calm, hard, etc..), and how long did it take you before you starting actually working and getting paid for it because i know there's a lot of school and also residency? My last question is what are some of the things that could possibly go wrong in your job because i know in every job there are things that aren't supposed to happen, like whats the worst that could happen if you make a mistake?

Answer
Hi there Ashley
Thankyou for your question which I believe shows great maturity in asking about the difficulties as well as what the job involves.
Being an anaesthetist (note I'm UK based) is an extremely rewarding job and offers a large variety of things to do. This varies from providing analgesia for pregnant mums on the labour ward, anaesthetising patients in theatres, looking after patients on intensive care, providing services for patients with chronic pain problems, looking after children undergoing surgery.... the list is vast.
A wise man once said that anaesthesia is 99% controlled and calm with 1% being hectic, uncontrolled and stressful. That is probably about right though most of us manage to keep the 'uncontrolled times' to a minimum by attention to detail. For me it is liking being a master chef - I can give the recipe to several people but only one will actually deliver a faultless creme brulee.
Things can and do go wrong. With the best techniques we still run into problems with patients whcih can be very stressful. They can have reactions to the drugs given or simply have a 'heart attack' while they are having their operation. This is not fun.
The worst thing is when a patient dies when you are looking after them - nothing can prepare you for that.
So that's a little overview, I hope it gives you a bit of an idea. Despite the issues I mentioned at the end I love my job. I love helping people, getting rid of their pain and the feeling of doing a good job when the patient wakes up comfortable, without sickness and able to get up and drink and eat quickly afterwards.
Kind regards
Dr Ian Jackson