Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 7/12/2007

Question
Dr. Levy,
I'm a 3rd year medical student and trying to decide what I really want to later specialize in. At this point I'm torn between OBGYN and Anesthesiology. I have a family with very young kids and feel that OBGYN might be too stressful for us, and probably not worth the sacrifice. I'm attracted to anesthesia especially because of the immediate results and the challenge of getting a patient unconscious and back to conscious. I also think it has better hours for one wanting to spend more family time? What do you think? Finally, my question, what has been most gratifying for you as an anesthesiologist, is it as monotonous as it appears? I enjoy interacting with people both patients and colleagues, would this probably be a wrong career choice for me? It seems like a really behind the scenes sort of job. I guess in short what are the major advantages and disadvantages of Anesthesiology from your honest point of view?
Thanks.

Trudi


Answer
The best way to find out is to get into the action. During your 3rd year you get good exposure to OB/Gyn but probably not too much time in anesthesia. If you can take an elective in 3rd year, do it. If not, take a sub-internship during the beginning of your 4th yr. Don't do it in July or August because you may not get to do too much (because of all the new interns) but September is good. This is far enough in advance of your application process for you to make a decision. Anesthesia has been described as hours of boredom puctuated by 15 minutes of shear terror! This may be a bit outdated. Sure there are times when it is monotonous (a 10 hour case and the patient is rock stable) but we also have extremely unstable patients that survive only because we do our job well. All specialties have their dull moments (in OB it's sitting around while you patient is laboring for 10 hours). As for family time, anesthesia is probably better because when your not on call, you're not going to get called. Patient interactions are there but obviously brief. You don't have long term patients. If that is important to you, the OB may be better. We are definitely not behind the scenes. in the OR, we are in charge. In short, I can tell you all the advantages and disadvantages I see but in the end, it's what you see when you are doing it that is important. So enjoy your 3rd year and try to sample as much as you can. You don't have to decide until October of 4th year.

Ronald Levy, MD
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston