Over the last week, I’ve worked closely with five different residents, and each of them has provided me with a great deal of knowledge regarding the career of anesthesiology – both from a med student perspective and in practice. I’ve intubated patients, drawn up and administered agents like propafol, fentanyl, and vecuronium, helped in establishing emergency airways, and helped ease patients pre-operatively.
As with much of medicine, technology has permeated almost every aspect of modern anesthesiology. Residents use Android/iOS applications to facilitate dosing calculations intraoperatively. Fiber optic scopes help us establish even the most difficult airways. Oh, and then there’s that awesome “general anesthesia machine” which controls volatile agents and ventilation. In spite of this, I feel there are many more advances which can be made in terms of instrumentation to streamline the efficiency/safety even further. Maybe one day I could contribute to such a cause.
In a few hours, I have the “Baylor CPX” exam which all students must pass in order to graduate – it’ll be six standardized patients worth of taking histories, doing physicals, counseling, and generating differentials. Then it’s back to the operating room. 🙂
