Anesthesiologists

Written by: Madison Elliott

After all of my schooling is over, I am going to be working to be an anesthesiologist. When I tell people that, most know what that is, saying “oh yeah those people that put you to sleep”. In a sense, yes, that is true. However, I am going to look into the more specific aspects of anesthesiology and the different tasks they have to accomplish in their job.

First off, in order to be an anesthesiologist, one must complete 8 years of medical training, both general and specified, and then be board certified by The American Board of Anesthesiology. Beyond just being board certified in general anesthesiology, doctors tend to specialize further and become certified in things such as cardiac anesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, or critical care medicine.

For a surgical patient/procedure, anesthesiologists have a large variety of roles throughout, starting prior to the surgery and continuing even after the surgery is over. Before the procedure begins, the anesthesiologist must use their knowledge to form an anesthesia plan for the specific procedure that is about to take place and to fit the specific patient that is going under. In order to do this, the doctor must evaluate things about the patient such as their height and their body weight (things learned in medical school, school is useful!). During surgery, the anesthesiologist is constantly monitoring the patient. They must keep an eye on things such as their heart rate and rhythm, body temperature, blood pressure, breathing, and fluid balance; basically all vital functions, which is extremely important to keep the patient alive. They also have to continuously keep watch of their unconsciousness to ensure they do not wake up during the procedure, and also their level of pain to make sure that they can’t feel what is being done to them, because feeling surgery would definitely not be the most pleasant feeling in the world. After the procedure is completed, the anesthesiologist is still responsible for the patient’s pain management, mainly by controlling the overall care of the patient and having other staff maintain their medication so they remain comfortable. This usually concludes the anesthesiologists work with the patient; sometimes an anesthesiologist with a specialty continues on with care.

Although this seems like a lot of work, usually anesthesiologists have a lot of help from a variety of different people such as nurse anesthetists and other nurses. Surgery and other procedures would not be able to happen without the work of anesthesiologists, so you should consider looking into this career. I know that I am looking forward to a rewarding career in this field!

All of the information was found on: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/287857.php