**BECOMING AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST**?

Hello,
I am currently just in high school but I am interested in going into the medical field when I enter college.
I am really interested in anesthesiology and I am wondering what a typical day in the life of an anesthesiologist is like?
here are some of my other questions:

How many hours on average do anesthesiologists work and do you have time to spend leisurely at all?
How often are anesthesiologists "on call"?
How many surgeries on average would an anesthesiologist see in a typical day?
How much do you enjoy your job?
Is your work environment uptight (outside of the operation room of course) or is it fun working with other doctors?
How much do anesthesiologists earn?
How protected are you from patients who decide to sue you / malpractice lawsuits?

Sorry about all the questions! I am just really interested! Haha
THANK YOU SO MUCH!

1) Yes anaesthesiologist have time to be able to spend leisurely. Like anyone else in the health care field such as nurses, and other types of doctors, they are usually on a rotational shift time. For instance, they may work one week like 3 days on followed by 4 days off, and then the next week may be 5 days on, followed by 2 days off, and then 2 days on, followed by 5 days off.

2) Depending on the size of the facility, or the number of staff that are needed, you might be required to be on call during all of the time that you're not on shift working a shift.

3) It would depend on the type of cases that would be worked on. Anaesthesiologists in more complex surgeries need to be in attendance for the entire procedure, and then those ones that are for simple surgeries ie. myringotomies (putting tubes into the ears) they might only be required to be there for a short period of time. A more complex situation would either be an open heart surgery or a brain procedure.

4) I am not an anaesthesiologist, but I have been in the medical field long enough to know the importance of this role.

5) The work environment which is in an OR setting can be quite tense with the fact that a lot of the staff are very particular of how duties are accomplished. As long as there is a thorough set up, or a "assembly like" theme, you're required to help collectively in a group setting. If you would rather work individually, then being an anaesthesiologist would NOT be a good choice.

6)Yes it would be fun with working with other doctors. It depends on the ability of being able to work collectively with a team environment as listed above. You will be required to work in a very tense, and sometimes very small quarters with a lot of doctors sometimes working and looking over your shoulder.

7) I am not sure exactly what anaesthesiologists make, but I know that it would be good money with the fact that they are MD's and are specialized in anaesthesiology. I believe that the starting wage would probably be in the neighborhood of 128 to 150,000 a year, and then would work up a lot higher.

8) You would need to make sure that you have enough malpractice insurance for your level of work. This might include for the type of procedures that you might preform, and then the type of risk that you might have.

I hope that this helps you!:)