Opinion/Editorial pieces from various sources regarding:
Today, I am a solo anesthesiologist and healthcare consultant. Including my residency and fellowship training, I have provided more than 5,000 anesthetics for a diverse population, including:
Harborview Medical Center
Anesthesiologists have traditionally taken one of two routes after finishing their residency (e.g. post-graduate) training in a specialty. Academic Medicine (e.g. university-affiliated hospital) or a private practice (e.g. group practice). Regardless of the path chosen, many yearn to have a practice flexible enough to accommodate their different interests and skillsets while allowing for a predictable schedule.
Anesthesiologists have traditionally taken one of two routes after finishing their residency (e.g. post-graduate) training in a specialty. Academic Medicine (e.g. university-affiliated hospital) or a private practice (e.g. group practice). Regardless of the path chosen, many yearn to have a practice flexible enough to accommodate their different interests and skillsets while allowing for a predictable schedule.
Your capabilities are not limited to the definition of our “job.” we yearn to find our niche, a place where we are able to creatively push your specialty forward and avoid falling into a monotonous routine for the rest of your life.
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As a physician, you will feel dejected at times as you realize that medicine is not practiced as it has been taught to you. You had a comfort zone of gracious attendings and a supportive residency program emphasize how exactly medicine should be practiced. You emerged as a confident physician, thinking that you have seen everything in your few years as a resident. But you are only seeing how health care is delivered to a slim sector of our population. In the community, medicine has become a business, and your administration and partners will make you put your head down to do the work and generate the profits for everyone but yourself.
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As a crusader, you will face resistance in steering your team towards the road less traveled. Deviating from the “norm” means disrupting how your colleagues traditionally do their job with the calculated risk that you will make everybody's job (and our patients’ lives) better in the long run. there will be many a time where you feel relegated as a “pawn” in a system that does not want your help. You will come home and be antagonized by your parents for not taking a traditional path, be ridiculed by your friends when your project fails, or deride yourself when you realize how much of your income you have sacrificed for your pursuit. You will risk EVERYTHING...
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…But you will be yourself.
Aalap Shah, MD, is a board certified anesthesiologist, specializing in general adult and pediatric anesthesiology.
