Thanks for watching!!! Hope you’ll participate in my summer Virtual Preop Call program in 2025 to prepare for rotations and the application cycle.

@ I would LOVE too!! Where can I find more information?

Glad it was helpful! Good luck this season!!

😂 Gotta know what you're getting into! I'm 5 years out from residency and am not planning on leaving the practice of anesthesia so that's a pretty good sign.

@AmandaSXiMD wow five years, i think I've been watching your channel for about four years now.

Thanks for being such a loyal and committed subscriber! Feel free to reach out with questions!

Thanks for watching and commenting! I definitely would choose anesthesia again [thanks for another idea for a quick video in the future]. For most surgical specialties, I think that it'll be really important for you to ask yourself whether you could see yourself doing any other specialty because surgical fields are grueling in a different way from all other specialties. You have to really identify as a surgeon to get through the training and the challenges beyond training. But if that's what you love, then that's that. Good luck!

Well that sucks as studies shows that midlevels are indeed able to administer anesthesia safely

This is a really helpful perspective for me [and my viewers!]. I'm always curious how anesthesia is practiced in other countries.

Thank you for watching and following along! Let me know if more questions come up as you prepare your application - the specialty has gotten so much more competitive these last few years so it's important to have a strong application and strategy for when you apply. Also I hope you'll be able to join my summer "Virtual Preop Program" calls next summer! Good luck!

@@AmandaSXiMD Will definitely tune in on that next summer! Would love to know your advice on anesthesia program signaling

I go into detail on signaling and everything related to the application process in my blog entry here: blog.amandaxi.com/2024/09/16/advice-for-applying-to-anesthesiology-for-match-2025/

Thanks for watching and commenting! Each system certainly has it's pros/cons and depending on staffing, can really have a real impact on job satisfaction and burnout. I'm glad your friend found a practice with a better fit -- you only have one life and I think it's so important to prioritize the things that matter (i.e., life outside of the hospital!).

Haha true story. 😂

Thanks for watching and commenting! In order to practice anesthesiology in the U.S., you must complete a residency in anesthesiology. The type of program is dependent on what your career goals are. There are tons of subspecialties in anesthesia - I practice critical care (that's a subspecialty), but there's also cardiac, pediatric, acute/chronic pain, obstetrics, and even palliative care. Certifications aren't as important in the training process but may become more important during practice.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand your question? You should certainly be prepared for a question where you can articulate the strengths and weaknesses that you'll be bringing to the program!

Thanks for watching and commenting!

Great idea! I added it to my list of KZbin video ideas to cover!

While your overall objective is to match into whatever program you can, from the program's side, we gauge someone's interest/seriousness of ranking our program highly by questions that get asked. That's why it's so important to find something to ask about! Good luck to you this cycle!

Hi there! I'm sorry I'm not available for mock interviews this season. Maybe in the future my schedule or goals will allow me to offer this service. Just remember that all feedback can be useful and most individuals have gone through some sort of interview process so they can help coach you! Good luck this cycle!

Thanks for watching and good luck this season!

Hi there! You're definitely not too old for medical school - the average age of matriculation is 24! If you're really committed to medical school then don't let others dissuade you; you just have to really love it to get through the training. A number of individuals I know went the PA/AA (anesthesia assist) route because of personal or financial reasons, but then went back to medical school - so that's an option, but it's a longer road. I will say that my colleagues that had PA/AA experience prior to medical school come with a really different perspective that adds a lot of value to our team! Good luck!

Hi there! I think that all residencies can be overwhelming in ways. The hours are almost always longer than when you're an attending. You're also facing a lot of new scenarios and medical conditions and social challenges while navigating your role as a resident. I think that the upfront transition into anesthesia is very jarring since we are not taught what anesthesiologists have to learn in medical school so there is a lot of muscle memory and immediate triaging that is cognitively taxing. I'd also say that there are also a lot of subspecialty rotations in anesthesia that may require more cognitive load or physical movement [e.g. big bleeding cases like traumas, liver transplants, big open aortic cases, cardiac cases, etc]. In most medical residencies, it is not procedural heavy so while rounds often require long periods of time standing, you're not moving patients, pushing beds, twisting yourself into weird positions to get extra access or to do an intubation in a suboptimal condition. I'd say that having "off" days in anesthesia is tough because your patients are counting on you to be "on" as much as you can. This may mean calling out sick more often to ensure patient safety if your illness prevents you from thinking clearly, acting quickly on your feet, etc. I hope this helps! Amanda

Great question! Prior to having the Match, medical students would have to interview at places then decide on offers (you have to sign a binding contract or you lose your offer!) before they even know if they were going to get an interview at another place which may have been a better fit. It wasn't fair to all the candidates to be able to find programs that are a good fit for them so the match was put into place. The Match algorithm actually favors the student's list, so while it's stressful to go through the process, I'm glad students have an opportunity to learn about programs and prioritize places that would work best for them!

@@AmandaSXiMD When does the applicant sign the contract? Is it when the applicant’s final ROL is submitted?

Applicants attest to an agreement when they enter the NRMP; after the match, the student then signs a contract with the residency program.

@@AmandaSXiMD thanks. From NRMP site: Applicants must sign the NRMP "Match Participation Agreement" (contract) during the Match registration process when they register for the residency match; essentially, you sign it electronically as part of the initial registration steps to participate in the match. This contract is binding with NRMP. Then after match or onboarding, the applicant signs a contract with the program.

What a great question! Depends on the stage that you’re at but let me think about it 🤔 thanks for inspiration for a future video!

Great question! In many countries, anesthesia and critical care are actually a single residency - the U.S. is a bit different in that regard. Since a lot of the concepts we learn in anesthesia are applicable to critical care and vice versa, I'd actually say that I think that doing both makes me better in the OR and in the ICU.

Wow that would be incredible to have more help dedicated to patient transport to keep both staff and patients safe! I think it's generally challenging in the U.S. to be adequately staffed since there are so many financial pressures and challenges hospital systems are facing.

Thanks for watching! My former partner had to be at work later so we did opt for a bigger place to live in so that I could get ready and not disturb him as much. He used to work extra shifts and come back later than my bedtime so he'd end up getting ready for bed when I was already sleep. I usually try to go to bed around 8-9p [actually physically be in bed!] in order to make this routine sustainable. If I know that I want to go to an event later that evening, then I'll plan to "sleep in" a bit and skip a workout or getting other tasks done.

@@AmandaSXiMD thanks for the reply!

Yes! Typically in a cardiac surgery (e.g. after open heart surgery, mechanical support devices, etc) based ICU rather than a cardiology-based ICU (e.g. heart attacks, support before cardiac surgery, arrhythmias).

Thanks for watching!! This is such a good question - I think it’s so important when you shadow and go into rotations asking yourself if you see yourself doing what the attendings in that specialty are doing. I personally did not enjoy the clinic setting so internal medicine + pulmonology/critical care would have been a challenging training process for me. I’m more interested in the hospital setting rather than outpatient- I feel more at home in the hospital. So ask yourself which settings you’d like to practice in!

If I cannot do a vascular case solo at my institution then I would take myself out of clinical anesthesia practice. This is the standard I set for myself.

Planning on a new video soon! Most of the information on this blog entry are applicable to Match 2025: blog.amandaxi.com/2023/07/31/advice-for-applying-to-anesthesiology-for-match-2024-and-beyond/