How “intellectual” is the day to day practice of anesthesiology?
Hi everyone,
MS3 here, considering anesthesiology. Just wanted to get an idea of the day to day intellectual work.
How algorithmic is the day to day practice? Is there any deep problem solving or mostly protocol driven? Is the problem solving pattern matching, heuristics, and trial and error that become second nature, or is there any sort of genuine novelty (not just slight variations)? Do subspecialties solve this, or does it eventually become true for those too?
I hope the gist of what I am asking comes across. I like the idea of IM, but it feels too formulaic for my liking, among other bullshit. I understand what I am asking is rare in medicine in general, but I am just trying to get an idea of where anesthesia ranks among everything in terms of this.
How individual dependent are the outcomes in anesthesia? Meaning is there notable variation in outcomes between an “average” and a “great” anesthesiologist, or is it negligible?
Welcome opinions from everyone, but particularly experienced attendings.