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Please forward this message to anybody you know who is applying to an anesthesiology residency. I
would like to send it to this year's applicants myself, but the powers that be have made sure that I
will not be given their e-mail addresses directly.
Below are some of the key questions (and some answers for my program in Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt
University in Nasvhille) that I wish I had asked when I was a 4th year medical student:
Have any residents ever left your program? [this year alone, three CA-1s left Vanderbilt.]
Have any residents had to employ lawyers to defend their rights against the departments? [To my
knowledge, at least two have in the last calendar year.]
How did administration handle the ACGME-mandated 80-hour workweek? [Kicking, screaming, and yelling
that we're all a bunch of coddled babies, that's how.]
Are your graduates able to find jobs the program's same city? [for at least eight years running, not
a single Vanderbilt graduate has secured a private practice job in Nashville, though many have
tried. Those that were absolutely destined to stay in Nashville had to stay at Vanderbilt and earn a
fraction of what they'd make in private practice.]
Do you think the role of the anesthesiologist is to be an outspoken patient advocate, or is it just
to stay out of the way of the surgeon? [At Vanderbilt, if you do not stay out of the surgeon's way,
you will find yourself meeting with the Clinical Competency Committee for charges of being difficult
to work with.]
Do your surgeons respect the role of the physician-anesthetist, or do they view anesthesia as a
service provided by nameless nurses or lesser-physicians? [At Vanderbilt, surgeons ROUTINELY dictate
the choice of anesthesia, including having veto power over regional and neuraxial techniques.]
If your department employs nurse anesthesists, how do you protect the role of the physician-in-
training versus the CRNA? [At Vanderbilt, every resident knows that he or she is lower on the totem
pole than the CRNAs. Surgeons know this as well, as they are able to request not to have residents
in their room, preferring nurses.]
would like to send it to this year's applicants myself, but the powers that be have made sure that I
will not be given their e-mail addresses directly.
Below are some of the key questions (and some answers for my program in Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt
University in Nasvhille) that I wish I had asked when I was a 4th year medical student:
Have any residents ever left your program? [this year alone, three CA-1s left Vanderbilt.]
Have any residents had to employ lawyers to defend their rights against the departments? [To my
knowledge, at least two have in the last calendar year.]
How did administration handle the ACGME-mandated 80-hour workweek? [Kicking, screaming, and yelling
that we're all a bunch of coddled babies, that's how.]
Are your graduates able to find jobs the program's same city? [for at least eight years running, not
a single Vanderbilt graduate has secured a private practice job in Nashville, though many have
tried. Those that were absolutely destined to stay in Nashville had to stay at Vanderbilt and earn a
fraction of what they'd make in private practice.]
Do you think the role of the anesthesiologist is to be an outspoken patient advocate, or is it just
to stay out of the way of the surgeon? [At Vanderbilt, if you do not stay out of the surgeon's way,
you will find yourself meeting with the Clinical Competency Committee for charges of being difficult
to work with.]
Do your surgeons respect the role of the physician-anesthetist, or do they view anesthesia as a
service provided by nameless nurses or lesser-physicians? [At Vanderbilt, surgeons ROUTINELY dictate
the choice of anesthesia, including having veto power over regional and neuraxial techniques.]
If your department employs nurse anesthesists, how do you protect the role of the physician-in-
training versus the CRNA? [At Vanderbilt, every resident knows that he or she is lower on the totem
pole than the CRNAs. Surgeons know this as well, as they are able to request not to have residents
in their room, preferring nurses.]