Call

Overnight call is very different as an anesthesia resident compared to a medicine intern. Last year, I spent the night admitting patients to the hospital, ordering tests, making diagnoses, starting treatments. I also cross-covered the inpatients on other teams, addressing acute issues as they arose after their primary teams left. Now, as an anesthesia resident, I don't have either responsibility. At the VA, I instead hold the "airway" pager. I run to rapid response teams and code blues with a tacklebox and backpack holding the contents of an anesthesia cart. I carry everything I need to ventilate and intubate someone including drugs, masks, and multiple backup tools such as the fiberoptic laryngoscope. If there aren't any acute respiratory issues, I can help with obtaining IV or arterial access as needed. At the VA, emergency surgeries are uncommon since it is not a trauma center, but I am available to provide anesthesia for emergency operations. Lastly, I am the go-to person for patients who have epidural or nerve block catheters. I visit patients who are post-operative and see any preoperative inpatients who haven't been seen. Overall, it's not a big workload though its a lot of different small responsibilities. As a result, I get more sleep on call than I ever did last year.