Medical Students on Anesthesia

The problem with doing a medical student rotation in anesthesia is that it is hard to get a good perspective of what anesthesia is like as a resident, attending, or private practice physician. For most students (including me, when I did my anesthesia rotation), everything is so foreign and alien, it's hard to know how to fit in. The normal things that medical students are good at - pre-rounding, interviewing patients, reading about diseases - all go out the door. And practical anesthesia deals with things medical students are no good at - doses, how to draw up a medication into a syringe, how to talk to an attending surgeon, what a ventilator does. But it's important to realize that we don't expect a medical student to come in with any knowledge about anesthesia. We don't expect anyone to go into this field. We don't expect a medical student to make our day easier or do stuff for us. The case will go fine and the patient will do well with or without a student. But we do want to see enthusiasm, curiosity, motivation, participation, and engagement with what's going on. There are no stupid questions, and there is always something to learn for anyone - even if they are going into a completely different field. It also bothers me if a student comes in solely to do procedures. Anesthesia provides opportunities to learn procedures, but it is by no means solely procedures, and in most cases, procedures are the least interesting part. In a two week rotation, no one will become proficient in any procedure, especially because appropriate patients, supervision, and teaching will not happen with each case. So the purpose of a brief exposure to anesthesia, in my mind, is to engage medical student curiosity and nurture an appreciation for perioperative care.