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Anesthesiology Career Outlook


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Hi Everyone,

I am a current medical student and I had a quick question about anesthesiology. Anesthesiology is one of the specialities that I am strongly interested in. One thing about the field that I was concerned about is that I have been hearing stories about nurses doing anesthesiology jobs and thus making it harder now and in the future for anesthesiologists to get jobs in America. I was wondering if anyone knew if something similar is happening in Canada, or may be likely to happen in the future.

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Nurses cannot get the same certification to do anesthesia in Canada. The closest things we do have are Anesthesia Assistants...but they do not have the scope.of practice that anesthesia nurses have in the US.

As for the future, hard to tell. Our medical organizations tend to be better at protecring their turf (especially where warranted). In the distant future I imagine there will be increased automation, but there debate about how far that will go. Some say the final outcome could end up worse than what is predicted for radiology, because the wise rada folks have developped more diverse clinical opportunities (ie: interventionl), wheras anesthesia doesn't have much (other than pain clinics).

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18 hours ago, Turk said:

Hi Everyone,

I am a current medical student and I had a quick question about anesthesiology. Anesthesiology is one of the specialities that I am strongly interested in. One thing about the field that I was concerned about is that I have been hearing stories about nurses doing anesthesiology jobs and thus making it harder now and in the future for anesthesiologists to get jobs in America. I was wondering if anyone knew if something similar is happening in Canada, or may be likely to happen in the future.

I don't think anesthesia will disappear as a specialty in our careers, I think automation may slowly make its way into the work that anesthetists do, but there will still be oversight from a human. It could mean the decline of anesthesia overtime, but i don't think it would be something of concern in the next 10-20 years for sure and likely 30-40 years. 

If you look at what an anesthetist might do, automation is still nowhere near replacing all the roles of an anesthetist. You need someone to do the anesthesia consult, you need someone to do the pre-op checklist, you need someone to read the rhythm strip, monitor hemodynamics, give drugs, you need someone to put in lines, to intubate and someone to coordinate it all. Could a machine do some of these things in isolation, yes, could they coordinate these things in the future, probably, but i think we are still a long way away from trusting a machine to do all of this with no human oversight. 

Also, you could have an all-in-one-fire-the-anesthetist-o-machine in front of me right now doing every single task of an anesthetist right now and it will still take 15 years for this machine to take over in the real world. Think about all the big game changing complex and pricey inventions in medicine and how long it has taken for it to actually go from concept to in every hospital in the world. 

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The problem with anesthesia is its dependence to surgeons and operating room availability. Besides, it does not have procedures other than pain. Nurse anesthesia could do ASA class 1 and 2 which is the majority of patients. Anesthesia does not have a solid fellowship other than pain. For example, there is extreme shortage in pathology fellowships in Canada even in Toronto and Vancouver, but that does not apply to anesthesia.

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2 hours ago, amie said:

The problem with anesthesia is its dependence to surgeons and operating room availability. Besides, it does not have procedures other than pain. Nurse anesthesia could do ASA class 1 and 2 which is the majority of patients. Anesthesia does not have a solid fellowship other than pain. For example, there is extreme shortage in pathology fellowships in Canada even in Toronto and Vancouver, but that does not apply to anesthesia.

I don't know the exact economics of CRNAs in the US, but I would have to assume that with the growing costs of healthcare it would be "cheaper" to pay CRNAs to handle ASA 1+2 cases which are "relatively straightforward". I'm sure the outcomes would be worse compared to a fully trained anesthesiologist present but I think CRNAs are still supervised by an anesthesiologist in the US. I wonder if the marginal increase in risk is economically justified by the savings from cheaper CRNAs. 

Although Canada is safe for now I wouldn't be surprised by future changes brought around by a government that is desperately trying to control healthcare costs.  

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