Anesthesiology Residency Lifestyle And Hours

One thing is for sure though; becoming an anesthesiology resident is a long road.

The Anesthesiology Residency Lifestyle (Hours, Pay, Benefits and Everything Else!)

Anesthesiology is sometimes thought of as an “easy” type of specialty with low stress, low hours, and high salaries. But is any of that actually true? Just how lifestyle-friendly is an anesthesiology residency position?

That’s what this article hopes to explore!

If it’s easy
What you do in an anesthesiology residency
Lifestyle factors like hours and pay
How stressful it can be

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in.

Is The Anesthesiology Residency Lifestyle Easy?

The lifestyle of an anesthesiology resident, like most other medical residencies, is definitely not easy. Although work-life balance can vary between programs and locations, an average of 50-60 working hours, coupled with intense responsibility and duty, can make it challenging.

Factor in the competitiveness of matching with the high-stakes environment of the job, and it’s very possible there are “better” residency specialties out there that provide a more enjoyable lifestyle.

But of course, this is all subjective!

The Anesthesiology Residency Lifestyle

What do anesthesiology residents do?

An anesthesiologist is a physician that specializes in using anesthesia. These types of doctors help patients manage pain, especially chronic pain, but also help put patients to sleep during operations and take care of their recovery.

Anesthesiology residents are those junior to this position. As well as helping attendants (senior anesthesiologists) with the above job responsibilities, they also help determine dosage values, monitor patients, consult, and present.

Here are just a few of their major responsibilities, listed as per our 5 Best Anesthesiology Residency Programs (Key Info and Data) article:

Complete rotations in different hospital wards (obstetrics, general surgery, pediatrics, etc.)
Conduct board review sessions and discuss case studies
Complete skills workshops and attend faculty lectures
Take part in simulation sessions and weekly tutorials

Obviously, what’s asked of anesthesiology residents is largely down to their individual residency training programs. For that reason, the residency lifestyle can vary a lot from one anesthesiology training program to another.

One thing is for sure though; becoming an anesthesiology resident is a long road.

First, it starts with four years of college. Second, four years of medical school.

Anesthesiology residency positions themselves are typically 3-4 years in length. Compared to other specialties in medicine, this is an average length of schooling.

Still, the lifestyle is one that requires both a lot of independent studying and practical experience. Beginning as a resident, you’ll still have several years of training, exams, and hard work in front of you before you even begin to reach the top level (and pay level) of the job.

That’s definitely not easy!

Average Anesthesiology Residency Hours

There are horror stories where a resident surgeon has to work 80 hours a week (or more) and can still be on call even once they go home. Comparatively, anesthesiology residents may have it slightly easier, working 60 hours a week or less.

Which is objectively still a lot!

On most programs, work begins around 6 am and goes to midafternoon, finishing around 3 pm. At this point, resident anesthesiologists will usually be relieved by attendings.

Like all medical fields, procedures can run late or emergencies can arise suddenly, forcing doctors to work outside of their normal hours. While this is true for anesthetics, they are maybe not on call that much compared to other medical specialists.

Residents get an average of five or six calls in a four-week block and have two full weekends off every month. This gives them time to attend extra lessons or spend time with their families.

One advantage of the job is that after the surgery is done and the patient wakes up, the anesthesiologist’s role is largely over. After prescribing post-surgery pain medication, it’s typically another medical specialist’s responsibility to check back in with the patient and make sure everything’s on track for recovery.

Anesthesiology Residency Pay and Benefits

Resident anesthesiologists have strong job security and are in constant demand.

Although it may be argued that residency pay doesn’t reflect the length of training/amount of hours sacrificed, compared to most other jobs in the US, anesthesiologist residents are offered a competitive salary and benefits package.

The salary of a resident varies depending on the state and program. Someone training in North Dakota could have a salary of over $200,000 per year, whereas another in Hawaii may only earn $91,000 per year.

The national average for anesthetic residency pay is about $159,644 per year, which translates to $76.75 per hour.

The benefits a resident may receive also vary depending on the place of training. Usually, packages include one (or more) perks like health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance, several weeks of paid vacation, on-site daycare, and paid housing.

Since residents are also on-the-job-students, they receive educational benefits. Depending on their program/place of employment, they may receive educational aids like:

Paid days off for exams
Free textbooks/training software access
Free tech (iPad, laptop, etc)
Paid exam license fees

At the risk of sounding sarcastic, another benefit of being an anesthesiologist is that they can also use a chair in the operating theater/clinic.

Unlike most surgeons (or surgical residents) tasked with standing over patients, resident anesthesiologist’s are able to sit, observe, and monitor their patients in a team with others.

If the patient is stable and there are no obvious problems, it’s not unheard of for residents/attendings to read books or catch up on other work while fulfilling their duties.

Are anesthesiology residents stressed?

All things aside, anesthesiology is a high-stress occupation, and training to become one is no easy ride.

The main responsibility of training is to learn to monitor vital signs, ensure no harm comes to patients, and enable busy surgical teams to complete their work. This level of high-stakes management demands expertise and competency, and any anesthesiology training program will expect this from its residents.

A small mistake in this line of work can be life-threatening. For that reason, this job provides anything but easy opportunities to relax.

The potential stress an error on the job could cause is not like that of your average American job.

Personal liability, as seen in this 2013 case of a 19-year-old NYC-based patient ending up in a permanent vegetative state due to improper anesthesia care, is a very real consequence.

Learning to cope and handle stress, while spending your days practicing on real patients in real situations, is a necessary part of the job.

Some residents find it difficult to escape such pressure even in their time off.

The Lifestyle of a Certified Anesthesiologist

While residency years can be undoubtedly tough, does full anesthesiology certification make things any easier?

Once certified, it’s true some anesthesiologists (like this one profiled here – working 2-3 weeks each month) can live decent lives, working flexible hours while maintaining a balanced lifestyle.

But that’s largely down to the individual.

Still, with an average US national salary of $408,100 per year, anesthesiologists are definitely in a good position financially.

That’s something that could help keep stressed and busy residents motivated at least!

Final Thoughts: Is The Anesthesiology Residency Lifestyle Easy?

Although it’s not without its advantages, the life of an anesthetics resident can seem tough. 3-4 years of intensive training, with a high-level of responsibility and duty of care, don’t make it easy.

Get through the training and become certified, however, and the payoff could make it worth it.

Anesthesiology Residency Curriculum and Didactics

Our curriculum involves a combination of hands-on rotations and classroom didactics.

How We Train

Our four-year program offers intensive training in anesthesiology. Each year, you gain knowledge and experience and take on additional responsibilities.

CA-0/Clinical Base Year

During your first year, you will spend three months on the internal medicine inpatient service; one month in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit; one month of emergency medicine; one month of ear, nose, and throat surgery; one month on the anesthesiology acute pain service; one month of operating room (OR) anesthesia; one month of Point-Of-Care Ultrasound; and three months on inpatient surgical services. You will also spend one month in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at The Mount Sinai Hospital, Elmhurst, or the Bronx VA. You will also have four week-long vacations throughout your intern year.

We integrate you fully into the department right from the start of your training, with a special anesthesiology-focused orientation separate from the rest of the incoming house staff. As an intern, you can participate in departmental academic and social events even while you rotate off service. You work closely with other departments, while remaining “based” in the Department of Anesthesiology. You participate in a structured didactic and simulation-based curriculum covering pain management and perioperative anesthesia.

CA-1 to CA-3

At this point, you will transition from generalist physician to specialist anesthesiologist. Our three-month orientation starts with a six-week preceptorship that combines dedicated faculty mentoring, intensive didactics, and immersive simulator-based education. We pair you with a primary and secondary faculty preceptor, and you work with these physicians exclusively during the month of July. This gives you continuity and a structured environment in which to learn practical skills in the OR and gain progressive independence and autonomy. There are daily morning lectures and multiple sessions in the simulator lab each week, to reinforce core concepts and practice crisis management skills in a safe environment.

After spending three months in the general ORs, you move to subspecialty rotations, which continue throughout residency, interspersed with general OR months. In the CA-3 year, you have some elective time.

“From the intern curriculum to the CA-1 boot camp to the considerable autonomy given to both junior and senior residents, the program exceeded all expectations with respect to education. When I went into practice, I was prepared for all scenarios and was never out of my comfort zone.”
— Alumus since graduation

Didactics

Our program offers daily didactics taught by committed and expert faculty. Morning lectures begin at 6:30 am (coffee and bagels provided daily), allowing time to set up for the first case of the day. In July and early August of the CA-1 year, we hold an introductory lecture series separately from the senior residents, which creates a more focused environment. For the rest of the year, all residents participate in the same lecture series, which covers a range of basic science, clinical anesthesia, pain management, and critical care topics. Morning lectures also include mock oral exams, board preparation lectures, and weekly sessions led by senior residents. Monday mornings, residents are given problem-based-learning-discussion lectures on their respective rotations by experts in those fields.

Wednesday mornings are devoted to either a moderated case presentation led by a senior resident and our department chair, a Morbidity and Mortality conference, or Grand Rounds featuring an invited guest speaker.

Thursday mornings alternate between journal club and “Levine Rounds.” Our hospital president and former chairman, David Reich, MD, leads the journal club, which focuses on current articles of interest in the anesthesiology literature. Journal club also teaches statistical methodology and critical appraisal of published research. During “Levine Rounds,” led by our program director, Adam Levine, MD, residents share interesting cases they’ve encountered, with Dr. Levine guiding a lively discussion of the clinical and basic science topics relevant to the case as it unfolds.

When We Train

We maintain strict compliance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and New York State Bell Commission rules regarding resident work hours. During most OR rotations, residents work an average of 55 to 60 hours per week. Generally, you have one overnight/late-night call followed by a post-call day per week, with one weekend day each month. You can make a request regarding call and vacation days before we finalize each month’s schedule.

On most days, the first OR cases begin at 8 am. The late-night/overnight call team arrives at 4 pm. Due to our high surgical volume, you can earn extra compensation by working later hours while not on call, while maintaining compliance with relevant work hour restrictions. There are separate call teams for the general ORs, liver transplant, cardiac, and obstetrics. The general team covers the pain management and hospital emergency airway services at night and on weekends.

Academic Tracks

Our department has a number of faculty actively involved in basic, clinical, education, and informatics research. We have multiple ongoing externally funded projects, as well as numerous smaller ones. We encourage you to participate in research throughout your time at Mount Sinai.

Leadership in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Track
The Leadership in Innovation and Management Track will prepare the motivated resident with interest in clinical technology and innovation to contribute to the design and development of a novel device or technology within the perioperative setting. This track is designed to prepare residents for a career that bridges clinical medicine with innovation and entrepreneurship. This track aims to complement the clinical skill set acquired during residency training to provide resident anesthesiologists with the tools to succeed in the ideation, creation, adoption, and commercialization of novel technologies. Residents will have the opportunity to engage with faculty interested in the implementation of novel technologies in the perioperative setting and understand the economic drivers of departmental/hospital investment in new technology.

Eliasberg Research Scholar track
If you want to pursue a stronger focus on research, you can apply for the Eliasberg Research Scholar program midway through their CA-1 year. This program comes with an additional stipend, protected research time every month, as well as mentorship and benchmarks for progress.

Clinical Educator track
We offer opportunities to become a skilled medical educator. With the simulator lab at its center, the resident-educator track places you in charge of the curriculum and teaching for our very popular anesthesiology rotations. We see large numbers of medical students from Mount Sinai as well as other institutions and run didactic sessions for Mount Sinai students in their year 1 and 2 basic science classes.

Leadership and Management Track
The program facilitates the education and training of highly motivated residents interested in becoming leaders in Anesthesiology who will be involved in optimization of patient safety and experience, performance improvement, practice management and revenue cycle, legislative and regulatory affairs, and informatics. It incorporates a dedicated leadership and management program, organized mentorship, and protected non-clinical time. Highlights of the program include: inclusion in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai GME Leadership Development Program, attendance with a mentor to at least 1 ASA Practice Management Conference, ASA/NYSSA meetings and advocacy activities in Albany, New York, and Washington, DC, opportunities to participate in various departmental and hospital administrative management, performance improvement committees and projects, and a required reading list, including a syllabus of up-to-date and relevant articles appearing in the business and medical literature. A stipend is offered, along with up to 6 months of protected non-clinical time.

Subspecialty rotations

After you spend several months in the general OR during CA-1 year, we introduce subspecialty rotations. The CA-1 and CA-2 years include time in subspecialty rotations and in the general OR. The CA-3 year offers some elective time.

The required rotations are:

Pre-anesthesia testing/non-OR anesthesia (one month in years CA-1 and CA-2). You spend two weeks of this month in our preoperative assessment clinic preparing patients for major surgeries in a multidisciplinary team that includes surgeons, anesthesiologists, and internists. You spend the other two weeks providing anesthesia for non-OR procedures such as endoscopy, bronchoscopy, cystoscopy, cardiac electrophysiology, and interventional radiology.

Neuroanesthesia (two months in years CA-1 and CA-2). During these two months, you are exposed to a wide range of neurosurgical and neuro-interventional procedures including major spine surgery, craniotomies, functional neurosurgery (i.e., deep brain stimulator placement), aneurysm clippings, and neuroendovascular procedures. Our surgeons perform a small but growing number of awake craniotomies.

Obstetric anesthesia (three months in years CA-1, CA-2, and CA-3). At Mount Sinai, you have the opportunity to become fluent in neuraxial anesthesia and perioperative management of the parturient. Since the busy OR is also an academic center, we often see women with complex comorbidities presenting for childbirth.

Orthopedic/regional anesthesia (two months in years CA-1 and CA-2). This rotation offers you the opportunity to see and provide anesthesia for all manner of orthopedic procedures, including work on hips, shoulders, knees, and toes. We have structured the regional anesthesia month to enable you to practice ultrasound-guided nerve blocks for a variety of procedures both commonplace and less so. You learn regional anesthesia techniques applicable to abdominal, breast, and head/neck surgery.

Liver transplant anesthesia (one month in the CA-2 year). Mount Sinai is a busy liver transplantation center, performing more than 125 transplants (adult and pediatric) annually. During this rotation, you participate in a special simulator curriculum, and become proficient in major vascular access and perioperative transfusion medicine, as well as being introduced to intra-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and viscoelastic coagulation monitoring. You may also participate in major abdominal surgery cases such as liver resections, Whipple procedures, and adrenalectomies.

Pediatric anesthesia (two months in years CA-1 and CA-2). During these two months, you develop proficiency in perioperative care of children of all ages and levels of acuity. You gain experience with high-volume, low-acuity ambulatory pediatrics rooms as well as managing critically ill patients arriving to the operating room from the pediatric or neonatal intensive care unit. We offer training in pediatric advanced life support to all residents in the program.

Cardiac anesthesia (two months in years CA-1 and CA-2). This busy rotation exposes you to an unmatched variety of cardiac surgical and interventional procedures. In the cardiac ORs, we see on- and off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting procedures, valve repairs and replacement, aortic root procedures, ventricular assist devices (VAD) placements, total artificial hearts, and heart transplants, with a strong focus on intraoperative TEE education. Outside of the ORs, Mount Sinai offers one of the busiest cardio-interventional services in the state, including adult and pediatric cardiac catheterization, electrophysiologic procedures, and transcatheter aortic valve replacements.

Thoracic anesthesia (one month in year CA-3). This rotation allows you to gain proficiency in managing high-risk patients for a variety of video-assisted and open thoracic procedures, with a focus on the intricacies of one-lung ventilation and its attendant airway management concerns. You hone these skills on traditional thoracic surgery cases, as well as other cases that require one-lung ventilation or similar techniques (e.g., pediatric scoliosis tethering).

Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (one month in year CA-3). During this rotation, you oversee patients recovering from surgery in our two main recovery areas. Some are healthy, ambulatory, and about to go home. Other patients are critically ill or have just undergone major surgery, and still others are waiting for an intensive care unit (ICU) bed. This intense month may feel as if you are running a mini-ICU, and it is a capstone to the perioperative and critical care experience in residency.

Surgical Intensive Care Unit (one month in year CA-1). During this month, you care for critically ill postoperative patients as part of a multidisciplinary and multispecialty team. In addition to planned admissions (such as our high volume of liver transplantation patients), we receive a variety of unplanned admissions from all surgical services except cardiac/thoracic, neurosurgery, and ear, nose, and throat. We offer an institution-wide critical care didactic series during this time as well. You spend one week on the surgical nutrition support service (total parenteral nutrition and partial parenteral nutrition management) and central venous access service (central line placement for all inpatients).

Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (CTICU) (one month in year CA-2). This rotation builds on your experience in the ICU and with cardiac anesthesia. It exposes you to the postoperative management of patients who have undergone major cardiac surgery. You learn how to manage common postoperative changes and complications, and gain exposure to intra-aortic balloon pump management, extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation, VAD, and artificial hearts.

ENT/Airway (two months in years CA-1 and CA-2). These two rotations let you observe and participate in both bread-and-butter ear, nose, and throat cases as well as complex head-and-neck resections and reconstructions. Many of the latter procedures require awake bronchoscopic intubation. You learn to work with the flexible fiber-scope. It is not uncommon for our residents to perform elective asleep bronchoscopic intubations as well during this rotation. You gain experience in using regional anesthesia for the head and neck for intraoperative care, postoperative pain, and airway management, with a variety of blocks such as infraorbital, supraorbital, and supratrochlear blocks as well as sphenopalatine blocks for sinus, base of skull, and nasal surgeries. You learn about superficial cervical blocks for most thyroid, parathyroid and neck dissections, and inferior alveolar blocks for buccal and tongue surgeries as well as superior laryngeal nerve blocks for most awake intubation techniques. You have the opportunity to master the emergency technique of needle cricothyrotomy and you can gain experience placing transtracheal anesthesia during this rotation.

Elmhurst/Trauma (one month in years CA-1 and CA-2). Elmhurst is a city-run hospital in Queens. It is a Level 1 trauma center, a referral center for city health facilities in Queens County, and the closest hospital to Rikers Island Correctional Center and La Guardia Airport. You gain experience with trauma exposure, and take trauma call roughly every fourth night. During the day, you work on regular ORs, interacting with Elmhurst’s varied mix of adult and pediatric cases with increased opportunities for independence.

Bronx Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital, Pain and general OR (one month each in years CA-1/CA-2 and CA-2/CA-3). This senior pain rotation focuses on chronic pain in the outpatient setting. At the Bronx VA pain practice, you get hands-on experience performing fluoroscopically guided blocks for chronic pain. As there are no pain fellows at the VA, you have plenty of opportunities to participate in and perform these procedures. You also spend a month doing operative cases.

Vascular anesthesia (one month in year CA-3). During this month, you learn the intricacies of caring for patients during high-risk major vascular procedures.

Ultrasound (one month in year CA-3). With the growing role of point-of-care ultrasound in the perioperative environment, we require a one-month perioperative ultrasound rotation to focus on TEE, TTE, regional, and point-of-care skills such as lung ultrasound, FAST exam, and gastric content evaluation. This month functions as a capstone experience to the time spent working with ultrasounds throughout your residency training. This rotation also aims to polish your preparation for the applied portion of the American Board of Anesthesiology certification exam.