careernav.

General Description

This is an ideal career for logical thinkers. As a general practitioner, you assess and treat a wide range of conditions, ailments, and injuries, from sinus and respiratory infections to broken bones and scrapes; you refer more serious conditions to specialists for more intensive care. Specialist physicians broadly work in anaesthesiology, family and general medicine, general internal medicine, general paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and surgery.

Anaesthesiologists focus on the care of surgical patients and their pain relief, conferring with other physicians and surgeons before, during, and after operations. You are responsible for maintenance of the patient’s vital life functions such as heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure and breathing through continual monitoring and assessment during surgery.

Prior to the operation you examine the patient to determine degree of surgical risk, and type of anesthetic and sedation to administer, and discuss your findings with the surgeon. You then administer local, intravenous, spinal, caudal, or other anesthetic to render patients insensible to pain during surgical, obstetrical, and other medical procedures. If complications or adverse reactions arise you institute remedial measures to counteract them. You also keep a record of the type of anesthetic the amount used and the patients’ condition throughout the operation.

You will select from the three main types of anesthesia administered during surgery, general, regional, and local. General anesthesia renders the patient unconscious and unable to feel pain or any other sensation. The most common used are liquid medicines introduced through a vein. Regional anesthesia numbs an entire area of the body requiring surgery. Local anesthesia is used to numb a specific part of the body (such as the foot or hand). Both regional and local anesthetics are administered via injections.

Your job requires intelligence, perseverance, and years of sophisticated training. Besides great technical skills, you must have a good bedside manner, especially during the preoperative interview to calm and reassure the patient. You must also have the ability to remain calm during high-stress situations, and be able to maintain peak levels of concentration during long surgical procedures.

What you do every day

Your day is spent in surgical theatres in hospital keeping patients alive during surgery. Your days start early and finish late. Your career commences as a resident working in the major hospitals. Residency is tough, hard work with long days commencing at 6.30am in the operating room and finishing once the surgeons’ patient list is completed. Your day usually ends around 6pm but once every four nights you may finish at 8am, a 26 hour shift. Patients trust you and you need to be there for them. Medical training is exhausting, and rewarding both financially and in terms of personal satisfaction. Many physicians and surgeons work long, irregular hours; almost one-third of physicians work 60 or more hours a week.

Personality that best fits this occupation

You must have a desire to serve patients, compassion towards others, be self-motivated, and be able to survive the pressures and long hours of medical education and practice. You also must have a good bedside manner, excellent communication skills, emotional stability and the self confidence to make decisions in emergencies. Ongoing study throughout your career is necessary to keep up with medical advances so you must have a high degree of motivation and self discipline. Employment opportunities will continue to expand due to a growing and ageing population which will inevitably increase demand for physician services. 

Best thing about this career

You can make a huge difference to your patients' lives and to the communities you serve. You are challenged every day as people are different and medical technology constantly changes. The financial rewards can be substantial, so you can afford an affluent lifestyle, but in the end the status, respect and trust afforded to you is the greatest reward.

Worst thing about this career

The downsides of a medical career are: the long time it takes to finally become qualified, knowing that despite what you do people will die anyway, the long hours, and the difficulty in maintaining a work-life balance. There is a growing culture of litigation across the medical industry which has made medical indemnity a topical issue in some specialisations.