The right educational advisor: Who and why?
Apr 09, 2021
‘Become so Numb’: Career in Anesthesia in India
”I can’t feel my face when I’m with you” Everybody who hasn’t been living in 1200BC has at least heard of this song but very few people know that The Weeknd actually sang it for his anesthetic.
Now, I may or may not have made up the above fact but that does not change the other fact that if career in the anesthesia had been a pop song it’d be a Billboard chart topper for as long as humanity exists.
What is Anesthesia?
No you’re wrong. It is not the name of the heroine of Fifty Shades. Anesthesia is a medication plan that makes a patient go numb or unconscious before undergoing a surgery.
The word anesthesia comes from the Greek words –an (meaning “without”) and ethesis (meaning “sensation”). To define it in medical terms, anesthesia (or anesthesia) is a state of temporary loss of partial or total sensation, induced by certain drugs. Anesthesia can be divided into three categories-
Who performs the anesthesia?
The medical professionals who administer the anesthesia drugs and control all the anesthesia related aspects of a surgery are known as anesthesiologists or anesthetists. They are the ones who attend the patient before, during and after a surgery.
Anesthetists use gases and vapors that are administered through masks or breathing tubes to perform general anesthesia or they may inject liquid medicines as well. In case of regional and local anesthesia, they usually make use of liquid medicines only. The anesthetist not only studies the medical history of the patient and discusses the surgery with them to decide on a proper anesthetic, but also monitors the heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, body temperature and other vital signs of the patient during the surgery to ensure the success of the surgery. Qualifications Required So, in case you want to be the person who puts a human being to sleep so that other human beings can cut him/her open and do some stuff with their organs, and that too, legally, then my friend, this piece of information is for you.
In other words, to be an anesthetist, one needs to have a strong knowledge of physics, chemistry and biology. At the university level, you have to apply into a recognized MBBS course to begin the journey. After completing MBBS, comes the turn of doing one house surgency which is followed by MD in anesthesiology.
Aside from all of this easy peesy lemon squeezy studying, an anesthetist must study cardiology, critical care medicine, surgery, internal medicine and pharmacology. Sounds good?
Great! Then you also have to specialize in a particular field, like neurosurgery or cardiac surgery- you get the drill.
Job Prospects
Now, something that requires this much studying must come with its own perks. In this case, it is the job opportunity. As humans are becoming more and more vulnerable in their health aspects, the need for medical professionals is rising in leaps. Anesthetists are required everywhere and they can work at various designations based on qualifications and experience, such as-
In India, an anesthetist makes around INR 20,000 to 30,000 a month, at the very beginning of their career. As your experience and expertise grows, you keep moving to higher tax brackets. On an average the annual income of an anesthetist is 300,000 USD.
So, we can safely say that if medical surgeries were Beyoncé concerts, the anesthetist would be DJ Khaled - it won’t begin without them. They’d also be the dancers because the concert won’t be half as successful without them.
Isn’t all this intriguing enough to make you want to have a career in anesthesiology? Or are you already someone pursuing it? If so, comment below to share your valuable inputs to those still waiting and thinking whether to take the plunge!
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