Anaesthetist

Anaesthetists, give anaesthetics for surgical, medical and psychiatric procedures. They facilitate pain free child-birth, resuscitate acutely unwell patients, run chronic pain services and lead intensive care units.

Nature of the work:

Anaesthetists work in many different areas of the hospital. Anaesthetists care for patients by choosing the appropriate anaesthetics, monitoring their wellbeing during operations and painful procedures, supervising their recovery and providing further medical support if needed. The majority of area includes:

Obstetric units
Critical care services for intensive care and high dependency patients
Resuscitation services
Emergency departments
Chronic pain management
Acute pain teams
Dentistry
Perioperative clinics
Research
Psychiatry – for patients receiving electro-convulsive therapy (ECT)
Radiology – anaesthesia for CT scans and MRI, especially in children
Inter-hospital transfers of critically ill patients
Anaesthetists offer four stages of patient care for a routine anaesthetic:

Preparation – assessing the patient’s fitness for anaesthesia and agreeing on an anaesthetic plan
Induction – initiating anaesthesia
Maintenance – continuing anaesthesia and monitoring the patient’s condition including checking the activity of the heart, blood pressure, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, breathing, body temperature, depth of anaesthesia and the body fluid balance
Recovery – reversing anaesthesia and supporting the patient’s recovery
The modern specialty of anaesthesia has come a long way since its earliest days. Every patient has a needle inserted in their vein, and in more complicated cases, arterial or central venous lines (ie inserting a line via a thin catheter). Airway management is also important. This may involve face masks, laryngeal mask airways, endotracheal intubations or tracheostomies. Common regional anaesthetic techniques include the epidural and the spinal block.