Re: How well prepared did you feel upon graduation?
Well I am only a first year, so I can't give any advice about confidence after graduation. I can tell you that after each clinical day I am feeling more confident and starting to get into a groove. Each day I learn something new, and am confident that after doing this for about 2 more years I will feel very comfortable. Having said that, I do realize I have only worked on simple cases and there are so many different situations out there that its a bit daunting. Talking with the anesthetists most of them agree it takes a couple years after graduation to really have that feeling of complete competence. I think its just an experience thing that will come with time. In your school decision, consider which program will give you the most clinical experience. And make sure of the quality of 1st year clincal experience. Here at South it's a pretty good deal - Level 1 trauma, 24 OR's and there are no anesthesia residents from other med schools taking the good cases, so its a pretty nice situation to experience a lot. Not sure about the other programs but from what I know we dive right into it fairly quickly after the 1st summer quarter. As far as classes, the physics was a bit rough but managable. I'd say brush up on physiology to be ahead.
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