Interview
Dr Alastair Ineson is an Anaesthesia Registrar who shares his experiences at Auckland City Hospital and Middlemore Hospital with us.....
Generally speaking Anaesthesia is a controlled and technical
discipline. I also worked as an ED Registrar and, in my experience,
Registrars have more control over procedures in Anaesthesia.
Registrars do have the chance to follow up with patients; however
this is not always possible.
Anaesthesia is a very self contained/stand alone service but at
the same time you work very closely with all other specialities
because the department provides a service to all other
departments.
A typical day doesn't really exist as it depends on where you
work- plastics will be very different from general surgery for
example, and you may gain experience across a range of specialties
in one run. You can do anything from a hurt finger to caesarean
sections and epidurals through to trauma cases. It also depends on
whether the cases are acutes or electives; you are able to do more
preparatory work for electives.
The hospitals I have worked in are quite different, which makes
Anaesthesia training in the Auckland region interesting.
Anaesthesia at Auckland Hospital is a juggling act because while
you're putting in a line you may get called by a midwife to do an
epidural.
Middlemore Hospital has very different patients and consequently
different cases from Auckland. An example is more Pacific Island
and Maaori patients, who have different health issues from the
demographic of Auckland City.
At Middlemore there are 50 consultants and the Registrars are
closely supervised. At Auckland, Registrars work more
independently; this may be because mainly more advanced trainees
work at Auckland.
Registrars are very well supported at both Auckland and
Middlemore hospitals and there are always theatre technicians to
support the work. There is always someone you can ask for help.
In terms of training, we get ½ a day on a Wednesday
morning for training per week and 2pm-3pm on Fridays. There are
also lots of courses available, although usually people are very
focussed on completing exams before attending non-exam related
courses.