Career Advising - Anesthesiology

Anesthesiology requires an internship (most frequently in surgery, internal medicine, or a transitional (rotating) year), followed by three years of training in clinical anesthesiology. Fellowships in a variety of specialties are available, and typically last a year.

There are many subspecialties including: Regional Anesthesiology; Obstetric Anesthesiology; Pain Management/Pain Medicine; Cardiac Anesthesiology; Pediatric Anesthesiology; Transplant Anesthesiology; Critical Care Anesthesiology; and more.

Anesthesiologists spend little time in clinic, although residents may be assigned to the pre-op clinic. Anesthesiology is primarily an operating-room based specialty, with physicians generally reporting to the hospital around 6 am and leaving the hospital between 3 to 5pm on a normal workday.

Qualities recognized as important to anesthesiology include:

• Organizational skills
• Vigilance
• Attention to detail
• Punctuality

For shadowing opportunities, please contact the Anesthesiology Department at 504-988-5068. 

Learn about how to get involved in research conducted in anesthesiology. Please contact the primary researcher for more information.

Additionally, students may want to pursue research opportunities through the DeBakey Scholars Program. This program offers medical students the opportunity to pursue and complete a longitudinal, structured, closely supervised research experience culminating in a capstone presentation prior to graduation. For more information, contact Dr. Derek Pociask. 

The purpose in creating the Tulane Anesthesiology Interest Group is to provide medical students with an outlet to learn about the field of Anesthesiology and to provide a forum of discussion for those students interested in the field of Anesthesiology.

The Tulane Anesthesiology Interest Group goals:

• Provide an open forum for discussion about the field of Anesthesiology
• Provide guidance and advice about choosing a career in Anesthesiology
• Arrange regular meetings and guest speakers
• Provide a network of students and physicians interested in the field of Anesthesiology

Anyone who would like to participate in the Tulane Anesthesiology Interest Group is welcome, and membership will never be required to participate in any of the interest groups events.

Please contact the following for information about careers in anesthesiology:

Katherine Cox, MD

Assistant Professor

Anesthesia Residency Program Director

Andrew Pham, MD

Assistant Professor

Anesthesiology Clerkship Director

Students interested in anesthesiology may want to take a two-week rotation in their third year or early in their fourth year to decide if they want to pursue a career in this area. If students are interested in pursuing another specialty, but would like knowledge of anesthesiology, they can take this elective later in their fourth year.

Sample-T4-ANES-Schedule.pdf

One of the most common questions we get asked is “How do I know if I’m competitive for this specialty?” There are a lot of metrics that are provided by sources like the NRMP’s Charting Outcomes report that can help you gauge whether you are a competitive applicant, and help guide your choices of activities. 

The table below shows the 25^th percentile, the median and the 75^th percentile for a number of the more regularly used metrics to gauge competitiveness. It’s important for you to understand what these numbers represent, and why they may be different from the averages you might see elsewhere.

• The 25^th percentile represents the lower range of “normal” for a successful applicant in this specialty.
• The median represents an average for successful applicants in this specialty.
• The 75^th percentile represents the higher range of “normal” for a successful applicant in this specialty.

Medical students are usually over-achievers, who have exceeded expectations throughout their educational years. However, it’s important to realize that overachievement is not always a good thing when it comes to match. Instead, you should aim for “fit.” This means that you should fall somewhere between the 25^th and 75^th percentile on these metrics. Below the 25^th percentile, and you have a relatively low chance of match (25% chance, to be specific). Above the 75^th percentile, and you also have a lower chance of matching (again, 25% chance), as program directors are typically looking for candidates who “fit” their profiles more so than those who exceed those profiles.

Between the 25^th and 75^th percentiles is the sweet spot. This range spans 50% of successful applicants, with only 25% of successful applicants falling above the 75^th percentile and 25% of successful applicants falling below the 25th percentile. The closer you fall to the median (i.e., the 50^th percentile), the better! This doesn’t mean you’re average, but rather that you are fitting the demands of this specialty!

A note about medians vs. means as a measure of “average”: We use medians to determine competitiveness rather than means for a simple reason. Medians are not as warped as means by outliers, or those successful candidates who fall very much outside the average on a particular measure. You may have heard that the “average” Step 2 score or number of publications for a specialty are incredibly high (or low), and you may wonder how it’s even possible to hit this “average.” These unrealistic “averages” are typically means that have been influenced by just a very small number of people who have incredibly high (or low) scores or numbers of publications, and often those high numbers of publications in particular, are the result of having earned a research Ph.D. or having spent years in a research career! This is NOT the expectation, but rather an exception!

There are no special considerations when applying for residency in anesthesiology.

Step 2 is likely to increase in importance, as Step 1 has transitioned to P/F.

Good letters of recommendation and comments from clerkships are also important in the application process. Work hard to obtain good reviews.

Be a team player. Teamwork is vital to a career in this field, so working well with others in your clerkships is key.

Don’t apply to programs you don’t realistically want to go to. If you know you’ll be miserable in a particular region, city or program, put your application efforts toward programs in which you will be happy.

Most applicants apply to 33-62 programs. 

AAMC Careers in Medicine

NRMP's Charting Outcomes in the Match 2026

NRMP's Program Director Survey 2024

American Society of Anesthesiologists

Tulane’s Department of Anesthesiology

Books

• Anesthesiology LibGuide from the Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences
   
• Basics of Anesthesiology by Pardo & Miller  
   
• Morgan & Mikhail’s Clinical Anesthesiology  

Dr. Katrina D’Aquin can put you in touch with potential mentors.