Anesthesia Technician

The Department of Anesthesiology offers a unique opportunity for a paid night position to a few chosen UTMB medical students. There are only 12 spots and there is always a waiting list for the few spots that are vacated each year. The students work from 6p.m. to 12a.m. during the weekdays and from 12p.m. to 12a.m. on the weekends. The job responsibilities include setting up the main operating and obstetric rooms and assistance with pre, intra and post operative care. This provides an excellent opportunity for hands-on experience including placement of intravenous and epidural catheters and various airway manipulation techniques.

The students also procure a faculty sponsored dinner for the call team. The twelve students work in pairs and work once every sixth night. When the on-call schedule is light, they have an opportunity to catch up on reading while getting paid at the same time! The students make $80 for every shift they work. This experience familiarizes students not only in the practice of anesthesiology but also with the faculty and residents in the department.

This experience has been enormously popular with medical students. The vacant positions are normally filled by students who have done preceptorships in the department or by interested future anesthesiologists. For an application you can call the anesthesiology student coordinator, Cherie Barker at 409-747-5671 or email cbarker@utmb.edu.

---

A Letter of Appreciation for the Student Job-Anesthesia Tech II

I wanted to write of our (students) great appreciation and of the invaluable experience we gain from the job. Even though a great amount of time is getting dinner ordered, readied and pick-up, those occasions arise where we respond to an emergent code with the SR or a rollback immediately and we get to truly see (as medical students) the pace, scope and dynamic thinking required of anesthesiology. We are able to contribute by readying the equipment and assisting in our student capacity to the emergent situation. It is one thing to read about the teamwork, dynamic thinking and vigilance required of anesthesia but quite another to actually see it, feel it and live it on the spot as a code, rollback or routine case goes bad before our eyes. These opportunities and experiences are hard to comprehend and come-by from a short 4-week preceptorship or elective. These situations are priceless and truly allow one to realize that anesthesia is their lifechoice to pursue in medicine………or perhaps the intensity of this field is not what they want to do day in and day out of their careers. Either way, this job allows one to make a truly informed decision.

These patient opportunities have an incredible depth and intensity that is hard to write or quantify in words. That is what makes these experiences so very valuable. We do appreciate the opportunity to have these experiences.

I do not know of other schools that have anesthesia student jobs but I am very proud that UTMB has these positions. I also feel a great pride in belonging to the department in my part as a student.

We have the ability to ask questions of residents and faculty, talk to our mentors and see the politics of the field. We get to see some of the personalities and traits of those in anesthesia and how they “fit.” We have an opportunity to assess whether our personalities “fit” in this field.

I wanted everyone who is responsible or connected to the student job to know of the students’ gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to work with anesthesia and we will continue to strive for excellence and do a good job.

We’ll get the job done!!!
Sincerely,
Bill Mcgrady, MS III
August 2006