The Daily Schedule Of The Anaesthesiologist 

An anaesthesiologist in a rural area will be responsible for dealing with patients before, during and after their surgeries, and they will also be responsible for the health of patients in the intensive care units. Usually, these ICU's are split up into medical and surgical units, but rural hospitals will have 4-5 beds available that have to cater to all patients. The anaesthesiologist may see these patients 1-2 times per day or they will be consulted by the medical officer who is also taking care of the patients. 

Hospitals will have a group of anaesthesiologists available in order to provide services for all the surgical departments that are performing procedures on patients. Depending on the size of the hospital there may be 2-20 specialists available. 2-3 anaesthesiologists will also have to be on-call to provide anaesthesia for emergency cases and to see patients in ICU if they are responsible for those units. If anaesthesiologists are on call for a specific evening, then they are allowed time off the next day.

Monday

Anaesthesiology group practices will usually divide doctors to provide services to different surgical disciplines. Each anaesthesiologist will then provide their services to a specific discipline for a determined amount of time, if not indefinitely. The specialist will receive a list of patients that are being operated on and they will have to see them, depending on the procedure and the patient's health status, a day or so before the procedure or when they enter the operating room.

Patients with poor health and who have chronic conditions will be admitted to the hospital 3-4 days before their procedure so that the anaesthesiologist will consult with them and decide if referral to another specialist, like a cardiologist, is necessary and whether the procedure can still be performed or not. Patients with better health but who still have chronic conditions that need further investigating will consult with an anasthesiologist in their office.

Tuesday

The anaesthesiologist will provide anaesthesia and peri- and post-operative support for patients that have been operated on for the day. Once the list is completed, the specialist will then see the patients who are on the next day's surgical list.

Wednesday

The doctor will again manage patients accordingly that are operated on. Academic rounds in the ICU's can be done on these days if the doctor is involved in the under-/post-graduate training of doctors or if they are responsible for those units.

READ Epidurals During Childbirth May Protect Pelvic Muscles

Thursday

Administrative tasks are handled on mornings when the doctor was on call the previous evening, for this case we'll assume the doctor was on call Wednesday night. Thursday afternoon, the specialist will then go see patients on Friday's surgical list.

Friday

The anaesthesiologist will provide anaesthesia and management of patients that are operated on this day. The surgical list for the following week will be given to the specialist who will then decide which patients need to be seen before the week is done and who can be seen later. 

The continued management of any ICU patients will be handed over to the specialist on call if it isn't the doctor who is in charge of those patients.