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Anesthesiologist
Viren Naik wanted to be a journalist, but working part-time as a lifeguard influenced him to save lives for a living. Within a few rescues, I knew that I enjoyed the responsibility and the challenge,” says Naik, who is now training to be an anesthesiologist.
Anesthesiologists take care of patients during surgery, help them manage their pain and are often in charge of patients in a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. Naik studied ecology and physical anthropology at the University of Toronto in Mississauga, Ontario.
After only two years of undergraduate work, he was accepted to medical school, though today’s medical students must finish an undergraduate degree before being accepted into a medicine-degree program. Although a bachelor’s of science degree is not compulsory for medical school applications, Naik recommends taking plenty of science courses to get a taste of the health sciences. It’ll make life easier in medical school, too. “Pay attention to your sciences so that you can do well, understand what you are doing and potentially get into a good university,” he says. Naik completed medical school at the University of Toronto in 1997 and is currently an anesthesiology resident. “Being in a residency at U of T means you work at all the major hospitals in Toronto,” he says. Residency is hard work. Naik’s day begins at 6:30 a.m. He prepares the operating room for the first surgery and then usually works in there throughout the day. He gets about 20 minutes for lunch. “It’s pretty busy all day with cases in the operating room,” he says. “And when that’s slow, we pick up the slack by managing epidurals for pregnant patients, trauma patients and cardiac resuscitations.” Although his day usually ends at 5 p.m., Naik stays well past 8 a.m. once every four nights. “This 26-hour shift is sleepless,” he says. “It sounds unpleasant, but your body gets used to it. When patients trust you like this, you have to be there for them.” Naik calls medical training “exhausting and often demoralizing. I would recommend to people, if they are thinking of this profession, to prepare themselves for the sacrifice that accompanies the reward,” he says. “There are a lot of other jobs that you can make more money doing, especially if you are bright enough to survive medicine. The real reward is not money.” Doctors do make good money. Naik says doctors in Canada make $70,000 to $300,000 a year, depending on their degree of specialization and the amount of hours they work per week. Pay is higher in the United States, where an anesthesiologist’s low salary is around $160,000 a year. “The pay comes from the degree of responsibility and opportunity cost from 11 years of post-secondary schooling for me, more for others,” says Naik, who will complete his residency in 2002.
“Specializing in anything takes a minimum of four to five years. Family doctor specialization is two years. These are all after medical school.” Naik’s schedule will be even more brutal when he finishes his training and becomes a staff doctor. Imagine playing golf miles away from the hospital. Now imagine your beeper suddenly going off, meaning you have to see a patient. That’s reality if you’re a staff doctor. But if you’re prepared to make sacrifices and put the patient first, you, your family and friends will get used to the demands. As if this training isn’t rough enough, Naik is also earning his master’s of education degree from the University of Toronto. “This will enable me to practice medicine in an academic center and be involved with teaching in the medical school and undertaking research in education,” he says. After their training, physicians often end up either in the community or at a university teaching hospital. “The allure of the university is being able to impart your knowledge and experience (to) the doctors of tomorrow,” Naik says. “The university also allows for the involvement in research for the betterment of health care in the future.
The faculty of medicine, like any other faculty, has the opportunity for advancement to the various professor levels.” But in whatever area you end up, Naik says you will certainly land a job. The medical profession has an overall bright future because good economic times mean many elderly doctors are retiring and need to be replaced, Naik says. Plus, the population is getting older. “There will always be a medical profession,” Naik says. “People will always get sick, and they will always need a doctor.” He advises future doctors to become comfortable with changing technology, especially the Internet. Extracurricular activities are also important. “Volunteer, work, do research, play sports,” he says. “Show the medical school that you are well-rounded and have tasted life — tasted enough other things to know for sure that medicine is what you want to do.” If medicine is it, be prepared to work hard. For Naik, that meant “often doing the right thing instead of the fun thing.” He has no regrets; the gratitude of his patients is his reward. “People give and let their doctors into their lives without hesitation or pretense. It is truly one of the remaining bastions of trust in society.” Article provided by 
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