Author: Jordan Francke, MD, MPH
The Daily Dose
A successful career in academic anesthesiology requires more than completing clinical assignments and meeting the minimum requirements of employment. It requires preparation, curiosity, mentorship, teamwork, continuous improvement, and a willingness to pursue opportunities beyond routine clinical work.
A session at the 2026 IARS and SOCCA Annual Meeting used humor and reverse psychology to examine the attitudes and behaviors that frequently lead to an average or stagnant academic career.
Viewing Anesthesiology as a Job or a Career
Olubukola Nafiu, MD, MSc, described two possible paths available to physicians after completing their medical training.
The first path treats anesthesiology simply as a job. The physician performs the required clinical work, collects a salary, and makes little additional effort to grow professionally.
The second path treats anesthesiology as a career—a long-term journey involving continued learning, professional advancement, leadership, scholarship, and meaningful contributions to the specialty.
Physicians who view academic anesthesiology only as a job may not understand their academic rank, the criteria for promotion, or the opportunities available within their institution. Some may work at teaching hospitals without knowing whether they were hired as instructors, assistant professors, associate professors, or at another academic level.
Behaviors That Lead to Academic Stagnation
Dr. Nafiu identified several reliable ways to prevent academic advancement:
• Avoid mentorship
• Decline research opportunities
• Remain isolated from colleagues
• Ignore promotion requirements
• Perform assigned cases and immediately leave
• Avoid committees, teaching, and institutional service
• Make no effort to develop a professional reputation
• Wait for opportunities instead of actively pursuing them
These behaviors may allow a physician to remain unnoticed, but they also make professional growth, promotion, and leadership much less likely.
Mentors can provide advice, help physicians avoid common mistakes, and explain the unwritten rules of academic medicine. Sponsors can go one step further by actively recommending individuals for leadership positions, projects, promotions, and other opportunities.
Physicians who want to succeed should deliberately surround themselves with motivated colleagues, mentors, and sponsors who support their development.
The Characteristics of Successful Residents
Sujatha Ramachandran, MD, MACM, focused on the behaviors that distinguish successful anesthesiology residents from those who stagnate.
Successful residents commonly demonstrate:
• Clinical excellence
• A strong work ethic
• Effective teamwork
• Emotional resilience
• Continuous learning
• Intellectual curiosity
• Careful preparation
• Willingness to seek feedback
These residents actively look for opportunities to improve rather than waiting for learning experiences to be assigned to them.
For example, when a difficult airway requires urgent management shortly after a scheduled shift has ended, an engaged resident may view the situation as an opportunity to help the team, care for a patient, and improve an important clinical skill. A disengaged resident may decide that learning and responsibility ended when the scheduled shift ended.
This does not mean residents should ignore fatigue, personal obligations, or reasonable limits. However, consistently using work-life balance as a justification for avoiding all extra effort can interfere with professional growth.
Preparation Beyond Question Banks
Outstanding residents do more than complete examination questions. They prepare for complicated cases by reviewing textbooks, primary research articles, patient records, and relevant clinical guidelines.
They carefully examine the medical record and may discover information that changes the anesthetic plan, even when that information was previously overlooked.
This type of preparation improves patient safety while demonstrating reliability, clinical judgment, and professional maturity.
The Importance of Feedback
Successful trainees actively request feedback rather than waiting for formal evaluations. They ask what they did well, what could have been handled differently, and what they should work on next.
Residents who avoid feedback may protect themselves from temporary discomfort, but they also lose opportunities to identify and correct weaknesses.
Feedback is most useful when it is:
• Specific
• Timely
• Honest
• Focused on observable behavior
• Connected to a practical improvement plan
Avoiding feedback can allow small problems to continue until they become major concerns.
How to Guarantee Stagnation During Residency
Several behaviors almost certainly limit development:
• Arriving unprepared
• Performing only the minimum required work
• Avoiding challenging cases
• Skipping educational conferences
• Refusing additional learning opportunities
• Ignoring constructive criticism
• Blaming the program for every difficulty
• Showing little interest in team responsibilities
• Treating completion of the shift as the only meaningful goal
Residents who repeatedly demonstrate these behaviors may technically finish their training but fail to reach their full clinical or professional potential.
The Resident’s Role in the Quality of Training
The quality of an anesthesiology residency depends partly on the institution, faculty, clinical volume, and available educational resources. However, the trainee’s daily attitude and level of engagement are also critically important.
Two residents can complete the same program and have very different experiences. One may seek difficult cases, request feedback, study independently, build relationships, and participate in research or teaching. The other may complete only the required assignments and avoid additional involvement.
The difference between an outstanding residency experience and a disappointing one may therefore depend less on the program’s reputation and more on how the resident chooses to participate each day.
Building a Career That Matters
Avoiding mediocrity does not require every anesthesiologist to become a major researcher, department chair, or national leader. It requires physicians to make deliberate decisions about their goals and to continue developing throughout their careers.
Practical steps include:
• Learn the requirements for academic promotion
• Identify mentors and sponsors
• Prepare carefully for important clinical cases
• Seek frequent and meaningful feedback
• Participate in teaching, research, or quality improvement
• Accept appropriate challenges
• Support colleagues and contribute to the team
• Remain curious and continue learning
• Periodically evaluate long-term career goals
A meaningful academic career is unlikely to develop accidentally. It is created through repeated decisions to prepare, participate, learn, and contribute.
The central message from the session was straightforward: professional stagnation often results from consistently doing the bare minimum. Academic success begins when physicians view anesthesiology not simply as a job, but as a career in which their skills, influence, and contributions can continue to grow.
Thank you to The Daily Dose and the International Anesthesia Research Society for allowing us to summarize this important educational session.