As an anesthesiologist, there is a chance that your patient will not make it out of surgery. How would you handle that?
Patient safety is always a top priority, however, there are risks associated with anesthesia and medical procedures and at times there are things beyond our control that cause a patient to have complications. If you've experienced this type of situation, describe how you reacted and processed the event. Think about how you responded to the other members of the healthcare team and the patient's family, friends, or caregivers. If you don't have an experience to share, describe how you would respond if you were faced with this event. Be sure to focus on soft skills like communication, empathy, compassion, interpersonal skills, emotional regulation, and reflection to ensure things couldn't have been done differently for a positive outcome.
"As a medical professional, I know very well that the unthinkable can happen at any time. I rely on my training and experience and provide the best care possible for each of my patients. When we lose a patient it is difficult; however, we must remind ourselves that this is the circle of life. We learn what we can from the situation and remain confident that we did everything in our power to keep the patient alive."
"I know that many patients are not good anesthesia candidates but require surgery nonetheless. I also know even patients in good health can throw me a physiologic curveball and go downhill fast, especially with the stress of ongoing surgery. Regardless of the end result, although I made an emotional investment with the empathy I used to establish a trusting patient-doctor relationship, there are times that such feelings need to be put on a shelf so that I can be my objective best--either for this patient or for the one I'm treating after a patient loss. There's always time later to take your feelings back off of that shelf that allowed you to do your best work."
"Anesthesia is a specialty when the laws of biology and biochemistry can align into a perfect storm that can doom a patient. Any anesthesiologist with enough cases will have these. Fortunately, there is usually considerable time to navigate a patient's downhill course, and the best way to handle this is to just stay on task. This means the patient's life comes first, not his or her life story. By that I mean whatever feelings I have in having gotten to know the patient must be set aside, because such feelings are the enemy of efficiency. Usually efficiency doesn't have to compete with feelings, but when they do, again, I must stay on task. Unfortunately, there are downhill courses that never right themselves. However, if I knew I had stayed on task the entire time, then I know I performed to the best of my ability. A death is a tragedy, but when it happens I find my motto changes from 'stay on task' to 'stay on message,' which is being ready to do my best for the next patient. This can exist alongside my disappointment in the previous outcome, because I know I gave it my best."
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