Questions to Ask an Anesthesiologist When Shadowing
Twenty questions for a student spending a day in theatre with an anesthesiologist. They are written to be asked at specific moments during a list, about the case in front of you, with guidance on when to stay quiet.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Where should I stand, and what should I not touch?
Why ask it
Ask this first, before anything clinical. It establishes that you understand the sterile field and the space around the head of the table, and it is the single thing that determines whether you get invited back.
Is there anything I should not ask about in front of a patient?
Why ask it
Shows you understand that the patient is awake for part of what you will see. Most anesthesiologists will tell you to hold all questions until the drapes are up or the patient is in recovery.
What are you checking before the first patient comes in?
Why ask it
The machine check, drug draw-up and airway equipment layout happen before anyone else arrives and are rarely explained. Their answer is the clearest introduction to how much of this job is preparation.
What did you learn from this patient's chart that changes your plan?
Why ask it
Turns a specific case into a teaching moment without asking them to lecture. Listen for the small things that alter everything: airway history, reflux, sleep apnoea, a medication taken this morning.
What are you looking at on the monitor right now?
Why ask it
Vague enough to answer during a stable case and specific to the moment. You will usually get the two or three numbers they actually watch, which is far fewer than the screen displays.
Why this technique for this operation rather than another one?
Why ask it
General, regional or sedation is a real decision with reasons behind it. Asking for the reasoning rather than the label is what separates shadowing from watching.
What are you feeling for when you check the airway before induction?
Why ask it
Airway assessment is hands-on and mostly silent, so nobody explains it unless asked. The answer gives you concrete anatomy to look for on the next patient.
What would make you stop at this point?
Why ask it
Asked quietly before or during induction, this reveals the thresholds they hold in their head. It is also the question that shows you are thinking about safety rather than spectacle.
How do you know the depth is right, since the patient cannot tell you?
Why ask it
Gets at the practical use of dosing, monitoring and clinical signs together. Expect nuance rather than a single number, and follow up on what they distrust.
What just changed that made you adjust something?
Why ask it
Save this for a moment when you noticed them act. Asking about a specific intervention you witnessed gets far better teaching than any general question.
How do you and the surgeon communicate during the case?
Why ask it
Much of it is short, coded and easy to miss. Their answer tells you what the working relationship is really like, and whether disagreements happen out loud or afterwards.
What is the plan for this patient's pain when they wake up?
Why ask it
Post-operative analgesia is planned before the incision and often invisible to observers. This also opens up regional blocks and multimodal approaches without you having to name them.
What are the risky moments in a case like this?
Why ask it
Induction and emergence are usually named, and the reasons why are worth understanding. It also tells you when to stop talking and simply watch.
What happens in the first few minutes in recovery?
Why ask it
Handover to recovery staff is a real part of the job and students often leave before it. Following the patient there shows more commitment than staying to watch the next incision.
Is there anything about today you would have done differently?
Why ask it
Asked after the list, in private. A senior clinician willing to answer this honestly in front of a student is showing you the professional habit that matters most.
What is the difference between how you did that and how a resident would?
Why ask it
Invites them to describe skill rather than steps. Answers often involve anticipation, how far ahead they are thinking, and how little they now need to do.
What should I be reading if I want to follow what happens in here?
Why ask it
Practical and modest. You will usually get one textbook, one short guideline and advice to learn basic physiology properly, which is more useful than a reading list of ten items.
What do students usually misunderstand about this specialty?
Why ask it
Common answers involve mistaking calm for inactivity, or assuming the job stops when the patient is asleep. Cheaper to learn from their answer than from your own wrong assumptions.
What made you decide this was the right specialty for you?
Why ask it
Leave this until the end of the day, when there is time and they know you have paid attention. Early on it is small talk; late on it is a real answer.
Would it be all right to come back for another list, and is there one I should see?
Why ask it
Closing with a specific request works better than a general thank-you. Obstetrics, paediatrics and cardiac lists look very different, and being pointed to one is a form of mentorship.
How to shadow well in the operating room
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the list starts
Sort out permission properly
Arrive with whatever the hospital requires, confidentiality paperwork, identification, occupational health clearance, already done. Ask at reception rather than following your host through a door you are not cleared for.
Introduce yourself to the whole team
Say your name and why you are there to the surgeon, the scrub practitioner and the recovery staff, not just the anesthesiologist. Theatres run on knowing who is in the room.
Eat and hydrate first
Standing still under theatre lights makes observers faint far more often than anything they witness. Say so and sit down if you feel it starting; nobody will think less of you.
Ask the timing rule once
Agree at the start when questions are welcome. Most anesthesiologists will offer a window: after induction, during the stable middle of the case, or at the end of the list.
While you are in the room
- Stay silent during induction, emergence, handover and any moment where the pace changes. Those are the periods where interruption actually matters.
- Watch their hands and their eyes rather than the surgical field. What the anesthesiologist looks at is the thing you came to learn.
- Ask about what you just saw rather than about the specialty in general.
- Write nothing down that could identify a patient, and keep your phone away entirely.
- If the patient is awake, speak to them normally and let your host lead. Discussing their condition over their head is the fastest way to lose the invitation.
- Follow the patient to recovery when you are allowed to. Most students never see the end of the story.
What goes wrong
Treating it as an interview
A list is not a careers conversation. Save questions about lifestyle, pay and training routes for coffee or the end of the day, and spend the theatre time on what is in front of you.
Asking questions with an audience in mind
Questions designed to demonstrate what you already know are obvious and land badly. Asking what you genuinely do not understand is what gets remembered.
Disappearing after a difficult case
If something goes wrong while you are there, follow instructions exactly, stay out of the way, and do not discuss it outside the department. Ask afterwards whether it is all right to ask about it at all.
Leaving without a next step
A single day of shadowing is worth little on its own. Ask before you leave whether you can return, and to which list.
Afterwards
Write up what you saw the same evening, with the names removed: the cases, the decisions you did not understand, the questions you did not get to ask. Send a short thank-you naming one specific thing you learned rather than a general expression of gratitude. If you want a reference later, that message and a second visit are what make it possible.