Academic Department

I have a few questions:

My ideal practice setting would be someplace where I got to do a variety of cases (including peds, OB, and outpt.), and got to see and do interesting things such as transplants, trauma, "exotic" procedures, etc. Now, in my mind, this sounds like a large academic center. A few questions:

1) With a large residency program (and possibly fellowships) will that likely mean less opportunities because they go to residents/fellows or, because the volume is so large, are there enough to go around?

2) With a large department that is organized into smaller divisions (ie, Cardio, OB, Peds, etc.) does a CRNA get the opportunity to do variety or are they stuck in their division?

3) Is it better to try to go to a REALLY large program (volume and more unusual cases) or a smaller one (less residents/possibly no fellows to compete with)?

Any one who works at a large center, please give me some feedback on what your experience is like.

Thanks!

My program is at the largest anesthesia residency program in the country, and I haven't noticed that one particular group gets better cases than another. It seems like there are more than enough sick cases to go around - I have done more ASA 3's than 1's and 2's by far.

We have a very small OB program, so we do some OB, but its not that common. We all do peds and adults, and often times go to the remote areas in the hospital, like MRI, ECT, angios, the eye clinic, etc.

The CRNAs who work in the general OR in my program can either specialize (vascular, renal, etc) or stay in the general pool and go do whatever cases need done in the general ORs. The only specialty that is "closed" (people do not float in and out) is cardiac.