Interviewee: Dr. Johnny Blake (anesthesiologist) of Baker’s Health Care Medical Center
Q. What was the career path you took from college to the present?
A. He started out like everyone else… a high school diploma but no idea what to do with it. He then decided to persue a degree in pre-med. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in pre-med, Dr. Blake then attended Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI. It took him two years from the time he graduated undergrad, to the time he got his acceptance at WSUSM. After gaining his PhD, Dr. Blake then served four years of residency at University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. After graduating from residency, he moved back to his home state where he passed the state exam and got a job at Baker’s Medical Center.
Q. What skills are most important for this kind of work?
A. Dr. Blake believes that a person should love to help others. He said that the anesthesiologist is the first person the patient sees and also the last. He believes that it is his job to make the patient feel comfortable and safe. To do this, Dr. Blake said a person must have good social and communicating skills. He also said that patients and concentration are huge. Because of the length of many surgeries, it is important not to get impatient and lose concentration because one slip could end the patient’s life.
Q. What are the time demands that accompany this type of work?
A. He laughed when I asked him this one. He said that when he first started, 60 hour weeks were very common. He said it felt like he lived inside of the hospital. As time progressed, his hours became more manageable. Since he is a non-emergency anesthesiologist, Dr. Blake is never on call. Rather his surgeries are planned, and he knows when they will be. He also told me not to be scared of the long hours because he only works about 35 hours a week now. He ensured me that my in-hospital hours would be manageable.
Q. Is the schedule a routine one, or do time expectations fluctuate?
A. He said that he does not have set hours per week. He explained that it depends on the patients and when they actually schedule their surgeries. Sometimes he will have to be at the hospital early in the morning, but most of the time he is there by mid-day. He also explained that he has office hours that fluctuate every week. This is his time he uses to organize files and deal with insurance issues. Sometimes he will go a week with only a few hours of office time, but that means he will pay for it the next week because he will have to make up for the lost time. He doesn’t like office time very much because he says he feels like he is a “business man” instead of a doctor.
Q. What are the major satisfactions the Dr. Black derives from work in this field?
A. Dr. Blake was short on this one. He said he loved the feeling after a successful surgery was complete. He feels like he has really helped people then.
Q. To what degree is there pressure on this job? How could that pressure be described?
A. To this, Dr. Blake said that all the pressure in the world is on your shoulders. He said that going into a surgery you have to clear your mind of everything else and only concentrate on keeping the patient alive. That is his sole responsibility… keeping people alive. He described this pressure as “being up to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning with two out, a runner on and down by a run, in game seven of the World Series. Except if you don’t win, your coach dies.” He said everyone is counting on you and you hold the patient’s life in your hands.
Q. If they were starting out again, what might they do differently?
A. He was short on this one too. He said he would try to enjoy the road to his career more. He would try to balance work and fun better.
Q. What advice would the individual offer someone planning on entering this career?
A. For this, Dr. Blake said to go for it. He told me not to be afraid of what laid ahead because I’ll be ready for it as it comes. He also said not to procrastinate because that would make life hard. He continued and said to volunteer as much as possible and build a good resume for medical school. “Be afraid of nothing and work hard. You will do just fine.”
