A common comparison is drawn to flying a plane - its a proceduralised and mechanical process for a lot of the time, but occasionally unexpected things happen and you need knowledge and skills to react quickly and prevent serious injury and death. Its like flying a plane but if every plane was built differently with no instruction manual, some of the planes are badly broken before you take off, and someone's trying to repair the engines in mid air.

I'm currently revising for my anaesthetics exams. The things I'm meant to know include:

* The physics and mechanical principles of all the equipment I use, from the ventilator to the pulse oximiter - so that I can identify when and how it might fail and how to respond

* The pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and mechanism of all the drugs I might use - so I can understand their effects, side-effects, and interactions

* The physiology and function of the human body, including the respiratory, circulatory, neurological, renal, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, and immune systems - so I can understand how anaesthesia effects these systems, and how diseases and disorders of the systems will interact with the anaesthetic and how problems can be identified and treated

* The anatomy of the body, with particular focus on the head and neck anatomy to aide in intubation and airway procedures, and neuro-anatomy to aide in regional anaesthetic techniques

* The anatomical, phsiological, and pharmacological consequences of pregnancy, childhood, old-age, and a huge variety of acute and chronic diseases - so I can understand and adapt anaesthetics to these conditions