I can see why this happens. The anaesthetist is really interested in the going to sleep and waking up bits, and maybe any crucial bits of surgery if the surgeon is about to do something quite funky.

The rest of it is just sitting there at the head of a sleeping patient. They often have a little machine which gives your face a little electric pulse and you can tell how deep the anaesthesia is by how much their face twitches and adjust things from there. I'm not saying it's simple, but if you've done it a million times then it becomes trivial.

Anaesthetics is a great lifestyle because between all that you can answer your emails and get admin done in little chunks (I work on a ward where it's nonstop 8:30 - 6 and I basically answer my emails at home in my 'free time').

You can see how you get adapted to that lifestyle and unless you're mindful of your own thought processes, you come to see that time mid-surgery as "your" time and wouldn't think twice about stepping out for a phone call (that you expect to be brief) to avoid distracting the surgeon, which may well be work related about something happening with another patient.

Not saying it's right. It's crazy. The human mind can get accustomed to any amount of responsibility and pressure to the point where the life signs of a frail cancer patient are completely your responsibility while a surgeon tries to do their thing, and you're popping out to grab a coffee and a catch up.