This was a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. The aim was to identify the care provided to surgical patients by residents in anesthesiology and how they share this care with the surgical team, as well as residents'perceptions concerning self-care. Discourse analysis of interviews with nine residents resulted in six categories: (a) choice of the specialty: proximity to the intensive care specialist, the immediatism of the activities, and analgesia; (b) surgical patient care: presentation of routine measures and the anesthetic technique employed; (c) sharing of care with other professionals: the resident understands the importance of care, but tends not to share it; (d) medical preceptorship: ambivalent feelings, including satisfaction due to the proximity to faculty, orientation, and problem-solving, and dissatisfaction due to the limited time devoted to academic activities, plus faculty unpreparedness; (e) self-care: residents neglect self-care, due mainly to the exhaustive workload. The repercussions of this attitude are reported as nervousness, impatience, decreased creativity and mood, and propensity to error.