Anesthesia Resident Didactics

Our Comprehensive Didactic Schedule

Didactics are predominantly taught by faculty or guest speakers with expertise in the topic area. Senior residents also provide opportunities for peer-peer teaching. Lectures are recorded and made available to residents the following day. The lecture series covers topics in clinical anesthesia, anesthesia practice management, and board preparation. We utilize a multimodal approach that incorporates active learning techniques which are most effective for the adult learner including flipped classroom, PBLDs, Simulation, and small group formats in addition to traditional lectures. Our curriculum covers a broad range of topics to prepare our trainees for the very wide scope of the practice of anesthesiology.

Tuesday Education Day

Residents participate in 4 hours of protected didactic time on Tuesdays. Junior residents are in the morning and receive a combination of traditional lectures, PBLD, Basic Exam Board Review, and skills sessions. Senior residents are in the afternoon and their curriculum covers advanced topics and technical skills, mock oral board exams, and guest teaching from surgical subspecialties and other departments. The curriculum is based on the ABA Content Exam outline and supplemented by additional topics designed to provide a comprehensive, well-rounded foundation.

Monthly Resident-Only Grand Rounds

Once a month residents have a resident-only session during our Grand Rounds/M&M timeslot. These sessions are designed to incorporate all-resident topics such as Practice Management, Medical Ethics, Medicolegal Practice, as well as provide an opportunity to have our residents in workshops meet, for our Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion curriculum, our QI/Patient Safety RCA workshops, and our regular town hall meetings with program leadership.

Thursday In-Situ Simulation

Our residents have weekly exposure to short-format simulations which occur in an OR which is reserved for the day. Individuals are relieved one at a time from their OR assignments to come to In-Situ Sim OR where they are presented with various scenarios such as hypotension, pneumothorax, difficult airway, hypoxia and practice their responses in a more real-world environment. These simulations are designed to help residents recall and apply concepts learned in their reading and other didactics and assess their own pattern recognition, situational awareness, and clinical judgment.

Other Education Activities

Our program utilizes a multimodal approach to learning and offers a multitude of learning tools.

Applied Exam Mocks

Mock oral board and mock OSCE exams are offered to residents and fellows. In addition, an attending leads a Group Mock Oral where residents go through a mock oral exam as a group.

Journal Club

Once a month, two residents present recent articles in the anesthesia literature for discussion among all the department. In addition, residents have a weekly E-Journal Club curriculum available online which covers landmark studies and current literature on core anesthesia topics.

Monthly Simulation Sessions

Each resident participates in immersive simulation experiences in our state-of-the-art simulation center using a high-fidelity mannequin. The focus of these large-format simulation sessions is to teach skills for crisis resource management and interpersonal communications such as disclosure of medical error and anesthesia consultations for complex patient scenarios. CA-3 residents participating in the scenarios will also learn about the basics of medical supervision as they function as attending anesthesiologists and leaders of the care team.

Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Curriculum

Guided by faculty and fellow mentors, CA-2 residents work together to perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA) around events with potential or actual patient harm. After they identify systems issues through the RCA and propose solutions, they learn how to apply quality improvement methods (needs assessment surveys and implementation tools) to foster practice changes. They then present their surveys and implementation tools, along with the plans they developed, to the department during Grand Rounds. Residents also participate in an Implementation curriculum, which helps trainees develop the tools needed to implement change in large complex systems.

Town Hall

Once every month, the Chief Residents, Program Director, and Associate Program Directors hold a Town Hall with the residents to share updates and discuss any concerns.

Perioperative Ultrasound Training

Our training programs offer various opportunities to learn ultrasound procedures in our echocardiography simulation lab (the “Echo Lab”). Led by Dr. Daniel McGrail, our Director of Resident Ultrasound Education, courses offered to our trainees include live lectures, case discussions, online modules, Apple iBooks (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA), and hands-on practice on high-fidelity echocardiography simulators and models during interactive workshops.

Learning Management System

We provide our trainees with a comprehensive online learning management system. Through this system residents are able to access online modules, assessments, track their progress, and follow their case numbers and rotation assignments.