Introduction to Anesthesiology

Catalog Description: This introductory anesthesiology clerkship is designed to provide medical students with a foundation of core principles of anesthesiology. Students will have the opportunity to participate in the anesthetic care of patients undergoing a variety of surgical procedures and be exposed to the broad scope of anesthesia practice.  Students will become familiar with the preoperative evaluation of patients presenting for surgery and understand how their underlying clinical conditions impact the anesthetic management plan.

Most of the time will be spent in the operating room with anesthesiology residents and attendings where medical students will have opportunity to participate in airway support including mask ventilation, oral and nasal airway placement, direct and video-assisted laryngoscopy, and endotracheal and laryngeal mask airway placement.  There may be opportunities to practice peripheral intravenous placement as well.  

Sites:

View site addresses by clicking on the site name below or visiting the site codes table.

 Required session attendance: Medical students must be able to attend entire orientation (first day). At UMMC, if medical students are unable to attend the 2nd simulation scenario, arrangements may be made to make up the 2nd simulation with the anesthesiology residents.

Including interviewing season, medical students may make up to 2 absences over the weekend.  Prior to the start of the clerkship, if more than 2 make up days are necessary, medical students will be asked to drop the course.

Typical weekly schedule/Delivery Mode: M-F, 6:00am-3:00pm

Direct patient care: Yes

Consent Requirement: Open to student scheduling. In order to facilitate PBL discussions, we will have a minimum of 2 medical students enroll at a time.

Course Objectives: The primary goal of this rotation is to provide a basic understanding of the anesthesiologist’s peri-operative role. This includes preoperative evaluation, the administration of anesthesia, airway and physiologic support during anesthetic care. During this rotation, medical students will achieve a better understanding of the anesthetic management, its physiologic and pharmacologic implications, considering the patient's underlying clinical conditions and the procedure.

At the end of this rotation, students are expected to:
1.    Perform a preoperative history and physical evaluation focusing on anesthetic considerations and participate in the design of an anesthetic plan with assistance from the anesthesiology attending and resident.
2.    Identify a patient's underlying clinical conditions and recognize their impact in their anesthetic care.
3.    Understand the physiology and pharmacology of anesthetic medications and its use and implications for the phases of anesthesia: induction, maintenance, and emergence.
4.    Recognize different factors playing a role in the formulation of a given anesthetic plan and differentiate between multiple anesthetic options including use of regional anesthesia and neuraxial anesthesia.  
5.    Demonstrate understanding and the proper skills towards provision of anesthetic care: IV access establishment, airway support, intubation, and monitoring.
6.    Achieve a basic level of airway support expertise, which will be valuable in your future practice as a physician, regardless of your chosen specialty.
7.    Acknowledge other members of the OR team and become familiar with the dynamic flow of work in the OR.

Clinical teaching is supplemented with didactics that primarily take place during Orientation.  It is expected that students support their learning by reading assigned chapters from the "Basics of Anesthesia" textbook uploaded to Canvas and review the PowerPoints based on those assigned chapters.

In addition, we provide our medical students with teaching scenarios at our simulation center to further develop hands on skills and promote critical thinking during acute and emergency situations.

Graded Components: 

• Clinical assessment by faculty mentor
• Multiple choice exam -if score is unsatisfactory, this component can be remediated
• Oral exam -may be remediated until performance is satisfactory
• IV induction of anesthesia checklist practical -may be remediated until performance is satisfactory

Grading Scale: P/N

Allow repetition of course: Repetition not allowed

Course equivalency: Does Not Apply