Stanford Anesthesia Didactic Education Program
Anesthesia Resident Education : Anesthesia residents enjoy the annual refresher course provided by the Department.
At the start of the residency in July, there are three weeks of an
intensive CA1 lecture schedule dealing with basic considerations in anesthesia. For the rest of the year CA1 residents attend their own
weekly CA1 lecture program dealing with general anesthesia topics. Lectures are given by faculty. In the second and third years of training, residentsts attend their own
weekly two hour CA2/3 lecture program dealing with all aspects of anesthesia care. Lectures are given by faculty (first lecture) and third year residents (second lecture). At the weekly
Anesthesia Grand Rounds conference, complex and complicated cases are presented by residents and discussed by residents, faculty and community anesthesiologists. Weekly didactic and research conferences take place in the Pain Management Center for those residents interested in this evolving area of anesthesia practice. Once a month, faculty present current research at Department Research Seminars. The residents' Journal Club meets once a month following the resident lecture. Several subspecialties (pediatrics, obstetrics, critical care) have their own informal lecture series.
At the end of each resident year, an Anesthesia Refresher Course is held over two days on a weekend for our residents. Each day, 5-7 lectures are presented. Our faculty, many of whom give ASA Refresher Courses at our society's annual meeting, give a lecture on a subject of their particular expertise with extensive handouts. Some lectures are delivered by faculty from other institutions. As of 2007, we have integrated an response system into the course so that everyone in the audience can instantaneously respond and view the group's responses to questions asked by the lecturer.
Each year the department sponsors hands-on workshops to reinforce clinical education in a more relaxed setting.
The Regional Anesthesia Workshop utilizes cadaver dissection, live and inanimate models to teach various aspects of regional anesthesia techniques.
The CA1 Airway Workshop teaches basic fiberoptic airway management skills using multiple stations and various teaching models. The goals of this workshop are:
Difficult Airway Workshop : CA-1 anesthesia residents working with Bainton models under the supervision of Dr. Vladamir Nekhendsy.
- Develop basic skills for handling the scope, rotating the scope, centering the image, and use of the 'channel'
- Mapping, devising a plan, working with straight vs inverted images
- Familiarity with oral and nasal anatomy
- Use of Williams airway/Patil-Syracuse mask
- Placing scope into right and left mainstem
- FOI via LMA classic, with tube-in-tube, nasal RAE, Aintree catheter
- Anterograde wire-assisted FOI via LMA
- FOI via LMA-Fastrach
The CA2/3 Airway Workshop for more senior residents gives residents hands-on trainging in the following:
Difficult Airway Workshop : CA-3 anesthesia residents working with fiber optic equipment, lower airway anatomy, double-lumen endotracheal tubes and bronchial blockers.
- Fastrach LMA
- Video MAC and Glidescope
- Bullard and Bonflis retromolar rigid fiberoptic techniques
- Lower airway anatomy and use of DLTs, bronchial blockers
- Cricothyrotomy, Transtracheal Jet Ventilation
- Combitube, Retrograde Intubation
The Clinical Competence Committee carefully monitors each resident's progress. Each resident chooses an individual faculty advisor with whom the Committee consults. An In-Training Exam is given once a year and practice oral exams are administered twice each year to all residents as preparation for the American Board of Anesthesiology certification process. Each year, residents receive three weeks of vacation. The department pays the travel expenses of any resident or fellow who presents a paper at a scientific meeting describing original research done at Stanford. Every year, $500 is available to each resident for the purchase of educational materials.
