With the conclusion of my final year of residency training comes a time for reflection. I’ve written similar posts at the end of my intern year, CA-1/PGY-2 year, and CA-2/PGY-3 year, but this post is far more sentimental as I’m now done with my time as a trainee in the…
In most academic settings, the operating room is composed of the surgical team (attending, fellow, residents), anesthesia team (attending, fellow, residents, nurses), techs (scrub tech, anesthesia tech), circulating nurses, students, observers, and most importantly, the patient. The surgery attending is usually the captain of this proverbial ship; however, a delicate interplay between…
As seniors, we oversee our junior trainees’ cases while coordinating the case flow through the operating rooms with our front desk during call shifts. While the junior residents and SRNAs check our “stat rooms” and emergent airway boxes prior to preparing for their respective cases, I’ll visit the pharmacy to grab…
As members of admissions committees, we’re obligated to provide applicants with an informative and representative experience of what our respective training opportunities are. Since applicants matriculate to a single program, they often want a rundown of how a given institution compares to the rest. While this is a very reasonable…
I’m sitting at the gate in O’Hare airport waiting for my flight back home to Houston and wanted to reflect on my experiences at ASA’s 2016 annual meeting. The last several days have been such a morale booster! Anesthesiology has such a pervasive influence on many areas in healthcare and is…
“You don’t have to [insert task]! You’re a [doctor, chief, senior]!” Many hospital workers have stopped me from mopping the operating room, taking out the trash, or even helping with relatively minor tasks because of my position. More recently, my own junior colleagues have tried to take on more of…
Declaring an undergraduate major is one of the most stressful decisions a college student can make. Those aiming to pursue medical school (or any health profession) are often inundated with options in the sciences – chemistry, biology, biochemistry, “pre-med”, etc. A major benefit afforded to those who do pursue a science degree…
Earlier afternoon, I received a great question posed by a pre-med student who I’ve come to know through social media. He asks:
Another July, another transition to the next academic year of my training. I’m now finished with my CA-2 year and entering my final year as an anesthesiology resident physician (CA-3, otherwise known as PGY-4) serving as one of the chief residents of our program.
I receive weekly reminders from E*Value, a well-known healthcare education platform, to complete faculty evaluations, conferences, lectures, etc. These are usually in the form of a survey many days/weeks after I interacted with the particular person or event in question. In addition, the ACGME outlines how evaluations of trainees, faculty,…