Anesthesiology Residency

Rotations

During residency, which includes the clinical base year, trainees have an opportunity to interact with more than 400 specialists and subspecialists who staff the two institutions participating in the program. The program is designed to present the art and science of anesthesiology as a practice of medicine.

Clinical base year (CB)

On each rotation, the intern is directly involved in patient care in a team concept with other house officers assigned to the service. The resident is fully delegated to the clinical service assigned and has no clinical responsibilities elsewhere. All house staff are supervised and instructed by faculty. Interns are responsible for documenting history, physical exam, management plans and progress of patients.

• Pediatrics
• Pulmonary medicine
• Cardiology
• Endocrinology
• Medicine wards
• Emergency medicine
• Trauma and acute care surgery
• Medical ICU
• Palliative medicine
• Anesthesiology
• Introduction to chronic pain medicine
• Anesthesia assessment unit/preoperative evaluation clinic

Clinical anesthesia I

During CA-1 year, residents will learn foundational anesthesia principles and skills that they will build upon throughout the remainder of their residency. They will be assigned to a broad spectrum of cases including advanced subspecialties like cardiothoracic, pediatric and neurosurgical anesthesia throughout the year. Being involved in advanced cases not only accelerates the resident’s knowledge and skillset, but also allows them early exposure to subspecialties they may want to pursue as a fellowship.

• General OR anesthesiology
• Obstetric anesthesiology
• Pediatric anesthesiology
• Neurosurgical anesthesiology
• Cardiothoracic anesthesiology
• Acute pain management service/advanced airway management
• Surgical ICU

Clinical anesthesia II

During the CA-2 year, residents will experience the full spectrum of anesthetic cases and at various locations. They will do rotations at all 4 of our surgical facilities ranging from fast-paced cases at our private practice style outpatient surgical center to complex vascular and advanced surgical cases at our main hospital.

• Chronic pain medicine clinic (Interventional)
• Surgical ICU
• Vascular anesthesiology
• Pediatric anesthesiology
• Neurosurgical anesthesiology
• Ambulatory anesthesiology
• Advanced OR anesthesiology
• Cardiothoracic anesthesiology
• Acute pain management service/advanced airway management
• Outpatient regional anesthesiology
• Post anesthesia care unit
• VA anesthesiology

Clinical anesthesia III

During the CA-3 year, residents are given the flexibility to tailor their schedule to prepare them for life after residency. Many residents choose to do research, go on mission trips, focus on a particular subspecialty of interest.

• Chronic pain medicine clinic (interventional)
• Transesophageal echocardiography
• Outpatient regional anesthesia
• Surgical ICU
• Non-OR anesthesiology 
• Ambulatory anesthesiology
• Advanced OR anesthesiology
• Pediatric anesthesiology
• Obstetric anesthesiology
• Acute pain management services/advanced airway management
• Point of care ultrasound
• Advanced airway OR
• Elective possibilities - additional subspecialty exposure, mission trips, away rotations

Didactics

Residency education lecture series and departmental conferences

Educational programs are offered daily.  Core lectures are normally held Monday through Wednesday, departmental conferences/grand rounds are held on Thursdays, and subspecialty pain and cardiac conferences are held on Thursdays and Fridays, respectively.  Core lectures are interactive, designed to cover the full spectrum of the ABA examination content outline, and repeat each year to facilitate learning and exposure to each topic.

Thursday morning departmental conferences include the following:

• Faculty or resident led educational lectures
• M&M conferences
• Quality assurance conferences
• Morning report
• Mock oral exams (public and private)
• Interdisciplinary conferences
• Visiting professors

Pain and cardiac subspecialty conferences supplement the above educational offerings.  All educational sessions occur before clinical work to facilitate opportunities for self-directed learning, planning for the next day’s clinical work, and time outside of the hospital after clinical work is complete for the day.  Additional learning opportunities are included within our journal clubs, annual simulation training, and frequent informal teaching sessions.

Intern didactics

During the CBY, our interns join their residency class weekly for lunch on Wednesdays at noon as part of protected education time while on other rotations.  A variety of topics are covered within this series including basic anesthesia topics and management, research and quality initiative overviews, preparatory sessions for CA-1 year, case discussions, intern presentations to the CBY group, and simulation sessions for vascular access, epidural placement, and difficult airway management.  This serves to educate our future CA residents in anesthesia while providing a chance to spend time with various faculty and CA residents, grow relationships with one another, and become familiar with our department.

Anesthesiology resident research forum

Held each year, this forum allows residents to present original research, case reports, or quality improvement projects to the anesthesiology department.  This is a formal event, and judges award prizes for the best research project, best case report, and best presentation.  We may have a well-known speaker join us for this event as a guest lecturer.

Gillespie Family Lectureship in anesthesiology and pain medicine

Through the generosity of the Gillespie Family’s endowment, each year, a nationally known guest speaker is brought to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple to serve as a guest lecturer for morning Grand Rounds, a lunch roundtable discussion with residents and an evening lecture topic. We have been lucky to recruit many excellent speakers, including current and former American Society of Anesthesiologist Presidents, members of the American Board of Anesthesiology Board of Directors and many well-known chairs and program directors of distinguished residency programs throughout the country.

Specialty rotations

Specialty resident assignments

One-month specialty rotations are organized for the disciplines of cardiothoracic, vascular, obstetric, and pediatric anesthesia beginning in CA-1 year.  Supervising faculty with a clinical focus in the above disciplines are typically assigned to facilitate a high-quality educational experience.  While on our acute pain management service/advanced airway management rotation during each year of residency, residents have an opportunity to perform a high volume of regional blocks, learn acute and chronic pain management, and practice difficult airway management.  

Critical care medicine

In addition to the intensive care experience during the clinical base year, three additional months are scheduled on critical care medicine for each year of residency.  The Surgical ICU treats surgical patients from most surgical subspecialties, as well as those admitted with problems secondary to major trauma at our Level 1 trauma center.  Supervision is provided by both anesthesiology and surgical attendings with subspecialty credentials in critical care medicine.  Occasionally, residents request additional ICU training time as a CA-3 within our SICU, Cardiothoracic ICU, Neurosurgical ICU, or Medical ICU.

Advanced clinical track

The advanced clinical track provides a broad mix of advanced clinical anesthesia assignments. The purpose of these rotations is to allow the CA-III resident to expand his/her experience and confidence in the management of more complex anesthetic problems. The upper-level resident manages patients with more complex medical problems for more complicated surgery. In addition, he/she is allowed greater freedom in development and implementation of an anesthetic plan. The resident may also obtain additional experience in subspecialty rotations.