Frequently Asked Questions
If you need urgent help in the hospital, call the Anesthesia AOD at (513) 519-1111.
Otherwise, please email/text/call your chief residents. If you are uncomfortable discussing an issue with the chief residents you can also contact the Program Director, Dr. Hawryschuk.
If you are experiencing an issue that you don’t feel comfortable discussing with either the chiefs or the Program Director, you can also contact the Department Chair, Dr. Friedrich, or the UC GME Designated Institutional Official (DIO), Dr. Lou Edje.
This can be done in ReadySet (https://uchealth.readysetsecure.com, or linked in OneTouch) via the "Report Incident" button on the left-hand menu. It will prompt you to fill out a form, as well as call the Employee Health Hotline at 513-585-8000.
If you are sick and cannot come to to work on a normal OR rotation:
Call the Anesthesia AOD at (513) 519-1111 and let them know you are sick and can’t come in. Please try to call around 6 AM on the day you can’t come in. You can also call the AOD the day before if you know you won’t be able to come in the next day.
Email Dr. Hawryschuk and Donna Benesch to let them know you are taking a sick day. The chief residents would appreciate being CC’d on this email so they can plan for potential scheduling issues.
If you’re not on an OR rotation, the AOD won’t be able to help you; contact the person in charge of scheduling for that rotation, or ask a chief resident who to contact if you’re not sure. You’ll still need to email Dr. Hawryschuk & Donna to let them know you can’t come in that day.
Everyone gets 20 vacation days per year. Everyone must use all 20 days - if a resident fails to request all 20 days, they will get random days off assigned to them.
You CAN take vacation during:
GA
Neuro
Vascular
Cardiac
GA West Chester (limited to 5 days maximum)
Chronic Pain IF you are a CA-2; limited to 1 week
CA-1 NORA - however, you will likely be reassigned to a week of NORA during another GA block
West Chester “Pretending”
Pediatrics, with these caveats:
CA-2s cannot take vacation during the 1st month of Peds
No more than 5 days can be taken off during Peds
You CANNOT take vacation during:
Any rotation in July - this is when the new CA-1s are starting and need seniors in the OR.
CCAT
CPC
Flex
SICU
UC OB
Good Sam OB
Bethesda North Cardiac
Night float
IPS
PACU
CA-1 Chronic Pain
Holmes Regional
Everyone gets 5 meeting days per year to attend conferences, which do not count toward vacation days.
Residents may request 5 meeting days off per year to attend conferences (i.e., these days do not roll over from year to year). Note that most conferences are scheduled through weekends; residents only need to request meeting days for the weekdays the conference is scheduled and instead request "no call" on the weekend days. Residents presenting at conferences have priority for their time off requests; when OR numbers are low, we generally will give preference to meeting day requests (if the resident is presenting) over vacation requests.
Residents are allowed 5 days off for job/fellowship interviews over the course of their entire residency (i.e., these days do not roll over from year to year). You can request these in Qgenda through the same process as requesting vacation days (you just select the Res Interview option instead of Res Vac). It is usually best to email the scheduling chief resident when you make these requests so they can make sure to plan ahead for it.
You may be assigned call (including weekend call) during the following rotations:
GA
Neuro
Vascular
CT
NORA
Flex
PACU
CPC
IPS
Chronic Pain
Regional (Friday and Saturday only)
B. North Cardiac (Saturday only)
Peds (Saturday only)
CA-1 West Chester
CA-2 West Chester “Pretending”
Rule of thumb: One trainee must be available during the day to start an emergency cardiac case until night float arrives. This should default to the cardiac anesthesia rotator, but may also be a cardiac-eligible (having completed the cardiac rotation) resident or the cardiac fellow.
Specific Scenarios
Single NF: If cardiac-eligible, the 24-hr call resident may cover emergency cardiac after the completion of his/her scheduled cases.
Single NF without cardiac rotator or cardiac fellow: If the "late" IPS resident is cardiac-eligible, he/she will cover emergency cardiac following the completion of the cardiac cases until NF arrives. If the 24-hr call resident is cardiac-eligible and IPS-eligible, he/she may cover emergency cardiac and IPS after the completion of his/her scheduled cases. The GA resident pulled to cardiac should not be first-line coverage.
Double NF and cardiac rotator: The cardiac rotator is expected to stay until NF arrives, regardless of when the cardiac case finishes. If the cardiac case finishes early, the cardiac rotator may choose to alternate coverage with the "late" IPS resident, (if the IPS resident is cardiac-eligible).
- cardiac fellow present: On days when the cardiac case is expected to finish following the arrival of NF, the IPS resident may sign out to the cardiac resident after the completion of IPS tasks (if the cardiac resident is IPS-eligible) because the fellow is available to start an emergent cardiac case.
- cardiac fellow absent: On days when the cardiac case is expected to finish following the arrival of NF, another resident must stay for emergency cardiac coverage. This should default to the "late" IPS resident if he/she is cardiac-eligible; otherwise it will be another resident who is cardiac-eligible.
Double NF without cardiac rotator: if the "late" IPS resident is cardiac-eligible, he/she will cover emergency cardiac following the completion of the cardiac cases until NF arrives. The GA resident pulled to cardiac should not be first-line coverage.
- cardiac fellow present: On days when the cardiac case is expected to finish following the arrival of NF, the IPS resident may sign out to the GA resident in the cardiac case after the completion of IPS tasks (if the cardiac resident is IPS-eligible) because the fellow is available to start an emergent cardiac case.
- cardiac fellow absent: On days when the cardiac case is expected to finish following the arrival of NF, another resident must stay for emergency cardiac coverage. This should default to the "late" IPS resident if he/she is cardiac-eligible; otherwise it will be a resident who is cardiac-eligible (which may be a GA resident pulled to cardiac).
Journal Club: all residents should attend journal club, but the covering resident should abstain from drinking in case he/she needs to return to UCMC to start an emergent cardiac case.
*Coverage by a GA resident pulled to cardiac should not be the norm. It is an exceedingly rare scenario, since the schedule is designed for double NF to only occur when there are two cardiac-eligible seniors on IPS or a cardiac rotator.
When you work on an eligible holiday as a CA-1, CA-2, or CA-3, you get an extra vacation day. Unlike your normal 20 vacation days/year, these “Holiday Makeup” vacation days do roll over year-to-year; as a result, many residents save them until CA-3 year.
Holiday OR shifts are filled by a volunteer system - residents can choose to work on eligible holidays and therefore earn a holiday makeup day. Holiday shifts are 12 hours long, meaning 4 residents must work each holiday; at least one of the residents for each AM & PM shift must be a CA-2 or CA-3 (the other resident may be a CA-1). If you are on a vacation-ineligible rotation, you cannot work a PM holiday shift if the next day is a weekday. Shifts that don’t get signed-up for will be randomly assigned; those residents will still earn a holiday makeup day. If you work during an eligible holiday while on an outside rotation (e.g., SICU as a CA-2) you do still earn a holiday makeup day.
Holiday makeup days can be used à la carte for 1 day off when needed, or combined to take a week off. However, single holiday makeup days off cannot be requested in advance prior to a month’s schedule being made; single holiday makeup day off requests will be evaluated after normal vacation day requests.
Some holidays award makeup days if you work "into" the holiday on a post-call day. E.g., if you are on 24-hour call starting 12/30, you gain a holiday makeup day for working into the morning of 12/31 (New Year's Day). However, if you are on 24-hour call starting 7/3, you do not gain a holiday makeup day despite working into the morning of 7/4, because July 4th is not a "work-into" holiday. The "work-into" holidays are noted in the list below.
The eligible holidays that earn holiday makeup days are:
July 4th
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day (and post-call residents from the day before Thanksgiving Day)
Christmas Day (and post-call residents from 12/24)
New Year’s Day (and post-call residents from 12/31)
MLK Day
Memorial Day
Holidays are broken into two 12-hour shifts: two residents work the AM shift and two residents work the PM shift. The AM shift starts at 6:30 AM, and the PM shift starts at 6:30 PM. Everything else works like a normal call shift - see the guide to taking call for more details.
Each year, the chief residents will post or send out a sign-up sheet for all the holiday shifts; each shift needs to have at least one senior resident working it, but otherwise it's usually first-come first-serve.
You can moonlight in the main ORs, on OB, and on CCAT; all moonlighting shifts occur on the weekends. The pay for moonlighting is $100/hr.
Main OR moonlighting: Available to residents beginning January of their CA-1 year. You should look up the AM call attending the day before your shift and text them to let them know you’re scheduled to moonlight the next day. You’ll generally do some cases in the morning and/or help out with blocks or anesthesia consults; usually you’ll be sent home in the early afternoon.
CCAT moonlighting: Available to residents at the start of their CA-1 year. You should look up the weekend CCAT attending the day before your shift and text them to let them know you’re scheduled to moonlight the next day.
OB moonlighting: Available to residents after they’ve completed two months of OB (therefore only available to senior residents). OB moonlighting is first offered to anesthesia fellows; the shifts they don't take are then offered to the CA3s; the shifts not taken by CA3s are then offered to the CA2s.
Shifts can be requested in QGenda; you’ll also receive emails from one of the chief residents every month listing moonlighting opportunities for CCAT and OB. The deadline for requesting moonlighting shifts is generally one week after a block is published, with some exceptions; look at the requests timeline for the exact dates. More senior residents will usually be granted priority for moonlighting shifts (in part because they can provide the greatest flexibility in cases & tasks they can do for their hourly rate). When multiple residents of the same seniority level request moonlighting on the same day, priority will usually be given to the resident who's received fewer moonlighting shifts to date.
Hours you spend moonlighting must be logged as part of your ACGME duty hours. You cannot violate duty hours moonlighting, and you’ll likely lose your moonlighting privileges if you do so.
As of 2023, there are moonlighting restrictions based on ITE performance; click here to see the regulations Dr. Hawryschuk sent out. The gist of it is that you cannot moonlight if you scored below the 30th percentile on your last ITE with possible exceptions if you complete the 50 TrueLearn questions residents are assigned each week; look to Dr. Hawryschuk’s official regulations for the full details.
You need to clock-in and clock-out of moonlighting shifts and log your hours to get paid for them. When starting a shift, you need to find one of the badge readers that you see the RNs using before and after their shifts (options include: across from the scrub machines on the first floor of MRP, near the OB workroom, and near the stairwell on 6 CCP outside the CVICU). Instructions for tracking your hours are below.
To clock-in:
Swipe your badge.
Choose “productive time.”
Under Special Code 1 type 32 (or find 32 “salaried as hourly”).
Under Special Code 2 type 12 (or find 12 “no lunch”).
Click Next.
Choose department 100852 “Anesthesia staff/Resident.” Note: this is no longer an option; we have now just left this blank.
Under Quick Code choose or type BEF250025.
Click Finished.
Click Complete Entry.
To clock-out, you follow the same steps as above.
You’ll also record the hours you work on a paper form; click here to get a PDF of the form. You should print this out before your shift starts and have your attending sign it at the end of your shift. Email a picture of this form to Allison Young (young5ak@ucmail.uc.edu) at the end of your shift so she can log them and make sure payment happens properly.
Here are the various codes to get into things:
Epidural pumps: 7770
Pain pumps: 190
Line carts: 1942
Resident library: 315
PM pharmacy cart: 1818
OB Women's Bathroom: 513
OB Men's Bathroom: 213
MRP 5th Floor Women's Bathroom: 131*
Holmes Women's Locker: #218, 48-16-28
SICU call room: 4321
IR Bathroom: 4242*
There are several locations designated for pumping breast milk at UC; click here to view a list of lactation spaces (updated as of the 2023-2024 academic year). There is a mini-silver-fridge on the 4th floor of MRP that is reserved for storing breast milk (next to the big silver fridge); there is also a fridge in the 3rd floor lactation room in the main hospital.
Dr. Kristin Horton is the point person for lactation accommodations within UC Anesthesia - please talk to her if there are issues getting sufficient time to pump or with accessing lactation spaces.