Anesthesia

During this rotation, you will work with different preceptors each day and you will mainly be doing pre-operative histories, starting IVs, and induction of patients… then repeat. Between cases, you will also be able to go to ambulatory care to get IV start practice. Overall, this rotation has fairly good hours and a lot of time for teaching and hands-on practice.

The list of which preceptors you will be working with is posted by the DSSL outside of OR 10. All of the preceptors are used to having students, so they know the routine pretty well. Generally, you will just introduce yourself to them in the pre-op area before they see their first patient.

Usually, the day starts around 7am, where you will see your first patient and do a full pre-anesthesia history and physical. Your preceptor will arrive sometime between 7:30 and 8 (depending on the preceptor), and then you will review the patient with them and see them together.

You will start IVs in all patients (usually left hand). Some preceptors prefer to watch you do IVs in the OR, while others let you start them in the pre-op area- just ask what they prefer. Generally they prefer you to only try a couple attempts on patients so you don’t ruin all of their veins, and save patient excessive pokes.

Once the patients are in the OR, you will help with induction (drawing up drugs, pre-oxygenation, intubation…). Once the patient is asleep, each day you will review one chapter that you had prepared from the Ottawa Primer. Between cases, you will also go to ambulatory care to practice starting IVs. Make sure you come back early enough to do the Hx/Px for the next patient.

If there’s nothing going on in ambulatory care and nothing’s happening in the OR with your anesthetist, you can see if it’s OK to help another anesthetist with their induction to get more practice.

No official call. You may be asked to work an evening or weekend to get extra practice, particularly if your rotation is shorter due to a holiday.

Currently, the Anesthesia book to read is the Ottawa Anesthesia Primer. It’s a very useful introduction book to anesthesia with most of the information you need for the rotation, and decently organized. Most of the questions you get from your attendings will come from this book. You can check it out from the hospital library. By the end of the rotation , you will have read most of the textbook.

When it comes to IVs- don’t get discouraged! You will have good days where you get them all and bad days where you miss them all. Just keep trying, find a technique that works for you (everyone has a different one) and don’t get discouraged.