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Clinical Experience - Anesthesiology Residency Program

When in the operating room, the resident workday begins around 6:00am when they arrive to set up their rooms. On most days, residents are relieved from the operating room in the mid- to late afternoon. Residents are expected to stay later if there are some unique educational opportunities in a particular anesthetic. A few times per year, the residents will work a night float week where they are in the hospital from 6:00pm to 6:00am. This is followed by a week of post-call time.

The resident call schedule provides optimal in-hospital experience without excessive night call. During the program, residents are on night float an average of 3-4 weeks per year. The call period is 12 hours. Resident call responsibilities include coverage of obstetric services and ICU consults, as well as participation in emergency surgical cases. Nurse anesthetists are also on call to provide anesthesia services for routine cases and late-running surgeries from the day schedule.

The total of any and all absences during anesthesia training may not exceed the equivalent of 20 working days per year. Attendance at scientific meetings, not to exceed 5 working days per year, is considered a part of the training program. A stipend is provided toward expenses for one educational meeting during anesthesia training.

Ochsner residents provide increasingly independent patient care as they progress through the program. By the completion of their anesthesiology training, all residents are able to provide independent comprehensive anesthetic care even for patients with the most complicated and serious illnesses. Residents are expected to keep prompt, legible, and thorough records of all their anesthetic cases, procedures, consults and postoperative visits.

Since residents provide only 30% of the clinical work of the department; we are able to optimize their case assignments. The Board Runner, a staff anesthesiologist who coordinates the department’s clinical activities, makes daily case assignments. When the Board Runner prepares the next day’s assignments, resident assignments are prioritized and individualized to each resident need. A third-year resident on a CV rotation may need a valve replacement or thoracic aneurysm. A first-year resident in August may need knee scopes with laryngeal mask airways. The Board Runner selects from the broad menu of the cases available to meet each resident’s needs.