Rotations & Curricula
VA Internship
ASA Interview with Drs. Mark Norris & Christopher Conley
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The Categorical/PGY-1 year at the Boston VA Healthcare System (BVAHS) is specifically designed to give you the competitive edge by the time you arrive at your PGY2/CA-1 year at Boston Medical Center. In addition to five months of general surgery training and a month in the ER, the remainder of the months are each crafted to enhance your clinical knowledge and skillset as a future anesthesiologist. Two months of ICU include a month in the VA SICU as well as a month in the Boston Medical Center SICU, where you’ll collaborate with senior residents and faculty from the anesthesia and critical care team at BMC. One month is spent in the VA Pre-Admission Testing Clinic (PATC) where you will see and examine patients in preparation for surgeries while also creating a perioperative plan with an attending anesthesiologist. You will have a month in cardiology reading ECG’s in the AM and rounding with fellow performing echocardiograms in the afternoon. One of our most popular rotations in internship is the rotation in the ENT clinic, where our PGY-1’s perform a high volume of nasal fiber-optic endoscopies. This puts them at a distinct advantage when performing awake fiber-optic intubations later in their training. To round out the year out each intern spends two months performing anesthesia 1:1 with an attending anesthesiologist prior to joining the anesthesia team at BMC.
PGY-2/CA-1 Year
CA-1’s spend July and August on orientation, assigned 1:1 with either a senior resident or an attending anesthesiologist each day. The days are split between intraoperative care, introductory didactic sessions, and skill sessions in our new, high fidelity simulation center. After two months of orientation, CA-1 residents spend nine months rotating on anesthesia for general surgery, orthopedic surgery, ambulatory procedures, obstetric anesthesia, neuroanesthesia and a month in the surgical intensive care unit.
PGY-3/CA-2 Year
CA-2 residents rotate through the advanced cardiac, thoracic, and vascular rotations. Additionally, they spend one month as the consult anesthesiologist in our resident-run PATC. CA-2’s perform a one month introduction to pediatric anesthesia at Boston Medical Center, followed by two months of advanced pediatric anesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital. CA-2 residents have the opportunity to tailor their rotation schedule to frontload subspecialties that they are considering for fellowship, so their applications and recommendation letters are ready well in advance of the NRMP fellowship match.
PGY-4/CA-3 Year
Senior residents in their CA-3 year revisit the ORs with a broader skillset and knowledge base, adeptly navigating senior rotations in thoracic, pediatric, vascular, and neuroanesthesia. Additionally our CA-3’s mentor the junior residents both in orientation to the general surgery service as well as on their senior obstetric anesthesia rotations. They cover the code pager and emergent airway service while on the PACU rotation, and learn to prescribe both opiate-based and opiate-sparing therapies for pain-reducing interventions on their acute pain rotation. Our excellent faculty encourage our CA-3’s to demonstrate a greater degree of autonomy, simulating life after residency. Upon graduation our trainees match into some of the most competitive fellowships and practices throughout the US.