Department of Anesthesia, University of Toronto
Undergraduate Clerkship: Year 4 Anesthesia Rotation
Course Description
The Anesthesia Clerkship is a 2 week rotation. Students may be assigned to one of twelve hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area; either one of the six core teaching hospitals or one of our six community based hospitals.
The clerkship rotation begins with a site specific orientation, where students are oriented to the operating room setting, objectives of the course, seminar schedules, evaluation criteria and all other rotation activities.
On the second day of the rotation, students attend an all-day Simulation Day at Sunnybrook Hospital. Two seminars are presented, one consisting of an introduction to Anesthesia and one on ACLS management. The morning session includes training on monitoring, IV skills and airway management. The afternoon involves case scenarios using high fidelity simulation to learn cardiorespiratory resuscitation, communication and collaboration skills during critical events in a simulated operating room. Students manage critical events with their fellow student’s role playing operating room personnel. Please follow this link for an introduction to our Simulation Centre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6ahLR1_MI
Medical students are assigned to a faculty staff member in the operating room, labour floor, pre-admission clinic or acute pain service. They are given a “Topics for Discussion” form to assist faculty members to discuss topics relevant to the third year anesthesia curriculum. Students are required to complete a preoperative assessment on all patients assigned, and will assist in all aspects of anesthetic care at the discretion of the faculty staff member.
Students are also required to attend four central seminars on preoperative assessment, airway management, resuscitation, pain management, obstetrical anesthesia and regional anesthesia.
Evaluation
Medical students are evaluated daily by their assigned faculty member. Evaluations are submitted daily to the site coordinator either by evaluation cards or online. These evaluations are reviewed with the student on day 5 of the rotation for formative feedback. Should areas of weakness be identified or lack of exposure to core curriculum, a plan of action is formulated. The clinical component comprises 40% of the final grade.
The examination consists of a one hour short answer exam which includes key feature questions. The examination is based on the course objectives. Course objectives are covered in the course manual, seminars and simulation day. The written exam comprises 60% of the final grade.
The student must pass both components with a minimum grade of 60% in each to pass the course. Failure to do so will result in failure.
Textbooks/Learning Resources
Students are provided with an anesthesia course manual that contains the core objectives. Chapters in the manual are authored by our faculty.
Other suggested textbooks are the following. They are not required for this course.
1. Basics of Anesthesia, 5th edition r. Stoelting & R Miller; Churchill Livingstone, 2007
2. www.openanesthesia.org Go to Wiki Section- Anesthesia Textbook, Sponsored by International Anesthesia Research Society-IARS