Education

Our first month of residency is packed with didactics. They assume we don't know anything and start from the beginning. Orientation involved some simulation exercises. Simulation is the big educational tool in anesthesia now; anesthesia is an ideal field because it involves teamwork, cooperation, crisis management, leadership skills, and communication as well as hands-on skills, quick problem solving, and critical thinking. We also get 2 hours of lecture 3 times a week on basics from pharmacology to physiology to ethics. Lastly, we are supposed to work through an introductory workbook and set of slides. It's really great, though I think my coresidents and I are pretty exhausted.

Image of Duke anesthesiology simulation shown under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License, from Wikipedia.