Structure of the Residency Training Program

Categorical (PGY1) Training

The University of Washington offers 6 categorical anesthesia residency positions.

The categorical year rotations are linked to internal medicine and surgery programs at the UW and are in compliance with the RRC requirements for the anesthesiology clinical base year. Residents spend time in Critical Care rotations and Emergency medicine as well as a 4 week rotation in anesthesiology.

Clinical Anesthesia (CA) Years 1 – 3

Residents enter the CA 1 training after successfully completing a clinical base year which must include at least 6 months experience in caring for inpatients in internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, or any of the surgical specialties, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, family medicine, or any combination of these. In addition, there should be rotations in critical care and emergency medicine of at least one month duration and no more than 2 months each.

CA 1 Year

During the first year of training anesthesia residents rotate through the general operating room rotations at the three major hospitals, University of Washington Medical Center (UW), Harborview Medical Center (HMC) and Veterans’ Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System (VA). Residents acquire a broad spectrum of experience at the three hospitals. At HMC the major focus is on trauma, orthopedics and neurosurgical procedures. At UW cases are more elective in nature and cover a range of specialities including general surgery, bariatric surgery, otolaryngology, gynecological and orthopedic surgery as well as being a major center for cancer surgery. The UW is a major center for organ transplantation, performing in excess of 120 liver transplantations per year, and for complex cardiothoracic procedures. We are also a specialist referral center for high risk obstetrics. The new (2002) surgical pavilion offers residents extensive experience in ambulatory surgery. At VA residents deal with patients suffering from a spectrum of cardiac and vascular diseases.

In the latter 6 months of the CA 1 year residents rotate through 2 months of acute and chronic pain rotations or one to two months in the ICUs. Critical care training is provided by a predominately anesthesiology based faculty who are certified in both anesthesiology and critical care medicine.

During the CA1 year all residents undertake a 2 week rotation in the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) where they learn how to care for patients in the immediate post operative period. During this rotation residents also participate in the continuous quality improvement process, learning about systems issues and how to recognize and mange the complications related to anesthesia.

CA 2 Year: SUBSPECIALTY ROTATIONS

In the latter part of the CA 1 and the CA2 year residents participate in their subspecialty rotations. These include

  • 2 months of acute and chronic pain medicine
  • 2 months of critical care
  • 2 months of obstetric anesthesia
  • 3 months pediatric anesthesia
  • 1 month cardiac anesthesia
  • 1 month neuro anesthesia
  • 1 month of regional anesthesia
  • 1 month of ambulatory anesthesia

CA 3 Year: ADVANCED ANESTHESIA TRAINING

In the third year the residency training is more flexible, allowing each resident a certain amount of flexibility to tailor their rotations to their own interests.

All residents are required to take a month of pediatric anesthesia and a month of cardiac anesthesia. The residents may then select the final nine months of training from the following list of specialty rotations.

  • Ambulatory anesthesia
  • Cardiac anesthesia
  • Chronic pain
  • Difficult airway anesthesia
  • Neuroanesthesia
  • Regional and private practice experience at Virginia Mason Hospital
  • Regional anesthesia
  • Trauma anesthesia at HMC
  • Advanced anesthesia at UW or HMC

Elective month

All final year residents have the opportunity to undertake an elective month. Within reason, residents may pursue any activity of interest. Examples of popular elective months include

  • 1 month of TEE training with the UW cardiac anesthesiology group
  • 1 month of obstetric anesthesia at Evergreen private hospital
  • Elective months at a variety of hospitals both locally and out of state in regional anesthesia
  • Overseas experience in both first world and developing countries
  • Research projects, preparing case reports and presentations for local and national conferences.

Questions?

Please call, email or write if you need additional information or assistance. Contact Louena Goodwin (206-543-2773; fax 206-543-2958; anesuwa@u.washington.edu).

Our program is indexed on the AMA's Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA). Click here to go to FREIDA and search for our program using our 10-digit identifier: 0405421161

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