Anesthesia Rotation Reading

[Hrdrock]

I'm a third year interested in anesthesia (possibly with critical care) and have a 2-week rotation coming up. I've only done inpatient IM so far. I've seen that most recommend either baby Miller or M&M (I have electronic access to both through our library). What specific chapters would you recommend I try and read through during a 2-week rotation? Or if you have recommendations for other resources I'd love to hear them. Really hoping to build a bit of a foundation so that I can be more prepared for anesthesia Sub-Is in fourth year.

 

[partydoc]

I'm a third year interested in anesthesia (possibly with critical care) and have a 2-week rotation coming up. I've only done inpatient IM so far. I've seen that most recommend either baby Miller or M&M (I have electronic access to both through our library). What specific chapters would you recommend I try and read through during a 2-week rotation? Or if you have recommendations for other resources I'd love to hear them. Really hoping to build a bit of a foundation so that I can be more prepared for anesthesia Sub-Is in fourth year.

Try to read the pharmacology

 

[Morzh]

At the third year level I would recommend focusing on the basics of physiology and pharm, especially cardiac and pulm. Inotropes and vasopressors. Basics of ventilators. Monitors, how pulse ox works and ecg. The critical care stuff that you need to know well regardless of what you end up doing.

That kind of stuff will probably serve you better than trying to master the nuances of the different volatile anesthetics or whatever.

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[Hrdrock]

Try to read the pharmacology

At the third year level I would recommend focusing on the basics of physiology and pharm, especially cardiac and pulm. Inotropes and vasopressors. Basics of ventilators. Monitors, how pulse ox works and ecg. The critical care stuff that you need to know well regardless of what you end up doing.

That kind of stuff will probably serve you better than trying to master the nuances of the different volatile anesthetics or whatever.

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Great, thanks for the suggestions.

 

[AdmiralChz]

Try to read the pharmacology

Highly recommend M&M's chapters here!

 

[zizzer]

Start with the free PDF by Stanford's anesthesiology program you can google. That way you know everything you're reading is important, and you can read it before you start.

 

[FFP]

I'm a third year interested in anesthesia (possibly with critical care) and have a 2-week rotation coming up. I've only done inpatient IM so far. I've seen that most recommend either baby Miller or M&M (I have electronic access to both through our library). What specific chapters would you recommend I try and read through during a 2-week rotation? Or if you have recommendations for other resources I'd love to hear them. Really hoping to build a bit of a foundation so that I can be more prepared for anesthesia Sub-Is in fourth year.

Anesthesia Secrets. Nothing more, nothing less. Get the Kindle edition and read it on your smartphone.

 

[G-Man82]

I used Anesthesia Secrets when I was a medical student doing the elective. As a student, you don't need to focus on nuances. A knowledge of pharmacology and physiology will be plenty. And then how to treat certain derangements in said physiology will also help.


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[anbuitachi]

i read nothing as a student. it worked out fine hahah. just ask plenty of questions!

 

[supermario21]

The chief resident I was working with on an away (currently) showed me the Kentucky videos and the Stanford CA-1 guide. Honestly the best thing you can do is offer to help whenever you can, such as room setup either before the day starts or for the next cases of the day, etc, asking questions that make it seem like you've been reading/paying attention, and just fit in with everyone. It's sort of weird/nice reading about everyone else's EM/IM Sub-I horror stories and anesthesia seems to basically just be about being a good help/fit/not an dingus lol.

 

[MirrorTodd]

Baby Miller: section's 2, 3 and 5...primarily sections 2 and 3.
I was instructed to make a list of the most common drugs I saw used and memorize their class, MOA, onset time, offset time (ultra short, short, moderate and long was satisfactory for the rotation), metabolism, excetion, and significant side effects.

 

[DrLefty]

I'm a third year interested in anesthesia (possibly with critical care) and have a 2-week rotation coming up. I've only done inpatient IM so far. I've seen that most recommend either baby Miller or M&M (I have electronic access to both through our library). What specific chapters would you recommend I try and read through during a 2-week rotation? Or if you have recommendations for other resources I'd love to hear them. Really hoping to build a bit of a foundation so that I can be more prepared for anesthesia Sub-Is in fourth year.

How did you pull that off? I'm fairly certain we are in the same class and when I asked about doing a gas rotation, they said I had to do a surgery rotation first.

 

[anbuitachi]

Juast ask questions, dont need to know much. People got no expectations. If you want read up on the drugs, ASA scores, pre oping patients, how to place an IV (if you dont know yet)

 

[vector2]

Juast ask questions, dont need to know much. People got no expectations. If you want read up on the drugs, ASA scores, pre oping patients, how to place an IV (if you dont know yet)

Can you please stop giving this advice? There's a huge difference between the questions from a complete newbie and someone who's managed to, you know, actually read a little bit about anesthesia before showing up in the morning. We should be trying to get highly motivated, interested med students and maybe, just maybe break the cycle of anesthesia rotations being cush vacations where you put in the tube and go home at 11am.

 

[anbuitachi]

Can you please stop giving this advice? There's a huge difference between the questions from a complete newbie and someone who's managed to, you know, actually read a little bit about anesthesia before showing up in the morning. We should be trying to get highly motivated, interested med students and maybe, just maybe break the cycle of anesthesia rotations being cush vacations where you put in the tube and go home at 11am.

Just personal opinion. And I do get questions from noobs. They ask the most basic of questions. I just explain it to them. No where did I say put tube in and leave at 11.. I send them at 4pm which is still pretty early compared to everything else.

Not sure if making anesthesia a difficult rotation would change anything for the better. People would just stop choosing it as an elective

 

[Mabus3]

I thought this was a really great book when starting out on a rotation for anesthesia. Very short, quick, and to the point. It doesn't go super in depth which I think lends itself to having the reader ask "smart" questions on the basics. Also fits in scrub pockets easily which is convenient.
NMS Clinical Manual of Anesthesia

 

[Hrdrock]

How did you pull that off? I'm fairly certain we are in the same class and when I asked about doing a gas rotation, they said I had to do a surgery rotation first.

Oh really? I had passively mentioned my interest in anesthesia to our site coordinator and she just signed me up for anesthesia in a 2-week elective block I had (only rotation I had done was IM at that point).

 

[DrLefty]

Oh really? I had passively mentioned my interest in anesthesia to our site coordinator and she just signed me up for anesthesia in a 2-week elective block I had (only rotation I had done was IM at that point).

Dang. Well you’re a lucky one I guess. We must have different coordinators then. I’m doing surgery soon so hopefully after I finish that I can get an anesthesia one in. I don’t have much experience in the field and want to get a better idea of day to say before I jump all in on it. But I’m looking forward to it. If you don’t mind me asking, what draws you to the field? You can pm me if you’d like.


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[Fluffhead87]

Dang. Well you’re a lucky one I guess. We must have different coordinators then. I’m doing surgery soon so hopefully after I finish that I can get an anesthesia one in. I don’t have much experience in the field and want to get a better idea of day to say before I jump all in on it. But I’m looking forward to it. If you don’t mind me asking, what draws you to the field? You can pm me if you’d like.


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Try to follow your patient from the pre-op area into the OR (assuming you aren’t tasked with other surgery rotation duties). Be there with your patient before the OR nurse pages the attending that it’s time to cut. Chat up the anesthesiologist and express your honest insterest/curiosity. My first attempted intubations were as a 3rd year med student on my surgery rotation. Ideally any anesthesiologist at an academic institution should be happy to teach and mentor. And after the surgery (again, assuming your resident/attending doesn’t have other duties) follow your patient to PACU and get an understanding and respect of more of the peri-operative time, outside of incision to closure.

 

[anbuitachi]

Try to follow your patient from the pre-op area into the OR (assuming you aren’t tasked with other surgery rotation duties). Be there with your patient before the OR nurse pages the attending that it’s time to cut. Chat up the anesthesiologist and express your honest insterest/curiosity. My first attempted intubations were as a 3rd year med student on my surgery rotation. Ideally any anesthesiologist at an academic institution should be happy to teach and mentor. And after the surgery (again, assuming your resident/attending doesn’t have other duties) follow your patient to PACU and get an understanding and respect of more of the peri-operative time, outside of incision to closure.

Agreed. Just got to ask and show some interest.

 

[Hrdrock]

Finished the 2-week elective and had a blast. Fairly certain I'll be applying for anesthesia sub Is/residency next year. For those reading this thread in the future:
I ended up reading the intro chapters from Baby Miller's. I found it helpful to have at least a basic understanding of the meds that are routinely given during surgery (benzo, fentanyl, sux, propofol, -fluranes) so that you can ask better questions as they come up. The attendings I was with did a fair amount of regional blocks too, so I used this site to read about the different blocks (NYSORA The New York School of Regional Anesthesia -). Also read a chapter on the breathing apparatus and anesthesia delivery system, then use your time in the OR to get a handle on the ventilator settings using that background knowledge. I think the most you can gain from a short elective is to become familiar with the routine of surgery/anesthesia: what questions to ask pre-op, how to hook a patient up to all the monitors, order of meds given, how to intubate/extubate, monitoring vitals during the surgery. There isn't much to do as a student beyond that, but at least you'll look like you have some idea what's going on by the time you do a sub I.