I'm sorry but I think learning how to be collegial with CRNAs early in your career is important - whether you like it or not, in the future most of us will be working with them. If you as a resident want CRNAs to give you breaks then you should be willing to do the same - the whole "I am better then that" is just plain old ridiculous.
I disagree with this except for the first statement. Respect for and collegiality with advance practice nurses is obviously important, not just in a professional sense but also as part of being a decent human being. But residents shouldn't be part of a labor force to get CRNAs their breaks. (Keep in mind that ACGME will have something to say about this practice if they hear about it.)
The exception might be if the specific academic activity for a senior resident is to do a pre-attending day filling the role of supervision. There's value in learning to run the board, manage people, and direct midlevels and other people. It's absolutely true that if the job market has a lot of ACT models (it does) then residency should incorporate some amount of training to step into the lead role of an ACT. Unless the resident is also directing the preop and the entirety of intraop care, there is NO APPROPRIATE ROLE for them as lunch breakers. Period. It's just labor extraction.
When residents are in the ICU it would be unthinkable for them to cover a bed so the ICU RN can go get coffee or lunch or attend some meeting.
I trained at a program with SRNAs, and later went back there to be an attending. It was a non-issue. They never take good cases, blocks, or other procedures from residents. (The exception might have been OB, but the volume is so high there's no shortage of epidurals and sections.) They never do cardiac or cranis or the sick ex-lap from the ICU. They have out rotations at other hospitals without residency programs to get their numbers in those areas.
It's a serious social faux pas with ACGME for a SRNA to be taking educations opportunities from residents. I don't doubt that some programs out there do it, but it's not OK and it doesn't have to be that way. Having residents give breaks to CRNAs in the name of efficiency or being friendly is not OK.
Additionally, pre-ops are a part of your job as an attending so learning how to do them well will serve you well.
This is true.
But as sevo noted in his excellent post above, finishing at 6 PM on a non-call day only to run around the hospital banging out consent paperwork for the next day's schedule ... that isn't good for anyone.
The bottom line is that there's an implied contract in being a resident that we all know and understand: in return for an education, sometimes the resident is needed to just perform labor in order to get the day's work done and the patients cared for. That's OK. But good programs limit low-educational-yield labor extraction because they make deliberate decisions and have sufficient staff to minimize their dependence on resident labor. Bad programs view residents as labor first and trainees second.
The line between the two is fuzzy but you can't deny that the line exists.
If a resident is routinely doing preops at 7 PM or giving breaks to CRNAs, you've got to ask
- why are non-call residents needed to keep the ORs running past 5 PM?
- why aren't CRNAs giving breaks to CRNAs?
- why aren't the attendings who are supposed to be supervising the CRNAs giving breaks?
If the answer to any of these is "the work won't get done without the residents doing those tasks" then the reality is simply that the department is poorly managed, understaffed, and/or unconcerned with the quality of the residency program.
These problems can't be fairly dismissed by pretending that the arrangement is somehow good for the residents.