None of those thirdyears have any interest in sticking around the OR on their week in anesthesia. LET THEM GO HOME EARLY. DOnt torture them. make them start a few IVS.. intubate a few times.. and thats your week I would make it mandatory that they have to be home before the price is right otherwise i would drop their letter grade a half. They would have to call me to confirm that they are home.
I disagree somewhat. I agree that hours for students shouldn't be unreasonable, but in order to appreciate anesthesia they need to BE THERE. Just yesterday, I experienced a nice teaching point (remember, hopefully those taking the rotation in the first place ARE interested in the field, at least somewhat).
It was the middle of the case. A simple lap hysterectomy, where we saw some desaturation that happened pretty acutely. So, the CA1 got a bit concerned (not gonna say what the sat level was.... it wasn't way down, but again, it happened quickly). The attending came in and explained how we almost certainly had the woman intubated too deep with the endotracheal tube, so when the patient went into reverse Trendelenberg and they re-insulflated to an increased pressure, the tracheal tube was likely RIGHT at the carina and upon insulflation and due to the patients position, the tube likely slid slightly down towards the right mainstem bronchi, thus causing a slight desaturation.
So, it was a pretty basic teaching point, but a practical one. But, I had to be there to learn from it.
Again, I agree on hours. We get to take off around 3 or whenever after that that we kind of want. It helps, because I'm not too tired to go home and read etc. Also, they DO give us flexibility to hop around a bit. HOWEVER, it facilitates cohesion when you start a case and stay with the resident, IMO. Just good form so to speak. Plenty of opportunities to open up Miller's Basics of Anesthesia and chat with the resident, and learn.
It also helps having residents that AREN'T OVERworked, and are with few exceptions good people and fun to work with.