TY Electives to Prep for CA-1

[d-dimer]

How many months of anesthesia do you recommend for pgy-1 as a TY?
How about other useful electives? Extra month of cardiology, IM Wards or IM clinic?
Or should I go for easier electives like radiology, derm, rheum, non-surgical ortho to study for Step 3?
Thanks in advance

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[coffeebythelake]

You will get more than enough anesthesia exposure in anesthesia residency. I recommend ICU, pulm and cardiology, something heavier on physiology.

If you've had a couple anesthesia rotations in PGY1 and not slack off, you'll have a one-up on many of your colleagues when CA-1 starts. Being able to place an IV and intubate without looking like a complete novice will impress your attendings for the first few weeks. But these are simple, technical skills. In my experience as an attending, the differences in technical skills begin to blur within a month or so in.

 

[vector2]

1-2 months of anesthesia is more than enough. Preferably try to do one of those months towards the end of TY so it's still fresh. As far other rotations, try to do as much MICU, IM wards, inpatient cardiology, pulm consults, and EM as you can. I tell new CA-1s that it's hard to know how to preoperatively evaluate and subsequently anesthetize pts with COPD, PNA, CKD, ESRD, cirrhosis, HTN, MI, afib, CHF, CVA, GI bleed, sepsis etc etc if you have no idea how to diagnose those conditions, recognize if they're decompensated, and medically treat them appropriately.

What it boils down to is that I'm looking first to see if new anesthesia residents are actually doctors before I look to see if they can get the tube through the cords.

 

[d-dimer]

Thanks!