Clinical Training Overview
Clinical Base Year- Categorical (4-year) Program
Anesthesiology residency programs require a four-year continuum. The second, third, and fourth years are designated as clinical anesthesiology (CA-1-3) years and are devoted entirely to anesthesiology. The first postgraduate year (PGY-1) is designated as a clinical base (CB) year and is devoted to hospital-based clinical experience outside of the operating room. The purpose of this first year of the program is to allow the resident to become a proficient hospital physician in the broadest sense. This CB year may be fulfilled in many ways, such as a transitional program that includes various clinical rotations, a year of internal medicine, or a year in any other clinical specialty program.
The Department of Anesthesiology at Northwestern offers medical students a unique clinical base year that is planned as an integral part of the four-year continuum. It emphasizes internal medicine and critical care experience. Many residents find the opportunity to train continuously in a single program an attractive and convenient option.
The CB year optimizes the experience of the perioperative physician. The first ten months are devoted to four months of general internal medicine rotations, two months of medical intensive care, and single-month assignments to the emergency department, coronary care unit and cardiology inpatient service, hematology-oncology, pulmonary consultation, and to critical care medicine in the surgical intensive care unit. Clinical anesthesia rotations begin in May. An additional one to two months of critical care during the PGY-2 year is credited toward CB year requirements. This allows residents in the four-year continuum to have completed seven months of clinical exposure to intensive care medicine at the end of their required two-month CA-2 year critical care rotation.
CA-1 Year Curriculum
The CA-1 resident year emphasizes the principles of both general and regional anesthesiology necessary to function as an anesthesiologist.New CA-1 anesthesiology residents undergo a 6-week orientation that includes a daily introductory lecture series and one-to-one attending supervision. The CA-1 year is organized into discrete block rotations to ensure that every resident is exposed to all major areas of expertise. These rotations include general surgery, urology, airway management, gynecology, and orthopedic anesthesia in addition to prepoperative assessment and recovery room. As more experience is gained, residents are expected to demonstrate increasing independence and insight as they are assigned to multiple focused clinical rotations.
CA-2 Year Curriculum
The CA-2 year incorporates rotations in the subspecialties of anesthesiology, including pediatric, obstetric, cardiothoracic, and neurosurgical anesthesiology and neurosurgical critical care and chronic pain medicine. Each clinical rotation is accompanied by an organized didactic program to ensure that the resident becomes both clinically proficient and knowledgeable about the fundamentals of each subspecialty.
CA-3 Year Curriculum
The CA-3 year is designed to give the resident all the exposure necessary to develop into a perioperative physician and anesthesiology consultant by providing advanced training in transplantation/vascular, cardiothoracic, and neurosurgical anesthesia, cardiothoracic critical care and acute pain medicine as well as OR Management and OR Off Site training. Seniors are offered five months of elective time including one-two months of research.
