Education

Education Program

The didactic component of the residency in anesthesiology at UCLA is matched in intensity and breadth to the clinical experience. There are three components to our educational philosophy, including education in the science of anesthesiology, applied anesthesiology and preparation for the written and oral board examination given by the American Board of Anesthesiology. All residents receive an educational stipend of $500 per year that can be used for the purchase of books, computer software or other educational materials and conference attendance. An additional $1000 is given to residents whose score on the In-Training Examination meet or exceed the expectations of our Residency Program.

CA-1 Lecture Series

During the first 4 weeks of training, in addition to one-to-one teaching in the operating room, CA-1 residents are relieved from the OR each day for an interactive lecture or workshop on the most important basics of anesthesia practice, including induction of general anesthesia, the anesthesia machine, fluid management, among others. Additionally, during this month each resident spends 4 sessions at the Human Patient Simulator experiencing Induction, Emergence, Hypoxia and Hemodynamic Changes.

Didactic Series

Tuesdays at 3:30 pm all anesthesiology residents at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center, Jules Stein Eye Institute and Surgery Center at UCLA are relieved of their OR and clinical duties by the faculty to attend the interactive lecture/workshop series. In response to resident feedback and our interest in continually improving our Educational Program, workshops and interactive presentations using the Human Patient Simulator are becoming the cornerstone of our Tuesday Didactics. Workshop programs include airway management, regional anesthesia techniques including use of ultrasound, epidural/spinal placement, TEE, and PA catheters and practice management, among others. On workshop days, a full 90 minutes are devoted to the topic.

On lecture days, the first 30 minutes are devoted to case conference. Case conferences are oral board style presentations made by faculty and residents with faculty supervision. On lecture days, the second 60 minutes of the session are consists of a lecture on an anesthesia subspecialty topic by our own faculty subspecialist or an expert visiting professor.

Once each month, the didactic session devoted to written board review with an interactive audience response system for answering the questions. The results of each question are tallied real-time and the faculty leading the session goes through each question and the answers. A reading schedule is provided and the session is spent discussing board questions in an interactive format.

Once per month, there is a CA-3 oral board conference with the Chair. The Chair also gives occasional 30-minutes presentations on topics related the ACGME competencies, such as Systems Based Practice Improvement.

These lectures and workshops cover all aspects of the specialty of Anesthesiology over an 18-month period. This affords each resident two opportunities to participate in each program during the CA-1 through CA-3 years of residency to account for times on away rotations.

Grand Rounds

Every Wednesday from 7:00 am to 8:00 am on a variety of topics by our own faculty, visiting professors and experts from other UCLA departments are presented. One session per month serves as a Morbidity and Mortality Conference.

Journal Clubs

The UCLA cardiac anesthesia service provides monthly journal clubs in both cardiac anesthesia and TEE. There is also a Pediatric Anesthesiology journal club every other month.

Oral Board Preparation

Twice per year, just prior to each ABA oral board examination, the UCLA Department of Anesthesiology offers mock oral sessions to UCLA residents and Alumni. The practice exams are performed to accurately simulate the experience of taking the oral board exam in anesthesiology. Both residents, who are relieved from the OR, and alumni participate in these practice examinations.

ACLS

The department offers a bi-annual ACLS course for experienced providers to the anesthesiology residents from faculty who are ACLS instructors.

Libraries

The departmental library is conveniently located adjacent to the Anesthesia Education Office. It is supplied with computers with internet access and printers, appropriate texts and periodicals relating to anesthesia, demonstration mannequins and models. This room has been prepared for study in a quiet and pleasant atmosphere with comfortable furnishings and appropriate equipment. Educational and general-purpose (e.g. word processing) software is installed. On-line medical literature search and internet access is also available. A VCR, DVD player and monitor are provided along with an extensive selection of educational videos. The library also contains a Medical Center Computing Services (MCCS) terminal whereby residents may access laboratory results, pathology reports, patient information, on-line medical records and E-mail. MCCS terminals are also located throughout the medical center.

The UCLA Center for the Health Sciences maintains a large biomedical library (located within the Medical Center complex) which contains over 450,000 volumes, subscribes to approximately 7,000 current periodicals, and offers a variety of reference services, including computerized literature searches. A roster of foreign language translators is available at the library and a staff of reference librarians is available to facilitate the acquisition of reference material.