Clinical Anesthesia Rotations

Clinical training begins on the first day of your Clinical Base Year (CBY) year and continues throughout the next four years. Rotations in clinical anesthesia (CA) are one week, two weeks, or four weeks spent in the following areas:

  • Airway Simulator Workshop
  • Milstein Service (includes):
    • Ear, Nose & Throat
    • General Surgery
    • Transplantation Surgery
    • Neuroanesthesia
    • Out-of-the-OR Experience
    • Pre-Anesthesia Evaluation and Consultations (PAU)
    • Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU)
    • Regional & Orthopedic
    • Genitourinary and Cystoscopic Surgery
    • Vascular
  • Cardiothoracic Anesthesia
  • Critical Care
  • Obstetric Anesthesia
  • Pain Medicine
  • Pediatric Anesthesia, including Out-of-the-OR Experience

In your CA-1 year, the first four weeks are spent in an intensive individualized training period during which you will be assigned to one attending for two weeks, then a second attending for another two weeks. Specific educational objectives are provided at the onset of the rotation. By the end of the first month you will have achieved basic clinical skills, and the remainder of your first year will be spent improving these skills and learning new techniques.

In your CA-1 and CA-2 year, you will begin your subspecialty experience by rotating through cardiothoracic, neuroanesthesia, pediatrics, obstetrics, pain, and regional. Your education in perioperative care will be enhanced by rotations in the PAU, PACU, and the intensive care units (surgical and cardiothoracic ICUs). You will revisit clinical subspecialties you rotated through as a CA-1, although as a CA-2 you will be assigned the more challenging cases with more advanced educational objectives.

As a CA-3, you will work with the Program Director leadership to formulate an individualized clinical schedule tailored to meet your needs.  We do offer senior electives in education, simulation, ultrasound, research, ethics, and global health.  There is a formal application process for senior electives, and time is allocated based on merit of the proposal and clinical standing.  With the exception of Apgar research scholars, the average allocation of protected elective time ranges from 2–4 weeks.  Many residents elect to undergo fellowship training at Columbia and in this case, longitudinal projects initiated during elective months can be continued during fellowship.

The ACGME requires two distinct rotations in the subspecialty areas of anesthesia. In our program we provide three distinct rotations—an initial, a junior and a senior experience—to provide a progressive, more advanced and challenging clinical experiences for each resident.