Clerkships

Anesthesia Clerkship

The Clerkship is structured to provide each student two weeks of Anesthesiology operating room experience and one week each of MICU/SICU and pain clinic exposure. Prior to the start of the Anesthesiology clerkship, if a student has already completed (not just scheduled, but actually completed) a 4-week MICU/SICU rotation, they have the option of requesting from the site director an additional week of anesthesiology operating room experience in lieu of the mandatory one week of MICU/SICU exposure. During this clerkship, students interact with staff from several surgical and non-surgical specialties. They are introduced to, and participate in, pre-, peri-, and post-operative patient evaluations while accounting for co-existing diseases and conditions that affect the management of the surgical patient. They are taught critical technical skills required of all physicians, including airway management and intravenous catheter placement along with the use of physiologic monitoring. Students gain exposure to interventional procedures and the bio-psycho-social model of pain and participate in multidisciplinary pain management for patients with acute, chronic, and cancer pain in the outpatient and inpatient setting.

Clerkship Locations

  • Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, VA
  • Naval Medical Center San Diego, CA
  • Tripler Army Medical Center, HI
  • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, MD
  • Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center, San Antonio, TX

 

Elective Courses

After passing the Anesthesia Clerkship or Selective, there are a variety of elective courses from students to choose from:

Expanded Clerkship or Selective

After completing either required course, students are eligible to participate in an Expanded Clerkship or Selective, which allows students to expand and build on their first Anesthesia rotation experience. Students may complete the expanded experiences at one of the approved sites, or, can work with the Clerkship Coordinator and the site to establish approval to perform the rotation elsewhere. There is no USU exam component at the end, and these are Pass/Fail courses.

Pain Selective

The Pain Selective is a 4 week Pass/Fail rotation which students can complete after passing the Clerkship or Selective course. Generally, students spend three weeks in the outpatient clinic seeing new and follow-up patients and interventional procedures, and one week on the inpatient and/or regional pain service seeing consults and rounding with the multidisciplinary team. The rotation, however, is flexible and can be tailored to students’ interests.

During the Pain Selective rotation students are exposed to the bio-psycho-social model of pain while being directly involved with the practice of multidisciplinary pain management. Students act as part of a multidisciplinary team comprised of staff members from the disciplines of anesthesiology, internal medicine, nutrition, pharmacology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, psychiatry, neuropsychology, and neurology. As part of this team, they provide medical management for patients with acute, chronic, and cancer pain in both the outpatient, continuity care, and inpatient consultation setting. While in the pain clinic, students are also exposed, under direct supervision, to interventional procedures. Staff, fellows, and residents work closely with the students in all phases of the Pain Selective.

Pain Selective Locations

  • Naval Medical Center San Diego, CA
  • Wilford Hall, San Antonio, TX
  • Tripler Army Medical Center, HI
  • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, MD

Anesthesia Research Selective

A short-term research project for the selected Capstone Scholars in Anesthesia may be developed with select faculty. This course does not count towards the graduation requirement.