Anesthesia

Introduction

The Anesthesia Section offers a Post-DVM residency program in anesthesia that provides advanced clinical training and specialization in applied veterinary pharmacology, anesthesia, and perioperative pain management under the supervision of three ACVA board-certified anesthesiologists. The standard program is a 3-year combined residency and graduate studies program leading to a Certificate of Residency and Master of Science Degree.

Objectives

The objectives of the program are for the resident to:

Develop comprehensive, state of the art expertise and clinical proficiency in comparative anesthesia and pain management.
Satisfy the criteria necessary to qualify for board certification in anesthesia, and to prepare the resident for successful completion of the examinations leading to diplomate status in the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiologists
Prepare for future career goals of teaching, clinical research, scientific publication or specialized practice
Attain the Master of Science degree in a specific area of research

Faculty and staff

Faculty

Richard Bednarski, DVM, MS, DACVA
John Hubbell, DVM, MS, DACVA
Phillip Lerche, DVSC, PhD, DACVA
Turi Aarnes, DVM, MS, DACVA

Current Residents

Lisa Sams, DVM, Third year
Keri Lewis, DVM, First year

Registered Veterinary Technicians

Amanda English, Lead Technician LAA
Theresa Weber, Lead Technician SAA
Heather Cruea
Chris Duffey
Sue Huck
Gladys Karpa,
Carl O’Brien
Zach Schell
Kim Snyder

Prerequisites and application

All potential residents in anesthesiology must meet admission requirements to The Ohio State University Graduate School without conditions - see Residency Program Handbook, CVM Graduate Program Handbook and Graduate School Handbook. According to the residency guidelines approved by the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiologists, prospective residents must meet the minimum qualifications for entry into an ACVA approved training program.

Residents who are foreign nationals (non-US citizens) must be in possession of the appropriate visas and work authorization as outlined in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences Residency Program Handbook. In addition, foreign nationals must also meet the requirements of the university Graduate school for the Test of English as a Foreign Languages (TOEFL) or Michigan Test of English Proficiency (MTELP) – see Graduate Program Handbook.

Employment and benefits

Residency Program Handbook

Salary
Health insurance
Book/travel allowance
Personal + Professional days leave (from policy)
External consultation and employment
Licensure

Orientation

During the first few days of the residency program, all incoming residents participate in a comprehensive orientation program to introduce them to the department, college and university, complete necessary documentation, and to facilitate integration into our program and activities.
Following the general orientation program for all residents, new anesthesiology residents will meet with the anesthesia faculty to discuss and plan the initial few weeks and months of the first year of the residency.
Typically, new residents will spend the first few days or weeks on clinical duty in an observatory capacity. Thereafter, new residents will take primary case responsibility and discuss each and every case with the faculty on-service clinician before committing to a complete perioperative anesthetic plan. This period is variable dependent on the general clinical knowledge and anesthesia specific knowledge and skills of the resident.

Advisors and mentoring

Clinical advisors

Each of the anesthesiology faculty members will serve in an equal capacity as clinical advisors. This means that residents will take advice and input from the on-clinic anesthesiologist

Academic advisor

The principal academic advisor is decided once the resident’s primary area of research is decided. Until that time, all anesthesiologists are involved in initial discussions and planning of the direction of the resident’s research. All anesthesiologists who are not the academic advisor to the resident will serve on the advisory and examination committees for the MS degree.

Thesis committee

Once the specific area of research is selected, an Advisory committee will be formed. This will consist of the academic advisor, the anesthesiology faculty and any other faculty members who may be able to provide advice in the development of a specific research project, during the project and to completion of the study. Typically, the Advisory committee serves as the Examination committee for the thesis defense. These committees must consist of at least 3 graduate faculty members.

Mentoring

All the anesthesiology faculty members serve as mentors throughout the course of the residency, graduate course program and research project.

Clinical Service responsibilities

Clinical Rotations

Program rotations are designed to ensure development of clinical competence in a broad range of species. Generally, residents are assigned to clinical work 4 days each week with time equally split between large animal (equine, farm animal, camelid) and small animal (dog, cat, exotic) anesthesia. All residents participate with the anesthesia technicians in the emergency on-call services of the section on a rotating basis covering evenings, weekends, and holidays. Rotations facilitate development of clinical proficiency, clinical skills, and knowledge of anesthesia and pain management through exposure to a wide variety of cases at all levels of complexity. The goal is facilitated by the location of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in a large metropolitan area that provides a rich variety of case material as well as a referral base that includes Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia. Case management is carried out with the guidance and collaboration of experienced faculty in a variety of disciplines who are recognized experts in their respective fields. State of the art equipment and facilities are available to develop technical expertise in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

Teaching responsibilities

Teaching

Teaching responsibilities include clinical teaching of fourth year veterinary students. Residents also participate in teaching anesthesia to third year veterinary students during operative practice laboratories. Residents will be given the opportunity to develop lecture skills by preparing and delivering selected formal classroom lectures to professional students or post graduate veterinarians.

Educational opportunities

Master of Science Program

Original research or clinical investigation leading to scholarly publications is required by the department and the ACVA (see Graduate Program Handbook and www.acva.org). Significant research leading to an MS thesis is required of residents. It is expected that the MS thesis will be successfully defended no later than the conclusion of the residency (3 years total). The College's Council on Research reviews proposals and administers funds for research projects. Opportunities are also available to collaborate on extramurally-funded research projects with faculty in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, the Department of Veterinary Biosciences, and the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
Enrichment time (time off clinics) is provided to allow pursuit of course work, independent study, research, thesis writing, publication, and other elective endeavors. Enrichment time averages 20% of the resident's responsibilities. Completion of the residency and Masters program will competitively position the graduate for acceptance into College and university programs leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Participation in at least one ACVA continuing education program is expected. More CE may be attended based on departmental guidelines and available funding.

Graduate program

As part of their MS degree program, residents have to complete 30 hours of didactic coursework. Courses are offered within the College of Veterinary Medicine (a full curriculum of graduate courses on a range of topics is offered within the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences) as well as by other colleges at The Ohio State University. Typically, courses taken include research methods, pharmacology, statistics, advanced anesthesiology, critical care, and courses in cardiology, amongst others. In the past, anesthesiology residents have fulfilled their didactic coursework requirements by the end of the 2^nd year or early in the 3^rd year of their programs. Details of the formal requirements for completion of the MS degree can be found in the Graduate Program Handbook of the CVM.

Research and scholarly activity

MS thesis (see Residency and Graduate Program Handbooks)
The resident will be expected to prepare at least one abstract for presentation at the annual ACVA meeting. Attendance at that meeting will occur at least once during the three year program and no earlier than the second year of the program
Per ACVA requirement at least one first authored refereed, anesthesiology - related publication must be accepted by the journal of submission prior to January 1 of the year the resident takes the written portion of the ACVA exam (see guidelines at ACVA.org).
In addition to formal coursework leading to the MS degree, anesthesiology residents are expected to participate with the anesthesiology faculty in weekly journal review sessions. The resident will rotate responsibility for selecting and presenting the weekly journal articles with the other anesthesia residents and faculty. In addition the resident will regularly review a given book relating to a specific anesthesia-related theme.

Evaluations

Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences

Formal resident performance evaluations are completed by December 1^st and June 1^st each year. Details of the nature and structure of these evaluations can be found in the Residency Program Handbook.

Specialty College

The ACVA requires regular (at least yearly written and verbal) evaluations of the resident's progress. The resident must submit credentials to the ACVA for approval at the beginning of the residency and follow the ACVA guidelines listed for residency training. The credentials submission form is available on the ACVA website.

Expectations

The resident is expected to follow all departmental, college, and university rules related to employment by The Ohio State University. The resident is expected to fulfill within 3 years from the beginning of the program all residency training requirements of the department and the ACVA.
The resident can expect that the department, college and faculty will provide the educational experience, support, and training for the resident to successfully apply for diplomate status in the ACVA.

Typical Schedule

A typical anesthesiology resident's weekly schedule during the first summer of the first year of the residency includes):
- 8:00 – 9:00 Anesthesia fauculty/4th year student rounds (Monday – Thursday)
- 9:00 – 6:00 LA or SA anesthesia clinics
Beginning Fall quarter of the first year and continuing for the remainder of the residency, the resident will attend pertinent VCS graduate courses offered between 7:00 and 9:00 AM some days of the week. When not in one of these sessions the resident should attend anesthesia faculty/student rounds from 8 – 9. The rest of the day will be spent in LA or SA clinics with time out as necessary to attend any graduate course(s) in which the resident is enrolled. The resident will be assigned 4 days of the week to clinical service either in the LA or SA clinic. The resident will be assigned time out of clinic to perform any required research. This time must not exceed that established in the ACVA training guidelines.
When assigned to clinics the resident is expected to be present on the clinic floor or close at hand at least until 6 PM or until all major cases are finished. During the final year of the program and depending on the resident's clinical progress the resident will be assigned clinical time as primary anesthesiologist with a faculty member(s) available as a back up.

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