Gone are The Days of Lectures
When you were in medical school or anesthesia school, you had dedicated classroom time. This gave you the ability to attend lectures, study for exams, and learn about medicine and/or anesthesia.
Most of your time is spent in the Operating Room (OR) on various rotations during the clinical part of your training, The lectures from here on out will be at zero dark thirty. (Ok, not really, but most places have lectures at some time between 6 am and 7 am.) If you are lucky, there will be some rotations that have a lecture in the afternoon, but that is rare.
While you may have a lecture or two a week, most of your studying is done on your own.
Your time is tight, especially when you have call, weekend duties, and long days in the OR. You will have to make the most of the time that you do have to learn as much as you can. It is important to study because you have either anesthesia exams or Board Certification waiting for you at the end of your training.
What about Studying in the OR?
Hey, if all you are doing is “just sitting there” monitoring the patient, why can’t you use those long stretches of time to study? You may meet some other students and residents who do this, but I don’t recommend studying in the OR for several reasons.
- It distracts from patient care. There are times during a case when you have to look something up, read up on a disease condition, or look through the patient chart. This happens, but it can still be a distraction.
- Even if you are paying attention, it looks like you are distracted. Part of our job is to not only be observant but also have other perceive we are observant. If every time the surgeon looks over to you and you have your face in a book, it gives the appearance that you are not focused on the case at hand.
- From a completely selfish perspective, when you study in the OR you have to constantly task shift. (Task shifting is when you are focused on Task A, then get distracted by Task B. When Task B is finished, you then have to shift back to the Task A.) Every time you change the task you are concentrating on (called a task shift) it decreases your productivity and reduces your focus. You have to re-focus and get “geared up” again to the task at hand. It is much better if you can study, uninterrupted for at least 25 minutes before a task shift.
So if studying in the OR is not feasible, what can you do?
You will have to learn while on the move.
How to Study On the Move
Because your time is short during your clinical rotations, it is important to make the most of it. Once you have your basic anesthesia books in place, you should consider adding a few others that will help you 1) study at home, 2) study for taking care of patients and 3) get ready for your anesthesia exams. The books below are good to have in your library to add to your training.
1. Studying At Home
During your anesthesia training, you will be studying on your own time. Making the most of this time is key to increasing your anesthesia and knowledge. You probably already have one of The Basic Anesthesia Books like Clinical Anesthesia, Baby Miller or Baby Barash and you had to buy two copies of Anesthesia Made Easy, because you loved it so much you read it till it fell apart. (Just kidding … you bought the Kindle version, so you are good )
You want to build the habit of reading about anesthesia at home. What you read is not as important as making the habit of reading. Simply start by choosing the basic texts and start reading. (Your program might have a required text … if they do, start there.)
Tailor your studying to fit your rotation. Read about a general anesthesia topic when you are on your general rotation. Before you start your OB rotation, read the OB chapter. Some of the information in the text may not make much sense when you first read it. As you start using the information in the operating room, it will become more and more clear.
2. Reading up on Patients The Night Before Your Case
One way you will be leaning on the move is through reading up on cases the day before you are in the OR. In most training programs, you will get your assignment the night before, so that you will have the patient information and the type of case you will be doing. At many institutions, you will access to an electronic medical record (EMR) and can look up not only the schedule but also each specific patient information.
This is a great opportunity to learn about disease processes and anesthesia techniques.
Especially when you are starting out, it is helpful to not only have a basic anesthesia book, but I also recommend the following books (in order of descending importance):
3. Reading In Between Cases While on Call
Make the most of your time and try to squeeze in some studying between OR cases and while you are in the hospital on call.
The books that follow are easy to pick up, get some studying done, and put down.
Faust’s Anesthesiology Review. I love this book. This is an awesome book to expand your anesthesiology knowledge. It provides 1 to 3-page chapters on topics that allow you to do some quick reading while you have some downtime. It feels great to read a few pages and finish a topic. A cool way to use the Faust book is like a “nightcap”. Read a chapter or two (2-6 pages) and get some anesthesia knowledge in your noggin before you go to sleep. It is available as a paperback or an e-textbook.
Thanks for Stopping By
I hope you have found this article helpful. You can structure a studying method that fits with your schedule with a little ingenuity and the right tools. If you have not picked up Anesthesia Made Easy, then do yourself a favor and buy it today. If you had to pick just one other book, check out Clinical Anesthesia Procedures of Mass General. I am on my second copy of this book because it got worn out from all the reading and travel back and forth to the hospital.
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