Lisa Caplan, MD

Kathleen Chen, MD, MS

David Young, MD, MEd, MBA

 

 

Ed Kosik, DO, FASA
Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma HSC 
John H. Saxon III, M.D. Professorship of Anesthesiology
Medical Director of Anesthesiology Simulation

The uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic brought out our best as we stayed focused on the safety of our learners and our educational mission. Even though our Simulation Center was officially closed, extensive education efforts took place.

Zoom lectures were offered on a multitude of anesthesia related topics. Simulation, both screen-based and high fidelity, was used extensively to educate our medical students. A simulation session that seemed straightforward before the pandemic took substantially more effort because we had to sanitize all the equipment and operate the simulators without the aid of technicians. Finding masks, gloves and sanitizing equipment was challenging. The debriefing skills that I obtained over the years helped to address and humanize medical students’ and residents’ concerns about COVID-19 and the effects on their education.
 
The fortitude of my colleagues both clinically and educationally was paramount.  We figured out how to make education work despite a potentially dangerous clinical situation.  An instructional video for donning and doffing personal protective equipment was literally made overnight; lectures were provided; mock oral board exams were successfully held; anesthesiology mock OSCEs were modified and successful; and ACLS classes were held in smaller groups. All of these efforts were made as we practiced social distancing and adhered to institutional safety guidelines.

I am more thankful than ever for my anesthesia colleagues and the people I am surrounded by. It is through their bravery and collaboration that we keep striving to move forward to make the best out of a challenging situation and never losing focus of the things that matter. 

Albertz, M1

Hoagland, M1

Masaracchia M1

LeRiger M2

Dachsangvorn, O3

Chatterjee, D1

 

Monica Bhutiani MD

Brian Gelfand MD

Meredith Kingeter MD

The transition from intern year to clinical anesthesiology represents an exciting but challenging time. Historically, our program utilized June of PGY1 year to prepare interns to work in the operating room. During this month, a hands-on and didactic educational format facilitated residents’ progression from paired oversight to semi-solo to eventually solo status by July 1st of CA-1 year.

Responding to local and national concerns of resident burnout, especially during the current pandemic, we restructured the program with emphasis on wellness and burnout prevention, while still ensuring intraoperative competence based upon established metrics. We incorporated strategies including paired intraoperative mentorship with predictable and assured OR relief, evening online lectures in interactive PBLD format, and resilience workshops.

During this transition period both intraoperative as well as social and emotional supports are imperative to decrease burnout and bolster mental wellbeing. Traditionally, interclass friendship and camaraderie vital for the forthcoming clinical years stems organically from frequent social interactions both within and outside the hospital. However, due to infectious concerns, many of those opportunities are not possible this year. With some creativity, we supplemented their curricula with online weekly social hours to facilitate debriefing, decompression, and growth as a class as well as a structured 1:1 peer mentorship program that paired rising CA-1 residents with senior mentors to provide psychosocial support, encourage self-reflection, and bolster professional connectedness.

Overall, these changes were implemented for the well-being of our residents, especially in the current climate shaped by COVID-19. Although the impetus for these changes was the pandemic, we believe resident wellness represents a needed priority even in times of normalcy, and we will continue to build upon these changes towards a programmatic paradigm shift of greater resident support and wellbeing. 

Anticipating that there will be continued restrictions on travel and CME moving into the new year, we regretfully announce that the SEA Workshop on Teaching has been canceled for 2021. Look for an announcement at the SEA Fall Meeting about plans for a “Virtual Teaching Workshop Masterclass” for 2021 that will provide an opportunity for a refresher course for past graduates of the workshop as we explore ways to make modules of the workshop virtual. Our contract with the Alfond Inn is still in force for 2022, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back January 29, 2022 through February 1, 2022 in Winter Park Florida.

Call for Nominations

Due Monday, June 22, 2020

The SEA Duke Award for Excellence and Innovation in Anesthesia Education was created back in 1996, thanks to a generous gift from the Department of Anesthesia at Duke University. The purpose of the award is to recognize people who have had a long commitment to teaching and have contributed positively to the advancement of teaching anesthesia to medical students, residents, and faculty. Because we at the SEA are at the forefront of spearheading educational efforts in our specialty, past recipients have tended to come from within our midst.

Membership in SEA is not necessary for consideration, though the nominating individual does have to be a SEA member.

The SEA Nominating Committee (Chaired by Immediate Past-President Michael R. Sandison, MD) has identified the following candidates to run in this year’s election for the Society for Education in Anesthesia Board of Directors:

Vice President / President-Elect (One Position – Two Year Term)

The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and Society for Education in Anesthesia (SEA) today announced a call for nominations for the new ASA-SEA Distinguished Educator in Anesthesiology award. The award recognizes mid-career physicians who have demonstrated a substantial commitment and achievement as educators in the field of anesthesiology.

“We’re excited to collaborate with SEA on this effort, an organization that shares our values regarding the importance of education to improve patient care,” said ASA President Linda J. Mason, M.D., FASA.  “It’s important for mid-level career physicians, those who have been in practice 5-15 years, to be recognized for their contributions and achievements in anesthesiology education.  Recognizing these individuals helps to move the profession forward and serves as an opportunity for networking and continued mentorship of young educators and residents.”

This was another successful year for the SEA/HVO Fellowships. We received 22 applications and awarded 8 Fellowships. See the HVO announcement below. The new Fellows will be traveling to Vietnam, Rwanda or Ghana for their month of teaching anesthesia residents, anesthesia nurses or anesthesia clinical officers. Congratulations to them all.

Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO), in collaboration with the Society for Education in Anesthesia (SEA), is pleased to share that eight anesthesia residents will receive a 2019 SEA-HVO Traveling Fellowship.

Major Stephanie Parks, DNP, CRNA Task Force 13 Strike Team Alpha OIC Temple University Hospital

Emuejevoke Chuba, MD PGY-2 Anesthesiology Resident Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia

Thirty years ago HIV/AIDS still held thrall of the world.¹ I wrote the following as I switched careers from law to medicine:

It was the call I received regarding the HIV positive man whose will I had executed one week earlier which made me reflect on the difference between the power of words and the fight for life.  The news of his death recalled the irritation I had felt at trying to get him to meet with me to devise ways to settle an estate of which the greatest asset was the eleven-year-old son he would leave behind alone.  The moment that I heard of his death, all of the work, all of the time, all of the trouble was absolutely meaningless...trite.

Herodotos Ellinas, MD Associate Professor Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee, WI

Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Book Author: Patrick Lencioni
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of Wiley
Review Author: Herodotos Ellinas

High-performance teams are not the result of sheer luck. During a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders must assemble effective multidisciplinary teams or adapt existing ones. Leaders who assemble such teams should base membership on a careful evaluation of talents, which includes assessing members’ interactions and evaluating their critical thinking when they navigate rapidly changing terrains. Although Lencioni does not discuss an extreme crisis in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the reader can extrapolate from the author’s key concepts. Lencioni narrates a fable of an organization that hires a new CEO, Kathryn, to revive a struggling company. The author, in this easy-to-read book, cleverly walks the reader step by step through Kathryn’s challenges in putting together a “high-functioning” team.  

An old-school executive hired at a high-tech Silicon Valley company, Kathryn arrives at her first day of work and discovers that her staff of seven talented executives have total inability to work well together. Their constant disagreements and incapacity to take responsibility for their actions impart negativity to the workplace, further contributing to the existing chaos. As an experienced leader, Kathryn quickly realizes the dysfunction of these executives and subjects them to a pair of off-site retreats to identify the underlying issues that led to the company’s current situation. In the process, some of her decisions make her unpopular, but her persistence prevails in creating a high-performance team. 

We look forward seeing you at the SEA 33rd Spring Meeting, which will be held next week at the Hyatt Regency Louisville. To tie into the ACGME’s initiative on wellness, the theme is “Training Professional, Humanistic Anesthesiologists.” This theme is especially relevant to our fast-paced, technologically advanced world which, according to some academic gurus and observers, is experiencing a crisis of humanism and professionalism in the practice of medicine.

The meeting will open with a plenary address by Dr. Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, CEO of the ACGME, professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and senior scholar in the Department of Medical Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine. Several nationally known speakers will address issues relevant to humanism as panel discussion. Friday will conclude with dynamic and interactive workshops that relate to professionalism and humanism. Dr. David Chestnut, MD, Professor and Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and senior editor of Chestnut’s Obstetric Anesthesia: Principles and Practice will be the plenary speaker for Saturday. The issues relevant to professionalism will be addressed in two TED-style panels discussion followed by additional workshops.

SEA members are invited and encouraged to submit workshops for the 2020 Spring Meeting to be held May 8-10, 2020 at the Lowes Philadelphia Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In developing workshop proposals, SEA members must review the overall theme and educational goals of the meeting for which they are submitting their workshop.

The theme of the 2020 Spring Meeting is: Defining the Path to Workforce Readiness

Karen J. Souter, MB, BS, FRCA, MACM

A new initiative

Do you remember your first SEA meeting? For many of us, it was several years ago. There was something special that drew us to be long term SEA members. Perhaps it was a spark ignited through the meeting theme or content. Maybe we met a kindred spirit in education at the dine around. We are interested in how our members became invested in SEA.

Integration of Technology into Anesthesia Practice & Education

 

The Road to Character

Book Author: David Brooks
Publisher: Random House 

Opinion

Communication in Perioperative Education

Jonathan Hastie, MD

In a recent meeting with the family of a critically ill patient, we deliberated about pursuing an aggressive operation to control the source of sepsis. Because the surgeon was not able to attend the meeting, a resident came in his place; at one point I asked the resident to describe the procedure in question.

To my surprise, the surgical resident described not only the technicalities of the procedure, but also outlined several additional considerations: the likely outcome, the relevant concerns, the alternative options, and how all of the above fit into the patient’s current condition. The resident spoke clearly, included relevant facts, and used language that was readily understandable to the anxious family members. Equally important, the resident’s manner was engaging and compassionate.

I later learned that this particular resident had recently participated in a communication skills training program.¹ In this program, small groups used role play to practice and to generate real-time feedback. Residents assessed their own preparedness before and after the session, and they reported high satisfaction and frequent subsequent opportunities for application. In this case, I witnessed these skills used in an actual encounter, in which the resident’s communication guided decision-making and supported the family.