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.

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

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

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.

Education Workshop in Karachi Pakistan

Zulfiqar Ahmed, MD, FAAP
Siromed/Anesthesia Associates of Ann Arbor
Director of Education and Pediatric Anesthesia
Wayne State University Anesthesia Residency Program
St Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital
Pontiac, MI

After much discussion and deliberation, the Society for Education in Anesthesia (SEA) Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to cancel the SEA 2020 Spring Meeting originally scheduled for May 8-10, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 Our SEA team, like many of you, have been eagerly anticipating and preparing for the SEA 2020 Spring Meeting. We are proud of the educational and professional growth opportunity our meetings give to all who attend. Due to the recent developments and many unknowns surrounding the ongoing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) we feel our priority must focus on the safety of those who attend and the communities they serve. We have received cancellations from numerous speakers and workshop hosts who live in New York, California and Pennsylvania (to name a few) due to policies in their home institutions. Some of the policies are precluding them from gathering in groups of even 10-30 people (obviously much smaller than anticipated attendance at SEA). These unprecedented travel restrictions would most certainly compromise the quality of the education and training that SEA is known for. While these meetings are important, they simply cannot take precedence over the health and wellbeing of our members and their communities.

Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO), in collaboration with the Society for Education in Anesthesia (SEA), is pleased to share that ten anesthesia residents will receive a 2020 SEA-HVO Traveling Fellowship.

2019 - A Year of Change and Collaboration

The SEA Nominating Committee (Chaired by Immediate Past-President Michael R. Sandison, MD – [email protected]) is seeking candidates for the following positions on the Society for Education in Anesthesia Board of Directors:

• Director (Three Positions - Two Year Term)

If you are interested in running for one of the positions, please send a short letter of intent to Andrew Bronson, CAE ([email protected]) and Michael R. Sandison, MD ([email protected]) by Friday, April 19, 2019. Self-nominations for these positions will also be accepted during the Business Meeting held at the SEA Spring Meeting on Friday, April 26, 2019. The slate of nominees will also be finalized at the Business Meeting.