My typical OR day as a CA-3 (PGY-4) resident at UF-Jacksonville

• ~6:30 a.m.: Arrive at hospital, set up OR, and see my patient
• 7:30 a.m.: First case starts; Transport patient to OR, administer anesthetic under supervision of attending anesthesiologist, airway management and often additional procedures (second IV, arterial line, central line, etc).
• ~9:30 a.m.: Short morning break
• ~12:00 p.m.: Lunch break
• ~4:00 p.m.: Relief from OR begins, look up patients for next day, discuss plan with attending, go home, and go for a walk on the beach with my dog!

"My favorite part of the year is anesthesia orientation starting in January, which is much earlier than traditional schedules due to our awesome and innovative curriculum. Orientation is an intense two month rotation managed by senior residents and supervised by attendings when interns learn the basics of anesthesia. During this period, I am able to further solidify my foundational knowledge of anesthesia, advance my communication skills, and help my colleagues develop their knowledge and skills."

"As a senior, I am paired with an intern for a week at a time and assigned ‘bread and butter’ cases in the main OR. My goal is to coach the intern to develop their own strategies when formulating and carrying out an anesthetic plan, setting up the OR, examining and consenting patients, troubleshooting, managing anesthetic emergencies, etc. Every day at 3pm interns and the senior resident presenting the lecture are relieved from the OR to go to a classroom style lecture. The lecturing senior resident is assigned to teach one chapter from Baby Miller (“Miller’s Basics of Anesthesia”) and interns are expected to have read it the night before. By the end of orientation, I should be doing high level supervision of my assigned intern and all the chapters in Baby Miller will have been reviewed in lecture. The amount of work and dedication during orientation is high, but it has honed my knowledge, skills, and communication. Moreover, I find it absolutely wonderful to watch my junior colleagues become more independent and confident."

"The Anesthesiology Residency at UF Health Jacksonville is very unique and highly dedicated to the learning and well-being of the residents. The following are reasons that I believe this program is one of the best in the nation:"

1. Jacksonville: I like to describe it as a medium-sized city with all the shops and restaurants you can hope for with the added benefit of having beautiful beaches (Ponte Vedra Beach, Jax Beach, Neptune Beach, and Atlantic Beach), which is where I live. If you’re not a huge beach fan, there are many neighborhoods or neighboring towns with very distinct vibes. These include but are not limited to Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, St Johns Town Center, Orange Park, Callahan, E-Town, and Saint Augustine.
2. Small Program Size: Allows for a tight knit group of residents and I feel like I know everyone quite well. This also fosters close relationships with attendings leading to more trust and autonomy in the OR.
3. Curriculum: The intern/PGY-1 class start anesthesia orientation in January, which means there is only 6 months of off-service rotations prior to doing the thing that you actually came to residency to learn - Anesthesia! This does not excuse us from completing all the necessary off-service rotations, but allows them to be placed later in training and after spending significant time administering anesthesia. I found that this allowed me to conceptualize the anesthetic considerations of the off-service specialty (i.e. cardiology, OMFS, etc)
4. Level 1 Trauma: Our hospital is the only level-1 trauma center for northeast Florida and southeast Georgia. The closest level-1 trauma center is Gainesville (approximately 2 hours by car). We become very adept at managing blunt force and penetrating trauma patients requiring emergent surgery and resuscitation.
5. Partner Hospitals: All of our clinical sites are in Jacksonville and provide excellent experiences in some of our subspecialties. Also, I feel like working in different facilities has helped me become more adaptable when in an unfamiliar setting. Wolfson Children's Hospital is where we complete our pediatric anesthesia rotations and is a top-ranked pediatric hospital according to US News and World Report and LeapFrog. We complete rotations in neuroanesthesia and transplant at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, which performs a high volume of intracranial surgeries as well as heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplants.
6. Academic Wednesday: All non-clinical education is done on Wednesdays when we usually do not have any clinical responsibilities. Activities include grand rounds, lectures by faculty, keyword presentations by residents, and often a workshop or simulation. These days offer time to work on quality improvement/research projects, allow for time for independent study, or to go to a doctor or dentist appointment.
7. Moonlighting: After receiving a passing score on the ABA basic examination, residents are permitted to sign up for weekend moonlighting in our Main OR as long as they are in good academic standing.