A Day in the Life of a Duke Anesthesiology Resident

Stephanie McGuire, MD, CA-2 Resident

OB Anesthesia Rotation

A day in my life, as the OB anesthesia resident, starts around 7:00AM. When I first arrive, I check the ORs to make sure they are equipped for the day. Then I meet with the overnight attending and resident in the OB anesthesia workroom and get a report about what happened overnight. This usually includes information about patients that currently have epidurals running or active issues that I should know about. If there is a c-section still in progress at 7AM, I relieve the overnight resident and finish the case. When possible, I attend the OB team morning rounds at 7:15AM. It provides helpful information about each of the patients on the ward and the scheduled surgical procedures for the day. After morning rounds, I go to do my pre-operative evaluation of the first surgical patient, which is usually a scheduled c-section. There are generally one to three scheduled c-sections each weekday. Occasionally there are other surgical procedures, such as cerclages or tubal ligations, which also require anesthesia. There is a CRNA that also shares the workload on the floor. She does the epidurals when I am in the OR and also does the anesthesia for some of the c-sections. I roll back to the OR between 8-8:30AM. Once in the operating room, I place the spinal/epidural anesthetic. Rarely, the c-sections are done under general anesthesia. Throughout the day, I do whatever epidurals come up and pre-op the admitted patients on the ward. When the night resident returns, I sign out to him/her and hand over the pager for the evening!

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