A Day in the Life of a Duke Anesthesiology Resident

Mingda Chen, MD, CA-1 Resident

Internship

Mingda Chen, MD

The PGY-1 year of the categorical anesthesiology program at Duke is compromised of a combination of medicine/surgery/peds/electives, similar to a transitional year. Rotations include general medicine, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, general surgery, surgical ICU, emergency medicine, general pediatrics, pediatric ICU, and electives. Nearly everyone chooses to rotate through anesthesiology, hyperbaric medicine, and one other rotation as electives. In addition, some of the rotations are at Durham Regional Hospital, and some at VA, both of which are less than 10 minutes from Duke.

Here’s a little description of each rotation:

General Medicine: Durham Regional, low volume, high on teaching, mostly bread and butter cases, q4 call with team.
Cardiology: intern heavy service with high turnover, evidence based practice q4 call with night float for 1 week.
Pulmonary: interns and fellows carrying for very sick pulmonary patients, q4 call with ICU as backup.
General Surgery: Durham Regional, friendly surgeons and residents, great time to practice some basic surgical skills and immediate post-op care, q3 call with resident/attending backup from home.
Surgical ICU: VA system, best nurses around to help you out throughout the night, learn independence on q3 call with fellow and attending backup from home.
Emergency Medicine: great variety of patients, must multi-task, 14 shifts per month.
General Pediatrics: lots of teaching in lectures and rounds, q4 call with team.
Pediatric ICU: welcome to world of pediatric hearts and rare diseases, q4 call with fellow and NP.
Anesthesiology: best rotation by all votes, hands on teaching from upper level residents, get to know everyone well, no call, short days.
Hyperbaric: most interesting crew, out of the world sort of experience, attendings are some of the most expert in the world about hyperbaric medicine, chance for small research project, home pager call for 1 week.

Overall, the internship is well designed for anesthesiology, great exposure to various fields and patients care, and a great place to make friends outside of the intern group.