About the Program

The University of Rochester Department of Anesthesiology summer program for medical students between the 1st and 2nd year of medical school is designed to expose you to our specialty and also help you bring alive some of the concepts you have learned in pharmacology and physiology this past year.

The program entails your spending 7-8 weeks rotating through the various services we provide: in the general operating room, on the obstetric unit, in the ICU (trauma or surgical), on the Pain Management service, in the cardiac surgery room, and with our Regional Anesthesia Team (they do ultrasound guided nerve blocks). You will be paired with a resident for each rotation and will attend our general lecture series, as well, if you wish.

You are not expected to "work" on the weekends or nights during this externship - but you may decide to come in on occasion to experience some of the anesthesia involved with trauma. There is a $3000 stipend associated with this externship which is paid in two installments to you. Housing arrangements may be facilitated as per need.

Applying

We will select four students to partake in the program. If this sounds appealing to you - please send us email to our coordinator at eva_weissman@urmc.rochester.edu with your CV and a short letter that describes why you are interested in this program. In addition, please provide a letter of reference from someone in your medical school (a Dean or any faculty member or instructor) that will attest to your performance as a medical student. The deadline for applications is February 26th, 2012 and we will decide on the participants and let you know our decision by the middle of March 2012.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Karan, MD & Dawn Sweeney, MD

Meet Some Of Our Past Summer Students!

Jason Chen (2010)
I wanted a more clinical rather than research-oriented experience for my summer after 1st year and this was by far the most interesting, mainly because it was structured and I had heard good things about it from the 2nd year students. I also had some prior interest in anesthesiology and pharmacology though I knew very little about the profession.

The variety of settings that the clerkship encompassed, from general OR to ICU care, was astounding and helped expose me to different sub-specialties of anesthesia that I previously had no idea about. All of the residents, CRNAs and attendings were very friendly and wanted to teach (often with hands-on experience) as much as they could. There was also a great deal of freedom in terms of wanting to see whatever cases seemed interesting or different.

I think the clerkship has definitely bolstered my interest in anesthesia and will make me more comfortable when I do a formal anesthesia elective in 3rd/4th year. Also, it never hurts to learn some of the critical care skills such as intubation, IV/arterial line/central line placement, resuscitation and hemodynamic monitoring.

Caroline Kan (2011)
I joined the program because I was interested in learning more about the physiology of anesthesia and the various roles of anesthesiologists. The program exposed me to a variety of fields within anesthesia - over the course of 8 weeks, I was paired with residents in the main operating rooms, pediatric anesthesia, OB anesthesia, surgical ICU, as well as acute pain management.
My experience was phenomenal. Each rotation brought on new challenges and by the end of the program, I felt comfortable setting up rooms, checking machines, applying drug pharmacology and respiratory physiology, and trying different airway techniques. I also participated in weekly grand round lectures, which were helpful in solidifying my understanding of anesthesia.
Having the opportunity to engage in 8 consecutive weeks of anesthesia is rare at any other institution, where electives are considerably shorter and offer less exposure.

Emily Erickson (2011)
As someone not very interested in research, I was looking for an opportunity to interact with patients, doctors, and hospital staff during their daily activities.

I had a great experience. I really enjoyed working with the residents - several of them were excellent teachers. It was a really good chance for me to review things I'd learned during first year as they apply in actual clinical scenarios. It was also a really good intro to pharmacology before 2nd year. I also enjoyed the variety of experiences - getting to see so many different settings within the hospital (and how anesthesia fits into all of them) was very interesting.

I loved working with the acute pain service. Being able to see patients in a semi-longitudinal fashion was great - I liked being able to follow their progress.

The biggest benefit for me was simply being able to learn my way around the hospital, literally and figuratively. Having been in the OR, the ICUs, the OB unit, and other floors has helped me to feel much more comfortable and confident before going into clinical rotations next year. In addition, just having the opportunity to get a taste for how the hospital works was beneficial. As mentioned above, I also reviewed a lot of the science behind the medicine. For example, I have a much better grasp of acid-base physiology after being in the ICUs for 2 weeks. And my understanding of respiratory and cardiovascular physiology was strengthened by being in the OR. And anatomy from seeing epidurals and nerve blocks on OB and pain. I found it to be a very valuable educational experience.

Catherine O'Leary (2011)
The anesthesia externship was an amazing way to spend the summer. I've always been interested in anesthesia, and a big part of that is my Dad: he's been doing anesthesia for years, and his enthusiasm for his job has only grown. This naturally sparked my interest in anesthesia. I grew up with simulation dummies on the dining room table- my Dad would teach me how to intubate while working on them, and I loved it. As I grew older, my Dad brought me into the OR with him, first to shadow, and then to help with his research. When I entered medical school last fall, I knew I had a strong interest in anesthesia, but this summer really helped me solidify that this is a career I can really be happy in. I was allowed to intubate on my first day, and soon learned to give boluses, the different drugs used, how blocks work, and started to integrate the physiology concepts I learned in the first year of medical school. I loved the different rotations- obstetrics was my favorite; there's no other way to describe a baby being born other than surreal. I definitely recommend this externship to anyone with an interest in anesthesia.