Anesthesia Residency Program at UPMC Lititz: Overview

Welcome to the UPMC Lititz Anesthesiology Residency Program.

Established

2004

Program Overview

• Categorical four-year program that provides residents with the educational and practical experience that will enable them to deliver superior specialized care to patients.
• As an anesthesia resident, you will have the opportunity to develop your skills to the highest capacity. A wide variety of clinical experiences and outstanding teaching and mentorship will help you achieve this goal. Our graduates can confidently take their place in an academic setting, community hospital, or private practice and successfully contribute to their health care team.
• The UPMC Lititz serves as the focal point for your residency training. Subspecialty training is obtained at affiliated institutions.

Mission Statement

The mission of the anesthesiology residency program at UPMC Lititz is to develop physicians who will provide safe, exceptional quality, compassionate care, respectful of the dignity of the human person, to all patients throughout the perioperative period. The program provides the educational environment necessary to allow each resident to develop his or her skills to their greatest potential through early hands-on experience and dedicated didactic sessions. Through rotations in small community hospitals, large inner city hospitals and tertiary care academic centers, our residents are exposed to a variety of care settings in preparation for whatever career or subspecialty they may pursue and whatever community they will serve. Our focus is on educating and preparing the graduating resident to be proficient and confident in all aspects of anesthesia so that they are confident enough to serve the growing demand for physician anesthesiologists serving in rural areas of the country where subspecialty trained anesthesiologists do not exist. The size of the program allows us to carefully select suitable candidates that express a desire to thrive in a program with a small number of faculty mentors who emphasize clinical proficiency and early independence. There is a strong emphasis on providing residents with early leadership and responsibility opportunities. Historically most of our graduating residents either remain in Central Pennsylvania to fulfill the local community needs or return to their home towns to join small to mid-sized anesthesia practices serving the medical needs of smaller communities.

Aims

The primary aim of the Anesthesia Residency program is teaching and educating the residents to become independent physicians capable of practicing in a community based hospital in the specialty of anesthesiology. We provide a competency based, graded and progressive clinical responsibility experience, teaching the basic components of research, and exposing the residents to the concepts of medical education and anesthesia related business practice and administration. It is the Program's aim to have 80% of our graduating residents serve in a community hospital based setting in order to meet the needs of our nation. These goals are attained through extensive exposure to a diverse patient population included in the three clinical rotation sites. Each site has different degrees of medical and surgical complexity and pathology. The diverse anesthesiology staff and faculty create an environment conducive to inquiry and learning through strong didactics, conferences, simulation labs, and bedside teaching of clinical skills. The faculty work as a team to mentor the residents and promote the ability of the residents to acquire the knowledge, clinical skills and judgment, compassion, and experience that will enable them to practice independently.

A secondary aim is the expectation that 100% of our residents have the medical knowledge to pass the board certification exam on the first attempt within the allotted timeframe.

Didactics

• Daily morning medicine lectures for Anesthesia interns (base year) to attend
• Dedicated weekly protected time that includes assigned reading, lectures, journal club, and simulations
• Lunch and Learn lectures for Nursing Staff