Getting the Most From Your Rotation

Anesthesia is equal parts thinking and doing, so reading alone won't get you there.

• Loop your learning: read about a subject → watch it in the OR → read it again. Concepts that made no sense on paper (the machine check is the classic example) click after you've seen them live.
• Go in with a focus. Each day, pick one or two topics, read them the night before, and watch for them in the OR.
• Respect the procedure and the patient. These are real, high-risk, invasive procedures on people who've trusted the team. Never think of it as "practicing on patients."
• Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Get the mechanics right — where the blade tip goes, where the needle goes — before you try to be quick. Good technique is what eventually makes you fast.

Aim to understand and be able to explain:

• The components of a general anesthetic and the stages of anesthesia.
• MAC and how vapors are selected.
• The common medications and when each is chosen.
• Which drugs must be diluted before use.

And aim to be able to do (have someone show you each):

• A basic machine check and the room setup.
• Draw up and label drugs, including dilutions.
• Mask ventilate, place an LMA, and intubate an adult.
• Set up an IV bag and start an IV.

Walk into a room and orient yourself the same way every time:

1. Introduce yourself to the circulating nurse, then to the anesthesia team.
2. Survey the anesthesia setup — where's the drug cart, the machine, what's laid out? Don't touch the anesthesia cart, meds, or equipment.
3. If a case is already running, read the room: are gases flowing? Is a vaporizer on? Find the monitor and locate each vital — ECG (usually top), heart rate, SpO₂, blood pressure (and when it last cycled), EtCO₂, temperature. Is the vapor % / MAC displayed?

This 60-second routine tells you the state of the anesthetic before you've said a word.