Four courses are offered to medical students, in addition to the opportunity to do a research elective. Clinical and didactic learning experiences include case presentations, key word discussions, grand rounds, quality assurance/performance improvement sessions, Barash review sessions, and journal clubs. The student’s clinical performance is derived by resident and faculty evaluations. Most rotations occur in four-week blocks designated by the School of Medicine. The two-week anesthesia operating room elective is only available to UC Irvine students, while the four-week operating room elective and the pain management rotation are available to both UC Irvine and extramural students. Interested students may begin scheduling electives in June for the next academic year. During any block, a total of five students may be scheduled for the 605A and 605D rotations, three students may be scheduled for the 605B rotation, and two for the pain management elective. Twelve blocks are available during one academic year. Approximately 100 students were scheduled for anesthesia electives for the 2006-2007 academic year.
The two-week and four-week anesthesia operating room electives provide an introduction to clinical anesthesiology including perioperative evaluation of patients, selection of anesthetic techniques, and administration of anesthetics under supervision. Airway management and endotracheal intubation, monitoring techniques, clinical pharmacology, and physiology are emphasized. The four-week rotation also offers the opportunity to experience anesthesia subspecialties, including cardiovascular, neurosurgical, and pediatric anesthesia, as well as pain management. Medical students should develop an understanding of various techniques and criteria for their use in managing an airway, risks and benefits of anesthesia, implication of various anesthetic drugs on normal physiology processes, implications of systematic disease on the anesthetic plan, procedures to start intravenous lines, and patient concerns regarding anesthesia. The surgical intensive care rotation instructs students on the principles and management of perioperative illness and postoperative recovery of patients admitted to the SICU. The rotation encounters patients with multi-system organ dysfunction/failure and allows the students opportunities to become familiar with clinical management of cardiac dysfunction, respiratory failure, and shock states. The pain management rotation allows students the opportunity to provide medical management of chronic and cancer pain in the outpatient and inpatient setting. Students are also exposed to nerve block techniques and interventional procedures.