Teaching opportunities

Our residents have the opportunity to teach Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine students, visiting students from other medical schools, surgery and internal medicine residents, and other anesthesia residents through operating room instruction and formal didactic lectures. As a resident, you will also have the opportunity to teach regional anesthesia, point-of-care ultrasound, advanced airway techniques, and critical care at a military medicine in austere environments course.

Practice examinations and reviews

As a resident, you will have many resources to help you excel on the required exams including access to a premier anesthesia question bank, the Anesthesia Knowledge test (AKT) at one month, six months, and 24 months, and multiple review sessions. This helps our residents evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and is used to tailor study plans and lectures. The American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) In-Training Examination is taken each year as a way to make sure residents are prepared for the ABA board examinations. The ABA Basic examination is taken at the end of the CA-1 year and the ABA Advanced Examination is taken towards the end of the CA-3 year. The BASIC exam fees are covered by the residency program.

Following graduation, residents are eligible and well-prepared to take the oral and written board examinations as well as the APPLIED exam required to become a board-certified anesthesiologist. Our residents have a 100% pass rate since the program’s inception over 10 years ago.

Committee assignments

As a resident, you will also have the opportunity to gain experience in a number of administrative capacities during your training. These include the department's education committee and quality assurance committee. You may also participate in committee assignments in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), the House of Delegates of the ASA, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, and the state societies of anesthesiology in Arizona. 

Career development

You meet periodically with your faculty adviser and the residency program director to discuss individual goals. Mayo Clinic recruits many of its staff physicians from its own training programs, so after you complete the Anesthesiology Residency, career opportunities may be available at one of Mayo Clinic's practice sites.

Evaluation

To ensure you acquire adequate knowledge and development of appropriate technical skills, your performance is monitored carefully during the course of the Anesthesiology Residency.

Formal written evaluation by supervising faculty members occurs monthly, and you're assigned a faculty adviser for the purpose of providing feedback. You will receive a written clinical competence evaluation twice each year. These evaluations are forwarded to the American Board of Anesthesiology, which grants credit for training.

Each year, you are able to provide a confidential evaluation of all aspects of the Anesthesiology Residency to be used as part of the annual program evaluation.