Clinical training

During the Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship, you run the High-Risk Obstetric Anesthesia Clinic and care for patients with high-risk pregnancies in the Mayo Clinic Family Birth Center. You also move throughout the operating rooms of Mayo Clinic Hospital, participating in the anesthetic care of women undergoing nonobstetric surgery during pregnancy.

Rotation schedule

Rotation descriptions

Clinical obstetric anesthesiology

You spend 10 months in the Mayo Clinic Family Birth Center running the High-Risk Obstetric Anesthesia Clinic:

• Enrolling patients in clinical studies
• Caring for high-risk patients in labor and delivery, including antepartum and postpartum
• Enhancing education for residents

Maternal fetal medicine

You spend two weeks rotating with the maternal fetal medicine service. You also participate in a formal fetal heart rate tracing interpretation program called the K2 Perinatal Training Program and gain certification.

Neonatology

You spend two weeks rotating with the neonatology service in the neonatal intensive care unit. You also participate in a Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) as sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics and gain certification.

Intramural elective

You have an option of an intramural elective, which includes a single one-month or two two-week rotations in transfusion medicine, POCUS, or global health. 

Research

The 25% research time is allocated as one to two research days per week, averaging out to five days for every 20 working days.

International opportunities

You may take advantage of opportunities to perform anesthetic care in resource-poor environments internationally. The Mayo International Health Program offers scholarships of up to $2,500 to facilitate international health rotations in underserved locations.

Call frequency

There is no designated in-house call requirement for this fellowship. There are, however, opportunities for you to be available by pager to participate in the management of uniquely high-risk parturients should off-hours emergent care be necessary.

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science follows the recommendations of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Therefore, your time spent in the hospital on at-home call counts toward the 80-hour maximum weekly hour limit. The frequency of at-home call also satisfies the requirement for one-day-in-seven free of duty, when averaged over four weeks.

Moonlighting

Residents may moonlight with program director approval. Moonlighting should not interfere with the ability of the fellow to achieve the goals and objectives of the Obstetric Anesthesia Fellowship and must not violate the duty hour rules of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or visa regulations.

Didactic training

The curriculum includes daily interactive didactics created for resident and fellow learning in the Mayo Clinic Family Birth Center specifically focused on obstetric anesthesia topics.

You have access to conferences for our Anesthesiology Residency core program, as well as our departmental Grand Rounds. Core program opportunities in which you can participate include Key Word lectures, residency core curriculum lectures, morbidity and mortality conferences, journal clubs, and mock oral exams.

Didactic opportunities are also available through the Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency core curriculum as well as the Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship curriculum. Finally, you, along with core obstetric anesthesia faculty, take part in a quarterly Obstetric Anesthesiology Journal Club to review, analyze, and subsequently implement the latest evidence-based knowledge in the field.

Conferences

• Obstetric Anesthesiology Journal Club. This quarterly gathering of the obstetric anesthesiology faculty and fellows convenes to discuss the latest research. We often host joint journal clubs with other fellowship programs including Cardiovascular and Thoracic Anesthesiology, Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine, Pediatric Anesthesiology, Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, Maternal Fetal Medicine, and Pain Medicine.
• Fetal Care Center Multidisciplinary Conference. This biweekly conference is for coordinating the fetal and newborn care of our sickest babies.
• Maternal Boards. Specialists gather on a monthly basis to coordinate obstetric care for our sickest pregnant patients.
• CVOB Virtual Rounds. This monthly multidisciplinary meeting with cardiology, maternal-fetal medicine, and anesthesia aims to improve collaborative care and communication about current and upcoming cardio-obstetric patients.
• Department of Anesthesiology Grand Rounds. This weekly gathering is for the entire department.
• Key Word Conference. The daily 15-minute talk focuses on preparing trainees for the written boards.
• Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Core Curriculum Lectures. You can participate in this weekly two-hour education session when it relates to obstetric topics.
• Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship Core Curriculum Lectures. This monthly gathering of maternal-fetal medicine faculty and fellows meets to discuss the obstetric management of high-risk pregnancies.

Research training

Twenty-five percent of your fellowship time is spent in research. Having access to multiple research mentors allows academic development during the fellowship year. You should conduct or be substantially involved in a scholarly project related to obstetric anesthesiology, leading to both a presentation at a national meeting and a publication.

Simulation center

One of the perks of training at Mayo Clinic is access to a state-of-the-art simulation center, located on the first floor of the Stabile Building. All of our CA-1 and CA-3 residents attend yearly courses specific to obstetric anesthesia training. As an obstetric anesthesia fellow, you have the ability to work with a dedicated faculty member during these sessions. There are many ways that our fellows have participated in these simulation exercises - from revamping the curriculum of simulated scenarios, to leading debrief sessions, to even playing the actor role of a pregnant patient's partner! This is a neat opportunity to hone your teaching and curriculum development skills.

Teaching opportunities

Ample opportunities are available for you to teach rotating residents and medical students in obstetric anesthesiology. The Obstetric Anesthesiology Resident curriculum includes daily interactive didactics performed in the Mayo Clinic Family Birth Center specifically focused on obstetric anesthesia topics, which cycle monthly. During the first few months, you can participate in these as a learner, but as the fellowship progresses, you can begin to lead these learning sessions for the residents.

Evaluation

To ensure that you acquire adequate knowledge and develop the appropriate technical skills to meet program expectations, your performance is monitored carefully during the Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship. You are formally evaluated by supervising faculty members on a regular basis and meet with the program director to review these evaluations. In addition, you regularly evaluate the faculty to confirm that your educational needs are being met.