Anesthesiology Residency Program

The Department of Anesthesiology is a large sized program consisting of 18 residents per year (typically 15 civilian spots and 2 active duty Air Force spots), with a full complement of 72 residents. We are committed an intellectual environment that will facilitate the acquisition of comprehensive knowledge, technical skills, clinical judgment, and professional attitudes which are essential to the practice of anesthesiology. We have a long tradition of training board-certified anesthesiologists and excellent providing care to our patients in South Texas.

The clinical base (intern) year is designed to provide a basis of knowledge and experience in internal medicine, surgery (vascular, general, & trauma), surgical and medical intensive care, cardiology, pulmonary and preoperative medicine. The clinical anesthesia years are graded in terms of severity of illness, complexity of surgery, and risk of morbidity/mortality. In the PGY-2 year, basic knowledge and anesthetic skills are learned on lower risk patients undergoing relatively simple procedures. Many of these patients are ambulatory.  The CA-2/PGY-3 year is designed to teach sub-specialty anesthesia to include cardiothoracic, obstetrics, pediatrics, critical care, hepatobiliary, acute and chronic pain and regional anesthesia and post anesthesia recovery unit (PACU). The CA-3/PGY-4 year is designed to offer flexibility regarding the resident’s career goals. Residents in the CA-3 residents anesthesia for the most difficult surgical procedures, often with high-risk patients.  Further on call, CA-3 residents function as junior call, carrying emergency pagers, triaging/optimizing patients, responding to traumas and serving as perioperative consultants.

The didactic program and clinical teaching are based on a curriculum centered on the core competencies of patient care, medical knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice.

An important goal of the program is to ensure board certification for the residents. The final goal is to train a highly competent consultant anesthesiologists who interacts appropriately with colleagues and maintains a desire for life-long learning.