Mission

The NMCP Anesthesiology program’s mission is to produce exceptional anesthesiologists who are prepared to deliver outstanding care in every health care setting, including those specific to military service such as military treatment facilities and austere environments. The NMCP program is committed to excellence in clinical care, scholarly activity, professional development, and well-being.

Vision

The NMCP Anesthesiology program’s vision is to generate highly skilled anesthesiologists who are prepared for duty as operational clinicians and leaders, and who are prepared to integrate skillfully into civilian anesthesiology practices.

Aims

1. Graduate military anesthesiologists who excel clinically in the perioperative management of patients across the spectrum of age, physiology, and surgical subspecialties and who are prepared to practice safe and skilled anesthetic care for the public.
2. Graduate military anesthesiologists who are equipped to provide outstanding care in forward-deployed, austere environments and who are military anesthesia subject matter experts.
3. Produce graduates who are expert perioperative consultants, skilled in understanding and communicating patient-centered issues to patients, family members, physicians, and non-physician healthcare providers.

We host a variety of didactic curricula throughout the year:

• CA-1 intro lecture series: Five weeks upon matriculation, introductory anesthesiology topics daily
• Annual didactic series: Protected academic time each Wednesday for three hours. Includes a variety of curricula, including basic and advanced topics in anesthesiology, military unique sessions, simulation, point of care ultrasound, practice management, and more.
• Grand Rounds (weekly)
• Morning Report (daily), includes topics on guidelines related to anesthesiology, evidence based medicine, healthcare disparities, and point of care ultrasound.

Elective Rotations may consist of the following:

• Additional subspecialty rotations (e.g. another month of cardiac anesthesia)
• Simulation center
• Sleep medicine
• Echocardiography
• Research
• Palliative Care

Residents interested in pursuing additional elective rotations are encouraged to speak to the Program Director for authorization.

Residents begin taking call approximately two months into training. While rotating at NMCP, call scheduling is variable, depending on the number of rotators at NMCP, but is typically 4-6 times per month. Our program stays well within ACGME requirements for duty hours and call burden. Outside rotations have site-specific call requirements, all well within the ACGME requirements for duty hours and call burden.

Our military unique curriculum has three areas of focus: delivery of anesthesia in austere environments, officership and leadership, and Medical Corps organization. The curriculum is built into our Wednesday didactics throughout the year, and additionally offers optional elective experiences in a variety of operational and leadership areas.

Aside from required rotations, all residents are required to complete the American Society of Anesthesiologists Diagnostic Point of Care Ultrasound certification and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Quality and Safety course.

Our program hosts approximately six simulation experiences each year on a variety of topics, including clinical emergences, communication, and health care quality.

Our leadership curriculum is built into our military unique curriculum. It includes didactics as well as opportunities for elective time to pursue leadership courses and experiences.

Our program introduces research to the CA-1s through a class research project. Residents receive mentorship to design a study, submit a protocol to the Institutional Review Board, collect and analyze data, and publish results. Further, all residents are required to perform 3 specific scholarly activities: presentation at a local, regional, or national conference; completion of a quality improvement project; and a Grand Rounds presentation. Residents receive mentorship for all of these. Additionally, residents are afforded elective time to pursue scholarly activities depending on their specific interests.

Second year residents complete a 4-week quality improvement and patient safety rotation. This includes protected time to pursue the Institute for Healthcare Quality and Safety course and mentorship to design and launch a quality improvement project.

Several professional development topics are built into our military unique curriculum. Additionally, experienced faculty perform career development boards with residents.

• Sentara Norfolk General Hospital
• Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughter (CHKD)
• University of Virginia Medical Center
• Carilion Medical Center
• Langley Air Force Base – 1st Medical Group
• Riverside Regional Medical Center
• Virginia Commonwealth University

Medical students and interns frequently rotate with us. We offer rotations from 1-4 weeks and try to tailor rotators’ experiences to their interests. We encourage pursuit of a broad range of clinical areas (e.g. OR, acute pain service, pain clinic, obstetric anesthesiology, etc). Rotations are limited in July and August due to onboarding first year residents.

You will receive information from our program coordinator outlining a variety of topics which ACGME, American Board of Anesthesiology, and/or the Navy require us to share with you before you interview. We’ll request your CV and personal statement. Please do not include official transcripts or official board score reports. You will not be asked about how you rank our program. Our goals are to share more information about our program and learn more about you.

Program graduates take the American Board of Anesthesiology certification exams. The exams include the Basic exam (end of first year of residency), Advanced exam (upon graduation), and the Applied Exam (typically within the first 18 months following graduation). To become fully board certified, applicants must pass all exams sequentially. To be eligible to take specialty board exams, graduates must complete all pre-requisites required by the American Board of Anesthesiology.

Residents have daily teaching opportunities. We have several students and interns rotating in our program at any given time. We do not allow first year residents to teach in the operating room during their first two months. After that, residents have frequent opportunities for teaching and mentorship.

Several residents take on additional, elective, teaching roles, including the hospital’s procedural sedation education team, airway and intravenous access training at local operational commands, and more.

• Pediatric anesthesiology
• Obstetric anesthesiology
• Regional anesthesiology
• Pain Medicine
• Critical Care
• Informatics

Each resident chooses a faculty mentor during their first year. Resident-Mentor pairs meet throughout the year to discuss evaluations, goals, and overall wellness. Additionally, our program has several subcommittees for things like research, oral boards, etc., which are led by engaging faculty who look forward to opportunities to mentor residents with specific interests.

Our program has a simple approach to well-being. Studies in academic medicine suggest that the most important aspects to job satisfaction include feeling valued and respected by leadership, working in a social and supportive environment, and being challenged at the right level so that work is complex yet allows success at increasing levels of autonomy. Our program uses those findings to build Wellness into our daily culture. This includes program leadership support for life events, appointments, etc., expectations for collegial interactions between faculty and residents, increasing autonomy in the clinical environment from an early stage in training, and more. Additionally, we have quarterly Wellness days built into our academics, periodic social gatherings, and more.