Duties of the Clerk

Subject to internal scheduling, one or both weeks of the rotation may be spent at LHSC University Hospital, LHSC Victoria Hospital and/or St. Joseph’s Health Care (SJHC). Regardless of assigned site, each student will spend one day at SJHC in the Cataract Suite. This placement will allow for intensive IV placement training that may not be as readily available in the regular O.R. setting.

Prior to starting the rotation, clerks should visit the Acute Care clerkship page on Elentra, to review the learning objectives and resources section in particular. A hardcopy of the course textbook will be made available on the first day of the rotation.

Each day, the student will be assigned to a staff anesthesiologist, or an anesthesia fellow. The student is expected to report to the O.R. between 0700 and 0715hrs or as soon as possible following any daily seminars, and should consult the O.R. schedule or the online scheduling system at the end of the day to view the following day’s assignment. Students should familiarize themselves with their patients’ charts (using Powerchart) prior to the day of surgery and consider what might be important considerations and an appropriate anesthesia plan.

If practicable (ie the patient is an inpatient), the student should assess those patients on their next day’s operating room schedule.  This is an assessment visit that should be reviewed with the staff anesthetist.  The student should not however, discuss specific anesthesia techniques or procedures (e.g. regional vs general, lines, etc) with the patient until the patient has been reviewed by the Consultant.

Learning objectives for clerks are detailed on the Acute care Elentra webpage. Those students interested in pursuing a career in anesthesiology, or GP anesthesia, should set their goal to (theoretically) be able to give a simple anesthetic for a minor surgical procedure, where no surgical or anesthesia complications ensue. For those who do not plan on anesthesia for a career, the rotation can be used to gain understanding in areas including optimisation of the patient for surgery, physiological challenges resulting from anesthesia and surgery, appropriate care of the postoperative patient, fluid management, airway and IV cannulation skills, and a wide range of perioperative management issues.

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