The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Anesthesiology Residency Program has two tremendous sites that host the graduate medical education simulation experience. Residents participate in these didactics at both the VCU School of Medicine at the Center for Human Simulation & Patient Safety (CHSPS) and the Richmond Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center Simulation Center. Both centers offer advanced simulation technology including high-fidelity mannequins and clinical equipment to mimic the real perioperative environment to reproduce both routine and critical clinical situations.

Simulation education is built throughout the anesthesiology residency and tailored to the educational level of the learner. It starts with an introduction to anesthesia “bootcamp” during the orientation to anesthesiology month. This consists of task trainers for frequently performed anesthesia procedures (neuraxial, airway, central line) and high-fidelity simulation scenarios for commonly encountered situations (induction, emergence, etc).

The bulk of the simulation education occurs throughout the CA-1 through CA-3 years as part of the anesthesia crisis resource management series. Residents are given the opportunity to be in the “hot seat” in various clinical scenarios followed by an in-depth debriefing. Learners are able to practice being the main decision maker in crises they may not get the opportunity to see in the clinical environment during their training.

CA-3 residents get the opportunity to participate in didactics to help them prepare for the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) that is part of the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) Applied Board Exam. These include mock sessions for the technical skills stations as well as a full mock OSCE for the communications stations.