Letter From the Chief
Hi! Thank you for your interest in OHSU’s Anesthesiology training program!
We have A LOT to offer for our residents and we would like to share with you why we think coming to OHSU for residency is one of the best decisions we have ever made. We all came from very different places and have diverse backgrounds, but we each discovered OHSU to be a gem of a program, and we are confident we will finish our time here as competent and well-trained anesthesiologists. Here are the things that make OHSU Anesthesiology shine as a training program and that made it worth packing our bags and coming to Portland:
Our Residents
A residency program can only be as strong as its residents. We are proud to get to work with brilliant, compassionate, and hard-working co-residents here. Among our ranks you will find a wholesome community of people who take care of each other like family. Many of us have families and children and the support we receive from the department is outstanding. Our interests truly run the gamut - many of us take advantage of all the outdoor beauty the Pacific Northwest has to offer, like paddle-boarding on the Willamette River or great skiing on Mount Hood. Others like to go out to eat, dance at night, or attend concerts and shows. Most importantly, we love doing it together and we create our community, both through organized events that the department regularly plans for us, as well as through our own will to bond with one another. You will meet colleagues at OHSU, but you will also make lifelong friendships with other residents, faculty, anesthesia techs, and many more people inside and outside of the hospital setting.
Clinical Experience
The training at OHSU will prepare you for just about anything anesthesia-related you can imagine. We are a well-respected department in the hospital with excellent relationships with our surgical colleagues. We do cases in a wide range of locations, including our main hospital operating rooms, the ambulatory surgery center at the South Waterfront, the Portland VA, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, out-of-OR locations such as cath lab and interventional radiology suites, and labor and delivery. Our hospital has a notably high case-mix index - in other words, we take care of the sickest of the sick. We get patients from all over Oregon and frequently from neighboring states in the Mountain West and Northwest. You will take care of heart and liver transplants, blunt and penetrating traumas, complex neuroendocrine tumor resections, bedside exploratory laparotomies, and much more - all with the support of fantastic faculty. You will learn from some internationally renowned clinical experts on both the surgical and anesthetic side of the drapes. You can select to rotate through subspecialities during your CA-1 year, to help you decide on future training and to make you a versatile clinician able to assist your patients and peers wherever needed. It comes as no surprise that our residency graduates consistently end up at top fellowship programs and land desirable jobs, as this program prepares us well for independent practice.
The Education
Education is a top priority for our residents and the department. Teaching happens at the bedside, in the operating room, and in a lower-stress environment to foster more discussion and learning from one another. Residents have a weekly half-day of protected didactic learning time called Resident Academic Half-Day (RAH). This starts during CA-1 year and continues until graduation. Each session features large-group mock oral board exam sessions, preparing us for that future exam from the very first day. RAH is also a great time to check in with leadership, present journal clubs and keyword presentations to each other, eat snacks, study for board exams, and find camaraderie during training. We have a state-of-the-art simulation center that our residents get to use several times a year to experience emergencies and develop excellent crisis-management skills. During intern year there are Monday morning didactics where residents will receive education alongside surgical colleagues for a portion of the year. Following that, interns will receive lectures from senior residents and faculty, in addition to having sessions in our simulation center. Our program is proud to have created the Anesthesia Toolbox, a widely-used resource for anesthesia residencies containing great review lectures, board review questions, interactive videos, case management guides, and more. A faculty member in our department also helped to optimize an iOS/Android feedback app (MyTIPreport) that we use to give and receive feedback about procedural skills and clinical management, which helps to track progress over time. Most importantly, we constantly incorporate resident feedback into finding new and more effective ways to learn.
Perks, Highlights, and More Opportunities
For those interested, we offer two combined Anesthesiology residency and fellowship programs via our Oregon Scholars Program (OSP) in Critical Care and Research. Click to learn more!
A wide range of electives, from POCUS and transesophageal echocardiography to pediatric cardiac and private practice cardiac anesthesia, are available to our residents. We also take on big roles in advocacy - we have a strong representation at the ASA conference, not only scientifically, but also legislatively. Each year, we send residents to participate in the ASA Legislative Conference and the ASA House of Delegates meeting with voting privileges there to affect national change. Our residents are also closely involved with the Oregon Society of Anesthesiologists to represent our specialty at state and local government levels.
As OHSU Anesthesiology resident you will also be a member of the House Officers Union (HOU), which is constantly advocating for improvements to our contract. The HOU recently negotiated several changes to our compensation, which included a salary raise and an increased moving stipend. Other benefits of being an OHSU employee include exclusive access to the Nike, Columbia, and Adidas Employee stores.
Our academic support staff is delightful and immensely helpful. They will be happy to befriend you, help you plan work around life events, and help you through hard times.
Our residents get access to OHSU’s Resident and Faculty Wellness Center, a free, confidential service that provides counseling and other support from a psychiatrist or other licensed mental health practitioner. This program is so successful that it has served as a model for other academic medical centers. Appointments made for mental health are blocked off as essential time for our residents so that they can take care of themselves as needed.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a fun-filled city with something for everybody. If you like the great outdoors, a short drive in any direction gets you somewhere beautiful. You can visit the majestic Oregon Coast, the winding Columbia Gorge, or beautiful snow-capped Mount Hood. Portland is frequently rated one of the top foodie cities in the country, sporting a wide variety of ethnic cuisines, dive bars, food carts, breweries, and fine dining. It’s easy to get around town, too, with a robust public transportation system consisting of light rails, streetcars, and buses. Parking is both cheap and accessible throughout the city. Bike lanes are everywhere, making it easy to pedal or scoot around. If you’re into sports, we’re home to the Blazers, Thorns, Timbers, Pickles, and more. If you enjoy shows and concerts, we are home to a fantastic Oregon Symphony that brings fabulous guest soloists from all over the world, as well as both indoor and outdoor music venues and a popular stop on many artists’ tours. Portland is also a kid-friendly city filled with parks, a great zoo, and many easily walkable streets.
Thanks for your interest in our program. We have so much more we want to share that we cannot fit in this letter. If you are interested in learning more, please consider joining one of our upcoming Virtual Open Houses (dates and links to be posted to the website during application/interview season). We hope you will consider joining us here in Portland for your training!
Sincerely,
Drs. Avery Barron, Daniel Nguyen, Rameez Zaman
Co-Chief Residents, 2024-2025