Going forward, interns will spend three months on the Advanced Clinical Medicine (ACM) rotation during the second half of intern year. Half of the intern class will rotate on ACM from January through March, while the other half will rotate from April through June.

The ACM rotation incorporates lectures, workshops, case discussions, and simulations to provide the foundation for the upcoming clinical anesthesia experience. During the Anesthesia orientation block, interns learn to setup the OR, check out the anesthesia machine, draw up medications, complete a focused anesthesia H&P, obtain patient consent for anesthesia, start IVs, intubate, complete electronic operative anesthesia records, communicate necessary information for transition of care to another provider, and conduct a basic anesthetic from beginning to end.

In addition to didactics and simulations, interns also become introduced to operating room anesthesia management with direct patient care experience. Early in the rotation, anesthesia interns will have days assigned to the OR while paired with a more senior resident. Later in the rotation, two interns will be paired up to work in the same OR with a single faculty member who has no other responsibility but to work with the orienting trainees. By the end of the rotation, interns will be able to run simple anesthetic cases from start to finish by themselves under the supervision of teaching faculty.

The ABA only allows one month of Anesthesia during the Clinical Base Year (CBY)—a collection of fundamental rotations that are typically completed during intern year. However, these rotations do not have to be completed during intern year. To allow for this new, extended orientation program, two CBY rotations will take place during the CA-1 year for each resident, most likely early in the year.