Educational Philosophy:

In 1968 Dr. Henrik Bendixen was recruited from Harvard to be the Chief of Anesthesia in the then embryonic school. A cosmopolitan and highly sophisticated physician, Bendixen's perspective was that full engagement in basic research and teaching within the School of Medicine was essential for the acceptance and growth of the department, but that superior clinical performance was a prerequisite. The foundation of excellence he laid for the department has served us well.

We have identified resident education as the single most important of our activities in a formal rank-ordering of our department goals. This is an unusual priority in a modern teaching hospital, since most are struggling to balance budgets, and it has profound implications.

The faculty believes that medicine is a blend of art and science, a learned profession comprising both skill and knowledge. The goal of the resident education program is to produce anesthesiologists who can practice the specialty with the authority that comes from mastery of both the knowledge base and the artfulness that the specialty requires. The role of the consultant physician in medicine today embodies the practice and the teaching of a specialty, a synthesis of the Greek word physician (healer) and the Roman word doctor (teacher). While the Romans no doubt had it in mind that the doctor would teach the patient, today's consultants teach both the patient and other physicians. For anesthesiologists, the latter often proves more challenging!

A curriculum is the organized teaching efforts of a faculty, both in a formal curriculum and also extemporaneously by example or even inadvertency. We have an extensive didactic program, however, no schedule of didactics can comprehensively cover the increasingly broad field of knowledge in our discipline and every resident is expected to read comprehensively as well. This requires self-motivation and discipline. Most resident education is impromptu and based on the problems presented by a particular patient and proposed operation.

Collegiality in our department is nurtured because of its salutary effect on education. Perhaps the best illustration is the weekly Mortality and Morbidity Conference (M&M), where by design we rigorously avoid personal criticism, focusing instead on what general lessons can be learned from the presented case. The interviewing day for resident applicants is scheduled on Wednesday so that they can attend “M&M” since the content and style of the conference reveal much about the department.

The faculty, considering the residents to be mature graduate students, affords them considerable latitude in their education. The chief residents are chosen solely by the residents and work with the residency Program Director, the Resident Education Committee, and the faculty to help steer and implement the educational efforts of the department. In the tradition of graduate education, much education also comes from the resident-resident interaction. We are delighted with the caliber and accomplishments of our residents and the camaraderie that they quickly develop. One of Bendixen's many memorable quips is apropos: “If you select your residents with sufficient care, they can teach the faculty anything it needs to know.”