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Program Leadership:
Kristina Sullivan, MD, Program Director
Administrative Staff:
Cindy Chin, Program Administrator
Jannot Ross, Program Administrator
Serena Smith, Program Administrator

Address:
UCSF Anesthesia Residency Program
School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
513 Parnassus Avenue, S436
San Francisco, CA 94143
Phone:
415.476.3235
Email:
anesresidency@ucsf.edu 

Program Description

Introduction

The UCSF Anesthesia Residency Program is a 4-year ACGME-accredited Residency Program. For more than half a century, the Anesthesia Residency has provided outstanding clinical training and produced leaders in our field. The demands of modern health care have led to increasing complexity in the perioperative and critical care environments. Our program has evolved to meet these challenges, and our commitment to excellence in residency training remains as strong as ever.

Educational Program (Basic Curriculum)

The Clinical Base (Intern) Year

For some, the experience as a UCSF anesthesia resident begins with the interdisciplinary internship program at UCSF. This rigorous yet richly rewarding year includes intensive training in internal medicine, surgery, critical care, neurology, and emergency medicine alongside some of the finest physicians in the country. The year culminates with a month of anesthesia, celebrating your entry into clinical work in our department. Anesthesia interns at UCSF are expected to sit for the nationwide In-Training Examination in the spring along with their senior colleagues.

The CA-1 Year

The CA-1 year centers on intraoperative training in anesthesiology. You will begin the first Clinical Anesthesia year with a month-long period of one-on-one faculty supervision, allowing tailored training with faculty specifically selected for their teaching abilities. Through the month of July, CA-1 residents are relieved from OR duties by 2 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday for afternoon lectures covering core concepts in anesthesia. CA-1 residents train in a wide variety of settings, including the administration of anesthesia for general surgery, OHNS, orthopedics, ambulatory surgery, acute pain medicine, trauma, evaluation of patients in the PREPARE (preoperative) clinic, ICU care, and post-op care in the PACU. Progress in acquiring medical knowledge is tested periodically with Anesthesia Knowledge Tests on Day 1, Month 1, Month 6, as well as the nationwide In-Training Examination (ITE) in the spring.

The CA-2 Year

During your CA-2 year, you will undergo intensive training in a variety of anesthesia subspecialty areas, including anesthesia for cardiac and thoracic surgery, obstetrics, neurosurgery, acute and chronic pain, regional anesthesia, pediatrics, and critical care. Educational sessions continue in the form of Wednesday Grand Rounds or lectures tailored to each residency class, small-group case-based sessions led by volunteer faculty, and daily intraoperative teaching sessions (ongoing, informal). To celebrate the midway point in your training, a weekend CA-2 retreat is held in the fall. For those interested in pursuing fellowship training, the fall/winter of CA-2 year is the time when many residents prepare their applications for fellowship training programs.

The CA-3 Year

During the CA-3 year, you will return to the general OR as a senior resident to provide anesthesia and intensive care with increasing autonomy. Specialty rotations include adult cardiac (at Kaiser San Francisco), TEE, thoracic and vascular surgery, regional anesthesia, ZSFG night team leader, and critical care. Whenever possible, senior residents care for patients undergoing the most complex procedures, such as liver transplant and heart and lung transplants. CA-3s have three months of “Selectives” with an array of options including pediatric cardiac, regional anesthesia at the Orthopaedic Institute, and additional training in OB, pediatrics, neurosurgery, etc. As residents have become increasingly involved with the UCSF Pathways Program, some now participate in several months of intensive study in Health Professions Education, Global Health, the interactions between Health and Society, etc. Residents participating in Innovative Residency Tracks (as Critical Care or Research Scholars) may extend their training into a “CA-4 year” as they acquire specialized additional skillsets. Residents with strong research interests can consolidate their clinical training into 2.5 years to participate in 6 months of research during their final year under the guidance of a faculty research mentor.

Detailed Instructional Schedule

• General Anesthesia in the OR
• Neuro Anesthesia
• Regional Anesthesia
• Pediatric Anesthesia
• OB Anesthesia
• Trauma Anesthesia
• Vascular Anesthesia
• Cardiac Anesthesia
• Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesia
• Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia
• Prepare Clinic
• Pre-op Anesthesia
• Advance Anesthesia in the OR

Instructors/Resources

The UCSF Anesthesia Residency Program has a wealth of clinical and research faculty distributed throughout UCSF and its associated hospitals listed below. Education within the program and supervision of trainees are the focus of the majority of the faculty.

Teaching Staff

• Kristina Sullivan, MD, Program Director, Anesthesia
• John Turnbull, MD, Associate Program Director, Anesthesia
• Gabriel Sarah, MD, Associate Program Director, Anesthesia
• Manuel Pardo, MD, Vice Chair of Education, Anesthesia
• Wendy Smith, MD, Internship Director, Anesthesia
• Matthias Braehler, MD, Clinical Professor, Anesthesia
• Kris Breyer, MD, Associate Clinical Professor, Anesthesia
• Lundy Campbell, MD, Clinical Professor, Anesthesia
• Joyce Chang, MD, Associate Clinical Professor, Anesthesia
• Lee-lynn Chen, MD, Clinical Professor, Anesthesia
• Marla Ferschl, MD, Clinical Professor, Anesthesia

Instructional Facilities

The main facilities, which offer a wide depth and breadth of clinical and research experiences and training, where the trainees practice and see patients are:

• UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, San Francisco, California
• Mission Bay (UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital, UCSF Bakar’s Cancer Center), San Francisco, California
• Mt. Zion Hospital, San Francisco, California
• Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California
• Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, California
• Kaiser San Francisco, San Francisco, California
• UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland, California
• UCSF Orthopedic Institute, San Francisco, California

Entrance Requirements

In accordance with ACGME requirements for graduate medical education, the UCSF School of Medicine GME eligibility policy applies to all residency and fellowship programs and may be found in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.

The program specific policies may be found at: anesthesia.ucsf.edu/education-program-ucsf-department-anesthesia. 

Policies

Enrollment Policy

In accordance with ACGME requirements for graduate medical education, UCSF School of Medicine GME policies apply to all residency and fellowship programs and may be found in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.

Credit Evaluation Policy

In accordance with ACGME requirements for graduate medical education, the UCSF School of Medicine GME supervision, evaluation, and other policies apply to all residency and fellowship programs and may be found in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.

The program specific supervision, communication/escalation, and evaluation policies address the different levels of training and may be found at: anesthesia.ucsf.edu/how-apply. Each program has a multisource learner assessment program in accordance with ACGME, UCSF GME, and program policies and requirements.

All faculty and trainees are educated about fatigue in GME training and adept at recognizing fatigue in themselves and others. In accordance with ACGME requirements for graduate medical education, the UCSF School of Medicine GME fatigue mitigation policy applies to all residency and fellowship programs and may be found in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.

Attendance Policy

In accordance with ACGME requirements for graduate medical education, the UCSF School of Medicine GME leave policy, which addresses vacation, sick, parental, and other leave, applies to all residency and fellowship programs and may be found in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.

• Absence: Refer to the GME leave policy in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.
• Tardiness: Fellows are expected to contact their site preceptor by 8:30 a.m. to indicate if they will be late or absent that day for any reason, notify the Chief resident, and to document absence in the MedHub system.
• Interruption for Unsatisfactory Attendance: Interruption for unsatisfactory attendance is address through the established UCSF GME disciplinary mechanisms noted elsewhere in this document. Fellows taking more than the allowed vacation/sick time may be required to extend their fellowship past the normal graduation date.
• Cutting Classes: Fellows must attend a minimum of 70% of conferences during their fellowship and unsatisfactory attendance will be reviewed at the semi-annual Clinical Competency Committee. If needed the fellow will be put on a remediation plan until the situation is rectified.
• Make-up Work: Missed conferences that have been recorded will be available for later viewing. Other missed conferences are made up at the discretion of the program director.
• Leave of Absence: Refer to the GME leave policy in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet. 

Policy on Academic Progress

The medical education of physicians to practice independently is experiential and necessarily occurs within the context of the health care delivery system. Developing the skills, knowledge and attitudes leading to proficiency in all the domains of clinical competency requires the resident and fellow physician to assume personal responsibility for the care of individual patients. For the resident and fellow, the essential learning activity is interaction with patients under guidance and supervision of faculty members who give value, context, and meaning to those interactions. As residents and fellows gain experience and demonstrate growth in their ability to care for patients, they assume roles that permit them to exercise those skills with greater independence. This concept – graded and progressive responsibility – is one of the core tenets of American GME. Supervision in the GME setting has the goals of assuring the provision of safe and effective care to the individual patient; assuring each resident or fellow’s development of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to enter the unsupervised practice of medicine; and establishing a foundation for continued professional growth.

The program director is responsible for the content and conduct of all educational activities at all teaching sites.

Trainee performance and progress are evaluated by program faculty verbally and in writing with progression consistent with ACGME milestones assessed twice yearly by the Clinical Competency Committee and further reviewed by the Residency Advisory Committee. These formal mechanisms are in place for monitoring and documenting each trainee’s acquisition of fundamental knowledge and clinical skills and overall performance throughout the academic year.

Trainees are supervised by faculty and given regular feedback on their performance in real-time and at regular intervals from the program director or associate program director with input from the Clinical Competency Committee (CCC), as noted. If a trainee is not meeting expectations or experiencing difficulties, the program director will determine if remediation is needed.

In the event academic action is necessary, policies and procedures must follow the UCSF GME academic due process policy.

Trainee Responsibilities

UCSF residents and fellows are expected to:

• Develop a personal program of self-study and professional growth with guidance from the faculty;
• Participate in safe, effective, and compassionate patient care under supervision commensurate with their level of advancement and responsibility;
• Participate fully in the educational and scholarly activities of their program and as required, assume responsibility for teaching and supervising other residents, fellows, and students;
• Participate in institutional programs and activities involving the medical staff and adhere to established practices, procedures, and policies of the institution;
• Participate in institutional committees and councils, especially those that relate to patient care activities;
• Participate in evaluation of the quality of education provided by the program;
• Develop an understanding of ethical, socioeconomic, and medical/legal issues that affect graduate medical education and how to apply cost containment measures in the provision of patient care;
• Comply with established ethical behavior and practices;
• Adhere to federal, state, and campus deadlines and requirements regarding licensure and registration for the practice of medicine;
• Respond to the Office of GME (OGME) and the home program/department for information related to position/rank and function;
• Adhere to all departmental, School of Medicine, GME, and ACGME policies and procedures.

Benefits/Leave

UCSF residents and fellows are entitled to four (4) work weeks of vacation, 12 sick days, and eight weeks of paid parental leave annually. Find more information about trainee leaves. Scheduling of leave is in accordance with the Anesthesia Residency program leave policy.

Time spent away from the program may impact program completion per American Board requirements. Programs are required to provide timely notice of the effect of leave(s) on the ability of trainees to satisfy requirements for completion.

UCSF Hospital System Responsibilities

• Sleep rooms and lounges: Sleep rooms and lounges for residents and fellows are provided at rotation sites. They may use for overnight call and napping.
• Uniforms: One long white coat is issued to new residents.
• Work Hours: UCSF GME work hour policy applies to all residents and fellows and may be found in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.
• Communication: Pagers, email addresses, and access to the UCSF network are provided to all residents and fellows when they start their training.
• Library: All trainees have access to the UCSF library, both in-person and online. They also have access to libraries at the sites in which they rotate.

Salaries

Trainee salaries are determined through collective bargaining with CIR-SEIU Healthcare, the exclusive representative of UCSF residents and fellows. If program policy allows, trainees may elect to moonlight. Find the UCSF GME moonlighting policy in the 2022-2023 Housestaff Information Booklet.