For Candidates Who Are Seeking to Enter an Anesthesiology Residency Program at the PGY-1 (Clinical Base Year) Level:
WE ACCEPT APPLICATIONS THROUGH ERAS ONLY
We are excited that you are interested in Anesthesiology and are happy to respond to your request for information about training at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center on the Bowman Gray Campus. We are very proud of our graduates and very pleased with our current residents. Great teaching is something we value in ourselves and expect in our colleagues. We make everyone's top ten list and almost everyone's top five list of academic anesthesia departments. We are constantly striving to be the number one teaching anesthesia residency in the country.
Through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) we will appoint a total of 11 residents to the class. Ten will occupy the Postgraduate Year 1 (PGY-1; Anesthesiology C) positions, and 1 will fill our Clinical Anesthesia-1 (PGY-2; Anesthesiology S) positions.
Candidates may apply simultaneously for entry at the Clinical Base Year (PGY-1) and CA-1 (PGY-2) Year.
We currently have 56 residents (10 PGY-1s, 16 CA-1s, 15 CA-2s, and 15 CA-3s) and 10 clinical fellows (3 Pain, 3 Critical Care, 2 Cardiac Anesthesia, and 2 Obstetric Anesthesia).
The American Board of Anesthesiology requires resident physicians to complete a 4-year Continuum of Education in Anesthesiology. The 4 years include 1 year of nonanesthesia clinical training (Clinical Base Year) and 3 years of Clinical Anesthesia training (CA-1, CA-2 and CA-3). As outlined by the American Board of Anesthesiology, the three-year Clinical Anesthesia Curriculum consists of experience in Basic Anesthesia Training (CA-1), Subspecialty Anesthesia Training (CA-2) and Advanced Anesthesia Training (CA-3). The graded curriculum increases in difficulty and provides learning experiences that progressively challenge the resident's intellect and technical skills.
At Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, you typically will complete the Clinical Base Year by spending 5 months on internal medicine, which includes at least 1 month of emergency medicine, 2 months on surgery, and 1 month each in the neonatal intensive care unit, arrhythmia service, obstetrical service, preoperative assessment clinic, and anesthesiology. During the latter half of the CA-1 year and throughout the CA-2 year, the residents participate in subspecialty rotations that include ambulatory, cardiothoracic, neurosurgical, obstetric, orthopaedic, and pediatric anesthesia; acute and chronic pain medicine; preoperative assessment; postanesthesia care; and adult and pediatric critical care. The Department offers all three tracks for the CA-3 year as outlined by the American Board of Anesthesiology. The Residency Review Committee (RRC) of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has fully approved the Department for three years of Clinical Anesthesia training and the Clinical Base Year. We also have active, full, and ACGME-approved critical care and pain management fellowships, and active and full cardiac and obstetric anesthesia fellowships. Our fellowships are regarded as the best in the country in their respective areas.
We have a faculty of 62 physicians (26% women) of diverse training backgrounds and about 57 staff nurse anesthetists. We administer approximately 29,000 surgical anesthetics per year in 25 inpatient, 8 outpatient, and 7 pediatric operating rooms at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, with approximately 5,000 additional anesthetics administered in satellite locations. We have an excellent variety of operative case work, including neurosurgery (900 intracranial per year), open heart (800 per year), pediatric surgery (4,600 per year), level 1 trauma, and all the other surgical subspecialties. All obstetric deliveries (6,300 per year) occur in a consolidated perinatal suite at Forsyth Medical Center, also in Winston-Salem, that is completely staffed by our department. Last year the CA-1 residents averaged 349 cases; CA-2s, 561; and CA-3s, 435 per year. Typically, each of our residents administers 100 spinal and 300 epidural anesthetics throughout the residency.
We provide a 1-month introductory course for new house officers and three regularly scheduled teaching conferences per week during the academic year in addition to regularly scheduled subspecialty anesthesia conferences, usually with resident presentations, and journal clubs. We also have a very active Visiting Professor Program. Mock orals are administered twice yearly. Our patient simulator laboratory is up and running.
We welcome resident participation in basic, translational, or clinical research. Several residents each year have presented papers at regional and national meetings. It is now possible to intersperse 6 months of research throughout your 4 years of anesthesia training.
In addition to the 10 first year positions which Internal Medicine makes available to the Department of Anesthesiology, they also offer 2 Preliminary Medicine positions to persons who do not intend to continue in that specialty. If you apply for entry to our program at the CA-1 year, perhaps you might be interested in completing your Clinical Base Year in one of those positions (Internal Medicine #153715). Internal Medicine accepts applications through ERAS only. Mrs. Betsy Burkleo, Department of Internal Medicine at this Medical Center, (336) 716-4490 is their contact person. Be sure to let Ms. Burkleo know that you are applying for a residency position in anesthesiology at Wake Forest.
We think you have made a good choice by declaring an interest in anesthesiology as a profession. We look forward to receiving your application and hope that we shall have the opportunity of having you visit our Department. The Resident Recruitment Committee will review your application file and notify you in writing regarding an interview.
Sincerely,
Raymond C. Roy, Ph.D., M.D.
Professor and Chair
P.S. For additional information you may contact Mrs. Carrol Stuart, our Resident Recruitment Assistant, at (336) 716-4426 or via email at cstuart@wfubmc.edu.