Obstetrical Anesthesia Fellowship

Goals

1) To develop confidence in the anesthetic management of the healthy and complicated parturient.
2) To develop the ability to independently design and complete clinical research projects.

Facilities

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is a tertiary referral center that provides a full range of obstetric-related care. Approximately 3500 parturients deliver at this facility each year. More than 90 percent of these women receive some form of anesthetic intervention. Parturients are cared for in a recently renovated labor suite that includes 23 labor/delivery/recovery rooms and two operating theaters. Commonly encountered pregnancy-related problems include pre-eclampsia, diabetes, prematurity, morbid obesity and multiple gestation. Complex patients are approached by an interdisciplinary team that includes perinatologists, neonatologists, anesthesiologists and other medical and surgical consultants as needed. The variety and acuity of our patients insures that fellows gain a depth and breadth of anesthetic experience available in few other centers.

Structure

Fellows will have clinical, teaching and research responsibilities.

Clinical Responsibilities: The program begins with a one-month intensive upgrade of clinical skills (including night call). Thereafter, the fellow will spend 50 percent of the time providing clinical care. When assigned to the obstetric anesthesia service (approximately 24 hours per week), the fellow will both directly provide clinical care as well as instruct and guide residents assigned to the obstetric anesthesia service. Other clinical responsibilities will include assignment to the general operating suites one day per week.
Teaching: Fellows have an important role in teaching residents and medical students rotating on the obstetric anesthesia service. Clinical teaching includes instruction in the techniques of labor analgesia and operative anesthesia as well as the more subtle understanding of how to manage the provision of anesthetic services on a busy labor floor. Didactic teaching includes presentation at departmental grand rounds and organizing and participating in weekly resident and student discussions of pertinent obstetric anesthesia topics.
Research: Fellows are expected to actively participate in ongoing projects. In addition, fellows will design and carry out their own research projects with the support and guidance of members of the section of obstetric anesthesia.