Current required critical care rotations are based in the Neurosurgical ICU (NSICU) and Cardiothoracic ICU (CTICU).  The division of critical care has two ABA critical care certified attendings, one ABA critical care certification-eligible attending and two fellowship-trained cardiac anesthesiologists on faculty who share attending duties.  The anesthesiology residents rotate in the CTICU and the NSICU.  Both attendings and residents function as part of multi-disciplinary teams with surgeons, nurses, critical care pharmacists, respiratory therapists, dieticians and many others.  The team works collaboratively to improve the outcome of critically-ill patients with widely varying injuries and multiple organ-system dysfunctions while in these intensive care units.  Our collaboration often begins with initial evaluation and resuscitation, continues throughout the perioperative period, and may progress to long-term critical care evaluation and management.

In the NSICU, residents manage patients including but not limited to those with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, intracranial hemorrhages, and multi-organ system dysfunction following various neurosurgical procedures.  In the CTICU, residents manage patients including but not limited to those following complex coronary artery bypass graft, valve replacement and reconstruction, heart and lung transplantations, and aortic repair procedures.

Formal educational conferences occur daily covering specific and pre-defined topics (both general and subspecialty-related).  Additionally, daily teaching rounds with attendings to address patient-relevant issues is an important component of education during these critical care rotations.