Expert: JM Starkman, MD - 4/22/2010

Question
I'm doing a school project on Anesthesiologists, and i need to find out what a Residency Program is. What is it, and what do you do?

Answer
A residency in anesthesiology (as in any medical , or perhaps other field) is a paid period of physician training in a hospital where experienced physicians practicing anesthesiology take on new medical school graduates (new doctors--the residents) and teach them the details of being anesthesiologists and teaching the details of anesthesia administration to them. Some of this involves lecture/class type teaching, but mostly is clinical in nature with residents taking on the majority of patient care under the supervision of the teaching ("attending") physicians. The residency concludes after three or four years when the faculty/teachers certify the physician as having completed the residency program and declare him as "board eligible"--which means he is now qualified to take a written and then an oral board exam to become formally certified as a "board-certified anesthesiologist'.