Ten first-year fellows from the Departments of Anesthesiology, Neurology, and Surgery had the opportunity to practice core critical care skills on simulation equipment and gain exposure to new faculty during a multidisciplinary three-day boot camp.
The inaugural Critical Care Medicine Boot Camp included lectures, task trainers, and Advanced Cardiac Life Support scenarios in the Center for Safety, Simulation and Learning Technologies from July 29–31.
Four of the fellows came from the Department of Anesthesiology’s Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, while four came from Surgery and two came from Neurocritical Care, a new fellowship in the Department of Neurology. Three second-year fellows helped teach the camp along with one surgeon, one Neurocritical Care intensivist, and four anesthesiologists on the faculty side.
Peggy White, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, said the goal of the camp was to provide fellows with a common foundation. That’s increasingly important given the number of different intensive care units and critical care programs at UF: Neurocritical Care, Pulmonary Critical Care, Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Emergency Medicine.
“The fellows come in with different backgrounds,” Dr. White said. “This is to give everybody an introduction and make sure everyone has a basic understanding of what they need to know when they start.”
In addition to Dr. White, Meghan Brennan, MD, Matt Hernandez, DO, and Sean Kiley, MD, from the Department of Anesthesiology’s Critical Care Medicine division participated. Two faculty members from other divisions also taught sessions to broaden the fellows’ education. Chris Giordano, MD, spoke about team training, while Tony Cometa, MD, spoke about neuromuscular blockade.
Dr. White said she hopes the knowledge the fellows gained during the boot camp, which included sessions on airway intubation devices and interactive ultrasound, will strengthen their clinical interactions.
“It’s doing a lot of team building and a lot of relationship development for them,” she said, adding that she believes this year’s event was well received and hopes it will continue in future years.