INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Department of Anaesthetics at St George Hospital! Unfortunately, you only have 5 days with us so we need to make the most of this short time! The primary focus should be familiarising yourself with the theatre environment but also, and perhaps more importantly, understanding the basic principles of anaesthesia and peri-operative medicine. You should also have plenty of opportunities to perform some procedures including IV cannulation, bag-mask ventilation, insertion of an LMA, and even endotracheal intubation!

As a framework to your learning for this week, here are some learning objectives mapped out to the pre, intra, and post-operative period:

Learning Objectives

  1. Pre-operative Assessment
    • To recognise the key elements in a pre-operative assessment
    • To assess the effects of a patient’s co-morbid disease on having a general anaesthetic
    • To describe the principles of management of medications in the pre-operative period
    • To explain existing fasting protocol and to recognise the principles and implications of fasting in the peri-operative period
  2. Intra-operative Principles
    • To explain the basic principles of monitoring in anaesthesia
    • To outline the key drugs used in general anaesthesia
    • To describe the principles of fluid resuscitation and apply this to the management of a patient
    • To demonstrate the ability to perform basic airway manoeuvres
  3. Post-operative Management
    • To outline the potential post-operative complications that may occur
    • To demonstrate an understanding on the basic principles of post-operative analgesia
    • To outline the management of post-operative nausea and vomiting

Procedures:

  • Bag-mask ventilation
  • Insertion of oropharyngeal and/or nasopharyngeal airways
  • Insertion of laryngeal mask airway (LMA)
  • Direct laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation
  • Intravenous cannulation
  • Ultrasound-guided intravenous cannulation
  • Intra-arterial cannulation

Here is a short TED-Ed video to whet the appetite!

For those of you who are keen, here are some suggested readings: