Our Anesthesiology Department’s fellowship positions in critical care are approved by the American Board of Anesthesiology to qualify a board eligible or board certified anesthesiologist to enter the examination system for special competency in critical care upon successful completion of the year.
Trauma and neurosurgical patients are the most frequent admissions to our unit; therefore, our critical care fellowships are weighted heavily toward their care. We also care for the entire spectrum of patients in surgical critical care. Although the surgical intensive care service primarily serves as a consulting service, we admit a few patients every year directly to the SICU service. These patients are primarily surgical patients with severe ARDS who have recovered from their surgical illness. The critical care fellows have a major role in managing these patients.
The critical care fellow will be involved in supervising anesthesia and surgery residents in our 30-bed multi-specialty surgical critical care unit. Rotations to the medical ICU are strongly encouraged and rotations through the pediatric ICU are available.
The critical care fellows will be taught by 3 attending anesthesiologists who have passed the specialty competency exam in critical care medicine by the American Board of Anesthesiology. Kane M. High, M.D. and John K. Stene, M.D., Ph.D. are Co-Directors of the Division of Respiratory and Critical Care of the Anesthesia Department. Dr. High has a background in mechanical engineering and perfusion devices. Dr. Stene has a background in pulmonary physiology and traumatology. Sandralee Blosser, M.D., who has training in both anesthesiology and pulmonary medicine, has a joint appointment in the Departments of Surgery and Anesthesiology. She is the Director of the adult critical care services at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
The fellows will also have teaching contact with many of the attending surgeons who are all board certified in their specialties. Three trauma surgeons, who are board certified in surgical critical care, Robert N. Cooney, M.D., Robert Cherry, M.D. and James Ku, M.D., will directly teach the critical care fellows because they share the ICU attending responsibilities with the three anesthesiologists and Dr. Blosser.
Because our surgical intensive care staff is a combined anesthesia and surgery service, the fellow will have teaching responsibilities to both anesthesia and surgery residents. The fellows will have elective rotations outside of the surgical intensive care unit that include pediatric intensive care, nutrition support service, laboratory research, trauma care and advanced and complex anesthetics in the operating room.
Senior anesthesia residents in our ICU have performed many procedures in the critical care unit, including multiple bronchoscopies (average of 40 per month), continuous regional blocks for pain management, intravascular monitoring lines, chest tubes and transport of critically-ill patients.
The selection process for critical care anesthesiology fellows:
Fellows apply by letter and receive a formal application. The critical care anesthesiology faculty members review applications and letters of recommendation. Qualified candidates are invited for an interview. Candidates are interviewed by the Anesthesiology Department Chairman and all of the surgical critical care faculty. Anesthesiology critical care faculty with advice and consent of the Anesthesiology Department Chairman evaluate interviewers’ notes as well as candidates’ application and letters of recommendations to decide whether or not to offer the candidate a position.
Qualifications for anesthesiology critical care fellowship at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are:
- Satisfactory completion of an anesthesiology residency at an approved institution;
- Eligibility for a Pennsylvania medical license
- Graduation from medical school. Penn State College of Medicine is an equal opportunity employer and the Department of Anesthesiology accepts all qualified candidates regardless of their gender, ethnic origin, or religious background.
Contact:
Bonnie Smith
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Department of Anesthesiology, H187
500 University Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
Phone: 717-531-8434
Fax: 717-531-0176
Email: bsmith1@hmc.psu.edu
