Surgical Anesthesia Intensive Care Acting Internship 6 Credits/Maximum of 6

Catalog description

The Surgical Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit Acting Internship focuses on the unique surgical and critical care needs of the surgical patients. The acting intern will be exposed to all of the facets of critical care surgery including bedside procedures, resuscitation, organ support and physiologic concepts involving the management of critically ill patients. The acting intern will work with all of the members of the Surgical Anesthesia Critical Care team during the rotation. The acting intern will be introduced to the members of the team during the first day of the rotation. The AI student should function with direct and indirect supervision to gather focused patient information during the history and physical exam in a time effective manner and use critical thinking and advanced knowledge to guide judgement and medical decision making in a semi-autonomous fashion. Students will take primary responsibility and be accountable for patient care, management, follow up, and reassessment throughout all phases of clinical care from admission to discharge. The AI student will be expected to exemplify professional behavior, communication, and teamwork with patients and families, inter-professional care team members and interdisciplinary consultants at the level of a resident intern. Prioritization and timely coordination of patient care activities will be the responsibility of the AI student, including smooth and effective transfers of care, discharge planning, and necessary follow up. During this specific AI Course, students will be immersed within the specialty of surgical critical care and will use advanced medical knowledge and practice during direct patient care in a collaborative and inter-professional manner. Core Acting Internship rotations at Penn State emphasize students' active role on the team to ensure readiness for residency. In their role as acting interns, students on Core AI rotations will develop increasing proficiency and independence in developing plans of care, entering orders, preparing, and performing patient handoffs, appropriately evaluating and responding to changes in patients' clinical conditions, and applying evidence-based care to patient management.