Impact of a paid, longitudinal anaesthesiology externship programme on developing medical students into anaesthesiologists

Editor—Exposure to the field of anaesthesia is limited in medical school, 1 Ly E.I. Catalani B.S. Boggs S.D. McGreevey K.E. Updegraff A.B. Steadman J.L. The anesthesiology clerkship: a requisite experience in medical education. Ochsner J. 2020; 20: 250-254 Crossref Scopus (2) Google Scholar and evidence suggests that enhancing early exposure to anaesthesia can positively impact specialty interest amongst medical students. 2 Baker K.S. Cormican D. Seidman P.A. Summer anesthesiology externship: demonstrating the ability of early clinical involvement to educate and increase specialty interest. J Educ Perioper Med. 2012; 14: E063 PubMed Google Scholar ,3 Serafini M. Palmer E. An innovative model for preclinical exposure: West Virginia University externship in anesthesia. J Educ Perioper Med. 2013; 15: E065 Google Scholar The anaesthesiology externship programme (AEP) was established in 1938 at our tertiary medical centre for medical students to fill the role of anaesthesia technicians on nights, weekends, and holidays. Today, anaesthesia externs routinely perform airway management, vascular access, and rapid transfusion amongst other clinical and job responsibilities. Whilst anaesthesia externships exist at other institutions in the USA, ours is distinguished by its status as a paid position that is taken on by externs early in and longitudinally throughout their medical education. We aimed to evaluate the AEP in three dimensions: anaesthesia knowledge attainment; recruitment into the specialty; and professional development in the areas of adaptability, relationship building, and time management.