Chair's Message
The Department of Anesthesia's first responsibility is to provide exceptional anesthesia care to people of all ages at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, the IWK Health Centre, the Saint John Regional Hospital, the Dartmouth General Hospital and the Hants Community Hospital.
In addition to providing excellent clinical care, our 150+ department members teach the latest techniques and skills to anesthesia residents and medical students, conduct medical research in many areas of anesthesia, and impact the lives of people in developing countries through their global health efforts. (Read more...)
Department Overview
The Dalhousie Department of Anesthesia has a four-fold mandate encompassing safe, quality patient care, education, research and stewardship of people’s health at home and abroad.
Created in 1945, the Department of Anesthesia has grown to provide a full spectrum of critical care and general clinical services and administer leading edge programs in blood management, pain management and regional anesthesia. It subspecializes in cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, thoracic surgery and transplantation. (Read more...)
News
OR Communication and Teaching
OR Team Communication & Teaching: An interdisciplinary approach to communicating, teaching and learning in the OR setting
The Department of Anesthesia will host its second annual interdisciplinary professional development day for all members of the OR team on February 1st, noon - 4 p.m., University Club. This is a CME-approved event.
Dr. Lorelei Lingard, a leader in the study of healthcare team communication and collaboration will present Complexities and Challenges in Preoperative Briefing and facilitate an interdisciplinary panel discussion on preoperative briefing at this CME approved education centred, professional development opportunity for all on the OR team.
The third session of the day will be a robust panel discussion of clinical teaching in the OR that will be informed by the learnings of the day.
Objectives: Complexities and Challenges in Preoperative Briefing
- Understand the relationship between team communication and patient safety
- Explain how preoperative team briefings can impact communication breakdowns and improve work processes
- Appreciate the paradoxical effects of such communication interventions in complex systems
- Recognize the spectrum of speech and silence in team communications, and its implications for intervention and assessment efforts in this domain
Objectives: Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion on Preoperative Briefing
(panel members: Dr. Osama Loubani, Dr. Colin Audain, Rita Morrison, Dr. Peter Anderson)
- To review the main successes with preoperative briefing
- To articulate the main challenges with preoperative briefing
- To devise strategies to address these challenges going forward, including what kinds of data you might gather to track progress
Objectives: Clinical Teaching in the OR
(panel members: Dr. Brock Vair, Dr. Guy Brisseau, Cindy Fulmore, Dr. Dolores McKeen)
- To review effective teaching practices in the OR setting
- To review inherent challenges posed by the OR setting
- To reflect on personal practices and experience
- To review technical skill teaching
Brief Bio: Dr. Lorelei Lingard
Dr. Lorelei Lingard is Director of the Centre for Education, Research & Innovation at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Professor of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario. She investigates the nature of communication on inter-professional healthcare teams in a variety of clinical settings, including the operating room, ICU and internal medicine ward. She is particularly interested in how communication patterns influence patient safety and how learning to talk in sanctioned ways shapes the professional identity of novices.
