Questions to Ask During an Anesthesia Residency Interview
These are questions to ask during an anesthesia residency interview, written for fourth-year medical students and aimed at what a general residency list leaves out: who gets the cases, how residents are relieved at the end of the day, and how the department works with CRNAs and anesthesiologist assistants. The list opens with the cases, then covers the subspecialty rotations, call and the ICU months, CRNAs and AAs, the intern year and the first weeks in the operating room, and ends with boards, fellowships and jobs. Each note says what to listen for, and because the list assumes the US match, anything that turns on the state, the hospital or this year's requirements is left as something to ask about there.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Cases
How many cases does a resident log by graduation, and how far past the required minimums do they finish?
Why ask it
The accrediting body sets minimums by type of case and revises them, so ask for the current list alongside this program's numbers. A class that clears every line by the middle of the final year has cases to spare. Reaching them in the last spring means somebody spent months hunting for cases.
How sick are the patients here: mostly healthy people having planned surgery, or a lot of trauma, transplant and emergencies?
Why ask it
The cases that teach the most are the ones that do not follow the plan. Ask roughly what share of a resident's cases are emergencies or very ill patients, and then where the quick outpatient work is taught, since plenty of jobs are full of it.
Is the attending in the room for every induction, and at what stage of training do they begin to stand back?
Why ask it
Supervision rules depend on the hospital and on who is paying for the case, so ask how it is done here. What you want is a gradient: hands-on at first, then an attending who lets a senior run the room and picks up the phone at once. Ask a final-year resident what they decided yesterday without calling anyone.
What time do residents usually leave the operating room, and who takes over a case that runs late?
Why ask it
This is the hours question that matters most in anesthesia, because the day ends when the case does unless someone relieves you. Get the system by name: a late team, a relief order, an hour after which residents not on call are sent home. Then ask a resident when they left yesterday.
How are residents assigned to rooms each day, and who makes the assignment?
Why ask it
The good version is a person, often a chief resident or a faculty member, who looks at what each resident still needs and places them there. The poor version fills whichever rooms have nobody else. A useful check with a resident is how often a request for a particular case is granted.
When do you find out tomorrow's cases, and do you talk the plan through with the attending the night before?
Why ask it
The evening phone call to the attending is a habit at many programs and missing at others. A resident who has the list by late afternoon and has argued a plan before the patient arrives is being taught. One who meets the patient and the attending in the same minute is being used to staff a room.
Do residents get a morning break and lunch, and who comes to give it?
Why ask it
It sounds small and it shows how the department is staffed. A patient under anesthesia is not left alone, so a meal depends on somebody walking into your room. Residents who joke about lunch at two, or about skipping it, are describing a schedule with no spare hands.
How much airway training is there beyond the routine intubation: awake fiberoptic, video scopes, surgical airways?
Why ask it
Everyone gets the ordinary tubes. Ask whether there is an airway rotation, how many awake intubations a senior has done, and whether the hard airway on the list goes to the resident or is quietly taken over by the attending.
How much of the work is outside the operating room: endoscopy, radiology, MRI, the cath lab?
Why ask it
Plenty of anesthesia is now given in rooms that were not built for it, far from help and often to sick patients. A program that sends seniors there with good backup is preparing them for real practice. If trainees never cover those sites, ask who does and why.
Which hospitals do residents rotate through, and what kind of cases does each one add?
Why ask it
A university hospital, a veterans' hospital, a children's hospital and a private surgery center each teach a different pace. Residents can say which site they would drop and which they compete for. If you expect to work in private practice, find out where residents learn to turn rooms over quickly.
Is there a rotation in the pre-operative clinic and the recovery unit, and what do residents do there?
Why ask it
Deciding whether a patient is ready for surgery, and handling the first hour afterward, are parts of the job the operating room does not teach. Find out whether residents see the patients, choose the workup and phone the surgeon themselves. A month the seniors describe as a rest spent on forms is a month of coverage.
After a death or a serious complication in the operating room, what happens for the resident who was in the room?
Why ask it
Listen for an arrangement: relief from the next case, a talk with the attending that day, a named faculty member or peer group that checks in the following week. 'We are a close department' describes goodwill and no plan. Residents know whether the last person it happened to was sent to start another case.
Subspecialties
How many nerve blocks does a typical resident do, and is there a regional rotation or a block team?
Why ask it
Ask for a recent graduate's logged number and how it divides between single injections and catheters. A block team that residents staff for weeks at a time gives everyone a solid count. Where blocks are picked up only when your own room needs one, the numbers swing widely within a class.
Is there an acute pain service, and do residents round on the catheters and epidurals they placed?
Why ask it
Following patients to the ward shows you which blocks worked and what went wrong overnight. Ask who carries the pain pager after hours and how many calls it brings. A service that exists only as one more line on the call resident's list teaches very little.
Beyond nerve blocks, how much bedside ultrasound do residents learn: heart, lungs, stomach contents, line placement?
Why ask it
The sign of real teaching is a faculty member who goes back over the saved clips with the resident, and a machine in the room when one is needed. Where it was a weekend course in the first year, seniors are mostly self-taught. Ask a senior which scan they last did on their own patient.
How many months of cardiac anesthesia are there, and what does the resident do during those cases?
Why ask it
Find out whether the resident places the lines and runs the case with the attending, including the stretch coming off bypass, or mainly keeps the record. Then ask which operations come through: valves, coronary surgery, aortic work, transplants. Two months of doing teach more than three of watching.
How is transesophageal echo taught, and do residents leave able to use it?
Why ask it
Some departments have a curriculum, a simulator and regular review sessions, and some leave it to whichever attending enjoys teaching. If echo interests you, ask whether graduates go on to sit an echo exam, and what the current requirements for that are.
What is the obstetric anesthesia rotation like: how busy is the labor floor, and how many high-risk patients deliver here?
Why ask it
Epidural numbers are seldom the problem. What differs between programs is the volume of cesarean deliveries, how many general anesthetics for delivery a resident has given, and whether the sickest patients are cared for here or transferred elsewhere.
Who covers labor and delivery at night, and is an attending in the building?
Why ask it
A junior resident on the labor floor at night can meet an emergency before help arrives. Find out who is first call, where the attending sleeps and how the last urgent cesarean was staffed. An answer that involves a drive is one to weigh carefully.
Where do residents learn pediatric anesthesia, and how many babies and small children do they look after themselves?
Why ask it
This rotation is frequently at a children's hospital across town or in another city, so housing and travel belong in the question. Get the numbers by age, newborns and infants above all, because older children are plentiful everywhere. Check too whether residents there run their own room or stand behind a fellow.
Which subspecialties have fellows here, and what does that leave for residents on those services?
Why ask it
Fellows can mean a deep department and good teaching, or a resident watching the transplant from a stool. Ask a senior how many of the big cases they did with the fellow somewhere else. It varies by service inside one department, so ask about cardiac, pediatrics and regional separately.
How much neuro, thoracic and vascular anesthesia do residents get, and is any of it hard to come by here?
Why ask it
These fill out the list of required cases, and every hospital is thin in something. Lung isolation and open vascular surgery are the two to press on. A director who can say where residents are steered to make their numbers is one who reads the case logs.
What does the chronic pain rotation involve: procedures, or mostly sitting in clinic?
Why ask it
This matters most if a pain fellowship is on your mind, in which case ask how early you could get there and who would write the letter. If it is not, find out how long the rotation is and whether residents come away having done injections themselves or having watched.
What do seniors do with the elective months of the final year, and how much of that time is really theirs to plan?
Why ask it
The last year is when a resident shapes themselves toward a fellowship or toward general practice. Recent examples tell you more than a menu: extra cardiac months, time with a private group, a research block. If seniors mostly spend it filling gaps in the schedule, the elective exists on paper.
Call and ICU
What kinds of call do anesthesia residents take here, and how many of each in a typical month?
Why ask it
Every department has its own names: general call, late call, obstetric call, cardiac or transplant call from home. Have a resident count last month's for you, weekends included, and ask which one they dread. The count compares across programs where the labels do not.
What is the on-call resident responsible for overnight: the operating rooms, labor and delivery, trauma, airways around the hospital?
Why ask it
At some hospitals those are four people and at others one resident with a pager. Being stretched teaches you to triage. The follow-up is who comes when two things happen at once, and how many times that happened last month.
Do residents go to codes and emergency intubations on the wards and in the emergency department?
Why ask it
Airways outside the operating room come with poor light, unfamiliar staff and a patient who cannot wait. A program where juniors carry that pager with a senior or an attending at their shoulder turns out people who are not afraid of it. How often the pager goes off depends on who else in the hospital intubates, so find that out as well.
After a night of call, are you out by a set hour, and has a post-call day ever been taken back?
Why ask it
The day off after call is the first thing to wear away in a short-staffed department. Listen for a fixed handover time and for what happened the last morning the schedule was full. Save it for a resident, since faculty tend to describe the policy.
Is home call really spent at home, and how often are you called in?
Why ask it
Call from home for transplants, cardiac cases or a smaller site can be counted differently from in-house call, so ask how it is logged here. The real number is how many nights of a week on that service the resident drove in, and whether the next day was changed when they did.
How many months of intensive care are there, and in which units?
Why ask it
A minimum is set by the accrediting body, so ask what it is now and whether this program goes past it. Surgical, cardiac, neuro and medical units each teach something different, and a mix is the good answer. Ask which years the months fall in, because a unit month as an intern and one as a senior are different jobs.
Who runs the ICUs residents rotate in, and what is the anesthesia resident's role on the team?
Why ask it
Units staffed by anesthesiologist intensivists show you that career and tend to treat you as one of their own. In a unit run by surgery or medicine you may be a guest, which still works if you carry patients, present on rounds and do the procedures. Ask who places the lines.
CRNAs and AAs
How many nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologist assistants work here, and how are cases divided between them and the residents?
Why ask it
Which of these professions work in a hospital, and what each may do, depends on the state and the employer, so ask how it is set up here. What you want to hear is that residents are placed first, by what the case teaches, and the remaining rooms are staffed afterward.
When a rare or complex case comes up, does it go to a resident?
Why ask it
Put it to a resident, and ask when one last went to someone else. A liver transplant or a sick newborn staffed by someone else while a resident did a run of short cases suggests the schedule is built around coverage. Once is scheduling, and a pattern is policy.
Do nurse anesthetists relieve residents at the end of the day and give breaks, or is it the other way around?
Why ask it
A department with enough staff who are not trainees can send residents to lecture and home on time. Where residents are the ones staying late to relieve others, their education is paying for the schedule. This answer often explains what you heard about leaving times.
Are student nurse anesthetists or anesthesiologist assistant students training here too, and do they share the residents' rotations?
Why ask it
Other learners in the building are not a problem in themselves. Find out whether they are on the regional, obstetric or cardiac services in the same weeks as residents, and who gets the block or the arterial line when both are free. A stated rule is better than 'it works itself out'.
Do senior residents learn to supervise more than one room at a time?
Why ask it
Some graduates go to jobs where they direct a team instead of sitting their own cases, and which model a practice uses depends on the group and the state. A final-year rotation as the junior attending, covering two rooms with backup, is good preparation. Check whether every senior gets it or only those who ask.
How would you describe the working relationship between the residents and the nurse anesthetists?
Why ask it
This is about tone, and you will hear more in a session with residents alone than in front of faculty. Good signs are experienced CRNAs who show new residents their tricks in the first months, and one shared break room. A resident who lowers their voice to answer has answered.
Starting out
Who runs the intern year: the anesthesiology department, or the medicine and surgery services you rotate through?
Why ask it
A year the department owns is usually built around what an anesthesiologist needs, such as intensive care, emergency medicine, cardiology and a month in the pre-operative clinic. If the interns are on loan to other services, ask a current intern which months felt like pure ward coverage.
How much time do interns spend with the anesthesia department before the first anesthesia year begins?
Why ask it
Some programs put a month or more of anesthesia late in the intern year and others none until July. Neither is wrong, but a class that already knows the attendings, the machine and the record system starts the next year calmer. Ask an intern what they were allowed to do in that month.
For an advanced position, is there a preliminary or transitional year at this hospital that I could rank with it?
Why ask it
Some departments have an arrangement with a medicine, surgery or transitional year in the same hospital, and some leave the first year entirely to you. How the two rank lists are tied together is set by the match and can change, so ask how it works this cycle and whether today's interview counts for both. Four years in one city matters a great deal to some applicants and not at all to others.
For residents who did their intern year somewhere else, how do you bring them level with the ones who did it here?
Why ask it
One for applicants to advanced positions. Arriving from outside means a new hospital, a new record system and classmates who already know each other. What reassures is an orientation that assumes nothing, and seniors who say that by the fall nobody could tell the two groups apart.
What do the first weeks of the first anesthesia year look like, and when is a new resident alone in a room?
Why ask it
Listen for a structured start: one resident paired with one attending or a senior, a simulation course, a list of skills signed off before the first solo case. 'People pick it up quickly', with no dates attached, is the reply to worry about.
When does a first-year anesthesia resident take their first call, and who is beside them for it?
Why ask it
Put this to the most junior anesthesia resident you meet, because they remember the night. A few shadow calls with a senior before the real one is a kind arrangement. A first call in the opening weeks with help 'a phone call away' deserves a follow-up about how far away.
Boards and after
How have residents done on each part of the board exams at the first attempt?
Why ask it
Certification in anesthesiology comes in stages, written and oral, and the board has reworked the format before, so ask how the sequence runs for your class. Request several years of results for each part. A weak year explained plainly tells you more than one headline figure.
The first board exam comes during residency: how do you prepare residents for it, and what happens to someone who does not pass?
Why ask it
When each part is taken, and what a failed attempt means for the rest of training, are the board's rules and not the program's, so ask what would apply to you. The program's share is the preparation: a reading schedule, question banks it pays for, an adviser after a weak in-training score. Whether the last resident who struggled got time and help or lost an elective is something the residents can tell you.
How do you prepare residents for the oral and practical parts of the boards?
Why ask it
Mock orals are the thing to pin down: how many each resident sits in a year, from which year, and who examines. A single session in the final spring is thin. Regular ones from the first anesthesia year mean that thinking aloud under pressure is part of ordinary teaching.
When there is a lecture or a teaching session, are residents relieved from their rooms to attend?
Why ask it
Protected teaching is hard to keep in anesthesia, since leaving means someone has to take over your patient. Ask when it happens (before the first case, one afternoon a week, a full day a month) and how often a resident misses it because no relief came.
How often are residents in the simulation center, and what do they practice there?
Why ask it
Rare crises are the natural use: events a resident may not meet once in training and still has to manage the first time. The test is whether a resident can describe last session's scenario and how it was debriefed. Several sessions a year with honest feedback are worth more than a tour of an expensive room.
Which fellowships does the department have, and where have residents matched in the one I am considering?
Why ask it
Name your interest when you ask: cardiac, pediatric, critical care, pain, regional or obstetric. A fellowship in the building helps with letters and projects, and it can also mean fewer cases for residents on that service, so set this answer beside what you heard about fellows.
Is there a research track or protected months for residents who want an academic career?
Why ask it
Some departments take a few residents out of the operating room for months of research across the anesthesia years. The price is fewer clinical months, so ask whether those residents still clear their case numbers with room to spare. If research is not your aim, ask only what the minimum project is.
Of the last few classes, how many went straight into practice, and into what kind of jobs?
Why ask it
Going directly into general practice is an ordinary path in this specialty, and a program should speak of those graduates with as much pride as its fellows. The detail to get is whether they joined private groups, hospital-employed teams or academic departments, and whether alumni helped them get there.
What do graduates in their first job say the program did not prepare them for?
Why ask it
Answers you might hear include speed with short cases, supervising other staff, blocks done against the clock, and billing. A director who can answer has been asking the alumni. If the reply is 'nothing', try the question on a recent graduate.
How to use these questions on an anesthesiology interview day
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Settle categorical or advanced first
Check how each program lists its positions in the match before you prepare anything else: categorical, advanced, or both. For a categorical spot, the questions under Starting out are about a year you would spend there. For an advanced spot they become questions about arriving from another hospital, and the first year is usually a separate application with its own interviews, where a general residency list serves better than this one.
Look up what is published
The training sites, the fellowships, the class size and the accreditation status are on the program's own pages or the accrediting body's, and the required case categories are public too. Read them the night before. The interview is for what is not written anywhere: when residents reach their numbers, who gets the unusual case, what time people went home yesterday.
Match the group to the person
Residents are the ones to ask about Cases, Call and ICU, and CRNAs and AAs, because they live the schedule. A faculty interviewer is best asked about the subspecialty they practice. Keep Starting out and Boards and after for the program director or an associate director, who know the numbers and made the design choices.
Know what you want the training for
An applicant set on a cardiac or pediatric fellowship should spend the time on those rotations, on fellows and on match results. One who expects to go into general practice should lean on case variety, regional numbers, speed and supervising more than one room. If you do not know yet, which is common in the fourth year, ask for breadth and for how late a resident can change direction.
On the day
Ask for yesterday, or for last month
'Do you get out on time?' gets 'usually'. 'What time did you leave yesterday?' gets an hour. The same trick works across the list: how many calls last month, how many blocks last week, when the last transplant went to a resident. Counts and dates can be set beside another program's, and adjectives cannot.
Put one question to two levels
Ask a first-year anesthesia resident and a senior about autonomy, or ask the director and a resident about relief at the end of the day. Agreement means the picture is real. A gap between them is not always bad news, since a senior simply has more freedom, but a gap between the director and the residents is worth a note.
Keep the staffing questions neutral
Questions about nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologist assistants can sound as if you are taking a side in a professional argument, and your interviewer may have worked beside those colleagues for years. Ask about how cases are assigned and who teaches, and leave opinions about who ought to do what out of it.
Save the hours for the residents
Breaks, leaving times and post-call days are fair to ask about, and the place for them is a session with residents alone, or the social if there is one. With faculty, lead with the clinical questions. Three or four well-chosen ones are plenty for a twenty-minute slot.
Reading the answers
Breaks, relief and lecture are one answer
Whether residents eat lunch, get to teaching and leave when the list says they should all come down to how many spare people the department has. If two of the three sound strained, expect the third to be as well, whatever the slides say.
A big case total is not the whole story
A high number can be built from many short cases on healthy patients. Read it alongside how sick the patients are, how many of the complex cases residents did themselves, and how the numbers look for the rarer categories such as infants and lung surgery.
Fellows cut both ways
A department with many fellowships has expert teachers and a route into subspecialty training. It may also have a line of people ahead of you for the best cases. Neither reading is right until a senior resident tells you what they did with their own hands.
Write the same five numbers for every program
After each interview, note calls a month, the usual leaving time, ICU months, a typical graduate's block count and the board results you were given. By the tenth interview the days blur, and a row of figures written the same evening is what you will rank from.
Mistakes to avoid
Opening with lifestyle
If the first thing a faculty interviewer hears is a question about hours, it can read as the reason you chose the specialty. Start with cases or teaching, and let the schedule questions come later or go to the residents.
Forgetting the intern year
It is easy to spend the whole day on the three anesthesia years and learn nothing about the first. For a categorical program that is a quarter of your time there. Ask at least one intern what the year is like.
Asking what the website answers
How many residents per class or which fellowships exist are a search away. Build on them instead: 'I saw there is a regional fellowship. On the block service, who does the block when the fellow and a resident are both there?'
Taking a tour for an answer
New operating rooms and a simulation center look impressive and say little about who gets to use them. Whenever you are shown a room, ask how often residents are in it and what they did there last.