Anesthesiology Resident Position Description and Essential Functions Policy

5/21/2026 

Anesthesiology Resident Position Description and Essential Functions   

Position Identification: Resident  

Position Summary: PGY 1-4 residents, including clinical base year and residents in the clinical anesthesia training years 1-3 

 For the purpose of this document, the term “Resident” includes medical and dental residents and fellows, including those in ACGME, CODA and non-ACGME accredited programs. 

 

General Overview of the Resident Role 

A resident’s responsibilities include patient care responsibilities within the scope of their clinical privileges and commensurate with level of training and other responsibilities required of all members of the medical staff. Under the supervision of attendings, general responsibilities of the resident may include: 

  • Initial and ongoing assessment of patients’ medical, physical and psychosocial status 
  • Performing history and physical examination 
  • Developing assessment and treatment plan 
  • Performing rounds where appropriate 
  • Recording documentation, including pre-procedure documentation, progress notes, admission notes, intraoperative record documentation, procedure notes and discharge summaries 
  • Ordering tests, examinations, medications and therapies 
  • Arranging for discharge, referral and after care. 
  • Providing patient education and counseling about health status, test results, disease processes and transition of care planning 
  • Performing procedures 
  • Teaching and evaluating junior learners, such as medical students 
  • Communicating regularly with supervising attending – routinely, communication may be expected in advance of clinical duty to plan for patient care and during clinical duty with both routine updates and timely updates to relay changes in patient clinical status 
  • Responding to emergent patient care needs within the hospital where appropriate to assigned role, particularly in the context of participation on Code Blue, trauma response team, or responding to facilitate emergent airway needs within the hospital 

UW GME Expectations for Professional Behavior 

  • All residents must comply with GME Policies, including the Resident and Fellow Position Appointment Agreement (RFPA) 

Essential Functions 

Essential functions are the fundamental job duties of the position that cannot be eliminated or substantially modified without changing the nature of the position. 

A job function may be considered essential for the following reasons: 

  • The reason the position exists is to perform that function 
  • Resident educational requirements and patient care responsibilities 
  • A limited number of available residents can perform that function 
  • Varies by program, rotation, year, risk pools, etc. 
  • The function may be highly specialized so that the trainee in the position is hired for their expertise or ability to perform the particular function 
  • Cannot easily hire more trainees, especially of a specific R level 
  • The percentage of time spent on a function does not determine whether or not it is essential 

Essential functions for GME residents must include consideration of: 

  • ACGME program requirements 
  • Specialty board requirements 
  • UW program requirements 
  • Unique to each UW training program and must consider: 
  • Complexity of rotations/service requirements 
  • Size of program 
  • Structure and depth of risk pools 
  • Inclusive of the hospital system requirements: 
  • Rotations dependent on residents’ service for patient care 
  • Coverage options available 

A resident must perform the position’s essential job functions with or without an approved reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodation means modifying or adjusting practices, procedures, policies, job duties, or the work or application environment so that a qualified individual with a disability can still perform a position’s essential functions. Approved reasonable accommodations are determined via an interactive process involving the resident, DSO/HR/GME and the program. 

Essential functions ensure the safe and smooth delivery of education and patient care and are identified in alignment with program aims to facilitate trainee readiness for independent practice across an appropriate range of clinical settings for that specialty. Transparent documentation of a program’s essential functions is also an important resource for applicants evaluating the training program during recruitment. 

Essential Program Administrative Functions 

Onboarding  

The Resident must: 

  • Comply with all program and institutional tasks required for credentialing and onboarding by the requested deadlines 
  • Provide the program with accurate personal contact information for use in emergencies, including failure of a resident to report for duty when expected. This information will be kept confidential. 

Program Tasks and Documentation 

The Resident must: 

  • Participate in all requests for schedule preferences, requests for absence or schedule changes of requests for clinical coverage on the requested timelines or deadlines. 
  • Complete in a timely manner all evaluations requested for medical students, peer residents, faculty or other members of the team 
  • Complete MedHub clinical and educational hour logs 
  • Complete case or procedure logs 
  • Complete the annual ACGME Resident Survey 
  • Complete the program’s confidential internal survey 
  • Complete required examination preparation and/or testing requirements, to include USMLE or COMLEX Step 3, in-training examinations and the ABA Basic examination  
  • Attendance at all required program meetings, including semiannual meetings, mentorship meetings, program retreats, departmental or service orientations, Grand Rounds, and quality improvement meetings in keeping with the program’s attendance policy. 

Essential Program Core Educational Functions 

Didactics 

The Resident must: 

  • Comply with all standards for attendance at didactics or other core educational activities 
  • Provide timely feedback on didactics curriculum and sessions 

Scholarship 

The Resident must: 

  • Comply with all program or specialty requirements for research or scholarship, quality improvement, national or regional conference presentation, publication or scholarly writing or teaching and presentations internal to the program (e.g. journal club, didactics, case conference, M&M, etc.) 
  • Complete an academic project prior to graduation in accordance with ACGME and program requirements for graduates in anesthesiology 

Essential Patient Care Functions 

Presence and preparedness 

The Resident must: 

  • Present to work as physically, mentally and emotionally fit for duty 
  • Arrive at the patient care setting with sufficient time to prepare care location and begin patient care at the scheduled time; for complex surgical procedures, preparation may be extensive and may routinely require arrival at the hospital very early in the morning 
  • Adhere to hospital policy regarding appropriate attire, both within and beyond the perioperative space, in order to create a professional and safe patient care environment 
  • Meet expectations for chart review or pre-rounding, including participating in the pre-operative phone call on the evening prior to scheduled patient care shifts 
  • Satisfy expectations that precede sign-out and/or departure from the clinical setting, including an appropriate handoff and follow up on all patient assessments/data/studies that will alter care in the near term as well as appropriate transfer, documentation and disposal of controlled medications. 
  • Refrain from the use of alcohol, sedatives, narcotics and any other substances that may impede clinical care and judgement within a minimum of 8 hours of reporting to work and throughout the clinical shift; this also applies to periods of time that a resident is on home call or jeopardy and may potentially be called upon to engage in patient care with limited forewarning 

Administrative 

The Resident must: 

  • Complete patient health record documentation on the schedule prescribed by the program or medical center. (Examples include but are not limited to progress notes/visit summaries, discharge summaries, operative or procedure notes, perioperative records)  
  • Comply with expectations for EHR inbox management, including timely responses to messages from patients, medical staff and tracking, and patient follow up of expected results 
  • Appropriately safeguard, record and reconcile all controlled medications in a timely manner and in keeping with hospital and institutional policies 
  • Comply with mandatory annual training requirements in a timely manner 
  • Maintain appropriate credentialling, including ACLS certification, DEA licensure, and medical licensure and any other requirements as indicated in hospital and institutional policies 

Patient Care Communication 

The Resident must: 

  • Respond in a timely manner to pages, phone calls and Epic Secure Chat 
  • Remain within the program-prescribed geographic range while on call or eligible for coverage 

Patient Care Volumes 

The Resident must: 

  • Work toward (with supervision) or meet benchmarks for patient care volumes in all clinical settings 
  • Appropriately request and utilize supervision 
  • Work toward or ultimately meet procedure certification standards 

Consultation 

The Resident must: 

  • Appropriately respond to, triage, and staff consultations in a timely manner 
  • Document findings and recommendations in a timely manner 
  • Communicate with the requesting service directly (e.g. in-person, phone) in advance of and following the assessment 
  • Ensure that consultations are staffed and finalized with a faculty member in a timely manner 

Essential Shift and Schedule Functions 

Settings 

  • Complete assigned shifts in settings deemed essential by the program, including high acuity settings, inpatient and outpatient services, and in some circumstances, off-service rotations  

Shift length and timing 

The Resident must: 

  • Complete shifts of all lengths deemed essential by the program, which will include daytime, swing, nights, weekends, and holidays  
  • Shifts must not exceed ACGME limits of up to 28 hours per shift, and up to 80 hours per week averaged over a 4 week period 
  • Where appropriate, comply with designated break lengths (to meet personal needs and not impact patient care) 
  • Expect to remain engaged in patient care until care and staffing permit relief, which can be unpredictable and may extend beyond the anticipated end of a shift, though not in excess of limitations imposed by ACGME duty hours policies outside of the rare exceptions allowed within the ACGME policy 

Call Responsibilities 

The Resident must: 

  • Complete assigned shifts of overnight, weekend and holiday call, as deemed essential by the program  
  • Complete assigned shifts of home call, as deemed essential by the program 
  • Remain within the prescribed geographic range while on call or eligible for coverage: 
  • The expectation is that residents on jeopardy, home call and pager call assignments should be available in the hospital and fit for duty within 30 minutes of notification. 

Essential Cognitive Functions 

  • Analyze, synthesize, apply, and demonstrate mastery of knowledge attained from clinical experience, written material, didactic learning (lectures, projected images, media or web-based presentations, simulation) to support clinical decision making. 
  • Develop and demonstrate sound clinical judgement in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illness. 
  • Identify, prioritize, and manage patient care and professional responsibilities to support safe, timely, and effective outcomes. 
  • Apply clinical reasoning effectively in situations involving uncertainty and changing conditions. 
  • Adapt to evolving clinical environments and changing patient care needs. 
  • Rapidly assimilate and process information from multiple sources, including direct assessment, data from monitors, input from others on the clinical care team, information from radiologic modalities, and more. 
  • The resident must be able to discern and comprehend multi-dimensional and spatial relationships of structures. 
  • Seek guidance and incorporate input from others as appropriate to support patient care and professional development. 
  • Reflect on performance and integrate feedback to support continuous improvement. 
  • Demonstrate reliability through consistent participation in responsibilities and timely completion of assigned tasks. 
  • Operate effectively in dynamic, sometimes stressful, clinical environments with frequent interruptions and competing priorities. 
  • Provide guidance, support, and teaching to junior learners, including medical students. 
  • Display compassion, empathy, altruism, integrity, and responsibility – all critical to the basis and content of medical ethics. 

Essential Communication Functions  

  • Rapidly gather, interpret, and exchange information effectively with patients, families, and members of the healthcare team. 
  • Communicate clinical information clearly and in a patient-centered manner to support understanding and shared decision-making. 
  • Communicate clinical information in written form with a high degree of accuracy and efficiency. 
  • Facilitate safe and effective transitions of care, including handoffs, discharges, and referrals. 
  • Communicate care plans and updates to appropriate members of the healthcare team to ensure continuity and quality of care. 
  • Recognize and respond appropriately to the perspectives, needs, and emotions of others. 
  • Collaborate effectively with members of the healthcare team across roles and settings to support coordinated, high-quality care. 
  • Engage respectfully with individuals from diverse social, cultural, and lived experiences. 
  • Contribute to a professional, inclusive, and respectful care and learning environment. 
  • Execute rapid, closed-loop communication with care teams in routine, urgent, and emergent situations. 

Essential Physical Functions 

(including senses, stances and mobility, manipulation and technical skills) 

  • Conduct patient assessments to gather and interpret clinical information, supporting comprehensive medical and psychosocial evaluation, including the need to: 
  • Assess patient appearance, both globally and with attention to detail. 
  • Palpate or assess tactile changes in patient condition, including as part of the physical examination of a patient or as necessary for procedural tasks. 
  • Assess quality of patient voice, heart tones, bowel sounds, and lung sounds. 
  • Detect, discriminate and understand patient monitor alarms in an otherwise moderately noisy operating room, clinic, ward or critical care unit. 
  • Discern information displayed on patient monitors from a distance of up to 6-8 feet. 
  • Perform clinical procedures and technical aspects of patient care competently to support safe and effective diagnosis and treatment, specifically (though not an exhaustive list): 
  • Achieve adequate mask seal to allow for bag mask ventilation, often for an extended period of time. 
  • Manipulate a laryngoscope to allow for direct laryngoscopy and intubation. 
  • Palpate and place intravenous and arterial access. 
  • Palpate and place neuraxial or regional anesthesia. 
  • Control and manipulate an ultrasound probe to optimize image acquisition and maintain in a stationary position for an extended period of time to allow completion of procedural steps. 
  • Transfer objects of modest weight short distances across a variety of heights, ranging from the floor to the top of an IV pole, including, but not limited to controlling a patient’s head during patient transfer, relocating fluid bags, monitors, infusion pumps, oxygen cylinders and ventilators.  
  • Maneuver and position self to assess patients from a variety of angles, including under the drapes or operating field to reposition patient, assess IV lines, urine output via Foley catheter, and more. 
  • Make sudden and rapid unanticipated movements to protect a patient including, but not limited to supporting a patient’s limb that is sliding from a stretcher or securing a flailing child.  
  • Position self dynamically for prolonged periods of time, including induction of anesthesia, medication preparation, completion of procedures, assessment of operative field over surgical drapes at critical points in surgery, and participating in rounds where appropriate. 
  • Transport patients with assistance of hospital bed or stretcher over long distances, including traversing across hospital care units, ascending or descending floors while providing continuous, direct patient observation, assessment and care to ensure safety and quality delivery of care. 
  • Rapidly respond to cardiac arrests and urgent calls in a timely fashion, sometimes requiring relocating across a hospital without warning or delay, including ascending or descending multiple floors or traversing across buildings.  
  • Rapidly assume unusual positions to permit delivery of safe patient care in unexpected locations or orientations, often emergently, such as delivery of chest compressions or airway management for a patient found on the floor, accessing a patient over the headboard of a hospital bed to provide airway management, or managing the airway of a patient in prone position intraoperatively. 
  • Sustain performance of clinical responsibilities over duration of scheduled shifts in order to ensure continuity and quality of patient care. 
  • Engage in direct patient care often for prolonged periods of time without immediate availability of a break; while breaks are provided routinely in the course of a clinical day, patient volumes and acuity may mean that the timing and duration of a break can be unpredictable or limited at times. 
  • Provision of safe, quality patient care in a variety of physical settings, including, but not limited to, extremes of temperature (ex: warm for burn patients or neonates), lighting (ex: dark for procedural indications), or ambient noise (ex: orthopedics room with suction and tools). 

 

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