A four week rotation in the Preoperative Anesthesia Evaluation Unit is for residents primarily in their CA-2 year. Here, residents evaluate patients scheduled for elective surgery, with an attending available for consultation and discussion. The resident on rotation has the opportunity to evaluate a large range of patients for diverse operations, from healthy patients for minor ambulatory procedures, to severely ill patients scheduled to undergo major surgery. He or she is in charge of performing the preoperative history and physical exam, assessing anesthetic risk, determining whether nonroutine laboratory work or consultations with additional specialists need to be done prior to surgery, and documenting these findings. In addition, the resident discusses an anesthetic plan and provides the patient with instructions.

Off unit opportunities while on rotation include two afternoons in the Stress Echocardiography Laboratory, two periods per week at ECG interpretation conference, and a day spent in the Pulmonary Function Tests Laboratory. These experiences teach the resident how to interpret the results of these commonly ordered tests, and how to apply these findings to the perioperative care of patients.

The goal of the rotation, which is now mandated for all residents by the American Board of Anesthesiology, is to teach: the important areas of preoperative patient evaluation and risk assessment; which preoperative tests and consultations are needed in which situations; and how to prepare patients and their families for anesthesia and surgery. Finally, it assists the resident in appreciating the full role of the anesthesiologist as "perioperative specialist."