On August 17th, UNC Anesthesiology welcomed first-year anesthesiology resident (CA-1) support persons to the cutting-edge simulation lab settings of UNC School of Medicine’s Roper Hall for the department’s annual CA-1 Family Anesthesia Day. Each year, the residency program hosts this purposeful, firsthand look at the UNC Anesthesiology training experience for those a resident counts on for support as he/she progresses over three intensive years through skills mastery toward becoming a competent, ready-for-practice anesthesiologist. 
CA-1 Family Anesthesia Day is timed to the start of the training year, when CA-1s are weeks into their earliest clinical anesthesiology rotations. Six weeks into the 2024-2025 residency year, a day filled with observation, demonstrations and hands-on learning opportunities UNC School of Medicine SIM Lab stations at Roper Hall gave 11 CA-1 residents the chance to show 29 guest support persons in attendance how learning anesthesia care via simulation is an integral part of their anesthesiology training. This year’s CA-1 Family Anesthesia Day also offered guest support persons the chance to meet peers and program leaders who become like UNC Anesthesiology family for residents spending long hours at the hospital in the formative three years of learning their specialty.
UNC Anesthesiology Residency Program Director Susie Martinelli, MD, reflected: “This year’s [CA-1 Family Anesthesia Day] was well attended and we received very positive feedback. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet the people that are important to our residents and to show them what we do. ”
Vice Chair of Education Rob Isaak, DO, added: “The Family Day event provides families and support persons the opportunity to gain a greater understanding into the specialty of anesthesia, as well as to appreciate what their loved ones will be doing over the next three years as residents in our department.”
Each year, the success of CA-1 Family Anesthesia Day as a well-developed event would not be possible without the contributions of multiple UNC Anesthesiology and UNC School of Medicine members. This year, UNC Anesthesiology thanks CA-1 Family Anesthesia Day faculty leads Dr. Rob Isaak, Dr. Emily Teeter, Dr. Ben Cobb, and Dr. Irina Phillips for their presentations to visiting support persons and for overseeing UNC School of Medicine SIM Lab learning stations. We additionally thank CA-3 Dr. Jacqueline Quinn (and husband Nathan), CA-2 Dr. Joshua Kaltman (and family member Leah), and CA-2 Dr. Andrea Fritz (and family member Devin) for serving on the facilitator’s panel and assisting with the SIM stations. We additionally thank Residency Coordinators Haylee Shomo and Elizabeth Aguero for organizing the event, coordinating lunch and for securing supplies.