Dr Kristen Biefer (left), Dr Jalal Nanji (center), Dr Surita Sidhu (right)
Discovery Day is an annual event run by the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame and the Faculty of Medicine, which seeks to foster interest in medical science careers amongst high school students.
More than 250 attendees participated in 26 workshops, one of which was ours. We were fully subscribed for our session, which was entitled 'Switching off consciousness, then switching it back on again'. We set up a mock operating room in the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy simulator and walked the students through pre-operative assessment, induction of general anesthesia (they got to inject the drugs) and subsequent anaphylactic shock. In another area, we had the students perform transthoracic echocardiography on each other. In another, we had a full display of airway mannequins, and had the students intubate and perform bronchoscopy.
The session was extremely well received. Drs Kristen Biefer, Jalal Nanji, Geoff Brin, Matt Kokotilo and Surita Sidhu gave generously of their own time to plan the stations and give dynamic presentations that engaged these young minds thoroughly. Maybe one of these kids will be your anesthesiologist in years to come!