On Friday, October 19, our resident and staff volunteers participated in the annual, faculty-wide event, known as Discovery Day in Health Sciences. Organized by the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame and hosted by the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Discovery Day features workshops and simulations from both clinical and research departments at the university and are designed to inform and intrigue local, high school students and teachers about the wide variety of career options in health sciences.
Our anesthesiologists strived to provide the students with interactive, hands-on experiences to help them imagine the skills, roles and responsibilities essential in practicing anesthesiology. Students were led through dynamic workshops, including a mock OR complete with patient mannequin and anesthesia machine. Separately, there were airway and fiber-optic bronchoscopy simulations, as well as TTE and ultrasound guided needle placement stations.
Below is a snapshot of the feedback that we received from participants who attended the event and our specific workshop, 'Switching off consciousness, then switching it back on again':
"Discovery Days has been a truly educational experience. It helped me with many of my hesitations about medical sciences and I really enjoyed talking with the professionals and students."
"I really liked this workshop. I learned how to intubate and learned how patients are put to sleep, and the process of it. I also learned what drugs are used to put them to sleep and what drug to use when there are complications."
"I liked how we got hands-on opportunities to see what the profession entails. I especially liked the simulation of a surgery and how we got to see real-life struggles of surgery."
"Extremely fun! Also very informative."
"Really cool demonstrations and interesting equipment."
"I was happy to be able to ask all of the questions I had in mind. They were able to answer them in great detail."
"My favorite course of the day."