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Department Of AnesthesiologyAbout UsMission, Vision and Values

Mission, Vision and Values

Mission

"Healing, Teaching, Caring, Discovering and Leading"

The goals of our department are:

  • Deliver state-of-the-art anesthesia services in perioperative care, pain management and critical care;
  • Educate students, residents and fellows;
  • Be recognized for its contributions to the specialty of anesthesiology through education, research and scholarly activities;
  • Contribute to the success of the Medical School and Medical System.

Vision

To be one of the country's top 10 academic anesthesiology programs.

Values

To accomplish our mission and achieve our vision, we need to focus on five pillars of our specialty:  

  • Healing: We will deliver the highest quality of perioperative clinical care in the ORs, ICUs and clinics.
  • Teaching: A core mission of the department is instruction and training of students, residents, fellows and other health care providers which is essential for the future of our specialty. We will devote ourselves to excellence in education.
  • Discovering: The development of new knowledge regarding perioperative care improves the way we care for patients, provides the basis for further advances in the specialty and advances the intellectual underpinnings of anesthesiology. We will be known for our creative approach to solving problems in all aspects of our mission.
  • Caring: We will foster an environment that values professionalism, civility, compassion, collegiality, teamwork and collaboration. All members of the department contribute to its success and are regarded highly for their contributions. We will emphasize quality, patient safety and continuous performance improvement. We are part of a larger community and will strive to improve that community through our professional efforts and good works. We are committed to diversity and equal opportunity.
  • Leading: We will promote and encourage leadership activities and skills at all levels of the department, within the medical system and university, locally and nationally. Career development and mentoring is a responsibility of the department. We intend to train the future leaders of anesthesiology.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism (IDEA) 

 The Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Antiracism (IDEA) Taskforce is comprised of clinical and research faculty, CRNAs, Residents and staff. The first official meeting of the committee was held in April, and the group has since developed the following mission statement:

“Our department is dedicated to creating and sustaining an inclusive community where members feel welcomed and valued. We are committed to supporting equitable opportunities, experiences and outcomes for all members and patients. This taskforce will educate, evaluate and recommend actions to be taken by our department to promote diversity, racial equity and social justice.”

Through educative opportunities, the IDEA Committee hopes to accomplish the following:

  • Engage department members to learn from others’ experiences
  • Learn from other departments and their efforts by inviting subject-matter experts to speak, and networking with others doing similar efforts in the community
  • Present topics in the Cultural Complications curriculum during Grand Rounds to include implicit bias and stereotype threats
  • Offer implicit bias training to all faculty
  • Analyzing patient care practices to detect bias
  • Continue offering book discussion opportunities to the department:
    • 60 copies of the book “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo provided by the department to members interested in reading and discussion
    • Small groups discussions of “White Fragility” held with 20-30 participants with positive feedback and request for further opportunities for similar conversations
    • “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi was similarly made available to all interested department members and small group discussions were held.

The IDEA committee is also looking into the following potential projects:

  • Analysis of resident recruitment data underway for 2021 and future classes to look for any evidence of systematic differences in medical students that apply to us (that is, is our program attractive to all candidates, or, is our program unappealing to certain candidates, any bias in those we offer interviews to, and any bias in those we offer residency positions to. We will use data in ERAS and compare to ACGME provided data
  • Analysis of the provision of pain relief to laboring women to assess ensure equal access to treatments for all patients
  • Plans to analyze pain medicine practice to ensure equal access to treatments for all patients