Anesthesia Machine Practice...

Over the past couple of weeks, we have had the opportunity to go to the anesthesia sim-lab in Providence Hall and practice check-offs on the anesthesia machine. This has been a fun, exciting, and almost, surreal experience because we are finally getting to put our hands on anesthesia equipment.

The check-off list for the anesthesia machine is fairly extensive. We have to check the oxygen supplies from both the wall pipeline and the cylinders, check for any leaks in the circuit, inspect the CO2 absorbent and scavenging system to ensure they are working properly, test to ensure that we can deliver positive pressure, check our volatile gases, and the list goes on and on...

This coming Tuesday, I will go back to the lab to do my actual graded "check-off" for my professor. This is pass/fail, and I will be given 15 minutes to complete the machine check without using any notes. I'm sure that this will go well, but over the weekend and early into next week, I will continue to go through my list and think through the process to ensure I don't miss any steps.

The pictures above were taken in sim-lab practice last week. And the picture below is a list of the criteria for our check-offs (you can tell my sheet has seen better days ha!). I'm excited to continue my learning process, and eventually, becoming a CRNA!