I highly recommend keeping an Anaesthesia logbook!
Why?
- You are able to keep track of all your experience
- You are able to keep track of your stats/efficacy
This will allow you to categorically state how many cases you have done –
– which is concrete evidence of experience, self audit and improvement whenever you are being assessed, interviewed or reviewed - Retyping your cases and any learning experiences will have the added advantage of helping you to memorise learning points
I remember how impressed the interview panel was when I applied for my second anaesthesia job. Most cover letters simply stated all the ‘words’ about how great a candidate is. How great they are at team work and communication and hard work and being generally awesome…. But I was able to state matter of fact that I had the participated in 256 anaesthetics, 87 intubations with a success rate of 80% at the end of the 3 month rotation. I could see they were impressed because not many people could present them with these facts. They even suggested on that back of that experience that I should be applying for a more senior role.
How?
There are some great apps (Vaper is one that is commonly talked about) and online systems out there but I’ve found that with extensive experience and heartache the best system is either a de-identified notebook or spreadsheet.
I know a number of people who have lost logbooks because of online systems failing or being deleted.
See the attached excel file for relevant areas to note. You may choose to use some columns and not others and that’s fine – tailor it to what you want to record and measure.
Also you may want to use a system to identify attempts at iv/ett /lma and success…. Eg using a different colour.
And over time you should see a trend of increasing success. If you are not, then this is something you can discuss with your supervisor.
Summary
Most importantly keeping a logbook shows your supervisor that you are interested in self auditing and measuring quality in your own practice.
This is a great process to be involved in for yourself, your career and your patients’ care!
