National Cheng Kung University Medical Center is among the most distinguished medical centers in Taiwan, with its main characteristic as establishing and maintaining an outstanding medical center in a university system. In light of this, the training programs are aimed at providing an ideal environment for solid clinical training in the fields of anesthesia, pain management, and critical care to benefit the patients in every way possible.  The Department also collaborates on numerous research programs with many departments of the Medical School, such as Pharmacology, Physiology, Microbiology and Immunology. Graduates of medical school interested in anesthesiology are welcome to join the Department.  The features of the training programs are as follows:

Base Year

This constitutes the first year of training in a four-year continuum of education. The Taiwan Society Anesthesiologists suggests that the first 12 months be devoted to clinical experience and training in a program other than clinical anesthesia.

Acceptable training in this clinical base year includes internal medicine, general surgery or any of the surgical specialties, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, family practice or an approved combination of these specialties.

Residency

The next three years of the clinical anesthesia curriculum consist of experience in basic anesthesia training, subspecialty anesthesia training and advanced anesthesia training.

The curriculum is one of increasing complexity and difficulty with the second year devoted largely to the basic and fundamental aspects of anesthesia.

Subspecialty anesthesia training provides experience in various sub disciplines of anesthesiology including obstetric anesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, cardiothoracic anesthesia, neuroanesthesia, anesthesia for day surgical patients, recovery room, regional anesthesia, ICU and pain care management.

In the third year, intensification of exposure to the subspecialty areas and the management of other complex and difficult cases occur. Residents may opt to pursue further training in the advanced clinical track, the subspecialty track, the clinical scientist tract or various combinations of all three tracks.

Accredited one-year fellowships in Pain Management, Critical Care, Cardiac, and Pediatric anesthesia are available, as well as fellowships in obstetric, regional, and solid-organ transplant anesthesia and patient safety.

Each resident administers approximately 500 anesthetics per year under the direct supervision of a full-time academic staff. Resident experience includes the anesthetic management of thoracic surgical (including cardiopulmonary by-pass), neurologic, pediatric, genitourinary, orthopedic, ENT, gynecologic, ontological, organ transplantation and general surgery patients.

Daily conferences are held throughout the department, as well as weekly Grand Rounds, and monthly journal clubs. At least six distinguished professors visit the department and participate in the Visiting Professor Lecture Program.

Residents also participate in teaching medical students and interns who rotate through the department.