Chair's Message

I invite you to explore the anesthesiology residency program in Wichita. Our fully accredited program provides comprehensive clinical training in all facets of anesthesiology except liver transplantation. Entry into the program is via ERAS and NRMP and generally only at the PGY-1 level. Though we do not offer fellowship training, many of our graduates have continued their education in some of the nation’s top fellowship programs, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford University, and Mayo Clinic. The opportunities for our graduates are virtually unlimited, although about half do choose to stay in Wichita and many others leave only to come back again to Wichita, the city you’ll grow to appreciate.

Why Wichita? Wichita is a fantastic, progressive small city featuring all major city events, other than major league sports, without the major city headaches of traffic, high crime, and high living expenses. Located in the heart of America, the Wichita metropolitan area is home to over 500,000 people and is the regional health center for over 1,000,000 in Kansas and northern Oklahoma. Wichitans get formal at the world class symphony, the opera, the Emerald Ball and other philanthopic events, but also enjoy the relaxed Midwest lifestyle at the annual week-long River Festival, summer open air concerts at Bradley Fair, the Cattleman’s Ball, the many city parks, and nearby lakes. Minor league professional, college, and high school sports are ubiquitous, but so are individual sporting activities. Wichita has facilities for soccer, ice skating, bowling, basketball, baseball, tennis, squash, skateboarding, golf, and handball, just to name a few. The Sedgwick County Zoo is one of the top zoos in the nation and features special nights such as Zoobilee, an evening among the animals with food and drink catered from our finest restaurants. Wichita attracts many top entertainers at its various concert facilities and clubs. Science, art and cultural museums complement Oldtown and Cowtown. Your enjoyment of Wichita is limited only by your time and imagination. With our program’s very limited call and reasonable work hours (~60/wk), you will have the time. Please bring your imagination.

Why the University of Kansas School of Medicine – Wichita anesthesiology program? In one word, variety. Anesthesiology residents in Wichita learn everything from neonatal anesthesia to geriatric anesthesia, from anesthesia for craniotomies to treatment of pains in the neck, from rapid outpatient turn-over to complex procedures such as total circulatory arrest. You may do cardiac bypass on-pump followed the next day by an off-pump case. Yet the variety in Wichita is not just case types. You will work with a variety of anesthesiology groups and hospitals. You will see various approaches to anesthesia practice – at the same time both academic and private. Our program is based in two state-of-the-art tertiary medical centers with specialty rotations in 3 hospitals and 3 out-patient centers. In short, our program is real preparation for the real world of anesthesia.

Robert McKay, MD
Program Director