Residency programs in anesthesiology in the United States struggle to balance the conflicting needs of formal didactic sessions, clinical teaching, and clinical service obligations. As a consequence of the explosion in knowledge about basic and applied sciences related to our specialty, residents and fellows are expected to make substantial efforts to supplement formal lectures with self-study. There is strong evidence to suggest that members of the younger generation use nontraditional methods to acquire information. Although training programs are not required to include topics related to history of anesthesia (HOA) in the didactic curriculum, and despite the fact that such knowledge does not directly impact clinical care, many programs include such lectures and discussions. We describe and discuss our experience with 3 alternate modalities of teaching HOA.First, we provide brief descriptions of HOA-related historical narratives and novels within the domain of popular literature, rather than those that might be considered textbooks. Second, we analyze content in movies and videodiscs dealing with HOA and determine their utility as educational resources. Third, we describe HOA tours to sites in close proximity to our institutions, as well as those in locations elsewhere in the United States and abroad.We suggest that informal HOA teaching can be implemented by every residency program without much effort and without taking away from the traditional curriculum. Participating in this unique and enriching experience may be a means of academic advancement. It is our hope and expectation that graduates from programs that incorporate such exposure to HOA become advocates of history and may choose to devote a part of their academic career toward exploration of HOA.

OBJECTIVES: As smoking is very common in R-rated films, we sought to determine if viewing R-rated films is associated with adolescent smoking. METHODS: Three annual cross-sectional surveys conducted of 88,505 Year 10 students of largely European, Maori, Asian or Pacific Islander ethnicity in secondary schools in New Zealand between 2002 and 2004. Outcomes of interest were: intention to smoke among never smokers; past experimentation with smoking among current non-smokers; current smoking status; and current frequency of smoking. RESULTS: Dose-response relationships were observed between the frequency of viewing R-rated films and all outcome measures controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, peer smoking, parental smoking, socioeconomic status, pocket money and household smoking rules. Compared to never viewing R-rated films, viewing at least weekly nearly tripled the relative risk (2.81; 95% confidence interval 2.57, 3.09) of never smokers being susceptible to smoking, and more than doubled the risk of both past experimentation (2.28; 95% CI 2.12, 2.45) and smoking > /=monthly (2.31; 95% CI 2.10, 2.54). Each of these risks was seen across all ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our results extend the association that has been demonstrated between viewing R-rated films and current smoking in American youth by demonstrating the same association in youth of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds in New Zealand.