The rotation ends and the training portfolio review is in three weeks. The question isn't whether you did the work — you were in theatre every day. The question is whether you can demonstrate the subspecialty breadth, the technique progression, and the complication management experience that the curriculum requires, with contemporaneous documentation that supports each case entry. The logbook that wasn't kept doesn't support anything.
Technique and Drug Documentation
Anaesthetic Technique 1 and Anaesthetic Technique 2 capture the primary and supplementary technique for the case. Most cases use a single primary technique — TIVA, inhalational, combined spinal-epidural — but cases where a supplementary regional block or sedation technique was added require a second field. The dual-technique structure handles the elective open abdominal case where epidural analgesia was placed pre-induction alongside a general anaesthetic, or the orthopaedic procedure under peripheral nerve block with light sedation.
Gas/Drugs is the pharmacology field — the specific agents used, which creates the longitudinal record of drug exposure and technique variation across the portfolio. A trainee who's used the same induction agent for every case of a similar type for six months has a narrower exposure profile than one who can demonstrate appropriate drug selection across different clinical contexts.
Procedure 1, Procedure 2, and Procedure 3 document the technical procedures performed during the case — line insertions, regional techniques, airway management procedures beyond the primary approach. Three procedure slots accommodate complex cases where multiple procedural skills were exercised. Peripheral arterial line placement for invasive monitoring, ultrasound-guided brachial plexus block, and rapid sequence induction are three separate procedural competencies logged in the same case record.
The Complication Record
Complication is the field that trainees most frequently underrecord. A difficult intubation managed successfully with videolaryngoscopy is a clinical event that belongs in the complication field — not because it was a failure, but because it's the evidence of a challenging airway that was safely handled. An intraoperative bronchospasm that responded to salbutamol, a hypotensive episode that required vasopressor support, a post-dural puncture headache following spinal — these are the clinical events that demonstrate competency under non-routine conditions.
Portfolios with no complication entries over a twelve-month rotation don't reflect clinical reality. They reflect incomplete documentation.
Supervision, Operator, Hospital, Speciality, Priority, Age, Sex, and ASA together create the case context that makes individual case records interpretable and the portfolio as a whole analyzable. The ASA distribution across a training year reveals case complexity exposure. The specialty distribution reveals subspecialty breadth. Time Start and Time Finish produce case duration, which varies systematically across case types and tracks the trainee's procedural efficiency over time.