Background and Goal of Study: Providing anaesthetic trainees with a structured training programme in each subspecialty area is preferable. However, there is no evidence on training requirements to obtain basic and essential skills. The goal of this study was to exploratory evaluate the influence of training experience on self-assessment of skills and knowledge in cardiac anaesthesia.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at a teaching hospital in Japan. All anaesthetic trainees who completed their intense basic training in cardiac anaesthesia from January 2009 to March 2017 were enrolled. After completing the programme, each trainee filled in a self-assessment questionnaire which consisted of 73 items with a 5 point Likert scale. The items were then selected and categorised into 2 dimensions; “Skill” (SK) and “Anaesthetic management” (AM). SK contained 12 items (e.g. “I understand how to insert a pulmonary artery catheter, and can perform adequately.”), and AM contained 21 items (e.g. “I can administer appropriate inotropes and vasopressors based on haemodynamic parameters.”). The total number of cases each trainee experienced was analysed with decision tree methodology to be classified corresponding to the self-assessment scores.
Results and Discussion: 62 trainees were enrolled. The mean training duration was 4 months (range: 2-8). The median number of total cases was 31.0 (range: 16-74, SD=11.6). The median self-assessment value in SK and AM were 3.2 and 3.0 respectively (the first quartile: 2.8 and 2.7, the third quartile: 3.5 and 3.5). The analysis identified 3 groups with high to low scores. For SK, the highest-score group experienced more than 46 cases (mean: 3.9, 5 trainees) followed by intermediate group between 20 and 46 (mean: 3.1, 42 trainees), and the lowest had less than 20 (mean:2.7, 10 trainees). Similarly for AM, the highest had more than 46 cases with the mean value of 3.7 (mean: 3.7, 5 trainees) followed by intermediate between 20 to 46 (mean:3.1, 42 trainees), and the lowest had less than 20 (mean 2.6, 10 trainees).
Conclusion: More experience gave higher self-assessment scores. This study might suggest the probable required number of cases of roughly 50 to experience. However, this is a retrospective single centre study based on self-assessment, and it may not generally apply to other anaesthetic trainees. Further prospective studies will be needed to determine the requirements for basic training in cardiac anaesthesia.

07 / The influence of training experience on trainees’ self-assessment in cardiac anaesthesia: A 8-year retrospective exploratory evaluation.