Anesthesiologists’ perception on their residency training

BACKGROUND: Self-regulated professions such as medicine are characterized by professional commitment to the public they serve and require life-long development of expected skills. There is a paucity of data regarding quality of training during residency in anesthesiology. The objective of this study was to create an instrument to assess the anesthesiologists’ perception regarding the quality of their training during medical residency. METHODS: An electronic questionnaire was sent to 120 anesthesiologists, assuming 15% response rate for worst case scenario, considering a number of 613 potential respondents. The answers to the questionnaire were submitted to psychometric evaluation through internal consistency analysis measured by the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and factorial analysis by the principal components’ method with varimax rotation method with Kaiser normalization. The level of Concordance (C) and Disaccord (D) of each item were compared byz tests (consensus if p < 0.05). A question asking the respondents if they would recommend their training center to a relative or a friend was added to the questionnaire and considered as a secondary outcome. RESULTS: One hundred and one responses were obtained. The Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.86, suggesting good reliability of the questionnaire. The initial analysis including all the 14 items presented on the questionnaire demonstrated that four components obeyed the Kaiser criterion, depicting 68.20% of variance. Consensus was achieved among participants regarding all items of the questionnaire. The medical residency in anesthesiology was recommended by 93% of the participants. Preceptors were considered role-models by 83% of the participants. Acquisition of practical skills was better evaluated in comparison to other areas. CONCLUSION: The questionnaire effectively characterized the perception of anesthesiologists regarding the quality of their training during medical residency. The information produced by this instrument could provide interesting clues on the quality of residency programs, pointing out areas of education that need more attention.