Review article: New directions in medical education related to anesthesiology and perioperative medicine

We aim to provide a broad overview of current key issues in anesthesiology education to encourage both “clinician teachers” and “clinician educators” in academic health centres to consider how medical educational theory can inform their own practice.

Evolving contextual issues, such as work-hour reform and the patient safety movement, necessitate innovative approaches to anesthesiology education. There is a substantial amount of relevant literature from other disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, and human factors research, using methodologies that are often unfamiliar to most clinicians. Recurring themes include the increasing use of simulation-based education, the importance of faculty development, challenges in teaching and assessing the non-medical expert roles, and the promise of team training and interprofessional education. Interdisciplinary collaborations are likely key to answering pressing questions in anesthesiology education, and a greater understanding of qualitative and mixed methods research will allow a broader range of questions to be answered. Simulation offers the opportunity to learn from failures without exposing patients to risk and brings the challenge of integrating innovations into existing curricula. Interprofessional education allows learning in the teams that will work together; even so, it needs to be prioritized to overcome logistical barriers. The challenges of introducing a competency-based curriculum have resulted in hybrid systems where elements of competency-based medical education have been combined with traditional apprenticeship curricula. The value of faculty development to encourage even simple measures, such as establishing learning objectives and discussing these with trainees, cannot be over-emphasized. Key issues in assessment include the need to evaluate multiple levels of performance in a cohesive system of assessment and the need to identify the unintended consequences of assessment.

We have identified a number of key themes and challenges for anesthesiology education. This discussion will continue in greater depth in individual articles in this issue so as to promote further interest in a growing body of literature that is relevant to anesthesiology education.