ABSTRACT

Even though postgraduate medical education has been the focus of interest in anaesthesiology education, in a broader sense the entire medical community can be considered appropriate learners of anaesthesiology. Anaesthesiologists are equipped to teach physiology, pharmacology, resuscitation, pain management, perioperative assessment, and medical technology. For residency training, an approach based on competencies, skills and professionalism should be used instead of the traditional “apprenticeship” model. When teaching ourselves as qualified anaesthesiologists, areas of continuing professional development, academic career training and continuing medical education should be taken into account. Whereas the responsibility for undergraduate medical education rests with university medical schools, postgraduate medical education is carried out by universities and/or the national health authorities/services. Establishment of partnerships between healthcare services and universities should be central to the provision of postgraduate education so as not to dissociate various stages of education. When determining educational strategies, institutional preferences, target populations and their learning styles should be taken into account. To this end, especially for high risk situations simulation-based approaches, scenarios, standardized patients, research, mentoring, journal clubs, seminars, lectures, case discussions, bed-side discussions, courses, games and portfolios have been and are being used widely. Departments of anaesthesiology should establish and maintain a strong presence in undergraduate medical education. Besides being good clinicians, anaesthesiologists should understand all aspects of education and educational outcome in order to better teach students, residents and themselves. Quality of education and the teaching environment should continually be evaluated within the context of quality assurance.

Keywords: Medical education, anaesthesiology education, teaching responsibilities, teaching methods