Training in pediatric anesthesia and pediatric airway curriculum development for residents
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Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to examine ways in which anesthesiology residents train in pediatric anesthesiology and apply those methods to developing a new pediatric airway curriculum at Boston Children’s Hospital. Anesthesiology residents spend two to six months training in pediatric anesthesiology during their residency. Additional training can include a one-year pediatric anesthesiology fellowship. Given this short amount of time of exposure in residency prior to elective subspecialty training, educators may supplement trainee education with resources beyond clinical learning and didactic lectures. A common tool used in anesthesiology is simulation training, which is effective in improving trainees’ knowledge and skills. Different implementations of simulation exercises have been developed, including simulation boot camps and curricula. There are other educational resources, such as visual aids and online course that are less time and resource intensive to implement.
At Boston Children’s Hospital, we are using direction from prior educational research to develop an online pediatric airway curriculum for rotating anesthesiology residents. This will begin with videos created on the most important topics of pediatric airway management. From faculty feedback, we found that the seven most important topics are: pediatric airway anatomy, airway considerations of neonates, sizing of airway equipment, preoperative predictors for a possible difficult airway in children, equipment selection and preparation for a possible difficult pediatric airway, laryngospasm, and apneic oxygenation. With these results, future direction of the project with begin with video development for each topic. Once complete, the curriculum will be available for residents to use. After the curriculum is implemented, residents and faculty will be surveyed to determine its effectiveness and received feedback. With all the educational resources available, programs should be aware of their goals to select the best method for to meet the goals and needs of their trainees.