Educational perspectives in cardiothoracic anesthesia in the United States using a survey of educators and learners

Background Cardiothoracic anesthesiology training presents learners with unique challenges, procedural skills, and the management of high-intensity critical scenarios. An effective relationship between educator and learner can serve as the backbone for effective learning, which is crucial for the development of budding anesthesiologists. Strengthening this educational alliance between teachers and trainees involves understanding the educational values educators and learners find most important to their learning experiences. This study aimed to identify the key educational values related to cardiothoracic anesthesia for both learners and educators. By identifying these values in separate cohorts (learners and educators), the importance of various educational values can be examined and compared between the trainees and teachers. Methods Two separate surveys (one for learners and one for teachers) were adapted from the Pratt and Collins Teaching Perspectives Inventory to establish the importance of various educational values related to cardiothoracic anesthesia. Surveys were sent to 165 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited anesthesiology residency training programs in the United States to trainees (residents and cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellows) and educators (board-certified cardiothoracic anesthesiologists). Results Analysis of survey results from 19 educators and 57 learners revealed no statistical differences across the two groups, except Q15: “Let trainee perform critical technical steps” (P value = 0.02). Conclusions While learners and educators in cardiothoracic anesthesia hold similar values regarding cardiac anesthesia education, they differ in the degree to which critical technical steps should be performed by learners.