A survey study on self-reported practice and work environment among anesthetist trainees in Nigeria

CONTEXT: The safe practice of anesthesia encompasses professionalism, equipment, monitoring, medications, and conduct of anesthesia. Therefore, standard training is sine qua non to guarantee good surgical outcomes in a specialty associated with delicate and high-risk cases. AIMS: The aims are to survey the work practices among anesthetist trainees from different centers across Nigeria. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional survey study conducted at the Department of Anaesthesia, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Anesthetist trainees were administered structured questionnaires following informed consent. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS version 23.0®) was used to analyze the obtained data. Results were presented using a frequency and percentage table, with a bar graph. RESULTS: Out of the 76 respondents, there were 57 (75.0%) male and 19 (25.0%) female trainees who were mostly >30 years (90.8%). Mean residency duration was 1.4 ± 0.6 years, with many within 1–2 years of postgraduate training (67.1%). Many were junior registrars 71 (93.4%) and mostly (64.5%) work for >8 h. On clinical work practices, all the respondents reported that they always discuss the risks, purpose, and benefits of anesthesia (100.0%), 77.6% always discuss patient management with superior, 57.9% always provide postanesthetic care, and 88.2% always obtain informed consent. Only 6 out of the 13 anesthetic techniques listed had ≥50% positive responses with confirmation of their abilities to perform these techniques. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the anesthetist trainees reported considerable abilities concerning clinical work practices in anesthesia. However, we observed significant limitations in the provisioning of some anesthetic techniques among many junior registrar trainees and this was not unexpected considering their current level of training.