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ECONOMICS, EDUCATION, AND POLICY

An Advanced Specialty Training Program in Anesthesiology: A Special Educational Fellowship Designed to Return Community Anesthesiologists to Clinical Practice

From the Department of Anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California.

Address correspondence to C. Philip Larson Jr., MD, UCLA Department of Anesthesiology, P.O. Box 951778, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1778. Address e-mail to plarson{at}ucla.edu.

Abstract

We describe a program for community anesthesiologists designed to evaluate clinical skills and provide additional training in the latest technologies in anesthesiology. This educational program was established for previously trained anesthesiologists who require additional training for either remedial purposes or because of a prolonged absence from practice. All enrollees had an active, unrestricted California medical license and malpractice insurance. Approximately half of the participants had been in active practice at the time of enrollment; the remainder had been away from practice from 1 to 9 yr. The first 24 graduates of the fellowship spent an average of 9 wk (range, 3–24 wk) in the program to meet their individualized goals. Graduates were surveyed an average of 15 mo after completion of the fellowship. All respondents indicated that they would enroll in the program again; 80% indicated they learned new technical skills, 73% stated that the fellowship introduced them to a greater variety of drugs, and 50% indicated that the fellowship changed their approach to patient care. This program may serve as a model for any discipline of medicine and is particularly relevant for those with a substantial component of technical skills expected of its practitioners.