Bioethics Education and The Utilization of Ethics Resources in Anesthesiology

Objective: We sought to determine the implementation and content of ethics educational programs and resources utilized by anesthesiology residency programs and private practice anesthesiologists. Method: The authors surveyed program directors of 132 accredited anesthesia residency programs in the United States identified by ACGME and also surveyed private practice and academic anesthesiologists via The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) ListservTM in 2013. Descriptive statistics compared responses. The chi-squared test compared responses between responding academic and private practice anesthesiologists and program directors. Results: Forty-three program directors of 132 ACGME accredited anesthesia residency programs responded to the survey (response rate: 32.6%). Of 29,969 ASA active attending physician members, 1166 individuals responded to the survey (response rate: 3.9%). Both academic anesthesiologists (n=108, 76.1%) and program directors (n=19, 46.3%) reported that bioethics education was taught to anesthesia residents most often 1-2 times per year and throughout CA-1 to CA-3 years. Overall, 77.5% (n=31) of program directors and 47.5% (163/343) of academic anesthesiologists did not have an evaluation process for anesthesia residents in the practice of bioethics. Conclusions: Ethics education and an evaluation process in the practice of bioethics are not completely implemented and that existing surveyed resources for ethics instruction are underutilized.