Defining entrustable professional activities for first year anesthesiology residents: A Delphi study.

INTRODUCTION: The use of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) as a basis for assessment may bridge the gap between the theory of competency-based education and clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate EPAs for United States (US) first-year clinical anesthesia (CA-1) residents for anesthesiology residency programs to use as the basis for curriculum development and workplace assessment. METHODS: From a list of EPAs abstracted from the literature, an expert panel through a modified Delphi consensus process established EPAs for the CA1 curriculum. RESULTS: The final list of EPAs after group consensus had 28 EPAs, with 14 (50%) considered to be applicable to the CA-1 year. An 80% consensus rate was used to accept or reject the final list. CONCLUSION: This study applied a construct validity lens to EPA development providing assurance that the EPAs adopted are appropriate for use in workplace-based assessment and entrustment decision-making.

Needlestick injuries among anesthesia providers from a large US academic center: A 10-year retrospective analysis.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Anesthesiologists are at high risk for needlestick injury. Such injuries pose a serious health threat from exposure to bloodborne pathogens. This retrospective analysis aimed to examine needlestick injury rate among anesthesia providers between 2010 and 2020 at the University of California Los Angeles, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine to determine specialty-specific factors associated with these injuries. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. SETTING: Academic Anesthesiology Department. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS: All reported incidents of needlestick injuries to employees are sent to the Injury and Illness Prevention Committee. We included all anesthesia residents, fellows, nurse anesthetists, solo anesthesiologists, and supervising anesthesiologists. MAIN RESULTS: The overall rate of reported needlestick injuries was 5.3%. The rates for anesthesia residents were 2.1%, 13.5%, 7.9%, and 6.7% for post graduate year 1-4 (PGY 1-4) residents. The rates were 14.3%, 4.7%, 2.1%, and 6.9% for fellows, nurse anesthetists, supervising anesthesiologists, and solo anesthesiologists, respectively. We found that PGY2 residents had a higher injury rate than PGY1 residents (p-value<0.001). When grouping PGY2, PGY3, and PGY4 residents together, they had a collective rate of 9.4%. Furthermore, residents had a higher needlestick injury rate than supervising anesthesiologists (p-value <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: PGY2 residents and fellows had the highest rate of needlestick injury. Our study highlights the trend of increasing sharps injuries after PGY1 while supervising anesthesiologists had the lowest rate. Proposed mechanisms for the increased sharps injuries include residents' transition from medicine-based internship to the operating room environment with increased exposure to potentially injurious equipment, overnight call, and increased work-related and cognitive stress. Improving understanding of institution-specific prevention programs, raising awareness during their initial high-intensity training period with one-to-one supervision when habits are formed, and reducing exposure to sharps using a needleless system are some steps toward reducing the incidence of sharps injuries in a field where the risk remains high.

Effect of Performance Deficiencies on Graduation and Board Certification Rates: A 10-yr Multicenter Study of Anesthesiology Residents.

BACKGROUND: This multicenter, retrospective study was conducted to determine how resident performance deficiencies affect graduation and board certification. METHODS: Primary documents pertaining to resident performance were examined over a 10-yr period at four academic anesthesiology residencies. Residents entering training between 2000 and 2009 were included, with follow-up through February 2016. Residents receiving actions by the programs' Clinical Competency Committee were categorized by the area of deficiency and compared to peers without deficiencies. RESULTS: A total of 865 residents were studied (range: 127 to 275 per program). Of these, 215 residents received a total of 405 actions from their respective Clinical Competency Committee. Among those who received an action compared to those who did not, the proportion graduating differed (93 vs. 99%, respectively, P < 0.001), as did the proportion achieving board certification (89 vs. 99%, respectively, P < 0.001). When a single deficiency in an Essential Attribute (e.g., ethical, honest, respectful behavior; absence of impairment) was identified, the proportion graduating dropped to 55%. When more than three Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Core Competencies were deficient, the proportion graduating also dropped significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Overall graduation and board certification rates were consistently high in residents with no, or isolated, deficiencies. Residents deficient in an Essential Attribute, or multiple competencies, are at high risk of not graduating or achieving board certification. More research is needed on the effectiveness and selective deployment of remediation efforts, particularly for high-risk groups.

Diagnosis and management of pre-eclampsia: an update.

Pre-eclampsia is a significant, multifactorial, multiorgan disease affecting 5%-8% of all pregnancies in the US where it is the third leading cause of maternal mortality. Despite improvements in the diagnosis and management of pre-eclampsia, severe complications can occur in both the mother and the fetus, and there is no effective method of prevention. Early detection and identification of pregnant women most at risk of developing the disease have proven challenging, but recent efforts combining biochemical and biophysical markers are promising. Efforts at prevention of pre-eclampsia with aspirin and calcium have had limited success, but research on modifiable risk factors, such as obesity surgery, are encouraging. Obstetric management of severe pre-eclampsia focuses on medical management of blood pressure and prevention of seizures using magnesium sulfate, but the ultimate cure remains delivery of the fetus and placenta. Timing of delivery depends on several factors, including gestational age, fetal lung maturity, and most importantly, disease severity. Anesthetic management includes regional anesthesia with careful evaluation of the patient's airway, volume status, and coagulation status to reduce morbidity and mortality. The potential complications of general anesthesia, including intracranial hemorrhage, in these patients make regional anesthesia the preferred choice in many cases. Nevertheless, it is important to be aware of the contraindications to neuraxial anesthesia and to prepare always for the possibility of encountering a difficult airway.

Severe preeclampsia: anesthetic implications of the disease and its management.

Preeclampsia is a significant, multifactorial, multiorgan disease affecting 6%-8% of all pregnancies in the United States and is the third leading cause of maternal mortality. As such, it is incumbent upon any anesthesia provider involved in obstetric cases to be familiar with the varied manifestations of the disease, management goals from an obstetric standpoint, and the implications for provision of anesthesia in this patient group. Despite improvements in the diagnosis and management of preeclampsia, severe complications can occur in both the mother and the fetus. A systematic approach to the anesthetic evaluation is therefore necessary to reduce morbidity and mortality and to improve outcomes. The potential pitfalls of general anesthesia, including failed intubation, in these complicated patients make regional anesthesia the preferred choice in many cases. Recent studies have shown that spinal anesthesia is often appropriate for preeclamptic patients, even in severe cases. Nevertheless, it is important to be aware of the potential contraindications to neuraxial anesthesia and to prepare for the possibility of encountering a difficult airway.

Pulse contour analysis for cardiac output monitoring in cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease.

UNLABELLED: Conventional methods of cardiac output monitoring using pulmonary artery catheters may not be feasible in patients with congenital heart disease because of patients' small size or aberrant anatomy. We studied the accuracy of a new device, which uses pulse contour analysis to measure continuous cardiac output, in children and adults undergoing congenital heart surgery. Sixteen patients, median ages 7 yr old, were included in this prospective study. One-hundred-ninety-one data points were obtained in the pre- and postcardiopulmonary bypass periods and in the first 12 h after intensive care unit admission. We evaluated the relationship between cardiac index (CI) derived from transpulmonary thermodilution (TDCI) and CI derived from pulse contour analysis (PCCI). Bias and limits of agreement between TDCI and PCCI over all time periods were 0.1 +/- 1.94, indicating a wide dispersion of the data. Coefficient of correlation (r) between the TDCI and PCCI was 0.7. Although in previous studies, PCCI has been suggested to be accurate in adult cardiac surgery, we found it to be less reliable in our study patients, even after shunt correction. The relationships of the volume and pressure based measures of preload, intrathoracic blood volume index (ITBI), and central venous pressure with CI were also investigated. After repair, correlation (r) between PCCI or TDCI and ITBI (0.56 and 0.71, respectively) was better than that between PCCI or TDCI and CVP (0.16 and 0.11, respectively), indicating greater validity of ITBI as a measure of preload. IMPLICATIONS: Our results suggest that the pulse contour analysis cardiac output (CO) monitoring in patients undergoing congenital heart surgery may not provide as accurate or reliable measures of CO as previously suggested. The volume-based variable of preload intrathoracic blood volume index (ITBI) has better correlation with cardiac index (CI) than the central venous pressure, suggesting that ITBI may be a better indicator of preload.