Anesthesiologists' perception on their residency training.

BACKGROUND: Self-regulated professions such as medicine are characterized by professional commitment to the public they serve and require life-long development of expected skills. There is a paucity of data regarding quality of training during residency in anesthesiology. The objective of this study was to create an instrument to assess the anesthesiologists' perception regarding the quality of their training during medical residency. METHODS: An electronic questionnaire was sent to 120 anesthesiologists, assuming 15% response rate for worst case scenario, considering a number of 613 potential respondents. The answers to the questionnaire were submitted to psychometric evaluation through internal consistency analysis measured by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and factorial analysis by the principal components' method with varimax rotation method with Kaiser normalization. The level of Concordance (C) and Disaccord (D) of each item were compared byz tests (consensus if p < 0.05). A question asking the respondents if they would recommend their training center to a relative or a friend was added to the questionnaire and considered as a secondary outcome. RESULTS: One hundred and one responses were obtained. The Cronbach's alpha value was 0.86, suggesting good reliability of the questionnaire. The initial analysis including all the 14 items presented on the questionnaire demonstrated that four components obeyed the Kaiser criterion, depicting 68.20% of variance. Consensus was achieved among participants regarding all items of the questionnaire. The medical residency in anesthesiology was recommended by 93% of the participants. Preceptors were considered role-models by 83% of the participants. Acquisition of practical skills was better evaluated in comparison to other areas. CONCLUSION: The questionnaire effectively characterized the perception of anesthesiologists regarding the quality of their training during medical residency. The information produced by this instrument could provide interesting clues on the quality of residency programs, pointing out areas of education that need more attention.

Face-to-Face and Distance Education Modalities in the Training of Healthcare Professionals: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an 18-month-long course in Family Health. The course was offered in two modalities, distance education and face-to-face learning. Dependent variables were as follows: self-regulation of learning, procrastination, the perception of self-efficacy, and academic performance. The course was attended by 27 health professionals (i.e., physicians, nurses, and dentists) working in the Brazilian Unified Health System. The investigation followed a quasi-experimental design. Participants in the two modalities achieved similar academic performance; and globally no statistically significant differences were found regarding the study variables. Findings, notwithstanding their importance for professional training in health, are preliminary and further research is needed on the effectiveness of training modalities distance education and face-to-face learning (e.g., focus groups, interviews, online monitoring). The educational implications of this study are discussed and analyzed considering specificities and differences of each modality.

Promoting Self-Regulation in Health Among Vulnerable Brazilian Children: Protocol Study.

The Health and Education Ministries of Brazil launched the Health in School Program (Programa Saúde na Escola - PSE) in 2007. The purpose of the PSE is two-fold: articulate the actions of the education and health systems to identify risk factors and prevent them; and promote health education in the public elementary school system. In the health field, the self-regulation (SR) construct can contribute to the understanding of life habits which can affect the improvement of individuals' health. This research aims to present a program that promotes SR in health (SRH). This program (PSRH) includes topics on healthy eating and oral health from the PSE; it is grounded on the social cognitive framework and uses story tools to train 5th grade Brazilian students in SRH. The study consists of two phases. In Phase 1, teachers and health professionals participated in a training program on SRH, and in Phase 2, they will be expected to conduct an intervention in class to promote SRH. The participants were randomly assigned into three groups: the Condition I group followed the PSE program, the Condition II group followed the PSRH (i.e., PSE plus the SRH program), and the control group (CG) did not enroll in either of the health promotion programs. For the baseline of the study, the following measures and instruments were applied: Body Mass Index (BMI), Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), Previous Day Food Questionnaire (PFDQ), and Declarative Knowledge for Health Instrument. Data indicated that the majority are eutrophic children, but preliminary outcomes showed high percentages of children that are overweight, obese and severely obese. Moreover, participants in all groups reported high consumption of ultraprocessed foods (e.g., soft drinks, artificial juices, and candies). Oral health data from the CI and CII groups showed a prevalence of regular oral hygiene, while the CG presented good oral hygiene. The implementation of both PSE and PSRH are expected to help reduce health problems in school, as well as the public expenditures with children's health (e.g., Obesity and oral diseases).