Evaluation of Canadian family practice anesthesia training programs: can the Resident Logbook help?

Without a core curriculum for the training and evaluation of Canada's family practice anesthetists, little is known regarding the training process of these physicians. This article offers a description of the variety of cases and procedures experienced by family practice anesthesiology (FPA) residents during their training year based on records in the Resident Logbook.

Data were extracted from the Resident Logbook, an online program wherein FPA residents across Canada record their daily activities. Data were extracted for four residents from 2009/2010 and four from 2010/2011 who had recorded the largest number of patient encounters for the academic year. Medians were calculated for cases and procedures relevant to the practice of a family practice anesthetist.

Residents in FPA use the Resident Logbook inconsistently. The trainees we selected entered a median of 1,418 encounters for 2009/2010 and 1,074 for 2010/2011. Residents appear to have most of their clinical encounters with cases and procedures relevant to FPA. There is still a need, though, to improve areas previously cited as requiring augmentation, such as trauma management and peripheral nerve blocks.

Although FPA residents use the Resident Logbook inconsistently, the data obtained offer an initial description of the composition of the FPA training year. We believe that the Resident Logbook offers an excellent tool for furthering the goal of a standardized curriculum and assessment program for FPA training.