Anesthesia Learning in the Digital Age: Are Program Directors and Residents on the Same Page?

In our current digital age, textbooks have been supplemented or supplanted by multiple online modalities for knowledge acquisition. Trainees, often from a younger generation than their program directors (PDs), prefer asynchronous options such as podcasts, videos, and question banks. We sought to identify whether an educational gap exists between PDs and trainees regarding what is assigned and what is used.

A national cross-sectional survey was conducted in the United States in 2018-2019 to characterize anesthesiology resident and PD perceptions of academic knowledge acquisition.

Of the 149 PDs, 85 completed the survey (57%). Of the 85 PDs, 36 forwarded the survey to residents. Of the 1414 residents who received the survey, 503 residents responded to the survey (36%). The PDs thought residents used didactics, assigned reading, and scheduled simulations more than residents reported (P < .001). Residents reported using self-directed learning more (P = .004). Most residents (74.1%) reported using textbooks or online reading materials. Those residents reporting >70th percentile on the In-Training Exam used textbooks or online materials more than those who reported low scores (<30th percentile; P = .001).

There is a discrepancy between PD and resident views on where and how knowledge acquisition occurs. Asynchronous forms of education (especially podcasts) are popular, but they are rarely assigned by programs. Although residents have a wide variety of learning preferences, textbook and online reading may be associated with higher In-Training Exam scores (a common way that knowledge acquisition is measured). The PDs should consider providing multiple options for optimizing knowledge acquisition, including textbook reading, to meet resident preferences and maximize testing success.