Impact of mandatory nonoperative training on surgical critical care

Since the development of surgical critical care (SCC) as a discrete body of knowledge and its recognition by the American Board of Surgery (ABS), it has been beset by several controversies. One controversy is that the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Surgery mandated that approved SCC training be 1 year long with no operative experience. A survey was conducted to determine the opinions and experiences on this controversy and others of 498 surgeons who regularly practice SCC. Seventy percent (349) responded and 100% of these held a Certificate of Added Qualifications in SCC. Only 35% of the respondents had completed a critical care fellowship and 61% were either the director or associate director of an ICU. An overwhelming majority (> 90%) believed that SCC should be considered one of the essentials in training surgeons and that the ABS should continue to offer a Certificate of Added Qualifications. Two thirds disagreed with the RRC's ban on operative experience during SCC fellowships and 71% believed that this prohibition limited the pool of surgical applicants to SCC programs. There were no significant differences in the responses between any of the major subgroups. Interestingly, 50% of the respondents who had completed RRC-approved SCC fellowships stated that their fellowship included operative experience.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)