Challenges and Opportunities Facing Pediatric Anesthesia Providers in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries (LMICs), India

Abstract

India is a vast, populous country with a huge variability in the standards of health care. While the cities have state of the art hospitals with trained doctors, rural areas where most of the population lives, have a severe shortage of resources. Children form nearly 40% of India's population, and there is a great demand for pediatric surgical and anesthesia services. Specialty training in pediatric anesthesia, however, is still in its infancy, with the majority of children being administered anesthesia by general anesthesiologists. This review discusses the reasons behind India's ailing healthcare How to cite this article: Dave N, Varghese E, Jacob R. Challenges and opportunities facing pediatric anesthesia providers in low and middle income countries (LMICs): India.

Delivery of Safe Pediatric Anesthesia Care in the First 8000 days: Realities, Challenges, and Solutions in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

“…Moreover, anesthesia providers often practice in highly stressful, complex work environments, and staffing shortages and lack of support at work have been identified as factors contributing to burnout among anesthesiologists [13][14][15][16]. In India, a lack of pediatric-specific training in anesthesiology was cited as a stressor among anesthesiologists when they are presented with very small patients [17]. Therefore, scaling up provider density is not only important for patient safety, but may also promote satisfaction and retention of existing providers.…”