Public awareness about the specialty of anesthesiology and the role of anesthesiologists: a national survey

Abstract

BackgroundThe aims of this national survey were to determine the views of Korean people regarding the specialty of anesthesiology and the role of anesthesiologists and to consider the ways in which individual anesthesiologists and the Korean Society of Anesthesiologists inform the public.MethodsThis off-line national survey was conducted by a professional research organization to obtain exact and reliable data. The questionnaire included structured questions to identify perceptions of the specialty of anesthesiology and the role of anesthesiologists inside and outside the operating room, people's desire for explanation of anesthesia by anesthesiologists, and their opinion about the best way to raise awareness about anesthesia and anesthesiologists.ResultsOf the respondents, 25.2% did not know that anesthesiologists are in charge of anesthesia during surgery. Furthermore, even respondents who knew that had very little knowledge of anesthesiologists' actual roles inside and outside the operating room. Respondents wanted their anesthesiologist to inform them about their anesthesia.ConclusionsThe public's awareness regarding the role of anesthesiologists seems to be inadequate. To improve this awareness, in hospitals, each anesthesiologist should provide patients with more exact and detailed information. Simultaneously, the National Society of Anesthesiology should provide systematic information reflecting the public's thoughts.

Patients’ Knowledge and Attitude towards Anesthesia in Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital

“…While in a study done in Hong Kong, 25% [1] and in Korean study was 18.8% [7]. For the question who estimates and transfuse blood intra-op 5% of patients said anesthetist, which was similar result with the study done by Korean association of anesthesiologists [7]. For the smooth recovery in post-op, 21% of our patients replied anesthetists are responsible while in the study done in Hong Kong it was 65% [1].…”

“…In our study a bit higher value which is 57% of patients taught anesthetists intraoperatively monitor heart, blood pressure and breathing. While in a study done in Hong Kong, 25% [1] and in Korean study was 18.8% [7]. For the question who estimates and transfuse blood intra-op 5% of patients said anesthetist, which was similar result with the study done by Korean association of anesthesiologists [7].…”

“…It was thus not surprising to learn that only 42% of the patients knew, anesthesia was provided by the anesthetists, which shows a better result from a study done in Nigeria which was 19% for patients without history of previous anesthesia exposure [10]. This proportion is very low when compared to a study done in Korea, which reported 74% [7]. Also in our study only 3% of the patients believed that anesthetists are responsible for making sure the patient is fit for anesthesia.The reason for this poor knowledge may be connected to the fact that anesthetists are often busy in operating theatre with few and limited time to interact with their patients pre & post-operatively.…”

Evaluation the awareness of anesthesia and effectiveness of preoperative consultation among the patients in our hospital

“…Lee ve ark. (10) toplum tarafından sırasıyla televizyon programları, açıklayıcı broşürler ve internetin farkındalığı oluşturmada yeğlendiğini belirten bir çalışma yapmışlardır.…”

A Survey on Public Awareness About the Role of Anesthesiologists.

“…Anesthesiology is one of medical Science branches (Sable et al, 2016), it has been grown in the recent pastyears (Cooper et al, 1995), by development of monitoring system, new anesthetic agents and techniques (Khara et al, 2013), however it is behind the light, the knowledge about this specialty and the exact role of anesthesiologists is limited between public (Cooper et al, 1995).After the great advances in anesthesia field (Lee et al, 2014), now anesthesiologists play a very important role in peri-operative, the operating room, intensive care, trauma centers,pain management and on the code team (Lee et al, 2014;Prasad et al, 2014; Kadriet al, 2014), however they don't receive the deserved attention andtheir due regards between public (Prasad et al, 2014), this limited awareness of public about the anesthesiologist exceeds anesthesiologist's role in the operating room (Ribeiro et al, 2015), reaching to anesthetist's roles outside the operation room (Garry, 2001). This lack in public awareness about anesthetist's role is not new (Armitage, 1978).Many studies have reported a low public awareness about anesthesia and the role of anesthetists in both developing and developed countries (Swinhoe et al, 1994;Jathar et al, 2002).Patients think that the surgeon is responsible for tasks of anesthesia(Acosta-Martínez et al, 2016),44.5% think so, while only 22% of them know that anesthesiologistswere the providers of anesthesia ISSN: 2320-5407 Int.…”