Educational Need Assessment of Anesthesiologists and Surgeons in Transfusion Medicine

Developing continuing medical education (CME) programs should be based on assessments of learners’ needs. On the other hand, one of the prevalent problems in Iran is the excessive use of blood products, and the highest demand for blood transfusion is related to surgical wards. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the educational needs of anesthesiologists and surgeons in transfusion medicine.
This survey was carried out on a convenience sample of 134 anesthesiologists and surgeons in Isfahan. The educational need assessment was administered using two valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaires: self-assessment and knowledge assessment. Cronbach’s alphas were calculated at 0.958 for information self-assessment questions, 0.981 for educational needs questions, and 0.72 for knowledge assessment questions. Data were imported to Excel Software. Distribution frequency indices and Pearson correlation coefficient test were used respectively to analyze the data and compare the findings.
The majority of participants were male (70.9%) with a mean work experience of 15.9±8.8 years. 65.8 percent of the participants evaluated their knowledge at an “average level”. The most important educational need was about cryoprecipitate and the least important was related to packed red blood cells. The mean score of knowledge assessment questions was 6.60±0.24 (out of 20). There was a significant correlation between self-assessment mean scores and the knowledge assessment mean scores and the frequency of encountering blood products (P≤0.0001). No significant correlation was found between the educational need assessment mean scores and the self-assessment mean scores and the frequency of encountering blood products (P=0.23).
Given the findings of the present need assessment and little knowledge of the physicians, it is suggested that an appropriate educational program should be developed for surgeons and anesthesiologists. Such program could be offered in the form of continuing education programs for graduates. Further research is needed to make decision about how transfusion medicine should be introduced into the anesthesiology and surgery residency programs.