Academic Anesthesiologists Perceive Significant Internal Barriers to Intraoperative Teaching in a Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Academic anesthesiologists have numerous demands on their time, and this can erode teaching quality. Reducing barriers to teaching may ameliorate this. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the learning environment and identify barriers to clinical teaching using a multicenter survey approach.

Methods: Anesthesiologists at four academic centers were surveyed to understand barriers to clinical teaching. Demographic data and time spent teaching were collected. Faculty attitudes regarding teaching, resident physician perceptions of their teaching, supportiveness of departmental and operating room leadership, whether they enjoyed teaching, and the perceived quality of their own teaching ("self-efficacy") were assessed using Likert scales. Principal component analysis was performed to identify themes in these data. Pearson correlation, t test, and linear regression analyses were used to evaluate interactions between themes.

Results: The response rate was 40.6% (230/566). Responding faculty expressed a high level of engagement with the teaching role. Clinical production pressure was a common theme. Faculty who spent more time teaching reported greater enjoyment of teaching, feeling better about their teaching, and were better prepared to teach. Enjoyment of teaching was not independently associated with more time spent teaching. Regression analysis revealed that perceptions of environmental factors (including production pressure) had no independent effect on time spent teaching or on self-efficacy in teaching quality. Faculty self-efficacy was positively related to enjoyment of teaching as well as making teaching a higher priority.

Conclusions: Improving perceptions of the learning environment might be best achieved by mitigating production pressure and improving faculty self-efficacy in their teaching.