European Association of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and Intensive Care (EACTAIC) Fellowship Curriculum: Second Edition

Erdoes, Gabor Wouters, Patrick F. Alston, R. Peter Schreiber, Jan-Uwe Bettex, Dominique Antoniou, Theofani Benedetto, Maria Bouchez, Stefaan Szegedi, Laszlo Wilkinson, Kirstin Landoni, Giovanni Treskatsch, Sascha Matute, Purificación von Dossow, Vera Van Beersel, Dieter Unic-Stojanovic, Dragana Momeni, Mona [UCL] Gaudard, Philippe Szekely, Andrea Burtin, Philippe Flo-Forner, Anna Neto, Caetano Nigro Fassl, Jens Granell, Manuel Erb, Joachim M. Navarro-Ripoll, Ricard Vives, Marc Fetouh, Fawzia Aboul Howell, Simon J. Marczin, Nandor Martinez, Alberto Hernandez Vuylsteke, Alain El-Ashmawi, Hossam de Arroyabe, Blanca Martinez Lopez Mukherjee, Chirojit Rex, Steffen Paternoster, Gianluca Guarracino, Fabio El-Tahan, Mohamed R. et al.[show all]

(eng) This document represents the first update of the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anaesthesia Fellowship Curriculum of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care. After obtaining feedback from exit interviews with fellows in training, graduate fellows, and program directors, 2 modified online Delphi procedures with questionnaires were conducted. A consensus was reached when two-thirds of responding committee members gave green or yellow ratings on a traffic light system, and >70% indicated strong agreement or agreement on a 5-point Likert scale. The new regulations include the following: more flexibility in the fellows` rotation, as long as the total number of days, rotations, and cases are completed during the training year; recommendation for strict compliance with national working-time guidelines; no extension of fellowship training to compensate for annual and/or sick leave, unless the required minimum number of cases and rotations are not reached; interruption of fellowship training for >12 months is allowed for personal or medical reasons; introduction of a checklist for quantitative assessment of standard clinical skills; recommendations for a uniform structure of exit interviews; possibility of a 1-month training rotation in a postanesthesia care unit instead of an intensive care unit; and provided all other requirements have been met, the allowance of progression from the basic training year to the advanced fellowship training year without first passing the transesophageal echocardiography examination. [...]