Director Acute Surgical Pain Management Fellowship Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
The amount of time and resources allocated to regional anesthesia education is highly variable and often dependent on the experience and skillset of program faculty. As a result, regional anesthesia education and training is not standardized among nurse anesthesia programs. In addition, due to advances in technology, clinical practice standards are evolving faster than educational standards, necessitating education and training for two separate needs. Evidence-based practices are reviewed to make recommendations for the development and implementation of a standardized evidence-based framework for teaching regional skills that addresses the types of regional anesthetics taught, the prerequisite cognitive and psychomotor skills, as well as alternatives to clinical performance (phantom and clinical simulation training). In addition, the concept of a ‘Train-the-Trainer” course which provides nurse anesthesia faculty with the necessary knowledge to provide regional anesthesia education to their students is introduced.
Learning Objectives:
Discuss current challenges faced by nurse anesthesia programs in regional anesthesia education.
State the key requirements for entry to practice regional anesthesia education for full scope of practice.
Identify the differences in teaching subject matter and educating the instructor to teach the subject matter.
