Anaesthesia priorities for Australian and New Zealand medical school curricula: a Delphi consensus of academic anaesthetists

Abstract

The role of anaesthetists has expanded and evolved to include critical care, perioperative and pain medicine and general clinical skills, as well as operating theatre-based clinical anaesthesia. Across Australia and New Zealand, these topics are taught to varying degrees, however no uniform curriculum or standardisation exists between universities. In this study, we used a Delphi technique to develop consensus-based priorities to guide medical educators when reviewing and implementing student anaesthesia curricula. A range of appropriate content has been defined, as well as details relating to duration, timing, teaching environment, faculty, feedback and assessment methods. Future enquiry to assess the efficacy of future and current teaching practices is needed to facilitate continued improvement.