Fellows Assessment of Their Training
Anil Hingorani, MD, Amrit Hingorani, Enrico Ascher, Natalie Marks, Eleanor Iadgarova.
Total Vascular Care, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
OBJECTIVES: In an attempt to assess the fellows' perception of their training, we conducted a survey consisting of 20 questions at an annual national meeting in March from 2004 to 2015. In order to obtain accurate data, all surveys were kept anonymous.
METHODS: The fellows were asked to rate their endovascular, open, and vascular lab experience as excellent, satisfactory, or mixed. They were queried into who taught them their endovascular skills, the quality of their didactics and amount of small cases that they did not learn from. 674 of 908 attendees (74%) completed the survey. Males made up 81% of those surveyed. 59% were between the ages of 31 and 35 years. Second-year (5+2) fellows made up 52% of those surveyed. RESULTS: 84% were satisfied with their endovascular experience during their fellowship while 83% were satisfied with their experience with open cases. Interventional skills were mostly obtained from a vascular surgeon (93%), an interventional radiologist (9 %), cardiologist (1%) or a mixture (4%). The didactics were felt to be excellent, satisfactory, or to need some or much improvement in: 43%, 44%, 10% and 4% respectively. The distribution of non-learning cases was felt to be excellent, satisfactory, or to need some or much improvement in: 50%, 40%, 8%, and 2% respectively. However, only 68% felt that their vascular laboratory experience was excellent or satisfactory. Only 35% actually performed the vascular duplex exam, and only 47% felt that they would feel comfortable in managing a vascular laboratory. Comparing the data from 2004 and 2015, significant improvements were found with satisfaction with their experience in endovascular cases, the percentage of endovascular cases taught by vascular surgeons, and overall program didactics. Comparing the data from 2004 and 2015, there were no significant differences in gender distribution, satisfaction with vascular lab experience, or comfort level in running a vascular laboratory.
CONCLUSIONS:
This survey highlights the self-assessment of vascular trainees and suggests that several significant issues exist in the minds of vascular trainees that have not been addressed. These may represent opportunities for further improvement.
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