The role of the teaching hospital

All trainee anaesthetists on the Northern Ireland training scheme were surveyed about the techniques they use when anaesthetising elective paediatric cases. We compared the practice of doctors with specialist paediatric training to that of others and discovered that trainees with specialist training were more likely (p less than 0.05) to admit parents during induction, but were less likely (p less than 0.05) to visit their patients pre-operatively and routinely to use suxamethonium. Other general findings were confusion over the re-use of halothane and extensive involvement of trainee anaesthetists in neonatal resuscitation.