Participation of Trainees, Trainers, and Program Directors of Anesthetists and Anesthesia Technicians in the Neonatal Resuscitation Program in Turkiye

Backgroun/Aims: The Newborn Resuscitation Program aims to ensure that healthcare professionals prevent complications that may occur in the baby, mainly due to asphyxia. Like some other health providers, anesthesia staffs also participate in this program. We aim to determine the rate of participation and contribution of anesthesiologists and anesthesia technicians to programs. We discussed why participation in this program is essential and what results in it will have when evaluated with the after-effects. Method: After the approval of the Gulhane Scientific Research Ethics Committee, the participant records of the courses, which has been organized since 1998, were examined. The records show the number of anesthesia staff according to the total number of people and their distribution by year. We compared total participants to anesthesia staff with the inclusion of trainees, trainers, and course directors in our country. The distribution of these sums and what these numbers might mean were investigated. Results: Only one anesthetist attended the first course as a trainee in 1998. The highest participation as anesthetist and anesthesia technician was in 2010, with 494 participants, 218 and 276, respectively. Since the beginning of the course, 2392 anesthesiologists and 3124 anesthesia technicians out of 75,256 trainees have received training. The average is 3.57 percent. Sixteen out of 47 anesthesiologists and 7 out of 11 anesthesia technicians actively contribute to the programs as trainers. Only five anesthetists and two technicians determined the course directors. All of those directors are active in the program. Conclusion: The number of trainers and course directors is relatively low compared to the total number of people working in the anesthesia branch nationwide. As anesthesia staff is critical for neonatal resuscitations, increasing anesthesia staff participation can significantly reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity.