Foundation doctors in Anaesthesia: should they be taught to administer an anaesthetic?

We debate the skills that new Foundation Programme doctors in such posts should be taught, particularly whether administration of an anaesthetic holds an important place. The opinion of college tutors prior to the institution of the foundation programme is included. These were obtained from a postal questionnaire.We maintain that teaching how to administer an anaesthetic remains an important learning objective and something that should be actively pursued.The traditional idea of pre-registration doctors undertaking two 6-month house jobs, one in medicine and one in surgery, often in different hospitals, has been superseded. Since 1997 there has been an increase in pre-registration rotations, which have included specialities such as paediatrics, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology and anaesthesia with critical care. Much of this stemmed from the publication of The New Doctor in 1997 [1], which promoted these 4-month jobs involving an alternative clinical speciality and gave specific and comprehensive objectives for pre-registration house doctors to achieve whilst carrying out their role as a junior doctor. The inclusion of anaesthetics in these pre-registration years has seen substantial growth over the years 1997–2003 (Figure 1).The service role for medical and surgical pre-registration house officers was well defined by the nature of ward and theatre work. The situation is less clear in anaesthesia as the clinical role for pre-registration house officers and now Foundation House officers are undefined. Even new-starter specialty trainees do not undertake a service commitment until they have completed their initial assessment of competency (normally performed after three months) allowing them to work under indirect supervision and take part in on-call commitments [2]. The ability of a pre-registration house doctors to undertake a service role is therefore limited by the need for an intensive initial period of training that lasts almost as long as the post