TY - JOUR T1 - European Diploma in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care in Spain: Results for the part 1 and part 2 exams in the last five years. Are we going in the right direction? JO - Revista Española de Anestesiología y Reanimación (English Edition) T2 - AU - Brogly,N. AU - Engelhardt,W. AU - Hill,S. AU - Ringvold,E.-M. AU - Varosyan,A. AU - Varvinskiy,A. AU - Zerafa,M. SN - 23411929 M3 - 10.1016/j.redare.2018.12.007 DO - 10.1016/j.redare.2018.12.007 UR - https://www.elsevier.es/en-revista-revista-espanola-anestesiologia-reanimacion-english-444-articulo-european-diploma-in-anaesthesiology-intensive-S234119291930054X AB - BackgroundThe European Diploma in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (EDAIC) has become a standard of quality among Spanish anaesthesiologists. The aim of this retrospective observational study was to assess the results of Spanish participants for the Part 1 and Part 2 exams over a recent five years period from 2012 to 2016 and 2013 to 2017, respectively. Material and methodsAfter obtaining the authorization from the European Society of Anaesthesiology, the results of both parts of the EDAIC exams were anonymously analysed for five years. We analysed the number of registrations, the pass rates, the cause for failure and the mean scores for basic sciences (paper A of part 1 exam and the two first vivas of part 2 exam) and clinical anaesthesia and intensive care (paper B of part 1 exam and the two last vivas of part 2 exam). Quantitative variables were analysed using the one-way analysis of variance, and qualitative variables using the chi-square test for trends. The level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05. ResultsFor the written part 1 exam, 1189 of a total of 10,954 candidates (10.85%) were registered in Spanish centres, reflecting the global growth of the exam (p=0.29). The pass rate was 62.1%, with no significant differences from other countries (p=0.38). Basic sciences were involved in 84.1% of failing candidates. Mean scores were 71.74±5.98% for basic science (paper A) and 74.48±4.29% for clinical anaesthesiology (paper B). Regarding the part 2 exam, 72.4% of the candidates who had passed the part 1 exam registered for the oral part 2, with a pass rate of 62.7% versus 62.2% in the rest of the world (p=0.91). Failing in the basic sciences sections of the part 2 resulted in 93.8% of candidates failing the part 2 exam. Bad fails were registered in 56 (31.5%) of failing candidates, of which 71.3% occurred in the basic sciences vivas. Isolated bad fails only occurred in 7 (3.9%) cases. ConclusionsThe evolution of the EDAIC in Spain has been very similar to evolution of the EDAIC in the rest of the world. Further efforts to improve knowledge in basic sciences and better preparation in the technique of oral examination should improve the pass rate of the EDAIC examinations from an ever-increasing cohort of candidates. ER -