Content of thoracic residency training and its relevance to the practice of medicine

Background. The Thoracic Surgery Directors Association (TSDA) curriculum bo ok provides learning objectives for a thoracic surgery residency. Our purpo se was to evaluate the relevance of these objectives through feedback from recent graduates. Methods. Graduates of multiple TSDA programs were mailed a 50-item question naire. Survey items were objectives from the TSDA curriculum book represent ing six areas of thoracic surgery. Graduates rated each objective for adequ acy of instruction and relevance to their current practice on Likert-type s cales, Results. Two hundred twenty-eight surveys were included in the analysis. De spite excellent operating room education, graduates across subspecialty lin es reported the need for improved education in "nonoperative" subjects. Gra duates practicing cardiac surgery reported little relevance of their genera l thoracic educational experience. Conversely, graduates practicing general thoracic surgery expressed the need for more/better educational experience s in thoracic oncology and esophageal surgery. Conclusions. Contemporary thoracic surgical education can be improved. A st rong need for improvement exists in the teaching of "nonoperative" subjects . As graduates elect careers in thoracic subspecialties, a need exists to a lign thoracic surgery educational experiences with ultimate career goals of residents. (C) 2000 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.