INTRODUCTION: Neurosurgical training aims at educating future generations of specialist neurosurgeons and at providing the highest-quality medical services to patients. Attaining and maintaining these highest standards constitutes a major responsibility of academic or other training medical centers. METHODS: An electronic survey was sent to European neurosurgical residents between 06/2014 and 03/2015. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to assess the effect size of the relationship between responder-specific variables (e.g., age, gender, postgraduate year (PGY), country) and the outcomes (e.g., satisfaction). RESULTS: A total of 652 responses were collected, of which n = 532 were taken into consideration. Eighty-five percent were 26-35 years old, 76 % male, 62 % PGY 4 or higher, and 73.5 % working at a university clinic. Satisfaction rates with theoretical education such as clinical lectures (overall: 50.2 %), anatomical lectures (31.2 %), amongst others, differed largely between the EANS member countries. Likewise, satisfaction rates with practical aspects of training such as hands-on surgical experience (overall: 73.9 %), microsurgical training (52.5 %), simulator training (13.4 %), amongst others, were highly country-dependant. In general, 89.1 % of European residents carried out the first surgical procedure under supervision within the first year of training. Supervised lumbar-/cervical spine surgeries were performed by 78.2 and 17.9 % of European residents within 12 and 24 months of training, respectively, and 54.6 % of European residents operate a cranial case within the first 36 months of training. Logistic regression analysis identified countries where residents were much more or much less likely to operate as primary surgeons compared to the European average. The caseload of craniotomies per trainee (overall: 30.6 % ≥10 craniotomies/month) and spinal procedures (overall: 29.7 % ≥10 spinal surgeries/month) varied throughout the countries and was significantly associated with more advanced residency (craniotomy: OR 1.35, 95 % CI 1.18-1.53, p < 0.001; spinal surgery: OR 1.37, 95 % CI 1.20-1.57, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Theoretical and practical aspects of neurosurgical training are highly variable throughout European countries, despite some efforts within the last two decades to harmonize this. Some countries are rated significantly above (and others significantly below) the current European average for several analyzed parameters. It is hoped that the results of this survey should provide the incentive as well as the opportunity for a critical analysis of the local conditions for all training centers, but especially those in countries scoring significantly below the European average.

• MeSH
• akademický sbor normy   MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• kohortové studie MeSH
• kurzy a stáže v nemocnici statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• neurochirurgie výchova   MeSH
• oprávnění k praxi MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• sexuální faktory MeSH
• věkové faktory MeSH
• výuka - hodnocení MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH

INTRODUCTION: The introduction of the European Working Time directive 2003/88/EC has led to a reduction of the working hours with distinct impact on the clinical and surgical activity of neurosurgical residents in training. METHODS: A survey was performed among European neurosurgical residents between 06/2014 and 03/2015. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between responder-specific variables (e.g., age, gender, country, postgraduate year (PGY)) and outcome (e.g., working time). RESULTS: A total of 652 responses were collected, of which n = 532 responses were taken into consideration. In total, 17.5, 22.1, 29.5, 19.5, 5.9, and 5.5 % of European residents indicated to work <40, 40-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, or >80 h/week, respectively. Residents from France and Turkey (OR 4.72, 95 % CI 1.29-17.17, p = 0.019) and Germany (OR 2.06, 95 % CI 1.15-3.67, p = 0.014) were more likely to work >60 h/week than residents from other European countries. In total, 29 % of European residents were satisfied with their current working time, 11.3 % indicated to prefer reduced working time. More than half (55 %) would prefer to work more hours/week if this would improve their clinical education. Residents that rated their operative exposure as insufficient were 2.3 times as likely as others to be willing to work more hours (OR 2.32, 95 % CI 1.47-3.70, p < 0.001). Less than every fifth European resident spends >50 % of his/her working time in the operating room. By contrast, 77.4 % indicate to devote >25 % of their daily working time to administrative work. For every advanced PGY, the likelihood to spend >50 % of the working time in the OR increases by 19 % (OR 1.19, 95 % CI 1.02-1.40, p = 0.024) and the likelihood to spend >50 % of the working time with administrative work decreases by 18 % (OR 0.84, 95 % CI 0.76-0.94, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this survey on >500 European neurosurgical residents clearly prove that less than 40 % conform with the 48-h week as claimed by the WTD2003/88/EC. Still, more than half of them would chose to work even more hours/week if their clinical education were to improve; probably due to subjective impression of insufficient training.

• MeSH
• akademický sbor MeSH
• chirurgové statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• kurzy a stáže v nemocnici statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• neurochirurgie výchova   statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• operační sály pracovní síly   organizace a řízení   MeSH
• oprávnění k praxi MeSH
• pracovní uspokojení MeSH
• pracovní zátěž statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• sexuální faktory MeSH
• věkové faktory MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH

INTRODUCTION: Substantial country differences in neurosurgical training throughout Europe have recently been described, ranging from subjective rating of training quality to objective working hours per week. The aim of this study was to analyse whether these differences translate into the results of the written and oral part of the European Board Examination in Neurological Surgery (EBE-NS). METHODS: Country-specific composite scores for satisfaction with quality of theoretical and practical training, as well as working hours per week, were obtained from an electronic survey distributed among European neurosurgical residents between June 2014 and March 2015. These were related to anonymous country-specific results of the EBE-NS between 2009 and 2016, using uni- and multivariate linear regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of n = 1025 written and n = 63 oral examination results were included. There was a significant linear relationship between the country-specific EBE-NS result in the written part and the country-specific composite score for satisfaction with quality of theoretical training [adjusted regression coefficient (RC) -3.80, 95 % confidence interval (CI) -5.43-7 -2.17, p < 0.001], but not with practical training or working time. For the oral part, there was a linear relationship between the country-specific EBE-NS result and the country-specific composite score for satisfaction with quality of practical training (RC 9.47, 95 % CI 1.47-17.47, p = 0.021), however neither with satisfaction with quality of theoretical training nor with working time. CONCLUSION: With every one-step improvement on the country-specific satisfaction score for theoretical training, the score in the EBE-NS Part 1 increased by 3.8 %. With every one-step improvement on the country-specific satisfaction score for practical training, the score in the EBE-NS Part 2 increased by 9.47 %. Improving training conditions is likely to have a direct positive influence on the knowledge level of trainees, as measured by the EBE-NS. The effect of the actual working time on the theoretical and practical knowledge of neurosurgical trainees appears to be insignificant.

• MeSH
• kurzy a stáže v nemocnici normy   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• neurochirurgické výkony výchova   normy   MeSH
• neurochirurgie výchova   normy   MeSH
• osobní uspokojení * MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH