Department of Ophthalmology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Nov 26;14(11):e0225627. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225627. eCollection 2019.
There is a high level of interest in international experiences during United States (U.S.) ophthalmology residency training among both program directors and trainees.
An electronic invitation to a 26-question survey was sent to all 114 U.S. ophthalmology residency program directors. The invitation requested that the survey be completed by the one faculty member who was most involved in overseeing the international experiences for the residents. The survey consisted of multiple choice and Likert-type scale questions. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for analysis of demographic data and Friedman's test and Wilcoxon-Signed Rank test were used to analyze ranked responses.
Responses were obtained from 70 faculty mentors representing unique programs, yielding a response rate of 61.4%. The majority of programs that responded (88.6%, n = 62) either offered international ophthalmology experiences for residents or supported residents finding their own experiences to go abroad. International experience participation rate among residents correlated with the number of years the experiences had been offered by the programs (p = 0.001). More than half of the respondents (55.0%, n = 33) felt that the residents benefited more than the hosts during these international experiences. Approximately half of the respondents (51.6%, n = 32) believed that additional training beyond what is covered in the standard curriculum to practice ophthalmology in the U.S. is necessary for practicing ophthalmology in an international setting.
There is high interest and participation in international experiences within U.S. ophthalmology residency programs. This high participation warrants further investigation into the long-term impact of these international experiences and how U.S. residency programs can structure these experiences to maximize the benefits to both the residents and the international host communities.
在美国眼科住院医师培训中，无论是项目主任还是住院医师，都对国际经验非常感兴趣。
向所有 114 名美国眼科住院医师培训项目主任发送了一份包含 26 个问题的电子调查邀请。邀请要求由最参与监督住院医师国际经验的一名教师完成调查。该调查包括多项选择和李克特量表问题。采用 Mann-Whitney U 检验分析人口统计学数据，采用 Friedman 检验和 Wilcoxon 符号秩检验分析排名响应。
从 70 名代表独特项目的教师导师那里获得了回复，回复率为 61.4%。大多数回复的项目（88.6%，n=62）为住院医师提供国际眼科经验或支持住院医师寻找自己的出国经验。住院医师国际经验参与率与项目提供经验的年限相关（p=0.001）。超过一半的受访者（55.0%，n=33）认为住院医师在这些国际经验中比东道主受益更多。大约一半的受访者（51.6%，n=32）认为在美国行医需要接受超出标准课程范围的额外培训，才能在国际环境中行医。
美国眼科住院医师培训项目中对国际经验的兴趣和参与度很高。这种高参与度值得进一步调查这些国际经验的长期影响，以及美国住院医师培训项目如何构建这些经验，以最大限度地提高住院医师和国际东道主社区的利益。
