Responses to simulated anaesthetic emergencies by anaesthetists with different durations of clinical experience.

We have compared the responses of four groups of anaesthetists, with different durations of clinical experience, to nine different simulated emergencies. Five anaesthetists in each group completed each of the nine simulated emergencies. Anaesthetists with less than 1 yr experience performed less well than the three other groups of anaesthetists (chi-square, P < 0.02). However, all groups made serious errors in both diagnosis and treatment, and accepted treatment guidelines were not followed. We have shown that a simple, inexpensive simulator can be used to evaluate the performance of anaesthetists of different durations of clinical experience.