Neurocritical Care Training for the Neurosurgery Resident

Introduction: Recent data has associated favorable outcomes in patients who were treated in a “semi-closed” intensive care unit and attended to by a devoted team of neurointensivists as opposed to the neurosurgeons. This has led many to question the need for dedicated critical care education in the neurosurgical residency training program. Our aim was to determine what current neurosurgery residents and program directors/chairman thoughts were on NCC education in neurosurgical resident training, and to discuss possible methods to allow for collaboration between the NCC team and the neurosurgeons. Methods: Surveys were sent out electronically to all residency programs. Thirty-nine responses from junior residents, 36 responses from senior/chief residents, and eight responses from program directors/chairman were obtained. Results: No statistical difference between the majority responses of the different level residents and between program directors/chairman and combined resident responses. Conclusions: Clearly, neurosurgery residents of all levels and program directors/chairman value NCC education and see a valuable role for this knowledge in their future. Most residents, however, do not want to spend an additional year of fellowship training to become certified neurointensivists. We discuss the role of NCC education in residency training and possible solutions to allow collaboration between the NCC team and the neurosurgical team.