Development of obstetric anesthesia core competencies for USA residency programs through a Delphi process.

Purpose: The standard for anesthesia residency training in the USA mainly relies on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome Project, a framework that lacks specific directives for subspecialties including obstetric anesthesia. We aimed to identify core competencies in obstetric anesthesiology that can be adapted to different residency training programs to help improve the quality of training and accountability of the institutions within the USA.

Methods: We identified a preliminary list of competencies from review of existing competency-based obstetric anesthesia training curricula and practice guidelines.