Abstract
Objective and design: Currently, Japan is facing a nationwide shortage of intensivists. To provide some answers on why such shortages exist, we conducted a survey by mailing a questionnaire to young Japanese Intensive Care certified anaesthesiologists, describing their daily practice and attitudes toward the ICU environment. Subjects: A total of 303 anaesthesiologists certified by the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine (JSICM) from the year 1995 onward were evaluated; of these, 175 were members of the Japan Society of Anesthesiologists and aged 45 years and below based on the JSICM database. Questionnaires were sent to these 175 anaesthesiologistintensivists with 90 responses (51.4%) returned. Main results: Of the anaesthesia-based respondents (n =66), only 21.5% were practicing mainly as an intensivist; while 87.5% of ICU-based respondents (n =24) were practicing as an intensivist. The remaining 12.5% were practicing mainly as an anaesthetist. This gave a total of only 38.9% of the respondents practicing as intensivists in ICUs. We also found very low ICU participation rates among the anaesthesiologists, particularly in departments who have chairpersons less enthusiastic toward ICU. Conclusions: Although all respondents in this survey were certified by JSICM, only a small percentage actually practiced ICU full-time but also many "intensive-carecertified" anaesthesiologists did not function as ICU attending staffs. Some of the factors identified for such dismal findings were manpower shortage, lack of appreciation and recognition of intensivists, and insufficient employment opportunities outside the university or teaching hospitals. It was further noted that enthusiasm for ICU work among the respondents paralleled closely their senior consultants' own enthusiasm for ICU.