Public Awareness about the Anaesthesiology Profession: A Conference Survey of Campus People, Southwest Nigeria

Introduction: There is little public awareness on the anaesthesiology profession among the Nigerian population. This study aims to determine the level of anaesthesiology profession awareness among the population of tertiary school students, academic and non-academic staff members who were attending a South-western Nigerian zonal conference. Methods: Data obtained from a cross-section of 2,748 students, academic and non-academic staff members of various tertiary institutions in South-western Nigeria were used in this study. The study tool was a self-administered anonymous questionnaire which obtained information on the participants’ demographic profile and knowledge of the anaesthesiology profession. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 16 software. Results: The mean age of the 2,748 respondents was 22.6 years. Roughly half (48.4%) of them were males, 95.0% were singles, 85.7% were from the Yoruba tribe, and 69.1% were students. Only 32.8% of the respondents were aware of the anaesthesiology profession, most of which (35.0%) were aware of the profession through reading books. Furthermore, the most popular anaesthesiologist’s service known by them (i.e. those that were aware of the profession) was intraoperative analgesia (61.6%), while palliative care service was the least known (13.1%). Doctors were found to constitute one of the underutilised sources of information about this profession. Conclusion: The anaesthesiology profession is poorly known among literate Nigerians; therefore, a serious public education is needed in this regard. If people are not well-informed about this profession, they will be at risk of falling into hands of unqualified personnel when they are in need of an anaesthesiologist. Furthermore, doctors need to pay more attention on making the public aware of various medical specialties.