Knowledge regarding anesthesia and anesthesiologist among patients attending pre anesthetic check up in rural tertiary care hospital

Introduction: Anesthesiologist plays an important role in intensive care units, trauma centers, pain clinics, and as a member of resuscitation team all over the world. Due to the lack of public awareness about anesthesia as a medical discipline, many patients assume an anesthesiologist to be an assistant of the surgeon and do not recognize the role played by the anesthesiologist in preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative periods. With the changing health-care environment and advancement in anesthesiology, the patients and general public need to be educated. Aims and Objectives: This study aimed to assess the knowledge of patients regarding anesthesia and anesthesiologist at rural tertiary care hospital. Design: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study done at a rural tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: After approval of the institutional ethical committee, the study was conducted in the form of a questionnaire for patients coming to preanesthetic checkup outpatient department (OPD) for elective surgery. Results: This study involves 602 (312 male; 290 females) for preanesthetic checkup OPD, of whom only 403 (67%) of them recognized anesthesiologists as doctors, while 401 (66.7%) knew that anesthesia is required prior to any surgical procedure and 209 (41.4%) of them knew anesthetists play a role in intraoperative and postoperative patient care. Conclusion: We can conclude that there is unawareness among the rural population regarding the role played by anesthesiologists; hence, initiatives are to be taken for educating the population.