Teaching anaesthesia to new starters

It is important that novices are shown good practice from the start of their careers. If trainees are not taught the correct way to do things they will develop bad habits that it is difficult to get them to change later in their career. This chapter is in many ways the most controversial of this book because it represents a very personal view. Some will disagree fundamentally with some of the advice offered, and undoubtedly there are good alternative approaches to the problems discussed here. In defence of what I have written I can only offer that it comes from nearly three decades of teaching novice anaesthetists, observing their difficulties and searching for ways to minimise the many pitfalls that await them as they move to independent practice.