Education for the Australian and New Zealand perfusionist.

The certification and education processes for perfusion have played a major role in the success of the cardiovascular perfusion profession over the past 20 years. Now, more than ever, the role of education, both initial and continuing, and the technical base upon which we practice requires updating and expanding to ensure the role of the perfusionist into the future. In Australia and New Zealand, the formal perfusion education system is relatively “new ” as compared to the United States; however, we believe we have created a system that is optimal for our current practice, population and geographical location. Australia with a population of about 20 million, has over 50 cardiac surgery units in 11 cities, with over 23,000 cases performed /year (National Heart foundation survey 1998) (1); whereas, in New Zealand, with a population of over 3 million, over 3,500 cases are performed in their 13 units situated in five cities. Open-heart surgery with perfusion has been performed “down under” since the early 1960s with clinical perfusionists, like their colleagues in many other countries, coming from a variety of backgrounds. This eclectic group were generally self-taught and trained in-house with the only formal certification available being the American Board exams. The disjointed nature of the profession was evident in the late 1970s, when two Australian states, New South Wales and Victoria, had perfusion societies; whereas, the other states and New Zealand had no structured body. This demonstrated a need for a national society. In 1982 the Australasian Society of Cardiovascular Perfusionists, Inc. (ASCVP) (2) was formed at the first Annual Scientific Meeting held in Sydney. Currently, we have 140 full members from Australia and New Zealand, and we have just held our 19th meeting (Abstracts in Issue 4, Vol. 34, JECT). The establishment of a formal education system for the training and ongoing accreditation for clinical perfusionists in Australia and New Zealand was a major objective of the formation of the ASCVP. In 1989, after numerous discussions and the results from a referendum of members of the Society, the Australasian Board of Cardiovascular Perfusion (ABCP) (3) was formed under the auspices of the ASCVP, The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. The Board’s aim was to establish codes of ethics and practice, establish credentialing, and support and maintain perfusion education. The formation of a single board to govern Australia and New Zealand was made easier by the geographical location of each country, both being English language-based, and supporting similar standards of education. The major issue was how this course was to be structured given the low volume of students who would participate at any given time, currently we have 15 students. A traditional model incorporating a post-graduate university degree was deemed to be too expensive; whereas, a central school of perfusion model, with some clear advantages with respect to gaining collective experience and excellence, was not practical because of the large distances between different regions (some in excess of 4,000 km apart). Similarly, state/country-based perfusion schools, were also not feasible, except in the largest centers, such as Sydney, Melbourne, or Auckland. The final solution was to establish a 2-year postgraduate, correspondence course. This course was designed to combine theoretical and practical training in a modular method, provided at an approved hospital and under the guidance of a supervisor. Address correspondence to: Jane Ottens, BSc, CCP, 55 Anzac Highway, Ashford, 5035, South Australia, E-mail: perfusionist@acha.org. au Received December 12, 2002; accepted January 11, 2003. JECT. 2003;35:4–5 The Journal of The American Society of Extra-Corporeal Technology