Background: To assess the perception about anesthesia and role of anesthesiologists among lay communities, as anesthesiology has been considered as behind the scene specialty and image of anesthesiologist has always been problem.

Design: Self-structured questionnaire evaluation

Methods: This prospective questionnaire based study was conducted in SKIMS-Soura among 150 randomly selected patients, admitted for elective surgeries.

Results: Mean age was 25.33 years and majority of them were females. 81% of respondents knew that anesthesiologist is a doctor and 49.5% knew that anesthesiology is a different specialty; there was significant association between education level of respondents and this response. Of the respondents 77% felt that that anesthesiologist was easy to talk and pleasant by the bedside. Only 37.3% of respondents considered some role of anesthetist in postoperative period. 31% of respondents only were satisfied with explanation of anesthesiologists regarding method of procedure, options and possible complications.

Conclusion: Patients still have inadequate knowledge regarding anesthesia services and role of anesthesiologists.

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Dr Ajaiz Rasool

Senior Resident, Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura Srinagar Kashmir, India