Patient Perspectives on the Participation of Neurosurgery Resident Physicians in Their Care

Introduction/Purpose: Surgical residents play vital roles in patient care. There is scant literature regarding patient perspectives on neurosurgical residents and their participation in their care. This study investigates the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of patients regarding neurosurgical residents involvement in their healthcare process.

Methods or Case Description: Patients older than 18 years who had undergone elective neurosurgery were requested to complete a survey questionnaire. The 7-point Likert scale response ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” was used. The primary objective assessed patient understanding and attitudes towards resident participation in neurosurgical care of patients over eight months. Data were analyzed using Student’s t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and standard averaging of responses.

Outcomes: This study consisted of fifty-one patients undergoing elective surgery. Subjects ranged between the ages of 46 and 60 years. Most of the responses were similar across gender and age stratification on the Likert scale questionnaire. Overall, when asked to assess their comfort level in participation by residents in their care, patients responded positively (strongly agree: 80.4%; agree: 92.2%). Patients overall disagreed (76%) about residents lacking medical knowledge and (91.5%) when asked if residents were unprofessional. 72.5% of the patients were able to accurately define a resident’s role.

Conclusion: The results indicate that patients had an overall positive attitude regarding residents involved in their care. Patients understood the role that residents played in their care and they were comfortable with them doing so. Further studies may expand the trial to include a larger number of patients, as well as other specialties, to expand the scope of the study. Patient survey questionnaires could be thought of as a useful tool to incorporate as part of the evaluation process of resident physicians.