The effect of bedside presentations in the emergency department on patient satisfaction

Due to increasing time constraints, the use of bedside presentations in resident education has declined. We examined whether patient satisfaction in the emergency department is affected when first-year residents present at the bedside with attendings.

We performed an observational, prospective, nonblinded study in the emergency department of a military teaching hospital. We alternately assigned first-year residents to present a convenience sample of 248 patients to the attending physician at the patient's bedside or away from the patient. We measured patient satisfaction by using the Patient Satisfaction Questionaire-18 (PSQ-18), a validated survey instrument that utilizes a Likert scale, and additional nonvalidated survey questions involving Likert and visual analog scales.

While the median PSQ-18 score of 74 (95% confidence interval [CI], 72-76) was higher for patient satisfaction when residents made bedside presentations than that for standard presentations, 72 (95% CI, 70-74), the difference did not reach statistical significance (P  =  .33).

There was no significant difference in overall patient satisfaction between residents' bedside presentations and presentations to attendings away from the patient. Although not significant, the differences noted in PSQ-18 subscales of communication, general satisfaction, and interpersonal manner warrant further investigation. Patients did not appear to be uncomfortable with having their care discussed and with having subsequent resident education at the bedside. Future research on patient satisfaction after implementation of standardized bedside teaching techniques 5 help further elucidate this relationship.