Questions Posed by Residents in the Operating Room: A Thematic Analysis

Questioning behavior is a type of intraoperative communication for which little information exists on the types of questions that residents ask. The purpose of this study is to describe and identify themes of questions asked by residents in the operating room.

Trained observers documented questions asked by residents during operations. Thematic analysis was applied.

University of Utah Hospital (Salt Lake City, Utah) operating rooms; institutional.

A total of 10 general surgical residents (postgraduate year 1 to 5) were observed along with 10 attending general surgeons. Cases were purposefully selected to be broadly representative of general surgery cases.

Thematic saturation occurred following examination of 16 operative cases, which included 178 questions asked by residents. Two broad categories of questions emerged: case-related (71%) and noncase-related (29%), with multiple subcategories within the 2 groups. Case-related subcategories included operative techniques, logistics, patient care, and other. Questions unrelated to the case included subcategories of social, work-related but unrelated to case, other. Less than 1% of questions asked by residents during operations were reflective.

Most questions related to the case were technical and most of those unrelated to the case were social; almost all questions were transactional in nature. Our identification of questioning themes by residents expands understanding of resident questioning behaviors, and therefore may enable residents and faculty to be more effective in establishing entrustment.