Impact of Bedside Rounding on Attending Teaching Evaluations

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Practice Management
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Teaching attendings utilize various rounding strategies, including bedside rounding (BSR) and other rounding strategies (ORS).
• Resident evaluations are crucial for assessing attending teaching effectiveness and identifying areas for improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between BSR and ORS and resident evaluations of teaching attendings.
• To explore self-reported attending characteristics that may influence rounding strategy selection.

Main Methods:

• Faculty from three academic medical centers completed surveys on personal and rounding characteristics.
• Survey data were linked with deidentified resident teaching evaluation scores.
• Rounding strategies were categorized as BSR (>50% time in patient rooms) or ORS (>50% time in hallways/conference rooms).

Main Results:

• No significant differences in resident evaluation scores were found between BSR and ORS.
• Composite scores were similar for both rounding strategies (difference <0.1 on a 10-point scale).
• No statistically significant correlation was observed between rounding strategy and evaluation scores.

Conclusions:

• Bedside rounding does not significantly affect resident evaluations of teaching attendings.
• Resident perception of teaching effectiveness should not be a factor in adopting or rejecting BSR.