Patient Perspectives on Resident Involvement in Plastic Surgery

The objective of this study is to understand how patients at a large academic hospital perceive the training levels of residents and attendings and their perspectives on resident involvement in surgery.

This is a cross-sectional survey-based study.

Patients who received care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were asked to respond to our anonymous electronic survey via email.

There were 3370 patients who underwent plastic surgery within the last 3 years at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were asked to participate. Eight hundred thirty-seven surveys were returned, representing a 24.8% response rate.

There were 58.7% of the patients that were confident that a resident has completed medical school. There were 58.4% that report that they usually know if a resident will be assisting their surgeon in the OR, but 86.3% agree that they would like to know if a resident will be involved in their surgery. There were 76.3% that are comfortable with a resident performing parts of their surgery as long as their surgeon is ready to take over if needed.

Patient understanding of a resident physician's education and abilities remains low. There is a discrepancy between the number of patients who would like to know if a resident will be involved in their surgery versus the number who are actually told if a resident will be involved.