C. E. Welch1, N. A. Royall1 1The University of Oklahoma,Department Of Surgery, School Of Community Medicine,Tulsa, OKLAHOMA, USA
Introduction:
A personal communication revolution has occurred with the advent of personal cellular phones and computers. Many individuals have adopted these personal communication modalities, while healthcare applications have not been clearly defined. Although surgical residents are required to develop healthcare-specific communication skills, the role of modern communication modalities has not been addressed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current state of communication amongst resident physicians within a General Surgery training program. A secondary objective was to evaluate if communication modalities have an association with resident well-being.
Methods:
A prospective study was performed of General Surgery resident physicians at a single academic institution. A survey instrument was designed and distributed to evaluate resident usage of in-person, traditional phone calls, traditional paging, text messaging, and smartphone-based application messaging. The survey included an assessment of communication modality impact on burnout using the Well-Being Index with a validated cutoff of at least 5.
Results:
We received 16 responses from the 20 surveyed residents (80%). All respondents reported owning a smartphone with 31% (5 of 16) not personally paying for smartphone data plans. 63% (10 of 16) reported a smartphone-related monthly data limit, of which 25% (4 of 10) reported exceeding within the previous year. Respondents reported a trend towards increased usage of traditional phone calls (75%), traditional paging (75%), text messaging (75%), and in-person (63%) compared to smartphone-based application messaging (19%). Residents reported no difference between healthcare and non-work settings, except for a lower usage of traditional paging (75% vs 13%; p < 0.001). Residents ranked the most preferred communication modalities for healthcare setting as in-person (81%), traditional phone calls (50%), text messaging (37.5%), traditional paging (25%), and smartphone-based application messaging (6%). In contrast, residents ranked the least preferred communication modality as smartphone-based application messaging (94%), traditional paging (56%), text messaging (31%), in-person (13%), and traditional phone call (6%). Residents most commonly reported the highest frequency communication modality for communication with other residents and with surgery attendings as text messaging (100% and 81%). Traditional paging was most commonly used with non-surgery attendings (56.3%) and traditional phone calls with nursing and other healthcare professionals (87.5%). Residents reported a low association of communication modality with respect to burnout (6.7%).
Conclusion:
Several personal communication modalities have become integrated into General Surgery resident healthcare communication. This study demonstrates a need for improved training on appropriate usage of communication modalities within modern General Surgery resident training programs.