E. M. Corsini1, J. G. Luc2, K. G. Mitchell1, N. S. Turner1, A. A. Vaporciyan1, M. B. Antonoff1 1University Of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,Thoracic And Cardiovascular Surgery,Houston, TX, USA 2University of British Columbia,Cardiovascular Surgery,Vancouver, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada
Introduction:
To date, several qualitative studies have been conducted assessing the relationships between physicians and registered nurses (RN), with special attention paid to the dynamics between females working together. However, while surgeon demographics have shifted in recent decades to include more women, the female-to-female relationship in the operating room (OR) remains largely unstudied. Furthermore, stereotypical surgeon-specific behavior may stand at odds with societal expectations for appropriate behavior of women. Therefore, we sought to examine biases related to surgeon sex within the environment of the operating room, paying special attention to views of female allied health professionals.
Methods:
We performed a prospective, randomized study in which OR support staff, including RN, surgical technologists (ST), and surgical assistants (SA), were asked to assess questionable surgeon behaviors across a standardized set of five scenarios via online survey. Respondents were randomized to surveys that either described a female or male surgeon, with all other aspects of the survey identical. For each scenario, respondents were asked to identify the behavior as Acceptable; Unacceptable but would ignore; Unacceptable and would confront surgeon directly; or Unacceptable and would report to OR management. Analyses included comparisons of respondents’ assessments of surgeon behaviors with the sexes of both the surgeon and respondents; χ2 was used to identify associations among these variables.
Results:
There were 3,186 responses (response rate=4.5%). 81% of respondents were female, 54% were RN, 55% reported working in the OR for greater than 15 years, 41% were Baby Boomers, and 94% worked in the United States. When evaluating across all scenarios and both surgeon sexes, female respondents were more likely to find the surgeon’s behaviors inappropriate than male respondents (p=0.001), (Figure). Sex of the surgeon did not appear to play a role in the assessment of appropriateness of the surgeon’s behaviors when evaluated across all respondents (p=0.322), male respondents (p=0.980), or female respondents (p=0.265). Similarly, sex of the respondent did not impact the likelihood to report the surgeon, regardless of surgeon sex (p=0.499).
Conclusion:
Our results suggest that ancillary OR staff of either sex do not have an inherent bias towards male or female surgeons when assessing behaviors via survey. However, female OR support staff appear to be more critical in their evaluation of surgeons across both sexes. Future investigations should aim to capture more subtle differences in responses and behaviors in the OR, such as body language, tone of voice, and type of language used.
