NESS - ‘Join the Club’: Impact of Resident and Attending Social Interactions on Overall Satisfaction Among 4,390 General Surgery Residents

‘Join the Club’: Impact of Resident and Attending Social Interactions on Overall Satisfaction Among 4,390 General Surgery Residents
*Michael C Sullivan¹, *Emily Bucholz¹, *Heather Yeo¹, Sanziana A. Roman¹, *Richard H. Bell, Jr.², Julie Ann Sosa¹
¹Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT;²The American Board of Surgery, Philadelphia, PA

Objective: Collegial social interactions are important for job satisfaction. There is a paucity of research describing which residents develop successful social relationships with attending surgeons, and how these relationships affect overall residency satisfaction.
Design: Cross-sectional national survey
Setting: 248 residency programs
Participants: All U.S categorical general surgery residents
Intervention: NEARS survey. Demographics and level of agreement regarding resident training experiences were collected.
Outcome measures: Survey item: “How often do you do things with your attendings on a social level?” was evaluated by resident/program characteristics, and correlated to: “Overall, I am very satisfied with my program.” Statistical analysis included chi-square and hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM).
Results: 4,390 residents were included (82.4% survey response rate). Residents who were older (p=.011), more advanced in training (p<.001), men (p=.003), married (p=.015), and had children (p=.001) were most likely to socialize with attendings. Program characteristics associated with social interactions included smaller size (p<.001), community programs (p<.001) and those without fellowships (p<.001). In HGLM, postgraduate years 3, 4, and 5 were independently associated with social interactions. Larger program size (5-6 chief residents, p=.004; 7+ chief residents, p<.001), programs with an associated fellowship (p=.013), and female gender (p=.036) demonstrated a negative correlation. Residents who did not socialize with attendings were three-times more likely to express dissatisfaction with their overall residency experience (18.9% vs. 6.2%, p<.001). In HGLM, social interaction with attendings was independently associated with overall program satisfaction among men (p<.001, OR:4.9) and women (p<.001, OR:2.9).
Conclusions: Social interactions between residents and attendings are important, as they are associated with residency satisfaction. Efforts should be made to expand such interactions to junior and female residents, programs with fellowships, and larger programs.

Back to 2011 Program