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Objective: To characterize differences between parents' and surgeons' expectations regarding the degree to which pediatric attending surgeons should be involved during various points within a case.
Design: One-time survey.
Setting: University teaching hospital.
Patients: Surveys were offered to a convenience sample of parents whose children underwent surgery at our institution during the four-week study period. 107 parents consented, while 10 parents were approached but refused. The same survey was offered to surgeons and surgical residents during grand rounds. 89 surgeons and residents from general surgery and eight subspecialties consented.
Interventions:
Main Outcome Measures: Likert responses (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) to seven sequential statements of the form "The surgeon should be present and scrubbed for [a specific point during the case]” (e.g. patient intubation) and two unique statements ("The surgeon should be present and scrubbed for the entirety of the case" and "A surgeon's schedule should never include concurrent or overlapping cases").
Results: Average parent responses ranged from 4.15 to 4.89, while average surgeon responses ranged from 2.75 to 4.86. Differences between parent and surgeon responses achieved statistical significance for all statements except "The surgeon should be present and scrubbed for the critical components of the case." Statistically significant differences were also seen between responses from attending surgeons vs. surgical residents, and between surgeons who are parents vs. surgeons who are not parents.
Conclusions: Parents expect that the pediatric attending surgeon will be present and scrubbed at every point during a case, while surgeons have looser expectations for points before and after the critical components. This mismatch must be addressed through education and transparency to maintain trust within the parent-physician relationship.