Effect of Professional Background and Gender on Residents' Perceptions of Leadership.

PURPOSE

To examine the impact of professional background and gender of a resuscitation team leader on residents' perceptions of leadership skills.

METHOD

The authors video-recorded a scripted, simulated resuscitation scenario twice, with either a male or a female team leader. They copied each video and labeled the leader as physician (MD) or nurse practitioner (NP), creating 4 conditions: female NP, female MD, male NP, or male MD. The authors recruited resident participants from 5 specialties at 4 institutions; they randomly assigned residents to view one version of the video and rate the team leader's performance using the Ottawa Crisis Resource Management Global Rating Scale (Ottawa CRM) in an online survey. The authors conducted 2-way ANOVA to examine interactions between team leader gender and profession on Ottawa CRM ratings.

RESULTS

One hundred sixty residents responded (89 females, 71 males). A statistically significant main effect of team leader gender on residents' ratings was found in 2 of the 6 Ottawa CRM domains, leadership (F1,156 = 6.97, P = .009) and communication skills (F1,156 = 8.53, P = .004), due to lower ratings for female than male leaders (5.29 ± 0.95 vs 5.74 ± 1.17; 5.05 ± 1.20 vs 5.57 ± 1.06). There was no effect of profession on ratings and no significant interaction between profession and gender of the team leader on ratings for any of the domains.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate bias among residents against females as team leaders. Mitigating such bias is essential to successfully establish shared leadership models in health care.