Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Office of Surgical Education, Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Am Surg. 2024 Jun;90(6):1418-1426. doi: 10.1177/00031348241241614. Epub 2024 Mar 23.
The experiences of pager use among trainees across medical specialties is underexplored. The aim of this study was to assess experiences of pager burden and communication preferences among trainees in different specialties.
An online survey was developed to assess perceived pager burden (eg, pager volume, mistake pages, sleep, and off-time interruptions) and communication preferences at a tertiary center in the United States. All residents and fellows were eligible to participate. Responses were grouped by specialty: General surgery [GS], Surgical subspecialty [SS], Medicine, Anesthesiology, and Psychiatry. Multivariable linear regression was used to assess factors associated with pager burden. Free text responses were analyzed using open coding methods.
Of the total 306 responses, the majority were female (58.8%), 30-39 years (59.2%), and White (70.6%). Specialty breakdown was: Medicine (40.2%), Psychiatry (10.8%), SS (18.0%), GS (5.6%), and Anesthesiology (3.6%). GS respondents reported receiving more mistake pages ( < .001), spending more time redirecting mistake pages ( = .003), and having the highest sleep time disruptions ( < .001). For urgent communications, surgical trainees preferred physical pagers, while nonsurgical trainees preferred smartphone pagers ( = .001). "Receive fewer nonurgent pages" was the most common change respondents desired.
In this single center study, subjective experiences of pager burden were disproportionately high among GS trainees. Reducing nonurgent and mistake pages are potential targets for improving trainee communication experiences. Hospitals should consider incorporating trainee preferences into paging systems. Additional studies are warranted to increase the sample size, assess generalizability of the findings, and contextualize trainee experiences with objective hospital-level paging data.
医学专业实习生使用寻呼机的经验尚未得到充分探索。本研究旨在评估不同专业实习生使用寻呼机的负担和沟通偏好。
在美国的一家三级中心，我们开发了一项在线调查，以评估感知寻呼机负担（例如寻呼机数量、错误页面、睡眠和非工作时间中断）和沟通偏好。所有住院医师和研究员都有资格参与。根据专业将回答分为以下几类：普通外科[GS]、外科亚专业[SS]、内科、麻醉科和精神科。多变量线性回归用于评估与寻呼机负担相关的因素。使用开放式编码方法对自由文本回复进行分析。
在总共 306 份回复中，大多数为女性（58.8%），年龄在 30-39 岁之间（59.2%），为白人（70.6%）。专业细分如下：内科（40.2%）、精神科（10.8%）、SS（18.0%）、GS（5.6%）和麻醉科（3.6%）。GS 受访者报告收到更多错误页面（<0.001），花费更多时间重定向错误页面（=0.003），睡眠时间中断最高（<0.001）。对于紧急通讯，外科实习生更喜欢物理寻呼机，而非外科实习生更喜欢智能手机寻呼机（=0.001）。“接收较少的非紧急页面”是受访者最希望改变的地方。
在这项单中心研究中，GS 实习生的寻呼机负担的主观体验不成比例地高。减少非紧急和错误页面是改善实习生沟通体验的潜在目标。医院应考虑将实习生的偏好纳入寻呼系统。需要进一步研究以增加样本量，评估研究结果的可推广性，并根据客观的医院级寻呼数据来了解实习生的体验。
