title: Patients' understanding of the roles of interns, residents, and attending physicians in the emergency department.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess patients' knowledge of the responsibilities and roles of physician training in the ED.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a prospective survey of a convenience sample of 345 adult patients and family members in an academic county ED. Thirty questions addressed the different roles, responsibilities, and hierarchies of physician levels of training. Four opinion-based questions assessed patients' willingness to have physicians-in-training care for them.
  
  
  RESULTS
  96.5% of the surveys were returned. Of the participants responding, 68% were Hispanic, 23% were non-Hispanic white, and 55% were women. Forty percent of the participants indicated that they had education greater than a high school diploma. Most participants answered fewer than 50% of the questions correctly, indicating that they did not understand the levels of physician training. Participants with higher education were more likely to know the correct answer. Seventy-nine percent of the participants believed that it is very important to know the level of training of their physicians. However, only 34% of the participants actually thought they knew the training level of their physicians when they were being treated. Twenty-nine percent of the participants did not want learning to take place on themselves by physicians-in-training.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants believe that it is important to know their physicians' level of training, but they do not understand the roles and responsibilities of physicians-intraining in the medical training system in which they receive care. In particular, patients who have less than a high school education seem to know least about this system.
authors.affiliation: San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium, Emergency Medicine Residency, Brooke Army Medical Center, TX, USA.
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Hemphill
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Santen
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Rountree
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Szmit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003253:Consultants; D004522:Educational Status; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000458:organization & administration; D007587:Job Description; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education* / Q000458:organization & administration; D010819:Physician's Role; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013781:Texas; D000078329:Workforce