title: Identification of resident and attending physicians: do parents know who is caring for their hospitalized child?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Correct identification of a physician or resident is an essential first step in developing a good relationship between physicians, patients, and their families. However, many parents are unfamiliar with the individuals responsible for their children's care. This study was conducted to determine how often parents/guardians of hospitalized children could identify the residents and attending physicians caring for their children and what factors they considered important in physician identification.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of the parents/guardians of hospitalized pediatric patients admitted to a university teaching hospital over a 2-month period; we used a self-administered, confidential questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjects were 144 parents/guardians of hospitalized children (100% of subjects asked to participate, 19.3% of all hospitalized children); parents had the following characteristics: mean age, 30 years; 51% Caucasian, 43% African American; 82% female. Physician identification was 76% for attending physicians and 73% for residents. The factors rated as most important to parents were physician introduction (50%-76%), prior relationship (27%-13%), wearing of a white coat (2%-8%), wearing of a name tag (4%-10%), and wearing of a stethoscope (0%-2%). Physician introduction was ranked higher for first hospitalizations. Subsequent hospitalizations increased identification of attending physicians but not residents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicates that up to a quarter of parents could not identify the physician responsible for their children's care during a hospitalization. Improving physician identification may enhance other aspects of physician-family communication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA.
authors.forename: Traci Lynne
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Brewer
authors.forename: Janice D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Key
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: O'Rourke
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires