The Effect of Emergency Department Overcrowding on Efficiency of Emergency Medicine Residents' Education.
BACKGROUND
Creating a calm and stress-free environment affects education significantly. The effects of the emergency department overcrowding (EDO) on the training of emergency medicine residents (EMR) is a highly debated subject. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of EDO on efficiency of EMR's education.


METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, the effects of overcrowding on EMR's education in the resuscitation room and acute care unit. Data collection was done using a questionnaire, which was filled out by the second year EMRs. The crowding level was calculated based on the national emergency department overcrowding scale (NEDOCS). The relationship between the two studied variables was evaluated using independent sample t-test and SPSS 21 statistical software.


RESULTS
130 questionnaires were filled out during 61 shifts. 47 (77.05%) shifts were overcrowded. The attend's ability to teach was not affected by overcrowding in the resuscitation room (p=0.008). The similar results were seen regarding the attend's training ability in the acute care unit.


CONCLUSIONS
It seems that the emergency department overcrowding has no effect on the quality of education to the EMRs.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Anita
A
Sabzghabaei
Department of Emergency Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Majid
M
Shojaee
Department of Emergency Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Hossein
H
Alimohammadi
Department of Emergency Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Hojjat
H
Derakhshanfar
Department of Emergency Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Parvin
P
Kashani
Department of Emergency Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Shohreh
S
Nassiriabrishamchi
Crowding; education; emergency department; resistance training