J. Legino1, M. Al-Kasspooles1, J. Ashcraft1, J. Valentino1, P. DiPasco1 1University Of Kansas Medical Center,Department Of Surgery,Kansas City, KS, USA
Introduction: Residency programs commonly integrate protected time into their workweek to allow didactic resident education without service related interruptions. Unfortunately, this respite is often willfully interrupted by clinical responsibilities or personal distractions, e.g., texting, that erode the sanctity of protected educational time. The aim of this study is to look at whether resident protected education time is truly protected in the face of unrelenting technological distractions such as pagers, cell phones, and computers.
Methods: This is an observational study of resident behavior during didactic lectures classified as protected learning time. Data was collected on the number of interruptions each resident experienced due to a technology-driven source. Each didactic lecture lasted approximately 1 hour in length.
Setting: Four Weekly Consecutive General Surgery Resident Education Conferences in an Academic Teaching Institution
Participants: General Surgery Residents
Results: In total, 15 residents were included in this study with training levels ranging from PGY1 to PGY5. A cumulative analysis combining the data from all 4 lectures showed that all residents experienced at least 4 interruptions over the course of the 4-lecture series. The maximum number of interruptions experienced by a single resident was 19. Over 4 cumulative sessions, the resident group experienced an average of 10.13 interruptions with 60% of the residents experiencing 8-19 interruptions.
Conclusion: The current model of protected resident education time is not an effective learning model due to the ubiquitous and seemingly irresistible nature of technological diversions. It is our recommendation based on these observations that more stringent measures should be taken to limit technological distractions during protected education time or that institutions abandon the practice of protected time all together. Further studies evaluating the most effective, distraction-free models for resident education are warranted.