How Do Patients Really Feel About Residents and Students?

An article written by Dr. Ergun Kocak was published on Kevindmd.com.

Currently, I work in private practice based mostly out of community and specialty hospitals. I spend most of my time working with a small team consisting of my partner (Dr. Tiwari), our Physician Assistant (Maggie), our office manager (Lauren), and our clinical navigator (Jordan). Each week is remarkably similar to the last one, with each member of the team plays a vital role in keeping the practice running efficiently and successfully.

But my life wasn’t always entirely this consistent. Before entering private practice, I spent several years working in an academic, university-based system where I had the pleasure and honor of teaching students, residents, and fellows in addition to surgery and research. While I generally appreciated having these eager learners at my side, I was unsure how patients felt about their presence and involvement.

To better understand exactly how patients feel about students’ presence, we carried out a survey-based study in academic and non-academic plastic surgeons’ offices. The results were quite surprising.

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