A National Survey of Turkish Emergency Residents’ Perspectives Regarding Rotation Effectiveness

Abstract

Background: Clinical rotations are an important part of emergency medicine residency training. We aim to investigate the opinions of emergency medicine residents on rotations in their departments.
Methods: A survey was distributed to all emergency medicine residents at university and training hospitals between June 2011 and October 2011.
Results: A total of 480 emergency residents, 218 (45.4%) from training hospitals and 262 (54.6%) from university hospitals, were surveyed. Of the participants, 331 (68.9%) were male, and the mean resident age was 31.23±4.39 years. The contribution level of rotations to a resident’s education was calculated as 4.51±2.42 using a visual analog scale. Residents rated cardiology (25.8%) and anesthesia (25.2%) rotations the most effective, while the least effective rotation was obstetrics and gynecology (1.2%). Emergency residents evaluated the question “Is the duration of rotations adequate?” as 5.92±2.80 using a visual analog scale. 206 (55.4%) of the emergency residents desired for additional rotation as international emergency medicine clinics (50.5%), national emergency medicine clinics (17.2%), and thoracic surgery (13.2%). Of the participants, 50.9% thought that clinical rotations should be better controlled.
Conclusion: The contribution level of rotations to residents’ education was low, and, cardiology and anesthesia aside, rotations showed no significant effect on residents’ education. When comparing the opinions of emergency medicine residents at university and training hospitals, some differences were found, but generally, they had similar opinions on the effectiveness of rotations in enhancing their educations.