The effect of international teleradiology attending radiologist coverage on radiology residents' perceptions of night call.

Full Abstract

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of international teleradiology attending radiologist coverage (ITARC) of emergency examinations on radiology residents' perceptions of night call.

METHODS:
A survey was administered at 2 different radiology residency programs that have attending radiologists who cover the night shift via teleradiology from Israel 5 nights per week. The survey consisted of 12 questions concerning residents' education and anxiety during on-call shifts and the effects of ITARC on these aspects of residency training. The questions were answered on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 3 being neutral.

RESULTS:
The radiology residents felt that ITARC improved the on-call learning experience (score = 3.7; 1 = much worse, 5 = much improved). The residents felt neutral about the statements "Review of cases with the attending radiologist over the telephone is comparable educationally to having the attending radiologist in person at the workstation" (score = 3.0) and "Having an attending radiologist easily available diminishes the need for me to commit to a diagnosis on my own and is therefore detrimental to my education" (score = 2.9; 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). The residents' stress levels on call were high without ITARC (score = 1.8; 1 = very high, 5 = very low) and moderate with ITARC (score = 2.7). The residents' anxiety levels before a night on call were moderate without ITARC (score = 2.9; 1 = very high, 5 = very low) and low with ITARC (score = 3.7).

CONCLUSIONS:
Radiology residents felt that ITARC improved their educational experience. International teleradiology attending radiologist coverage also decreased radiology residents' stress and anxiety related to on-call shifts.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Joffe, Sandor A (SA); Burak, Jarett S (JS); Rackson, Marlene (M); Klein, Devon A (DA); Joffe, Marshall M (MM);

Affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY 10003, USA. sjoffe(-atsign-)chpnet.org

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR (J Am Coll Radiol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Nov; vol 3 (issue 11) : pp 872-8

Dates: Created 2007/04/06; Completed 2007/08/21;

PMID: 17412187, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aftercare - statistics & numerical data
Attitude of Health Personnel
Efficiency, Organizational
Internship and Residency - statistics & numerical data
Israel

Israel
Personnel Staffing and Scheduling - statistics & numerical data
Radiology - education; statistics & numerical data
Teleradiology - statistics & numerical data
Workload - statistics & numerical data

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.