Attending physicians’ attitudes towards physical exam and bedside teaching

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Medical education has experienced a gradual shift away from traditional bedside attending rounds, from 75% of rounds occurring at bedside in the 1960s to about 30% today. Aim: To examine attending physicians' attitudes towards bedside teaching and physical exam. Methods: Anonymous survey of medical attendings in six academic hospitals. Results: 77% of respondents (n=97) completed the survey. The vast majority (89%) of attendings concurred that physical diagnosis skills are essential, felt that more emphasis on bedside teaching is needed (77%), and believed that bedside teaching should be a priority (71%). Additionally, 87% reported that bedside rounds are important to patient care. Yet, only 31% reported conducting teaching rounds at bedside. Finally, only 5% of attendings trained outside the US expressed fear of poor teaching performance in front of house staff, compared with US trained attendings (28%, p=0.023). Conclusion: Physicians are spending less and less time at the bedside, particularly those trained within the United States. At a time when the U.S. healthcare system is struggling to meet the increasing demand of escalating costs and declining patient satisfaction, the return to bedside teaching may be a surprisingly simple and untapped solution.