Parents’ vs surgeons’ expectations during concurrent pediatric surgery

Editor's Note

In this study, a significant mismatch was found between parents’ and pediatric surgeons’ expectations on the role of the surgeon on the day of surgery, with parents expecting more direct involvement by the attending surgeon.

A total of 110 parents and 84 pediatric surgeons and surgical residents completed a 5-point Likert-style survey to characterize expectations on the degree of involvement by pediatric attending surgeons throughout a surgical case (1=strongly disagree, 3=neutral, 5=strongly agree).

The parents’ responses ranged from 4.15 to 4.89, compared to 2.75 to 4.86 for surgeons.

The discrepancies may have implications for parent and patient satisfaction and surgical and medical education, the authors say.