It depends on your perspective: Resident satisfaction with operative experience.

INTRODUCTION: Resident satisfaction is a key performance metric for surgery programs; we studied factors influencing resident satisfaction in operative cases, and the concordance of faculty and resident perceptions on these factors.

METHODS: Resident and faculty were separately queried on satisfaction immediately following operative cases. Statistical significance of the associations between resident and faculty satisfaction and case-related factors were tested by Chi-square or Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS: Residents and faculty were very satisfied in 56/87 (64%) and 36/87 (41%) of cases respectively. Resident satisfaction was associated with their perceived role as surgeon (p < 0.04), performing >50% of the case (p < 0.01), autonomy (p < 0.03), and PGY year 4-5(p < 0.02). Faculty taking over the case was associated with both resident and faculty dissatisfaction. Faculty satisfaction was associated with resident preparation (p < 0.01), faculty perception of resident autonomy (p < 0.01), and faculty familiarity with resident's skills (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: Resident and faculty satisfaction are associated with the resident's competent performance of the case, suggesting interventions to optimize resident preparation for a case or faculty's ability to facilitate resident autonomy will improve satisfaction with OR experience.