{"title":"Is it gossip or feedback? Surgical attendings’ perceptions of gossip within residency","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jsurg.2024.07.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>Gossip—evaluative talk about an absent third party—exists in surgical residency programs. Attending surgeons may engage in gossip to provide residents with feedback on performance, which may contribute to bias. Nevertheless, the perspectives of attending surgeons on gossip has not been studied.</p></div><div><h3>DESIGN</h3><p>In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews about gossip in surgical training were conducted with attending surgeons. We performed a reflexive thematic analysis of transcripts with a grounded theory approach to describe attendings’ perceptions of their role in gossip within surgical residency.</p></div><div><h3>SETTING</h3><p>Interviews were conducted from September 23, 2023, to November 27, 2023 via Zoom™.</p></div><div><h3>PARTICIPANTS</h3><p>Eighteen surgery attendings associated with 7 surgical training programs were interviewed.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS</h3><p>Six themes were developed: 1) Attendings typically view gossip with a negative lens; thus, well-intended conversations about resident performance that meet the academic definition of gossip are not perceived as gossip; 2) Gossip can damage attendings’ reputations as surgeons and educators; 3) Mitigating the negative impacts of gossip by maintaining accurate and objective standards of honest communication is hard; 4) Attendings express concerns about hearing other attendings’ impressions of residents prior to formulating their own opinion; 5) The surgical hierarchy restricts the volume and content of gossip that reaches attendings, which may limit their knowledge of program culture; and 6) It is very difficult to mitigate gossip at the program level. Ultimately, attendings utilize gossip (e.g. triangulating their experience) with the goal of providing residents feedback.</p></div><div><h3>CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>Defining important conversations about resident performance as gossip should not discourage these critically important conversations but rather underscore the importance of combating harmful gossip through 3 behaviors: 1) committing to objective communication; 2) limiting or reframing information about resident performance that is shared with attendings who have yet to formulate their own opinions; and 3) regulating gossip in particular high-stakes microenvironments (e.g. the operating room).</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50033,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Surgical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Surgical Education","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931720424003209","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
Gossip—evaluative talk about an absent third party—exists in surgical residency programs. Attending surgeons may engage in gossip to provide residents with feedback on performance, which may contribute to bias. Nevertheless, the perspectives of attending surgeons on gossip has not been studied.
DESIGN
In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews about gossip in surgical training were conducted with attending surgeons. We performed a reflexive thematic analysis of transcripts with a grounded theory approach to describe attendings’ perceptions of their role in gossip within surgical residency.
SETTING
Interviews were conducted from September 23, 2023, to November 27, 2023 via Zoom™.
PARTICIPANTS
Eighteen surgery attendings associated with 7 surgical training programs were interviewed.
RESULTS
Six themes were developed: 1) Attendings typically view gossip with a negative lens; thus, well-intended conversations about resident performance that meet the academic definition of gossip are not perceived as gossip; 2) Gossip can damage attendings’ reputations as surgeons and educators; 3) Mitigating the negative impacts of gossip by maintaining accurate and objective standards of honest communication is hard; 4) Attendings express concerns about hearing other attendings’ impressions of residents prior to formulating their own opinion; 5) The surgical hierarchy restricts the volume and content of gossip that reaches attendings, which may limit their knowledge of program culture; and 6) It is very difficult to mitigate gossip at the program level. Ultimately, attendings utilize gossip (e.g. triangulating their experience) with the goal of providing residents feedback.
CONCLUSIONS
Defining important conversations about resident performance as gossip should not discourage these critically important conversations but rather underscore the importance of combating harmful gossip through 3 behaviors: 1) committing to objective communication; 2) limiting or reframing information about resident performance that is shared with attendings who have yet to formulate their own opinions; and 3) regulating gossip in particular high-stakes microenvironments (e.g. the operating room).
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Surgical Education (JSE) is dedicated to advancing the field of surgical education through original research. The journal publishes research articles in all surgical disciplines on topics relative to the education of surgical students, residents, and fellows, as well as practicing surgeons. Our readers look to JSE for timely, innovative research findings from the international surgical education community. As the official journal of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS), JSE publishes the proceedings of the annual APDS meeting held during Surgery Education Week.