Resident scores on a patient satisfaction survey: evidence for maintenance of communication skills throughout residency

To examine whether resident communication skills evaluated through patient satisfaction surveys demonstrate evidence of decline through the 3 years of internal medicine residency. Data for this study were collected retrospectively from a database of patient satisfaction surveys completed for internal medicine residents at different levels of training. Patient satisfaction was measured with the Aggregated EVGFP (excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor) questionnaire recommended by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Over a span of 5 years (2005-2009), a total of 768 patient rating forms were completed for 67 residents during their 3 years of residency training. In postgraduate year (PGY)-1, the residents had a mean satisfaction rating of 4.33 ± 0.48 compared to a mean rating of 4.37 ± 0.45 in their PGY-3 year. Analysis of variance indicated no significant difference by PGY level. Our findings demonstrate that resident communication skills and patient satisfaction do not decline during the 3 years of residency. This is contrary to our hypothesis that patient satisfaction would worsen as residents progressed through training.