An electronic survey was sent to all surgery residents and faculty at 2 Canadian university-affiliated medical centers. The survey consisted of questions regarding expected (residents) or current (faculty) practice patterns.
A total of 149 residents and 125 faculty members completed the survey (50.3%and 52.3%response rates, respectively). A greater proportion of males were in the faculty cohort than in the resident group (77.6%vs 62.4%, p = 0.0003). More faculty than residents believed that work-hour restrictions have a negative impact on both residency education (40.8%vs 20.8%, p = 0.008) and preparation for a surgical career (56.8%vs 19.5%, p < 0.0001). Compared with current faculty, residents plan to take less call (p < 0.0003), work fewer days of the week (p < 0.0001), are more likely to limit their duty hours on postcall days (p = 0.009), and take parental leave (p = 0.02) once in practice. Male and female residents differed somewhat in their responses in that more female residents plan to limit their postcall duty hours (55.4%vs 36.5%, p = 0.009) and to take a parental leave (51.8%vs 16.1%, p < 0.0001) compared with their male resident colleagues.
Current surgical residents expect to adopt components of resident work-hour guidelines into their surgical practices after completing their residency. These practice patterns will have surgical workforce implications and might require larger surgical groups and reconsideration of resource allocation.