What’s the Purpose of Rounds? A Qualitative Study Examining the Perceptions of Faculty and Students.

Link to article at PubMed

What's the Purpose of Rounds? A Qualitative Study Examining the Perceptions of Faculty and Students.

J Hosp Med. 2017 Nov;12(11):892-897

Authors: Hulland O, Farnan J, Rabinowitz R, Kearns L, Long M, Monash B, Bhansali P, Fromme HB

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Rounds are a critical activity on any inpatient service, but there is little literature describing the purpose of rounds from the perspective of faculty and trainees in teaching hospitals.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and compare the perceptions of pediatric and internal medicine attendings and medical students regarding the purpose of inpatient attending rounds.
METHODS: The authors conducted 10 semistructured focus groups with attendings and medical students in the spring of 2014 at 4 teaching hospitals. The protocol was approved by the institutional review boards at all institutions. The authors employed a grounded theory approach to data collection and analysis, and data were analyzed by using the constant- comparative method. Two transcripts were read and coded independently by 2 authors to generate themes.
RESULTS: Forty-eight attendings and 31 medical students participated in the focus groups. We categorized 218 comments into 4 themes comprised of 16 codes representing what attendings and medical students believed to be the purpose of rounds. These themes included communication, medical education, patient care, and assessment.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight that rounds serve 4 purposes, including communication, medical education, patient care, and assessment. Importantly, both attendings and students agree on what they perceive to be the many purposes of rounds. Despite this, a disconnect appears to exist between what people believe are the purposes of rounds and what is happening during rounds.

PMID: 29091976 [PubMed - in process]

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