Resident autonomy plays a vital role in the development of a surgical resident. A retrospective study was conducted to analyze gender differences in meaningful autonomy given to general surgery trainees intraoperatively. Attending surgeons completed post-operative evaluations based on the Zwisch model (4-point scale, ≥3 indicating meaningful autonomy). Attending faculty members (males: 37, females: 15) completed evaluations of 35 residents (males: 18, females: 17). In total, 3,574 evaluations were analyzed (males: 2,194, females: 1,380 female) over a period of 28 months. On multivariate analysis, it was found that case complexity, post graduate year level and rater gender were significantly associated with meaningful autonomy. There was no impact of resident gender and faculty experience on meaningful autonomy. The results of this study are in contrast to the published literature and indicate that resident gender do not influence meaningful autonomy. These findings may be encouraging to surgical programs that look out for strategies to address gender bias.

Source: Am J Surg. 2020 Feb;219(2):240-244.