• Courtney J Balentine, Funmi Ayanbule, Paul Haidet, John Rogers, Britta Thompson, Tai Chang, Irwin Horwitz, Ellen Tseng, and David H Berger.
• Michael E DeBakey Veterans Affairs Hospital, Houston, TX, USA. cb131098@bcm.tmc.edu
• Am. J. Surg. 2010 Nov 1;200(5):624-7.

BackgroundStudents may become less adept at developing strong patient-physician relationships during medical school. We evaluated whether students choosing careers in surgery show a similar negative trend.MethodsScores from 2 validated measurements of medical personality were compared using repeated-measures analysis of variance. The Patient Provider Orientation Scale (PPOS) assesses whether students are more patient-centered or paternalistic, and the Physician Reaction to Uncertainty Scale (PRUS) measures willingness to disclose uncertainty.ResultsFrom 1998 to 2005, 236 students completed the PPOS and PRUS in the first and third year of medical school. Surgical students remained patient-centered in their first and third year of medical school (mean PPOS, 4.5 vs 4.54, respectively; P < .348). In addition, they became more willing to disclose uncertainty (mean PRUS improved from 25.5 to 23.8; P < .002).ConclusionsStudents choosing careers in surgery maintain or improve upon personality traits that are important for developing strong patient-physician relationships.Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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