Anesthesiology
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Healthcare trainees frequently report facing comments from their patients pertaining to their age. Exposure to ageist comments from patients may be related to greater stress and/or burnout in residents and may impact the quality of the resident-patient relationship. However, little empirical work has examined ageism expressed toward anesthesiology residents in clinical care, and therefore not much is known about how residents respond to these comments in practice. This research sought to determine how anesthesiology residents responded to ageist comments. ⋯ These results provide a first step in understanding how ageism may be navigated by residents in clinical encounters. The authors discuss potential avenues for future research and education for responding to ageist remarks for both patients and clinicians.