Articles: emergency-medicine.
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We surveyed the 66 accredited emergency medicine residency programs in the United States during 1986 on the issue of attending coverage. Responses were received from 411 residents and 288 faculty; this accounted for 42% of the residents and 56% of the faculty from the 56 responding programs. Seventy-three percent of emergency medicine residency programs had 24-hour attending coverage. ⋯ Ninety-five percent of faculty and 71% of residents thought that the quality of patient care was better when faculty were present in the ED (P less than .0001). Sixty-one percent of residents and 60% of faculty did not think that 24-hour attending coverage in academic emergency medicine should be mandated. The impact of night-time attending coverage in emergency medicine residency programs on patient care, resident education, and faculty development is unclear and minimally studied.