Multi-professional education reduces surgical resident messaging volume

Mobile messaging devices (MMD) have become common for communication in healthcare with the hope of improving accessibility of clinicians, efficiency, and response time. However, MMDs tend to increase messaging volume, contribute to clinician fatigue, and raise safety concerns. Our hypothesis was that targeted multi-professional education will reduce messaging volume and subjective burden on clinicians.

Data for messages sent and received for PGY 1–5 general surgery residents from April to December 2021 were obtained. A multi-professional group was created, and nursing-led education was delivered to surgical nurses from July to September 2021. Baseline messaging data from April to June 2021 were compared to post-education data obtained from October to December 2021. A two-sample t test was performed with a statistical significance at p ≤ .05. Surgical residents were surveyed for messaging burden, and data were compared between baseline and post-education.

Comparing baseline to post-education messaging data, PGY 1 surgical residents received an average of seven fewer messages per day (22 vs 15, p = .019). Similarly, PGY 1–3 surgical residents received an average of six fewer messages per day (18 vs 13, p = .007). Survey data showed a similar burden perceived between baseline survey in July 2021 (25 residents) and post-education survey in March 2022 (9 residents).

Targeted multi-professional education decreases the volume of messages received by surgical residents, but not a reduction in a subjective burden. Additional solutions are required to realize a meaningful improvement in use from MMDs.