Association between patient care ownership and personal or environmental factors among medical trainees: a multicenter cross-sectional study

Background Patient care ownership (PCO) is crucial to enhancing accountability, clinical skills, and medical care quality among medical trainees. Despite its relevance, there is limited information on the association of personal or environmental factors with PCO, and thus, authors aimed to explore this association. Methods In 2021, the authors conducted a multicentered cross-sectional study in 25 hospitals across Japan. PCO was assessed by using the Japanese version of the PCO Scale (J-PCOS). To examine the association between personal (level of training, gender, and department) or environmental factors (hospital size, hospital type, medical care system, number of team members, number of patients receiving care, mean working hours per week, number of off-hour calls per month, and perceived level of the workplace as a learning environment) and PCO after adjusting for clustering within hospitals, the authors employed a linear mixed-effects model. Results The analysis included 401 trainees. After adjusting for clustering within hospitals, it was confirmed that the senior residents had significantly better J-PCOS total scores (adjusted mean difference: 8.64, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.18-11.09) than the junior residents and the perceived level of the workplace as a learning environment had a positive association with J-PCOS total scores (adjusted mean difference per point on a global rating of 0-10 points: 1.39, 95% CI: 0.88-1.90). Trainees who received calls after duty hours had significantly higher J-PCOS total scores than those who did not (adjusted mean difference: 2.51, 95% CI: 0.17-4.85). There was no clear trend in the association between working hours and PCO. Conclusions Seniority and the perceived level of the workplace as a learning environment are associated with PCO. An approach that establishes a supportive learning environment and offers trainees a reasonable amount of autonomy may be beneficial in fostering PCO among trainees. The study findings will serve as a useful reference for designing an effective postgraduate clinical training program for PCO development.