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. 2009 Jun 29;9:110. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-9-110

Table 3.

Time proportion of categorized activities of surgical and internal medicine physicians during day shifts

Surgeons Internists Test of group differences (%t)

%t %t MW-U Z p
Direct patient contact 34.1 20.9 100.5 -1.73 .08

Patient communication 8.0 9.8 101.0 -1.72 .09
Diagnostics 5.8 7.7 117.0 -1.19 .23
Therapy 20.3 3.4 96.0 -1.90 .06

Indirect patient contact 56.5 69.4 95.0 -1.91 .06

Documentation 26.8 33.1 103.0 -1.65 .10
Conversation with staff 16.9 21.1 98.0 -1.82 .07
Conversation with others 1.6 2.6 116.0 -1.23 .22
Organizing 1.7 2.9 95.5 -1.91 .06
Meetings 9.5 9.7 146.0 -0.23 .82

Other professional activities .3 1.4 128.0 -1.36 .18

Personal activities 9.1 8.3 141.5 -.38 .70

Note: %t percentage of time spent in observed activity in regard to the overall observation time; significance test (%t): Mann-Whitney U-Test for independent samples (p-two sided significance)