TABLE 3.
Social care perspectives among PEM fellows and PDs, total and by position type
| Social care perspectives | Total | Fellow | PD | p‐value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best positioned to perform screening in the ED a | — | |||
| Physician | 28 (18) | 20 (18) | 8 (18) | |
| Nurse practitioner or physician assistant | 23 (15) | 14 (13) | 9 (21) | |
| Nurse | 73 (48) | 47 (43) | 26 (59) | |
| Community navigator or social worker | 95 (62) | 65 (60) | 30 (68) | |
| Ancillary staff | 49 (32) | 44 (40) | 5 (11) | |
| Self‐screened | 74 (48) | 56 (51) | 18 (41) | |
| Do not know | 12 (8) | 7 (6) | 5 (11) | |
| Best positioned to make referrals in the ED a | — | |||
| Physician | 30 (20) | 23 (21) | 7 (16) | |
| Nurse practitioner or physician assistant | 23 (15) | 19 (17) | 4 (9) | |
| Nurse | 22 (14) | 18 (17) | 4 (9) | |
| Community navigator or social worker | 140 (92) | 98 (90) | 42 (95) | |
| Ancillary staff | 14 (9) | 12 (11) | 2 (5) | |
| Automated referral platform | 46 (30) | 39 (36) | 7 (16) | |
| Do not know | 5 (3) | 5 (5) | 0 (0) | |
| Comfort asking patients/families questions on social needs b | 0.82 | |||
| Very comfortable/comfortable | 71 (47) | 51 (47) | 20 (45) | |
| Neutral | 35 (23) | 26 (24) | 9 (20) | |
| Somewhat uncomfortable/very uncomfortable | 47 (31) | 32 (29) | 15 (34) | |
| Importance to provide social care in the ED b | 0.43 | |||
| Very important/important | 112 (73) | 83 (76) | 29 (66) | |
| Neutral | 17 (11) | 11 (10) | 6 (14) | |
| Somewhat important/not at all important | 24 (16) | 15 (14) | 9 (20) | |
| Reasons to forgo asking patients about social needs | — | |||
| Someone else does the screening | 23 (15) | 17 (16) | 6 (14) | |
| Patients not interested | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | |
| Worry about stigmatizing patient/family | 14 (9) | 9 (8) | 5 (11) | |
| Not enough time to screen | 69 (45) | 52 (48) | 17 (39) | |
| Not well trained to screen | 24 (16) | 17 (16) | 7 (16) | |
| Not relevant to ED visit | 6 (4) | 3 (3) | 3 (7) | |
| Worry about jeopardizing provider–patient relationship | 4 (3) | 2 (2) | 2 (5) | |
| No community social services/resources available | 4 (3) | 2 (2) | 2 (5) | |
| Other | 9 (6) | 7 (6) | 2 (5) |
Data are reported as n (%).
Abbreviations: PD, program director; PEM, pediatric emergency medicine.
a
Variable is based on check all that apply and therefore, the sum % of response is larger than the sample of the population.
b
Likert scale variables collapsed into three categories.