RESUMO
In order to describe the telephone management of gastroenteritis by family practice residents, audiotapes and transcripts of telephone calls by 31 family practice residents were analysed with respect to clinical content, temporal patterns, and physicians' utterance form. The study hypothesis were that year 3 residents would have shorter calls, take more complete histories, and score better on other performance measures than year 1 residents, but no significant differences were demonstrated in the study. The mean duration of telephone calls was 4.6 minutes. Residents talked three times longer than the caller. History taking completeness was highly correlated with telephone call duration and particularly with time spent talking by the caller. Significant questions, such as asking about hydration status, were frequently omitted. Most questions were closed (84 percent). Time spent talking by the caller was longer, and more listener feedback was given, with year 1 than with year 3 residents.
