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Blogs by David W. Page
Distracting Trainees in the OR 3/13/2013 5:55:09 AM
In a simulated operating room, junior trainees in surgery have been shown to make mistakes when they are distracted. What about your surgeon? The operating room can be a very noisy place. The role of music has been investigated and will appear in another blog. But what about distractions? What happens if the operating surgeon is asked about a patient with a problem on a surgical floor? Or is disturbed by a conversaiotn between the scrub tech and the anesthesiologist about Obaamacare? Or when someone drops an instrument or an alarm goes off?
Turns out rookies in the OR make mistakes when they're distracted. And it occurs often with the real life interruptions mentioned above. These are technical errors and they could have a serious impact on patient outcomes - if the scenario wasn't just a simulation. that's what's so valuable about training outside of the operating room
Research on what happens in the operating room in terms of surgeon behavior has mushroomed recently. Surgeons must pay attention to how errors happpen and why and what they must do to fix the problem. This is in contrast with the good old days when surgeons screamed and shouted and intimidated everyone wihtin miles - just because they were allowed to. This is much like the behaviour of a bully ...which a lot of surgons were in the day.
The good news is that experienced surgeons can handle distractions better than rookies. But we all have to pay attention to the details of the case we are performing. And God forbid the surgeon had a fight with his wife or kids going out the door on the day of your operation.
