Abstract

Distractions and interruptions are an impediment in safe workflow and surgical team performance. Along with human distractions, electronic devices can contribute to failures in communication as well as processes established to improve patient safety. Adverse outcomes in the operating room are not only a result of surgical skill, but a breakdown in systems of communication and teamwork. Distractions affect cognitive clinical decision making. Operating room teams are interrupted or distracted approximately 9.82 times per hour. Staff entering and exiting the room is a primary distractor, followed by telephone calls and beeper pages. There is an average of one communication failure every 7.7 minutes. Breaks in communication are implicated in 88.7% of flow and safety errors.

Author Details

Jennifer Lindsey, DNP(c); Maria Ledbetter, DNAP, CRNA

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Lead Author Affiliation

Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quality Improvement

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Operating Room, Distraction, Interruption, Communication

Advisor

Ledbetter, Maria

Second Advisor

Barnes, Lauren

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Samford University

Degree Year

2021

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2021-03-24

Full Text of Presentation

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