Abstract
Background
Teamwork is an essential factor in reducing workflow disruption (WD) in the operating room. Team familiarity (TF) has been recognized as an antecedent to surgical quality and safety. To date, no study has examined the link between team members’ role and expertise, TF and WD in surgical setting. This study aimed to examine the relationships between expertise, surgeon–scrub nurse familiarity and WD.
Methods
We observed a convenience sample of 12 elective neurosurgical procedures carried out by 4 surgeons and 11 SN with different levels of expertise and different degrees of familiarity between surgeons and SN. We calculated the number of WD per unit of coding time to control for the duration of operation. We explored the type and frequency of WD, and the differences between the surgeons and SN. We examined the relationships between duration of WD, staff expertise and surgeon–scrub nurse familiarity.
Results
9.91% of the coded surgical time concerned WD. The most frequent causes of WD were distractions (29.7%) and colleagues’ interruptions (25.2%). This proportion was seen for SN, whereas teaching moments and colleagues’ interruptions were the most frequent WD for surgeons. The WD was less high among expert surgeons and less frequent when surgeon was familiar with SN.
Conclusions
The frequency of WD during surgical time can compromise surgical quality and patient safety. WD seems to decrease in teams with high levels of surgeon–scrub nurse familiarity and with development of surgical expertise. Favoring TF and giving feedback to the team about WD issues could be interesting ways to improve teamwork.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Jannin P, Morandi X (2007) Surgical models for computer-assisted neurosurgery. NeuroImage 37(3):783–791
Wiegmann DA, ElBardissi AW, Dearani JA et al (2007) Disruptions in surgical flow and their relationship to surgical errors: an exploratory investigation. Surgery 142(5):658–665
Al-Hakim L, Xiao J, Sengupta S (2017) Ergonomics perspective for identifying and reducing internal operative flow disruption for laparoscopic urological surgery. Surg Endosc 31(12):5043–5056
Palmer G, Abernathy JH, Swinton G et al (2013) Realizing improved patient care through human-centered operating room designa human factors methodology for observing flow disruptions in the cardiothoracic operating room. J Am Soc Anesthesiol 119(5):1066–1077
Shouhed D, Blocker R, Gangi A et al (2014) Flow disruptions during trauma care. World J Surg 38(2):314–321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-013-2306-0
Sevdalis N, Healey AN, Vincent CA (2007) Distracting communications in the operating theatre. J Eval Clin Pract 13(3):390–394
Sevdalis N, Wong HWL, Arora S et al (2012) Quantitative analysis of intraoperative communication in open and laparoscopic surgery. Surg Endosc 26(10):2931–2938
Allers JC, Hussein AA, Ahmad N et al (2016) Evaluation and Impact of workflow interruptions during robot-assisted surgery. Urology 92:33–37
Rivera-Rodriguez AJ, Karsh B-T (2010) Interruptions and distractions in healthcare: review and reappraisal. Qual Saf Health Care 19(4):304–312
Lingard L, Espin S, Whyte S et al (2004) Communication failures in the operating room: an observational classification of recurrent types and effects. Qual Saf Health Care 13(5):330–334
Leonard M, Graham S, Bonacum D (2004) The human factor: the critical importance of effective teamwork and communication in providing safe care. Qual Saf Health Care 13(Suppl 1):i85–i90
Haynes AB, Weiser TG, Berry WR et al (2009) A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population. N Engl J Med 360(5):491–499
Gillespie BM, Marshall AP, Gardiner T et al (2016) Impact of workflow on the use of the surgical safety checklist: a qualitative study. ANZ J Surg 86(11):864–867
Weigl M, Müller A, Vincent C et al (2012) The association of workflow interruptions and hospital doctors’ workload: a prospective observational study. BMJ Qual Saf 21(5):399–407
Webber SS, Crews Klimoski RJ (2004) A distinct type of work team. J Bus Psychol 18(3):261–279
Thomas MJW, Petrilli RM (2006) Crew Familiarity: operational experience, non-technical performance, and error management. Aviat Space Environ Med 77(1):41–45
Patterson PD, Weaver MD, Landsittel DP et al (2016) Teammate familiarity and risk of injury in emergency medical services. Emerg Med J 33(4):280–285
Maruthappu M, Duclos A, Zhou CD et al (2016) The impact of team familiarity and surgical experience on operative efficiency: a retrospective analysis. J R Soc Med 109(4):147–153
Kurmann A, Keller S, Tschan-Semmer F et al (2014) Impact of team familiarity in the operating room on surgical complications. World J Surg 38(12):3047–3052. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-014-2680-2
Smith-Jentsch KA, Kraiger K, Cannon-Bowers JA et al (2009) Do familiar teammates request and accept more backup? Transactive memory in air traffic control. Hum Factors 51(2):181–192
Alderson D (2010) Developing expertise in surgery. Med Teach 32(10):830–836
Cohen TN, Cabrera JS, Sisk OD et al (2016) Identifying workflow disruptions in the cardiovascular operating room. Anaesthesia 71(8):948–954
Widmer LW, Keller S, Tschan F, Semmer NK, Holzer E, Candinas D, Beldi G (2018) More than talking about the weekend: content of case-irrelevant communication within the OR team. World J Surg 42(7):2011–2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-017-4442-4
Parker SEH, Laviana AA, Wadhera RK et al (2010) Development and evaluation of an observational tool for assessing surgical flow disruptions and their impact on surgical performance. World J Surg 34(2):353–361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-009-0312-z
ElBardissi AW, Duclos A, Rawn JD et al (2013) Cumulative team experience matters more than individual surgeon experience in cardiac surgery. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 145(2):328–333
Daniel Patterson P, Arnold RM, Abebe K et al (2011) Variation in emergency medical technician partner familiarity. Health Serv Res 46(4):1319–1331
Kang E, Massey D, Gillespie BM (2015) Factors that influence the non-technical skills performance of scrub nurses: a prospective study. J Adv Nurs 71(12):2846–2857
Wegner DM, Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind (1987) In: Mullen G, Goethals G (eds) Theories of group behavior. Springer, New York, pp 185–208
Michinov E, Olivier-Chiron E, Rusch E et al (2008) Influence of transactive memory on perceived performance, job satisfaction and identification in anaesthesia teams. BJA Br J Anaesth 100(3):327–332
Koh RYI, Park T, Wickens CD (2014) An investigation of differing levels of experience and indices of task management in relation to scrub nurses’ performance in the operating theatre: analysis of video-taped caesarean section surgeries. Int J Nurs Stud 51(9):1230–1240
Sieweke J, Zhao B (2015) The impact of team familiarity and team leader experience on team coordination errors: a panel analysis of professional basketball teams. J Organ Behav 36(3):382–402
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Henaux, PL., Michinov, E., Rochat, J. et al. Relationships Between Expertise, Crew Familiarity and Surgical Workflow Disruptions: An Observational Study. World J Surg 43, 431–438 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-018-4805-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-018-4805-5