Mapping registered nurse anaesthetists' intraoperative work: tasks, multitasking, interruptions and their causes, and interactions: a prospective observational study

Introduction Safe anaesthesia care is a fundamental part of healthcare. In a previous study, registered nurse anaesthetists (RNAs) had the highest task frequency, with the largest amount of multitasking and interruptions among all professionals working in a surgical team. There is a lack of knowledge on how these factors are distributed during the intraoperative anaesthesia care process, and what implications they might have on safety and quality of care. Objective To map the RNAs' work as done in practice, including tasks, multitasking, interruptions and their causes, and interactions, during all phases of the intraoperative anaesthesia work process. Methods Structured observations of RNAs (n=8) conducted during 30 procedures lasting a total of 73 hours in an operating department at a county hospital in Sweden, using the Work Observation Method By Activity Timing tool. Results High task intensity and multitasking were revealed during preparation for anaesthesia induction (79 tasks/hour, 61.9% of task time spent multitasking), anaesthesia induction (98 tasks/hour, 50.7%) and preparation for anaesthesia maintenance (86 tasks/hour, 80.2%). Frequent interruptions took place during preoperative preparation (4.7 /hour), anaesthesia induction (6.2 /hour) and preparation for anaesthesia maintenance (4.3 /hour). The interruptions were most often related to medication care (n=54, 19.8%), equipment issues (n=40, 14.7%) or the procedure itself (n=39, 14.3%). RNAs' work was conducted mostly independently (58.4%), but RNAs interacted with multiple professionals in and outside the operating room during anaesthesia. Conclusion The tasks, multitasking, interruptions and their causes, and interactions during different phases illustrated the RNAs' work as done, as part of a complex adaptive system. Management of safety in the most intense phases-preparing for anaesthesia induction, induction and preparing for anaesthesia maintenance-should be investigated further. The complexity and adaptivity of the nature of RNAs' work should be taken into consideration in future management, development, research and education.</p

Tasks, multitasking and interruptions among the surgical team in an operating room: a prospective observational study

Objectives: The work context of the operating room (OR) is considered complex and dynamic with high cognitive demands. A multidimensional view of the complete preoperative and intraoperative work process of the surgical team in the OR has been sparsely described. The aim of this study was to describe the type and frequency of tasks, multitasking, interruptions and their causes during surgical procedures from a multidimensional perspective on the surgical team in the OR.Design: Prospective observational study using the Work Observation Method By Activity Timing tool.Setting: An OR department at a county hospital in Sweden.Participants: OR nurses (ORNs) (n=10), registered nurse anaesthetists (RNAs) (n=8) and surgeons (n=9).Results: The type, frequency and time spent on specific tasks, multitasking and interruptions were measured. From a multidimensional view, the surgical team performed 64 tasks per hour. Communication represented almost half (45.7%) of all observed tasks. Concerning task time, direct care dominated the surgeons’ and ORNs’ intraoperative time, while in RNAs’ work, it was intra-indirect care. In total, 48.2% of time was spent in multitasking and was most often observed in ORNs’ and surgeons’ work during communication. Interruptions occurred 3.0 per hour, and the largest proportion, 26.7%, was related to equipment. Interruptions were most commonly followed by professional communication.Conclusions: The surgical team constantly dealt with multitasking and interruptions, both with potential impact on workflow and patient safety. Interruptions were commonly followed by professional communication, which may reflect the interactions and constant adaptations in a complex adaptive system. Future research should focus on understanding the complexity within the system, on the design of different work processes and on how teams meet the challenges of a complex adaptive system.</p

Open the door to complexity : Safety climate and work processes in the operating room

A complex adaptive system such as the operating room (OR), consists of different safety cultures, sub-cultures and ways of working. When measuring, a strong safety climate has been associated with lower rates of surgical complications. Teamwork is an important factor of safety climate. Discrepancies among professionals’ perceptions of teamwork climate exists. Hence it seems crucial to explore if diversity exists in the perception of factors related to safety climate and between managers and front-line staff in the OR. Complex work processes including multitasking and interruptions are other challenges with potential effect on patient safety. However, multitasking and interruptions may have positive impact on patient safety, but are not well understood in clinical work. Despite challenges a lot of things go well in the OR. Thus, the overall aim of this thesis was to evaluate an instrument for assessing safety climate, to describe and compare perceptions of safety climate, and to explore the complexity of work processes in the OR. To evaluate the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire-operating room (SAQ-OR) version and elicit estimations of the surgical team a cross-sectional study design was used. How work was done was studied by observations using the Work Observation Method by Activity Timing and by group interviews with OR professionals. The results show that the SAQ-OR is a relatively acceptable instrument to assess perceptions of safety climate within Swedish ORs. OR professionals´ perceptions of safety climate showed variations and some weak areas which cohered fairly well with managers' estimations. Work in the OR was found to be complex and consisting of multiple tasks where communication was most frequent. Multitasking and interruptions, mostly followed by communication, were common. This reflects interactions and adaptations common for a complex adaptive system. Managing complexity and creating safe care in the OR was described as a process of planning and preparing for the expected and preparedness to be able to adapt to the unexpected

Interprofessional team assessments of the patient safety climate in Swedish operating rooms : a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: A positive patient safety climate within teams has been associated with higher safety performance. The aim of this study was to describe and compare attitudes to patient safety among the various professionals in surgical teams in Swedish operating room (OR) departments. A further aim was to study nurse managers in the OR and medical directors' estimations of their staffs' attitudes to patient safety. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey with the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to elicit estimations from surgical teams. To evoke estimations from nurse managers and medical directors about staff attitudes to patient safety, a short questionnaire, based on SAQ, was used. Three OR departments at three different hospitals in Sweden participated. All licensed practical nurses (n=124), perioperative nurses (n=233), physicians (n=184) and their respective manager (n=22) were invited to participate. RESULTS: Mean percentage positive scores for the six SAQ factors and the three professional groups varied, and most factors (safety climate, teamwork climate, stress recognition, working conditions and perceptions of management), except job satisfaction, were below 60%. Significantly lower mean values were found for perioperative nurses compared with physicians for perceptions of management (56.4 vs 61.4, p=0.013) and working conditions (63.7 vs 69.8, p=0.007). Nurse managers and medical directors' estimations of their staffs' ratings of the safety climate cohered fairly well. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows variations and some weak areas for patient safety climate in the studied ORs as reported by front-line staff and acknowledged by nurse managers and medical directors. This finding is a concern because a weak patient safety climate has been associated with poor patient outcomes. To raise awareness, managers need to support patient safety work in the OR

Implementing advance care planning in Swedish healthcare settings - a qualitative study of professionals' experiences

BACKGROUND: Advance care planning (ACP) is a process involving conversations about values and preferences regarding future care at the end-of-life. ACP has led to positive outcomes, both in relation to quality of life and with increased use of palliative care, less life-sustaining treatment and fewer hospital admissions. Sweden has yet to embrace the practice systematically, but scattered initiatives exist. AIM: To study implementation of a routine for ACP in NH settings in Sweden by exploring healthcare professionals' experiences of engaging in ACP following this implementation. METHODS: The study followed a qualitative inductive design with convenience and snowball sampling. Semi-structured group and individual interviews with registered healthcare professionals were analysed using qualitative content analysis. FINDINGS: Organisational support for sustainable ACP implementation was found to be essential. This included sufficient training, facilitation, collaboration and uniform work routines across providers and professionals. Engaging in ACP conversations following the implemented routine was found to be a process of preparing, being, talking, deciding and sharing. CONCLUSIONS: Successful implementation of ACP in NHs requires a carefully planned implementation strategy. ACP in NHs tend to be medically focused at the expense of residents' psychosocial care-planning needs. Widespread uptake of ACP in Sweden could be useful in the national effort to adopt more person-centred care in Swedish healthcare. KEY POINTS While advance care planning has been implemented in many other countries, Sweden lacks a national strategy on advance care planning and Swedish healthcare settings have yet to systematically implement this practice.   • This study is the first to report on professionals' experiences of engaging in sustainable advance care planning, following top-down implementation of the practice in one Swedish region.   • Successful implementation of advance care planning in nursing homes requires a system-level approach, and shortcomings of the implementation process are highlighted

Swedish translation and psychometric testing of the safety attitudes questionnaire (operating room version)

Background: Tens of millions of patients worldwide suffer from avoidable disabling injuries and death every year. Measuring the safety climate in health care is an important step in improving patient safety. The most commonly used instrument to measure safety climate is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). The aim of the present study was to establish the validity and reliability of the translated version of the SAQ. Methods: The SAQ was translated and adapted to the Swedish context. The survey was then carried out with 374 respondents in the operating room (OR) setting. Data was received from three hospitals, a total of 237 responses. Cronbach's alpha and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument. Results: The Cronbach's alpha values for each of the factors of the SAQ ranged between 0.59 and 0.83. The CFA and its goodness-of-fit indices (SRMR 0.055, RMSEA 0.043, CFI 0.98) showed good model fit. Intercorrelations between the factors safety climate, teamwork climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management, and working conditions showed moderate to high correlation with each other. The factor stress recognition had no significant correlation with teamwork climate, perception of management, or job satisfaction. Conclusions: Therefore, the Swedish translation and psychometric testing of the SAQ (OR version) has good construct validity. However, the reliability analysis suggested that some of the items need further refinement to establish sound internal consistency. As suggested by previous research, the SAQ is potentially a useful tool for evaluating safety climate. However, further psychometric testing is required with larger samples to establish the psychometric properties of the instrument for use in Sweden

Managing complexity in the operating room : a group interview study.

BACKGROUND: Clinical work in the operating room (OR) is considered challenging as it is complex, dynamic, and often time- and resource-constrained. Important characteristics for successful management of complexity include adaptations and adaptive coordination when managing expected and unexpected events. However, there is a lack of explorative research addressing what makes things go well and how OR staff describe they do when responding to challenges and compensating for constraints. The aim of this study was therefore to explore how complexity is managed as expressed by operating room nurses, registered nurse anesthetists, and surgeons, and how these professionals adapt to create safe care in the OR. METHOD: Data for this qualitative explorative study were collected via group interviews with three professional groups of the OR-team, including operating room nurses, registered nurse anesthetists and operating and assisting surgeons in four group interview sessions, one for each profession except for ORNs for which two separate interviews were performed. The audio-taped transcripts were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by inductive qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The findings revealed three generic categories covering ways of creating safe care in the OR: preconditions and resources, planning and preparing for the expected and unexpected, and adapting to the unexpected. In each generic category, one sub-category emerged that was common to all three professions: coordinating and reaffirming information, creating a plan for the patient and undergoing mental preparation, and prioritizing and solving upcoming problems, respectively. CONCLUSION: Creating safe care in the OR should be understood as a process of planning and preparing in order to manage challenging and complex work processes. OR staff need preconditions and resources such as having experience and coordinating and reaffirming information, to make sense of different situations. This requires a mental model, which is created through planning and preparing in different ways. Some situations are repetitive and easier to plan for but planning for the unexpected requires anticipation from experience. The main results strengthen that abilities described in the theory of resilience are used by OR staff as a strategy to manage complexity in the OR

Implementing advance care planning in Swedish healthcare settings – a qualitative study of professionals’ experiences

Advance care planning (ACP) is a process involving conversations about values and preferences regarding future care at the end-of-life. ACP has led to positive outcomes, both in relation to quality of life and with increased use of palliative care, less life-sustaining treatment and fewer hospital admissions. Sweden has yet to embrace the practice systematically, but scattered initiatives exist. To study implementation of a routine for ACP in NH settings in Sweden by exploring healthcare professionals’ experiences of engaging in ACP following this implementation. The study followed a qualitative inductive design with convenience and snowball sampling. Semi-structured group and individual interviews with registered healthcare professionals were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Organisational support for sustainable ACP implementation was found to be essential. This included sufficient training, facilitation, collaboration and uniform work routines across providers and professionals. Engaging in ACP conversations following the implemented routine was found to be a process of preparing, being, talking, deciding and sharing. Successful implementation of ACP in NHs requires a carefully planned implementation strategy. ACP in NHs tend to be medically focused at the expense of residents’ psychosocial care-planning needs. Widespread uptake of ACP in Sweden could be useful in the national effort to adopt more person-centred care in Swedish healthcare.KEY POINTS While advance care planning has been implemented in many other countries, Sweden lacks a national strategy on advance care planning and Swedish healthcare settings have yet to systematically implement this practice.  • This study is the first to report on professionals’ experiences of engaging in sustainable advance care planning, following top-down implementation of the practice in one Swedish region.  • Successful implementation of advance care planning in nursing homes requires a system-level approach, and shortcomings of the implementation process are highlighted.  While advance care planning has been implemented in many other countries, Sweden lacks a national strategy on advance care planning and Swedish healthcare settings have yet to systematically implement this practice.   • This study is the first to report on professionals’ experiences of engaging in sustainable advance care planning, following top-down implementation of the practice in one Swedish region.   • Successful implementation of advance care planning in nursing homes requires a system-level approach, and shortcomings of the implementation process are highlighted.</p

From Threatening Chaos to Temporary Order through a Complex Process of Adaptation: A Grounded Theory Study of the Escalation of Intensive Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic

To ensure high-quality care, operationalize resilience and fill the knowledge gap regarding how to improve the prerequisites for resilient performance, it is necessary to understand how adaptive capacity unfolds in practice. The main aim of this research was to explain the escalation process of intensive care during the first wave of the pandemic from a microlevel perspective, including expressions of resilient performance, intervening conditions at the micro-meso-macrolevels and short- and long-term consequences. A secondary aim was to provide recommendations regarding how to optimize the prerequisites for resilient performance in intensive care. A grounded theory methodology was used. First-person stories from different healthcare professionals (n70) in two Swedish regions were analyzed using the constant comparative method. This resulted in a novel conceptual model (including 6 main categories and 24 subcategories), and 41 recommendations. The conclusion of these findings is that the escalation of intensive care can be conceptualized as a transition from threatening chaos to temporary order through a complex process of adaptation. To prepare for the future, the components of space, stuff, staff, system and science, with associated continuity plans, must be implemented, anchored and communicated to actors at all levels of the system