Nursing Interruptions in a Post-Anesthetic Care Unit: A Field Study

The nursing workplace is a complex environment in which nurses are frequently interrupted and distracted while they care for patients. Interruptions in the nursing workplace could be a factor in medical errors, which can result in patient injury or death. When designing medical devices to be used in the nursing workplace, it is important to take into consideration the cognitive demands that the work environment places on nurses. Furthermore, it is important to conduct user testing of devices under realistic conditions. To this end, a field study was conducted in the Post-Anesthetic Care Unit at the Toronto General Hospital, whereby 10 nurses were observed as they cared for patients. The types and frequencies of interruptions that they encountered were recorded, along with any observed detrimental effects on performance. Results showed that the most frequently occurring interruptions involved “face-to-face” verbal conversation with another nurse or physician. These results are currently being used to simulate interruptions during experiments to evaluate two patient-controlled analgesia devices under more representative conditions.