A Work Domain Analysis of Patient Monitoring in the Operating Room

This paper presents a method for structuring the work domain of the anesthesiologist in the operating room, using Rasmussen's (1986) approach for work domain analysis. The goal of this research is to provide an integrated approach for patient monitoring by bridging the gap between physiological principles associated with the patient and clinical practice. Data were collected from literature reviews, discussions with anesthesiologists, operating room observations, and simulator sessions to develop the work domain representation. From this information, the work domain was structured using various levels of abstraction and decomposition, independent of any particular situation. Next, an analysis of the links between the operating room and the work domain was performed. The results indicated that this approach has useful insights for training and interface design. The approach provided a framework for representing the work domain as an invariant purpose-based structure for a constantly changing work environment.