The relationship between experience and mental workload in anaesthetic practice: an observational study

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Human Factors Engineering
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Mental workload significantly impacts performance in complex fields like anesthesia.
• Current methods for assessing mental workload in anesthesia are limited and lack validation.
• Understanding and quantifying mental workload is essential for evaluating expertise.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the feasibility of using a secondary task to measure mental workload in anesthesiologists.
• To explore the relationship between mental workload, experience level, and expertise in anesthesia practice.
• To develop a potential tool for tracking the development of expertise in anesthesia trainees.

Main Methods:

• A secondary task involving response times to a vibrotactile stimulus was administered to 20 anesthesiologists across routine cases.
• Response delays to 6096 stimuli were recorded, with a median of 55.5 responses per case.
• Data analysis focused on response times, experience levels, and the impact of 'hands full' conditions.

Main Results:

• Subjects demonstrated rapid learning of the secondary task, with no significant learning curve effects.
• Limited correlation was found between overall mental workload and experience level.
• Response time differences between trainees and experienced practitioners were less pronounced than individual variations within experience levels.
• The 'hands full' condition appeared to vary with experience and may be linked to expertise.

Conclusions:

• The vibrotactile stimulus response delay method is a feasible approach for assessing mental workload in clinical anesthesia.
• This method holds potential for identifying and monitoring the progression of expertise in anesthesia trainees.
• Further refinement of the method may enhance its utility in anesthesia education and practice evaluation.