Distracted Practice and Patient Safety: The Healthcare Team Experience

Area of Science:

• Healthcare quality and safety
• Human factors in medicine
• Cognitive psychology in professional settings

Background:

• Distracted practice, involving environmental and technological interactions, can negatively impact patient safety.
• Understanding the root causes of errors is crucial for healthcare improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the phenomenon of distracted practice in healthcare professionals.
• To identify factors contributing to distracted practice and its impact on patient safety.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative descriptive study integrating observations and semistructured interviews.
• Utilized the conceptual framework of the distracted driving model.
• Included 22 observation sessions and 32 interviews with nurses, physicians, and pharmacists.

Main Results:

• Distracted practice is primarily linked to cognitive resource availability.
• Key subthemes influencing distracted practice include individual differences, environmental disruptions, team awareness, and time pressure ('rush mode').

Conclusions:

• Distracted practice is an individual experience occurring when cognitive resources are insufficient for critical task completion, leading to automatic mode and errors.
• Recognizing distracted practice is vital for error reduction and enhancing patient care quality.
• Further research is necessary to develop interventions mitigating distracted practice.