Managing radiological technologists' impatience: testing the effectiveness of a group work intervention

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Radiological Technology
• Healthcare Professional Well-being

Background:

• Impatience is linked to stress, anxiety, and impaired task performance in healthcare.
• Previous incident reports indicate impatience contributes to errors among radiological technologists (RTs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a group-work intervention for regulating impatience in RTs.
• To assess the intervention's impact on impatience levels and its effects on RT performance.

Main Methods:

• A group-work session titled "Coping with Impatience and Its Effects" was conducted with 16 RTs.
• A 9-item questionnaire assessed impatience in clinical scenarios at four time points: pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, 1 month, and 6 months.
• Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Main Results:

• Significant reductions in impatience caused by others (colleagues, doctors) and its impact on performance were observed immediately, 1 month, and 6 months post-intervention.
• Impatience due to time constraints and its impact decreased significantly immediately after the intervention.
• Impatience related to patients and its impact showed significant reductions at 1 and 6 months post-intervention.
• All significant findings demonstrated large effect sizes.

Conclusions:

• Group-work interventions focused on emotional regulation can effectively reduce impatience and its negative impacts on RT duties.
• Such interventions hold potential for improving patient safety and enhancing professional well-being in radiological technology.