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A Methodology for Capturing Joint Visual Attention Using Mobile Eye-Trackers
Published on: January 18, 2020
Interprofessional teams see differently: a cross-over study using dual mobile eye-tracking
Michelle Bellstedt1,2, Dana Bostedt1, Anastasiia Samoukina1,2
1Institute of Anatomy and Molecular Neurobiology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Summary
Interprofessional teams (IP) integrate diverse clinical information by retaining profession-specific attention, not converging. This highlights the value of specialized training in healthcare collaboration.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Education
- Teamwork and Collaboration
- Clinical Information Processing
Background:
- Interprofessional (IP) teams are assumed to process broader clinical information than monoprofessional (MP) teams due to diverse professional training.
- Empirical evidence testing this assumption, particularly regarding visual attention allocation, has been lacking.
- Understanding how professional backgrounds influence information processing in teams is crucial for effective clinical collaboration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically investigate whether interprofessional (IP) teams attend to a wider range of clinical information than monoprofessional (MP) teams.
- To examine the visual attention patterns of medical and nursing students within MP and IP team compositions.
- To determine if profession-specific perceptual templates persist within IP teams and how they contribute to team-level information processing.
Main Methods:
- A randomized cross-over study involving fourth-year medical and nursing students working on clinical cases.
- Three team compositions were used: medical-medical (MP_Med), nursing-nursing (MP_Nurse), and medical-nursing (IP).
- Mobile eye-tracking glasses were used to simultaneously record and measure visual attention allocation to different types of clinical information.
Main Results:
- MP_Med teams focused more on medical information, while MP_Nurse teams focused on nursing information.
- IP teams demonstrated a tendency to attend to both medical and nursing information.
- Individual medical students maintained their medical-specific focus, and nursing students retained their nursing-specific focus within IP teams, indicating that team-level attention emerged from persistent profession-specific patterns rather than convergence.
Conclusions:
- Profession-specific perceptual templates are formed early in health professions training and persist even within interprofessional teams.
- The complementary value of profession-specific attention patterns shapes clinical collaboration at a perception level.
- Training approaches should consider and leverage these persistent, profession-specific attentional patterns rather than aiming for standardization before understanding their complementary benefits.
