Abstract.Researchers have established that alcohol is a risk factor for date rape for both victims and perpetrators. Objective: The authors tried to experimentally address the link between alcohol consumption and women's risk detection abilities in a risky sexual vignette. Participants: The authors recruited 42 women from undergraduate classrooms at a large midwestern university and randomly assigned them to drink an alcoholic (.04 blood alcohol content) or a placebo beverage. Methods: Participants completed self-report inventories and listened to a date-rape audiotaped vignette, which began with consensual sexual behavior and culminated in date rape, and the authors asked them to determine if and when the man should refrain from making further sexual advances. Results: Student's t tests and Pearson r correlations showed that women who consumed alcohol and exhibited high levels of rape myth acceptance showed a significant decrease in risk recognition (p = .000 and .001, respectively). Conclusion: These findings highlight the significance of even small amounts of alcohol on behavior and cognition in women who are self-reported experienced drinkers.Keywords: alcohol consumption, intoxication, rape, risk detection, sexual assault, women's perceptions ape is the sexual penetration of a person against his or her will by the use of force, by the threat of force, by verbal coercion, or by the inability to consent because of the impaired mental status or age of the victim.1 The lifetime prevalence of sexual assault for women in the general population is estimated to be between 13% and 25%.2 Benson et al 3 estimated that 1 in 4 college-aged women has been the victim of a rape; 84% of victims knew their assailants, and 57% of these assaults occurred while on dates. The prevalence of date rape is also higher among college students than it is outside of college communities. Women aged 16 to 24 years are in the highest risk category for date rape-more than 4 times greater than any other group.

Since the publication of To Err is Human, health care professionals have looked to high-reliability industries such as commercial aviation for guidance on improving system safety. One of the most widely adopted aviation-derived approaches is simulation-based team training, also known as crew resource management (CRM) training. In the health care domain, CRM training often takes place in custom-built simulation laboratories that are designed to replicate operating rooms or labor and delivery rooms. Unlike these traditional CRM training programs, in situ simulation occurs on actual patient care units, involves actual health care team members, and uses actual organization processes to train and assess team performance. During the past 24 months, our research team has conducted nearly 40 in situ simulations. In this paper, we present the results from one such simulation: a patient who experienced a difficult labor and delivery resulting in an emergency caesarean section and a hysterectomy. During the simulation, a number of latent environmental threats to safety were identified. The following article presents not only the latent threats but also the steps that the hospital has taken to remedy them. Results from clinical simulations in operational health care settings can help identify and resolve latent environmental threats to patient safety.

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Since the publication of "To Err Is Human" in 1999, health care professionals have looked to high-reliability industries such as aviation for guidance on improving system safety. One of the most widely adopted aviation-derived approaches is simulation-based team training, also known as crew resource management training. In the health care domain, crew resource management training often takes place in custom-built simulation laboratories that are designed to replicate operating rooms or labor and delivery rooms. Unlike these traditional crew resource management training programs, "in situ simulation" occurs on actual patient care units, involves actual health care team members, and uses actual organization processes to train and assess team performance. During the past 24 months, our research team has conducted nearly 40 in situ simulations. In this article, we present the results from 1 such simulation: a patient who experienced a difficult labor that resulted in an emergency caesarian section and hysterectomy. During the simulation, a number of latent environmental threats to safety were identified. This article presents the latent threats and the steps that the hospital has taken to remedy them.