Abusive behaviour in Canadian and US operating rooms

Abstract

Background Disruptive intraoperative behaviour has detrimental effects on clinicians, institutions, and patients. Abusive behaviour is an egregious form of disruptive behaviour that has a particular risk of detrimental consequences. The prevalence of abusive behaviour in the operating room (OR) is uncertain. We therefore examined the prevalence and frequency of exposure to abusive behaviour in a cohort of Canadian and US OR clinicians. Methods This was a sub-study of an international survey examining disruptive behaviour in the OR. It included a cohort of clinicians from Canada and the United States who were recruited from six perioperative associations and two institutions. Clinicians were asked about their intraoperative exposure to three abusive behaviours: physical assault, verbal threats, and intimidating invasion of their personal space. From the responses, we derived the proportion of clinicians who experienced or witnessed abuse (i.e., prevalence) and the number of abusive events experienced by all respondents (i.e., frequency). Results Of the 7,465 clinicians who responded to the original international survey, 2,875 were part of this abuse Alexander Villafranca and Kirby Magid have contributed equally to the work.

Nursesʼ Perceptions of Incivility in the Operating Room

“…Operating rooms in the United States and Canada have been found to be affected by uncivil behaviors. In a recent survey of 7,465 operating room staff in the United States (US) and Canada, 667 staff members stated that they had experienced abuse on a personal level and 1,121 clinicians had witnessed the abuse of colleagues [4]. An international survey of 7,465 operating room workers found that 98% were exposed to some form of disruptive behavior in the surgical setting, with an estimated average of 64 exposures to operating room disruptions per year [5].…”

Conquering the silence: reporting disruptive behaviour

“…Ce compte rendu révélait que 23 % des cliniciens de SOP avaient été personnellement victimes d'abus et 39 % avaient été témoins de comportements abusifs. 7 Dans le troisième manuscrit, publié dans ce numéro, 4 un groupe pré-spécifié des répondants internationaux (4775 personnes de sept pays) ont répondu à des questions liées au signalement des comportements perturbateurs aux administrateurs de l'hôpital. La quasi totalité des répondants (96,5 %) déclarait avoir sousrapporté les incidents de comportements perturbateurs, alors qu'un tiers (30,9 %) déclarait n'avoir jamais rapporté d'incident à la direction de l'hôpital.…”

“…This report revealed that 23% of OR clinicians had personally experienced abuse and 39% had witnessed abusive behaviour. 7 In the third manuscript, published in this issue, 4 a pre-specified group of the international respondents (4,775 from seven countries) answered questions related to the reporting of disruptive behaviour to their hospital managers. Almost all respondents (96.5%) under-reported events of disruptive behaviour while one third (30.9%) never reported to hospital management at all.…”