BME 2023

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16:00
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Care for patients versus care for machines The effect of technology on the workload of intraoperative nurses, an observational study.
Anneke Schouten, Steven Flipse, Diederich Cornelisse, Frank Willem Jansen, Anne van der Eijk, John van den Dobbelsteen

Session: Poster Session 1 (Even numbers)
Session starts: Thursday 26 January, 16:00
Presentation starts: 16:00

Anneke Schouten (Technical University of Delft)
Steven Flipse (Technical University of Delft)
Diederich Cornelisse (Leiden University Medical Centre)
Frank Willem Jansen (Leiden University Medical Centre)
Anne van der Eijk (Leiden University Medical Centre)
John van den Dobbelsteen (Technical University of Delft)

Abstract:
Background Over the years, technology has become an irreplaceable element in the operating room (OR). This technology predominantly focuses on improving patient safety, increasing time-efficiency and sometimes the well-being of the surgeons. The impact of technology on the nurses of the OR is, however, rarely investigated. At the same time, the shortage of nurses in hospitals is a problem felt all over the world. The influx of new nurses has decreased over the years, and amongst the current nursing staff there is a high turnover rate. Literature states that the excessive workload is one of the most pressing factors to counteract the aforementioned trends. It has been suggested that technology could play a role in reducing the workload. Aim and research question The aim of this article is to investigate how technology affects the workload of OR nurses, and how technology affects the working experience of OR nurses. We hypothesize there is a shift in the nature of the work of the OR nurses from care for the patient to care for the technology on the OR. Method In this research we make a distinction between the objective task load and the subjective task load. We also distinguish between medical tasks and technological tasks. Over the timespan of a year, the objective workload of intraoperative nurses will be mapped by filming their everyday work during surgical procedures. The research setup exists of two ORs and six cameras and we make use of Noldus Observer XT for annotation of the videos. The surgical procedures are divided in three levels of technology: the lowest level being open surgery (OS), level 2 is laparoscopic surgery (LS) and the highest-level being robot assisted laparoscopic surgery (RALS). The ratio of medical and technological tasks, and the height of the task load will be compared between the three types of procedures. The subjective task load will be mapped by the means of a questionnaire, based on the NASA-TLX workload measure.