IN AN EFFORT to curb medical errors, hospitals have spent a great deal of money on
computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices so health care providers have
instant access to patient data, drug information, or medical reference material. Unfortunately,
like many innovations, this solution has come with an unintended downside—health care
providers focusing on electronic devices and away from the patient. It also allows
health care providers to do non-work-related tasks, such as texting friends, answering
personal e-mails, or surfing the Web, even during moments of critical care. A new
study has been published showing that half of health care workers running bypass machines
admitted texting while performing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB;
Smith et al., 2011
). This phenomenon has set off discussions in many medical settings of a problem,
which has been described as “distracted doctoring.” In response, some hospitals have
begun limiting the use of electronic devices in critical settings, and some nursing
schools have started reminding students to focus on patients instead of devices, even
as they are being handed more electronic tools. Among the respondents, 36.1% reported
having a hospital policy regarding cell phone use, whereas 16.4% had a department
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References
- Driving performance during concurrent cell-phone use: Are drivers aware of their performance decrements?.Accident Analysis and Prevention. 2003; 36: 471-480
- The effects of cell phone use on peripheral vision.Optometry. 2008; 79: 36-42
- 2010 survey on cell phone use while performing cardiopulmonary bypass.Perfusion. 2011; 26: 375-380
- Cell phone induced-failures of visual attention during simulated driving.Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2003; 9: 23-32
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 05, 2012
Deborah L. McBride, MSN, RN, CPN, CPON, CCRNIdentification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
