Abstract

A pilot study of the effect of on-call working on the mental workload of anaesthetists

Author(s): Aidan Byrne, Francis Subash, Philip Tucker

The aim of this study was to pilot the use of a previously validated method to estimate the effect of 'out of hours' working on the mental workload of anaesthetists during routine practice.

The delay in response to a vibrotactile stimulus was used as a secondary task along with a standard measure of subjective workload (NASA TLX) [1].

The longest response delays (median (quartile range)) were recorded during induction; 16.5ms (0-68) during daytime and 85ms (85-297) during out of hours, delays were lower during maintenance and emergence. The difference between the daytime and out of hours groups was statistically significant during induction (Z = -1.274, P < 0.005). There was no significant difference in subjective workload scores.

This study supports the use of mental workload measurement as a technique to measure the effect of changes in the anaesthetic working environment. Further studies will be required to determine the relationship between measured workload and performance.