Cliffhangers in the ED

Cliffhangers in the ED

St.Emlyn’s - February 9, 2016 - By Richard Carden

"I was fortunate enough to be on receiving end of a comprehensive introduction to human factors, courtesy of Dr Gareth Grier, who I am lucky enough to work with as one of my bosses. Amongst the many concepts we talked about, a common denominator was bandwidth, something that many of us are already familiar with and others may be new to.

So What Does This All Mean?

• We have limited bandwidth
• Bandwidth is our ability to attend to tasks at hand
• We are able to deal with 7 +/- 2 bits of information
• The Zeigarnik effect reduces our bandwidth
• Increasing cognitive load decreases bandwidth and increases errors
• Distractions are common source of increased cognitive load
• Expertise results in heuristics that allow us to bypass our working memory

Further reading

• Interruptions in emergency department work: an observational and interview study.
• Emergency department workplace interruptions: are emergency physicians “interrupt-driven” and “multitasking”?
• Zeigarnik Effect
• Be a Better Learner – Part One at #TTCNYC15
• Be A Better Learner – Part Two at #TTCNYC15 
• Be A Better Learner – Part Three at #TTCNYC15