Two sides to every story: The Dual Perspectives Method for examining interruptions in healthcare
Open accessAbstract
Interruptions are widely considered a problem in healthcare. Results from observation and experimental studies have guided extensive mitigation efforts, but the effectiveness of interventions remains mixed. We have built on current theories and methods for studying interruptions to develop a novel observational approach - the Dual Perspectives Method - for examining interruptions from the perspectives of the different work functions in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We detail the method and provide representative examples of the insights it offers, such as why interruptions happen, the role they play, and the consequences of preserving them or eliminating them. We anticipate that the Dual Perspectives Method will help us to arrive at a better basis on which to draw conclusions about interruptions, and will lead to the development of appropriate and sustainable interventions to ensure the effective and safe functioning of the work system under examination.
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Some interruptions, especially those leading to nursing task switching, might be beneficial and necessary for the quality of the task.
“some interruptions, especially those leading to nursing task switching, might be beneficial and necessary for the quality of the task [4, 5].”
From Workflow interruption and nurses’ mental workload in electronic health record tasks: An observational study (2023) · cites this paper as [5]
Some kinds of interruptions, especially those providing necessary informational content for the initial task, contributed to improving nurses' cognitive processes and allowed them to achieve fast and efficient patient care.
“In a study by McCurdie et al. [5, 12], some kinds of interruptions, especially those providing necessary informational content for the initial task, contributed to improving nurses’ cognitive processes, allowing them to achieve fast and efficient patient care [4].”
From Workflow interruption and nurses’ mental workload in electronic health record tasks: An observational study (2023) · cites this paper as [5]
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- Authors
- McCurdie, T., Sanderson, P., Aitken, L. M., & Liu, D.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Griffith University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- McCurdie, Tara
- Venue
- Applied Ergonomics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-01
- Volume
- 58
- Pages
- 102-109
- ISSN
- 0003-6870 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2426744622
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 6.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Applied Ergonomics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- City Research Online (City University London) (acceptedVersion)
- Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Australian Education International, Australian Government
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Patient Safety and Medication Errors
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Personal Information Management and User Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Healthcare Technology and Patient Monitoring
- Keywords
- intensive care unit, work function, observation method
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Humans, Intensive Care Units, Personnel, Hospital, Systems Analysis, Task Performance and Analysis, Causality, Workload, Observation, Patient Safety
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